Zara's shadow kept its tongue stuck out at him.
The dark outline leaned forward with deliberate, childish mockery, the long strip of pure blackness waving once before settling back into place.
At the same time Zara herself continued to giggle, one hand still covering her mouth, eyes curved with open amusement.
The sound was warm and unrestrained, the kind she rarely allowed during training.
Through the open bond the laughter carried a bright, playful edge that made the entire clearing feel lighter for a moment.
"You are still too young to be playing tricks on your own tutor right after learning how to move your shadow, little prodigy," she said, voice light with leftover laughter.
"I felt the intention the moment you decided to flick,"
"You were not subtle at all,"
"The bond made every shift in your focus obvious,"
"Next time try waiting until the link is quieter if you actually want to land something on me,"
"Or at least try not to look so proud of the idea before you even send the command."
Alex felt heat crawl up the back of his neck.
'DAMNNN THIS WOMANNNN!!!'
Embarrassment settled in, sharp and immediate.
He had been seen through so easily that the entire sneaky plan now looked childish even to him.
The memory of his shadow getting swatted aside and the solid feedback that had staggered him only made it worse.
Adaptation was still recording the residual sensation across his shoulder, as if it wanted to remind him exactly how cleanly he had been shut down.
'This Fucker As Well! I don't need Adaptation for this!'
The phantom pressure lingered like a secondhand bruise.
He straightened his posture, trying to reclaim some dignity before the moment stretched any further.
"Just so you know Zara, that only worked because of the Shadow Bond," he said, forcing the words to sound reasonable instead of defensive.
"You felt me coming through the link the entire time,"
"Of course you could react before the flick even finished forming,"
"If the bond had not been wide open and if you had not been reading every intention the second it appeared, that attack would have landed cleanly on the head of your shadow,"
"The problem was the connection giving you free information, not my control over the element,"
"Without the bond I would have at least gotten the flick close."
Zara's giggle softened into a quieter smile.
Her shadow finally retracted its tongue and returned to a normal outline, though the dense black still looked faintly smug, as if it retained some of the mockery even after the gesture ended.
"Fine Alex," she said, tilting her head.
"You can try again right now if you want,"
"This time I will not actively read the bond,"
"I will keep my attention on the outside only,"
"No emotional spill or early warning through the link,"
"Just pure physical reaction from what I can see with my own eyes,"
"So go ahead and try,"
"See if you can land the flick when I am not cheating with the connection,"
"I will even give you a free first move."
Alex's mouth opened, then closed again.
The offer was tempting for half a second.
The competitive part of him wanted to take it immediately and prove the point.
Then the memory of the solid swat and the way his body had staggered returned in full detail, and he decided he did not need a second demonstration of the same lesson in the same clearing on the same morning.
"I have more important things to do," he said quickly, waving one hand as if brushing the entire subject aside.
"There is no point wasting time on silly games when I still need to learn the real techniques,"
"The external connection is only the beginning,"
"Do not disturb me with this! I am focusing on the next step!"
Zara snickered.
The sound was short, bright, and completely unimpressed.
It carried across the bond with the same teasing warmth as the earlier giggle, only sharper.
"I will let it go this time," she said, still smiling.
"You are still just a child, after all,"
"Children get embarrassed when their tricks fail, it is completely normal,"
"Grow a little more and maybe one day you will actually manage to surprise me without relying on the bond to tell me you are about to try something clever."
Alex felt something very unfriendly rise in his chest.
The urge was sharp and immediate.
He wanted to close the distance, pin the yapping girl against the nearest tree, and make her take the words back with interest.
The image flashed through his mind before he could stop it: her wrists caught in one hand, the fur coat pushed aside, that smug smile wiped clean by something far less polite than training.
He was not strong enough yet.
He knew that with cold clarity.
Even with the Shadow Element active and Adaptation running at full sensitivity, the gap between them was still too wide for something that direct.
A real attempt would only end with him on the ground and Zara looking even more amused.
He cut the thought short at once.
His emotional control through the bond was still weak.
The channel sat open and clear between them, carrying every shift in mood whether he wanted it to or not.
If he let the frustration and the half formed desire sit in his awareness for even another second, Zara would feel the exact shape of it.
That particular disaster was not something he wanted to deal with in the middle of a training session in the woods, with the canopy overhead and no convenient bathroom door to hide behind.
'Ya, not right now...'
He forced the emotion down, smoothed it out, and locked Adaptation on the colder, cleaner data of the element instead.
The cold, the emptiness, and the silence were safer ground than whatever had just tried to surface.
Not wanting that particular disaster, he changed the subject before anything else could leak across the link.
"I am going to try the Shadow Mantle now," he said, keeping his voice even and deliberate.
"The full body application you demonstrated earlier,"
"The one that made your attributes jump and let you put a crater in the ground without spending a drop of mana boost,"
"I have the external connection stable and I have the path down to the feet, I want to see if I can take the next step while the data is still fresh in Adaptation,"
"If I wait, some of the finer details will start to blur."
Zara's expression shifted from teasing amusement into something calmer and more focused.
The instructional weight returned to her posture the way it always did when a real technique was about to be attempted.
She unfolded her arms and let them rest at her sides, watching him with the same steady attention she had used when he first settled the element behind his eyes that morning.
"Go ahead," she said simply.
"I will watch from here,"
"So keep Adaptation locked on every stage of the process,"
"And gather the element the same way you did for the vision and the external connection,"
"Make sure to stabilize it near the Mana Heart first so it does not scatter on the way down."
Zara looked down, and then continued.
"Then send it along the full path to the soles,"
"Once it is sitting cleanly in the shadow under your feet, pull it up and over your body the way I showed you,"
"Do not rush the climb,"
"The mantle is not a skill you force into place."
Zara paused, then looked at him directly.
"It is a union between the element and the body,"
"Let the shadow decide it belongs on the outside as much as the inside,"
"If the connection frays halfway up, stop, retract everything, and start over,"
"There is no prize for finishing a broken mantle, and a partial one can leave the pathways irritated for the rest of the day."
She paused again, eyes still on him, the last of the earlier laughter gone from her face.
"And Alex."
He looked up, meeting her gaze across the short distance of the clearing.
"If it starts to feel like too much, say so immediately,"
"The first successful mantle can hit harder than people expect,"
"The attribute surge is real,"
"The temperature drop is high,"
"The sense of power that comes with the completed union is very surreal,"
"I will be right here the entire time, so just go ahead and—"
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End of Chapter 122: Still Too Young
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