Meditations Marcus Aurelius Novels & Stories

she sniffed. "I'll find her once I find her." Hearing that, I took my heels and ran as fast as possible to wherever my legs were carrying me. Going back to the mansion is nothing but death. "She's here," I heard her growl, and I could tell I was being chased. "Get back here, you wench!" I ignored them; my heart was beating so fast that I could barely hear my footsteps. All I could hear was my heartbeat. Marcus's POV I stood in the middle of the forest with my eyes closed. The weather was cool for meditation. I slowly raised my hands up and paused at the sudden change in the atmosphere.

“In a way that I don’t think everyone catches.” She looked at him. “You caught it.” “I was paying attention.” The engines hummed. The stars outside hadn’t moved in hours, or had moved so slowly it amounted to the same thing. At some point Marcus reclined his seat fully and closed his eyes. He didn’t make a production of it, just went quiet, breathing slowing, the lines of his face easing in a way they hadn’t once since he’d boarded. The weight didn’t disappear but it settled, like something finally allowed to rest.

"Your pace is very steady and you are not leaning forward too much like you did the first time we tried this." "I like the way it makes my head feel quiet," I told him as I walked over to the edge of the bridge and rested my arms on the cold stone railing. "When I am running I don't have enough breath to think about the bad things or the dreams I had last night. I only have enough room in my brain to think about the next step and the next breath and it is a very nice break from everything else." "It is a good way to clear the mind," Marcus said as he leaned his bicycle against a tree and stood next to me. "The doctors say that exercise releases things in the brain that make you feel happier

His grin. The way he had looked down at me like he found the entire situation entertaining. After what felt like hours of tossing and turning, I groaned softly and sat up again. “Okay,” I muttered. “Enough.” Meditation. That would help. I shifted to the floor beside the bed and sat cross-legged. Slow breath in. Slow breath out. Focus. The steady rhythm of my breathing slowly pushed the chaos of the day to the edges of my mind. Atlas tried to sneak back into my thoughts more than once.

My sense of self beyond being a weapon. Mara helped, teaching me meditation techniques that did not involve combat or magic. Just breathing. Just being present in my body without purpose or goal. “You have been running on survival mode for so long, you forgot how to simply exist,” she said during one session. “Your nervous system is stuck in fight or flight. We need to teach them that the danger has passed. That you can rest now.” It was harder than any battle I had fought. Sitting still, letting my mind quiet, accepting that I did not need to be doing something every moment. But slowly, gradually, I began to remember what peace felt like.

Professional calm despite obvious shock. "Marcus," she said. Firm but gentle. Grounding but kind. "Marcus. You're here now. You're back. You're real. Focus on now. On here. On this moment. Breathe. Just breathe. You're safe. You're back. You're real." He tried. Really tried. To breathe. To be present. To focus on now. But kept drifting. Kept returning to between. To void. To nothing that was everything.

The warmth entirely vanished from Marcus’s dark brown eyes. The boxer stepped away from the bed. The Silver Chill at the base of his skull—his Danger Detection—was vibrating with a relentless, freezing intensity. It wasn't warning him of an immediate attack in the room; it was warning him of the systemic, ambient malice woven into the very architecture of the continent. Marcus walked to the center of the room. He closed his eyes and forced his heart rate to plummet, entering the meditative, slow-breathing state of a monk. The AI node in the ceiling swept over him with invisible lasers, logged his vitals, and verified a sleep state.

"No one. I was just meditating out loud." He arched his brows, probably not believing my lie but he said nothing about it. "Why don't you come in? Outside is cold," he offered but I shook my head, declining it. He nodded in understanding and looked around before he went back to the camp house. I let out a deep breath and laid flat, staring heavenward. My thought drifted back to the offer made by Marcus and I began to wonder how it would feel like to become the Alpha and be more powerful than Alpha Hector, slowly drifting to sleep

declared Thorn, "you are next." Like Adriana, Thorn made me sit on the grass with my hands flat upon the ground. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath, attempting to quiet the chaos within. The gentle rustling of leaves and the distant song of a bird-filled my ears. Inhaling the crisp air, I focused on grounding myself. As Thorn guided me through the meditation, I envisioned roots extending from my fingertips, burrowing into the earth below. It took time, but gradually, I felt a subtle shift. A warmth surged through me, a connection to the earth's energy.

If he said he had a shot, he did. “Dominic, breathe.” I said, keeping my body as still as I could. “You’re panicking. I get it. But this? Shooting me, jumping off this ship? It's not going to fix anything. You know that.” Dominic’s breath came hot and uneven against my ear. “Shut up. You don’t know shit about what I’ve built.” [Good. Keep him talking.] Lucas’s voice cut in through my mind. [And stay balanced so neither of you goes over the railing into the water.]