And so it was that a new pattern in Karigan's mission emerged with the addition of fighting sessions each afternoon after her walks, which Somial still insisted she continue in order to build her stamina. With each passing day her skin glowed more as her body grew in strength and vitality. She was secretly glad that her Eletian diet meant she didn't lose any weight; she liked her rounder figure, her plumper breasts and curvier hips. She hadn't felt this womanly since, well, ever. She had joined the riders when she was still becoming a woman and growing into her body, and rider life had been particularly hard on her, with copious injuries and long periods of less than ideal nutrition when her various missions had gone haywire. This was the first time in a long time she had stayed in one place, and enjoyed equal amounts of food, good sleep, sunshine, meditation and exercise. She honestly felt wonderful, pain and all.
King Zachary sat in the Command tent, staring at the map his advisors were discussing and wondered which part of the North veil would suffer the least damage so he could deploy those soldiers to the East and stretch his watchful boundary. Their early planning had proven very fruitful, but the enemy had become methodical and exact, and the Rhovan troops were more delayed than they had anticipated. The P'ehdrose were proving to be very valuable allies but to Zachary, it was clear that Mornhaven was now at the helm of their enemy and there was only so much they could manage against such an old enemy. As much as his advisors were loath to discuss it, the assaults were too carefully planned, and the first of the mystical, terrifying attacks of unearthly creatures were beginning to make themselves known. This had a disconcerting impact on his armies already and he grimaced at the thought of what Mornhaven had laid in for them ahead.
Somial was careful to ensure she didn't over extend herself whilst still engaging in a great deal of activity in her training sessions. She had always been a fast and eager learner, and she was even more engaged now that hope and possibility swept through her. She would finish each session in the pool and chat to Somara as they discussed her forms or Somara told her stories and Somial would meditate in the centre of the clearing. Then eventually Karigan would get out, usually reluctantly, into the warm air and lay down on Somial's bed roll. He would chant and oil her back, apply poultices and after a couple of weeks, began lightly massaging some of her healing muscles, which she found an equally terrifying prospect and bloody delightful. He massaged her hamstrings, calves and feet strongly to ensure her lower limbs were supple and would further support her healing back. The bathing, training and healing practices worked so well together that her improvement was even more dramatic, not that she could believe it. Clearly however, she improved too well and too quickly.
About six weeks in, Karigan was preparing for her day ahead and happened to move her saddle bag before she started to dress. Her brooch fell out of the top and she knelt to pick it up. It felt warm in her hand, as if she had been missing a piece of herself. She dressed and pinned her brooch in its usual place and was disconcerted to feel a light weight of responsibility cloak her. She was here on a diplomatic mission. What was she doing? Why had she been asked here? Should she leave soon? Should she be trying to engage in Eletian society more than her almost exclusive recovery? She shook the questions off and waited for Somara to come, who glanced at her brooch briefly and spent their breakfast telling tales of the first rider in her soft voice. Karigan listened eagerly to her history all the way until their meditation time. Seastaria had not visited her in some weeks in the meadow. Actually now that Karigan thought about it she hadn't seen her since the day Somial had first begun training her. Karigan finished her practice and considered this odd development as they continued to the lunch area. As she ate her honey cakes and sipped peppermint tea, listening to the trees shake their leaves in the breeze and ripple the pond, she shrugged it all off. She was no one. What did it matter to her if a goddess chose not to visit her, or Eletians had no interest in "formal" delegation procedures? She was their guest, and a good guest followed the flow of the party, whether it be a godly meadow or magical land.
Despite her determination not to question the motives of her 'hosts', she had her answer that afternoon. Somial completed her staff training and she lowered it reverently to the ground, wiping her brow of sweat and preparing to remove her gown to bathe.
"Wait a moment young one. Today we will continue your training a little further." Karigan gazed at him curiously as he motioned for her to sit opposite him. Karigan did as she was requested, falling into an easy seat.
He watched her for some minutes and she tried not to fidget. His expression almost appeared considering, if she could believe for a second that he would have such an expression. Finally he spoke.
"I feel it is time we deepened your training as you have now the physical stamina to support it. However, I feel there will be great effort required from you and you must be surrounded by those in whom you trust. I hope I have elicited this feeling in you. So I ask you, do you feel the support of Somara and myself, and would you feel comfortable in laying yourself open to us?"
Karigan was confused and it took her a moment to realise what he was actually asking her. His gaze shifted ever so slightly to her eye and she understood that he was indicating his trust in Somara.
