I obediently scrambled to my feet and stepped over tree roots to where he indicated. The turf, clear of debris, gave slightly beneath my feet.
“I want to test what you have already learned and see what natural defenses you already have.”
“Natural defenses?” I asked as he came around behind me.
“Everyone has natural reflexes for defending oneself.” The blindfold settled over my eyes and the world went dark. I instinctively reached for my amoveo and suddenly I could see again, but only dimly. The dense movement of energy outlined the solid world that I couldn’t see, but I could not discern colors or textures. “When attacked, a person intuitively defends what is most valuable with everything at hand. A trainee’s reactions under similar stress can give a Trainer insight into how the trainee will fight and what techniques will work best.”
“So, you are going to attack my mind?” I asked.
“Yes. The mind is the most important battlefield and defending it is the most difficult accomplishment for a defender or any talent. While I can train your body to defend a physical attack, all of that skill can be used against you should they gain control your mind.”
“So, you are going to teach me to fight with my hands?” I asked.
“Hands, feet, everything,” he replied. His amusement flickered across my senses. “When I am finished you will be a fully trained defender.”
“But...” I was about to point out that I wasn’t going to be a defender, but Selwyn cut me off.
“Enough questions. Ready yourself.” He stepped away and I hurriedly threw up the few defenses that Errol had taught me and solidified the energy sphere around me. I didn’t trust Selwyn not to use a physical tactic to distract me from mental defense.
He waited. I could feel him standing there. Calm and confident, he watched me. I waited, sweat dripping between my shoulders and gathering on my forehead beneath the blindfold. Nervously I traced the defensive walls, sealing the cracks.
Suddenly he attacked, prodding a part of my mind far from my focus. Then as quickly as he had been there, he was gone. Poking again, he touched another area; this time it was walled. The defense crumbled. Fear flickered across my thoughts. Errol’s lessons were going to be worthless.
Then for the next five minutes, I had no time to think. Selwyn laid out a pattern of strokes. Unlike the first, these were annoying. The touched nerve recoiled, shuddering painfully. Unable to think of what else to do, I frantically followed his flicking taps, building walls and defenses as fast as I could form them. They fell as his assault increased. Madly erecting fortifications, I struggled to preserve myself.
Finally, as I tried to rally after a particularly stinging onslaught, he changed tactics again. A shard of ice cut across my mind. White and numbingly cold, it cut through my thoughts, freezing my reflexes in its wake. Defenses shattered before it, too brittle to resist. The shard continued onward, its path set and pace slow but steady. With half frozen resources, I realized that it was making a path toward the center of my consciousness, the nerve center. If he had control of that, he had everything. The pain grew as it neared its goal. I had no more options. Walling, sealing, and shuttering could not defend against this. Finally in desperation, I grabbed at everything within me and threw it at my adversary.
The world went black. I sat down hard on the ground and waited for the darkness to lift but it didn’t. Selwyn’s exclamation as my connection to my amoveo broke, assured me that I was still conscious. The blindness puzzled me for a moment before I remembered the blindfold. I pulled it off and blinked in the sudden brightness of the filtered sunlight.
“What was that, girl?” Selwyn demanded. He was just gaining his feet a short distance from where he had been standing before. He frowned at me grimly.
Slightly fearful of the intensity in his gaze, I lowered my eyes and busied myself with the knotted cloth around my neck. “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know? You just flung me two feet with a blast of energy and closed your mind so tight that I could not even read a trace of talent, and you are telling me you don’t know how you did it?” He stalked over to loom above me.
I cautiously looked up. “I don’t.”
He continued to frown, but something new flickered in his eyes. “You are just full of surprises, aren’t you?” he declared and offered me a hand.
I accepted it. He pulled me to my feet and walked over to his satchel. Pulling out a worn leather bound book that fit in the palm of his hand, he flipped through it. “Can you touch your amoveo still?” he asked without looking up.
Reaching within, I brushed the organ and energy responded. “Yes.”
“Good.” Finding his place, he shoved it into my hands, taking the cloth. “That is what you did,” he informed me, pointing to a heading halfway down the page.
Consummo Propugnaculum (Complete Defense)
A technique that results in the complete instinctive and volatile blinding of all energies from within and without a talent’s center of awareness. When used, the talent will block any access to and from the mind by foreign attackers, influences, or thoughts. If done thoroughly, the subject will appear to have no talent to any observer and will disappear from the sensory detection of other talents. This tactic is difficult to teach and impossible to completely control. It is hypothesized that some are incapable of performing it. Very rare cases of completely unlearned, instinctive ability have occurred. See Kilor the Taller and Portus of Manot.
“I wondered if you had the ability to ConProp,” he mused as he studied my face.
“ConProp?” I stared up at him.
“ConProp is short for Consummo Propugnaculum.” He settled on the ground at the base of the tree and pulled a slate and chalk out of his bag. “Hand
