"Abras!" Savil is the one who reaches him first, jogging out ahead of Moondance, and slows just enough that she doesn't actually bowl him over when she hugs him, laughing. "Ke'chara, it's so good to see you up and about." He's never seen her so exuberant before. Her goldenrod-coloured robes make her look a lot less severe than Herald's Whites, too. 

Moondance smiles as well, catching up. "Clean? Eat, first, and then if you feel ready, I have a lesson." He sets out a tray of food and more water on a table made out of a tree-stump. 

He's in a hurry to get to the lesson, but this is still the most attention he's paid to a meal while eating it since, well, Before.

It's a really good meal! There are exotic fruits and nuts and tiny pastries with various things baked inside.

Afterward, Moondance nudges him toward a wickerwork bench which looks sort of like it was grown into position rather than made. "Good. Sit. We teach different here – I go in your mind, show you, if is all right?" 

He nods before he fully understands the question, then decides he's fine with it anyway. It doesn't sound like Moondance will be reading so much as sending, and he doesn't have much to hide anyway.

"Good. You clear your mind. Think only of breathing. You practice this before, no?"

Moondance waits a bit for Abras to obey, then whistles – and the green-gold ribbon is back in his mind, dancing, winding around a single point. It feels very weird, but as it spins, he realizes there is a point of stability there. It's not a physical part of his body at all, so much as a sort of nexus at the centre of the new places that are still there, though they don't hurt anymore. 

:You feel that?: Moondance sends, his mindvoice sounding exactly like him except nearer and brighter. He pulls back. :Now find it yourself: 

Abras can, it turns out, quiet all the parts of his mind except the part constantly screaming that Tylendel is DEAD. He sees the still point when it's pointed out, but it's much harder to focus on it than on the sucking whirlpool of grief. It's going to take a few tries to get there while simultaneously remembering that doing things can have a point in a world without 'Lendel. Maybe more than a few.

Moondance waits for a bit, then seems to notice he's having difficulty. :Do you need that I show you again?: 

"No, I can do it, just give me a minute . . ." What else is he going to say, "I can't do this super basic thing because I'm too busy having emotions?" He keeps trying, focusing on the sensations of air moving in his nose and the up-and-down motion in his abdomen. The still place is there, he just needs to reach past the despair and get to it.

Moondance doesn't mind being patient. He waits. 

Then eventually he'll be rewarded with a quiet, "I think I did it?"

:Good. I test it, then: And Moondance gives him a controlled but firm mental slap, which promptly makes him lose it and nearly fall out of the chair. :Not bad for first try: he acknowledges. :Mostly centred, but not quite solid. Try again?: 

He goes back at it. The shock of the mental slap is a bit unsettling, but it's also an experience that isn't about 'Lendel being DEAD, so that sort of cancels out. It's a little easier the second time, but still slow.

Moondance waits. :Ready: Another smack, but this time it isn't quite enough to dislodge him. :Good! Very good: 

"Thanks! Now I'm supposed to learn how to shield?"

:Patience, child: A chuckle. :First, you learn to ground. I show you again, if need, but first I see if you find it alone. Hold your centre, and feel the ground under your feet? Good. Now feel it with your magic. Without losing your centre, I wish you reach out with magic and touch it. Lay down roots, that nothing may budge you. Can you do that?: 

He digs his bare toes into the dirt and tries to magic downward. Doing anything with his magic on purpose sets off alarms in his brain, no wrong don'tdoanything. Figuring out what mental motion he needs to make turns out to be the (relatively) easy part; the hard part is following through without flinching away.

Worried look. :Are you having difficulty? I can go in your mind and show it, if you wish: 

He runs a hand through his hair. "I--maybe? I think I know what to do but I just, can't make myself do it."

Moondance makes a 'hmm' sound, tilts his head to the side and looks intently at Abras for a few moments. :Might I come in your mind simply to watch you try? May understand better the problem: 

Aaaaaa Moondance is gonna see how incompetent and overemotional Abras is being. But if he says no he's just going to keep sucking until Moondance concludes he isn't trying at all. Aaaaaa.

"Let me try a couple more times first?"

:Of course: Moondance sits back and waits. 

Center and . . . flinch.

Center and . . . gods I wish 'Lendel was here.

Center and . . . don'tdomagic don'tdoanything

Center and. . . . a wall of fire filling the horizon, Abras helpless on the far side of a Gate

"Fuck. I, I don't think I'm going to get it." He digs the fingernails of one hand into his other arm. Why can't he just do things instead of being a useless lump of sadness.

"Shh, relax. I am not upset with you. Is normal, to find it hard at first." Moondance slides closer and squeezes Abras' shoulder. "Maybe a break, first, and then try again?"