Cultivating Plants

Nurture practice wasn't limited to the speed stance. During the following days, Naila probed Aloe with the rest of the stances. Some were more successful, others not so much.

Starting with defense, there were some archaic ways to boost the defenses of one's body, but Naila herself considered them too barbaric and obfuscated that she only mentioned the theory whilst practicing more cup shuffling.

Amongst the diverse methods, they included: intaking low doses of poison, puncturing oneself with needles, walking in lit coal, and bloodletting.

In her own words, "I mean, you probably will make your body more resilient. But also more numb. And a numb body is an irresponsive and useless one."

Next was strength. Perhaps the simplest of all stances to train as anyone with a halfwit could tell you how to do it. The sultanzade provided her iron dumbbells and curious contraptions to train her grip strength as it wouldn't make any sense to train her torso or legs in her state. Naila also rejoiced at the fact that she didn't need to be present for such basic exercises, removing one stance from her imposed 'punishment'.

The sense stance was a curious one. Because the stance augmented every sense, it meant that they could practice both speed and sense at the same time with cup shuffling, but that only affected two senses: hearing and sight.

Ever-so-stoic, Naila considered taste a sense that needed no training. The same could be said for touch, but she offered the theory of some exercises consisting of writing crude words on the skin and having her guess them. The utility was… dubious at best, but she understood why they could help her sense of touch.

The way they trained smell was by placing a heavy incense in the office that dulled most odors and having her guess different items by sniffing them alone.

Other, more obscure senses didn't have as straightforward training methods. Naila told her that they had an agility course back in Asina that worked for equilibrium training, but with Aloe's legs, there was no shot at recreating that. Proprioception was another sense that she could only train herself and the sultanzade gave her no guidelines.

As for charm…

"I will not train you with that," Naila explained one day, cups already in hand. "Not only it is one of the stances that you cannot really train – much like defense – but also because my sister has specially stated that she will oversee your training with the charm stance."

Those words brought no relief to Aloe.

They skipped the regeneration stance as apparently there was no all-purpose known method to train it, and it was already one of the least used stances amongst the sultanzade. Using vitality constantly, alongside depriving oneself of air by living in high places, boosted those particular aspects of the stance, but the others remained unaffected.

Much like its counterpart, stealth was a curious one to train.

Instead of having practical training, which would have been complicated by the sheer fact of being bound to a wheelchair, Naila gave Aloe guidelines on how to be stealthy. Not just how to walk without making noise – once she actually could do so – or suppressing her breath, but also make herself inconspicuous by adopting the same walking speed and posture as those around her and also have better control of her heartbeat.

As she was taught how to be stealthy, Aloe felt like she was an assassin.

Minus the drugs part.

She cultivated them, not consumed them.

Agility they skipped.

"One, agility is useless without unsurmountable practice," She had said. "And two, you are going to kill yourself if you practice it wounded." Apparently, the youngest sultanzade she knew, was the most mindful and had a head placed between her shoulders unlike someone else.

Finally, the flowing stance.

"This one I cannot teach you. I am simply not qualified to do so." Naila admitted with her head standing up high. "Besides, its many ramifications are too diverse to make something useful out of it. You mentioned you already knew it, so practice for yourself, I cannot give you any pointers that you do not already know."

And that was all for the nine stances of the Nurture vital arts. Three that she had no way of training, one that would kill her if she did so, another that Rani herself would guide her, thus leaving her with four to practice.

Strength by building muscle.

Speed by acclimating her mind and body to the speeds, but could be simplified to cup shuffling.

Sense by individually practicing each of her senses.

Stealth by… well, that was another that she couldn't really practice. She had the theory and the advice of an experienced cultivator at her disposal, but the best she could manage was making herself a background character in the audiences.

Still, training strength and speed were invaluable. Even a measle increase of muscle mass in her arms would be more than triplicate once she donned the stance.

Day by day, Aloe grew stronger. But day by day, she grew wearier of what was waiting for her with Rani's training. Now she knew how to train every Nurture stance, but the emir had yet to claim again on their deal.

Not even during audiences would Rani acknowledge her existence beyond when her assistance as the scribe of commoners was required. Whatever the emir was planning, it scared the commoner. Mostly because she had agreed to the treatment that may ensue.

