Chương 10: Book 1; Chapter 9; Teaching has begun (1)

"How come my clothes are still damp when yours are all dry?" Anniet asked with wonder.

"Partly because mine are made from a material that dries faster, and partially because I wanted them to get dry," Rainee replied.

"I wanted mine to get dry too," Anniet disagreed.

"Really?" Rainee wondered.

"And how much "wanting" about it have you done since you put it in the sun?"

"What do you mean by "wanting"?"

"Well, when you want something, you put some heart and effort into it, or at least a thought. Don't you? At least I do. If I do nothing, I get nothing, no matter how many times I say I want it. If I do nothing about it, I never get anything unless someone else does it for me. Wanting without any input is not even wanting; it's just a flicker of the thought or a spoken word. I didn't hear you mention wanting your clothes to dry quickly. Have you given it at least a thought?"

"No," Anniet said.

"I didn't think I needed to. But I put them in the sun to dry out. Didn't I?"

"Yes, you entrusted it to the sun, and the sun is drying it at a speed that the sun can dry it. As I said, what you get is equal to the effort you put in, or someone else puts in for you. If you leave your clothes in water, they would still be thoroughly wet. If you take them from water but leave them in a ball, they would be very wet. If you untie them but leave them on the ground, they would be slightly drier than in a ball. But you put them in the sun, so they are considerably drier.

Knowledge and action are the moving power in a world."

"But I didn't see you taking any more action than that either?"

"Because you were observing only the physical actions I did. Physical actions have the least power and are most time and effort consuming. The energy given to humans is much stronger. Human will is considerably stronger, and the human soul has the most power in the universe. That is if not to count The One himself."

"And the King." Anniet reminded.

"And the King," Rainee agreed after thinking for a few seconds.

"So during this time, you were thinking about your clothes getting dry?" Anniet couldn't understand this logic.

"Alongside many other things – yes."

"So, is thought stronger than a physical action?" Anniet asked again in amazement at the possibility that everything could be done by the power of thinking.

"Thought has its power, yes," Rainee confirmed,"but only if it is activated by actions, not necessarily just physical. If thought is left at the level of thought, then it has no power at all, similar to the word. If I think or say that I am going to lift this stone but don't do it, then nothing happens. The thought might be the beginning of something, the end of something, or nothing else but a thought."

While talking, Rainee was making her way up the hill, and Anniet was trotting next to her without really paying any attention to where they were heading. While walking, she listened to Rainee and also tried to dry her clothes with her thoughts. As nothing changed, she finally confessed to Rainee.

"It doesn't work," she said.

"Because now you instantly try to make something happen before knowing how it can be done. That is a trait of magic. However, since you are not a magic user, it doesn't work."

"Did you use magic on your clothes?" Anniet asked, thinking that it would explain a lot.

"No," Rainee denied.

"I didn't use any magic. I used a basic power given to every human."

"Like what?"

"Like your own energy body. But come, I will explain to you what we are looking for. As I say, a stick is nothing like a sword, even a wooden one. Therefore, fighting with sticks cannot be considered the same as fighting with swords. The sword is considerably heavier, it is balanced differently, and in your hand, it feels different. I presume you have played with sticks when you were a kid?" To Rainee's surprise, Anniet shook her head in denial.

"No? Why not?" Rainee asked, reminding herself not to presume anything, as even such a simple presumption can be misleading. She had never met a child before who would not have played at fighting with sticks at least once. Now she has met one. Every day brings something new.

"There was a time when I didn't want to hurt anyone by accident," Anniet confessed.

"That's a very good reason. I could hardly think of any better. And it makes no difference if you played before or not. All I want you to know is that no matter how good you are at fighting with a stick, you would not become an excellent swordmaster in the very first minute you take it in your hands, as it will feel very different. Swords come in various shapes and sizes, but a sword with a blade of roughly arm's length is a considerably good one.

We are looking for two sticks that are slightly longer than an arm's length, evenly balanced on both sides, and with a diameter that is comfortable to hold in the hand. Too thick will tire your hand soon, and will be too heavy to hold. Too thin will be uncomfortable in the hand and will break easily. Understood? Let's search then." Anniet nodded her head in response and put all her effort into searching for what Rainee asked. Rainee herself didn't look around but was evaluating what Anniet brought to her.

Anniet found this task difficult because there were mainly large trees or small bushes around, and even if cut down, they wouldn't be suitable. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Rainee, on the other hand, saw hundreds of potentially good sticks around but didn't point at any and didn't pick any up. Neither did she pretend to be looking for one.

Her aim was for Anniet to recognise the right size and shape, and while Anniet was eager to look for one, it was the best way to learn. After she approved a few, they came out from the woodland into the open space, where Rainee sat down on a stone and worked for some time on the sticks and branches that Anniet had collected, making them smoother and straighter. She was using just her hands, but somehow all the sticking bits were falling off, leaving the sticks nice and smooth.

Anniet watched for some time with amazement, until she came closer and lifted Rainee's hand to look at her palm. Rainee's hand was just a regular hand of a regular person – skin on her small and slender palms was soft and tender with no rigidity that usually comes from hard work.

"Are you using magic?" Anniet asked again.

"No," Rainee smiled,"a magic wielder wouldn't work on it but would get what they want by a wave of their hand. That's the charm of magic – you don't have to work to get what you want, nor do you need to know how it works to get it done. I am simply using my own energy in addition to my own hand. It is the same as mixing up magic with the use of a knife. You want to try? Come, I will show you." Anniet sat next to Rainee, holding one of the sticks in her hand.

Rainee put her palm over Anniet's hand, and she instantly felt something different. At first, it scared her away, and she nearly withdrew her hand, but managed to restrain herself in time. Rainee was holding her hand just above hers, but it felt like it was engulfed in some solid substance.

