No seriously, training... (OP for Mordre)

[U4ea]

"Close your eyes," Shri ordered, and Mordre closed them without hesitation. "Focus on the air going into and coming out of your body, find peace in the rhythm." 

 

Mordre didn't say anything, though in her head she was ranting. If you want peace, tell me how to control this, her head screamed. Tell me how to restart a fire once I've blown it out! None of that made it to the surface of her face, however, and she relaxed her body as Shri spoke. That's what the woman wanted, after all. 

 

"I mean it, Mordre," Shri snapped, swatting at her with a twig she'd snapped on their way into this little hut. "Relax!"

 

How can I relax while you're swatting me with sticks? Mordre snapped in her head, but rolled her shoulders back and set about clearing her thoughts. 

 

"There. Just below the surface, you'll feel a flow of energy. Touch it." Mordre didn't point out that there wasn't any way to touch it or that she didn't understand what the world the woman meant by the instruction. "Feel that energy inside yourself, Mordre, and use it to help the two powers meet. Use that energy inside yourself to touch the energy flowing around you."

 

Why hadn't she said that to begin with? Mordre thought before shoving it aside and doing as she was instructed. She gasped as she felt the energy inside her meet and touch the energy in the ground under her. She jumped and nearly fell over in shock and Shri laughed at her softly. "Perhaps you should spend more time doing as I say and not running a commentary of it inside your head while I'm giving you instructions."

 

Mordre sighed and nodded, then resumed her place, closing her eyes, focusing her breathing, and reaching out with the energy inside her to touch the other source of it. This time she wasn't shocked by the touch and could feel the energies meeting and sliding along each other. 

 

"Now, what you're reaching with is an element called Spirit. What you're touching is an element called Earth. When you blew out the fire in the hut last week, that was Air. The red glow around the flames? That was Fire." 

 

"How many elements are there?" Mordre asked, not releasing the flow of Earth below her. 

 

"Five," Shri responded. "The last is Water, and you'll feel that one, soon. Today, I just want you to practice reaching out and touching it, then releasing it again." 

 

Mordre reluctantly pulled the energy from inside her back, withdrawing from the Earth below her. She felt hollow, as she opened her eyes and Shri raised a hand quickly before she had a chance to reach for it again. "Careful," she said, her voice sharp. "It feels amazing flowing through you and it will get sweeter as you learn to control more of it. But I must warn you, if you take too much inside yourself, you will burn yourself out and you will not be able to ever touch it again. You must learn this, and must learn how important it is to release it and let it go. You cannot hold it inside you all the time. Not many women live long once they've burned themselves out, Mordre. You will be very powerful and therefore, you must be very careful." 

 

"Now, reach for it again, hold it for a few minutes, then release it, again," Shri instructed. Mordre did so, noticing that the action took less work each time. "Good. I know you will practice more tonight, but please, only when I'm nearby. I can feel it when you do it, can see it when you do, as well. I will know and there will be consequences should you not adhere to this rule." 

 

"It will be as you say, Wise One," Mordre promised. They practiced catching it and holding it, then releasing it again, holding it longer and longer each time and releasing it faster, as well. As the sun dipped below the horizon, Shri sent her off to find her bed and Mordre realized she was exhausted. 

 

"All I have done is sit in a tent!" she complained, fighting off a yawn. 

 

"No great power comes without cost," Shri explained as they walked back to Shri's small hut. "The price of this power is exhaustion. You can wield great powers, Mordre, but it will cost you great amounts of energy. Energy that you must replenish the old fashioned way, I might add. Sleep is a luxury you may not always have. Part of our journey here will be to teach you your limits, so that you are never caught unaware. Rest well and wake, Mordre, for tomorrow, we play with Fire!"

 

~Mordre

[U4ea]

"I chose Fire because it will be the easiest to hurt yourself with, if you are not careful with it." That should've been her first warning, Mordre's supposed. She'd been looking forward to testing herself against something of difficulty, however, so she accepted the task with eagerness. "There is fire everywhere, particularly here in the Threefold Land. When you reach out this time, I want you to open your eyes and look at what you're doing. When you connect with the energy inside you, you will see it like a thread of light around you. This thread is very bright. What colors do you see?" 

 

Mordre opened her eyes and gasped at the lines of energy around her. "Blue," she whispered. "And red, brown, green..." 

 

"Good," Shrii smiled when she said it. "Each color represents an element. Today, we are concerned with the red ones, those are the lines of Fire in the world. We are going to start a fire in the fire pit in order to warm this place up before we freeze. I will show you how, then you must build it up." Mordre's mouth fell open as she watched the lines around Shri bend. The Wise One raised her hand and moved her fingers and the red lines were drawn into the white ones, then laid upon the wood in the fire pit. Flames lept up as they were dug into the bark and the wood caught, releasing the threads again as it started burning. Shri let it burn for a few moments, then swept her hand out and the flames died in a rush of air that Mordre saw was made of threads that were all white. 

 

"Now, you try it. Make this pattern with the threads," she drew lines in the dirt at Mordre's feet with a long stick and Mordre laid the threads on top of the design carefully. She chewed her lip in concentration as she then picked the weave up and moved it to the firepit. The still-smoking wood lit quickly and erupted in flames, pushing Mordre back on her backside and lighting the sleeve of her shirt on the arm she'd used to focus her movements. She cried out in alarm, swatting at the fire licking up her arm and tearing at the fabric to get the sleeve off. Shri moved faster, and Mordre watched a weave of blue and white drop on her arm like a bucket of water. The result was the same, and she sighed as the flames died. She finished tearing off the sleeve of her shirt and tossed it into the fire pit, now happily dancing with a cheery fire. "The threads were too thick," Shri pointed out, unapologeticly. "Next time, keep them smaller. If you want to set a building on fire, use threads that size. Otherwise, you'll just hurt yourself. I trust you know how to make the salve for your arm?" 

 

Shri didn't stay to make sure she did, knowing full well that Mordre knew the correct herbs to use to treat this burn. Left on her own, Mordre glared at the fire and mimicked the weave Shri had used the first time to blow it out. "I'll get a blanket if heat is a problem," she muttered to herself. 

 

~Mordre