The Alpha King And His Chosen Luna novel Chapter 195

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<The art of seeme

The art of seeing

(Isla)

The path to the training grounds had become familiar over the past few weeks.

I’d walked it more times than I could count. This morning, though, every step carried a different meaning. I wasn’t going there to watch others train or practice ordinary skills.

I was walking toward a lesson no Celestial wolf had ever recorded before.

That thought should’ve made me nervous.

Instead, it made me smile.

I looked over at Caius as we walked.

He hadn’t said much since we left our quarters. He didn’t seem to think the silence needed filling, and I was beginning to understand why. Some moments were better experienced than talked through.

I drew a slow breath.

Soon we’d stop walking.

Soon the first lesson would begin.

I wasn’t trying to imagine what would happen anymore.

There was no point guessing before we’d even begun. Whatever the first symbol had to teach me would reveal itself soon enough. Until then, I was content simply to walk beside Caius.

For now, I was exactly where I wanted to be.

A few moments later, Caius slowed to a stop.

I looked ahead and recognized the clearing we’d used before. It was quiet, empty, and far enough from the rest of the grounds that no one would disturb us. The stillness made it feel as though the morning belonged to us alone.

Caius looked around once before turning to me.

“This will do.”

I nodded.

I had a feeling this place would always mean something different after today.

Caius rested the journal on a flat stone near the edge of the clearing.

For a moment he didn’t open it. Instead, he looked around the training ground as though making sure nothing would distract us. Only when he seemed satisfied did he turn back to me.

“Before we begin,” he said, “I want you to forget everything you’re hoping will happen.”

The art of seetfig

Hooked at him.

“Everything?”

He nodded.

“If you’re waiting for something extraordinary, you might miss something important.”

I considered that for a moment.

“So today isn’t about looking for power.”

“No.”

“What is it about?”

He picked up the journal.

“Learning to observe.”

I frowned slightly.

“Observe what?”

He smiled.

“That’s for you to discover.”

I looked at the journal again.

Yesterday it had been filled with mystery.

Today it felt like an invitation.

I watched as Caius carefully opened it.

Claim

He didn’t speak straight away. He gave me time to study the symbol without telling me what I should think. At first I didn’t understand why.

Then I realized he wanted my first impression.

“What do you see?” he asked.

I studied the page.

“It looks… simple.”

“It does.”

“But I don’t think it is.”

A faint smile crossed his face.

“Neither do I.”

Something about that answer settled me.

< The art of seemg

We didn’t need certainty to begin.

We only needed an open mind.

I lowered my eyes to the page again.

The circle wasn’t perfectly round. The lines crossing through it weren’t evenly spaced either. At first I thought they might have been mistakes, but the longer I looked, the less I believed that.

“I think it was drawn this way on purpose,” I said,

“I think so too.”

“You don’t know why?”

“No.”

I looked at him.

“I thought you’d already worked that part out.”

He smiled.

“If I had, this lesson wouldn’t belong to both of us.”

That made me smile.

For some reason, I liked knowing he was discovering this with me instead of leading me toward conclusions he’d already reached.

Caius closed the journal for a moment and looked around the clearing.

“Books can only take us so far,” he said.

I followed his gaze.

“So this is where the real lesson starts.”

He nodded.

“I think so.”

He picked up a small stick from the ground and knelt.

Without hurrying, he copied the first symbol into the dirt exactly as it appeared in the journal. Every line was placed with care, and when he finished, he compared it to the page before setting the journal aside.

“Come here,” he said.

I stepped closer until I was standing beside him.

“Now,” he said, “tell me what changes.”

I lowered my eyes to the ground.

The symbol looked ordinary at first glance. If someone had walked past, they probably wouldn’t have given

The art of seemig

it a second look. Yet standing over it felt strangely different.

“I’m still not sure what I’m supposed to see,” I admitted.

“You don’t have to be.”

I looked at him.

“Then how will I know?”

“You’ll realize you’re thinking differently than you were a few minutes ago.”

I thought about that.

He wasn’t trying to hand me an answer.

He was teaching me a different way to see.

This time I stopped wondering what the symbol could do.

I simply looked at it.

“The symbol hasn’t changed,” I said slowly. “I have.”

Caius met my eyes without speaking.

Cam

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