I nod, giving Sam a smile in return. "Yeah, if that's fine with you?"

"Perfectly!" She clears her throat a little. "...But I will warn you, breath and time are... different. Obviously."

I nod once more. "Okay, makes sense." I say, uncrossing my arms and assuming a more casual stance as I do so.

"So..." Sam whistles quietly, glancing around. "Wow. I never thought I'd overthink this training thing, but here we are."

I look around the room for a few seconds as well, before turning my full attention back to Sam. “So. Well, uh, what do we do?” I ask, kind of squinting at her. “As knights I mean. How does the whole powers thing work with us? Because like.” I pause again, trying to figure out how to say that I cannot seem to get my time powers working without, you know, actually saying that. “Like during the storm, I did all of that time shit, and you did that breath shit, right? How.”

"We're supposed to 'exploit' our aspect." Sam explains. "We take something that is already there, we look at it, we're able to make it help us." "It's like... the class of making your aspect conveniently helpful to you."

“Alright.” I say slowly, “Okay.” Yeah, this is making some sense to me.

"The more-" She spreads her arms, gesturing around widely- "'Everywhere' your aspect is, the easier it is to exploit. Since we don't create it, we just use it." "Lucky for us, time and air are in plentiful supply." Sam winces slightly. "Mostly."

I start to nod, but pause. "What do you mean by mostly?"

"Well. Sometimes there isn't... air." She shrugs quickly. "I'm guessing you'll always have time, though."

"Right." I say, thinking back to that fucking lovely glimpse into a possible future for all of us. It's not going to fucking happen, of course, I'm not going to let it happen, but the distinct absence of time I felt there is definitely still making me uneasy, to say the least, especially paired with Sam's words. "Right, yeah. Plenty of time to go around. That's good."

"Yeah. Yeah, right, we're good. So- what I'm trying to say is that you need to be good at analyzing your aspect and making it do the right thing."

"Okay. And we do that how?" I ask. "Make the aspect do the right thing, I mean."

"Okay... okay. So." Sam hesitates, chuckling nervously. "This is going to sound strange. But... aspects seem like living things. They can be nice, or they can be mean. So it's better to be buddies with your aspect. Better than trying to force it to work." "At least, that's how it seems to me." She gives you a smile to hide how stupid she feels saying this out loud.

I think about this very hard, staring at the floor deep in thought. I look back up at Sam. “What do I have to do to be buddies with time?”

"I... have no idea. Just, try to... work with it, sometime? When you have free time." She shrugs. "Have you ever just- reached out your hand and felt time?"

“Yes. I mean. I think so? It’s like.” I pause, trying to think of a good way to word this. “Like if I concentrate I can feel the time flowing around me.”

"Yes! Yes, that's exactly what it's like." She steps back and holds out a hand. "Try it now. I will too."

"Okay." I say. Alright. The last few times I did this I don’t really think that I actively tried to reach my hand out while doing so, but I’m going to follow along with Sam right now. I tune back in to the flow of time, trying to focus on it’s movement throughout the room.

It sure does flow. Time marches ever onwards, a current bending around every ticking object and every thrumming person.

I continue focusing on the surrounding time, but do glance over at Sam to see what she’s doing, just out of curiosity.

She has her eyes narrowed at her hand. You have no doubt that she's focusing on the flow of air around the room, just like you are with time.

Okay. Well, Sam said I should try and work with my aspect, not against it. I'm still a bit hazy as to how exactly I'm supposed to interact with it though, how can I tell if time is being nice or mean, as she put it? I guess I'll just keep concentrating for now, see if I can feel anything that will help me figure that out.

"So, simple, right? You can feel it." Sam nods, glancing up at you. "Now, your aspect will always- mostly- behave. It's when you try to use it that it can backfire." "Try to coax time into slowing down or speeding up in a certain spot."

“Okay.” I hesitate for a moment, before focusing on a point not too far from where I’m standing. I’ve done this before, I can do it again. I reach out towards that spot, trying to once again slow the flow of time in that specific area.

Your hearing is flooded by a screeching sound almost immediately, like rusty brakes- except in your skull. Your vision swims.

“Fuck-” I bring my hands to my head instinctively, trying my hardest to stay standing. I was not fucking expecting that in response.

"Whoa, hey- are you okay??" Sam steps forward and hovers her hands close to you, hesitant to actually touch you, it seems. "What happened?"

Is that noise still going in my head? Or has that stopped now.

It stopped when you stopped focusing on altering time.

Ah. I blink quickly a few times, still a bit dazed from whatever the fuck that was. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. What the fuck.” I stare at the spot I had been trying to slow time down in, before turning back to Sam. I lower my hands from my head, slowly. “That fucking hurt.”

"Did-" She looks over, following your gaze. "Did time not... like that??"

I shake my head. "I guess not? I've slowed down time before, it's just not fucking letting me do anything with it now."

Sam frowns. "That's weird. Maybe- maybe try to ask nicely? No, that's. Stupid. Sorry." "We could see if a fraymotif works?"

I nod slowly. "How do we do that?"

Sam hums and squints around shortly before stepping next to you and pointing to a spot on the ground. "Let's try to make time and breath spin in a circle there. Like a time loop tornado."

