:Don't be so hard on him, boy,: the blade replied, amused. :Leave that job to me. I've got more experience at it.:
By now all the rest had gathered around, and were staring with varying degrees of fascination and puzzlement at the sword. 'What is this?' Sejanes asked, brows knitted.
'Is this by any chance the famous sword called 'Need' that the ancestress of Tale'sedrin Clan once wore?' asked Lo'isha, as the other Shin'a'in gathered in a knot behind him, murmuring. 'The one carried by our Clan-sib, Herald Kerowyn?'
'The same,' Firesong all but groaned. 'To answer you, Sejanes, Need is a magically made sword with the soul of its maker bound into it, and she is unbelievably ancient. Either she or Tarrn can probably tell you the story of why she did such a daft thing—'
:Hardly daft. Reckless, yes, and probably less than wise, but at the time we didn't have many options, and all of those were worse than what I did. Of course, I could have just folded my hands and done nothing at all, but—let's just say that went against my conscience and my nature.:
Those who didn't know what she was went wide-eyed with startlement at the sound of her projected mind- voice.
'The point is, she's from a time that actually predates the Mage Wars and the Cataclysm, at least so far as we can tell and that makes her an expert in magics much older than the ones we know,' Firesong said, noting as he spoke that An'desha's eyes were unfocused, which probably meant he was talking privately to her. 'She has volunteered to come help us, since her last bearer no longer requires her tutelage.'
Master Levy rubbed his chin with one hand as he looked down on the sword with speculation. 'What happens if and when the mage-storms overwhelm us here?' he asked. 'If she is magically made—'
:Then unless I can manage to shield myself, which I'm not certain I can, I either go quietly or dramatically, and I don't know which it will be,: Need replied bluntly. :These Storms disrupt the patterns of magic so deeply they may as well be spells of Unmaking. But that would happen whether I was here or somewhere else, and I'd just as soon be trying to accomplish something. I told you, I'm not one to sit with folded hands, even if I still had hands to fold.:
'Wait a minute,' Sejanes objected, speaking directly to the sword, glimmering with reflected light from above. 'If you predate the Mage Wars and the Cataclysm, how did you survive them?'
:In a shielded casket in a shielded shrine in the heart of the triply-shielded Temple to Bestet, the Battle-Goddess,: she replied promptly. :And when the Cataclysm was over, the shields on the shrine and the casket were gone and I felt as if I'd been drained to the dregs. It took me years to recover, and by then I'd been moved to the armory since no one could figure out why I'd been put in with the Goddess' regalia in the first place. If I were inclined to such things, I'd have been indignant.:
Sejanes nodded. 'It would be difficult to find such a situation again,' he observed, stroking his chin with one hand. 'Indeed, it is quite surprising that you were in that situation during the first Cataclysm.'
:The only reason they had shields like that was because of the war with Ma'ar. I don't know of any Temples now with that kind of protection,: Need went on :Or to be more honest, I don't know of any that would offer me shelter. I might as well be doing something useful, and I just might be able to save myself while doing it.:
'Do you fear death so much?' Karal asked softly. Light rippled across the surface of the sword, as if Need reacted to that question.
Firesong expected a sarcastic reply, or none at all, but was surprised by both her answer and her sober tone.
:I don't fear death, youngling,: she said, with great honesty. :What I'm afraid of is more complicated than that. I don't want to vanish without fighting, I don't intend to just lie down and accept 'death' passively. There is the possibility that I could meet my end violently, and if that is the case —:
'Then it would be better here,' Sejanes said with finality, as a chill crept up Firesong's spine. 'If there is a second Cataclysm and the effect penetrates this place, your demise will be insignificant compared to the violence that will be unleashed.'
Light rippled along the surface of the blade again. :Good. You'd already considered that.:Need sounded relieved :I'd hoped I wouldn't be the bird of ill omen forced to point that out to you.:
I would rather hope we can pull this off right to the very end, thank you. 'No, just the one who forced us to think about it a little earlier than we wanted to,' Firesong sighed.
Now she gave him one of her typical sardonic chuckles. :Consider it incentive to find a solution,: she told him.
Now, of course, those who had never met Need wanted to speak with her; Firesong handed her over to
