The Concept Of Time

VI: Indigo

The rest of the day went by rather quickly; Renée helped around the house with basic cleaning and chores, and Janine returned to the hospital in the late afternoon for another shift. Acanit, however, stayed rather quiet. Renée had been extremely lucky the first time she was caught talking to The Watch; Acanit didn't want to take any chances.

     Renée closed the door quietly behind Janine after a quiet but cheerful goodbye, then sighed loudly in relief, sliding down to the floor with her back against the door. She took The Watch out of her pocket and held it up to her eyes by its chain.

     "Hey," Renée murmured as she tapped The Watch's face, causing it to spin around, "You there?"

     "Yes, I am here," Acanit replied. "How are you, Young Keeper?" She sounded so happy to communicate, it was almost as if Renée could hear that there would've been a smile on her face.

     Renée grinned a little.

"I'm alright," she started, "What about you? You were pretty much silent today... Is something wrong?"

Acanit let out a small noise of confusion, then a soft chuckle; it echoed through Renée's head quietly.

"Yes, yes; I am fine, Young Keeper," Acanit replied earnestly, "I was merely observing."

"'Observing'? What were you observing?" Renée asked with furrowed brows.

"You."

Renée's eyes widened and her face became flushed with embarrassment.
'What the hell..? What could she possibly need to observe?'

"Uh," Renée stuttered, "Wh-... What were you.."

Acanit began to giggle, which then turned into serene laughter. Renée's face turned even redder than before, and she looked down to her feet, which were tapping quietly from her nervousness.

"Please relax," Acanit said through her giggles, "I was only monitoring your habits so that I am able to train you properly. We are starting your telepathic training this evening, remember?"

Renée looked back at The Watch, her face slowly returning to its normal, pale hue.

"Yeah...

I remember."

    

     The training commenced. Acanit had planned for a long, but simple training session that night, but unfortunately Renée had grown tired after only a short while. Renée knew that this was a crucial part in her becoming a Keeper, however, and she knew it had to be done sooner or later; she and Acanit both preferred the former rather than the latter.

     "Alright," Acanit began, "We will start with simple breathing exercises to calm you down. I noticed that your breathing is... Not really shallow, but rather... Forced, for lack of a better term. Please forgive me if I am wrong, but you always seem a tad... Anxious.."

     "Oh... You picked up on that too, huh?" Renée asked quietly.

     "Yes but that's alright; we will get rid of that soon enough. You'll need to be calm and collected at all times now that you are a Keeper."

     Renée nodded and made a quiet hum in understanding.

     The breathing exercises were easy enough. Breath in for two seconds, hold in for two, exhale for two. Then, three seconds, four seconds, until Acanit made Renée stop at five. The hardest part for Renée was being able to use all of her air to exhale. Acanit forced her to exhale in the allotted time, or she would be forced to go back to two seconds and begin from there; Renée had the tendency to exhale for longer than the time given.
     After the breathing exercises, which lasted a surprising thirty minutes, the pair moved on to aura reading.