“I’m not sure if I can do this,” Alexander said, more to himself than anyone.
“I believe in you, My Love,” Chloe said.
“You said the sovereigns were only speculating about Mindbender’s power transferring to you,” Jack said, “and even then, they didn’t know if you’d develop the same abilities the sword gave you. Maybe you’re trying to do the wrong thing.”
“Or maybe I just can’t make it work because I’m stuck in this bed,” Alexander said. “I just can’t seem to make myself believe I’m in a fight enough to project an illusion.”
“You’ve been trying for days, My Love,” Chloe said. “Maybe you should just rest for a while.”
“Maybe you’re right. I’m not getting anywhere, anyway,” he said, closing his eyes and relaxing into the bed that had become his home since his injury.
He relaxed his body and cleared his mind like he had so many times in the past prior to slipping into the firmament, but this time he simply let his mind wander, allowing the images to play across his mind’s eye. He thought of Isabel, trying to remember exactly what she looked like, her chestnut-brown hair, her piercing green eyes and her perfect smile. He missed her terribly, but after seeing her nightmares, he’d come to terms with her decision. She was trying to protect him even though it hurt her as much as it hurt him.
He was looking at her in his mind’s eye, seeing her in perfect detail, dressed in her riding armor, wearing her sword, the medallion of Glen Morillian around her neck, when he heard Jack gasp.
Alexander’s eyes snapped open, and for just a moment, barely a blink, Isabel was standing in the room looking at him … then she vanished. Alexander swallowed hard, his mind working furiously to comprehend what had just happened.
“Did you see her, too?” he asked.
Jack nodded.
“Lady Reishi appeared for just a moment, then vanished just as quickly,” Hector said.
“But she didn’t have any colors,” Alexander said, realization flooding into him. “She was just an illusion.”
“I don’t understand, My Love,” Chloe said.
“I’ve been going about this all wrong,” Alexander said. “I’ve been trying to make illusions the same way I did when I had Mindbender, but the sword depended on my mindset-I had to believe I was in a fight for it to work. What if that mindset was only necessary because the power was bound to a sword, a weapon?”
“So you’re saying you just projected that image of Isabel,” Jack said.
Alexander nodded. “I was thinking about her, trying to see her in my mind, and then she was here.”
“So you’ve just been doing it wrong,” Jack said.
“Seems so,” Alexander said. “I’m going to try again …” He looked to the door. “Anja’s coming.”
A moment later, the young dragon stuck her head inside and squeezed through the door into the Wizard’s Den.
“You’re almost too big to fit through the door, Anja,” Alexander said, as she put her head on the bed, looking up at him with her big golden eyes. He rubbed her head affectionately.
“Have you fed today?”
She nodded.
“Does your mother know you’re here?”
She shook her head.
“Anja, you shouldn’t wander off without telling your mother where you’re going,” Alexander said. She whined slightly.
“That’s good advice,” Bragador said from the doorway. “I figured I’d find her here.”
“Anja, go with your mother,” Alexander said. “You have lessons to complete.”
She whined again but reluctantly went to the door, squeezing through into the cave.
“If you keep coming in here, you’re going to get stuck,” Bragador said, as they left to attend to Anja’s instruction.
“What are you going to do about her when we leave?” Jack asked.
“I don’t know,” Alexander said. “She can’t come with us, but I’m afraid she’s going to be sad when we go.”
“She’s resilient,” Chloe said. “Her feelings will heal in time.”
***
“That was much better,” Jack said when Alexander opened his eyes.
“I still couldn’t hold it for very long,” Alexander said.
He’d been practicing with his illusions for days. Without the sword, he found that he could only cast an illusion when he was in a meditative state, and then only by carefully visualizing the illusion he desired in minute detail. It took a tremendous amount of concentration and focus to succeed, but he was getting better. At first he could only make projections of things or people he knew well. Isabel was the easiest for him because he could see her in his mind so clearly.
With some practice, he was able to conjure an image of himself, though it took a lot of work to get it right. Jack was his test subject. The bard carefully scrutinized each projection for detail, making notes and observations to help Alexander improve the authenticity.
At first, he was only able to create static images, still and lifeless, though with increasingly real detail, until Jack proclaimed that he couldn’t tell Alexander’s projection of himself from the real thing.
As days stretched into weeks, Alexander practiced with an almost single-minded determination to master his new talent. He was helpless to act until his wound was healed, so he was intent on using this time to some constructive end.
After he’d pushed his illusion practice as far as he could for the day, always a painful proposition, he practiced using his clairvoyance. At first, he explored the Seven Isles, paying particular attention to remote and unexplored areas. While fascinating in the extreme, Alexander didn’t believe that such practice was helping to expand his clairvoyance, so he decided to take the sovereigns’ suggestion and explore the nature of the world itself.
First he rose straight up through the mountain, floating over the volcano that was sputtering orange fire at the sky, then he rose through the clouds and higher. He kept going until he could see the entire world, outlines of several of the Seven Isles visible through the clouds. Alexander marveled at the calm of it-so peaceful, so tranquil. He turned his attention to the moon, traversing the distance in a blink, exploring the barren and lifeless rock for a few minutes before going to the sun. He spent the better part of a day exploring the space around the world before turning his attention to the very small.
He started by exploring his own body, examining bone and muscle and organs in detail before going smaller, drilling into the substance of the world and examining it at its most basic levels. Eventually, he reached the point where substance formed. He looked at the most basic building blocks of the world, substance so small it could only be viewed with magic, no human eye could see something so minute, yet Alexander was looking at these basic building blocks in detail, seeing how they were constructed in seemingly endless variation yet composed of only two opposing forces, coupled together to form all that is. Over the days that followed his discovery of the basic structure of substance, Alexander spent many hours wondering about the things he’d seen.
Over the weeks, Alexander watched Anja grow. She grew until she could no longer fit into the Wizard’s Den. She started sleeping right outside the door, with her head and neck stretched out on the floor so she could still be close to Alexander. Each morning, Bragador would come to collect her and take her to her lessons, teaching her how to fly, hunt, fight, speak, and think like a dragon. Alexander encouraged her to spend time with her mother and the rest of the dragons whenever possible. He’d grown so fond of her, but he also understood with painful clarity that she would have to remain on the dragon isle when he left, for her own good as well as his.
Once Alexander had mastered a static projection of himself, he started working on a moving projection. That was much more difficult at first, there was so much to think about, so many parts to focus on, until he discovered the secret. It wasn’t about seeing each part and coordinating them together, it was about visualizing the whole and seeing it clearly in his mind’s eye. After that, he started to make progress much more quickly. Within a few weeks, he could create an image of himself that was indistinguishable from his real body, make it walk, talk, and behave as if it were really him.