The Basics About Overstepping
Rharne, 6 Cylus 707
The atelier was Yrmellyn's favorite room in the house. It was warm and cozy due to the fire in the stove. Several ongoing paintings in different stages of completion sat on easels. Yrmellyn herself sat in a comfortable armchair, but her mentor in art and magic, Mariuz Arbin, was still standing up near the painting he had been working at. He wiped is hands off on a cloth and made ready to begin with the lesson about domain magic he had promised his demanding apprentice to give her today.
"Only fools would experiment with dangerous forces with unknown powers. Alas the world is full of fools."
Marius Arbin paused to let the beginning of the lesson sink in. He knew his apprentice was prone to want to experiment. Although that was a good trait in an artist it was a bad trait in a mage.
Yrmellyn nodded.
"Yes, yes, I understand Mariuz."
Now he was going to tell her! Now she was going to learn about the magic! The hunger for knowledge burnt in her like a mental mirror image of the cozy fire in the stove and she was ready to learn. Now she would get to sate it, finally!
"Before we even speak about magic we will speak about overstepping." Arbin's face was serious and so was his voice.
"What is overstepping?" Yrmellyn wanted to encourage him to get the explanation done quickly, so she smiled at him. It didn't seem to be about magic, this overstepping. It seemed like yet another of those side topics her overly systematic mentor was so fond of elaborating on instead of getting to the point. One more of those boring first things first kind of facts.
"I cannot emphasize it enough how important it is to never tax oneself beyond what the mind is able to bear. If you do, you will suffer. In worst case you will even gain permanent injuries."
Yrmellyn stared at him. This hadn't been mentioned when she had signed the contract and been Initiated to attunement. It wasn't the first time something new was revealed to her either. There had been a number of surprises, the initiation itself for example, the high risk it had entailed for herself, the mental cravings of the spark, and the tedious teaching process her mentor intended to go for.
"Permanent injuries?" she said, her displeasure audible in her tone. "What do you mean?"
“It can be many different things depending on what magic is used. The effects of overstepping can be like an illness or it can be worse. It can cripple a mage for life. If they survive it. Right not this is all you need to know. We’ll get to the specific details for our kind of magic later. I just want you to understand that it’s really dangerous to overstep.”
“And you? Have you ever ...”
“Have I ever overstepped?” Mariuz Arbin sighed. “Alas, I’m one of the fools. I was careless when I was new. Don’t follow in my footsteps. I’m going to do all I can to prevent you from doing mistakes.”
He offered no more information and Yrmellyn felt that it was best to no be too nosy. She was super curious, but out of respect for her mentor she dropped the topic of his mistakes of the past.
“How are you going to prevent that?” she inquired instead.
“Correct training.”
“Oh. Well. Let’s start with the magic then!”
Arbin shook his head. “You aren’t prepared yet.”
He paused a bit but before Yrmellyn had the time to speak again he continued.
"If I would have to name the most important abilities you need to cultivate a mage it would be the self-insight to know your own boundaries, the courage to strive to move them forward, and the discipline to stop in time."
It would be a lie to say that the beginning of the lesson appealed to her. It seemed like he was saying that they were once again going for talk only, no action. She waited for more, but Arbin seemed to think about what to say next. In her opinion he took overly long time to come up with it.
"Yes?" she said. "Go on, please, let's get to the point soon."
"I'm thinking. Wait a bit."
"You don't need to be so exact! It's enough if you just tell me the broad strokes and skip the details. Get it done and don't be so extremely circumstantial and wordy!"
"I believe it's time for mediation now" said Arbin.
He spoke softly but there was a streak of steel in his voice. He wasn't going to allow his apprentice to be ruled by the whims of her magic, and he would certainly not let it rule the whole situation and himself. His own time as apprentice has been lousy. His mentor hadn't been any way near as firm as she would have needed to be and he had often done as he liked and crossed what lines he felt compelled to cross, not really understanding how high risks he had taken.
He had seemed to make narrow escapes and come out of his escapades unharmed, but nowadays he often wondered if that was true. Eventually he had ended up mysteriously ill and today he had at most a couple of arcs left to live, they told him. No clear cause had been found. Mariuz Arbin himself silently suspected that his rash experiments with magic as a novice could have had longtime effects which had sneaked upon him slowly over time. He wasn't going to repeat his own mentors lenience and lack of control over the training of an apprentice.
Yrmellyn's impatience mattered not. Whether she liked it or not he was going to do the training his way. Right now it meant meditation was the next point on the agenda.
"Meditation? I don't need to meditate Mariuz, I was only interested. Let's continue now."
"I'm the master. I know what's needed. Right now it's meditation. I'm not going to tell you a word more about magic until after the meditation and that's final. If you don't want to meditate I can't force you, but I will cancel the teaching for to-trial."
Yrmellyn didn't want him to end the lesson so she settled for doing the meditation even though she felt like she really didn't have time for it.
She stayed sitting in the armchair, let her hands rest in her lap and closed her eyes when she was told to do so.
