"Well," Aest said, spreading his arms slightly, gesturing out toward the cliff. "This feels like a better place to make mistakes. Still, let's try to avoid making any."
Sonder smiled.
Before she wanted him to try and pull any of his things, because no matter how little he cared about them, there still was a chance to break them, and she also wanted to avoid that.
She looked around, searching for something suitable. Her eyes settled on a smooth, fist-sized stone resting a short distance away, half embedded in the dirt.
She walked over and took it from the ground.
"I hope you won't mind," she said to the stone. "A little excitement might not be bad for someone like you, wouldn't it?"
She returned to Aest and laid the stone gentle on the ground.
"This one," she said, "I don't feel any ill will from them, so I think we can start with them."
"Them? It's just a stone," Aest said.
"They may be a stone, but not just a stone. They may not want to help you along your journey."
Aest raised an eyebrow. "Wise words, I guess. I may never understand the mage's way if I have to talk to stones."
"You don't have to talk."
"Suppose I want to do it, what do I do?"
"Like you do with everything else. You just have to tell them what you think."
"Right. They can't read minds, can 'they'?"
He nodded and then walked over, stopping a few steps short of the stone. He planted his feet, standing the way a fighter would training their stance; grounded and ready.
"Alright," he said. "What do I do? Just say 'Jol' again?
"Say it and mean it. Believing in the power."
"Jol," he said.
Nothing happened.
He frowned. "Did I say it wrong?"
"No," Sonder said. "Just try again."
Aest hesitated, then did as she asked. His posture shifted, not looser but calmer.
The featherling drifted closer to him, curious, hovering near his shoulder.
Sonder thought for a moment what Vell might say in this situation. He was a master and she was once an apprentice, but now it seems that the roles had been changed where she was the one teaching.
"Imagine the space between you and the stone shrinking. Not the stone moving. Just… the distance becoming smaller."
He said it again, and then again.
"Jol."
Nothing stirred. The stone remained exactly where it was.
Aest let out a slow breath through his nose. "Alright. That one I felt," he said. "The first time, I mean. This time? Nothing."
"Don't force it," she said. "Sometimes it answers once and then goes quiet."
Sonder frowned slightly, her attention shifting from the stone to him. She thought that because he had been so similar to Vell that he would have some innate skill when it came to Dico magic.
"Figures," he said, taking it in good humor. "That's usually how luck works with me."