Spinspace: The Space of Spins (The Metaspace Chronicles Book 2) (16 page)

Chapter 39

Xander
: work smart, not hard

“It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.'  You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.”

– Winston Churchill

He watched as Carolyn tried the spell.  She flickered and faded slightly, but remained visible.  After a minute she stopped trying and collapsed on a bench.  “It's no use!  I'll never learn this!”  She seemed on the verge of tears.

“It takes time,” he told her.  “Learning takes time, no matter what you're learning.  Did you sew perfectly, the first time you tried?”

“No,” she said.  “But that's different.  I could see what I was doing.  And this isn't my first try.  It's impossible!  And how will I ever know if I am getting it right?”

“That's easy.  You'll find yourself in darkness when the light bends around you.” 

“It seemed like the room got a little dimmer, for a moment,” she said.  “But I just couldn't hold it or make the weave any tighter.  Maybe Lester was wrong.  Maybe I'm not wizard material.”

“No,” he assured her.  “You've got the talent all right.  Impatience is just making you try too hard.”

“What are you saying?  That trying less will somehow make it happen?”

“Well, no.  Not less, just less forcefully.  Didn't Lester explain this?  You can't push photons out of their paths.  You have to concentrate on changing the shape of the pathspace they are following.”

“He said something like that,” she admitted.  “But somehow it seems clearer when you explain things.  Why can't you be my teacher, like you did with him?'

“I know it's hard,” he said.  “But two people are learning here.  You have to learn pathspace...and Lester has to learn how to teach it to people.  The only way he can learn how to teach this is by being your mentor.  If I take over and do the teaching, all I will end up with is a bunch of students.  That's not good enough.  Soon there will be too many students for me to teach them all, so we need teachers.  If you think learning pathspace is hard, just wait until you're a teacher yourself, having to watch someone else try and not being able to do anything to help them except talk.”

She scowled.  “That wont happen any time soon,  at the rate I'm going.”

“Oh, I don't know about that,” he said.  “This isn't like lifting heavy objects, where you gradually grow stronger and can lift more.  It's more like a dexterity thing, like juggling.  You mind will keep thinking about it even when you're asleep and the next time you try you will find you have gotten better.”

She shook her head.  “It's been days now, and I still can't even go invisible, even for a second.  Maybe I should go back to Inverness.”

“Don't be hasty,” he said.  “Try again, but first let me remind you of something I'm sure Lester has told you.”  He picked up an apple from his desk.  “Pretend this is a photon, a piece of light.  It's coming toward me, following a path that will lead it to bounce off me and reflect toward you so that you see me.  I don't want that to happen.  So that do I do?”

“You nudge it out of the way, out of that path,” she said.

“No,” he said.  “That's what's holding you back.  You're trying to affect the photons.  You can't push a photon.  They're like ghosts without bodies.  There's nothing material to push against.”

“He said something like that.  But what else can I do?”

“Listen carefully.  What you need to do is affect the path the photon is following.”  Seeing her \expression, he tried again.  “When a road bends around a lake, why don't horses and travelers fall into the lake?  Because the lake pushes them away?  No.  Because they are following a road that goes around the lake, not into it.”

He moved the apple slowly toward himself.  “Don't think about the photons at all.  Think about the paths they are following, the pathspace they are embedded in.  You have to imagine the pathspace bending.”  With his other hand he traced a path around him, then moved the apple along that path.  “When you do that, you will affect all of the photons.”

He watched as she tried again.  This time she had more luck, and faded almost completely away before popping back to full visibility.  “That was better.”

“I could see the room getting a little dimmer that time,” she said.  “But there's too many paths to imagine.  The weave is still too loose.”

“That's my fault, for using the apple,” he said.  “You can't think of the paths as individual lines.  By grouping them together, you can affect more paths with less effort.” Placing the apple on the desk, he traced a path bending around it.  “Affecting a single path is pretty easy, but trying to build up the weave from a lot of single paths is too much work.”

“Then how do you do it?”

“Imagine a collection of paths.”  He picked up a piece of paper and stood it on edge on the table. With his other hand he took the edge of the paper and bent it around the apple. “A plane, like this sheet of paper, has an infinite number of line paths in it.  If I imagine bending the plane, I am bending
all
of those lines at the same time, instead of individually.”

Then he picked up a book, opened it, and set it edgewise on the desktop so that standing there it made a V around the apple.  “Then if you imagine a huge number of parallel planes, like a book, you can see how to bend them all around the apple at the same time.  It's just as simple as bending a single path, or a single sheet, but you get a more comprehensive effect.  Try it.”

Standing up, she tried again.  This time she was more successful.  After a few moments she faded completely from sight.  She popped back almost immediately, her eyes wide.  “It worked!  The whole room went black that time.”

“I'm sure it did,” he said, smiling.  “You were completely invisible that time.  Good job.  Now go back to Lester and tell him you're ready for more drilling.  You still have to learn.”

She groaned.  “Can't I just take a break and enjoy the moment?”

He laughed.  “You've already enjoyed it.  Now go back and practice it.  You need to be able to go invisible at a moment's notice.  Practice it until you can do it without thinking about it first.”  He picked up the book again.  “And tell Lester that when you can do it in less than a second, ten times in a row, then he can come to me for another lesson in spinspace.”

She closed the door behind her.  He picked up the book and flipped back to where he had been reading.  A wave of dizziness passed over him, and he blinked and set the book down.  Maybe I've been overdoing it.  I'm talking too much and sleeping too little.

The dizziness passed.  Maybe I'm too easy to find.  They'll learn faster if I'm less in the way.  He reached out to weave pathspace so he could take a nap unseen.

