2021-08-27: The Nature of Fire
- Log: The Nature of Fire
- Cast: Loren Voss, Seraphita
- Where: Sielje Icy Sea
- Date: August 27, 2021
- Summary: Loren, while visiting his mother at Moloch Base, encounters Seraphita. He opts to get a little insight into how to better manage his currently uncontrolled fire Ether.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
There are fewer bases than outposts, and fewer surface facilities than there are bases, where Solaris' control of Filgaia is concerned (On Lunar, they don't even have a proper base -- the Macalania outpost is just an outpost, if a well-defended one).
Of the bases, though, it's said that the most remote and ill-positioned one (where environmental factors and nearness to the activities of the Lambs are concerned) is undoubtedly Moloch Base, to the north. It's not a mistake that the base commander is Odila Voss -- the assignment had been retaliation wrapped in the form of a promotion.
At least, that's the way Loren regards it. He can't be certain of it, but that's the way of these things in their society, you smile at someone while hiding a knife behind your back.
It's something he's been dwelling on more lately. He'd only come up here to visit his mother while making use of the month of leave he'd been granted, but while that had been pleasant enough, he...
Between Stein, the Wels, and the rest of it, he's had a lot to think about.
He stands now just inside the open gym space set aside for sparring. No one else is in here, which is just what he'd hoped. Out of uniform, wearing leggings and a looser shirt and holding a practice blade, he'd come here to get a little training in. ...On his own, that is.
He gazes upwards at the ceiling for now, as if lost in thought. But there's been a lot to think about.
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
The problem with bases and an organization as bureaucratic as Solaris is that sometimes you don't know who's there, and why, if you don't check the records.
Take Moloch Base. It's remote. It's ill-positioned. And yet it still has reasons to exist, or they wouldn't maintain it; they'd shut it down, replace it with a different facility in a better location or at least one that wasn't so cold.
And because it has reasons to exist, sometimes people go to it. Like Seraphita, who is in the habit of using it as a stopover during a flight circuit when she needs to pretend to be a Lamb for a while (less common, these days, but not never) or when she has other, more secret things to do on behalf of Commander Ramses.
And *that* means that Loren gets to be surprised by the voice behind him.
"I didn't know anyone else was using this place right now!" Even Seraphita's voice is too energetic. And close, though not *too* close, because she has at least a vague understanding of personal space.
If Loren looks, he gets to see Seraphita out of uniform too; workout shorts rather than leggings, a loose tank top-styled top that she probably intentionally picked because it's comfortable. It's also on the shorter side (you can see her navel, sometimes... how scandalous) with some kind of sturdy halter-styled top half-hidden beneath it. No gloves for a change, and light shoes instead of boots; Seraphita does have slightly oversized hands and feet but, as it turns out, her hands look perfectly normal without coverings aside from that.
"Sorry, were you going to exercise? I know I said you should but I didn't mean to butt in when you actually did!"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
In fact, the very reason that Moloch Base exists -- as remote and as 'far from the action' as some regard it to be -- is to maintain a watchful eye on the Sielje Region. There are other purposes had as well, of course. After all, a remote location means that it's less likely to draw notice from the likes of Shevat... or even particularly nosy Lambs. It's more than likely that the base keeps secrets of its own.
It was the sort of promotion that was unglamourous and considered to be undignified, not worthless. Solaris does not idly waste resources, no matter the state of its bureaucracy.
But it doesn't mean that Loren takes it as any less of a slight. Hadn't his mother been on an upward trajectory before the accident? Shouldn't she have received a posting somewhere like Assyria Base, or even Bledavik?
The fact that it could be at once important and intended by some as a slight is not a conclusion that Loren has quite arrived at yet.
Lost in thought (possibly even about such things, stirred up to the surface again with everything else going on) he jumps when Seraphita addresses him.
"What are you doing here--"
He stops dead. Freezes, even. He stares, perhaps a little too long.
"Err... ma'am," Loren finishes, lowering his head as if chastened.
"I, er... wasn't..."
It's not like he's been paying attention to who was due in on base. He's on leave.
"I mean, I don't think... well..."
He trails off for the second time over.
"...Is the Commander here? Er, Ramses," he clarifies. Because if Kahran Ramses walks in here in gym shorts next, he'd like to know so he can prepare for his death in advance.
