There's power in the pause

[Caspa Al-Fateh]

no worries! I've got a lot on at the moment so might be slow too.

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If the most important thing here was keeping your back straight, Caspa supposed she was a born candidate. She sat upright, her bare shoulders squared and a rather rigid set to her posture. Her dark eyelids blackened her sight upon command, closing tightly with ingrained obedience. The next part was harder. She'd never thought about her breath before and it seemed to tighten in her chest and the effort of drawing it in to become more of an effort when done consciously. A few seconds later it wasn't such a problem, for with the passing moments of sensory deprivation her mind had already turned back to the last time she'd had a lesson in anything. It had been plaiting leather into rope and hadn't ended well. She remembered how to plait still, though, as clearly shown by her hair. She wondered when it would be warm enough every day to go without her jacket. It seemed warmer now, perhaps that was the clouds that the sun was taking such delight in painting its rose-garden colours. She sneaked a look at it and then noticed Alae looking at her, gave a small shrug of apology and quickly shut her eyes again. Yes, her mind indeed did wander, given half a chance. Reminding herself firmly of what she was meant to be doing, she thought of nothing but her breath. Other daydreams and reflections floated through her mind, but she fixedly returned to the breathing, forehead furrowing deeply at the effort. After a few moments, she had an uncanny feeling, as if she'd momentarily lost track of time passing. Again her need to take a peek was dire, and she did so out of one heavy-lidded eye, but this time it was in fact to check that Alae was still in front of her, that the sunset hours hadn't already flown past during that strange moment of timelessness.

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