Chapter 20: Luxury

One of the things that had irritated me beyond belief was that in spite of all the progress we had made in the more esoteric arts of meditation and mind communication, I still could not get water heated up to have a decent bath or shower. I had spent three weeks bathing every day in an ice-cold stream, and I was sick of it. Every time I queried Finger Roberts on the issue, he just grinned at me and told me that it was still an important lesson for me to learn.

As we walked away from the infirmary, I decided to ask Lorraine about it.

She burst out laughing. "I cannot believe that they are still doing that."she gasped out.

"Doing what?"

"It's a game. The Finger Leaders who act as instructors during first phase training always pick up on something practical and say it is only possible to do it using 'magic' of some sort. They have learnt that it introduces a wild-card element. If you think that it must be possible, then you will strive to get it right and often find you can do some other things that others haven't thought possible. Obviously it worked with you."

"Damn! You mean you can't heat water?"

"Nope. If you think about it, you will realise that everything you can do is bound up in how you can affect your own body and mind. There is nothing external that you can do. No telekinesis, no levitation. Although, that jump and twist thing you did in your first fight today almost looked like it."

"Dammit. That's true. I guess if I had thought about it properly, I would have realised that! How do I get a hot shower or bath then?"

"You mean you haven't been shown? Follow me."

I turned to give Desrae a rueful grin as we walked along with Lorraine. She knew how much I had bitched about the lack of hot water. She just shrugged at me and smiled.

"Oh, by the way, there is something that you can do about the cold now that I think of it." said Lorraine.

"What's that?"

"It is possible to raise the temperature of your skin slightly if you have enough control. If you are in still water, that does have the effect of warming a tiny layer of water close to your skin, sort of like a wetsuit. It also works for water trapped in your clothing. It doesn't help much for bathing, but if you are hiding in a wet, muddy marsh or something, you can stop yourself freezing to death."

"Excellent. That is something I will definitely practice. Thanks Lorraine."

"No problem. You should know that once you have joined the Fight, and been accepted by the veterans, you will pick up a lot of the little tricks like that..."

"Yeah, sounds like the art of soldiering in general; experience counts for a lot."