(the man is attractive, alright?)
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Seraphita is surprisingly (or perhaps unsurprisingly) up on base gossip, but if she has any opinions about this base or its commander, she's kept them to herself. It certainly is a place she's checked in more than once before, though...
"I came to exercise too," Seraphita says, to all appearances unconcerned about any awkwardness Loren might have about staring (which she could take multiple ways, given who and what she is). Maybe she thinks better of Loren than that... or maybe she just doesn't want to get into it right now. "That's all! You're not being called back on duty or anything."
With that bit of reassurance, Seraphita bustles past Loren, further into the room. "What? No! He sends us around so he doesn't have to go everywhere. If he's here, I don't know about it!" And if Seraphita doesn't know Ramses is here, he almost certainly isn't about to show up in gym shorts.
Which is a pity, as far as Seraphita's concerned. Not that she says it.
"I'll stay out of your way," Seraphita promises. She looks at the practice blade, then. "Unless you're doing something with that? I don't know all that much about swords, though..."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
He really shouldn't stare. Not just because she's who she is, but also just because you shouldn't stare at people like that, even if you're sort of dumbfounded to see them in gym clothing. It's rude. At least he catches himself before it can go from merely awkward into extremely awkward--
Or before his brain can remind him of, for example, the time she hugged him and nearly suffocated him in the process. It'll do that anyway, probably, but with any luck it'll be later than this.
"No, I didn't think-- uh, they'd at least notify me first, right..." he trails off, the horror of losing the days he has left overtaking his intense awkwardness in this particular moment.
Come to think of it, he can't say that he'd know that they would give him a courtesy day or two to get himself together!
With that thought in mind, it's really crisp cold relief that the Commander isn't about to appear in here. "And the other Elements?" It occurs to him that if Tolone is here, she's definitely not going to be very impressed with his sword skills.
...Doubly so for Dominia. His shoulders slouch.
Loren shakes his head. "Yeah. Don't worry about it. I'm just..."
And he trails off, a thought occuring to him.
"Um, ma'am," he hazards, trying to think of the best way to ask this.
"Actually... I think I could use some coaching. --Not with swords! With Ether. You're a fire specialist, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Seraphita is a hugger. Usually she doesn't actually suffocate anyone but there's always a first time. (And it would just be Loren's luck if it was him.)
"No, not them either. Just me! I think Kelvena is deployed out right now too but not here, and I *know* Tolone is but also not here." She doesn't know what Dominia is doing right this minute, but Seraphita does know enough that Loren is probably safe from having his sword skills criticized by an actual expert, as opposed to Seraphita, who knows that the sharp side goes away from the user and only a little more.
At first, Seraphita thinks she is going to be asked about swords anyway, and she raises one finger - but then Loren asks something much more sensible. And honestly?
Seraphita looks surprised to be asked. And then, a moment later, delighted. Nobody ever asks her for help with that, even though she is - according to testing, according to her position, according to everything else - one of Solaris' experts on the matter.
"Yup! That's me," Seraphita says, bouncing on her feet as she twirls to face Loren, instead of having her back toward him. "I didn't test for any element but fire when I took the tests, because really, what's the point? I learned a little but I can't really *use* it... but fire I know!"
Her brow furrows. She can't remember if Loren was tested for fire at all. "Did you need help with it? Because I can help!" Well, that's as direct a response as Loren could have been hoping for.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
To be fair to her, he had been barely hanging in there at the time given he'd spent hours after the incident (which had nearly killed him) answering questions and filing paperwork. A stiff breeze could have... smothered him? Maybe this isn't the best analogy, but the point stands.
"Right, I think she's still at Macalania," he answers, thinking back on all the times he'd seen her there. "Unless something's changed." Like, a sudden need for her expertise and/or an investigation of dire importance somewhere else. He suspects her field of work probably permits her to function remotely, though.
Unlike his own. Medicine and combat support means you need to be physically present at least half the time (telemedicine, after all).
He probably could use some critique from an actual expert. At some point, anyway. But he's got a lot more refinement of his form to go before he's quite emotionally ready for that day to come. At least he's not a novice anymore, but he's got a ways to go before he's properly a journeyman-level sword fighter.
More pressingly though--
"It kind of... happened," he admits, shaking his head. "They tested me for everything, but I used to only be able to use earth and water. And then..." He trails off, eyeing her for a moment. How much does she know? About the memory loss, his recovery, that sort of thing?
