Third Eye Blind

Madoc sits, cross-legged, on nothing at all. Or nothing visible. He seems to have completely forgotten any unpleasantness from before.

"If you were from here, I'd simply tell you to grow a third eye, but that's not possible. Instead, we'll discuss it, and you'll need to do some exercises to learn how it works for you. If you are ready, we will begin. This magic is inherently Chaotic, which means that each practitioner's experience is different. There is underlying structure, of course. Just don't bring that topic up with other Lords of Chaos.

"Now, a simple starting question. What is an eye, what is the difference between having one and having two, and by inference, what would it mean to have three?"

Vere responds immediately. "An eye is an organ that allows for the perception of the environment via analysis of light. Two eyes allow one to calculate position and shape more accurately. Three..." He frowns thoughtfully. "A third eye would allow for a more detailed analysis of the geometry of the environment, and allow one to see more of objects at once."

"Explaining a third eye to a non-initiate is like attempting to explain depth perception to a one-eyed being. The simplest use of it is to see more than can be seen with the first and second eyes. The easiest thing to see is reality. Many students are satisfied with this, and it is a thing of value, especially in my home, where reality changes moment to moment. Things that are constant may show their pliable nature, things that are in flux may expose hidden constancy."

Vere nods thoughtfully.

Madoc smiles, the smile of a predator. "For all that this is Chaos, it is often easier for some beings to present a Chaotic face while resting in constancy. As in your lands, not all birds spend all of their lives in the air."

"Enough theory. Close your eyes and look at me and tell me what you see."

Vere closes his eyes, with his face still turned towards Madoc. He endeavours not to force himself to see, but to simply allow himself to perceive.

"This is the easiest perception. Your eyes are closed, yet you experience light and color. When the third eye is opened and trained, you will see forces and power flowing that you cannot focus on when your eye is closed."

Madoc touches Vere's forehead, just above the eyebrows with two fingers. "I am opening your third eye. You must learn to do this, as a kitten does in Amber, and you must learn to see and use what you see. What I am doing is a lesson and a hint, but the ability must come from you."

His voice is smooth, and regular and almost hypnotic. "Look at the colors you see, how you can tell when I am close to your forehead. That is what the untrained third eye shows. As you progress, through your practice you will go from seeing colors to seeing colored shapes, to seeing objects. Objects you see will have brightness, or something akin to it, depending on how real they are. You cannot use your third eye to navigate a room: you will not see the walls, because they are not permanent things. This side of the tree you will see beings. On the dwarf's side you shall see landscape and beings. Beings like us will be brighter. Something about fixity makes it so." He pauses.

"You must concentrate on seeing what is there without using your eyes. Can you do that? Do you see anything yet?"

It's hard for Vere to be sure. He certainly sees blots of black and red, but they don't look any different than when he closes his eyes in sunlight and the light falls on his face.

"Formless shapes of black and red, my lord." He frowns. "But I cannot honestly say that they are any different to what I would see were I to close my eyes in a bright light." He turns his head slowly from side to side, trying to get a fix on the shapes, to resolve details.

"That is how it seems, but that indicates that you are untrained. Blink, if you need to, to get the visible shape."

There do seem to be patterns of shapes. After some immeasurable time spent practicing, Vere feels confident that he can see things. More practice is needed. Vere has spent most of the time with his first two eyes closed.

"Now, I will do something," Madoc's voice says. "You can reliably see where I am, or at least that something is where I am ,with your third eye, yes? Once you feel you can see me, open your eyes."

When Vere does, Madoc cannot be seen.

"I am invisible, but not to your third eye," replies the Count.

"Ah," Vere says. He closes his eyes again, paying more attention to the rough outline of Madoc that he can see with his third eye, then opens them again. "The next step, I take it, is learning to perceive with the third eye without closing my other two?"

Madoc nods, his horns bobbing along. "If you can. Sorcery is not an ordered discipline. Each practitioner is different. Some never learn that, some pick it up easily. I would work on seeing more clearly with your third eye, but a superimposed view has advantages."

He disappears and his voice moves. "Can you see me with all of your eyes open?"

