Morning in Lunel didn't rise — it grew.
Gold light seeped up from the water instead of the sky, painting the underside of the bridges with color too soft to name.
Every ripple looked like a mirror waking from a dream.
Rynn sat at the edge of a dock, bare feet in the lake.
When he moved, the reflection trembled but didn't break — as if the water was thinking about it first.
Behind him, Eren said,
"Most people see their reflection and think it's them.
You should know better by now."
Rynn half-turned. "You always start mornings with philosophy?"
"Only when the coffee's bad," Eren replied, tossing him a small loaf of bread. "Eat. Then we start."
---
Training Begins
They walked to the edge of the city, where Lunel's wooden walkways ended and the Mirage Field began — a vast expanse where the water was so clear that clouds floated below your feet.
It was impossible to tell where air ended and water began.
Eren stepped out first, barefoot, testing each plank before he spoke.
"This is where we listen.
Mirra isn't muscle. It's motion.
You can't push it — you have to find the direction it already wants to go."
Rynn frowned. "That sounds like something you'd put on a fortune cookie."
"Then open it."
He flicked his wrist — the Compass Gauntlet on his arm clicked.
The needle spun wildly, then stopped dead.
He crouched, picked up a pebble, and tossed it toward a wooden pole twenty feet away.
Halfway there, the pebble curved, cut a clean circle through the air, and hit the pole from behind.
Rynn blinked. "How—"
"The world's full of motion lines," Eren said. "I just… nudge them."
The compass needle trembled faint red, tracing afterimages of trajectories in the air — faint arcs that glowed like fireflies before fading.
---
Rynn's Turn
Rynn tried to imitate him.
He raised his hand, focused, tried to see what Eren saw.
At first, nothing.
Just water, light, and his own confusion.
Then the world… hummed.
It wasn't a sound — more like remembering a heartbeat he'd forgotten he had.
The air rippled faintly around his fingertips.
The surface beneath them vibrated.
Eren's compass needle twitched.
"Good," Eren said quietly. "You feel it?"
Rynn nodded. "Feels like… breathing, but sideways."
"That's the current," Eren said. "That's Mirra Flow. Don't try to move it. Just follow it."
Rynn closed his eyes and focused.
He could feel where the lake's calm cracked, where a gust of wind hesitated, where energy collected in stillness.
The Mirra wasn't everywhere equally — it gathered in moments that meant something.
The trick wasn't controlling it.
It was noticing it.
---
First Mistake
Eren threw another pebble.
"Catch it."
Rynn flinched and reacted on instinct.
A pulse of blue light flashed from his palm — the pebble stopped midair, hovered for half a second… and then dropped into the water with a tiny plink.
Rynn gasped. "I—I stopped it!"
Eren shook his head. "You stalled it. You didn't know where it wanted to go next.
Stopping things is easy. Guiding them takes trust."
He pointed to the water — the ripples spreading outward had formed a spiral, not a circle.
"That's your Flow. Don't fight it. Understand it."
---
Nightfall
They trained until the sun dipped and the water became molten orange.
Rynn's hands ached; his head rang with faint echoes of motion.
The reflections in the lake flickered faint blue with every breath he took.
Eren watched, expression unreadable.
"You've got good instincts. But instincts without rhythm just make noise."
"Then teach me rhythm."
Eren grinned faintly. "Tomorrow.
Today, you just learned the world moves even when you don't."
---
As they walked back, the water behind them glowed faintly blue — delayed ripples forming where their steps had been seconds before.
It wasn't eerie, just strange — like the lake was remembering their motion a little too well.
---
End of Chapter 16 – "The Mirage Field"
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