Compounding Traumas (Artemis University Book 6)

nodded. “You need to think of rolling out dough, that calm, controlled push out with the rolling pin.”
“Like controlling my breathing during training or workouts?” I checked.
“Yes, exactly like that. Let out your breath and push that much, but then inhale and keep control. If you equate it to cleansing your body of negativity, as in yoga, you’ll understand the principle better, except it’s not negative, but power.”
I thought I could handle that. In theory. I had only one worry then. “What if I don’t get the same bang for my buck?”
“You might not, but if you hurt yourself as you did before, it will be longer in between times you can do this, and the damage could be permanent. That’s not worth the risk. As in training, do it the right way and get stronger to do more, not kill yourself for one fight.”
Fair enough. I centered myself and focused how she said. I closed my eyes and took in a slow, steady breath before letting it out and letting my magic push out the power in the storage vessels. I pulled back when I inhaled again, and just in time too, because I’d felt the stirrings of it about to overwhelm and tidal wave me.
“Good, very good, but a shorter breath this time. You almost lost control,” she said quietly as to not startle me.
I nodded that I heard her and did it again. The third and fourth times, I felt more comfortable and confident; by the fifth time, I knew I could have let out a longer breath. The less power left in the vessels, the more I could push out. My instincts told me that, but I wasn’t going to risk it when we were working on control.
When I finished up, I realized I was completely wrong. Power pulsed from White, and it hit me that she had been magically guiding me with training wheels.
Well damn. It seemed not everything was going to be so easy for me or come fast. Oh well. I could live with that.
“Thanks. That wasn’t scary this time,” I confessed.
“And that’s the biggest part of control when it comes to magic.” She smiled when I gave her a confused look. “Confidence. You need confidence in what you’re doing when it comes to magic or casting. You’ve seen it with working runes. The confidence and visuals are half the work in making it happen the way you want.”
I definitely couldn’t deny that, nodding as I packed everything up.
“How do you feel?” she checked as I stood.
I snorted. “Glad to have the scooter.” I shrugged. “Tired, but not like before. I could eat the entire kitchen probably, but still good.”
“Your aura’s not in distress. I’m glad it went better this time. We’ll keep working on it, and soon you won’t need me and will be able to do more.”
“Awesome, thanks.”
We hopped on our scooters—well, I did. Professor White elegantly slid onto the seat and made it look as if she was a proper lady riding a champion horse, even if it was something tinier than most Vespas.
I opened the portal and let the dogs through before White, and then myself with my scooter. I plugged them in and my stomach growled loudly.
Of course it did.
“Once you have the control you need and can handle this on your own, I think we can start seeing if you have to drive out to the edge or if you simply need to pump energy into Faerie,” she said as we left the room with the portal. “It might make this easier on you if you didn’t have to travel as the distance will become longer.”
“And yet I haven’t hit anyone yet,” I grumbled. “Not even animals.”
“Faerie isn’t a small world,” she told me. “I do not believe it is as expansive as Earth, but it isn’t small or one continent. It might be some time until you find people. Animals might be sooner. Hopefully. But I think you made big progress clearing the muck enough to allow the sun to come back. That’s huge. Focus on your achievements right now, Ms. Vale.”
I rolled my eyes at her. “It’s the summer. At least call me Tamsin if we’re going to be working together on this super secret project over summer.”
She sighed, which surprised me. She winced when I stopped and looked at her. “The last student I became close enough with to call by their first name didn’t stay with our society and become an upstanding member. I would never think that of you, but as you have old wounds, so do the rest of us.”
I put the pieces together and my eyes went wide. “Wow, someone from Artemis became Underground?”
“Yes, she did, and when she realized the truly horrid mistake she’d made, she did her best to get us information on them. She succeeded, but they killed her for it. The council still labeled her a traitor even as they acted on the information and captured several Underground agents. So to me, the system failed her twice.”
“Once, to make her think the Underground might be better, and again to not let her be forgiven when she tried to help.” I shook my head. “I doubt a man would have been treated that way in this sexist society.”
She did a double take as we walked along. “I didn’t consider that, but you are right. I was too lost in my own head and hurt, but I think you are right on that.” She cleared her throat. “Tamsin.”
I smiled. Yeah, we all had our demons. “Sorry you lost one. It’s hard.”
“You speak from experience.”
I nodded. “I helped get some out of bad stuff, and they tried to do better and have a real life, but then changed their minds. They went back into prostitution with shit pimps