"Okay." I turn my attention to where she's pointing, trying to focus once once again. "Okay." I've never really tried to make time spin before? I am not completely sure how this works, but it can't be too different than slowing down or stopping it. I hesitate once again, before trying to will the time in that area to move in a circle.

Your vision starts to go all fucky and you hear a low buzz in your skull. Sam gently places a hand on your shoulder, glancing at your expression. "Maybe try something a little different?" You focus once again on how time flows. How currents, lines, trace around everything. If you could only get the lines there, in that spot, to flow in a circle instead of across the floor.

I glare at the lines. This is very fucking frustrating. I continue to glare, focusing on them as hard as I can. Sam’s right, whatever the fuck I’ve been doing doesn’t seem to be working. I don’t try to slowly push the lines into a circular shape this time, instead I decide to try and force it into the shape, trying to shove it into a circle as hard and as fast as I can. Time is being a fucking bitch, and if it wants to do be that way, that’s fine! But I am pissed, I am going to fucking make it listen to me.

Your vision goes black in an instant. Yours ears ring, blocking out the sound of Sam's frenzied worry completely, and a surge of pain throbs from the back of your skull forward. You feel like someone fucking shot you. You stumble, nearly toppling over.

Holy fuck. Holy fuck. In retrospect, I should have at the very least prepared for the possibility that this could go wrong, but obviously it did not come to mind. I’m just going to concentrate on attempting to stay standing for now, and not much else. I close my eyes, regardless of whether my vision has returned or not, and just take a few shaky breaths. That, I am just now realizing, was a fucking horrible idea.

Sam grabs your hands this time. It helps, oddly enough, to have physical contact with something that is not the ground, because the ground feels like it's spinning and tipping all over. You manage to stay upright, although swaying dangerously on your feet.

I hold onto her hands tightly in response, hoping the room will stop spinning for me sometime soon. "Thanks." I mumble, squinting down at the floor as I do so.

She mutters something back, but you still can't quite hear her.

I look back up from the ground at her, still half squinting. "What?"

"Time's a bitch," She repeats.

I nod in agreement. "It's a fucking asshole."

"So, uh..." Sam glances behind her at the designated spot. "You want to sit down? Or try again?"

"I want to try again." I am not fucking going to try and force it into a circle again, but I am sure as hell not going to just let it win at this point. Ah. Actually, before I try again, I should check. Has the floor stopped feeling like it is spinning yet?

Sam holding onto you really helped. You're mostly stable by now.

Cool, alright. That's good. I am not going to try and do anything other than focus on the flow for the moment, once again looking for a way that I can make the time in that area move in a circle. Preferably a way that doesn't end like the last few tries.

Maybe try gently guiding it? Hm. Or... or you could try talking to it. That sounds stupid. But it might work. Treat time like it's your buddy, right? Like a friend. A living thing. Hey time, pal, c'mon, please.

Yeah, that does sound kind of stupid, but it wouldn’t hurt to try, right? I mean. It could. But fuck it, might as well give it a shot. “Hey.” I start, still staring at the spot in question, though I attempt to not glare at it as much as I have been. “Hey time. You uh. You really seem to like moving in that direction, huh.” I gesture vaguely in the same direction it’s currently flowing in. “Could you. Could you stop doing that? Not all of you. Just right there.” I point at the designated spot. “Can you just stop and fucking go around instead for a little bit? Please.”

You watch, desperately, as the shimmering red lines slow in one specific area. They begin to bend, painstakingly slowly, and spin around in a circle. Holy shit. It's working.

"Holy fuck." I mutter under my breath. "Yeah! Yeah, like that. Keep going. You're doing great."

You barely notice as the wind kicks up around you. Sam lightly grabs onto one of your hands, again, as the air begins swirling the same direction. Time picks up when you encourage it. Particles of dust and dirt swirl backwards in the time vortex, then forwards just outside of it in the tornado of wind.

I stay focused on the little tornado we have going, watching it spin around, but do glance over at Sam for a moment, eyes wide, partially in excitement, partially in shock. I didn’t realize that talking to it would actually fucking work.

She glances at you in return, grinning widely.

I smile back, in part because I am so fucking glad that my time powers seem to be up and running again, even if this is a really fucking weird way to use them, but also because holy shit, that's my fucking sister. She's really so fucking cool.

She is! She is!!!! The tornadoes die down after an amount of time passes. Funnily enough, you have no idea how long it was, since you were transfixed on the actual process.

I blink at the spot where the tornado was for a moment, before turning back to Sam. "Thanks." I say, still smiling. "Yeah. This really helped. Thank you."

"I'm glad! It feels really stupid to talk to it, I know. But it works! Most of the time." Sam rubs her shoulder a little sheepishly. "I'm- you know, I'm really glad to have a sister. To have you as a sister. My whole family, now."

"Yeah." I say, nodding at her. "Yeah, me too. You're a really fucking cool sister."

"Thanks! You're pretty great too." She scans the room quickly. Her eyes linger on Hale, leaned up against a wall, for a moment, and then back to you.

I follow her gaze, giving one last quick nod. “Right. Well, I should probably practice some more with the.” I sort of gesture vaguely at the spot we had been doing our tornado in. “Time shit. Talk to you more later?”

"Yeah." Sam grins, reaching out and patting your shoulder with mild hesitation. "Absolutely."

I smile back at her. "Fuck yeah."

She wanders off.