Chapter 6 Part 2

"hay Christopher, do you like it in here?" Heddwyn asked.

Christopher said nothing. Instead, he ran over to Heddwyn and hugged him tightly before thanking him. Heddwyn hugs him back and says, "I'm glad you like it so much."

"I really wasn't expecting so much new stuff. You really didn't need to do all of this," Christopher said.

"it was my pleasure. I couldn't help but treat the three of you, so I spent more coin than I would have liked. But for you guys, it doesn't matter how much it costs," Heddwyn replied.

"just don't spoil us, that's all I ask. We've spent our whole lives living on bare minimum that I'm afraid that this sudden change of environment may change our personalities." Christopher said.

Heddwyn pulls away from the hug and says, "oh. Ok, I guess you have a point there. Anyway, I will be on the second floor, in the training hall. If you need me, you can't miss it. You also have a private bathroom through the door on the left there,"

"ok, I will be down soon. I'm just going to unpack," Christopher replied.

Heddwyn leaves the room and Christopher unpacks his belongings. After he packed all his things, he sat down on his new four-poster bed with galaxy blue canopy and flopped back to look up at the painting of the Epusdma night sky.

The real Epusdma sky is populated with three moons, one is green and yellow, the colours would mix and swirl like paint on water. One was purple and spotted in craters. The last but certainly not least is red and orange, with an almost pimple looking mound that is always visible in the sky no matter what time of year, and no matter what time of day you could always see this orb looming over the Realm.

A few moments of reflection pass by before Christopher sits back up and ponders how his life got so great in the short period that has passed.

A knock came upon Christopher's door. "come in," Christopher said.

The door slides open to show Heather and Haider walking in as Christopher turns his head to look at them. "your room looks amazing!" Heather says.

"it's so dark in here," Haider said.

"yeah, with everything in this dark blue colour, it's definitely hard to see. Let me open the window," Christopher said. It took Christopher at least twenty seconds just to reach the window from where his bed was positioned.

As the light beamed in, all the dark blue in the room shimmered and shined, spreading the light across the big room, brightening it up a ton.

"ah! The light is blinding," Heather yelled.

"it really was a sudden change, wasn't it? Anyway, we came here to ask if you were coming with us to go see Heddwyn in the training hall," Haider said.

"I will totally be there. Give me two minutes and I will be there," Christopher replied.

Heather and Haider walk out the room, closing the door behind them. Christopher is just basking in the sunlight, like he is contemplating life. After the few minutes he said that he would be there, he walk out of his room, closes the door and heads down to the second floor and stalled for a second, thinking of which way the training hall was.

He finally walked to the right side of the hallway and open the door. Except, when he opened it, he didn't see a room like he thought he would. He found a shrouded wall of some sorts, full of swirling, oscillating blues and purples.

Concluding that Heddwyn wouldn't place anything dangerous in his home, he walks through the shroud and finds himself in a seemingly infinite white room.

A distant voice says, "Christopher, over here!" Christopher turns his head towards the voice, and he sees Heddwyn waving at him with the twins sitting at his feet.

Christopher walks over to them and sits down next to the twins. Before anyone said anything else, Christopher asks, "what is with this room? It looks seemingly endless,"

"brilliant question, I actually hired 20 platinum spatial mages to make this for me. It's a separate dimension that spans about 2 miles along each wall and completely indestructible, at least to my knowledge. This area costed a small fortune to make and was most of my master's wealth from what I inherited." Heddwyn explained.

"that's cool," Christopher said.

Heddwyn got nervous as he remembered what Engilram said a few days prior. "ha, yeah it is cool. It's a weird part of science that is not quite explained yet. We know it's possible but don't know why it's compressing an area and placing it in a different dimension, kind of. I don't know the full details."

