Chapter 936: Is Strax good at teaching?
The second drop of ice was not beautiful.
It was not completely round either.
In truth, it looked more like a crooked tear, flattened on one side, too pointed on the other, and full of small internal cracks that reflected the arena’s light irregularly. Even so, to Vex, it seemed like an absurd achievement. It had not frozen the entire circle. It had not made the runes on the floor blink in alarm. It had not created ice spikes rising up the wall, nor covered the training pillars with a layer of uncontrolled frost.
It was only a small drop of ice.
Ugly.
But obedient.
Vex held the fragment between her hands as if it were something too fragile to exist. Her eyes were fixed on that small creation with an almost solemn concentration, as if she had discovered an important secret and still did not know exactly where to keep it. The drop began to melt a little because of the heat from the floor, but she instinctively gathered mana to keep it stable. This time, Strax noticed that the energy did not escape in every direction. It surrounded only the fragment.
"It is better," he said.
Vex slowly raised her eyes.
"Are you saying that because it got better, or because I was almost kidnapped yesterday and you want to be nice to me?"
Strax was silent for a few seconds.
Then let out a short laugh.
"It got better."
She narrowed her eyes.
"Are you sure?"
"I am."
"If you are lying to cheer me up, I will find out."
"How?"
"I do not know yet, but I will find out."
Strax crossed his arms and tilted his head slightly.
"Then I had better keep telling the truth."
"Exactly."
Her serious expression lasted only a few more seconds before dissolving into a small, almost embarrassed smile. Vex looked back at the drop of ice and took a deep breath, trying to mentally repeat the path the mana had taken. She did not have precise words for it. Not yet. But she could feel the difference between pulling magic with force and calling magic with care. The first thing was easy, like opening a dam. The second required attention.
Strax noticed that she was trying to understand on her own and decided not to interrupt immediately. There was value in that silence. There was value in allowing her to fail, compare, feel, and correct without receiving an explanation for every movement. Mercedes would probably have taught with strict discipline, impeccable posture, and controlled repetition. Strax, on the other hand, knew dragons learned a great deal through the body, through instinct, and through the sensation of power passing through the right places.
"Now make three more," he said.
Vex blinked.
"Three?"
"Yes."
"At the same time?"
"No."
"Ah."
"One at a time."
She seemed relieved.
"That sounds more reasonable."
"I am reasonable."
Vex looked at him with an expression of deep doubt.
Strax raised an eyebrow.
"Is there a problem?"
"You said you would destroy the whole world until you found me."
"I was being reasonable under the circumstances."
"That does not sound reasonable."
"For a dragon, it is."
Vex opened her mouth to answer, but gave up. There seemed to be an entire world of questions inside that subject, but she realized it might not be the best time to enter it. Instead, she dissolved the drop of ice between her fingers, closed her eyes, and tried again. The mana responded too quickly at first, rising through her chest and descending through her arms like water running down a slope. She breathed, remembered Strax’s voice, and did not try to block the flow. She merely narrowed the path.
The new drop appeared smaller.
Still crooked.
But less cracked.
Strax nodded.
"Again."
Vex repeated.
The third drop came with a cleaner form, though still far from perfect. The fourth almost came out round, but at the last second, an unexpected point appeared at its base, as if the ice had decided to become a tiny spear. Vex grimaced as she observed the result, but she did not look discouraged. On the contrary, there was something on her face that resembled a kind of productive irritation, the sort of frustration that did not make someone give up, only try again with more stubbornness.
"It wanted to be dangerous," Vex murmured.
"The drop?"
"Yes."
"Do not blame the drop."
"But it became pointy."
"Because you became anxious at the end."
Vex looked at him.
"You noticed?"
"I did."
"How?"
Strax touched his own chest with two fingers.
"Your mana accelerates when you think you are going to succeed."
She was silent for an instant, then looked at her own hands.
"Is that bad?"
"No. But you need to learn not to let excitement push the magic."
Vex sighed, a small and dramatic sigh.
"That sounds difficult."
"It is."
"I thought you would say it was not."
"That would be a lie."
She looked at him again.
"You are terrible at comforting."
"I am excellent at training."
"That is different."
"Yes."
Vex tried to look bothered, but the smile escaped again. That kind of simple exchange, without excessive pity and without treating her fear as something that defined her, seemed to help her more than carefully sweet words. Strax was not pretending nothing had happened. He also was not allowing it to turn every gesture into fragile glass. He remained there, serious when necessary, teasing when he could, and patient in a way she was still learning to recognize.
Strax raised a hand and created another drop of ice before her.
Unlike the previous ones, this one was small, perfectly rounded, and glowed with a white-blue core. It floated in the air without losing shape, without dripping, and without cooling the space around it too much. Vex approached carefully, observing the smooth surface and the internal light that seemed to breathe.
"You make it look easy."
