truly made you attractive to me. You have a strong, persistent positive attitude despite the many tragedies that have befallen you. And that my young friend, is a very rare thing. Many both older and wiser than you have fallen into despair and cynicism and in that dark hole all learning ends.”
Gwaynn shifted uncomfortably, but said nothing.
“First I will teach you to meditate,” Nev continued, “and it is here in the cave that you will perfect what I teach you.”
“Meditate?”
Nev chuckled. “Yes, your mind must be under perfect control if you are to learn how to master time. It is not so hard,” he added placed another small log on the fire. “To begin I would like you to picture a man…the very first man. A man before family, before friends, before language; does he have thoughts this man with no language? What does he see when he first emerges from his own cave and looks out onto the world around him? Think on these things for a spell, or just sit and focus on your own breathing. Work on this for several hours each day and I will let you know when we can move on.”
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For nearly four months Gwaynn’s life fell into a routine of sameness. Everyday he awoke just after sunrise and climbed the mountain to the cave. Everyday he sat and contemplated about the man with no name, no knowledge, and no language and everyday he descended again to work in the garden for an hour and then spar with Tar Nev for the last five hours of daylight. He was thankful for his time alone, which he spent in thought. He could feel himself, his inner being, begin to calm. Even when thoughts of Mille or his family rose to the surface, his demeanor remained passive as he studied how these thoughts affected him, how his breathing became heavy along with his heart. His mind was becoming more disciplined and his body was becoming stronger by the day. Already he was beginning to see and feel the difference caused by working with the heavier katas. His arms were stronger, his grip was tighter and his reactions faster, but he was still no match for his instructor, who could plant him in the soft, loose soil of the sparring grounds at any time.
Only once in the four months did Gwaynn feel he was close to a breakthrough. One afternoon when he emerged from the cave, he looked down on the island and sea spread out below him and suddenly he saw the world in a whole new way. There were no trees, no water, no beach and no island. Everything is one to someone with no language, no thoughts. There is no division. The world before him blurred in his eyes, like an impressionist painting viewed through water. Suddenly he knew he could manipulate time just as he manipulated his own fingers and he rushed back into the cave. He sat with his legs crossed took a deep breath and held the feather out directly before his face, and let it go. It floated serenely down to the cave floor. Gwaynn frowned and picked it back up, concentrating, attempting to flex his new knowledge. He held the feather out once more, and again it floated all the way to the floor. Over and over he tried and over and over the feather floated to the floor despite his efforts to hold it in time. Gwaynn shrugged, disappointed but still convinced he was on the correct path. He picked the feather up, then without another thought about it made his way down the mountain.
“Everything is one,” he said to Nev as he sparred with him near dusk and his Master smiled.
“Yes…yes. That is good…essential. You’ve discovered what many of the great philosophers teach us,” he said excitedly. He dropped his katas and sat down quickly on the soft dirt floor of the pit. He motioned for Gwaynn to do likewise.
“You’ve controlled your mind,” Nev continued once Gwaynn was sitting across from him. “Not such an easy task to be sure, but your patience is impressive. Now, you will begin the process of learning to control your body… completely.”
Gwaynn only nodded, wondering where his bushy haired mentor was going to take him to now. “I understand that everything is one, but as hard as I try I cannot stop the feather from falling,” Gwaynn told Nev.
Nev laughed. “I’m not stopping the feather…that would be very hard. No I’m controlling my own passage through time instead. When I move faster through time the feather seems to slow and if I move very fast the feather appears to stop, but believe me, the feather is still falling at the same speed…every time.”
“First you must control your breathing,” Nev said and closed his eyes. After a moment Gwaynn did the same.
“Listen to your breathing, control it…in and out…consciously,” Nev instructed his voice soft and even. “Easy enough,” he added. “Now concentrate on your own beating heart. Can you feel the beats? Can speed them up, and slow them down? Practice slowing your heart. Practice this everyday and when you master it I will show you how to lower the energy state of your very atoms. When you can do that and bring them to the very lowest state imaginable, your entire body will vibrate in unison and then unimaginable things will be possible.”
Gwaynn worked on mastering his body, his internal clock, for another three months. Most days he could not tell if he was making any progress at all, but on others he could actually feel his heart slow and he would enter a state of utter relaxation in which his awareness did not diminish, but rather, it seemed to expand. On these days he would emerge from the cave feeling very refreshed and strong. It soon became apparent to him that on such days his sparring was also heightened. On these days he felt he even pushed Nev to the limits of his fighting abilities.
Nev however, said very little about his performance, and never asked how his meditations were going. It seemed he taught by pointing the way, then remaining silent. When Gwaynn asked him about it one night, just before they went to bed, Nev just laughed.
“It’s obvious isn’t it,” he answered blowing out the oil lamp so that the light from the small fire in the hearth lit him dimly from the side, giving him and his hair an ethereal look. “Teachers can only show the path, students must walk it. It is up to each of us alone which paths we walk and which we stubbornly refuse to follow. Only you can control what you will learn and what you will not.”
The next morning, Gwaynn sat on the ledge, which overlooked the island. He stared out over the lush green of the forest to the blue water beyond and thought about what his Master had said the night before and found that he agreed completely. Master Sath had tried to teach him a great many things, but at the time, he was not willing to walk the path, so he learned very little. For his entire life, he had been his own master, but until right now, this very moment, he had been utterly unaware of that fact. In the past, he had focused on the small things that others would make him do…practice this…read that…act like this and not like that. It gave the illusion that others were ultimately in charge of him. This, however, was never the case. He was always his own master, able to do anything, but never willing to accept the consequences of actually taking control. But not anymore, he was aware of his power now. He would make his own decisions now even if it meant failure and death.
He calmed himself and banished such thoughts from his mind. He measured his breathing, released the pressure in his body and relaxed, slowing his heart, slower and slower. He was unaware when he dropped back onto the rock, unaware of the passage of time. Slower and slower his body functions fell, but inside his mind darted about faster than the speed of light. In all the universe, it was only with information that this was possible.
Nev found him lying peacefully at the edge of the precipice in the late afternoon sun. To anyone else, he would have appeared dead, or very nearly so, but Nev immediately knew that the lad had made a breakthrough and shook his head. His decision to accept Gwaynn as his student was obviously the correct one. The lad was the one, Nev was sure. He would begin the revolution. He would begin the process of bringing back the old knowledge to all the people of the Inland Sea. It was time. The Temple Islands had monopolized such things long enough, after all, each of them belonged to the Quantum Race.
?
Gwaynn woke almost two days later. He sat up in his bed in the cabin, gripped with hunger and thirst. He swiveled in bed, smiling, not the least disoriented. He knew where he was; he knew where he had been. He stood on shaky legs and went to the water pump in the small kitchen. He pumped and drank for several long moments before finally satisfying his immediate need. Nev was outside, tending the garden. Gwaynn could hear the light digging sounds coming through the open windows of the cabin. A warm breeze blew inside and brushed his face. Gwaynn smiled again and walked to the door, his legs growing more solid underneath him by the second.
He pulled open the door and was struck by the vision of the world before him. He stared for a long moment at the trees in the distance and closer, the tall grasses blowing in the wind, the occasional insect which