Vere can. However, Madoc somewhat overwhelms his vision. Even with his normal eyes open, there's little to see over the blinding whiteness of the blob that's about where Madoc's voice comes from.

"I can, but the image is near blinding, and there is little form to it." Vere squints with his two eyes, and attempts the same thing with his third one. "What is it that I am seeing?"

"Me," says Madoc. "People who are real, such as ourselves are visible even when we are not visible. You see that which is real. Things which are not real or which are transient but not alive will be too dim to see."

Vere nods thoughtfully.

[Madoc] pauses. "Enough practice for now. You will want to practice alone. Do you have any questions for me?"

Vere tilts his head to one side, considering the question. "I have many questions, my lord. However, upon reflection, I think it might be best to delay asking any of them until I have had a chance to practice this new skill by myself for a while. My questions will then be better informed, and my initial practice will be less influenced by the answers you have given me."

"Good. You may return and ask, when you are ready. A last lesson. Watch what I do here."

[Assuming Vere watches with his third eye]

Madoc points at the floor and a white circle appears. He steps onto it and begins to sink into the floor. The white circle stretches and contracts around him, keeping itself around an inch wider than the Count. It shrinks with Madoc and disappears, leaving the wall looking like the wall, which is to say not there and not brilliantly white.

When Vere opens his normal eyes, he is alone.

Vere considers the floor quietly for several seconds, then shakes his head with a small smile, and looks around the room curiously...

Vere spends some time wandering about Madoc at random, examining everything he comes across with his third eye.

Most things are not there, or are very faint. Things that seem like landscape are usually there. Things that look like walls usually aren't there, but Vere can't see through them, necessarily. If someone bright is right behind them, sometimes he can. Practice doesn't seem to make perfect, at least not in the next several periods of seeming-time, but they do make it easier to drop into and out of the right frame of mind to see with the third eye.

Untimely Delays

A jest, my love, due to the difficulty in judging time here. I am assured that the flow of time in Madoc is much closer to the way time flows on the Ordered side of Ygg that what occurs closer to the abyss. Still it is different enough that I am occasionally able to realize that it is not flowing in the same way I have experienced all my life.

However, that is not a justification of the long delay in writing in my journal. That is due solely to the distractions of actually studying Sorcery. I am now convinced that I made the correct decision, for while Shapeshifting would no doubt have been interesting and valuable, I cannot believe it would have consumed me as much as discovering an entire new way of perceiving. Lord Madoc has taught me to open my 'Third Eye,' as sorcerers are fond of calling it, and I am beginning to learn to see the reality that lies behind the mundane. It is fascinating, and I shall endeavour to document my discoveries.

My only regret is that you are not here, and I cannot share my delight and excitement with you as each new discovery unfolds.

Seeing Reality?

I have been wandering the halls of Madoc, seeing everything in a new way. Is this an underlying reality that I have never before been able to perceive, or is it merely a form of energy that permeates all things living and magical? It is greater in those things that are real, that is certain, but smaller creatures, things I would consider shadows, are visible with the Third Eye (I must confess, despite the popularity of that term, I do not truly like it. I do not think it accurate). That I am seeing something that other sorcerers can see ('Other sorcerers.' Already I consider myself among their number. The presumption of the Blood of Amber once again?) I cannot doubt. But I am not yet decided on just what it is that I am perceiving.

The Light of Recognition

I just now realized that I have not yet described to you what it is I am seeing, my love. A shocking oversight. When I see with this new perception it is as though I were seeing a different version of the world, one where most objects do not exist, but animate beings and the natural environment (or what passes for it in Chaos) do. But they do not have sharply delineated borders, as we are used to seeing them. Instead, they are blobs of light, mostly shaped in a form similar to what they have to normal site, but not so contained. They shine, and I suspect that the relative brightness is an indication of either power or 'reality.' Or, possibly, of both. There is slippage into the space around them. And very powerful beings, such as Lord Madoc, shine so brightly that one cannot really make out any shape at all.

It is all quite intriguing, and I am greatly enjoying the process of learning more. Lord Madoc is allowing me to investigate these matters on my own, rather than giving me a directed course of lectures. I enjoy this freedom, it is certainly far different to the methods of study the priestesses and sorceresses of The Isles used to teach their novices and apprentices.