"I do, if that is what you wish," she replied and closing her eyes removed the patch from her face, revelling in the precious feeling of the fresh air and sun over her exposed eyelid, as she always did. She kept her eye closed as Somial continued.
"I have considered in great depth what you have told me about your meditative experience as well as others we have shared together. I have consulted the great sages of our people and believe I have a twofold answer as to why you have been given the gift of mirare and why the goddess has urgency in her visitations with you. I believe you are here to develop your control over the innate power you have been granted to cross the planes at will, regardless of the trinkets you possess. You have spoken to me on many occasions of your lack of control when you gaze out of your eye and the intense pain it causes you. I also feel it is now time for us to harness this power and control it so that you are not a pawn of the experience but rather, can manipulate the flow of time and space as much as you will be allowed to."
Silence rang in the clearing as Karigan processed this. She felt in her bones that he was right but also still felt uneasy about his reference again to her "natural power", whatever that meant, and downright scared of the thought of controlling a power the gods had clearly cursed her with when they took away her vision.
"I don't know Somial," she began, before stopping mid-sentence. "I do know. I know that I am here for something more than watching what you eat, or learning to fight again. There is something itching at the back of my mind and it wasn't until I put my brooch on again today that I understood what it was. I feel that somehow the white world and my eye are connected in the fight against Mornhaven, regardless of whether these 'powers' are innate or not. It must be of use for something. If you can teach me, I will learn."
Somial smiled at her. "I would not have expected any other answer and it speaks to the depth of your humility, conviction and awareness that you have come to this conclusion."
"Now. Before you begin bathing and we finish your healing we will sit just so and I will place my hands atop your head. Whilst I have performed your healing like thus for many nights so far, I have been subtly experimenting with the energy flow and believe I can allow it to act more as a container for the flow of prana through your vision, to allow it to remain in flow rather than blocked. I suspect this clearing will ensure the images do not build up and allow you to eventually control it through your meditative techniques. I would like you to wait until you feel the flow of warm and cold energy wrap around your core and then open your eye, staring directly into mine. Let us begin."
Karigan waited for the familiar sensation of his magic to wrap around the core of her being. Once she felt it deeply within the base of her abdomen she took a deep breath and slowly opened her eye. She saw an endless field of silver and the very faint outline of Somial. She breathed slowly and deeply as she had been taught and waited for what would come next. All of a sudden a copse of trees stood deeply in her field of vision and then as soon as it appeared, it melted away into the stream of silver. Because now Karigan could see, she realised that was exactly what her vision was. Her field of vision was not a block of grey but a subtly moving field of silver that ebbed at the edges of her periphery. All of a sudden she understood what Somial meant by a flow.
No more images came to her as she sat with fascination and watched the flow of silvery energy move at a glacial pace. Eventually she felt the movement of Somial's warding energy begin to withdraw and she closed her eyes, groping for her eye patch and replacing it as soon as he was finished. Somial paused for a moment and opened his eyes.
"Well done Karigan. Did you notice any changes?"
"I did. I understand what you mean now about a flow of energy. It felt different. Less scary, more…natural. The pictures don't come out of nowhere per se and slam into me like I had thought they did, it's more that they travel downstream too rapidly for me to manage without your magic, if that makes sense."
He smiled. "Exactly. I am glad your experience was so precise, this is a boon. The visions you see are blocked so to speak and release all at once and we want to achieve a steady flow. Each day we will work on two elements of your practice after staff work. We will work on tuning into this flow of energy so you can detect what is happening when the visions arise, and then eventually you will not need my wards to direct it since the energy will be freely moving and the images will not avalanche. This will allow you to see clearly but more importantly, control when you see. Then we will practice entering the white world until you can do so without your brooch. I feel these are crucial skills for you to master and regardless of where life takes you, you will need to carve out time each day in order to manage them. However that is enough for today, so I would advise you to begin your bathing rites."
Somial immediately closed his eyes and she sensed he needed recovery from the warding. She joined Somara who had a serene expression although she also got the sense that she was quite impressed. Maybe her closer attention to the energy flow of her eye made her understand Eletians! Or more likely, her logical mind filled in the gaps. Karigan considered his words as she enjoyed the heat on her muscles, performing her exercises in the warm water distractedly. Did she want to enter this world for the rest of her life? Manage magic, until the day she died. Then she remembered the pain in her being each time someone was accidentally pulled into the magic of her mirror vision and it didn't seem like such a hard choice at all.