But as soon as his mind touched the space of paths, he felt three echoes, the sensed presences of other magic workers.  Two of them were about twenty yards away and should be Lester and Carolyn.  But the third was below him...and moving closer.  A new student?

Chapter 40

Nathan
: words across the miles

כמים קרים לנפש עייפ
ה,
כל כך חדשות טובות מארץ רחוקה

“
As cold water to a weary soul, so is good news from a far country”

– Proverbs 25:25

They skirted the edge of the Emirates, traveling just north of the southern border of the Desolation.  Nathan kept trying to learn more about the Tzaddikim, but his father did his best to deflect his queries for the most part.

“You ask too many questions,” his father Isaac said.

“But Father, are we not told 'Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to words of knowledge'?”

Isaac frowned.  “Proverbs 23:12,” he agreed.  “Yes, such is written.  But return to your lessons. 'In all labor there is profit, but idle chatter leads only to poverty'.”

Nathan looked to his book again.  He was sure it was another quote from Proverbs, but he could not place it.  But how could it be 'idle chatter' to ask about the Tzaddikim?  Especially when his father
was
one?

Next to him, Isaac was writing a letter to Rebekah.  That was a welcome sight.  It meant they would be stopping at the next town. 

It also explained his father's sour mood.  Sending mail inside one's own country was uncomplicated, but
between
countries, not.  If they had been traveling in a regular coach service, it would have been a simple matter to hand the letter off to the next coach from the same company that passed them going in the opposite direction.  Since they were traveling by private wagon, his father would have to find someone trustworthy who was traveling back to New Israel.  It was not impossible, but it was also not easy, and the farther they got from their homeland the harder it would be.  No wonder his father was cranky.

Shortly after lunch they stopped at the next town.  It was a place called Medina on the outskirts of one of the old cities called Akron.  They pulled up next to the local inn for travelers. 

“Wait here,” said Isaac.  “I will be back soon.”  He was not wearing his white robe now.

Nathan watched his father go into the inn, telling himself there would be nothing to see in the inn but weary travelers, drinking farmers, and the innkeeper's family. 

While he waited, he cast about for something to do to pass the time.  His eyes fell on the book his father had left on the seat.  He glanced out the window, then opened the book.

The first page was blank.  Impatiently, he flipped the pages.  They were all blank.

He frowned.  A blank book would make perfect sense, if his father had been writing a journal.  But he could have sworn his father had been reading earlier.  It was yet another mystery, another secret his father was keeping.

He closed the book, slid back across the seat to his own window and gazed out at the strangers walking in and out of the inn..  Would the wax seal upon the letter be respected by these people?  Would the missive find its way back Rebekah?  And how would his father pay for its journey?  According to him, the gold certificate held all of their money.

After a bit longer than he had expected, his father returned to the wagon, apparently in a much better mood than when he left it.

“Did you find a courier?”

“No,” said Isaac.  “But the innkeeper will send it with the next reliable courier heading in that direction..”  He resumed his seat and shut the door.

“How did you arrange that?  You said we carried no coin, only the gold certificate.  Will he hold it until we send back coins from Denver?”

He half expected  another reprimand for asking so many questions.  But his father only smiled.  “He will pay the courier for us.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Because I made him a couple of everflames, one for his hearth and another for cooking or warming his bedroom.”  At Nathan's questioning look, he added “He supplied the coins I asked God's blessing on.”

“Why coins?  Couldn't you just ask God's blessing on his inn, itself...just as you did with the wagons?”

“I could have,” his father agreed.  “But it wouldn't last as long.  The effect is best with more dense materials.  Even brick and stone are not as good as metal for holding the influence.”

“Any metal?”

“Some metals are better than others.  Cobalt is better than iron, and copper even better...but if we had gotten the Tourists to make all of the everflames for us out of silver and gold, they'd all still be working.”

“So he let you use a couple of his pennies?”

“I talked him into using a silver Texas dollar and a gold Rado dollar.  It seemed a fitting way to celebrate the good news.”

Ah, so there was another reason for the improvement in his mood.   “What good news?”

“Texas tried to invade Rado and lost.  I had feared I was bringing you into a war zone, but the war is already over.”

“Are you sure?  Won't Rado press their advantage and move to invade Texas now, to prevent another invasion attempt?”

“That's the biggest surprise of all.  The Honcho of Texas fell in the battle, and Rado has made peace with his son.  They are actually in alliance now!  Can you believe it?”

“I can believe it, but I am not sure if I like it.  Will they join forces now, and move against the Emirates and new Israel?”

“I do not think it likely,” said Isaac.  “It seems their alliance is a voluntary one, rather than a conquest.  According to what I have heard, they are seeking to gather other countries in a new Union, in which decisions will be made by a Council or Congress made up of representatives from the member countries.  No doubt they will invite the Emirates and new Israel to join them also.”

“Surely new Israel would never join a Union if the Emirates were part of it!  We made the Desolation to keep them from attacking us.”

“Actually, both sides decided to create the Desolation,” his father informed him.  “But you are probably right.  It would be very difficult to convince  both countries to join.”

“I should hope so!  From what I've read, Arabs have killed a lot of Jews in the past.”

“Jews have killed Arabs as well,” Isaac said.  “But besides that, the people of the Dixie Emirates are Muslims, not Arabs.  Not even their grandfathers have set eyes on the sands of Arabia.”

Nathan stared at his father.  “Are you saying that you would welcome an alliance with the sons of Ishmael?”

“I am saying,” his father replied, “that it would not be the worst thing that could happen on this continent.  As you have seen yourself, the Desolation is healing.  Soon farmers will be settling it, and then it will once again be usable, as before, for either of us to invade the other.  I, for one, would not wish a return to the bloody past.”