34 lines
2.5 KiB
Plaintext
34 lines
2.5 KiB
Plaintext
Calvin wasn't sure how much time he'd spent in the cave.
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Days at least.
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The rock underneath him was peppered with spots of soil underneath the areas he'd sat as he'd practiced using the Meadowlark.
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He'd even managed to create a few patches of grass, although never entirely intentionally.
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Somehow he'd avoided running out of air, possibly because he'd occasionally touch that same vein of life and let it restore him.
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Hopefully whatever supplied it wouldn't run out.
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The Hierarchy's Practicants could use the Meadowlark to communicate remotely, at least as Calvin understood it.
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Here, however, he heard nothing, not even the whisper of the herds of old.
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And, even more surprisingly, not even the New Voice from the Witch.
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The exercises in Yakaterina's book were simple, mostly breathing exercises.
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It didn't seem to quite make sense how they were helping him use the Meadowlark at all, but Calvin supposed that was how this sort of esoteric knowledge went.
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As long as it kept him alive, he'd have no problem with pushing forward.
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The practice had certainly made a difference.
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Each time, focussing on the smell of some grass or leaf and diving into his own breathing until he connected with the Meadowlark.
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He could now control the warm energy that flowed from him, pushing it into the stone to try to weather it into soil.
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And when he grew tired or felt the lack of food more acutely, he could pull warmth back from the soil again, turning it back into stone.
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It still took a long time, but each time, it went slightly faster.
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The training manual was all he had to help him.
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The manual was growing less immediately useful, however.
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Occasionally pages had images or diagrams, with instructions to study them, but none really seemed to relate to anything of immediate interest.
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Pages on climate models and the structure of dirt. #http://www.froup.com/tr/tr.pl?1594
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The dew/seed/bulk trichotomy of grass. #http://www.froup.com/tr/tr.pl?1593
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These seemingly theoretical sections took more and more time to understand, and were little more than
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Calvin read the book in short flashes, trying to stretch the torch's battery as long as possible.
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Otherwise, he left the room pitch black.
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The manual mentioned other books as sources of techniques of creating specific effects, and he assumed that one of those books would have a method of creating light.
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But those books weren't with him, so Calvin just kept pushing on, trying to memorise the complicated diagrams in the brief flashes of light he allowed himself.
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