Strange Attractors - Kim Falconer [131]
A short cloud and one tall tree.
She smiled, brushing the leaves from the hem of her skirt. ‘That’s less than a minute.’
The sisters took off, zipping past, heading back to the cottage.
‘What else can you see, my lovelies? Any sign of Drayco prowling about?’
They cawed and jeered and swooped.
None of the temple cats are here.
Nell frowned, about to ask more, when the words of the Watcher echoed in her mind.
Observers are not conscious of anything outside of consensus reality.
‘Indeed, they are not.’ Nell dropped to one knee and sprang into the air, morphing into a black falcon, the leaves and loam rising about her as she shot away towards the cottage.
Rosette stared at her soup, spoon hovering. Her mouth watered, the rich aromas of tomato, beans and chilli wafting up, making her whole body smile. But she couldn’t take a bite. Not yet. Nell was making a point and she hadn’t got it yet.
‘It’s not like it isn’t your third helping,’ Nell said.
‘I know, but I’m still hungry, and you’ve set a hard task.’
‘It will be hard, if you see it that way. Come. Let go. Nothing is accomplished through struggle. Nothing magical, anyway.’
Rosette let her shoulders relax. This wasn’t a simple summoning. She needed more than a conjuring of the Elementals to achieve the desired results. All this because I complained of the soup being too hot! That will teach me to comment. ‘I need a hint, Nell. Please?’
‘A hint?’
‘Just point me in the right direction before I faint from hunger.’
Nell sighed. ‘There are three ways you can cool your soup down. Think of the obvious first.’
‘That would be time,’ Rosette said. ‘Given enough time, the soup will reach the same temperature as everything around it.’
‘That’s the easiest way, if you have the patience. The universe does it for you.’
Rosette wished she did have patience, yet part of her was exhilarated. Nell was giving her opportunities to demonstrate her skills. She was on her way to passing her apprenticeship. She could feel it. She straightened, focusing. ‘I could also hasten the process by slowing the soup down.’
‘Explain.’
‘Heat is molecular motion. If I slow the motion with an inertia spell, it will cool faster.’
‘Excellent. There is one other way. Can you imagine it?’
She couldn’t, and the strain of trying was tensing her up again. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Drayco wasn’t around to help, and she didn’t want to tap that channel. Nell would sense it and this was about what she knew as a witch, right here, right now. She took another breath and closed her eyes.
She and Teg had talked about something like this, a problem of energy conservation versus energy consumption. He had been studying these ideas on a quantum level, fascinated by the world of the very small. His time with Kreshkali at the library of Temple Los Loma helped because he…She stiffened, her mouth gaping open.
‘Got something, dear?’ Nell asked.
‘He’d had time to consider physics from a philosophical view!’ She finished her thoughts aloud.
‘Are you talking about Teg?’
She nodded. ‘He’s brilliant with the word puzzles, and the mind puzzles too, don’t you think? We talked about this but I didn’t get it then.’
‘And now?’
‘I’m catching a glimpse of the third way.’
‘Let’s hear it.’
She was about to explain but shook her head. ‘I’ll just do it. The process will explain itself.’
Nell’s eyebrows went up. ‘Well said.’ She leaned back, taking a sip from her mug.
Rosette allowed her awareness to surround the soup, visualising the bowl until it became a vast landscape, seeing the contents as tiny particles of energy. They were all moving about in wild gyrations, some faster than others.