"I guess it was stress-related," he settles for, slouching his shoulders. "Or maybe it was genetic all along. My older brother was able to use it." And nothing else, either, now that he thinks about it. Huh. He's not sure if he should feel proud or not that he's already way outclassed his older brother in this particular field. Once the answer would have been 'yes', but now he's not so sure.
He shakes his head again. "Anyway... whatever happened, it came out strange. And I can't seem to control it well using the methods we were taught in Jugend." Which is a nice way of phrasing, 'I seem to only be able to use it when stressed' and 'it looks like a fractal acid trip'.
"The last thing I want to do is be a liability," he admits, scowling. "If I can't control it well, then it's useless. So... do you think you can help?"
He pauses, realizing again that he's been awfully familiar towards someone who is at a rank that could literally socially destroy him no matter his birth and ties.
"I mean, if you want to. Ma'am."
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
If Seraphita knows if Dominia is at Macalenia, she's not saying. Maybe this is her way of telling Loren that it's classified and he doesn't need to know. ...Or maybe she just doesn't know herself and doesn't really want to admit it. Or both!
And as for her rank... certainly, Seraphita could use that rank. She could disgrace someone pretty easily, if she wanted to. But she never seems to. Certainly nobody can remember her speaking out and doing something like that. It's hard to imagine with her smiling right there.
"Hm~m," Seraphita says, walking around Loren in a circle while looking him over. It's a little prying, but it could be worse; at least the way she acts isn't nearly as judgemental as, say, your average drill instructor. Which is someone Loren *could* be asking for help (well, not an average instructor, but same idea).
"That's good for you! I can only really use one; I learned a little bit about the others, but doing something useful with them? Nope!" Some Elements are multi-skilled, and merely best in their specialty, but not Seraphita. "But if it's stress-related..."
"Let me, Seraphita, guess!" She comes around to Loren's front again and claps her hands together, briskly. "You can't use it all the time, right? Or, you can draw it out, but it kind of slips away and goes everywhere and you can't keep ahold of it to do something *useful*..."
"Am I right?" Seraphita beams, apparently absolutely sure she is - though given that he said he couldn't control it, it's not that hard a guess. "Because I can help with that, maybe! What did they tell you about the nature of fire when you studied? I mean, *I* know, I want you to remember."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It does in fact make him feel a little uncomfortable. Maybe it would have been different if he'd been in uniform. Maybe not! He does his level best to not just turn about or glance towards her, acting the part of a proper soldier just this once.
Loren shakes his head. "It's not usual. Having one or two is more common." He's better with earth by far, and the water is really just about secondary. Having three is fairly rare, and managing all four like Elly... "I was fine with just the two, uh, ma'am. But I don't think I can ignore this." Not only is it an advantage if he can get it under control, but it's a liability if he doesn't. If this keeps up he's going to have to report the issue, and that's not going to go anywhere he'll enjoy very much.
"Yeah -- yes," he corrects, shaking his head. "Something like that. I can't bring it out when I want to, and when it comes out on its own, it doesn't work the way I want it to." Or look like anything really 'flame-like' but maybe he can solve that in his own time, if it needs solving. It's not like he's focused all that much on aesthetics as much as output and subtlety before.
"It's almost like when I'm not thinking about controlling it that it's easier for it to come out." And then he's not focusing enough -- and usually he's stressed out enough -- that his aiming is terrible and his control is verging on nonexistent.
What's the nature of fire?
"It's dynamic and transformative, and it's ephemeral," he answers her, as if by rote. "It's the one element that doesn't 'really exist'. I mean--" he adds hurriedly, "it's the one that's more reaction than anything else. Chemical reaction," Loren clarifies. "Air is nearly everywhere, even if we can't see it. Water is in our bodies. The earth is the foundation beneath our feet. But fire doesn't exist on its own, I guess you could say." Even magma is more the intersection of fire and earth, where heat makes rock melt.
"The Major... said fire was sort of a 'no-moment' in Solarian Blade Arts," he adds, glancing down at the practice sword in his hands. "Flow, stability, flexability, and ephemerality. ...I have trouble with that aspect with this too," he sighs, jostling the sword in his grasp as if to indicate it.
