Vell rested from peering into the connection.
He wasn't tired. Tiredness did not exist in this realm, and even if it did, he didn't have anything that could become tired.
He was resting because he thought he had reached the limit of what he could accomplish for the moment.
The connection to Sonder did not become any stronger or clearer.
It was there, allowing him to feel her essence somewhere beyond, but that was it.
He could remain connected for a while, but he could do little else.
He could not cross the distance, nor could he speak to her, see where she was, or influence the world around her.
And it was expensive.
The connection required power, and quite a lot of it.
So, naturally, Vell came to the only reasonable conclusion.
He needed more power.
He returned to the vortex.
The immense thing continued to turn before him, incomprehensibly vast, its power without apparent beginning or end.
He gathered more and more, and it simply gave.
There was no reason to be cautious about running out, as the vortex never seemed to diminish.
It gave and gave.
Vell spent what felt like an eternity doing nothing but drawing power.
There was something almost meditative about it, in a way.
He occasionally stopped.
Just to see.
He tried to feel the connection to Sonder, still locked onto that single moment and that single place.
Still impossibly distant.
Vell would linger there for a little while, reassuring himself that she had not somehow vanished while he was occupied.
Then he would return to the vortex.
Sometimes he wondered whether he was actually making progress.
Then he would remember how much power he possessed now compared to when he had first awakened.
The difference had to be enormous.
Another few times, he glanced toward Endrith.
The golden-edged darkness was still imprisoned where he had left it.
It had not changed.
It was still throwing itself against the boundaries of the cage.
Again and again and again.
Vell watched for a few moments.
He really didn't get tired of watching it.
He even said so, but Endrith offered no response.
It seemed like he never would, so Vell turned away.
There seemed to be three constants that gave him a strange sort of comfort.
Sonder remained somewhere beyond.
Endrith remained in his cage.
The vortex remained inexhaustible.
After a long, long while, Vell decided that he had gathered enough.
He did not know how much power he had taken. He couldn't measure it.
It was simply an immense amount.
Enough that he could no longer meaningfully distinguish the individual currents of power flowing through him.
They had become one vast reservoir, deeper than anything he had ever possessed in his previous life.
He had never possessed anything remotely comparable.
And yet, when he looked back toward the vortex, there was no visible difference.
Not a single one.
It continued to remain exactly as it had before.
He looked down at himself.
"That's somewhat humbling."