"Thanks but I should really just try it again, sorry." He tries it again.

Starwind doesn’t seem noticeably displeased by his refusal. He waits without interrupting.

Abras pulls up another shaky shield. The practice is making it easier but the accumulating fatigue and all the energy he's been wasting is making it harder and it kind of cancels out. He remembers his father telling him not to slouch and fights to hold his back straight.

It seems like practice is helping a bit, though, this one holds up to the third stone tossed at it, though barely and it shatters instantly when the fourth hits it. 

“That is progress,” Starwind says; it’s impossible to tell from his voice whether he’s impressed, disappointed, or neither. “Enough for a first lesson, I think - you seem fatigued. I expect that you practice on your own tonight and will be able to show me a less sloppy shield tomorrow.”

He's embarrassed to be caught looking exhausted but he can't reasonably deny it. He nods instead. "I'll practice." He should probably stand up but he doesn't quite seem to have the initiative to do it; if Starwind does he'll follow suit.

Starwind rises gracefully. He doesn't smile, but he does offer Abras a hand to pull himself up. "You worked hard," he says. "Continue that, and you will gain control. In time."

(Abras will find that he's pretty dizzy when he stands up.) 

"Thanks!" Starwind seems frugal enough with praise that Abras almost believes him. He takes the offered hand, stands up, then holds very still with his hands on his thighs until his senses stop reporting contradictory and unexpected data. He should get some water and then possibly sit back down again somewhere else.

Starwind watches him closely until he starts moving. "Rest today," is all he says, leading Abras out through the barrier, and then sweeping off into the trees. 

...Unfortunately it's still a pretty long walk back to the ekele. Also Abras was kind of distracted on the way, and may or may not remember which path it was. 

He definitely can't keep up with Starwind even if it had occurred to him to try in time, so he promptly loses sight of him and then gets lost. Maybe he can just. Sit down and lean against this tree and close his eyes for a bit.

:Chosen?: Yfandes' mindvoice reaches him a few minutes later. :Where are you? Starwind told Savil that you were finished your lesson: 

go away he's taking a nap :I'm, uh, lost in the woods. I'd ask for directions but I don't know where I am to get directions from.:

:I can find you. Just wait where you are: She goes quiet but he can still feel her presence through their bond, drawing nearer, and then she's cantering out into the clearing. :I'll carry you back. Come on up. How was the lesson?: 

:Thank you so much: he says as he climbs aboard. :The lesson was hard but I learned a lot. Not enough to actually get good at anything but I did definitely learn stuff. And I need to practice when we get back:

:No: Yfandes sends firmly, :you need a meal and a soak in the pools and a nap. And then practice. Tonight, when you're not exhausted. Practicing when you're tired will just mean you're practicing sloppy: 

She stops and turns her head to nuzzle at his shoulder. :I am proud of you, though. Starwind isn't an easy teacher. If he had anything at all good to say – after a first lesson – then you ought to be quite pleased with yourself: 

:That does sound good. Maybe the nap and then the food? And, thanks. That means a lot.: He really wants to make Yfandes proud of him. She's been so kind, and she put so much trust in him, Choosing him when he was even more of a mess than he is now, and he absolutely does not want to let her down. Savil too, they've both invested a lot of effort in him and he wants it to have been a sound investment.

Yfandes drops him off in front of the ekele. :Nap away, love. I'll be right here: 

She's there when he wakes up, and Savil has a late-afternoon lunch with him outside the ekele, and asks about lessons, and then there's time to practice before bed. 

The next day is a similar routine, and the day after and the one after that. Starwind fetches him first thing in the morning, and teaches him new techniques by going in his head and showing it (though he slows it down more after the first day) and then making Abras repeat it over and over and occasionally shouting at him for flinching or being sloppy. Then Yfandes picks him up outside the Work Room and brings him back, and she makes sure he eats and gets some exercise as well as napping, and is generally encouraging and kind to him. Savil and Moondance both come find him in the afternoons sometimes, to talk or walk around the Vale or go swimming in the big pool. 

Abras learns new techniques and eats and sleeps and practices a whole bunch! Practicing is an excellent distraction that doesn't require him to impose on anyone else for conversation, and also wears him out so he can go to sleep after only a brief period of crying into his pillow about Tylendel. In lessons, he still flinches whenever he's shouted at for flinching and he still tends to alternate between "rushed" and "too slow", but he makes progress. His level of competence gradually improves; his mental definition of "barely acceptable" stays ahead of it. Life is good fine continuing.

And then, one morning, Starwind brings him to the Work Room as usual and sits him down and looks him in the eye, smiling slightly. "You have made sufficient progress on defensive magic, I judge. Today we will begin practicing attacks. Lightning first, I think. You ought remain standing for this." He stays on his feet as well. "Ready that I show you?" 

Abras has forgotten, or perhaps let himself pretend not to know, that Heralds need to learn to fight. Now he needs to face that fact. "Okay, I'm ready." He waits for Starwind to, presumably, make a spark jump between his hands and hopes he won't flinch too embarrassingly if it feels like touching metal in winter.

Starwind slips into his mind again, but this time, all he does is a quick mental motion that pulls some energy out of his reserves out into his mental hands. It hangs there, feeling crackly and hot-cold at the same time. 

Starwind backs out and then...stands there. Looking at him. 

"...What are you waiting for, boy?" he says finally. "Go on. Strike. I am shielded; it will not harm me." 

"Wait, what?"

Starwind stands there, looking vaguely bored. "That is generally how attacks work, yes." 

"Are you saying you want me to throw it at you?" (The magic is still crackling in his hands; he's too scared to try to pull it back in for fear it will go somewhere unpredictable, and a lot of his concentration is on holding it there.)

Sigh. "Yes. I will not be harmed; it would take a hundredfold so much energy to even damage my shields. Go on."