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
"Well, it's unusual but it's good. Dominia can do a little with a lot. Or, wait, is it a lot with a little?" Seraphita points out - and she can; energizing her sword with various elements at least implies she can draw on those elements, a little. "I don't know much about the Blade Arts but I guess that makes sense..."
"Actually, I can do a bit with air, too. Ready?" Seraphita points her finger at Loren, drops her thumb in imitation of a gun - and hits him with a tiny puff of air. It's about as powerful as someone breathing hard, once. "Pow! But that's just kind of a side thing." It's also, as you might guess, almost completely useless. It might not even *be* the use of air, but merely heat interacting with the atmosphere; the puff was warm.
"But anyway."
Seraphita listens to Loren. And then she claps her hands together, again. "Wrong! Or, actually right because it's what they teach, and it's where everybody starts! But it's not where people end, and if you have trouble it might be easier to think about it the other way?"
"Fire definitely exists. It's just not solid, or liquid, or air - it's not a *thing* you can touch. That's because fire is energy. It's - things moving, things changing. Water moves too, but it moves in rhythms, or in channels, or builds its own - the tide, right, or rivers!" Seraphita has limited experience with water ether.
"So fire is ethereal," she means ephemeral, "but it's moving. It doesn't *wait*. It wants to do everything, all at once! So you can't hold onto it, like another element. You can't build it up and then let it out. But you also can't think of it as just a reaction, because then when the reaction's done, you're done. It burns out! It helps to think of it as - well..."
"What a lot of people do when they're new is they try to gather it all together and then throw it," Seraphita says, gesturing as if pushing something away from her chest. "But that's no good! It won't stay put for you to build it, and when you throw it, it will all rush away from you. It wants to move, and you need to let it. But you need to tell it how to move. So..."
"I'm going to do something real slow so you can see. It's harder to do slow, so don't try to do the same thing." Seraphita holds her hand out, and forms a ball of flame in it. It burns, floating there, just touching her fingers. "A lot of people think I'm pushing energy out, all the time, to do this. But I'm not, because if I tried, it would all get away from me and then either go everywhere or I'd get tired real fast. Here, can you see what I'm doing?"
She closes her hand, just a fraction, to slow the reaction. If Loren is as good at Ether as his experience suggests, he might be able to tell - she's not using very much energy at all. Oh, there's a fair bit of energy in motion there, but she's not *using* it. There's a little bleeding off to make the flame, of course, but most of it she is keeping there like a spinning ball. (The restraint to make it slow and easy to see is the hardest part, like she said. Fire doesn't want to slow down, and neither does fire Ether.)
"Can you see?" she asks. She has more to say, but she needs to know if Loren can follow her this far, at least.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Something like that...?" Loren hazards, not entirely sure in what direction Seraphita meant all that. He's admittedly at a bit of a loss -- he's still not really at the point of the process where he's able to really channel Ether into his sword. He's trying to master the basics and that's hard enough. Trying to do that, fight effectively, and both draw in and keep Ether confined in his sword sound like it's all adding up to a trainwreck if he tries that now. Crawl before walking, he's heard the saying go.
It just also feels like he's been crawling for a long time.
"Really--"
That's air alright. Or maybe heat-displaced air. He remains looking a touch nonplussed in the aftermath of that little trick of hers. He can't seem to do anything air-related at all, as much as he'd like to be able to hit someone with a lightning bolt sometimes.
"Wrong?!"
He looks flabbergasted. Or maybe just a little offended. Or both. "What do you mean? It's not..." He trails off, prudence kicking in if at a slight delay. "...Ma'am." And he waits, listening to her explain her side of things.
"But that's true of water, too. It doesn't really stop, even if it changes forms. What's different about fire?" He's intent enough, trying to take the metaphorical scalpel to their respective definitions to figure out the exact grain of divergence that he's -- just as quickly as he'd remembered himself -- forgotten his manners once again.
But she goes on. It's not the movement that defines it, it's--
"Potential. It's all about what's available in the moment. The no-moment," he says again, remembering Leah's lecturing on the subject. "Use it or lose it." His shoulders slouch. "...Is that why I keep messing up fire stance?"
Because he keeps trying to think about it, and he loses all the potential?
And when he's trying to use fire Ether he's trying to pull it up and out. To 'push it out' as she put it. And he can't grasp it because it's constantly slipping through his fingers, because he's trying too hard, because only when he's in the moment of not thinking about it, of doing, does it come out at all.
