Chapter 71
Lester: “I was neither Living nor dead”
Lester tried again. The black pawn rose wobbling slightly from the chessboard and drifted forward a square before settling down. He wiped beads of sweat from his forehead.
“Not bad,” said Xander. “Your vortex control is improving steadily.”
“I don't see the point of this,” he complained. “The Honcho isn't going to try to take Rado from the Governor with pawns and bishops.”
Xander's knight rose and executed a precise forking attack, threatening both Lester's rook and his king. “Check,” he said. “And you are wrong, you know. His Excellency will definitely use pawns. Armed, living ones, but pawns nonetheless. And they will arrive in horseless vehicles moved by fuel for which he can thank the bishops of the TCC.”
“Whatever,” Lester grumbled. “So why aren't we preparing to fight?”
“We are,” said the wizard. “I realize it might seem trivial, to you, weaving tiny vortices in pathspace like this. But the point is to have fine control.”
“I should be making swizzle guns, not playing board games!” Lester gritted his teeth, making his king evade the check by moving it diagonally in front of his queen.
“And we shall spend some time doing things like that,” said Xander. “But you must also be developing precision. When you were a child, your arms would wave around blindly when you wanted something. We all pass from gross to fine motor skills, so that now you can reach forward and lift a glass, without thinking and without knocking over other things on the table. You need the same sense of automatic precision with your pathspace. In the heat of battle you will have to act quickly without having to think about it, as an archer knocks an arrow to his bowstring without considering how to do it.” His knight rose fro the table and drifted over to drop on the square occupied by Lester's rook, which then rose and moved off to the side of the board.
Pathspace Page 71
