It had been a hard couple of weeks. Ken had cried, slept and eaten. He was finally well enough to realize he was sick of deer meat. Eventually you just can’t cry anymore. Ken was still ashamed that he could do this, but his shame and horror had turned into an acceptance that he’d done a horrible thing and that somewhere deep inside he was capable of cruel horrors. He hoped he’d never do it again, but in a weird way he was proud to know that he had the ability. There was a kind of pride in knowing that he could be scary and powerful, and in that pride, he found peace from his shame.

Ken had tried to do magick, but after noticing that there was no mana to be found Ken settled down to mourn and wait for his teacher.

He was sitting at the cave entrance staring out at the valley below when he saw a portal open in the distance and his draconic teacher flew through. In a no-nonsense way his teacher flew straight in, shrunk himself down to around 20 feet long and landed in front of the cave. Ken hadn’t realized he was hearing whisps of thought from the valley below until the mental noise silenced. Every creature shared warning of the Elder Wyrm’s arrival with each other and then stilled and silenced.

You found a shortcut... The Dragon’s mind voice shared disappointment. I truly wish that for once you would have been patient and disciplined. I’ve warned you again and again that good-enough-isn’t… the only reason you have a chance against your foe is that he has the same problem. You are both lazy and undisciplined.

Unfortunately for you, your chosen foe has more experience. He chose a more disciplined path than yours this life and he had a head start on you, the Wyrm expounded. You chose a more patient path though. All of his training happened while the veil stood. He has opportunities to study now, but he’s been “too busy” for them. In this you are making better choices now.

Thus, you will be better trained while he will be better practiced and more experienced. The Dragon finished.

“What should I call you teacher?” Ken asked. If the training was somehow part of a plan of how he was going to defeat the White Sith, then he’d best get started.

Kalaam is the name I will give you, the Dragon responded. However, most of the time I expect you to call me teacher or sifu. When I allow you to call me by name you are harder to teach. You forget your place in our relationship.

“Why do you keep acting as if you’ve done this before with me.” Ken asked. “This is the second time I’ve met you.”

The dragon looked irritated. Human. Your higher self made a deal for me to teach you magick in trade for certain favors and aid to my territory. You barely kept your side of the deal, and now you’ve come to me in a situation that requires that I either give you far more than I offered or default on my debt. You’ve even left yourself ignorant about how you’ve abused our trade, so I can’t even take it out on your ignorant self!

Kalaam’s anger softened then. This isn’t the first bad deal I’ve been part of and it certainly isn’t the worst. Perhaps, in this, there is an opportunity to shape you into the kind of ally I would prefer you be. I will be patient with you and answer your questions. To the timeless, there is always time to polish ignorance off rough individuals who are willing to learn. So… are you ready to learn?

Ken was eager. If he could learn to control magick he could win the war against the Indians and would never have to worry about accidentally doing what had happened in his room again. “Yes Sifu!”

Then let us begin. The dragon bent his head down to look closely into Ken’s eyes.

Immediately upon Kalaam’s doing this, he projected something which overwhelmed Ken’s mind by being somehow both too loud and too complex for him to understand. It was like someone had taken the memory of a semester of physics classes and somehow downloaded it straight into Ken’s mind.

Dumbfounded, Ken fell onto his backside trying to comprehend it all. The thought was reverberating around in his head, and like little explosions, each reverberation brought Ken new concepts he’d never contemplated.

Ken was drowning in knowledge, and suddenly he felt completely exhausted. All he wanted to do was sleep. Ken could barely keep his eyes open.

Sleep now mortal. His teacher projected. When you wake we will see how well you learn.

Unconsciousness beckoned, promising dreams insane beyond comprehension and offering magick, power and freedom as their rewards.

-

When Ken awoke he was in a new place. The whole world seemed to be an island in the middle of an ocean which ended a few hundred feet away. The beach he slept on was pristine white sand with a clear stream falling down a waterfall from the grassy hill behind him and then flowing toward the sea. The air was warm with an incredibly gentle breeze; just enough for the air to not feel stagnant in the heat, but not enough to even move his hair. The sea air was also clear as if the ocean wasn’t salty… and considering it just disappeared in the distance, maybe it wasn’t.

There was no sun, but everything was lit like day. Three moons floated in the sky.

Ken couldn’t see further up the island, but he did see from the half that was visible to him, that the “end of the world” seemed to be a few hundred feet around the island the whole way around.

Understanding of how this could be just seemed natural to him (probably from the “download” from his dragon teacher). Ken was in an astral reality created just to train. He reached for Mana and found it to be plentiful, but not as abundant as Earth had experienced before he snapped and went crazy.

This is about how much Mana a normal area will have after the Mana settles on your Earth in a few days. Kalaam’s mind voice reached Ken. Also, you didn’t snap as much as you died inside. Snapping implies that you just went crazy. Your spirit fled what you did unable to face it.

Ken didn’t like the implied weakness Kalaam was projecting, but he couldn’t disagree with it. He had fled. He had run. He wasn’t willing to face it.

We will start easily today. I gave you understanding about how to separate your will from your feelings and your thoughts. You should have understood this from your meditations before, but it’s a common mistake people in your time make. Many of you even think that your thoughts and your feelings ARE your will, Kalaam said.

“How?” Ken asked.

Not your mouth. Use your mind. Kalaam replied.

Ken sat confused about how to do that He tried to reach out to the dragon with magick like he’d done with Melanie. He encountered a barrier between him and the dragon which would not allow the magickal connection through.

