Meditations
The arcane heart needs energy to grow. The speed at which it can take in energy, the quality of sand control, and the resulting quantity of internalized energy are all affected by the quality of the arcane heart.
Naika uses the meditations of Hathor. She has a middling-frade arcane heart, and she is making it work diligently. Even during her travels, not even once did she skip her mediations. She told me that ever since she started to have relationships with me, her rate of growth increased. That's without a doubt the influence of Hathor, the goddess of love and relationships. The goddess is pleased with her getting a man.
Asenath's meditation requires her to exercise regularly. She always returns home stinking of sweat. Sometimes, she tries to offend my nose as a joke by pushing her arpmpit into my face. Jokes on her; I don't get bothered by her scent.
As for my meditation, my first choice involves devouring copious amounts of food that contains divine energy. As an Apep conduit, with the assistance of the meditation method, I'm able to internalize most of what I'm eating. However, I'm not rich, and spiritual animals near the capital have been hunted until the only ones I couldn't handle remained. So I have to go with my second option. It's a looping dance that forms a circle, depicting Apep's fight with Amon-Ra every day. It involves a lot of awkward positions. Since I'm depicting a snake, I crouch low only to stand up in an arching motion. It's tiring and taxing on the body. However, I could feel the energy permeate throughout my body.
Asenath is progressing far faster than me. I guess her arcane heart is better than mine. That's alright. I'm not the kind of man who would get into a pissing contest with his woman. I support her fully.
Whenever she comes back from her exercise, I make sure she has a bucket of water ready so she can cool down and clean herself. I scrub her back whenever she wants me to. It gives me a chance to adore her, so I usually accept it.
There is usually nothing to do at noon. So I usually walk around and find people to chat with. I mostly end up bothering one of the three girls. I learned that Naika is very fond of chess. She couldn't get enough of it. I also happen to be a lover of the hobby, so we instantly clicked. It's great connecting with these girls through something other than skinship.
"Hah! Chack-mate!"
She is smug. She has every right to be. She kept winning. She has won against me six times in a row.
" Suck it, bitch! Ha Ha!"
I gnashed my teeth at her provocations. She is smacking her butt in front of me in a mocking manner. She is truly an example of a dignified lady.
"One of these days, I'm going to win. You'll see."
She stopped and looked me in the eye.
"Do you know how long I will have to wait? Too long, if you ask me."
She is overconfident. I've been understanding the game better lately, and since she is beating me with her experience, I'm positive that I could deal with her if I gained some experience myself. When the time comes, I will be the one who says, "Suck it!" And she probably will.
Salma keeps practicing with other mundane soldiers. I sometimes show up at her barracks to give her my support. She told me that she appreciated my little visits.
She put her hand on my shoulder and introduced me to the other women from her barracks.
"Hi everyone, this is my man, Nazhotep."
She is a head taller than me, so she looks like she is introducing her younger cousin.
"Hi Nazhotep!"X3
She kissed me in front of everyone. She has this move she always makes when she is kissing me. She lifts one of her legs. I can feel her muscular arms squeezing me. She is claiming me in front of these women.
***
After two weeks of meditation, I can feel my body changing. I'm more robust. I feel better. And heat and tiredness affect me less. I'm a better living being in every way. It's a huge boon.
I learned how to conjure fire. I memorized the glyphs for it, so it's ready to unload whenever I want. However, the more I use spells, the slower my energy accumulation will be since I'm spending the energy I've accumulated to cast the spell.
Glyphmancy is an interesting art. Among the glyphs I've learned, there are similar components. Those, I reckon, are the parts that form the basis of every spell.
I'm thinking of taking components out of spells and casting them to see what happens in the future. Right now, I need to focus on growing so I can use Pharoh's investment in my rise to immortality. My path to immortality would be a thorny road if I failed to get a high rating on my arcane heart quality assessment. I would hate it if I had a medium quality arcane heart and I lost my chances at acquiring a medium-grade arcane heart equivalent of resources due to laziness.
I have a neighbor in my designated area. The man has been growing more frustrated lately. It's clear that his arcane heart was not as good as he hoped. He has been encroaching into my sand territory lately in hopes of increasing his speed, with which he could gather energy.
I approached him with a request.
"Hah? I'm encroaching into your territory. What are you going to do about it, bitch? Get lost before I smack you around."
He then snickered as if he had done something great. The man in front of him, according to him, was someone he could fuck with. So, I punched him in the face. He staggered back, dumbfounded. I didn't signal my punch. I just punched him. The punches are not that forceful .
This man who mocked me probably never had a fight to death. He doesn't know the urgency of the initiative. He starts things with people and dares to relax. What a fool he is.
A panic overcomes him. He lost complete initiative and is now receiving a one-sided beating. He will not disrespect me ever again.
We handled our problems man-to-man. He is sitting in front of me, bloodied.
"Now, do we have a problem?"
We did not have a problem. I sat in front of him, making him uncomfortable with fear. Our other neighbors had watched us go at it. It was great entertainment. They sometimes glanced in our direction, but they never intervened. They knew better.
The man now knew. He lost some blood and got wiser. We all need this to happen to us sometimes. Otherwise, we might become too arrogant for our own good.
The reason I sat in front of him for so long was to see if he had any grudges in his heart. I didn't see that glint in his eye. His demeanor was devoid of any burning passion. I gave him some of my water and returned to my meditation. I didn't have time for stupid drama. I also avoided encroaching into his territory the way he did mine. I could've taken some of his territory, but that would set a bad precedent. It would make it so that we all beat each other up for an extra bit of desert when meditating is far more important than territory during this stage of eternity chasing.
He understood how helpless he was under my attacks. He knows I can deal with him whenever he comes at me. I can beat the ever-living lights out of him after every breakfast.
The next day, I befriended a man from a noble house. His name is Horirem of the house Ashtu. He told me that he knew that he had a low-grade arcane heart. His noble house had all but abandoned him once that fact came to light.
I needed to buy some things, so I invited him to the town after meditation. The more we talked, the more people around us kept snickering.
"Are you guys going shopping? Let me come too. We can go all together."
The one who asked us to let him join was a fat man named Hake. His face was not one that sought to be accepted by a friend group. It was the face of someone who expected something hilarious to happen. We collected our things, and with our meditation done and our sands scattered to energize, we were free to do whatever we wanted.
I didn't expect the stupid turn of events I was going to suffer that day.