Order and Chaos

As I continue my experiments with the Third Eye (I still mislike that term. Sorcerous Sight? Astral Vision? None of the alternatives seem any more accurate) I find myself, as is my wont, analyzing what I learn in a very methodical and orderly fashion. Comparing differences and similarities in the colours of the light I see, the variances in shape from that visible to the mundane eye, the intensity and brightness, and developing theories based upon these observations.

And then I wonder, am I being too Orderly in these analyses? Am I approaching a fundamentally Chaotic art in a way that will not produce useful results?

But I am an Orderly being. My time in Chaos has brought that all the more to my awareness. While Chaos is fascinating, and while I understand how closely related we are to the Lords of Chaos, still, I am a being of Order, and my ways of perceiving and thinking are Orderly.

So, yes, I shall continue to analyze and define Sorcery in an Orderly fashion. All my instructors have agreed that Sorcery is a very idiosyncratic art. And my personal interpretation will be an Orderly one.

Beginning to Resolve

I believe, my dearest one, that I am beginning to gain a better sense of what I am seeing. What I see begins to have definite shapes, rather than simply being blobs shaped roughly like their mundane counterparts. I am also learning more about judging power -- amusingly Lord Madoc's astral form (Mystic energy? Soul self? Terminology is still annoying) is so strong that I can see him even if a wall is between us. An important note to recall when trying to sneak up on a Sorcerer. Mundane barriers may not be effective obstacles to Sorcerous Sight.

Where Am I?

The most consistently annoying thing about Madoc, and I suspect this would be far worse if I were further into Chaos than I am, is the malleability of space and location. I am used to knowing exactly where I am, and exactly where everything else is in relation to me. I have never been lost in my entire life, and it took me years to understand that other people could get lost. It just seems impossible.

And yet, now, I begin to understand, and it is enormously disorienting. If I walk down a corridor in Madoc, then turn and retrace my steps, I do not end up where I began. It is wrong. It grates upon my nerves.

Madoc As A Teacher

Lord Madoc is a very quiet teacher, given to explaining more than demonstrating, and to asking leading questions more than lecturing. I wonder if this is because I am not a student of his own desire, but rather one he is training as a favour to Prince Merlin? Or would he be this way to any student?

It is something to ask Saeth, if I can be certain of not insulting her. I have had a few incidents where I am reminded that I am a stranger to the ways of Chaos, and cannot know for certain how my questions or comments will be taken.

Reliability

I am feeling more confidant now, my love, that I can call up Sorcerous Sight at will. There is a particular mindset necessary, a calmness and a stepping outside normal ways of seeing. Using the Sight with my mundane eyes open or closed is a different experience, but now it is no more difficult to add the Sight to my normal vision than it is to use it with my eyes closed. I feel this is a definite milestone, if only a first step on a long journey.

Temptations Of The Pattern

Do not combine Sorcery and the Pattern. Do not use the Pattern in Chaos except in direst emergency. I have been told these things over and over. And yet? I keep wanting to bring the Pattern to bear, to use it to better see what I am doing, to give me more strength to aid in the Sorcery I am using. Why this temptation to do something I have been repeatedly warned against? Is it simple perversity? Or is the Pattern so deeply burned into me now that I instinctively turn to it?

One thing is certain, I will eventually experiment with Pattern and Sorcery together. The temptation is too great. But, knowing that I will eventually do it, I can master myself and refrain from doing it now. It is perhaps not a perfect self control, but it is self control, and one I have grown to know when in your presence, my love.

I wonder how you would react to this comparison, that the desire for you and for the Pattern seem so similar to me? I think you would understand. You are both a part of me now, and I cannot be whole without either of you.

But I can wait, when there is sufficient cause.

Relative Dimensions in Space

I am not sure, my love, but I believe I am beginning to see the nature of space and location in a different way, through this constant awareness of not knowing where I am. As I have said before, that is a strange sensation for me; something to which I am not accustomed. And it has been a constant irritant.

