I feel a storm inside me, wild energy flashing within me like lightning, but it can’t get out.
I’m holding it back.

I’ve always held back the storm.
It’s never been safe to let it go free.
Everything would change.

I have to protect Berek, so I let go, and stop resisting the power … Read more

The post Broken Dreams first appeared on The Heart Fountain.

“I’m done with practice, Tzina.”
“Tell me about your friend Berek.”

“Ina,” she says, “I shouldn’t have mentioned him to you.”
“Oodah will be furious if I bring you to him.”
“She doesn’t want you to meet him before the tests.”

“I’ve been curious about Berek since you told me that he loves the storms.”
“Then I met his parents, who acted strange and angry around … Read more

The post A Quiet Storm first appeared on The Heart Fountain.

“I need to feel the sky,” I tell her.
“Then, we’ll spend the morning together.”

I rise high in the sky, close my physical eyes, and open all of myself to the world of energy.
I see the energy web sparkle all around me, as the sun’s light grows stronger and stronger, and I hear the ebb and flow of the web as it greets the sun.
The web dances its own greeting to the new day.… Read more

The post Dark Pathways first appeared on The Heart Fountain.

Tzina comes running in to find us, more excited than I’ve ever seen her.

“He’s here, ina.”
“He’s here!”

Balshown has come to the Watchtower to meet my family.
He’s the oldest master in the guilds, and the most powerful.
There are many stories about him, but only he knows where truth ends, and fiction begins.

Shazira is nervous about … Read more

The post Traveling Alone first appeared on The Heart Fountain.

I tell Balshown about it when I reach his house.
We sit.
He closes his eyes and listens intently.

“I hear nothing,Yagrin, but I see a strange pattern of energy pulsing around you.”
“Drifting through your energy … Read more

The post Fears and Legends first appeared on The Heart Fountain.

The houses and the wall are decorated with the royal symbol, in dark blue and gold.

“This is the royal camp,” she says.

“Camp?”

She sighs.
“That’s what it’s always been called.”
“Our ancestors came to this area as an army, after a war, and the surviving leaders camped here.”
“In many ways we are still an army.”

There are guards everywhere.
Heavily … Read more

The post The Necklace and the Wizard first appeared on The Heart Fountain.

“The guild will waste my morning,” he says, as he prepares breakfast.
“Come back for a few hours in the late afternoon.”

“What do they want with you?”

He turns and looks in my eyes.
Balshown hides little from me.
“They want to hear about your training.”

“What will you say?”

“I’ll tell them what they expect to hear, that I’ve been following their orders.”
“They told me to teach you little, sabotage your efforts, … Read more

The post Blue Lightning, Black Stones first appeared on The Heart Fountain.

The market woman looks around in fear.
Her young daughter gone.

She runs toward the source of the scream, and I follow.
A crowd circles a booth that sells sharp metal tools, and long knives.

The girl has fallen against a knife, and cut her upper arm half off.
The artery squirts blood all around, and the arm hangs limp, as bones, muscles, and nerves are all cut.
The bleeding must be stopped soon, or the girl will bleed to death.
The arm … Read more

The post Patterns of Life and Death II first appeared on The Heart Fountain.

I open my eyes two hours before first light, surrounded by the sweet quiet, as the whole world sleeps.
Today I’ll dance the greeting early, before Shazira even wakes, and leave before it’s light.

Shazira seems so sad the last few days, and so distant.
She tries to hide her feelings from me, even though the bond makes that impossible.
She is sure I will fail the tests, and the council will force us to separate.
I tell her that Balshown gives me his full help, and enjoys our time together.

She is surprised, but the sadness … Read more

The post Patterns of Life and Death I first appeared on The Heart Fountain.

Today’s lesson and practice centers on binding things together.
Not with rope or glue or nails, but with energy.
Weavers bind objects together, through subtle changes to the energy patterns of the objects.

Today’s challenge is to bind opposites, to combine two things together which destroy each other.
I pull energy from the energy web, and bind it upon itself until it takes physical form.
I’m clumsy at this, and I only know … Read more

The post Play and Practice first appeared on The Heart Fountain.