There was not much time to dwell on anything. The final exams were drawing closer and the workload grew more and more. Whilst most of the lecturers just revised the same topics as they had covered in the past there was still one subject where the students were learning new skills and that was impressing. They had moved on from body parts and were now being told to contemplate abstract objects and unusual situations. Nedric wasn’t actually sure that all of this was truly necessary but as he hadn’t had the chance to try impressing on wood he couldn’t say for sure.
The lecture that the class was attending started out no different than the rest. They had to do the same visualisation exercises and physical calming processes that they did each lesson. About half way through they were stopped by Master Andern and were each handed a piece of wood. The wood was one that Nedric recognised as grey oak, an extremely common substance. From a dimly remembered lecture he recalled it was the stuff that could be turned transparent.
It didn’t take much thought to realise what they were going to be asked to do. Master Andern was telling them to examine the wood they each held and to try and picture it in their minds. They were to be as precise as possible in remembering the feel and look of the grain, the smell, he even asked them to taste the wood. He gave them quite a lot of time to get their mental picture of the wood as accurate as possible.
“I want you to picture that wood in your mind. You are looking down on it and can see every detail of the wood. You are getting closer and the details are getting sharper and sharper.”
“You move closer to the wood, you can no longer see all of the wood as you are too close but the piece of wood in front of you is even more detailed, you can see every little aspect of the wood the slight cracks, the ridges, the different colours.”
“You move even closer to one area of the wood. The details get even sharper but they change. The area that you are looking at doesn’t look like a piece of wood any more, because it no longer seems that flat. The ridges and crevices seem enormous to you. It looks to you as if you could move further in to the wood. You concentrate on just one small area.”
“As you move closer to that small area you can see that it is made up of smaller ridges and crevices. The colours have changed because you can see that the area that you thought was all one colour is really made up of lots of different colours you move closer and what was small is now large.”
“You focus on one small area and now you can see that the bit you are looking at is made of smaller bits and these bits are not still but moving constantly. Although they are moving they don’t seem to move outside a particular area. You look closely at the moving pieces.”
“As the pieces move you focus on one of them. It is one that stands out; it is different from all the others in some way that you can instantly tell. You concentrate on this one moving piece and examine it closely. You are to memorize what this looks like.”
Nedric had been following this process. He had no problem picturing the wood in his mind and it seemed to him that he soared above it. As he moved closer one part of the wood had drawn his attention and as he had got closer and closer he had felt drawn towards a particular point. He was currently seeing a purple-green piece of moving mass that was of an irregular but vaguely cuboid shape. He felt like he could reach out and touch it and maybe stop it moving. Master Andern continued his instructions.
“Picture that one piece and have it slowly, slowly change shape and colour. It should gradually turn into a red sphere. When you have done this, slowly change it to a dark green tetrahedron. For those of you with bad memories that means a pyramid formed of triangles. Finally add a small blue sphere to one of the points of the tetrahedron.”
The task seemed simple, the shapes flowed from one to another, maybe it was too fast but Nedric didn’t feel that it was the case. He was already trying the next step when Master Andern continued.
“Do the same thing with one of the pieces next to the one you’ve just changed. When you have the second transformed then link the two pieces so that the point of one touches the sphere of the next.”
“The last step is the hardest. Picture all the surrounding pieces gradually changing shape to match the first two. As you picture it have them linking together so that they join sphere to point. They don’t have to form any special line or shape just link together. Picture the process continuing without you doing anything more. If you can do it whilst keeping the process going move back from the first piece so that you can see more of the wood. Let the process continue.”
Nedric could see the process accelerating in his mind’s eye. He shifted his focus back so that he could get a larger view and could see that one small section of the wood was now all one colour rather than the mixture it had been before. As he gradually brought his focus further away the small spot was lost amongst the rest of the wood. When he could visualise the whole piece the spot was invisible but Nedric felt that it was still growing. He relaxed his picturing and opened his eyes.
Most of the students around him were still sat in relaxed positions with their eyes closed. It was quite humorous to see some of the contortions that crossed the faces of his fellow students as they concentrated on the task. Nedric looked around and realised that he was the only one who seemed to have stopped. Master Andern was watching him and as Nedric faced him, he winked. Gradually the other students stopped concentrating and opened their eyes. Rialto was one of the last to finish and when he glanced over at Nedric he didn’t look particularly happy.
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“Now as you all well know, the process if you have completed it properly will not be completed for at least twelve hours so we will stop the lesson for today and resume again tomorrow. Please mark your piece of wood with your name so you can identify it tomorrow. Do not be too hopeful as so far only a few have been successful on their first attempts. If you are one of those, then tomorrow you will need some of your other work as there is nothing else that can be taught in this subject.”
The students filed out of the room. Nedric walked alongside Rialto and asked him what he thought of the lecture.
“I doubt I did anything to the wood, whenever I tried to change viewpoint I got this feeling like I was doing something foolish and it all went to pieces. I had to try about twenty times just to get something and I doubt the shape I had really changed.”
“I wonder if it’s more to do with belief than what you can visualise. If you don’t believe it will work then maybe it won’t and if you do then it will.”