But as I wander through Madoc, using the Sight, I am coming to see that what we understand as spatial position in the Ordered part of the Universe is merely a convenience, a simplification of a more complex topology. And I can, almost, understand how it can be circumvented. How it is not important to know relative position in order to retrace my steps to return to a place I have previously been, but how I can simply -- reach -- to that location, from any other location.

It is just beyond my reach, this understanding, but I can almost touch it.

That was a jest, by the way. No doubt not as amusing as it seems to me. But while a jest, it is also true, as all the best jests are.

Coming Together

Yes, clearly Space is a malleable factor, not nearly as solid and unyielding as we are used to consider it. There are certain elements of shadow walking which imply that spatial dimensions are variable by will, but I have never seen it so clearly before now. I begin to see how apportation and teleportation work. Nothing as inelegant as ripping a hole between locations, but rather a simple focusing of the will to bring two separate locations together.

I do not know that I could do it yet, and I suspect it would be rude to play around with the spatial dimensions within Madoc without first discussing it with His Lordship -- but I do think I can see how it could be done.

The Sight

I wonder if all Sorcerers go through a stage where they use the Sight almost continuously? It reveals so much, and the added perception is so fascinating, that one feels one is missing things when one is not using it. It is a limning of the reality just beyond normal sight, the truth behind the talk of auras one hears from shadow mages who do not have the True Sight.

True Sight. Yes, that is a better term. That it what it is. The True Sight. Peeking behind the canvas of physical form to see the reality of the power behind it. A granting of knowledge of reality.

And while it is not true that knowledge by itself is power, it is true that knowledge and the will to act upon that knowledge are.

What Is Behind Me

Aha! Another reason why I dislike the term 'Third Eye.' It implies a physicality to the True Sight that is not true, but that can limit one's ability through the application of the metaphor of a physical eye. I was experimenting with the True Sight, and considering my recent thoughts upon the mutability of Space, and I suddenly realized that it was only my own preconceptions that limited the True Sight to the front of me.

And, as suddenly as I had that revelation, I was able to use the True Sight to see what was behind me, while using my eyes in front of me, in accordance with their physical limitations. But the Sight has no such limitations. Behind, to the side, above or below, they are all as easy to perceive as what is in front of me. It is only me lifetime of training in how physical sight works that is even now holding me to any directionality of the Sight at all. With proper exercise I should soon be able to perceive with the True Sight simultaneously in all directions.

Although, some caution is called for. My brain is not designed to parse visual information in this format, and it may take some time to accustom it to analyze the perceptions of the Sight in a globe, rather than in a single direction.

But it should be possible. It already analyses sonic information in that manner. It is merely a matter of retraining, and practice.

I must ask Merlin if he has tried this. I must remember that I am a novice at this, and the revelations that seem so revolutionary to me may be well-established commonplaces to my teachers. Still, even if it is something well known, it is something that I discovered for myself. And the sense of accomplishment shall be no less.

Perhaps this is the reason for the hands off approach that Madoc has taken in my training? I have been told repeatedly that a Sorcerer must be independent and strong willed.

Ah, my love, would that you were here. I would that I could share my sense of triumph with you. And that I could hear of your own triumphs, and share your joys.

I wonder if my gift has yet made its way from the station in Arden to you? You are ever in my thoughts.

Finding Merlin in one of Castle Madoc's occasionally appearing sitting rooms Vere nods, and greets him. "Well met, Cousin. Might I speak with you some on what I have learned from Madoc so far?"

Vere appears slightly distracted, a side effect of the fact that while he is looking at Merlin with his two eyes he is also watching both himself and Merlin with his Third Eye from a point 90 degrees and some ten feet away from where he stands.

Merlin rises graciously from his seat, which steps back to ease his way. "How are you, cousin? I see that Madoc has opened your Third Eye and that you are progressing with it. I will try to answer your questions as best I can." He gestures to another chair to move over and join them so Vere can sit.

Vere watches Merlin and the chair carefully with his Third Eye, trying to see if he can perceive any of what occurs when Merlin summons it.

There doesn't appear to be any power flow either way. The chair is a small power blob in its own right and appears to simply be responding to the gesture as if it were a living creature, like a dog trained to do a trick by its master. Nor can Vere see any power trained on the chair that stepped back.

