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I closed my eyes again and visualized the river near the compound.

He laughed. “That’s not a river, Sol. It’s barely a trickle.”

I jerked in his grasp. “How do you know what I’m picturing? You can see what I see?” Goddess, have mercy, this was just getting worse.

“Not quite. I can’t look through your eyes, but you can send me images and memories in the same way as you send your thoughts.”

“That’s…disturbing.”

“It can be very useful.”

“If you say so.”

He sighed. “Imagine a big river for me so I can help you build a dam.”

“I only know one river,” I murmured, embarrassed once more of my closed-off existence.

Nyx smiled. I couldn’t see him, but I could feel it in my mind. What an odd sensation. “I will have to take you to the River Kingdom one day.”

The kindness in his tone shocked me, like showing me a place he loved would be a pleasure for him.

“Okay,” he said into my mind, the feeling still unfamiliar. But unlike when we were flying, it was made all the stranger because I was staring at him, and his mouth didn’t move. “I’m going to show you a river to help you visualize. It’s just a memory from my mind to yours.”

I braced, not sure how it would feel, but I nodded, anyway.

Suddenly, I saw a vast river with raging waters. It filled my mind as if I were looking at the sight myself. I gasped. It was unbelievable.

“You see it?”

I nodded, unsure whether or not I should open my eyes. I blinked my eyes open, and the image was gone.

“Okay, now I want you to imagine building a dam that will stop the water from flowing away.”

“H—how? I stammered aloud.

“Bring in logs, pull down trees. It’s your river; stop it however you can. Build a wall to stop the flow. Imagine with each log you add that the thoughts have a harder time flowing away until you have them all contained.”

I tried what he suggested, but I felt silly.

“It’s not silly, Sol.”

I grumbled that he was answering my thoughts again.

“Stop me, then. I’m going to keep answering them as long as you let me hear them. “

I rolled my eyes, but I tried it. I imagined stacking up huge logs across the water. It slowed the flow until they walled it in completely, creating a calm pool.

“Good,” Nyx said softly.

I opened my eyes to find him grinning.

“Did it work?” I asked, surprised.

“It was a good first effort.”

My shoulders fell. “So, you can still hear them?”

“I can feel a barrier. That’s a big achievement for your first time. You’ll be able to strengthen it with practice and allow it to open and close at will once you have it perfected.”