“A notch at a time?” Oversoul Seven said, frowning.

“All right, if that doesn’t quite make sense to you, then do this. Imagine that your consciousness is a light—which it is, of course—and keep turning it in different directions, but very slowly. The rotating light will pick up the tile in its different Aspects. Stop when you think you recognize Ma-ah’s tiles—”

“I think I’ve got the idea now,” Seven said. “Now don’t rush me.” He stared at the tile. How perfect it was in its way, he thought; how unique, even chipped and darkened, the tail of some animal or fish all wiggly set in the stone.

“Blink,” Cyprus said.

Seven blinked, then looked back at the tile. It wrinkled. It was curling at the edges, diminishing, disappearing at a rapid rate.

“You’re going too fast in that direction,” Cyprus cautioned. “That’s how the tile appears in future centuries, in a matter of speaking. Go back the other way.”

Almost in a panic, Seven watched the tile disappearing. He tried to reverse his focus which was difficult, because he didn’t know yet how he was doing what he was doing. “Come back,” he shouted at the tile. Suddenly he felt a great love for it—how precious it was—yet despite his efforts it continued to wrinkle and diminish. In the back of his mind somewhere, he thought he heard Cyprus’ (delightful) laughter. He wondered angrily what she was laughing at, and just then he found the feel of his consciousness, and pulled it back to the left of his inner vision.

Miraculously the tile shimmered, stabilized, then began to grow thicker. Portions of the design began to appear. Then Seven understood. When he saw the design completed, the tile would be as it was in Ma-ah’s courtyard.

Then he recognized the right tile, or thought that he did. The design was completed, all the chips restored—a blue fish with a strange long tail. The tile looked new—too new. Before Seven realized what had happened, a brown hand appeared on the top of the tile; laying it, Seven saw, shocked by the hand’s intrusion. He was tempted to follow through and go backward before the tile’s “time.” Instead he backtracked. The hand disappeared, and the tile remained. When it looked right to him again, he held the focus of his consciousness and just observed it. Was Ma-ah near? “Ma-ah?”