Vere sits once the chair reaches him and nods in answer to Merlin's question. "Yes, I have learned to See. First, may I ask how you were able to tell? Do I seem different to you, or are you somehow able to perceive that I am using the..." he pauses, then finishes, "...using my Third Eye?"

"The easy way to tell is that you look like you have given yourself eye strain," Merlin says, deadpan. After a beat, he adds, "That is a joke. Sort of. There is a certain visual cue, but not to my magical senses. It is in the way you hold yourself and the level of attentiveness to your surroundings, correlated with your apparent use of your normal vision. You are straining yourself by looking, but not with your eyes. This obviousness will pass in time."

Vere nods, and smiles slightly. "I appreciate the jest, Cousin, and the truth behind it. I do have some questions. First, it is no doubt common that those who have just learned this way of perceiving go about for a while examining everything with this new sense. Is there any danger to doing so? Does one risk a mental or mystical equivalent of the eye strain you mentioned?"

Experimentally he points at a small table near a wall and then beckons for it to come to him.

The table doesn't move. Whatever deal Merlin has with the furniture has not been extended to Vere yet.

"No particular danger is known to me. There is a great deal of information one can process in that way, but it should not be dangerous unless you look at something dangerous. I suggest that you never look at a Pattern, and be careful looking at my father's sword. Focusing on them, or seeing them unexpectedly with your Third Eye, might temporarily blind you."

Vere nods. "Typical of any means of perception - unexpectedly powerful input can overwhelm the observer. Thank you for the warning,"

Vere tilts his head to one side, and pauses for a moment, before continuing, "I am also learning to manipulate the Principal of Space. This seems to come very naturally to me. I believe because of both the innate sense of location I have had all my life, and the disruptions that have occurred to that sense here in Madoc. I would like to have some of your opinions on these matters before I continue." Vere moves his Third Eye through space slowly as he speaks, until he is watching Merlin from a position about five feet behind his cousin.

"Manipulation of Space is one of the ways to achieve farseeing, correct? In theory, it seems that there is no limit to how far away one could see, since manipulation of the Principal of Space makes location irrelevant. But what about Shadow? Is distance through Shadow a limiting factor in manipulation of Space?"

Vere has no trouble moving his visual reference inside the room, but apparently Merlin has his Third Eye open and can see the power required to shift Vere's point of perspective. It's probably a little disconcerting to Vere when he rotates his head on his neck so the back of his skull is toward Vere's body and his face is toward the point from which Vere's third eye is looking.

"For a truly talented sorcerer in the height of his power, it should not be, because a truly powerful sorcerer understands that space itself is a paradoxical illusion. But you are not that sorcerer yet. In the battle at the Coronation, Fiona opened a rift to suck in some of the cards my mother threw at us. We Part the Veil, which moves us through Shadow directly from place to place, instead of requiring us to physically move the distance. But also you should know: to do such things weakens the fabric of the universe on the Ordered side of the Tree."

Vere frowns. "Do I take it that an implication of that is that any use of Sorcery weakens the corresponding Principal of Order? Travelling through time weakens the Ordered flow of time as we understand it on our side of Ygg? Violating the Principal of Entropy to get more energy from a closed system than one put into it weakens the very structure of Conservation of Energy?" He shakes his head. "That is a worrisome thought, even if the weakening is infinitesimal."

As an experiement, while talking Vere attempts to violate Space to actually see with his two mortal eyes from the same direction as his Third Eye.

"That is indeed true, although we always can travel through Time in an Orderly fashion: forward and slowly." Merlin smiles here; perhaps he is making another joke. He adds, more seriously, "You will understand that I found Jovian's dragons most ... disturbing. But the matter of Space--if Time is what keeps everything from happening at once and Order requires it to happen in a certain fashion, with causes preceding effects, and so on, then Space is what keeps everything from being in the same place at once. What a sorcerer understands to be the illusion of Time is more solid, in some ways, than the illusion of Space. Ordered minds, Real minds, do not expect time to run backward. But anyone who has used a Trump understands, conceptually, being two places at once. This is why Parting the Veil is so conceptually dangerous."

