There are two main ways of dealing with it.

Solution number 1: Meditation. By concentrating his mental focus on his own body, heart and soul the residue thoughts are simply not able to enter his headspace that is already filled to the brim with himself.

A simple analogy would be thinking of his mind as a relatively empty bottle. In a normal state the streams of thoughts and emotions that are represented as water steadily stream down into the bottle, steadily filling it up, eventually reaching the top of it and overflowing. Instead the meditation uses thoughts about the bottle itself, it’s form and material and its purpose and fills the bottle with that to the point that there simply is no space for any other stray stream of thoughts and impressions. The result is a clear mind that is able to recuperate from the constant stress.

Solution number 2: ‘Yun’. Imogyeran has already cast multiple sleeping charms on Mr. Astaros and ‘Yun’ has gotten to the point of being proficient enough to cast them herself. That way, she has lately been able to enchant Imogyeran himself, resulting in his first good night of sleep in a while.

Going back to the original analogy, the concept of using the outside force ‘Yun’ as a medium to close off his mind into a near comatose state is akin to simply putting a lid on the open bottle, making it impermeable for any kind of thought to intrude.

While the first method has some inherent benefits such as a steady increase in his capacity to influence and command the spirits, the second method is one that is focused on rejuvenating

Imogyeran’s mind and body in the form of a sound sleep as well as having the fantastic benefit of needing a tremendously shortened amount of sleeping in general.

After he has finished his daily meditation, Imogyeran passes a considerable amount of the rest of the day by training his body, socializing with Mr. Astaros and learning more things about Dogogo and ‘Yun’.

‘Yun’ has gotten a lot more responsive lately and is already showing signs of a metamorphosis into a new higher spirit. She is very energetic, blowing around the house and playing around with Dogogo, oftentimes circling around Imogyeran and showing her affection to the two of them. She loves drifting around his arms and legs and then going back counter-clockwise until landing of Imogyeran’s head or shoulder. However, every time she ever accidentally runs into the area in front of his collarbone, she strictly avoids it. There is a thick gray area around it, ominously swirling around and making her feel almost afraid. She just can’s pinpoint what it is.

Whenever she looks over at Dogogo with a questioning gaze, he simply turns to her and gives the closest thing to a smile that he can produce and afterwards goes back to doing his own thing.

Anyway, regardless of that the connection between Imogyeran and his spiritual familiars has considerably evolved. They are getting rapidly more responsive and even their physical presence is solidifying at a considerable pace. It is to the point, that the old man Hyoran is able to roughly make out their existence with his own eyes, which is a moderately difficult achievement for them.

Honestly however, most of the day is only focused on the boy’s own convenience and comfort as he doesn’t see any challenge in his current lifestyle. No, what is truly propelling his growth and demanding the most out of him is the night.

..

It is now nightfall. Hyoran has already gone to sleep. As always I did a little something for his sleep so he doesn’t disturb my activities.

<<Alright! ‘Yun’,Dogogo, It’s time again!>>

At my call the two burst out of my body, where they had been resting. While Dogogo is running circles around my legs and trying to snuggle up close to me, ‘Yun’ is swirling around my head and arms with a rapid pace, making me laugh from the ticklish feeling.

<<OK, OK! Relax a little, you two! It’s not like this is the first time we are doing this.>>

I smile for a while and then I stop. I use the spirits to erect a small hill in the ground, where I place myself upon while sitting down, both legs crossed and arms rested on top of them.

I take a couple of deep breaths as always and open my eyes.

In the meantime, every bit of my self is fleeing from my mind. My hobbies, my preferences, my age, my parents, my appearance. Only one thing remains, that which I keep on calling out.

<<I am Imogyeran Ashenwald, I am Imogyeran Ashenwald, I am Imogyeran Ashenwald..>>

That’s right. I must never forget. I am Imogyeran Ashenwald, this is the one truth that nobody can take from me. This name is my proof of existence. I am Imogyeran Ashenwald.

..

In order to maximize one’s ability to communicate with something outside of oneself, one first has to give themselves as warranty. Imogyeran uses his emptied consciousness as a vessel of communication with his spirits. Inside his empty mind, ‘Yun’ and Dogogo are freely entering, instinctively understanding the kind of trust their master is showing them. The very notion of entering a human’s consciousness is the only prerequisite to the fatal condition of Mind-Deprivation. This means that If the spirits had harbored even the slightest bit of animosity or repulsion to the boy, they could have easily killed him; multiple times every night.

But the story goes even farther than that: Not only is Imogyeran Ashenwald opening his consciousness to the spiritual familiars he created, no. There have been several occasions where he went even farther and opened his mind to every environmental spirit in the vicinity, not distinguishing between any of them. In fact, before he created ‘Yun’, this method of open consciousness was at the level of an everyday-occurrence to him.

Was the young boy simply oblivious to the dangers? Was it a high pride in his mental fortitude? Whatever lead the boy to do execute this action for extended periods of time was neither of those reasons. There are many reasons to his decision of opening his mind to the spirits despite quickly coming to understand the dangers connected to this action.

The time. The location. The circumstances. The need. The greed. The pride. And one more.

..

<<Wake Up!>>

A voice is awakening my comatose consciousness and I am able to return inside my own head.

Having come back, I am greeted with a room. The walls and ground are made out of gray bricks, there are two beds, constructed from different wooden joints being combined with each other into a stable frame and an old and worn down mattress on top of the frame, that is made from a combination of plywood and deep-moss, a very finely textured piece of cushioning.

On the front of one bed, there is a red silhouette of blood splashed on top of. On the other, smaller bed, I can see a large handprint marking its front. When I first arrived at this space, I couldn’t help myself from having a panic attack, so it feels weird to be this accepting of my mind in my current situation.

There is however one change that I just noticed, which surprises me a little: There is a slight smell of dung and fertilizer in the air. It is the same air, that I have been breathing for the last few weeks and has started to affect my mental world. I can still smell the cold and dusty smell of the ground as well as the dry air that has caused me multiple throat diseases until I used ‘Donmir to humidify the area a little…

I am trailing off again.

I turn back to the smaller bed and climb on top of it, being greeted by my two spiritual familiars. On the one hand, there is Dogogo lying on top of the bed, slightly huddled up into a ball and watching me climb up while fiercely wagging his tail.

On the other hand, ‘Yun’ is simply swirling around my body and even tries to support me on my ‘climb’ by conjuring up winds that support me.

How is she even able to do that in my mind?

At the end of the day it doesn’t matter.

For some reason the climb on top of the bed always takes a long time and I haven’t yet figured out why.

After finally achieving the climb, I am promptly attacked by a drooling canine being that is bogging me down and rubbing his body against me.

<<This is the best feeling of my day. That’s the stuff I live for>>,

I say while tightly hugging Dogogo and stopping shortly after,

since I do notice ‘Yun’ getting very jealous just about now.

I change my posture and turn towards her: <<OK, ‘Yun’. You know what time it is.>>

From the side I can hear Dogogo bark a small <<Good Luck> before falling silent as not to disturb my concentration.

<<I believe, we last left off on the Gyes-incident around the Raja-river?>>

‘Yun’ spins around once to signify her affirming my statement and we start the ‘lesson’.