"You remember how you meditated on the stillness last time we practiced meditation. You will be totally still this time too, but we will add more steps. Just sit still, listen to my voice and follow."
Yrmellyn began with the stillness. This was a step she had done before and was somewhat familiar with. She sat still for a long time and felt her body and mind eventually become one with the stillness. The sensation was pleasant.
"And now when you feel the stillness, stay in it while you become aware of your breath. Feel the body breathing without changing anything. Just observe it. There is nothing else you need to do than observe it and be aware of it."
Yrmellyn allowed herself to immerse in her own breath and combining it with the stillness. She focused her awareness on the stream of air which filled her lungs when she breathed in and then left them again when she breathed out. Her chest moved slightly in the process and she included the awareness of this in the meditation. Arbin's voice was still there in a corner of her attention and he told her to also observe how the ingoing breaths provided her with new energy while the outgoing breaths brought out mental waste and cleansed her. She did so. Immersing in the breath this way she experienced a feeling of becoming stronger and cleaner with every breath.
She forgot the time.
Arbin told her to begin to come out of the meditation, open her eyes, look around in the atelier and then move her body. Yrmellyn followed the instructions. Arbin told her to not speak at once, so she stayed silent. It was pretty easy to do so.
"Now when you are in the right state of mind, Yrmellyn, please tell me with your own words what you think you have understood so far, and then we'll have lunch.
Yrmellyn was in the right state of mind ... but she still sighed inwardly. Her mentor's belief in repetition was incredible. She couldn't understand why he was so extraordinarily meticulous. It was like he was bent on leaving exactly nothing to chance.
As the spark of attunement was so greedy for knowledge her memory was excellent these days. Everything he had said was stored there, with phrasings and all. He had the same magic himself and must know the effects it had. It was beyond her to even guess at why he still demanded her to do it, but she began to tell him what she recalled.
"Overstepping means to step over the boundaries of your mental strength" she said. "It can also be described as unleashing a higher degree of power than your mind is able to bear. You take out too much mental energy than is sustainable."
Arbin nodded. "Correct. Continue please."
"Well ... it can lead to a lot of bad effects. The milder effects may wear off after a period of time, similar to an illness,but if the overstepping is serious you can gain permanent and crippling injuries."
"Yeah ... it can even lead to death, immediately or later.
For a moment she was under the impression that Arbin was about to say something more, but he didn't. Instead he asked her if she remembered the very first thing he had told her, in the beginning of the lesson.
Yrmellyn nodded: "Only fools would experiment with dangerous forces with unknown powers. Alas the world is full of fools."
Arbin closed his eyes just for a fraction of a trill. Perhaps he just blinked. She wasn't sure. Then he smiled. "Don't be one of those fools Yrmellyn. Don't play with powers greater than yourself."
The lesson was over there. They went to have lunch.
"Only fools would experiment with dangerous forces with unknown powers. Alas the world is full of fools."
Marius Arbin paused to let the beginning of the lesson sink in. He knew his apprentice was prone to want to experiment. Although that was a good trait in an artist it was a bad trait in a mage.
Yrmellyn nodded.
"Yes, yes, I understand Mariuz."
Now he was going to tell her! Now she was going to learn about the magic! The hunger for knowledge burnt in her like a mental mirror image of the cozy fire in the stove and she was ready to learn. Now she would get to sate it, finally!
"Before we even speak about magic we will speak about overstepping." Arbin's face was serious and so was his voice.
"What is overstepping?" Yrmellyn wanted to encourage him to get the explanation done quickly, so she smiled at him. It didn't seem to be about magic, this overstepping. It seemed like yet another of those side topics her overly systematic mentor was so fond of elaborating on instead of getting to the point. One more of those boring first things first kind of facts.
"I cannot emphasize it enough how important it is to never tax oneself beyond what the mind is able to bear. If you do, you will suffer. In worst case you will even gain permanent injuries."
Yrmellyn stared at him. This hadn't been mentioned when she had signed the contract and been Initiated to attunement. It wasn't the first time something new was revealed to her either. There had been a number of surprises, the initiation itself for example, the high risk it had entailed for herself, the mental cravings of the spark, and the tedious teaching process her mentor intended to go for.
"Permanent injuries?" she said, her displeasure audible in her tone. "What do you mean?"
“It can be many different things depending on what magic is used. The effects of overstepping can be like an illness or it can be worse. It can cripple a mage for life. If they survive it. Right not this is all you need to know. We’ll get to the specific details for our kind of magic later. I just want you to understand that it’s really dangerous to overstep.”
“And you? Have you ever ...”
“Have I ever overstepped?” Mariuz Arbin sighed. “Alas, I’m one of the fools. I was careless when I was new. Don’t follow in my footsteps. I’m going to do all I can to prevent you from doing mistakes.”
He offered no more information and Yrmellyn felt that it was best to no be too nosy. She was super curious, but out of respect for her mentor she dropped the topic of his mistakes of the past.
“How are you going to prevent that?” she inquired instead.
“Correct training.”
“Oh. Well. Let’s start with the magic then!”
