Blaize and the Maven: The Energetics Book 1 (16 page)

Cuinn stood leaning against the wall while Tierra dabbed at the scratches on Blaize’s cheek. Blaize held ice to her stomach to bring the bruising down. She’d refused Tierra’s healing Anahata energy, saying she wanted to feel the pain so she’d be prepared next time.
 

“You think she was an Ajna. That she controlled your mind,” Cuinn stated. He hadn’t believed it at first. How could the woman, someone he’d met two or three times, be an Ajna strong enough for mind control?
How didn’t I sense her?
The vision of Blaize, beaten and tied up, was still fresh. Seeing her bruised and scratched wasn’t helping him stay calm.

“Of course she was. How else do you think I got these?” Blaize waved at herself.

“Perhaps she was just faster than you. Better trained.” Cuinn kept his voice mild.

Blaize growled. “She was better trained. In Ajna. There’s no way she was better trained than me in fighting physically. She had no muscle tone. And I’m pretty sure I was the stronger in Manipura. No. She did something to me. Held me in position. I got confused during the fight. I didn’t know what was happening, whether she was a friend or an enemy. Everything went foggy like there was some kind of mist in the alley. She kicked me in the stomach while she was controlling me with her mind.”
 

Blaize gestured sharply, still clutching the ice park. Tierra put her own hand on Blaize’s arm and gently pushed it back down. “Keep holding the ice, lovie.”

Blaize was confident, he’d give her that. But today, it seemed, overconfident. He couldn’t afford that. She couldn’t afford that. She needed to be more careful. He needed to remind her that she wasn’t as good as she thought she was. “Then how did you get the scratches on your face?” Cuinn asked.

There was a pause.
 

“She had some training,” Blaize admitted sullenly, “but not enough, and not to take me down with a kick in the stomach. I was ready to break her arm lock. All she needed to do was transition out of it and I would have had the upper hand again. But she did something—”
 

She broke off in frustration.
 

Cuinn walked deliberately over to the sink and poured himself another cup of coffee. He set the full cup on the side and gripped the sides of the sink for a moment, looking out of the window, his gaze on the gardens outside. He took a few deep breaths. It had been decades since he’d felt the kind of anger and frustration that Blaize managed to bring out in him. She was so unbelievably stubborn. She'd been in a fight with an unknown energetic who was potentially an Ajna and/or a Manipura Master, and here she was, raging to go another round.
Does she have no fear?
Tension contracted his back muscles and he put a hand up to rub his jaw, to release some of the tightness there.
 

When he walked back to the table, his tone was still calm. “I didn’t say I didn’t believe you. I just wanted to explore all the possibilities.”
 

“So we can begin training?”

Cuinn sighed.
This is a bad idea.
“Be at my room at 9.30 a.m.”

Cuinn was ready and waiting for the sound of knuckles on the wooden door at 9.30 a.m sharp. He trudged to the door and opened it. She stood in front of him radiating a strange mix of eagerness and distrust.

“This is the room where I work.” He gestured around him.
 

Blaize nodded. The room was less clear and tidy than it had been after Tierra’s efforts a couple of weeks before, but he’d managed not to completely fill it with books again. There were only a few on the floor. A few piles, that is. He coughed and her attention came back to him.

“I bought you something.”

Her lips flattened, the eagerness leaving her face, leaving only distrust behind. “What?”

He reached behind his desk and brought out a large cloth bag, handing it to her. She opened it and pulled out some heavy fabric. “What is it?”

“It’s a meditation mat. We’re going to ward it, energetically guard it, so that you can use it to dreamwalk. It’s easier to have something familiar that you use every time. That way your energies seep into it—it’s like seasoning a wok.”

She blinked and he hastened on, sensing the example hadn’t worked that well.

“When we dreamwalk, we’re open and unprotected in a way we’re not on the physical plane. We need to protect ourselves. Most Ajna energetics, rather than drawing chalk circles all the time, use a warded rug or mat that they can carry with them. It doesn’t have the drama of a physical circle, but it’s a lot more comfortable when you’re lying on it.” He tried a smile.

She stood back to shake open the rug. As the folds fell out and it hung in the air from her outstretched arms, she looked at with a smile, pleased. “It’s lovely Cuinn, thank you.”
 

Cuinn relaxed, and his own smile became less tentative. He'd picked it up in Merrow, before the incident with Indigo, when Blaize had been in the small sporting goods shop. He'd chosen it carefully.

He felt something shift inside him as she touched the finely woven strands with unreserved happiness, her face soft. Perhaps he didn’t give enough gifts, if generosity could feel as good as this.
 

“I want us to spend some time meditating together. To get a feel for each other’s energy. Before we can even think about dreamwalking, we need to become used to each other.”

“I’m a fast learner.” Blaize took her gaze off her rug for a second to meet his.
 

He kept his sigh internal. “I know. But this isn’t about intelligence. It’s about getting a ‘feel’ for each other. It’s nothing intellectual, or cognitive.”

She nodded slowly. “How will we know when we’ve got this ‘feel’ for each other?”

“We’ll know.” He walked to the large windows, throwing them open, letting cold, damp air flood the room, along with the low morning light.
 

