Here's a little bit more of the third installment in the Petri Dish Chronicles! As always, the disclaimer is that this is a draft and, as such, it's unedited and likely full of errors and is subject to revision, revamping, and being completely scrapped and rewritten. But, with that in mind, I'm reasonably satisfied with the basics of it, at least at the moment, or I wouldn't have bothered posting it. Enjoy! :-)
Excerpt from Shifting Paradigms:
“What are you talking about? I couldn't connect."
“Perhaps you were unable to fully interface," said Daji. "But whatever energy it is that you control clearly manifested itself. It appeared as a shimmering cloud surrounding the fire to us. What did it feel like to you?”
Petri locked her gaze to Vlad’s. “You did something, didn’t you? What did you do? Why? Are you trying to manipulate us?"
The entity in question merely raised his eyebrows. “I did nothing, Per Dish. I am also not doing that.” He pointed back at the fireplace.
Petri glanced at where the enigmatic entity pointed, but what she saw arrested her attention. Focusing on the fire, she realized it had grown substantially, the flames now escaping the hearth and reaching for the mantel above.
“What the…" Petri turned back to Vlad. "I'm not doing that. I can't. I would have no idea how."
“Aren't you? Then who is?"
“You must be doing it.”
“But I’m not, Per Dish. Why would I? It wouldn’t further my interests to waste time playing parlor tricks here.”
“But I’m not doing it!” Petri looked around at her friends who were staring at her. "I'm not!"
Vlad locked eyes with Petri and held her gaze for several heartbeats. Petri felt as though he was measuring her soul, but finally he just gave one of his shrugs.
“I cannot feel your energy signature interacting with that of the room. I felt it earlier when you were focused on the fire, but now I feel nothing. I have no concrete explanation for what is influencing the fire.”
“How about a non-concrete explanation?” asked Chessie, echoing their host’s earlier dry tone.
Focusing his gaze on Petri in a way that reminded her of the way Rodney had looked at her, Vlad answered Chessie’s question. “I suspect Per Dish is subconsciously interfacing with the code in this room. As I said, it is more susceptible to manipulation than the code in the majority of the rainbow. I believe it is possible that her mind has found a way to integrate with it and her mood affects how it manifests. If that’s true, then if she can find a way to exert conscious control of the connection she has made, this may be the first step in creating the meld between an organic mind and the digital world of the rainbow that both the Arcanum and I desire.”
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