Vere attempts to detach his real vision from his eyes, and rapidly decides he's not an advanced enough sorcerer to make that happen, particularly not without releasing the distance vision with his Third Eye (which he also loses). He's going to have a headache now.

"Conceptually dangerous," Vere repeats. He winces slightly, and brings a hand up to rub at his temples as he drops the Third Eye and any attempts to play with Space. "But the danger does not really exist on this side of Ygg, correct? Before I begin experimenting with violating Space in Madoc's realm I wish to be sure it is not dangerous, or even rude, to do so without consulting with him first."

Merlin nods in answer to the question Vere poses. "As a conceptual matter, there is no distinction between what is Madoc and what is Castle Madoc. It only makes sense to an Orderly mind that requires the man and the place to be different. If Madoc has given you permission to practice, that means you are not violating the laws of his realm. It would probably be rude if you actually destroyed an affine, or damaged the castle, by which I mean, injured Madoc."

Vere nods, a mirror to the one Merlin just gave him. "I understand, Cousin." He smiles. "Have you any other thoughts or suggestions for me, at this stage in my training? I feel that I am so new that I do not yet know the questions I should be asking."

"You must remember that everything you have learned about how the universe is constructed is untrue. Order is imposed on Chaos, which is the natural state of things. This is how the laws are applied here," Merlin explains. "Beyond Ygg, I mean."

Vere smiles thinly. "Does truth and untruth really mean anything in Chaos? It seems to me that truth is a construct of Order."

"Truth has more to do with functionalism here. If you are a powerful enough lord and you do not like the truth, you can change it." Merlin's return smile is more of a baring of teeth than a friendly, Orderly gesture.

Vere nods. "The Pattern could be viewed as just a more powerful and permanent way of doing that, could it not? Dworkin imposing his truth on the Universe, and creating an artifact that maintains that truth against all the power of Chaos even when he is not actively maintaining it himself?" He frowns. "But that does not account for the Unicorn, does it?"

Merlin raises one hand and places his index finger over his lips. "It does, if she is a how more than a who. Or perhaps a why."

Vere nods. "Time for the metaphysics of Order, later," he says. "We shall focus upon Chaos for now." He laces his fingers together. "Chaos, then, is infinite possiblity, held into a certain semblence of Order by the Will of the Lords. They would, perhaps, object to my use of that term for what they do, but I think it an adequate representation. They bind certain elements of Chaos of which they approve, or which enable them to exist and maintain their power, to keep those elements from changing, as is their natural inclination. Is that a fair, if basic, analysis?"

"Yes," Merlin says agreeably. "But your definitions are relying on a particular version of Chaos, one produced by its admixture with an Ordered line. There are Chaoses out there that are too strange for me. Madoc is comfortably familiar, and not so distant from what you will have grown up with. He manifests in a basically human form, except for when he is the castle and demesne. The castle is neither symmetrical nor unidirectional in its gravity but is generally comprehensible. Things could be much stranger in those ways and many others. You can breathe and eat and drink. In some places, that might not be true."

"Stranger than we can know," Vere replies with a smile. "Noted, Cousin, and I will endeavour to keep it in mind. Go far enough in Chaos, and I will reach a point where I simply cannot understand either the inhabitants, or the nature of the universe they inhabit." He tilts his head to one side. "To use an interesting term I came across in Amber's library, the extelligence of Chaos is fundamentally unknowable to an Ordered being."

"I am not familiar with the term you use, but I believe you are correct: most of Chaos is incomprehensible in Ordered terms. I understand more than you, and my knowledge is limited despite having been raised on this side of Ygg. How does this understanding affect your theory, or does it?" Merlin seems to be taking this purely as a matter of philosophy; he gestures to another piece of furniture and it comes over, molding itself into a low ottoman on which he settles his booted feet.

"Solipsistically," Vere answers absently. He frowns. "Then those who sought to destroy the Pattern did so in an effort to remove any static Order, which would seem to be an effort to return to a state of constantly changing Chaos, with nothing that we would recognize at all. Or am I missing something?"

