Storm Breaking

sure that you two were all right after the Working.'

Not that I could have done anything if they weren't.

Dawnfire shrugged fluidly. 'Poor young Karal bore the brunt of our Working, and we two were only a little drained,' she said, and extended a cool hand to him, which he took in brief greeting. 'It sounds as if you have not been idle either—you in the Tower.'

That confirmed one of his guesses, that the Avatars, for all their power, were neither omniscient nor omnipotent. They were bound by some physical laws at least. Was that because they were not really physically 'dead,' as the spirit-Kal'enedral were? Or was it because they had been granted wider powers by the Star-Eyed?

'Would you like to tell me what you can, or hear what news I have first?' he asked.

'Your news; I suspect that much of what we have to tell you will be mere confirmation of what you already know,' Tre'valen told him. 'We have been ranging far in the world and in the Void, to see what changes the Working wrought on the energy-patterns of the Storms, and how far-reaching those changes were. I fear I bring no startlingly good news.'

An'desha nodded, and detailed everything that had been happening since the 'Working' of which Karal had been the channel; from the effect that being the focus of so much energy had wrought on the young Karsite priest, to the departure of the gryphons and the arrival of Sejanes and Master Levy, to the comings and goings of so many Kal'enedral, to Che'sera's intense interest in him. Lastly, he described the events of the afternoon, the opening of the hidden trapdoor and the discovery of the workshops below.

They both listened with concentration and apparent interest—and surprise when he described the workshops. So, the existence of the workshop is something that the Star-Eyed did not tell them, though Her agents have certainly been about. Interesting.

'There may be answers there,' Tre'valen said at last, and for a fleeting moment, his face took on that 'listening' expression that Karal wore when either Florian or Altra Mindspoke him. An'desha wondered if the Star- Eyed might be speaking to Her Avatar at that instant, and his next words might have been a confirmation of that. 'Certainly Firesong should pursue the investigation of the mind-mirrors; they should not be difficult to revive nor to duplicate, and they will serve you all in the days to come.'

Oh, my; even more interesting. Perhaps my intuition about the Star-Eyed's providence was well- founded.

Dawnfire placed one long hand on Tre'valen's shoulder and, with a rueful expression, admitted, 'This is the only concrete advice we can give at the moment. Would it were otherwise, but the future is still trackless and without a clear path. And even our Goddess is bound by constraints She cannot break, so that we may all work out our futures with a free will.'

An'desha sighed, but saw no reason to doubt her. 'So we are still muddling our way through a point when there are many futures possible? I had hoped after the Working that we would at least have gotten our feet on a clear path again!'

Tre'valen looked uneasy. 'The danger has only been postponed, not negated, but luckily the forces involved have not worsened,' he told An'desha. 'You knew that the Working was not a solution to the mage-storms, only a reprieve, and that has not changed.'

'We have been tracking the results of the Working since the initial release of the energy contained in Urtho's weapon.' Dawnfire took up the thread of conversation. 'The effect is all that one could have wished over Valdemar, the Pelagirs, Karse and Rethwellan and even Hardorn. The waves that you sent out are canceling the waves of the mage-storms, but—only to a point.'

'What point?' he asked instantly, sensing that this was important, although he did not know why yet.

'Just beyond the border of Hardorn in the East,' Tre'valen told him. 'Also South, just at the borders of the Haighlei Empire, and around White Gryphon and its environs, but they know how to deal with the effects. And in any case, the Storms are weak there. North, well into the Ice-Wall Mountains. To the West, well, that is Pelagir-wilds and the Storms will hardly change that. It is East that concerns us, for the Empire is the recipient of the worst of the Storms, and they are causing great havoc there, among those who depend so much upon magic.'

An'desha gave that some thought. 'That could be good for us, or bad,' he said finally. 'Given what the Emperor did to us, I'm not at all sad to hear that they are having troubles. I'd rather that the Empire was so busy trying to hold itself together that they had no time to think of us, but Duke Tremane thought we were the source of the Storms, and what if the Emperor's people assume the same and retaliate?'

Tre'valen nodded. 'Precisely. Warn your friends, An'desha, and when the mind-mirrors are working and in place, use them to warn Valdemar. Such things could be possible.'

Could be possible, he says. Yet if I understand the constraints the Avatars labor under, pointing out something specifically as possible may be the only warning they are allowed to give of a future they have seen. Or perhaps not...

Despite the unpleasant information, An'desha felt a warm glow of satisfaction. The Avatars avoided giving direct advice most of the time, but he was getting better at deducing what they wanted him to think about, and