The Heart Fountain

 
Lessons
I think of what Chiwan said about learning from flow.
So I take the shape of other living things to feel what they feel,
and know what they know.
The flow masters change their shape temporarily, using energy masks.
Their pattern body remains beneath the mask.
But I carry the skills of the Gen.
Our awareness and life rests in a [...]

 
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 [...]

 
Gifts
Together.
Three days with Shazira and Tzina.
Talking, traveling, laughing.
No schedules, no demands.
Just the three of us.
Three days is just a beginning after a year apart.
It opens our hearts.
And reminds us of the sorrow of being alone.
It hints at what we have missed.
Early afternoon of the third day, we fly together to a distant forest.
Tzina does not [...]

 
The Living and the Dead
I rise alone today and walk out to the porch.
The morning air is still cool.
I slept last night in my childhood home.
I remember playing here as a boy.
But the memories are fragments.
Only the feelings of love are clear.
As the day is clear.
There are no dark clouds or lightning today.
A soft wind [...]

 
Fountain
My awareness spins.
Leaving the world of the Gen.
And returning to the vat.
The vat is small and cramped.
My body grows again.
Leaving the old ones behind.
I feel different after my time with the Gen.
The world calls me.
A world of joy and possibility.
But my heart is unsettled.
I’m also filled with sadness.
And a strange feeling of urgency.
Something is wrong.
Not [...]

 
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 [...]

 
Thirty-Five
I wake up, and almost jump off my mat.
I’m 35 cycles today, a child no more.
I’m fully grown, with all my adult strength.
But most of the customs around this age are gone, hundreds of cycles ago.
People don’t celebrate it as they once did.
The law doesn’t recognize the age as anything special, at all.
But I’m excited.
You [...]

 
Death, Feelings, and Fire
The climb takes 5-10 hours for those who see the top.
There are places to practice.
We climb and crawl through narrow spaces.
We practice without water or food.
We climb on sharp rocks and learn to climb, bleeding, and in pain.
We rub our skin with the bark of the felik bush.
It toughens the skin for [...]

The Energy Weaving Room
I’m supposed to be a master of energy weaving, whatever that is.
This yellow room is supposed to be different from all the others, and different for each person.
Shazira walks me to the room.
“Shazira,” I say, “which is more powerful, energy weaving or flowing?”
She laughs.
It’s a good question, Yagrin. One that the Energy [...]