"All right, we will start off with testing to see how adept you are with your mind." Lady Emren stated in that voice that sounded like a small child with a new toy that they couldn't wait to figure out how it worked, " So, let's start off with some basics. I want you to try to keep me out of your head."

"Okay, how do I do that?"

"I'm not going to tell you that. You just have to do your best." She said, then "You have until the count of five. One."

I thought for a split second about how I would do this. How did you keep someone out of your head? I knew how to get them out, but until yesterday I hadn't had any idea that anyone could get into anyone else's head.

"Two."

What if I just stopped thinking? Maybe there would be nothing to see if she got there.

"Three."

Well, except for memories. That could be a problem.

"Four."

I still couldn't think of anything to do. Seriously, five seconds was not enough for this kind of contemplation.

"Five."

Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my head, like getting stabbed.

"Ow!" I yelled, and the pain receded.

"Again!" She called across the room.

This time I threw up a wall in my head, imagining it there around all of my other thoughts. It didn't help at all. Almost immediately there was another stabbing feeling in my head, which was gone as soon as I acknowledged it. This cycle repeated at least seven more times before I finally gave up and decided not to even try anymore. I just sat on the floor and stared at a brick. That was all I did, not thinking or anything, just staring.

And nothing happened. I sat there for a little bit before I realized that there was no pain, and I glanced up in surprise to see Lady Emren with a look of shock and intense concentration on her face.

That was when I finally felt the pain, much harsher than the other times, but it was also gone much faster.

A look of triumph lit up her face as she gleefully said "You figured it out! You figured it out!"

"Yeah, now would you mind explaining it?"

"Sure. To block someone out you just have to concentrate on something and never let that concentration falter. If you do that, all anyone will see is what you are concentrating on."

"Oh"

"Yes. Do it again." She ordered.

After an hour of this torture I had a really nasty headache and I was really happy that I got a break in the form of lunch, even though it meant that I had to go eat with the stupid king and the other psychotic people that he usually hung around with.

It was just as boring as usual. The King started out by asking me "So, how are your lessons progressing?"

"Well, considering it's the first day, I'm not particularly far."

"How was dwarvish?"

"Um, fine besides the scary little midget man who likes to yell a lot."

Everyone at the table laughed at that, even though I didn't find it particularly funny.

"And how were your studies of the ancient language?"

"I like it fine."

"I talked to Master Vilfaedin and he says you are extraordinarily gifted in that area, and Lady Emren has also informed me that you are astounding."

"Oh. Um, thanks?"

The rest of lunch progressed in a similar fashion and I was about ready to jump out of one of the castle's non-existent windows when it was finally over and I was forced to go back and deal with the evil woman that likes to give people headaches for no good reason.

When I got back to the dungeon room I was braced for another round of viscous attacks on my mind, but instead Lady Emren said that she was going to see if I had any talent in the way of magic.

"Now I am going to throw this at you," She held up a stone, "And you are going to stop it before it hits you. Just say 'letta' and concentrate. If you have magic and can access it, this should work and you should be able to stop it before it touches you."

With that she threw the stone as hard as she could at my shoulder.

I yelled "Letta!" and concentrated on it as hard as I could, but nothing happened except that the stone hit in the shoulder hard enough that I was fairly certain I would have a really nasty bruise the next day.

She somehow had another stone in her hand when I looked back at her, which she threw at me again.

Again I yelled "Letta!" and again nothing happened, save the stone smacking my arm in exactly the same spot as before. She continued this for quite a while with a seemingly never ending supply of the stones.

Finally I was totally fed up with the stones smacking my shoulder in the same place with a scarily accurate precision that this time when I yelled "Letta!" I felt something within my mind stir, something that had always been there but that I had never really been able to access until now. It surged forward, filling me, and the stone stopped dead in midair and then dropped to the floor. Suddenly I felt a large drop in energy that caught me off-guard as whatever had just filled my mind receded back into its inaccessible corner.

Lady Emren looked as though she could leap for joy but told me that I needed to build up my energy so that I could do more complex magic and also larger quantities of it t one time but that she was sure I would be able to because I was pretty good at it. Not the best she had ever seen, but far from the worst. She let me leave early and as I got up off of the floor I found out just how much energy I had used for that.

"Here, let me help you to the kitchen so that you can eat something before your next lesson."

I let her help me up and was surprised by how hungry I was. I was seriously contemplating skipping the other lessons but I had a feeling that Lady Emren would be following me to make sure that I got there when I was supposed to. So I headed off to more torture, which it honestly was. Hours of physical activity when you are drained is not very good, however I found that I enjoyed the sword fighting and archery and that I was actually quite good at it. In archery I only missed the tree by forty feet, which, while it doesn't sound very impressive, was a very large accomplishment in my eyes considering it could have been over one hundred and I had managed to string and shoot it fairly quickly, so in to me I did really well.

I went to sleep exhausted, the first time I had been truly exhausted in a very long time, and I was pleased that I had no dreams at all.