Remember what I taught you. Kalaam projected. All thoughts can be heard until you conceal them, but to be easily heard you must focus your thoughts by talking to yourself. Once you learn to talk to yourself, simply choose to talk to yourself at me with your thoughts and you will project clearly for any who know how to listen to hear.

How do I start separating my will from my feelings and thoughts? Ken thought to himself.

Better, Kalaam projected. You still need to think them at me to make it easy to hear, but that was better.

Is this how the Sith was able to be in our minds? Ken tried to think at the Dragon.

Advanced versions of this with understandings of the dynamics of soul, thought and magick, but yes… very basically, Kalaam replied. Let us begin. Create a floating disk with your magick and sit on it.

Kalaam gave an example by lifting his clawed arm a few feet in the air and stepping onto a square of solid air which held the large dragon as he climbed onto it and settled down. The killer whale sized dragon (so much easier than mountain sized) looked completely at peace floating effortlessly on solid air.

Remembering a spell Tensers Floating Disk from D&D Ken drew mana forth and created a disk of force large enough for him to sit on. It was completely invisible except for its magickal glow. Ken trepedatiously sat down on it.

Good. Kalaam thought. Now… tell me about that girl Melanie you were apologizing to in your sleep.

Ken’s spell disappeared into nothing and he fell on his ass in shock. “What?” He said.

With your mind. Kalaam insisted. I will only train you while you are magickally floating and using your mind to communicate.

With frustration Ken got up, created a new disk and settled down. Then Ken projected, How-

As before his spell disappeared once he stopped focusing on it and he fell on his ass. Frustrated he created a new field and sat on it. The dragon sat silently, clearly challenging him to learn to sit on the spell and also mentally project at the same time.

It took Ken 11 tries before he was able to get out a projected thought without falling.

Why do you ask about her? Ken asked.

Why do you ask about her TEACHER, the dragon replied. Because you have feelings and thoughts which are separate from your will. The topic is an excellent one to begin training you to differentiate them all. For example, why are you sad about her?

Ken thought about it. He hated fee–

He hated feeling his ass hit the sand. As soon as he shifted his focus onto his emotions, the spell failed again and he fell.

Ken sighed as he stood back up and formed a new disk. This was going to be a long day.

-

You are not listening! His teacher yelled. I have reasons for the instructions I give you and yet you pick and choose the ones you heed. You are choosing to be half-trained!

“Everything important you give me I have done!” Ken yelled back. “I have...”

MINDVOICE! Kalaam demanded furiously. Even here you do not listen, and you barely project simple words and concepts! You will never master what you do not practice! There are depths to mindspeech you ignore because you won’t listen!

Ken shook with anger. He had been studying for months. Every time he woke, Sifu would give him new instructions which he performed. It wasn’t his fault that he sucked at art. He didn’t have a talent for crafting his works into the careful beauty that Kalaam was demanding of him, but when it came to elemental power and battle magicks Ken was mastering those easily! Yet no matter how well he studied, all Sifu did was complain about what he did poorly!

I have done what you tell me to do sifu. I can not create with the intricacy you demand, but I am doing the best I can. Ken projected.

Sifu had the ability to quickly teach with the mindblast, but each one only gave certain bits of information. Ken both loved and hated each one. Each one left him exhausted and helpless for days, but afterwards, he would wake and they would try exercises to build on what he had been taught.

Ken thought he was doing amazingly well. Teacher would give him a large list of tasks, and then Ken would perform them all, partly remembering how to do them from the mindblast he had just received, and partly from questions and guidance Sifu proferred. Teacher would wait for him to complete the tasks as best as he could and then they would discuss what happened. It had only taken a few mindblasts for them to find a seemingly impassable disagreement.

Sifu wanted him to practice intricate and careful magicks for hours or even days at a time. He challenged him to focus on forming floating sand art and holding it in place as he perfected it more and more. No matter how long he channeled power and held it, the dragon was never pleased even when Ken worked himself to exhaustion. His efforts were never good enough. He was constantly berated for laziness for simple things like wanting to sleep after spending 2 sleepless days and nights working on tasks like trying to shape a stone into a perfect replica of the Island.

You are creating with the intricacy you choose. You are nowhere close to the best you can, but you are too lazy to keep trying. You keep demanding the next lesson rather than seeking to master the current ones. Kalaam replied.

You don’t appreciate what I’m doing. You demand more than I can give, and you seem to enjoy the painful way when a smarter path exists! Ken responded. I wish you’d just stop bothering me about unnecessary art and teach me what I need to learn!

You don’t know what you are asking for! The details are important! Kalaam projected.

Not to me! Ken replied.

Something odd happened then. Kalaam didn’t reply. He breathed deeply for a moment, and then he responded. You are correct. I have been trying to teach you what I want you to learn, not what we agreed I would teach you. I will correct this.

Kalaam leaned down, looked him in the eye and mindblasted him again. This mindblast was larger than any previously. Understandings of how to leave his body, how to summon through planes, how to see into the minds of enemies, how to speak 4 languages and much more overwhelmed Ken’s understanding. He was so overwhelmed he almost didn’t notice Kalaam’s final projection before unconsciousness claimed him.

Kalaam’s thoughts held grief and disappointment. Your laziness and impatience just lost you lifetimes with a teacher. You are returning with everything you asked, but far less than I would have given if you’d had a desire to learn which was greater than your desire for convenience. I hope you will choose better next time. Good luck.