First I should try imagining the flow in my body, and when I have done that a few times it should be easier to think about other things at the same time.
And so I imagine something in my hand and moving it through my body in the way Goba showed, and honestly it's a little hard to focus on a small part going such a long distance through your own body. But it might also be hard because I have nothing to compare the small part to. So let's find a solution to that first, what is it that travels through me?
What is it even that's in the air? Goba wiggled his finger a little, as if it's smoke, but there definitely isn't any smoke here. And even if there was, how could I ever absorb smoke with my hand? I can with my mouth though... Maybe if I try that?
And so I breath out as far as I can before I slowly start to breath in again, imagining the airflow to go from my chest to my right shoulder, in my hand and back following the route Goba showed. But it feels stupid. Air always went to my chest and back, it never moved to somewhere else, why would it now?
What else is in the air? I lift my right hand higher in the air, still with the palm facing the sky. Rain also falls from the sky? And if my hand is wet it does become dry if I wait a bit, so maybe my hand can absorb water, and the earth wants water too, otherwise it wouldn't become more green after it falls.
I stand up and walk to the door, but then I think about Pridove, the sun is past its highest point already, he should be awake already. Maybe I can ask Goba for water later to try it. So I sit back down and I lift my hand back up high in the sky as this gave me a good idea before too, but this time I also look at my hand, and then it hit me. Light! There's always light in the air, and the earth absorbs it too, otherwise there would be so much light that everyone would go blind.
So I go and sit somewhere else, in such a way that the light that falls from the sun to the earth through a crack in the wall falls om my palm. I especially pick a spot that fell on the hay in stead of the sun, now I will give it to the earth through me.
And so I start imagining it, but it is hard, as the light flows through me it doesn't end coming in, by the time the front part of the light is just past my shoulder I lose focus. Steering an arm length of light in your head is something hard. And it doesn't take long for me to get a new idea.
I imagine it flowing in again, and when there's a palms length of light in my arm, I close my hand, making sure no new light comes in. And now I let it flow, up my arm, down my crossed leg, up my leg again through my chest, making the first half of the vertical eye and going up my head, after making a quarter circle in my head I think of something fun, I make a bottom half of a horizontal eye, then half a circle in line with the first quarter, when meeting up where I started the bottom half of the eye I now do the top part and finish the circle. That counts as two right? So I continue going down again, finishing the vertical eye in the center of my chest, down my leg, up my leg, two normal circles through my heart and down my hand.
I finished the entire flow on my third try, and I feel proud of myself. And so I try it again. And it fails.
I try again and again, and notice I can only do it about one time every five tries, and it takes all my focus just to try this, how can I ever think about my scythe training at the same time? I can only keep practicing and see if it gets easier.
As time passes I need to move my hand to catch the light, by now I'm sitting with my arm stretched above my head as I can just catch the lowest spot on the wall. The sun is setting, but by now I can finish it once every 4 times, so it is getting better over time. And Goba comes in just when I can't reach the light anymore, he looks at me trying to reach the spot and looks at me with a funny expression.
"Catch light?"
I nod full of enthusiasm.
"I take the light through my hand and give it to the earth."
My smile is bigger than what I expected, bigger than I smiled in a long time, and it is a smile that comes from wanting to show of to my first brother. Who's looking pretty happy too, I think, it's still hard to see happiness when someone is scowling all the time.
"Brother think scythe training?"
My smiles disappears, as if a single cloud in the entire sky covers the sun.
"No, it was really hard imagining the flow you showed, first I didn't know what flowed through me, it couldn't be air. There's no water so no rain either, so I needed to find the light first. And after that I succeeded on my first try! But I failed after that, and after that... I succeeded about once every five tries, and by now I succeed about once every four tries! I just didn't have time to think of something else while focusing."
He looks pretty impressed at the end, and he nods in approval.
"Good, morning scythe practice, afternoon think practice, evening talk, night sleep. Five days, after change."
I want to master the imagining exercise before then, I think being able to think about two things at the same time sounds great. But before that there's still one thing more, what would Goba want to talk about? Even though I can make our what he means, he isn't really the very best speaker.
"Goba, what will talk about?"
He just nods as if approving my reaction, but I don't really get why, it's not like I asked something special.
"Talk about world outside, talk about who strong. First learn read."
After that he grabs the book and lays it on his lap as he's also sitting down crossed legged now, but he doesn't open the book just yet.
"Who strongest?"
Who is the strongest? I would have said the guards if it was just this morning, but now I've seen Goba, and he's stronger. The guards have better gear though.
But if Goba is just a slave that's mostly being kept to mock, there must be many other stronger people. Even Pridove was just a soldier, he might have been strong, but just a soldier nonetheless. So I truly don't know.
"Goba, who are the strongest? And how strong are they?"
My eyes shine slightly with anticipation, if I see how strong Goba is, how much stronger can the strongest possibly be?
"Strongest is strong, strongest isn't Pridove, strongest isn't Goba, strongest is Creators."
"Creators? Like the Great Creator!?"