"We all have this energy surrounding us all the time, just most of us rarely use it. It might be around us, but to use it, we have to operate it from within, not from outside, as it is your own energy, not somebody else's, and not of the surroundings. It is the same if you want to use your own hand; you don't try to command it from outside, you don't have to influence yourself in any way, you just use it. If you want to use someone else's hand, then yes, you hold it and operate it from the outside.

But if it's your own, then it would make no sense to do so. And also, with someone else's hand, you can do just very little, but with your own, you can do a lot. That's why people are meant to use only their own bodies. Same with energy. Everyone is meant to use their own energy, not somebody else's. We can use the energy of the surrounding world, but only through our own energy, not instead of it. You don't need to summon it, you don't need to command it. You simply use it. Same as your body.

Once you know that it is there, once you know how it feels, it becomes available to you. Similar to your thoughts. To think you don't need to concentrate and say "now I am going to think" or "I command my thoughts to obey me," you just think, and you use thinking in many different ways without any effort. In fact, sometimes it is more difficult not to think." While Rainee was talking, Anniet was experiencing very new and intense sensations.

She really felt this energy that Rainee was talking about surrounding her like an invisible substance. And it came to her hand when Rainee somehow called it there and then left again, no matter how much Anniet tried to summon it or command it to come. Rainee said it wasn't magic, but it was the most magical thing Anniet had ever experienced in her life. Rainee summoned that energy to her hands multiple times before finally letting Anniet go.

By that time, the stick Anniet was holding in her hands was straight and smooth without a single twig sticking out of it. All excited, Anniet picked up another stick and tried to repeat what Rainee just did. But no matter how hard she tried, nothing happened.

"It doesn't work!" She complained.

"I cannot do it by myself."

"It takes time," Rainee smiled.

"How long? Didn't you say it should be naturally mine?"

"I did," Rainee laughed, looking at unhappy Anniet, who was trying to summon this mystical power that was supposed to surround her.

"Look at it this way. A baby is born without the ability to control its movements consciously, but tell it to a six-month-old who is kicking and waving in all directions, not aimlessly, but knowing very well what he is doing and doing it without any effort. Also, a baby is born without the ability to think in a logical way, as we all understand thinking. But tell a six-year-old child that just a short time ago, he was a thoughtless creature, unable to think.

Do you believe that if that baby had decided then that he was unable to coordinate his movements or think logically, he would be able to do it later in life? Beliefs are very powerful; don't let them lock away your possibilities, let them open them up for you. You don't even need to believe, you just know that you can and strive for it until you get it. That's how it works. No logical decisions are needed there. They can only lock you away.

Now, when you know that such thing exists and that others are using it and that you have it too, simply know that you too will be able to use it sooner or later, as long as you try to use it. The less thinking you put into it, the sooner it will come." By the time Rainee finished her talk, the last stick was done, and instead of two sticks, they had five.

"Ready?" she asked, standing up. Instantly, Anniet forgot all her dissatisfactions. She took the stick offered by Rainee with both hands, as she had seen others doing in training.

"How much of sword fighting do you know?" Rainee asked, looking curiously at her.

"I just watched lessons a few times," Anniet said, holding a stick as a sword and standing in a position she knew.

"Have you practised on your own to do what you have seen?"

"Yes…" Anniet said silently, wondering how Rainee would know.

"And what do you use for training?"

"A broom handle," Anniet said, in an even smaller voice.

"OK, that's an evenly balanced item," Rainee said, taking a stick from Anniet's hands, which she let go very unwillingly, and giving her one of the other sticks from the little pile they had made.

"This one will be more similar in balance to the broom handle. Show me what you can do with it."

"Not much," Anniet looked a little bit shy after being asked to demonstrate her abilities.

"I don't even know if there is anything to show. I don't think anything I can do really counts."

"Every little bit you have learned through your life counts. To doubt it means to discharge some of your life's experience, that means to dishonour and refuse part of your life, or in other words, part of yourself. Things that you consider unimportant to me as a teacher might be very important. It is a very bad habit to discharge all that someone knows and to teach from a so-called "empty page".

No adult human is an empty page, as we all know something, and every new teaching should be a continuity of what is already known, either strengthening and expanding it or dismantling and helping to forget. W hat you know might help you in my teachings, or might be in disagreement with it. It is for me as a teacher to decide. Also, it will disclose to me your weaknesses and strong points. Don't make me repeat such simple commands; otherwise, training will be very hard and prolonged.

If you trust me enough to teach you, then also trust me about how to do it." Anniet didn't have to be repeated twice. The way those words were spoken had so much meaning that there was no room left for argument, as there were only two options: take it or leave it. Nothing in between. Nothing partially.

Anniet lifted her stick again, swung it a few times around her hand, thinking that it really felt very much like a handle of the broom, just shorter, and took a fighting stance she had memorised from a few lessons she had witnessed. She made a few steps and a few moves to the best of her knowledge, trying not to feel too embarrassed. With each move, Rainee was correcting her stance, her hold, her turn, as if knowing in advance what she would do.

And soon, this overwhelming embarrassment slowly dissipated as every little bit that she remembered and showed wasn't criticised, dismissed, or laughed at. It was just corrected and perfected until Rainee was content with how she did it. So, instead of hiding in embarrassment, Anniet now tried to pull out more and more from her memories, and Rainee would recognise moves she was trying to do, even from a small part, and would help her not just finish it, but finish it correctly.

It turned out to be a really exciting game. Time was passing, and soon Anniet ran out not only of moves but also of breath and stamina, and had to sit down to rest. Rainee, on the other hand, didn't get tired at all and stayed on her feet, swinging a fighting stick around her hand in a similar manner that Anniet did before, just with different variations.

"What do you think the sword is for?" Rainee asked.