The Trinity War (Book 3 of the Trinity series)

Chapter 31

"Why don't you become your own state?" I asked.

"Try as we might, business and politics affect even the most humble of us. Our community is not a small one; we need some way of survival, too, and the nation provides for us as long we do our part," Master Yoqi replied. 

"Which is to grow these soybeans?" Gerrard asked, turning the beans in his hand around.

"Each establishment here has its own garden. The beans we grow here, we send to the Palace of Aerya, which is somewhat of a capital for our nation. They in turn provide us with resources for suvival," Master Yoqi explained. 

"Seems simple enough," I remarked.

"Simplicity lies in consistency," he said. I nodded in agreement. "So, Caley Lucia, have you thought about what I said to you?" Master Yoqi asked, putting down his watering can and giving me his full attention. 

"A little, but I haven't come up with an answer yet," I said. 

"I would be concerned if you had," Master Yoqi said, nodding. He began walking--or hobbling--using his cane as support. We followed him. "A dilemma of desires is not resolved with a good night's rest. You must meditate on it and think about what your desires are, which of them is most important, and why the importance of that desire is so significant in comparison to the others."

"So you want me to sit around and meditate?" I asked. Try as I might, I couldn't hide the disappointment in my voice.

"Meditation is not so bad an activity as you are thinking it to be," Master Yoqi said.

"She's just disappointed because in the other nations we have visited, the elemental masters trained her in their respective elements," Gerrard told him. Master Yoqi chuckled, pausing at the edge of the mountain peak. We stopped next to him, gazing out at the magnificence of the scene around us.

"When you first began your magical training, Caley, what was it that your teachers instructed you to begin with?" Master Yoqi asked. 

I furrowed my brow, thinking back to when I first received my magical powers at Trinity High. Coach Pulitz, our magical endurance teacher, had stressed the importance of developing a concentrated mind. This was also the first step that Elijah had me do. Although Coach Pulitz had intended concentration to be for spell use only, Elijah's intention were to help me build up the wall in my mind. But concentration and focus was the first step to magic that I learned.

"Concentration. Focus. That was what I started with," I told Master Yoqi.

"And these other nations, what did they begin with in their training?" he asked me.

"In Aghbad, the fire nation, I just learned the spells and built up my endurance. In Syllvanterra, the earth nation, they stressed the importance of nature in magic," I replied.

"Precisely. They skipped the first step, which is concentration. You begin by meditating, reflecting on magic, its qualities, its dangers. You build and strengthen the confines of your mind, discipline your thoughts, and master complete control of our concentration. In this process, you realize the importance of the elements in nature and the delicate balance that we must establish with Mother Earth. It is once you have achieved concentration of the mind that you can build your physical endurance, that you can begin to actual learn how to perform magic," Master Yoqi explained to me.

"So I started off with the wrong step," I said, looking at Gerrard and frowning.

"It is never too late to begin at the beginning," Master Yoqi told me. 

"So you think I should sit and meditate? But on what?" I asked. 

"Meditation has no boundaries. The mind has an infinite number of thoughts and ideas. Learn to discipline them by reflecting on them. Put them in order. It is part of the human condition to have so many questions, but oftentimes, we look outside of ourselves for the answers. The majority of us do not realie that the answers could very well lie within the millions of thoughts we have within our minds. It is just a matter of meditating on those thoughts and sorting through them. Although it seems like a tedious process, it cannot be more tedious than travelling to hundreds of nations all over the world searching for a person to give you answers. Start with yourself, then ask for help," Master Yoqi said.