Let me sleep !

Back in egghead, I emptied my head by looking at the orphans' activities. I played with Noa and Uzu before focusing back on the stone.

' Make the stone light the room ? Is that some kind of enigma? No, he was more than clear. Do I need to use ovzgûn ?'

I reached for the energy and poured it into the stone. Nothing happened, so I continued. A few moments later, I stopped, surprised. Usually, when I did it with an object, it would break after a minute or two, but the stone held. 'There is something special about this stone. Think Yalak. You are not stupid. The goal of the exercise is to improve my intent. Do I need to focus on particular intent? He talked of sword intent. Maybe I'm taking things the wrong way. Should I only focus on one instead of improving my intent in general? And by experiencing it, I may be able to improve it overall.'

"Make light, Make light, Make light..." I was mumbling to myself.

Suddenly I understood. ' I should direct my intent on the stone. I want it to shine. That's it. I want the stone to illuminate the room !'

For the following hours, I looked intensely at the stone, repeating the exact same words in my head : 'Light up, light up...'

However, nothing happened till now. But I didn't lose hope. If it were easy, everyone would have an OP sword intent. I spent most of my time on the stone for the following two weeks. Sometimes I would work on wood or play and train with the orphans to distract and refresh my mind.

Unfortunately, nothing changed. I asked Zala if she had the same task and if she had any advice, but she told me she would start doing it after her current task is finished, which wouldn't be before a few months. 'So I can only rely on myself.'

I tried to remember what Baruba told me, but nothing came to me.

'hmm, how the intent will be materialized? I remember a sentence I heard at school: Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed. Although this world has magic and truly strange laws, there must be things that don't change.' I pondered some time on the question and then tried to put into practice an idea. I will still focus on the intent of using the stone as a light source, but this time I will channel a wisp of ovzgûn into the stone.

The more I thought about it, the more I thought it would work.

I was sitting crossed-legged. The stone was on my open palm. The past two weeks focused on my intent allowed me to easily enter a meditating state with only one idea in my mind. My brain has become familiar with the exercise. My eyes were closed. I could see a stone before me. Then using every shred of will I could gather, I told her what to do.

"Glow !"

Slowly I saw the stone becoming slightly brighter. I felt something coming deep inside me, slowly coming out. I didn't lose focus, I couldn't even if I wanted. My will was made, and I wanted it to grow. So slowly, the stone continued to brighten.

A moment later, I could feel some pressure on my mind. I wasn't going to hold much longer, so I diverted a wisp of my attention to slowly open my eyes. And as they opened, I could distinguish a weak ray of light emanating from the stone.

As soon as I smiled, it disappeared. I was elated. 'I succeed !' I couldn't help but let out a lad laugh while looking at the roof. I couldn't be more satisfied. Suddenly I heard the voice of Yurim.

" Are you alright, Yal ?" She asked worryingly.

" Yeah, I feel better than ever ! Why do you ask ?"

" You have been staring at the rock for days, and now you let this creepy laugh out ! Have you finally gone mad ?"

I smiled bitterly. I couldn't refute her arguments.

"But didn't you see the stone glow a second ago ?"

She looked at me weirdly. I heard someone behind her.

" Is he hallucinating now? But I didn't put any fear-inducing potion in his meal today!" murmured Trosh.

We both looked angrily at him.

"So It was you. I should have known better!" Said Yurim furiously.

"Oopsie." Trosh quickly started to run away as if his life was in danger.

" TROSH, COME BACK HERE! ONCE I HAVE DEALT WITH YAL, I'LL COME FOR YOU!"

She then looked back at me. I gulped. Her eyes soften a bit, but only a bit.

" Yal, give me the stone."

My face metamorphosed.

" It's Baruba who gave it to me."

"So what ! It's for your own good."

"I... I promise you I'll give it to you at the end of the week." I knew Yurim was stubborn and couldn't be reasoned, so I tried to stall for times.

"I'll show you something interesting. Besides, If you don't hurry, Trosh will escape."

She looked at the entrance.

"You're lucky, but I'll report to Vaela since she asked me to look after you."

'Oh no!' Vae can sometimes become unreasonable when things come to Zala or me, and it's becoming worst as years passes.

"There is no need to. I'm alright, really !"

" We'll see," said Yurim before leaving.

Vae comes Back in four days, so I need to train hard, produce a better result in front of them and show them I'm not crazy. 'I don't want to endure another of Vae's therapy sessions.'

The last time was when I was four or five. The others deemed me crazy because of my strange exercise, but I was only stretching. Veala ended up wanting to see what was wrong with me. But she is the kind of girl to act before thinking. She spanked me to "put some sense in me" before asking me why I did it.

I shuddered as I remembered this traumatizing experience.

'Female orcs are scary!'

More motivated than ever, I focus back on the stone.

...

Three days quickly passed. The process was easier but always as straining. I made some progress, but it was terribly slow. We can now easily see the light coming out, but I'm far from illuminating the whole room. I showed it to Yurim on the third day and was greatly surprised. She believed for a second that Trosh had given her another potion. But Vorl came to my rescue and told her she wasn't hallucinating. 'Phew, I escaped the disaster.'

For the following four-month, I continued to improve my intent. It wasn't easy, but I could now light up half a room. Zala also started but was far behind me. She could only make the stone glow.

I also heard from Vae that the tension was steadily growing around the tribe. A direct consequence of the pressure was the arrival of three other orphans.

I was progressing faster at making the stone brighter. I estimated I would be able to achieve the goal in a month or two at most. I was now able to divert my attention and keep the light from coming out of the stone. I was pretty proud of this. Making the light shine has become very strange to me lately. The more I progressed, the closer it became to me, as if it was becoming a part of me. 'very strange.' Sometimes I would dream of being a stone shining so brightly that no darkness surrounds me. It was a bit scary, but I was confident in not losing myself.

...

Two months later.

I was standing, early in the morning, before Baruba's house with a stone in my hands emitting a blinding light. It was as bright as a lighthouse.

"AAH, LET ME SLEEP ! WHY IS THE SUN SO BRIGHT TODAY !"