The Heart Fountain

 
Night Wings
Sunset comes, and we assemble in an open space behind the house.
Our packs lie on the floor of the deck.
Today the winds are gentle.
There are a few wispy clouds in the night sky, visible in the light of the watchtower.
“Master Balshown,” says Shazira, raising her hand and facing her palm toward Balshown, “you [...]

 
Artists
The artist’s guild has one leader, and seems to be one guild.
But it’s not.
It’s a collection of widely different skills.
Most of those skills have nothing to do with energy.
The guild includes eight traditional arts: painting, drawing, sculpture, story, theater, song, music, and dance.
It also includes many crafts.
Craftsmen (like carpenters, silversmiths, and potters) are usually not [...]

 
Listening to the Body
I’ve always been drawn to healing.
Though I know almost nothing about it.
Now, I must find a way to become a master healer quickly.
There are three parts to the test:
listening, herbs, and movements.
We all have a hidden sense.
It lies somewhere between the physical body and the energy body.
And touches both.
This sense sees the [...]

 
Waiting
I’ve been training for almost a month.
And I haven’t seen a tournament.
Today she asks me to wait again.
“Two more months, Neebol.”
“Why, Master Vala?”
She glares at me.
(Just yesterday she asked me to stop calling her Master.)
“In the tournament,” she says, “the moving energies seem visible to physical eyes.”
“But the most amazing aspects are hidden.”
“In two months, [...]

 
The Birthing
The door to the school is closed and locked when I arrive at day’s end.
I raise my hand to knock on the door.
A soft green light rises from the green line around my wrist.
The door opens.
There is no guard here now.
I remember the way.
The lights come on as I enter the small room.
Vala appears [...]

 
Blood and Light
A high-pitched child’s scream fills the marketplace.
People start yelling for a healer.
The market woman looks around.
Her young daughter is not in sight.
She runs toward the source of the scream, and I follow.
There is a crowd forming around a booth that sells sharp metal tools, including long knives.
The girl has fallen against a sharp [...]

 
Forgotten Patterns
I wake while it is still dark out.
I love the quiet when the whole world seems to be sleeping!
Shazira still sleeps as I get ready for the day.
She seems so distant to me the last few days.
She is sure that I will fail the tests.
And that the council will force us to separate.
I think [...]

 
Practice
The wind blows all around me, as I stand on a mountain top, looking out to sea.
Today’s lesson and practice is about binding things together.
Not with rope or glue or nails.
I bind together all sorts of odd things that I find on the mountain, through subtle changes I make to the energy patterns of the [...]

 
The Master
Master Balshown lives alone.
It’s early in the morning, just after sunrise when I fly to meet him.
I’m nervous as I catch sight of his house.
He stands in his garden, watering his plants.
And he looks up as I’m about to land.
The old Yagrin, I think to myself, would not be worried.
He would be arrogant, even [...]

 
Storms
I’m sitting in the kitchen of the Watchtower, with Tzina my daughter, and we’re eating breakfast.
I look out the large windows at the ocean far below, wondering if we will have another great storm today.
It is lightning season.
Aside from the danger of the Krale attacking at night, the great danger in this world [...]