Rachel pushes rock

“It’s normally hard to budge anything bigger than you can move with your muscles,” Chandra said. “I can feel that my Edomic has more clout than usual here.” She extended an arm forward and issued a command, and a stone the size of a hockey puck leaped into her callused hand.

“You spoke directly to the stone,” Rachel noted. “You didn’t call a force to push it. You just told it where to go.”

“Observant,” Chandra said. “I name the object or the material I mean to move, then tell it where to move by speaking a command and visualizing a trajectory. I can’t tell you why it works. My mother had the same knack, as did her mother as well. I’ve been doing it since childhood.”

“Can I try?” Rachel said.

“Be my guest,” Chandra replied, folding her thin, sinewy arms. “Do you need me to repeat the phrase?”

“I think I have it,” Rachel said.

“Then try to push something.” Based on her stance and expression, Jason thought that Chandra expected Rachel to have trouble.

Rachel extended her hand toward the same stone block Chandra had tipped, focused on it, and said the words. The block flipped end over end, tumbling heavily across the grassy ground, crashing against irregularities in the terrain before wobbling to a rest twenty yards away.

Chapter 13