"Nothing that we could recognize except for what we made recognizable," Merlin amends. "But essentially, yes. The principles of Sorcery would cease to exist in favor of direct manipulation of Chaos. There would be be no need to Part the Veil, because you would be everywhere at once, except where what was not-you was."

Vere shakes his head. "Anathema to everything that an Ordered being is," he observes. He settles back. "Indeed, Cousin, if I had learned nothing else on this visit to Chaos, it would have been valuable just to come to understand that it is not truly possible for me to understand Chaos. At best, I will be able to develop useful analogies that apply to some aspects of it."

Merlin nods slowly. "You will be able to practice sorcery, yes, which is the practical application of what you speak of: paradox, manipulating the rules of Order in a Chaotic manner by will, and so on. Do you mean to define the metaphysics of Order now as well? I am told you need higher mathematics to do so effectively."

"I have heard this from some members of the Family, as well," Vere answers. "But, quite frankly, I wonder if it is true. From an outsider's persepctive, it looks to me very much as though 'higher mathematics' is a symbiotic worldview that totally changes the way its practitioners view... " he pauses, before continuing, "Well, the way they view everything. I can believe that those who have come to model the universe in mathematical terms are now unable to view it in any other way, and would thus insist that only mathematics can accurately describe it. But the question I have is, does that truly mean that only mathematics is a valid way to describe reality, or that once one has allowed one's viewpoint to be taken over by mathematics one loses the ability to view it in any other way?"

"Mathematics seems to be a particularly approachable language to the Ordered mind. I am told similar concepts can also be approached in music by those who do not use a mathematical grammar." Merlin's gesture isn't exactly a shrug but Vere can tell he's not particularly persuaded by either language.

Vere catches and holds Merlin's eyes. "I think the metaphysics of Order can wait for a while," he says. "Let me not distract myself with extraneous matters." He breaks eye contact with Merlin then, and rubs his forehead. "For now, I think, I shall retire and allow this headache to pass. I shall look forward to future conversations on these matters, and others."

After several sessions with Madoc focused on discussions of the theories of manipulating Space, and permission for him to carry out experiments on his own, Vere begins serious practice. He starts simply, returning to his previously successful efforts to see around corners, behind himself, and into distant rooms, but now adding the simple addition of flipping a coin into the distant area he is viewing, not allowing himself to consider the impossibility of the coin's moving to that location without passing through intervening space.

He'll keep to this very basic manipulation of Space until he is satisfied that he can do it at will, keeping track of how much effort it takes, and any physical or mental effects that seem to happen after, for example, flipping a coin at the wall in front of himself and having it fly over his shoulder from behind him, catching it and flipping it immediately again, over and over for several hours on end. (OOC: Vere believes in a disciplined focused approach to knowledge when time is not an urgent factor. If this basic manipulation of Space works as he thinks it should, without unexpected side effects, he'll start moving on to more ambitious experiments. But I wanted to start this thread off in a way that emphasized Vere's deliberate approach.)

Vere's practice pays off, both in skill and in understanding. There is clearly a trade-off between size and distance and there is a certain variability in power Vere can bring to bear. One day he may be able to move an item across Madoc, another day, he might be able to move it only half that distance. There is no obvious pattern to it that Vere can discern. It's also difficult since distance is not always a fixed value in Madoc.

Vere also discovers that it is difficult to do two things at once, such as connect space to watch a point and connect space nearby to move a coin to a new point. He's not clear what the limits are, but he's working his way towards them.

After having experimented with different sizes of items and distances moved, Vere moves on to more involved experiments, such as leaving an item somewhere, then reaching through Space from a distant room and retrieving it. Then he begins playing with direct manipulations of Space that don't involve simply ignoring distance, by concentrating on a nearby chair and moving it directly through Space. The effect he is after is telekinesis, using Space as the principle; moving objects without physically touching them.

Once he has mastered that, he goes out to the battlements of Madoc, tosses a coin off, grabs it sorcerously and flies it around his head several times, then whips it away from himself as quickly as he can. He's testing for how fast he can move it, and how far away he can continue controlling it.

