Simple steps. Small steps. Like baking bread. Like smelting an ingot. Simple steps. Small steps. Like sitting on a horse. Like planting a garden. Simple steps. Small steps. Basic steps.       The air in the room was still. The sounds of the outside world muted by windows, not only covered with curtains, but wood.  Candles, whose long bodies once rose to the skies, now sat stubby and short from long and over use. The scent of perspiration hun