Axel tried and tried again, but no matter how much he attempted to recreate the mental exercise he had done earlier, nothing happened.
Each attempt left him more frustrated, more disoriented. His mind felt like it was running in circles, a spinning carousel of imagined books, and still, the connection refused to come back.
His hands trembled slightly as he set the pen down and rubbed his eyes. He could almost feel the invisible thread he had accessed, the fleeting link to the books, slipping through his fingers, evaporating before he could grasp it again.
He remembered the day in the gym when he had lifted the weight without effort. The memory was hazy, clouded by how quickly it had happened and how suddenly it had been interrupted.
