Chondrite is a very unusual rock on planet earth.  They were formed many millions of years ago when the universe was forming and arrived here as meteors from outer space.  They are therefore older than any other rocks on earth and this gives them powerful magical properties for gomes. When Wullie is captured he is put inside a vault made of Chondrite where he stays petrified and powerless amid red-hot coals.  The entire Chambered Tomb of Creation and Renewal of made of Chondrite.  Under the right conditions gomes can use the power of Chondrite to makes “clones” of themselves to renew themselves and create a second version of themselves.  It is this process which Wullie manages to disrupt at the climax of the Chondrite Vault story.

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This allows powerful gomes to go back in time.  Wullie explains it to Finn in Chapter XXXIII of the Chondrite Vault story, The Mysteries Of Gome Physics:

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“Chondrite didnae originate as rocks here on earth, though.  It was brought here as meteors frae other parts o’ the universe that are far older than Earth.  So Chondrite is older than any other rock on this planet.  Chondrite is even older than all the rocks that make up ma body when I’ve petrified.  In this wee jar Ah’ve mixed Chondrite wi a few other ingredients to help it stick.  So if Ah was tae petrify and just at the last minute Ah tossed a handful of this up into the air so that it landed and stuck onto ma petrified body it wid make the average age of all ma rocks much older.  So in order tae stay alive Ah’d start traveling back in time to an earlier time when the rest o’ ma body’s rocks were younger so that the average of those rocks along wi the ancient Chondrite would get back tae where it’s in balance wi me again.  Ye unnerstaun?”

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So in order to go back in time gomes (and vas animi) need to stay in contact with each other, petrify, and just before they all petrify a powerful gome (like Wullie) throws dust up into the air containing Chondrite dust plus other magic sticky chemicals.  When this covers the bodies of the petrified gomes and vas animi they stay in the same physical location but start going back in time.  In order to be able to return to the Jump Point accurately you need to leave something of your physical presence as an anchoring force.  So you need to spit or pee on the ground before you make the Chondrite Jump.  How far back you go depends on the exact concentration of Chondrite and other chemicals in the dust.  Wullie has calculated exactly how much to use to allow Gneiss, Finn, Tessa, and Wullie to go back over 400 years to the time of the Spanish Conquest of Inca Civilization in 1548.

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The biggest danger with retrolapsing is that if you get doused in water when you are back in time the Chondrite dust would wash off and that would bring you rushing back to the time and location where you made the Chondrite Jump.  Also, if you are going back to a time and place where you have been before then you do not appear to the folk living in that time. You can see and hear them but you are like a ghost.

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During a Chondrite Jump (which may take several minutes depending on how far back in time you are going) you can see what is happening outside (although it is a bit blurry) but you need to be sure to only tune in to your eyes or to your skin sensations.  You must not tune into your ears or you could go deaf forever after.  Just as breaking the sound barrier causes a tremendous concussion breaking the time barrier is even worse.