Arbin shook his head. “You aren’t prepared yet.”
He paused a bit but before Yrmellyn had the time to speak again he continued.
"If I would have to name the most important abilities you need to cultivate a mage it would be the self-insight to know your own boundaries, the courage to strive to move them forward, and the discipline to stop in time."
It would be a lie to say that the beginning of the lesson appealed to her. It seemed like he was saying that they were once again going for talk only, no action. She waited for more, but Arbin seemed to think about what to say next. In her opinion he took overly long time to come up with it.
"Yes?" she said. "Go on, please, let's get to the point soon."
"I'm thinking. Wait a bit."
"You don't need to be so exact! It's enough if you just tell me the broad strokes and skip the details. Get it done and don't be so extremely circumstantial and wordy!"
"I believe it's time for mediation now" said Arbin.
He spoke softly but there was a streak of steel in his voice. He wasn't going to allow his apprentice to be ruled by the whims of her magic, and he would certainly not let it rule the whole situation and himself. His own time as apprentice has been lousy. His mentor hadn't been any way near as firm as she would have needed to be and he had often done as he liked and crossed what lines he felt compelled to cross, not really understanding how high risks he had taken.
He had seemed to make narrow escapes and come out of his escapades unharmed, but nowadays he often wondered if that was true. Eventually he had ended up mysteriously ill and today he had at most a couple of arcs left to live, they told him. No clear cause had been found. Mariuz Arbin himself silently suspected that his rash experiments with magic as a novice could have had longtime effects which had sneaked upon him slowly over time. He wasn't going to repeat his own mentors lenience and lack of control over the training of an apprentice.
Yrmellyn's impatience mattered not. Whether she liked it or not he was going to do the training his way. Right now it meant meditation was the next point on the agenda.
"Meditation? I don't need to meditate Mariuz, I was only interested. Let's continue now."
"I'm the master. I know what's needed. Right now it's meditation. I'm not going to tell you a word more about magic until after the meditation and that's final. If you don't want to meditate I can't force you, but I will cancel the teaching for to-trial."
Yrmellyn didn't want him to end the lesson so she settled for doing the meditation even though she felt like she really didn't have time for it.
She stayed sitting in the armchair, let her hands rest in her lap and closed her eyes when she was told to do so.
"You remember how you meditated on the stillness last time we practiced meditation. You will be totally still this time too, but we will add more steps. Just sit still, listen to my voice and follow."
Yrmellyn began with the stillness. This was a step she had done before and was somewhat familiar with. She sat still for a long time and felt her body and mind eventually become one with the stillness. The sensation was pleasant.
"And now when you feel the stillness, stay in it while you become aware of your breath. Feel the body breathing without changing anything. Just observe it. There is nothing else you need to do than observe it and be aware of it."
Yrmellyn allowed herself to immerse in her own breath and combining it with the stillness. She focused her awareness on the stream of air which filled her lungs when she breathed in and then left them again when she breathed out. Her chest moved slightly in the process and she included the awareness of this in the meditation. Arbin's voice was still there in a corner of her attention and he told her to also observe how the ingoing breaths provided her with new energy while the outgoing breaths brought out mental waste and cleansed her. She did so. Immersing in the breath this way she experienced a feeling of becoming stronger and cleaner with every breath.
She forgot the time.
Arbin told her to begin to come out of the meditation, open her eyes, look around in the atelier and then move her body. Yrmellyn followed the instructions. Arbin told her to not speak at once, so she stayed silent. It was pretty easy to do so.
"Now when you are in the right state of mind, Yrmellyn, please tell me with your own words what you think you have understood so far, and then we'll have lunch.
Yrmellyn was in the right state of mind ... but she still sighed inwardly. Her mentor's belief in repetition was incredible. She couldn't understand why he was so extraordinarily meticulous. It was like he was bent on leaving exactly nothing to chance.
As the spark of attunement was so greedy for knowledge her memory was excellent these days. Everything he had said was stored there, with phrasings and all. He had the same magic himself and must know the effects it had. It was beyond her to even guess at why he still demanded her to do it, but she began to tell him what she recalled.
"Overstepping means to step over the boundaries of your mental strength" she said. "It can also be described as unleashing a higher degree of power than your mind is able to bear. You take out too much mental energy than is sustainable."
Arbin nodded. "Correct. Continue please."
"Well ... it can lead to a lot of bad effects. The milder effects may wear off after a period of time, similar to an illness,but if the overstepping is serious you can gain permanent and crippling injuries."
"Yeah ... it can even lead to death, immediately or later.
For a moment she was under the impression that Arbin was about to say something more, but he didn't. Instead he asked her if she remembered the very first thing he had told her, in the beginning of the lesson.
Yrmellyn nodded: "Only fools would experiment with dangerous forces with unknown powers. Alas the world is full of fools."
Arbin closed his eyes just for a fraction of a trill. Perhaps he just blinked. She wasn't sure. Then he smiled. "Don't be one of those fools Yrmellyn. Don't play with powers greater than yourself."
The lesson was over there. They went to have lunch.