Then, for amusement, he'll practice having his sword go through combat practice on its own.

Telekinesis as a principle of Space at Vere's level of ability involves either his hand or the object being in two places at once. Vere quickly decides that keeping his hand in one place and having the object be in two places is safer for him. (Does the word "splinch" mean anything to you?) So to manipulate a ball, he holds it in his hand, but it is also across the room, physically. He can feel it but to his normal sight it is not touching him. The same applies with the coins and later, the blade.

One of the things he learns is that force is transferred back to him when he strikes something. He can throw a ball when he is manipulating it from a distance with his own full strength, but if he strikes something with his sword, he feels it as if the shock of the blow is transferred back along his arm. By the same token, he finds that he needs to move his hands to make the telekinesis work: drawing back and releasing to throw, wrapping his hand around the hilt and and striking with his arm to practice with the sword, etc.

Vere makes copious notes of all of this, and begins working out tentative theories about how manipulation of Space is actually working. He's completely aware, after his conversation with Merlin, that his theories don't match 'reality,' but are instead just a way for him to internalize what it is he can do, but he's also come to terms with the fact that he is too Ordered to truly understand Chaos.

For now, he's working within the limitations he's discovering. For instance, since he's learning that he can only move things at a distance by 'manipulating' them with his hands, he experiments on working around that as a limitation on how high he can lift an object. He seizes it at a distance with his right hand, and lifts it to eye level. Then, with his left hand lowered to waist level, he takes hold of it, and continues raising it, releasing it with his right hand, which he drops back to waist height, to grab it again once his left hand has raised it as high as he can.

[Card: Drowning in Armor (reversed)]

Vere discovers that he has the same sort of difficulties with it that he had with trying to do two things at once with his vision. Effectively he's using a spell to lift with his right hand and another to lift with his left, and it's not something he can do reliably.

A similar effect happens if Vere tries to drop an object through a rift recursively (dropping it into a hole in Space at point A so that it falls through to arrive at point B which is above point A). He needs two spells to make that trick work.

The effort involved is not unlike juggling; Vere thinks he will learn how to do it eventually. Just not today, or even this year, to the extent that that way of thinking makes sense in Madoc.

Vere makes note of all of this, and modifies his theories of Sorcery to take it into account. Idly realizing that he has absolutely no idea at all of whether he has been practicing for a few days, a few weeks, or even for several months, he begins a few final experiments of a more extreme nature, before taking a break from research.

Not wanting to risk any damage to Madoc, he confines these experiments to possessions of his own that he is not worried about destroying. He's doing things like taking a glove, and making half of it present at the same time on the other side of the room, then abruptly breaking the linkage, effectively cutting it in half. He experiments with putting two objects in the same space, to see whether they cut each other into pieces or simply meld together. He does the reverse of the glove experiment, reaching out and grabbing a distant object and attempting to only bring half of it back to himself.

If it's possible to put something inside another thing, it's not within Vere's current skill. He finds that the effort to move something through another thing is the same without sorcery as it is with. He cannot, for instance, put a marble into a block of wood, but he can put a marble into a glass of water.

It's quite easy to cut things by severing the magic connecting the space they are in, but Vere notices feedback to himself when he does so. It's as if he'd cut the item himself.

The only way he can determine to use his powers to grab a distant object and severing it looks to be the equivalent of his initial experiments with the gloves. He can pull an object partially through a connection and then cut the connection.

If the object is hard, it seems to resist longer. It would be possible, Vere suspects, to pull an object back and not have it break. A sword would seem like the kind of object most likely for this to work with.

He suspects, based on what he sees with his third eye, that people might also be difficult to cut with this technique.

He practices levitation by walking around the castle, letting the ramparts bear his weight while he walks through the air a dozen feet away from them.

Within the constraints of Madoc's unreliable gravitation (more in direction than in strength), Vere finds this doable. It works best when he creates a single connection between two points in space, but it's possible to create a second disk to step to, as long as he goes slowly. It's like juggling, but it's not as fast, and the ball he may drop is himself.

With a great deal of experimental data to consider, Vere takes a break from his studies, and goes looking for either Saeth or Weyland, for a different kind of research.