And then it gets away from him.
Loren closes his eyes and lets out a weighty sigh.
"Okay. So how do I stay in the moment without staying in the moment?"
Seraphita's answer might come in the way she demonstrates her power for him again, this time more slowly.
"...It hasn't stopped moving," he notes after a moment's studious observation. "Are you... letting its desire to keep moving do all the work?" It's like a conveyer, sort of, he's decided, brow furrowed as he considers this.
"...How do I turn it into a loop?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Seraphita might have said it was hard to do, but she keeps it spinning while she speaks. Every once in a while she has to shift her fingers, just slightly, as if adjusting something about it.
"Water has... it has a direction to move in," Seraphita says, thoughtfully - thoughtful because she doesn't put it into words very often anymore. "It wants to go down. It flows downstream, or the tides pull it..." Honestly, Seraphita is a little fuzzy about the details of tides, too. It rarely comes up. "And once it gets there, it's stable. You can put it in a cup or a pool."
"Fire doesn't! You can't bottle it, or it goes out. You can't set it down." She points with her free hand. "You're right! It hasn't stopped moving. If you're going to channel it, you have to let it move. But... because it's fire *Ether*, you can control how it moves. You know how to do that! You've had training. Earth needs to be shaped, but water likes a channel too, right...? Fire's *all* the channel. It's all controlling it, because it'll just slip away if you don't."
"That doesn't mean it's worse," Seraphita adds, immediately. "It's just different. You can't build it up slowly like earth, but - yes, you're right! I'm letting it do some of its own work! It's not all of it. Some leaks out to make the fire. But it's better than just throwing it out and getting one puff and then having the Ether go pffft."
Seraphita closes her hand entirely. The fire goes out - or, because she's doing it slowly, Loren can see that she drew what was left of the Ether back in. It's difficult, but it shows efficiency in a different way. "That's the harder part. It took me a bit to figure it out myself... you have to change how you shape it."
"And that also means you have to learn to be good at shaping the Ether flow," Seraphita adds. "You have an advantage! You do a lot of shaping already. Simple shapes are okay, but you have to - Dominia said once, earth is nice because you don't have to think about it as much once you've set it up. It's that shape and it will stay that shape! But fire won't. You have to think about the whole channel at once, instead of making a complex thing and letting it go. But, it *wants* to move. You just have to guide it. You don't have to force it!"
"So, to make a loop, think about that. Instead of building the Ether, build the channel for the Ether to move in. If you think of it like a - a river, you'll be working with fire. If it's more like a tube, so that less of it is, um, exposed... it's heat. Those are the easiest things to do. Later, you can make the Ether go more than one way, or use 'movement' and 'potential' to do other things... but that's for later!"
Seraphita has actually stopped bouncing. Has Loren found the thing she takes seriously? Her way of looking at things is certainly not quite Solaris-standard, and yet it's close enough that it's possible to see how she got here from there, if you make several unusual intuitive leaps. Maybe she is a prodigy, like some people say. Maybe her brain just doesn't work like anyone else's, which some *other* people say, though usually in a less kind manner.
Or maybe she just worked at it until it did what she wanted to. That's an option, too.
"So if you want to practice... that's what you need to do. Shape the channels!"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
He's completely forgotten that he should be showing her a lot more respect and deference at this point. Maybe Seraphita likes it better this way?
"But it doesn't stop moving, even in a cup. It still moves. It'll evaporate under the right circumstances. Or even freeze," Loren points out; water is not his forte, but perhaps he feels a little bit obliged -- as befitting his long-time partner element -- to 'stick up for it' a little.
(The correct word is really 'nitpick relentlessly' but you can't take Loren anywhere.)
But it's still a substance that -- until it becomes as air -- is defined by what contains it. Seraphita is right: this is not the case at all with fire, which defies attempts to contain it.
"If you put a candle under a jar it goes out," Loren remarks thoughtfully, for once not critiquing her attempts to explain how fire works. "It needs air to grow, doesn't it? And if you take that away, it can't grow or move." So it just dies and vanishes altogether instead.