Aloe trained even when Naila wasn't present thanks to the guidelines. During the day and the time in the office, she would lift dumbbells. They started light, the first ones had been only one kilogram and they tired her to death, but that only was because Naila recommended training without the strength stance to build muscle.

"There are two aspects to stance training," she had told, "bodybuilding and stance mastery. With the dumbbells, you are increasing your base strength, and with something heavier like weight bars and dead press you can train and control your strength whilst in the stance."

But such exhausting activities like dead press they hadn't practiced, so she was limited to only building muscle in her arms with light dumbbells. Though they weren't as light now as she was now with three-kilo ones, or that was what Aloe thought until Nesrine showed her a ten-kilo one that all guards train with without batting an eye.

She decided to be optimistic and decide that she was doing well as she could 'lift a third of what trained soldiers could' even if that was far from reality.

And by night, the scribe still pushed her ailing body to walk. Even if it didn't hurt her, which it did, even a handful of steps was enough to tire her. She was well aware that it would take at least another couple of months at this pace before she could make a complete recovery. Or so she liked to hope.

Time went by and soon the eve of the new year approached. There wasn't much for celebrations as the only birthday that was usually celebrated was that of the coming of age, but Aloe was proved to have a 'peasant mindset' as the servants of the palace rushed for the preparations of the princess' birthdays.

This fact was only more comedic because Aloe recalled her mother mentioning the palace's New Year's celebration multiple times.

Age counting for nobles and imperials was weird because by law they only became older with the passing of a new year, but they also had enough money to celebrate their birthdays on their respective birth days.

To add even more princesses to her life, Fatima also sent her a letter demanding more aphrodisiacs to be sent to Asina.

Taking advantage of the fact that she had to leave the palace to drain the Grace's Exaltation on her house of its sap, Aloe also paid a visit to Mirah. She had originally intended to stay for a while, but her aunt being ever-so-welcoming, made her stay until the rest of the family arrived, and even then, for dinner too.

"Why's not the pig-skin lady here?" Aya innocently asked over dinner at the lack of presence of Lulu.

"Aya!" Mirah shouted. "You can't say those things!"

"Why?" The little girl expressed her confusion.

"It is a bad word," Her mother explained.

Aya didn't protest any further, knowing better than to complain to her mom. Aloe had personally forgotten about the racist word as it wasn't commonly spoken and she currently had a better opinion of other countries and cultures than her own, which also raised the question of where the girl had heard it.

Jafar just laughed over the whole ordeal.

"So," the captain guard started, "the palace must be quite agitated with the coming celebrations."

"Too much for my liking." Aloe sincerely responded. "There are entertainers coming up and down the whole day, and I almost can't think from the noise."

"You were always drawn to silence, little plant." Jafar took a sip from her cup of beer.

"Tell me, Uncle Jafar, aren't you going to celebrate Aya's tenth birthday?"

"Money doesn't fall from the sky." The man explained. "This household survives on my paycheck alone, and I may be captain, but I'm also paying for a house and three people."

Whilst it seemed drunkard rating – which it was – it was true that most commoner houses held ten people on average, if not more. Aloe's own family was well off because both adults put the bread on the table and plenty at that.

"So you are saying that if you had more spare money, you could put something on?"

"You aren't suggesting what I think you are saying, right?" Jafar frowned.

The scribe pushed a few big silver coins toward the man. He instantly pushed them away; no words were needed to see his wounded pride.

"Uncle," Aloe pleaded, "I gain more money than I can spend. My house is paid, I don't buy my food, and pay for no toiletries. My expenses are virtually zero when subtracted from my income, so please, let me help you. All of this money is useless to me."

She was honest with her desire. If she were ever to escape from Ydaz, she wouldn't be able to bring all her coin with her. Better for her loved ones to have it then.

Jafar still scowled but grabbed two silver coins between his fingers. A total of one hundred drupnars. "This is only going to my little star's birthday and nothing else, got it?"

"Of course," Still, Aloe beamed at the gesture.

Gotta give the money to Mirah next time then. Whilst she couldn't personally understand it, she knew of the pride of the breadwinners. If she wanted their household to live a more comfortable life, the scribe would have to infiltrate the influx of money through the housewife.

It would probably make Jafar mad once he found out, but Aloe knew the man, and he would kill himself before hitting her lovely wife in a drunk rage.

Overall, it had been a short visit. Nesrine could testify to that. But these were the little moments that kept Aloe from crumbling.