"Because I trained a lot."
"For how long?"
"Too long for you to use as an excuse."
She closed her mouth.
Strax smiled.
"I knew you would ask that to try to complain."
"I was not going to complain."
"Vex."
"Maybe a little."
He pointed at the refined drop.
"Observe the edge."
She tilted her face closer.
"The edge does not tremble."
"Exactly. The shape remains because the mana is not only pushing ice outward. It is telling the ice where to stay."
Vex frowned.
"Like an order?"
"More like a conversation."
The girl seemed surprised by that.
"Magic talks?"
"In a way."
"With words?"
"No."
"Then how?"
Strax took the glowing drop between his fingers and made it spin slowly.
"When you use magic with force, it is like shouting an order at someone who has no choice. It works, but it is crude. When you use refined mana, you give shape, intention, and limit. The magic understands better because you are not merely throwing power into the world. You are offering it a path."
Vex fell quiet.
The explanation seemed simple, but at the same time much larger than she expected. Perhaps because it explained why Mercedes always spoke about discipline, and why Strax spoke about instinct as if there were no contradiction between the two. Control was not only holding the magic tightly. It was making it trust the direction.
"So my magic is not disobeying me."
"Not exactly."
"It just does not know what I want properly."
"That."
Vex looked at the pointed drop she had made before.
"Then I need to be clearer."
"Yes."
She nodded with almost comical seriousness.
"I will talk better to the drop."
Strax passed a hand over his face, trying not to laugh.
"If it works, I will not criticize."
Vex closed her eyes again. This time, however, her posture changed a little. She did not open her hands as before, eager to see the result. She kept her fingers slightly curved, her breathing slower, and her shoulders less tense. Mana began to gather between her palms, but instead of exploding outward, it spun in a small circle. One point of ice appeared at the center. Then another. Then a thin layer connected the two.
The drop was born slowly.
Smaller than all the previous ones.
But smooth.
Vex opened one eye.
Then the other.
The small drop floated between her hands, trembling slightly, but without deforming. It did not shine like Strax’s, did not have a refined core, did not look like a living jewel. However, for the first time, it was truly a drop. Round, delicate, and under control.
Her expression changed with adorable slowness.
"I did it."
"You did."
"I really did it."
"Yes."
"Did you see?"
"I am right in front of you."
"But did you see?"
Strax laughed.
"I saw."
Vex held the drop in the air for a few more seconds, as if afraid it would disappear the instant she celebrated too much. Then, inevitably, excitement won. She opened a huge smile, and the drop lost its shape at that very instant, becoming a small irregular ice flower that exploded into cold dust between her hands.
The girl stared at the empty space.
Then grimaced.
"I celebrated too much."
"Yes."
"But before that, I did it."
"You did."
"So it counts."
"It counts."
She lifted her arms in celebration.
This time, Strax allowed it.
The arena did not freeze.
Nothing exploded.
Only a few extra flakes of ice appeared around her, falling like shining dust before melting on the heated floor. Vex’s smile lit her face in a way that made Strax feel that strange tightness in his chest again, not from fear as on the previous day, but from something calmer and deeper. Pride, perhaps. A word too simple for a feeling that seemed to grow in silence.
After a few minutes of rest, he moved on to the next exercise.
"Now we are going to make the edge."
Vex lowered her arms.
"Edge?"
"A drop is simple. A star needs points. Points require direction."
"I made a point before."
"By accident."
"But I made it."
"Now make one intentionally."
She seemed to like the challenge.
Strax created a small line of ice in the air, thin as a needle, but with rounded ends so it would not injure. Then he dissolved it and recreated it more slowly, allowing Vex to observe the path of the mana. She followed it with her eyes, trying to memorize the sensation. The line was not merely stretched ice. It was mana holding a straight direction long enough for matter to obey.
"Do not think of an entire star," he said. "Think of one point."
"Only one."
"Yes."
"And then six."
"Then two."
Vex sighed.
"You are hiding the star from me."
"I am preventing you from trying to do everything at once."
"That is cruel."
"That is training."
"Training is cruel."
"Sometimes."
She made a resigned expression and returned to position. The first attempt at a point became a curved splinter. The second became a spike too small to be impressive. The third was good for two seconds, then wrinkled as if the ice had lost confidence in its own existence. Strax corrected little, only the essential, letting her notice the flaws before explaining.
With time, Vex began to understand.
When she pushed too much mana into the extremity, the point thickened.
When she held too tightly, it broke.
When she became nervous, cracks appeared.
When she breathed properly, the line held.
The simplicity of the exercise hid enormous complexity. To Vex, that was almost irritating. She could feel enough power inside herself to freeze half the arena, perhaps more. Yet to create one pretty and stable little point, she needed to use so little that it felt like trying to hold a snowflake between two storms.
"This is unfair," she said after the tenth attempt.