With that matter settled, Heddwyn starts talking about training the three kids. "so. According to Engilram, Christopher is ready to attempt meditation so I will get you started on that soon, cub." He pulls out a scroll from his now fully fixed adventurer armour and continues to read it out. "ok then, this won't be easy for you two. Stand up and run around this entire room once, that's just to start... chop-chop, get to it,"

Both Heather and Haider sigh before Haider says, "but that's like eight miles. I can't run that far,"

"well, I guess you won't be training with me then will you," Heddwyn threatened.

"fine, fine. ill do it," Haider fearfully replied.

The twins head off towards the door, as it was in the middle of one of the walls. And start their run. Heddwyn turns back to Christopher and says "right, let's get you started on your meditation, all you should need to do is to stay still in silence and attempt to feel the mana particles around you, I shall show you first, so you have a reference."

Heddwyn sits down on the floor with the soles of his feet touching and his knees bent as far as possible.

(narrator) that looks so uncomfortable.

Heddwyn puts his hands on his calves, as if he is pushing on them. Suddenly a ton of dark grey particles float towards and around him, then finally disappearing into his chest. After several moments, Heddwyn stands back up and speaks, "there, now you have a reference, now you can make attempts on your own, I'm going to see how the twins are doing."

After Heddwyn leaves sprinting towards the direction of the twins, Christopher mumbles to himself, "how am I supposed to do this after seeing one example?"

A now confused Christopher sits down and contemplates Heddwyn's example. He tried several approaches, including trying to sit like Heddwyn did, but to no avail. After an hour of attempts, frustration brews in Christopher, making him angry. In this moment, Heddwyn returns.

"what's the matter Christopher?" Heddwyn said.

"I can't get meditation to work!" Christopher replied angrily.

"I never expected you to get it immediately. I never told you any of the details on how it works," Heddwyn explains.

"I didn't need it, i've already read up on meditation. It said that I would know once I've successfully started when I could feel the surrounding mana, and so far I feel nothing." Christopher grunts.

"that's not all of it. You also need to find your natural state, meaning the position your most comfortable in. Each person is unique. I have seen a person on their stomach with their limbs in the air while meditating. It's not something you can figure out in a single day," Heddwyn explains.

"ugh but why though! why couldn't it be easier?" Christopher whines.

"if you're expecting your training to be easy, you can walk out right now because I won't be dealing with lazy people. Do you understand?" Heddwyn scolds.

"ok, ok. Gosh. I'll get back to it," Christopher impertinently says.

"if you can't do it by tomorrow night, I'm going to get you back on physical training. I'm actually going to join you," Heddwyn instructs.

As Heddwyn sits back down and starts meditation, Christopher tries several dozens of different positions to try, and fails. Every. Single. Time. Each attempt was more desperate than the last, until Heddwyn stops his meditation to talk. "you won't get anywhere getting stressed about it. Try to keep calm. Finding your natural state isn't easy,"

This calms Christopher, and he ponders for a while. He thought of the way he sits when he reads, legs crossed with his hand on the back of the book. He grabs the book he was hiding in his back and sits down as if he were reading. Heddwyn peeks at Christopher and about two small purple orbs approach, not enough for true meditation.

The orbs disappear just as fast as they appeared and shock strew across Heddwyn's face and he said, "Christopher! You are so close, I saw purple-coloured orbs around you, not many, but this also means you found your natural state. The bad news is that this means that you need to continue physical training for a bit longer."

Excitement gleamed in Christopher's eyes, and he says, "so that means in almost there?"

"not really. You still have a long way to go before you can start using magic. I think you're about three years away. But that's my opinion, daily training containing a morning workout, then evening meditation for you," Heddwyn said.

"I'm ok with that," Christopher said.

In this moment, the twins finish their run, leaving Haider a floppy mess on the floor. Meanwhile heather only puts her hand on her knees.

"impressive. 1 hour and 26 minutes. Take fifteen to have a drink, catch your breath, stretch. Whatever you want to do and then you're doing fifty sit-ups," Heddwyn instructed.

Haider, still jelly on the floor, downed an entire cup of water from the barrel sitting next to Heddwyn. Heather on the other hand, slowly sipped hers then did some stretches.