Blaize wrapped her arms around her. “Is that really necessary?”
 

“You’ll get used to it. Be grateful. When I did my Ajna training, my Maven made us do all our work outside. He said it was more conducive to the energy of the mind.”

“And when was that?” Blaize asked, her eyebrows raised, her head cocked.
 

“It was … some time ago."
Okay, two hundred years ago.
"I don’t think we need to go that far, but I do think fresh air helps clarity of mind and meditation. You can set up.”

Cuinn cleared some of the piles of books to the sides of the room to make space for her mat. Blaize leaned down to help and he stopped her. “I know what’s in each of the piles. It’s better if you don’t touch anything.”

Blaize’s face tightened. Cuinn looked away and moved some of the piles closer to each other, keeping the books in the right order.
 

He cleared enough of the smooth blond wood floor so that she could put her mat down next to his, still out from the night before. When the two rugs were laid out lengthwise next to each other, he gestured to Blaize to sit on hers. She frowned.
 

“What’s the matter?”

She hesitated for a moment. “I don’t like sitting with my back to the exit. No Warrior would.”

He forced himself not to shake his head in frustration. “You’re in my heavily warded rooms, in a heavily warded house, on a heavily warded property. Any danger you encounter isn’t going to come through that door. It’s what’s in your head that you need to worry about today.”

He continued, trying to relax his jaw.
Why can’t she just do what she’s told?
“As Adherent, and student in the process, you sit with your left side—your receptive side—towards the window, the light, and the air. As Maven and teacher, I sit with my right side, my emissive side to the window.”
 

She pursed her lips, but dropped into a crossed-legged position facing his rug, her left side to the window—her back to the door. His back was to his desk as he sank down in front of her.

He held his hands out, palms up. “Rest your palms face down on mine, parallel to the floor. Then our little fingers and thumbs slot into each other.”

“I know how to behave in a meditation like this. I’ve just come from my last Maven, remember?” Blaize’s tone was polite, but her words had an edge of irritation to them.

“It’s better if we start from scratch. There’ll be some things your Aunt and I might do in the same way, but given the very different energies we’re focusing on, I’m sure there will be things we do differently too. And when the consequences of a mistake can be madness for one or both of us, it’s worth being sure.”

Blaize’s eyes narrowed, and she gave a grudging nod.

I guess working with a fire energetic's never going to be easy.

They joined hands. Hers were warm and dry against his own cooler fingers. There was a curious sense of rightness as her hands fit into his, smaller than his own, but equally slender and fine. Neither of them had hands that had seen much manual labor. Despite his affinity with earth, it had been a long time since he’d tilled the land.

“I’m going to take us through a guided meditation. As you get more experienced, you'll need less ritual and preparation, but for now I want you to close your eyes, listen to my voice and follow my instructions. We’ll keep it simple, and get a sense of each other.”

“A feel.”

“That’s right. You’ll see what I mean. It will be different from working with your Aunt, someone you’ve known for a long time, and both of you having the same dominant energy. For you, Ajna is your auxiliary energy, and not strongly developed.”

Again she took a breath, leaning towards him, and he added, “I didn’t say not strong. You may have a great deal of potential; I don’t know. Just not strongly developed.”

She settled back.
 

The cool spring air had refreshed the room, airing it out as they’d settled on their mats. The room smelled of new growth and the earth after rain. The sun, still gentle at this time of the day and year, touched Blaize’s hair, giving it natural highlights of burnished fire. She shook her head to remove a strand that had fallen too close to her eyes, and he was distracted as sun and strands danced.
 

He rarely got distracted. He was more tired than he thought. Her small but pert chest rose and fell, unconsciously echoing his own deep inhalations, and he realised he was staring when he caught the slight crease between her eyebrows.

Damn.
 

He needed to begin.

“Close your eyes.” His voice was soft, persuasive, and her eyelids fell obediently.

His own breath was rhythmic, and he consciously deepened it, making his exhalation a fraction longer than his inhale. After a few of these, his thoughts steadied.

“Breathe, Blaize. Relax your shoulders, your neck. Your jaw, and all the tiny muscles in your face.” Her breathing slowed. Her hands relaxed in his.

He lowered his voice further, keen not to disturb her as she focused. His aim was to put her into a very light trance state, a practice session for later dreamwalks. He expected she’d need to practise many times before they got anywhere near that. Today was just about relaxing and seeing if she could feel his energy. He could already feel hers.
 

He wanted her to use a little of her energy so he could see how visible it was to him when he made a conscious effort, but didn’t want to tip his hand. So instead he pulled some of his own energy and sent a tiny and delicate tendril to touch Blaize’s aura, the natural energy that every energetic, and in fact, every life on the planet had around them.
 

Whilst the auras of most life on earth were faint even to the eyes of energetics, the auras of energetics—at least to other energetics—were palpable. His energy brushed lightly against hers, and she shivered.
 

He pulled back quickly, stunned at her receptiveness and the sensation the touch had created within him. The heat of the contact seared him and he tried to keep his breathing steady as the hair on his arms stood on end.
 

Hmm. Perhaps more caution was warranted.