He looked at the brass compass in his hand. The needle was trembling violently now, pointing straight down into the shadow of the cone.
"Because nothing in this universe likes to stay where it is," Elian had answered, his voice raspy from the valley’s sulfurous wind. "Everything is sliding. Heat flees to the cold. High pressure screams toward the void. Rivers butcher mountains just to find a lower place to rest." Upside Down Triangle Symbol Math
"Why do we study the gradient, Master?" his youngest apprentice, Kael, had asked that morning. He looked at the brass compass in his hand
"But the math doesn't lie. We aren't climbing a mountain. We are just standing on the steepest edge of a hole we haven't noticed yet. And the Nabla is the arrow pointing us home." "Everything is sliding
But to Master Elian, it was the "Del"—the symbol of the Descent.
"We think we are climbing," Elian whispered to the wind. "We build taller towers, amass greater knowledge, and reach for the stars. We call it progress."