Ermon sat in the Unbound Smoke Sanctum, in the middle of their Hallow and meditated. It wasn't something he was any good at, but being in one Cabal with Ariadne made him realize that in order to get better at Mind he needed to push his limits.

The hardest thing for him was separating Intellect and Will. When you studied any other Arcanum, you could anchor yourself in mental abilities and memories. Mind showed you that these things were as much a manifestation of the Supernal as the stones under your feet. And accepting that all you were was changeable and fleeting wasn't easy.

The Warlock had a chess board in front of him and played against himself. He wasn't any good at chess either, but that wasn't the point. He tried to maintain his concentration on white's strategy as he played black and vice versa.

The first game had been a mess. A bunch of random moves, by the end it looked as if someone having no idea about the rules just threw the pieces all over the board.

By the third game Ermon got himself a major headache, shifting from one point of view to the other, trying to be two players at once.

Now it was the fifth game and it had been two hours of playing, but finally he was getting able to manage it. The trick was to 'save' the thoughts you had as one player at the end of the turn and then start from that state when balck finished their turn. It was very different from using a spell to have to concurrent thought processes: here he didn't draw on the Supernal, but simply exercised his Will over his Mind.

And, for the first time, Ermon really felt that through effort he could mold himself into whatever he wanted. And as he did, he focused and allowed the Mana flow into him, filling his Pattern and promising limitless possibilities.

Now to get rid of this headache.