Strax observed the small point trembling in the air.
"Why?"
"Because big magic is easier."
"It is simpler, not easier."
"What is the difference?"
"Big magic lets you make more mistakes without noticing."
Vex thought about that.
Then grimaced.
"That sounds like something Mom would say."
"She would be right."
"She is right many times."
"She is."
"It is irritating."
"Very."
Vex smiled, and the ice point almost lost shape. She held her breath by reflex, but Strax snapped his fingers.
"Breathe."
"If I breathe, it breaks."
"If you do not breathe, you break."
The logic was too simple to contest.
Vex breathed.
The point trembled.
But it did not break.
She stared at the small fragment as if it had just betrayed her expectations by surviving. Then she looked at Strax with her eyes shining again. This time, however, she contained the celebration. The smile came smaller, proud and carefully controlled, as if even happiness needed to learn not to knock the magic down.
"Good," Strax said.
It was only one word.
But Vex seemed to receive it like a medal.
They continued for a while longer. Snow fell beyond the walls, melting into steam when it touched the arena floor. Asgard’s gray sky remained closed, but the light reflected by the ice created during the training made the space seem brighter. Vex failed many times. She created crooked points, deformed drops, small aggressive spikes, and even a tiny star that looked as if it had been stepped on by a horse. Even so, with every attempt, her mana escaped less.
Strax did not hurry her.
When he noticed that her hands were beginning to tremble with exhaustion, he ended the exercise before she tried to prove she could still continue.
"Enough for today."
Vex looked at him immediately.
"But I still did not make the star."
"Not today."
"But I almost did."
"You made something that looked like a star after surviving an avalanche."
She pressed her lips together.
"That was rude."
"It was true."
"You could say it was a star in development."
"It was a star in suffering."
Vex tried not to laugh.
She failed.
The laugh came out light, tired, and sincere. Strax approached, picked up a towel left on a heated bench, and handed it to her. The girl accepted, wiping her hands and the fingers damp from melted ice. Even tired, she seemed calmer than when they had arrived. There was less tension in her shoulders. Less vigilance in her eyes. As if part of the fear had been replaced by something more concrete: a small perfect drop, a stable point, a promise of a star.
"Dad."
"Hm?"
"Will I be able to make it like yours?"
"You will."
"Even if it takes a while?"
"Especially if it takes a while."
She frowned.
"That made sense, but I did not like it."
"Good training usually is like that."
Vex looked at her own hands, then at the empty space where Strax’s stars had shone.
"When I can do it, I want to show Mom."
"She will like it."
"You think so?"
"I am sure."
The girl smiled.
Then, after a few seconds of hesitation, she created one last drop of ice between her hands. Small. Round. Not as perfect as the previous one, but stable. She lifted it carefully, waiting for Strax to see. He saw it. And this time, he did not need to say anything.
Vex closed her eyes and tried to pull a single point out of the drop.
The shape trembled.
For a moment, it looked like it would collapse.
But then a small point appeared.
Short.
Delicate.
Imperfect.
Still, intentional.
Vex slowly opened her eyes.
Strax smiled.
"Now enough."
She did not complain.
She only kept looking at that little almost-star, with a silent expression of pride that seemed far too large for the size of the creation. Then the magic dissolved, and the ice fell as shining dust over her hands before disappearing.
"I made a point on purpose."
"You did."
"So tomorrow I make two."
"That is the plan."
Vex nodded firmly, as if sealing a solemn pact with the future. Strax placed a hand over her head and lightly messed up her blue hair. She complained, of course, but did not move away. She only fixed the strands afterward, trying to recover her dignity while he laughed quietly.
When the two began leaving the arena, a figure was watching from one of the mansion balconies.
Mercedes remained there in silence, partially hidden by the column, with a forgotten cup between her hands. She had arrived in the middle of the training, without interrupting. She had seen the mistakes, the small achievements, Strax’s patience, and Vex’s smile when the first drop truly obeyed.
The Monarch of Ice said nothing.
But when Vex happened to turn her face and saw her on the balcony, she opened an enormous smile.
"Mommy! I made a drop!"
Mercedes maintained her posture for one second.
Then smiled.
"Then I want to see it tomorrow."
Vex seemed to light up entirely.
Strax looked at Mercedes over the girl’s shoulder. The Monarch of Ice met his gaze, and for an instant, there was no accusation there, no tension, no heavy memory of what had nearly happened. There was only a silent understanding.
Vex needed them both.
Mercedes’s disciplined ice.
Strax’s draconic instinct.
And, perhaps, the safe space between the two to discover her own path.
Snow continued falling over Asgard while the first lesson ended. On the heated floor, no flake remained for long. Even so, for a few seconds, as Vex ran toward the balcony to tell every detail of her victory, small particles of shining ice remained suspended in the air behind her, like fragments of a star still learning to be born.
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