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((The Mon/Wen/Fri Double -- page 1 of 2))
‘What?’ said Qorvass. ‘What do you mean? How could it be impossible? You watched him do it. We both did.’

“Yes,” said Asad, holding up a hand to perform the technique. “And I can do it myself. As can Zeff.”

The reaper gave an insectoid shrug. ‘So it’s not impossible, then.’

Asad shook his head. “What I mean is, given our current understanding of materialization, this technique might be considered impossible. Or in other words, it should be impossible, but it isn’t.”

Qorvass’ eyes bugged out slightly more than they did normally. ‘You’re saying… you think our understanding of materialization is flawed?’

He nodded. “Perhaps.”

The reaper seemed a bit dumbstruck. ‘…That would be a really big deal, Asad.’

“I know.”

‘What do you think might be flawed about it?’

“That is what I was trying to work out.”

‘Okay… so talk me through it, then. What part of the technique seems impossible to you?’

“Well… I’m still trying to work that out, too.”

‘Ugh. Come on. You can’t just tell me something like that and not go into anything specific.’

Asad frowned and made the pair of cubes hovering around his hand go faster. “This part seems sensible enough to me. The orbiting. These moving objects are merely extensions of the ‘perpetually falling cube’ trick that is simple enough for even rookie materializers to perform. That trick keeps the cube still, whereas this allows them to move by designating a point around which to orbit. It is, hypothetically, a complex cognitive process, requiring constant creation and annihilation around the edges of the object, but in practice, it is relatively easy to perform.

“I suspect this ease comes from the simplicity of imagining the object moving along a set distance away from the designated orbiting point. If I were to alter the distance of orbit like so--" He pushed the cubes farther away from him and tried to make their paths bumpy and irregular. “--it becomes significantly more difficult for me.” He squinted a little while maintaining his concentration, watching the cubes tremble along their new, erratic orbits.

‘Okay,’ said Qorvass. ‘So if the orbiting makes sense to you, then…?’

“It’s the technique’s ability to create explosive impact forces that I find baffling.”