"Lesson number one is on cosmic energy."
Pedro snapped a thin branch of a tree and scratched a circle in the snow, then pointing in the middle.
"Jump on in."
Ezra climbed into the snow circle, confused but too exhausted to question Pedros strange antics. Pedro drew another circle across from him and sat down legs crossed, mirroring Ezra.
"Okey dokey, legs crossed. Eyes closed. Breathe."
Ezra obeyed. They sat in silence for several seconds. Long enough to feel awkward, leading to Ezra to crack an eye open.
"And what exactly am I supposed to be doing?"
Pedro didn't react. He simply closed his own eyes, resting his palms on his knees.
"Meditating… sort of. You learned about cosmic energy at the academy right?"
"Cos? Yeah."
Pedros breathing slowed into something steady and natural, somehow calming with his ridiculous outfit.
"Cos is the energy that's exist inside of everything. Of something exists, it's because cosmic energy exist within it. It follows through the world, through thoughts and through you."
Ezra opened eyes again, annoyance flickering.
"Yeah yeah, I went to class. I already know all this."
Pedro cracked a smirk.
"If you knew it, kid…. Your cos wouldn't be such a disaster."
"Huh."
Pedro pointed at him lazily causing another gust of wind to shoot by.
"I can feel it. Leaking out of you in every direction. Unshaped, Unsteady, Loud. You've got reserves, big ones at that. But you don't hold them. You don't store. You're like cracked jug pissing out liquid."
He nodded towards Ezra's chest.
"Cos is supposed to move like breath, yours moves like a panic attack."
Ezra's face heated, half insulted, half embarrassed.
"Don't worry thats why I'm teaching you. Being divine means your soul produces more Cos than the average person."
Pedro explained wiggling his fingers as if he was shaping the air around him.
"But it also makes us naturally sensitive to it. a kind of sixth sense."
He tapped the stick against the snow once more before throwing it out of the way.
"Step one: feeling your own cosmic flow."
Ezra sat in the center, crossing his legs the way Pedro showed him. Pedro mirrored him settling into his own circle with surprising grace for someone who looked half asleep most of the time.
For hours neither of them moved. Every so often Ezra twitched, a shoulder jerk, a finger clenching his thigh in frustration.
Dammit… how am I supposed to feel my soul? That doesn't even make sense. Am I supposed to be thinking right now? Not thinking? What does that even mean…?
He cracked an eye open slightly.
And froze.
Pedro was glowing.
Not his skin, his aura. It pulsed around him- dense but perfectly contained, like a sphere of warm light breathing with him.
He really is strong…
And if I can see that… then I must be somewhat cos sensitive.
They stayed like that until the distortions sky dimmed into its false night. Finally Pedro sighed, stood up and started building another fire pit as if his mediation had meant nothing more than just a nap.
"Let's take a break. Sleeps just as important for your reserves. You'll get no where without it."
Ezra rubbed his eyes, exhausted, confused… and a little ashamed as he hadn't made a single step forward.
Ezra woke up before Pedro for the first time. The frost bit his skin, but something else stung him deeper. The faint hum inside his chest.
His soul?
He couldn't grasp it. Each time he reached inwards his focus slipped like sand through fingers.
Pedro stretched awake behind him.
"Good, looks like you're finally getting somewhere."
Another day passed.
Ezra sat for hours unmoving.
His back ached.
His legs were numb.
But the frustration was gone, replaced by a strange quiet. He still couldn't feel the 'flow', not really. But he did something small: his breath didn't separate from his body anymore. It felt like a slow steady cycle.
Pedro hummed approvingly.
"Tiny steps make giant leaps. Keep at it."
Days blended together.
Pedro did want to rush Ezra but the distortion won't last forever. After the loading phase the distortion will eventually close however there is a risk the ashkin escapes, breaking into plane 0.
Ezra stopped trying to feel his soul directly. Instead he let his thoughts drift until the world around him softened.
Then he noticed it-
A faint thread of warmth inside his sternum.
Not emotion.
Not breath.
Something deeper.
After almost a full week went by inside the distortion.
Ezra inhaled.
For the first time, the warmth pulsed back.
His eyes shot open.
Pedro, tending a small flame nearby didn't even look up.
"So, you finally touched it."
Ezra stared at his hands trembling slightly.
"I…felt something."
"Your cosmic flow"
"Congratulations. You've finally taken your first step.Now I'll get you converting your Cos into wind within two days. Maybe… hopefully…" he smiled sheepishly.