I pictured it clearly, focusing on the details—the heavy construction, the metal hinges, the solid thunk the door made as it closed.
I felt a gentle pressure against my mental barrier, like someone knocking politely on it. Maintaining the visualization of the closed trap door, I resisted the instinct to lift the barrier.
"Excellent,"Onyx said, sounding more distant now, as if speaking to me from the other side of a thick wall."You are learning. Let us try again."
I opened my mind to him. “How can I hear you talking to me while blocking you from hearing my thoughts?”
"I'm not sure how it works. But think about it. When you talked to me before, could you read my other thoughts while you were at it?"
“No, I couldn't. I only heard you when you addressed me.But how do I do that?”
"I can't explain it,"Onyx said."You just need to imagine your private thoughts locked behind a door and your talking to me being separate."
We practiced for a little longer, with Onyx testing my barrier with varying levels of pressure. He explained that in time, I would learn to distinguish between different types of mental contact. Eventually, I should be able to block an aggressive attempt to break into my mind.
It hadn't occurred to me that a dragon might try to force its way into my head.
"That's enough for tonight,"Onyx said after we'd been at it for a while."You need to sleep."
I relaxed my concentration, feeling the mental construct dissolve as I allowed my natural thought patterns to resume. Exhaustion crashed over me as if I'd been running for miles.
“Thank you for helping me,” I thought to Onyx, the words slightly fuzzy even in my own mind.
"Rest now, my Little Warrior,"he said.
As I drifted into sleep, I still felt the ghost of Onyx's presence in the background, like a gentle mental touch, but I wasn't sure whether it was real or just the residual effect of our training.
61
ALAR
"All the futures have already been written. The question is which one you will stumble upon."
—Shaman Saphir Fatewever
The academy's showers were a noisy, steam-filled chaos as I walked in, eager to wash off the sweat and dust clinging to me after the brutal conditioning this morning.
Captain Odinah had seemed particularly pleased with herself when she announced that tomorrow we would be making the same climb with backpacks filled with rocks. "You need to build up strength and endurance," she'd said with what I could have sworn was a sadistic gleam in her eye.
Codric leaned against the shower partition. "Is it just me, or are they trying to kill us before we ever meet a Shedun?"
"That's exactly what they're doing." I worked the soap through my hair. "They figure if you survive the training, the enemy will be a piece of cake by comparison."
He snorted. "I'd rather face the Shedun than Captain Odinah. I doubt they would be much worse."
"Don't let Kailin hear you joke about that," I warned, remembering the haunted look in her eyes when she'd spoken of the Shedun attack on her village. "That scourge is no laughing matter to the Elucians. It's an existential threat, and if Eluria doesn't start preparing and shoring up its defenses, we will be next."
Codric sobered. "Fair point." He got back under the spray and then turned to me with a grin. "Wouldn't want to spoil things between you and Kailin again."
If he thought he would get me to talk about last night, he was mistaken. I hadn't told him anything when I'd returned to our room, and not just because he'd already been snoring. Still, he'd figured that something was up from watching my interaction with Kailin this morning, as it telegraphed to anyone astute enough to notice that our relationship had advanced to a new stage.
Remembering our kiss and the feel of her soft body under mine evoked a response that was problematic in a communal shower, and I did my best to shove those thoughts aside, but it was no use. The quickest remedy I could think of was turning the hot water off and standing under the freezing spray until my teeth started chattering.
"Are you insane?" Codric said as he was hit by a few freezing drops from my side. "Why in the seven hells did you do that?"
"Conditioning." I stepped out of my stall, grabbed a towel, and wrapped it around me. "Cold showers are beneficial. They reinforce resistance and focus. You should try that."
"Not a chance." He rubbed the towel over his hair. "I'm not into self-inflicted pain."
