Chapter 4
The ArrivalKyra sat apart from her companions and composed herself. She knew that the most crucial part of the process that Maal had taught her was to forget herself as ‘Kyra’ completely, and ‘open’ herself to the influences from deep within herself and from the universe, the influences that were always present but not always noticed. As the trick to use upon her unruly ‘surface’ mind, she chose this time the flight of a black bird she had noticed in the sky, circling round and round, round and round, in a perfect and harmonious arc. She followed it with her eyes for some time, and then closed them, following it still, but now as a projection of her mind. Round and round the black bird went until she was aware of nothing else. Faint sounds that had been rising from the valley, t
