" What are you doing?" Alain asked." Starting a fire, of course." Mari held up the thing in her hand. " It's a fire-starter. A really simple device. Haven't you ever seen one?" Alain shook his head. " Never. That thing seems very complicated. I do not understand how it can work." " How do you start fires?" That was a Guild secret. Or was it? The elders had told him that no Mechanic could understand how it worked. What would this Mechanic say if he told her? " I use my mind to channel power to create a place where it is hot, altering the nature of the illusion there," Alain explained, " and then use my mind to put that heat on what I want to burn." " Oh," Mechanic Mari said. " Is that actually how you visualize the process?" " That is how it is done," Alain said." That's...interesting." She grinned. " So, instead of making fire by doing something complicated or hard to understand like striking a flint, you just alter the nature of reality. That is a lot simpler. "