Finding the Void [Fanfic]

[Damien]

Danos al'Sheen Fighting the Flames

Danos stood at the practice dummy, practicing his strikes and kicks to keep his speed up.

Dax Gaidin had warned him about getting lax, and that his skills while decent, would need to be honed quite a bit.

Still, he often found the practice relaxing, if tiring. There was something about the rhythm and breathing that settled nerves and allowed Danos to focus on the present. As he worked his body through his routine, he found his breathing getting deeper. The rest of the world fell away, and all Danos could feel was his arms and palms striking the wood. The sweat dripping down his back as he twisted and struck the dummy hard.

Soon he was finished his routine, and he headed back to his room to get ready for the night's sleep.

As Danos washed the days grime off of his body, he found himself thinking about the final spar with Dax Gaidin. The other man had fallen into a sense of watchfulness and action that Danos had never seen before. Asking around the Tower Classes, Danos had heard many of the students discussing the Flame and Void. Apparently it was a technique that one could use to heighten your focus. Hoplin had mentioned to Danos that he often heard of the Soldiers learning to achieve it as well.

Danos then recalled the way he had fell into the rhythm of his practice, and so he took advantage of his solo room, centering himself in the middle of the room. As he moved through the movements of unarmed combat, he took deep breaths and attempted to fall into the rhythm. Errant thoughts and worries from the day soon intruded on his fatigued mind, but Danos stubbornly pushed them away.

Slowly he felt his breath pulling him deeper into his mind, his focus becoming sharper. He next tried imaging the flame, struggling to obtain the image. Each time he tried, his mind would picture the flame but then recoil as it became a roaring inferno, the heat of the fire in the stables recalled all over again.

Panting Danos sat on his bed, breath heaving as he tried to quiet the panic in his mind. It's been ages since flame has bothered me to that extent. My mind must be raw after that Ashaman did whatever it was to my body and scars, thought Danos bitterly. Ever since he had been clawed by the Power, and then healed by Kaia Sedai, Danos had found his fear of fire was much closer to the surface. He had begged off chores at the Forge the day before, when the heat and flame had caused him to break out into sweats of terror.

Angrily shaking his head, he knew he would try again tomorrow. Mastering his fear and the Ko'di now seemed to him very intwined, and he would be flaming useless if he couldn't get it managed again.

[Damien]

Danos al'Sheen Taming the Whirlwind

Danos was running in the Yards, his mood foul as he ran. The struggle with the flames in his mind and his fear had given Danos a taste of failure, and he was unsure what to do with the bitter regret and worry. And so he ran, pouring his mind and body into his classes with a tenacious effort.

Even that had not worked out well though, while sparring with Hoplin, Danos had often struck far to viciously and harsh. Finally his friend had cast his hands up in disgust, and ended their session before Danos could apologize. I'll have to make it up to him, Hoplin deserved better than that, thought Danos sourly.

The jog was helping, and soon he found himself sweaty and tired, his breath coming in heaves and spurts. The muscles in his legs burned, and Danos could at least take some pride in having push his body harder than before. As he walked for a cooldown, he heard noise coming from the channeling yards. Curious and anxious for a distraction, he walked over to the barrier and watched the Accepteds at work.

Danos couldn't see what they were doing of course, but he could see the results of their efforts. Large whirlwinds were being whipped up, the Accepted's efforts making the wind toss the dirt and dust around. As Danos watched he could feel the wind cooling the air, and he noticed something peculiar. Each of the Accepted seemed to be centering their whirlwind around a small flag in the ground. Shockingly the flag hardly stirred, the center of the whirlwind was an island of calm in the midst of a swirling storm of wind. Danos could hear the bells chiming for class, and so he departed at a jog, the sight he had seen churning in the back of his mind.

Later that evening, once more found Danos moving through the paces and struggling to achieve the calm he wanted. Then inspiration struck, rather than seeing a Flame, he allowed his mind to recall the almost hypnotic pattern of the windstorms. The Whirlwind had picked all in it's path, consuming the dust or flinging all things to the side.

Using deep breaths, Danos tried to quiet his mind, and pictured a whirlwind, spinning and twisting, the flows of air hypnotic and without end. As the errant thoughts and fears crept up from the back of his mind, he kept feeding them to the winds, attempting to keep his mind in the center, where it was calm.

Danos had no idea how long he visualized the winds, nor how long he had to feed the emotions and thoughts to it, but soon he felt his focus crystalize. The soreness of his muscles, the hard floor under his feet, even the movements of his muscles all seemed distant. He felt himself almost floating in a sense of oneness that must be the void.

Soon his body's fatigue was impossible to ignore, and he felt that sense of oneness dissolve as he could no longer picture the winds. Grinning, he noticed the candles had burned low, but Danos felt buoyed by the sense of calm he had discovered.

[Damien]

Danos al'Sheen Testing the Winds

Danos stood in the Gardens, using his movements and breath to help his mind relax. The wind, the sound of the water, all of it helped to quiet his mind as he practiced using the Whirlwind. Danos had been practicing falling into that sense of calm and oneness many times in his room each evening, and when he felt strong enough he had gone into the Gardens to attempt it again.

At first the noise and people passing through had proved to be too distracting, but over several tendays, Danos had once again achieved the focus necessary to picturing the winds in his mind. Once he had that attained, it was much easier to feed his worries and fears to the swirling winds in his mind's eye. As they were flung away, he settled into the Void where the fatigue of his body and mind mattered naught.

Soon he had entered the Void, his mind distant to the cool air on his skin, the demands of the movements on his body as he pushed himself harder and faster. Once he was done, he kept the Void centered upon his mind, moving through the Gardens and towards the Forge. As he approached, the smell of iron and charcoal, the banging of hammers all fought for attention, but they mattered little to him in the Void. As he entered, he waved away the one apprentice and simply sat near a bank of glowing coals, staring at the fire and feeling the intense heat wash over him.

Terror from deep inside of him welled up, the sensation of the heat causing his scars to tense and stiffen, but though the Void trembled, Danos was able to use the wind to keep the fear at bay. As the storm washed over him, he allowed himself to realize that he had been reliving the fire everytime his body was exposed to harsh heat or the stink of fire. But within the Void he was able to sit by the coals and force his heart to calm, his mind to quit it's panic.

Once he felt calmer, he left the forge and released the Void. His scars burned from the heat, and he could feel the ghost of the terror he had felt, but for now he knew he could master the fear as it occurred, and maintain the Void. He knew from hearing the Gaidin talk that one never mastered the Ko'di, but he knew with the Whirlwind he could begin to benefit from it. Seems like every time I learn something at the Grey Tower, it becomes one more thing to master for life. Still, I've seen the Gaidin as they move, their eyes and body alert to everything. This is worth the practice, thought Danos to himself.