Chapter 31

With a groan Alvar's mental faculties slowly regained their former activity until he managed to groggily open his eyes. Thinking back the last thing he remembered was asking the old Isolde how he was going to learn on how to defend his mind after which she had put her hand onto his forehead causing Alvar to somehow blackout.

After he had come back to his senses Alvar began to consciously check his surroundings but what he found left him pretty much stupefied.

There he was, floating in an endless silver mist of sorts, and yet it could not really be called floating as Alvar could feel some kind of floor at his back that he was laying on. Turning himself onto his side Alvar laid his left hand onto the floor to check if his senses were playing a trick on him and yet there it was, the rough texture of a wooden floor!

Moving himself into a sitting position Alvar removed his attention from the invisible floor he was sitting on and began to observe the rest of his surroundings, though he didn't come up with many results in the end as all he could see was silvery mists that drifted slowly through the space he was currently in, wherever that actually was.

"Hello? Is anybody there?" Alvar called out after a while of simply sitting there and contemplating his situation. His words echoed through the mists, dampened to a barely audible whisper due to all the mist that surrounded him while sitting there on the ground.

Suddenly from all around him an old feminine voice echoed that Alvar found strangely familiar until he realised that it belonged to Isolde causing Alvar to let out a relieved sigh.

"How do you like your own mind? Rather blank don't you think? Hahaha" Isolde spoke, causing Alvar to spin his head around in order to find her but was unable to in the end.

"Very funny. Now can you come out please? Your mysterious demeanour is getting old real quick!" Alvar called out while annoyance began to grow inside of himself after what felt like minutes of waiting for nothing to happen.

"Spoilsport… Can't you at least act like you are a little bit scared? I haven't had this much fun in years! Hahaha" Isolde replied back causing Alvar to roll his eyes at her words which she must have noticed as her form materialised, accompanied by a soft laughter, right before his eyes as if she was part of the mist and simply decided to retake her human form.

"So, where are we? This can't possibly be my mind, right?" Alvar asked with a raised eyebrow while Isolde slowly sat herself down opposite of Alvar.

"Oh, but it is! At least from a certain point of view. You see, the humanoid mind is not so simple that you could quantify it into being and not being. What you see around you is simply a manifestation of what you imagine your mind must look like if you were to enter it!" Isolde said while a small smile played along her lips.

"Why would I imagine my mind looking like this though? I mean, shouldn't there be, I don't know, more to it? It is so empty!" Alvar replied while waving around his arms at all the emptiness around him.

"I don't know why you imagine your mind to look like this and no, there shouldn't be much more. In fact it is good that there isn't much more to be seen as that would cause more work for you in the long run." Isolde said, confusing Alvar even more.

"Hold on, hold on. The more you speak the more confused I become! Can you please start somewhere at the basics? As you know I'm rather new to all 'this'!" Alvar said with a frustrated expression on his face while he motioned for the slowly floating mists all around them.

"My, you are an impatient one today, aren't you? Hahaha. Alright, from the beginning it is. Let me begin with you and how you are different from the normal Norn.

The normal Norn, Human, Charr, Azura or Sylvari all have rather simple minds in their basic states, not enhanced from mana manipulation for example. In their basic states the mind of a normal Norn for example is a sphere filled with whatever goes through their mind at the time of observation. The further you dive into the sphere the more often things of a higher emotional value appear. Parents, friends and so on. The closer these attachments are to the core of the mind the higher the personal value they have for those people.

At the core of the mind is another sphere which leads to the subconscious. A space nobody not trained in the mental disciplines should enter as they could cause irreparable damage without noticing it.

In the subconscious mind the character of a person is formed through experiences mostly but also through traits that have always been dominant to their being. Furthermore anybody that trespasses into the subconscious mind must be prepared to not return as they can be entrapped in memories and such until they are unable to find the way back to the entrance. That is the main reason why nobody not trained in the mental arts should ever trespass into the subconsciousness!" Isolde said with a grave look towards Alvar who could understand why she made that point so clear to him as the subconscious mind sounded rather scary.

"Though I wonder, how are you able to train somebody in the mental arts if they aren't allowed to enter their subconsciousness? How would they ever reach the pinnacle in those arts?" Alvar wondered after a second of pondering, causing Isolde to nod in understanding at his question.

"When you are ready to begin your training to traverse the subconsciousness the one training you in the mental arts will take you alongside them into their own subconsciousness where you will learn what to look out for and so on." Isolde replied to which Alvar nodded in understanding as that would be the only way to make sure nothing would go wrong. Though he wondered how the first person to explore the subconscious had returned from their exploration in the first place…

"Now, back to the topic." Isolde said ripping Alvar out of his musings about the subconsciousness and return his focus onto Isolde who promptly continued her explanation.

"Compared to the mind of a normal person our minds and those of the other Havroune are a little more complicated. The reason for that is rather simple if you understand the main characteristics a person capable to become a Havroune must possess. And that is none other than the ability to traverse the mists." The old Havroune said after which she looked at Alvar with an expression as if she wanted him to find out the reason for himself and so he began to contemplate her words in silence.

'Hmm, what could be the reason. Maybe the pressure of all the information provided by the mists? No, that can't be it. I doubt Isolde or the other Havroune are none stop inside the mists with their minds. Then what could it be?' Alvar mused to himself while minutes of silence passed by between the two, Isolde seemingly happy to just sit there and wait for Alvar to come up with an answer for himself.

"Does it have anything to do with the dangers inside the mists? I've heard pretty often by now that the mists are dangerous, yet I don't really know why…" Alvar said a couple minutes into the silence, breaking said silence in the process.

"Yes, it has to do with that. Why the mists are so dangerous isn't all that important for now though. Can you think of any reason why it has to do with the danger the mists pose to us Havroune?" Isolde said with a small smile after Alvar had given her the answer he had come up with.

"Err, I'm not sure. Self-defence, maybe?" Alvar replied with a shrug causing Isolde to break out into a small chuckle after which she nodded in the positive.

"Indeed young Alvar, self-defence is an adequate term. Our minds are, from the moment we were born, attuned to the mists in some way, which nobody has found out why to this day, and in order to preserve itself once it comes into contact with the mists for the first time begins to shield itself in the most basic way a young mind can come up with. It empties itself!" Isolde said causing Alvar's face to become blank at her words.

'So my mind being so empty is not just a coincidence? Good to know I guess. But what is that mist floating everywhere?' Alvar wondered while his eyes roamed over the milky white clouds that drifted through the emptiness of his mind.

"If my mind being empty is a defence mechanism then why do I still need to learn how to defend my mind if it does so on its own already? And what is all that mist? Something my mind forget to lock away or so?" Alvar asked while motioning at all the drifting clouds around them.

"Heh, you actually nearly answered your own question just now. No, the mist around us is not some forgotten construct of your mind. It is the barrier that I erected inside your mind to hide it from the mists. You see, the defence of your mind is only basic in nature. You need to learn how to defend your mind in different ways because there are things inside the mists that can rip even an experienced Havroune's mind to shreds with nothing but a minor thought of there own. Even I with my considerable experience in the mental arts would never dare to venture too deep into the mists…" Isolde said to a nodding Alvar that now understood that the mental arts would indeed be a necessity for him or he would come to regret it sooner or later.

"So, what do I need to do to learn?" Alvar asked to which Isolde grinned in excitement. After all it had been a while since she had exercised her mind and she would enjoy every second of it!