"You can shape water. And ice," he huffs, but he sighs. "But it takes the form you impose on it. Otherwise it doesn't have form," he says, speaking of water. "But you're right about earth. You," and he gestures with his free hand, "push on it. Or pull it. Earth's about stress. One way or another you're pressing on it or pushing it around. But it takes a moment to make it move the way you want it to," he finishes his attempt to articulate what it's like to shift earth with Ether.
It's different with water. It's like he has to guide it to go where he wants--
Loren takes a moment here to pull a face, finally realizing what it was that Seraphita meant by controlling water. "Ugh," he gripes aloud. "Did Kelvena tell you that about water?"
Maybe he should drop the subject entirely before he makes even more of a fool of himself than he's already managing.
Still, that means he can sort of apply what he knows about managing water to managing fire. Theoretically. He just has to not 'press' on it and let it flow, let it move, but maintain the place where it flows around it. Kind of like a river, but for fire instead?
And then he has to make sure he keeps it moving within that riverbed.
"So I just have to give it a home, huh," he says, closing his eyes. No-- not like a riverbed. It would be more accurate to say that it's all one thing. Like if water took the bed with it, as hard a thing as it is for him to wrap his mind around what that would even look like.
"Just have to guide it..."
He takes a breath, exhales. Heat. Dynamism, transformation. That no-moment, potential.
Just make a place for it to be. Don't push, don't pull. Don't shape it. Just let it exist.
He lifts a hand and uncurls his fingers. It's more haze than flame, shimmering in the light of the practice gym once it manifests.
But fire is typically not in hues of yellow, green, and orange. It also doesn't usually look so... self-recursive.
Loren opens his eyes slightly and, slowly, looks down at his hand. His eyes widen.
And the flame vanishes.
His reponse is to groan and roll his head to one side in frustration. "I started thinking about it," he admits, sighing out a weighty breath.
No wonder he's having so much trouble with this. He's the king of overthinking everything. Still -- a part of him is at least a little bit pleased. It's a start. He just has to work the muscle until it's functional.
"You're really into this sort of thing, though, huh."
And Loren has a much-delayed moment of realization that, AGAIN, he's talking to her like he talks to Lan. And he's been doing that for a while now.
"...Uh, ma'am."
But at least he can potentially take some relief in knowing that if she were going to destroy him for this disrespect he might have already been killed. Maybe.
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
"Of course I talk to Kelvena! All the Elements are a team," Seraphita - well, she doesn't *quite* huff, but it's close. "Just because I usually get partnered with Tolone doesn't mean we don't *all* work together. And just because I don't work with water myself doesn't mean I shouldn't know about it!"
She really does take this seriously. But not so seriously that *she* wants to be taken seriously... or, rather, that she demands deference. Loren was right: Seraphita does like it better this way, not that she could (or would) admit it. It's not something she really thinks about.
Seraphita watches what Loren does. Her eyes get a faintly unfocused look, which suggest that she's paying a lot more attention to exactly what he's doing with Ether than what he's doing with his fingers. It's a haze, in strange colours - but can Seraphita really talk about that? The most common colour she's seen for wind-based Ether is green, and she's never seen any natural wind come out green in her life.
(The obvious joke does not occur to her.)
She doesn't interrupt until he's already lost the flame - she doesn't want to be responsible for that! - and he's admitted that he thought about it too hard. "Great!" Seraphita claps her hands together. "Even if you only did it a little, and you distracted yourself, that's more than you did before, right? It just takes practice, and work - and maybe you'll never be as good with it as you are with earth, but even so, that's more than most people could do." Most Ether-users, even. Which is more exclusive than 'most people'.
But there is one question...
"Yup! It's important to me. I like it, and I'm good at it, so I'm going to be the best I can be." It's a little more than that, but that's one of the other things Seraphita doesn't talk about very much. It's not the kind of thing she would be comfortable talking to anyone but a close friend with... and she doesn't have many of those, outside the Elements.
"I think it's important that everyone's the best they can be. Everyone in Solaris! That's why it's important to work hard. Buuuut, you're off duty, right? So you don't have to do that right now, and you don't have to call me ma'am. I know you know who I am."
Seraphita pauses a moment, then gives a satisfied nod. "I hope that helped! At least a little. I'm still going to exercise though. ...you can still do yours though, I'm not going to do combat exercises, we won't get in each other's way." She expects Loren will want to practice Ether more when he's *not* dressed up for exercise and carrying a practice sword, for some reason.