"Wonderful! If you've met them already, you might be able to pray directly to them. Why don't you give that a try now- if you can't manage it, I will talk to Intrepid about how best to contact the angel."

"I can try! Is it just like trying to think at them?"

"Almost, yes. They need some say to know who is praying, and why- include something this angel might know about you and that you need help to learn war-gymnastics. If they've met you already, they'll be especially inclined to help."

"They seemed very helpful, yes." She tries to think at the angel that she is the person with no soul and blue hair who the angel suggested learn war-gymnastics and now she is supposed to let the angel help her with posture.

Nothing appears to happen.

(Nue waits, respectfully.)

Lintalai keeps trying and eventually asks how long this is supposed to take.

"I would estimate that most prayers take about five minutes to construct. Are you having some trouble?"

"Well, nothing's happening. Do you need a soul for this?"

She frowns.

"I wouldn't expect that, no. Do you know the angel's name?"

"Mahli," she says, after consulting her notes.

"Alright. Give me a few minutes to pray to them."

And she takes a few minutes to pray.

(Nothing appears to happen.)

And then Nue opens her eyes, looking somewhat bemused.

"Well. It seems your prayer worked, but when Mahli communicated their response, you couldn't hear it. Your prayers are entirely one-sided. It's still useful, I suppose, but you may not want to pray to gods- devas, at least, will respond quickly if they can help you."

"Oh, huh. Okay. So I can't do trancing?"

"Possibly not, no. We'll still try it, for a few minutes during your next session, if Mahli agrees to the experiment, but I think your lack of soul leaves you less open to possession. Ah well. I'll re-arrange our lesson plan accordingly.". 

"Okay. I can still learn all the stuff?"

"If trancing is not an option, it limits which of the disciplines you can specialize in. Shezodza and thievery would still be completely open to you, and those were some of the ones you seemed most interested in. We can discuss more when I show you sneaking."

"I don't think I'm good at sneaking."

"Do you think you'll be worse at picking it up than meditation? I'd like to train you in the basics of anything I can teach so that you have freedom when you start to focus your studies."

"It seems like it would rely more on balance? Maybe there are ways to do it that don't."

"I would like to make some effort to design lessons with your limitations in mind, but perhaps we can wait until I've spoken to an expert thief. Then you'll have a better idea of the advantages of thievery as a discipline, and you can make a choice without needing to learn any sneaking. We'll focus on the skills useful for shezodza until the masters arrive."

"Okay. In the meantime what should I be concentrating on most?"

"Continue stretching on your own. Try to practice meditation while doing something uncomplicated- sitting in place is fine as long as you keep your posture relatively lawful good. Try not to- intellectualize too much, when you meditate. Perhaps it might be best to think about what you can do with your body- non-verbal communication, posture, cleanliness- rather than more abstract concepts like rules, to build a strong foundation. I recommend not combining meditation with stretching again until you've had more practice. Does that all make sense?"

Nod nod.