All things Ellyn is willing to consider. She wants every advantage possible for this one.

...Yeah. It's a high risk task. 

But not an impossible one. If you're careful.

And it's a challenge they'll all have to surmount for true Lyctorhood.

Ellyn will be sure to share any notes she comes up with.

Appreciated - the Third has a while yet before they're ready to attempt, though hopefully they'll catch up before too long. They might join the Ninth in running and theorem holding practice, at least some of the time - and it occurs to Phaedelia that the fire from Lab Three could be a good way to do a damp run once they've got the dry runs down, the first time she did it was actually fairly similar to what they're thinking for Lab Eight... Lab Four - which they're currently working on mastering - could also provide some opportunities for practice with the underlying skills, and the preservation theorem she used for her first attempt at Lab Seven could in theory be applied to a person's skin, she'll need to do some work with it - but it should counteract the entropy field immediately and directly, the only question is powering it at sufficient strength - she has lately also thrown herself into replicating Ellyn's feat of resurrecting the bush, which was the main thing that slowed her down in completing the other Labs; she's also thrown herself into refining the initial theorem she used to preserve the rose, and into reverse engineering the theorem powering the eternal flame in Lab Three - there might be a way to use the fire's theorem, plus Ellyn's Resurrection solution to Lab Seven, to power a modified preservation theorem, use Transference and the thanergy-thalergy looping primarily as a backup, especially for healing any damage that gets through... It'll be less risky, require less on the fly adapting, give them a fallback also...

Now there's a set of ideas. Ellyn likes the way she thinks.

Thinking outside the box is her real specialty. 

It'll surely take her far.

Has yet to let her down!

Heh.

Time to get down to business, then.

To defeat the Huge Task ahead of them.

As they develop more of the theory, Ellyn becomes more enamored Phae's idea of a megacombination. It would be a real proof of mastery... and maybe the only way to actually do the thing without siphoning. But that means Ellyn and Gideon do have to be masters. Practice, practice, practice.

What overall configuration - like who stays and who goes - is she thinking? 

Ellyn outside, Gideon sprinting.

That's her favored approach, too - and she's been really dramatically able to cut her time if she gets a running start, even with the incredibly awkward setup that would require for Lab Eight (stairs can't stop you from cheating by going very fast if you put a bone ramp over them).

She can do that, but they'll need to practice the transition from slope to flat. Wouldn't want Gideon to trip.

Yeah - it'll be best to recreate the whole setup as best they can.

That'll need careful measurement... Guess she's working on her psychometry as well.

Everything's coming together! 

So it seems.

It's a good sign when everything starts to converge like this - means they're actually getting at the underlying principles, not just collecting disparate facts. 

Mastery of the subject. Which means they'll soon have the insight needed for true improvement.

An exciting point to be at. 

It'll be a new era, created by their own hands.