Nod.

"Arcadia is not like a person, in that there is no single consciousness making decisions, but it does respond to people's beliefs and produce very real effects. As such, there is something like- a consensus, a central idea of Arcadia. Gods, too, are powerful centers of belief- they guide the Astral Plane and the Outer Planes, which can be incredibly helpful to us. Does all of that make sense so far?"

"Kind of, I think? Whether it makes enough sense might depend on what I'm supposed to do with it."

"So, all of that is just the basics. Most of it is absorbed during childhood, in worlds where this is common knowledge, or immediately after death, when it's not. The relevant portion for war-gymnasts like us is what it means to align your body with concepts like this. The beliefs people have about law and goodness do not have much to do about bodies, but there are some. Do you have much intuitive sense yet, of what law and goodness mean, in Arcadia?"

"I don't think I'd call it intuitive."

"In Arcadia, law mostly refers to the concept of effective governance. The cities and towns all implement various ideas of how a society should be run, they trade reliably, they make international agreements. Goodness in the Peaceable Kingdoms means- peace, comfort, contentment, it means people leaving each other alone when they wish to be undisturbed, and it means neighbors helping neighbors. It's important to develop an intuition about this if you want to be a war-gymnast, because war-gymnastics, unlike spellcasting, is very rarely intellectual. It's not about your beliefs, emotions, or thoughts. It's about how you use your body, and that is mostly not conscious at all. Given that explanation, there are probably a few things you could think to say about how bodies could be lawful or good- they could be well-ordered, well-governed, peaceful...what else can you think of?"

"Clean? Um, calm friendly body language? ...moving quietly?"

"Those are all good guesses! There's some flexibility here, in that it's more important for the body to align with the plane in a comfortable, stable way- if you align yourself with uncomfortable concepts, you will never reach higher levels of performance. Think about ideas like symmetry, efficiency, cleanliness, calm body language, and moving carefully or quietly. Which of those- and anything related that comes to mind- sound easiest to change about yourself? Which of them could you adapt to willingly?"

"I already try to stay pretty clean because that's very important to Amentans. Uh, I kind of have to walk carefully or I'll fall down. I like being efficient? I would like to move more efficiently. And calm body language sounds good too."

"We can worry about walking later, it might be more complicated if it's something that you take seriously but find difficult. Competence and comfort matter. It should either feel natural, or it should be aspirational. Something that you are proud of achieving. Does that describe any of those things?"

"I am not used to being proud of how I move. Hmm, one of my dads is very good at reading body language? It would be pretty cool if I were good at saying things with it, the same kind of thing he reads. And the efficiency thing. Mostly I'd be proud of turning it into magic though."

"Sozev responds the best to someone who wants to improve how she uses her body- tell me, could you admire any of the local gods?"

"I feel like I'd need to know somebody better to really admire them but some of them sound pretty neat so far."

"Then that's where our focus should be, for now. A kasozev takes on the traits of their ozev. You could think of it the way a job might come with a uniform. Does Amenta have jobs that require their employees to wear uniforms?"

"Not blue jobs. Blues sometimes have to dress professionally but not in uniforms."

"Hmm, I see. Does Amenta have- flags, or emblems, or banners? Objects which can be displayed prominently that signify allegiance or values?"

"...Sometimes people who are fans of sports teams wear shirts that look like theirs."

"If you don't have much prior experience, you might find it odd at first. I think for now, we'll start with the more purely physical side. That way, if you decide to specialize in a different discipline, I won't have wasted your time."

So they can start on the purely physical. Nue instructs Lintalai to mimic her movements. First, she shows Lintalai how to control her movements more generally. If Lintalai struggles with clumsiness, she might find it more challenging to exert that control, but she would like her to try so that Nue can see what needs to be improved. Most of the things she asks Lintalai to mimic involve very fluid motions, rather than discrete ones. Nue never really stops moving, once she starts, moving from one pose to another. She would easily be in the 80^th percentile of Amentan athletes.

Lintalai tries earnestly but she's very wobbly, and her movements comparatively jerky and her poses imprecise.

Nue eventually concludes that perhaps anything that involves Lintalai moving her feet may not work for this purpose.

"Good job. We may want to rely more on other kinds of motion, though, than relying on your ability to balance. What happens if you only move above the waist? Does it throw you off balance in the same way?"

Nue can have Lintalai sit down and walk her through some stretches that she uses to warm up; if these go more smoothly, that provides a promising angle for further training.

Sometimes leaning over will unbalanace Lintalai. Stretches on the floor work fine though! She's actually very stretchy.

Promising! Can she stretch in ways that are peaceable or orderly? They can talk through what that means if Lintalai finds it difficult to come up with something that might fit that standard.

"Yeah, I don't really know what that would look like."

So she can show her a few ideas, though Lintalai should try her best to pick the ones that strike her as representing Arcadia.

Lintalai could stretch using well-known exercises, which have been practiced for centuries and almost anyone looking at her would recognize, that are gentle and easy for beginners to learn.

Lintalai could stretch in ways that mimic behaviors that are associated with peace, order, and cleanliness, like praying, bowing, or sweeping- although not all of these can be perfectly adapted to sitting down.

Lintalai could stretch very carefully, paying close mental attention to what is best for her body- the more she thinks about treating her body well in detail, the more likely it is that this approach will work, as then it will resemble the principles of good governance Arcadia stands for, applied on a more personal scale.

Lintalai thinks that last one sounds promising; she seems to have some native instincts for what's good for her, which helped a lot when she was being brought up by people of a different species. Though it's mostly about getting sunshine and not eating animal products and not swimming in chlorinated pools.

"None of those would be traditional sorts of ways to approach it, but I think you could make it work. They will need to be relevant to the situation at hand- try to focus on the one about getting sunshine for now."

Nue is not sure what 'chlorinated' means, but she'll ask when they're not in the middle of teaching Lintalai meditation. She walks her through some stretches calibrated to her clumsiness and waits for Lintalai to try it. It is a bit too early for Lintalai to feel anything, she suspects, since she won't have much practice organizing her mind the right way, but perhaps she might surprise her.