Chapter 398: Smaller Gaps

Ren left the lamp where it was and started again.

Dalia’s practice board stood on his desk, with one square brightly lit and its neighbor in shade. He followed the incoming light, took a narrow portion near the bright patch’s edge and directed it onto the neighboring square. That square lightened; the donor softened along one side. The frame stayed dark.

He released the working and watched the original pattern return. Two more attempts gave him the same result. He folded the stand against the board and reached for his slate.

Maren’s reply was waiting.

The new growth has filled in enough for the smaller-gap work. Dalia can see you before her inspection. The window is below. Bring your practice board.

He checked the outbound connection, the time to reach the garden and the margin on the return, then booked both journeys.

At the Shadewell port, he collected the issued cloak, hood and hand covers. He followed the covered route uphill, securing the fastenings before crossing each exposed gap. Maren met him at the keepers’ entrance, pointed him toward the repaired section and returned to her work.

— • —

New growth covered much of the space between the repaired spans. Ren remembered three distinct patches beneath them. Now smaller flecks crossed the upper leaves, appearing and disappearing as the canopy moved.

Dalia was examining the underside of a leaf. A younger one lay folded beneath it; she checked that too before letting them settle.

"The gaps have filled in since you were here. Set your board beside the bed."

He adjusted the stand to upper-leaf height, with its shadow falling onto the path. Dalia indicated three adjacent squares, and he marked their corners with his pencil. Then she pointed out the two stakes marking the ends of a short stretch.

"Keep your working between those ends, over the board and the upper leaves. Use only the light reaching that strip. Leave the neighboring bed alone."

The board caught a broken pattern of light. Beside it, flecks shifted across the leaves at different angles. Ren stood where he could see both as Dalia began.

She redirected portions of the incoming light across the marked area. The three squares approached the same brightness, below that of the strongest fleck. Ren followed the adjustments over the leaves as she spread what reached them.

"Watch these together," she said, indicating the squares. "The leaves won’t all look alike from where you’re standing."

She let him follow her working through another movement of the canopy.

"Now you can take it."

As she withdrew, Ren brought his own working into the stretch. The first square brightened too far; he eased that part back and directed more toward the other two. Soon they were close to the level she had shown him.

The flecks shifted. He changed where he gathered the light while keeping it directed onto the same receiving area. When one patch thinned, he took more from another. He had done that on his last visit.

Then a breeze moved the overlapping leaves farther across the gaps. Several flecks disappeared, and the whole strip received less light.

Ren drew more from what remained, checking the first square against the brightness he remembered. He brought it back up, then adjusted the second to match.

"You’ve kept those two bright," Dalia said. "What have you left for this one?"

The third was noticeably dimmer. He was directing so much toward the first two that little of the light he was moving reached it. At that end of the bed, the shaded growth had lost most of what he had been sending there.

’I’d left that one whatever was left.’

He checked the remaining flecks across the strip. There was no broad patch to draw on this time.

"There is less coming through now," Dalia said. "Let the whole patch come down together."

— • —

Ren reduced the portions directed toward the first two squares and spread more of the incoming light toward the third. He kept comparing them as he adjusted. The third lightened while the others dimmed, until all three were close again.

They were dimmer than Dalia’s first demonstration. He had been trying to preserve that brightness even after the supply had fallen.

"Keep checking the whole stretch," she said.

He followed the light arriving between the stakes and made the same adjustment over the upper growth. The bright spots softened, and the shaded leaves at the far end received their share again. He checked the neighboring bed before returning his attention to the board.

When the canopy eased back, more light reached the strip. He distributed the increase across the receiving area. All three squares brightened, with no single patch becoming much brighter than the rest.

"Release it and start again," Dalia said. "I’ll watch this time."

The uneven pattern returned. Ren waited until he could follow it across the board, then began afresh.

Dalia remained beside him. While the air was still, she checked a leaf at the edge of the bed; when the canopy began to move, she looked up at the board.

Ren watched the flecks narrow. He reduced what he sent to each part as less arrived, keeping the three squares close in brightness. One strong fleck remained on the board, crossing the middle square. He divided its light across the three instead of leaving the middle brighter. The leaves within the stakes grew dimmer too, though their surfaces still caught the light differently. He checked the shaded end instead of letting his attention stay on the first square.

The breeze held the canopy across the gaps for a while. He continued making small adjustments to the remaining light. When the leaves shifted back, he spread the returning supply across the whole receiving area.

Dalia watched through the change without correcting him.

"Once more from the start," she said. "Then I’ll take over."

He released, read the unaltered pattern and began again. This time they waited longer for the canopy to move. He kept his working within the stakes through the loss of several flecks and their return, letting the receiving level fall and rise with what reached the strip.

"I’m taking the stretch now."

Dalia’s working replaced his as he withdrew. He followed his own adjustments back until he had released them all. The distribution held under her tending.

She withdrew from the board, leaving her working over the leaves, and Ren folded its stand. While he tucked it under his arm, she turned the leaf she had examined when he arrived and looked at the younger growth beneath it. He waited until she let both settle.

"Keep the receiving area the same when you practice," she said. "Try it with less light, and spread what you have across all of it."

"Less light from one lamp?"

"Move the lamp farther back between attempts. Leave it there while you work. Watch what actually reaches the board each time."

He looked at the three squares he had marked. The pencil would make it easy to use the same area again.

"Thank you."

Dalia nodded and went on to the next part of the bed.

Ren fastened his cloak before crossing the gap at the garden gate and followed the covered route down to the port. He returned the issued clothing, checked the departure notice and boarded with the folded stand secured against the board.

Once the service had left, he asked the System privately for the result.

[LIGHT: 4.2% → 4.7%.]

He closed the display and opened his notebook to Dalia’s earlier instructions. Beneath them he wrote the new exercise: the same receiving area, the lamp set farther back before each attempt. He added a reminder to compare all three squares whenever the supply changed.

Then he turned back through the Kilnreach, Ebbmere, Carrow and northern-shore pages to see what work he still needed to arrange.