Ten minutes turned out to be harder than it sounded.
Not because the core resonance was difficult to find anymore. He could find it reliably now, that specific quiet fact at the bottom of the stone, the same way you can find a familiar door in a dark room once you've walked the path enough times. Finding it was fine.
Finding it was almost easy, which was the part that had fooled him into thinking the ten minute requirement would be straightforward.
The issue was staying there.
His awareness, which had gotten considerably stronger over the past few weeks but had not gotten any less opinionated about where it wanted to go, kept sliding off the core and onto other things. A sound outside.
The particular creak of the building settling in the morning cold. His own breathing, which became distracting the moment he became aware of it in the wrong way.