“That might be the case but there has to be more to it than that otherwise anyone with a strong enough belief would be able to change anything and it only works in very specific ways. I mean if the first person who came up with the technique could visualise anything he wanted then why would he only get transparent wood?”
“Perhaps he really needed the wood to be transparent at the time!”
“Well I really need to get impressing if I’m to leave here with a good recommendation. I might not want to work on the boardways but I’m not certain my father has enough work for me and if I don’t get a qualifying pass from here then nobody else will hire me.”
“You know that you don’t need to be able to impress to get a pass from here.”
“True, but you can only really fail in one subject and my maths is worse than my impressing.”
“Nonsense, you can work out the costs of prices for stuff at the markets quicker than I can.”
“Sure, that’s because it is real life. The maths we do here is all abstract.”
“Well I’ll just have to help you with the revision examples. You can help me with the martial skills, if you don’t I’ll fail them.”
“We shall help each other.”
The next day they returned to the room for another lecture on impressing. Master Andern was standing in front of the samples so that it wasn’t immediately clear what the results of the previous days efforts had been.
“Before I start today’s lesson I will point out that from now on, if you are able to turn this wood clear then there is no need for you to attend this room and can conduct your other studies in any place of your choosing. This doesn’t mean that you can avoid work as I will be assessing the quality of your other subjects in the near future as will your other lecturers.”
The students hardly needed reminding that the dates of their final exams were approaching. They were not really sure what it would mean for them to be qualified from the keep but they all felt that there must be some advantage in it otherwise their parents would not be paying for them to be there.
“I will now pass out your test pieces, as soon as you have received them I want you to put your self in the correct frame of mind to begin work on them again. That means that you should be able to visualise the piece without being distracted from any exterior events.”
Master Andern began handing out the pieces of wood. It was interesting to note that few of the students showed much in the way of disappointment as they received the thing unchanged. Some scowled and set about their work with renewed vigour whilst others looked resigned but tried anyway. When all but two students had begun Master Andern showed that the remaining pieces of wood were both clear.
“You two can get on with your work here or elsewhere, just do not disturb the other students.”
Nedric looked at the other student, who was Elsebeth, she indicated with a flick of her head and eyes that she would rather leave the room and he nodded in agreement. Simultaneously they stood, gathered their things and left the room.
“I can’t believe that we are the only ones that succeeded!” she said as they closed the door behind them.
“It seemed pretty easy to me but Rialto was telling me how hard he found it.”
“Well now we’ve got the whole lesson off, I guess we should do some studying.”
Nedric could think of various things that he would prefer to be doing but the exams were just around the corner and he reluctantly agreed, “How about going to the refectory, it will be quiet there and we can get on with our work in peace.”
Elsebeth was agreeable and as they walked along talked about the forthcoming exams and her hopes for the future.
“I imagine that we will be fairly well paid if we get to work on the boardways. What do you think they will do with us? Will we be working in Elseth? That could be quite fun.”
“I imagine that they will find the least pleasant jobs for us to do, especially to start. They might be fairly short of impressors but I doubt they will treat us like royalty.”
“You could be right. Anyway if we don’t get through these exams they might not take us on anyway. How many people do you think they need?”
“ From what I could guess at the number of planks they are using each day, then probably no more than five or six of us.”
“We’d better get working then, what are you studying at the moment?”
“History, I’m trying to remember which of the kings did what. Why they all want to call themselves Sethel I don’t know.”
“It’s to show they are linked with the country I suppose. Well Sethel I founded the country.”
“I knew that! It’s the ones who didn’t seem to do anything much that are hard to remember. What’s special about Sethel XXIII?”
“He was the one that helped develop a new crop rotation system to supplant the four field system that had existed before then.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, I’ve made up this rhyme to help me remember, I’ll teach it to you.”
“Thanks! That will help me a lot.”
Over the next several days Nedric and Elsebeth developed a study partnership in the absence of their normal study partners. Rialto had confessed to Nedric that he was unlikely to ever get impressing. He just couldn’t believe that anything would ever happen; even when others in the group were successful. On the other hand he was feeling more confident about his maths. Rhianna apparently was determined to succeed with the task but was having problems changing the shape from one to another; she had told Elsebeth that she would get it soon.
Nedric was surprised that despite her normal quiet appearance, Elsebeth was actually quite talkative and had a wry wit that had him laughing at the way she described their colleagues and every day events. Their study sessions were becoming something he now looked forward to. It was a shame that they didn’t have any more free time. Perhaps they could get together more after the exams were over. As it was he spent all his time studying with her or Rialto or in lectures.
The days hurried by. The weather was wonderful but none of the students really appreciated it. A beautiful, hot, sunny day is great when you don’t have to do anything but when you are slaving over your studies it is an annoying distraction.
The younger students who could be regularly heard shouting as they played around the keep particularly annoyed Nedric. Of course they knew better than to do this near the older students but they regularly forgot and all the uppers were getting a reputation for grumpiness. Even Marryn had been heard bellowing at them to be quiet.