his beard. They covered him from head to toe just as Benehime’s hair covered her body when she wished it covered. But even without all this, Eli would have known what he was. There was nothing else in the world with those white eyes, the irises outlined in a faint shadow of silver. The man was one of the brothers Benehime had spoken of. Another Power of creation, but which one?
I am the Weaver, the old man said, answering the question before Eli spoke it. I am responsible for the world’s shell and the veil that hides it from the spirits within, who are the Shepherdess’s domain. And you would be my sister’s favorite, are you not?
“Former favorite,” Eli said. “But why are you here?”
It is true I have no place within the sphere, the Weaver said. But I’ve always held a special fondness for Durain’s children, especially his human ones. I consider it vital to my purpose to remember whom my weaving protects, so I have maintained a closeness with the great mountain over the years. Even had I not, though, I would have come now.
“Because Benehime is calling back the stars,” Eli said.
The Weaver’s bright face darkened as his fine brows fell into a scowl. Sadly, that is but the final stroke of her betrayal. The Shepherdess has been negligent in her duties for many years, but after she allowed the Daughter of the Dead Mountain a near total awakening, I knew I could no longer stand aside.
Eli swallowed. The Weaver was talking about that business up at Izo’s. “Well, if you’re here to try and talk the Shepherdess into doing her job, I’ve got some bad news for you. Just before we got here, she took me back to her white place.”
The Between, the Weaver corrected.
“Whatever,” Eli said with a wave of his hand. “Anyway, the floating sphere she’s always looking at, that’s our world, isn’t it?”
It is, the Weaver said.
“Well, she’s made another one,” Eli said. “A smaller sphere filled with the stars she’s been yanking up.”
The Weaver frowned. Why would she do that?
“Because she’s going to join them,” Eli said. “She told me she was tired of being Shepherdess and that she was quitting to go live in this new paradise she’s made.”
“Quitting?” Slorn said, horrified. “You don’t just quit being one of the three Powers of Creation.”
“That’s what I said,” Eli replied. “But she’s completely serious. That was why she snatched me up. She wanted me to go to paradise with her.”
“But you’re still here,” Slorn said.
“Of course,” Eli said. “Living with Benehime forever in a world full of spirits who worship at her feet? That’s not paradise. That’s torture.”
The Weaver chuckled. I suppose that explains the “former” part of your status as favorite.
“She was the one who decided I was her favorite,” Eli said, crossing his arms. “I got away from that as soon as I could.”
The Weaver’s chuckle grew into a full laugh. I was prepared to hate you, thief. I blamed you for my sister’s distraction, but now I think I have gained a greater understanding. As for the news she means to leave this world for another of her own making, we already suspected she had a plan of that sort.
Eli blinked. “You did?”
“There was nothing else she could be doing with the stars,” Slorn said. “And you don’t ruin one world without having somewhere else you’re planning to go.”
“Well, if you know that, why are you still here?” Eli snapped. “She’s got just about every star now.”
All but one, the Weaver said, his white eyes drifting up. Durain, Teacher of the Shapers, Lord of all Mountains. He is her oldest star, and the last to answer her call. He’s been resisting her pull for days now to buy us time.
“Buy time for what?” Eli said.
For my brother to arrive.
The Weaver said this with such reluctance that Eli realized he’d been thinking about this all wrong. “Wait,” he said. “You’re not just going to go lecture her, are you?”
No, the Weaver answered, his eyes sad. My sister has chosen to abandon the world our father left her in charge of. That is a path that cannot be ignored or forgiven. I would stop her myself if I could, but I cannot. The Creator in his wisdom made his children to live in peace, and to that end, he made us equals. My power is as great as the Shepherdess’s and not a hair greater. Any struggle between us would end in stalemate and likely destroy that which we were created to protect in the process.
“But you’re not alone,” Eli said. “There are many spirits, powerful spirits, who would be more than willing to rise against the Shepherdess.”
That may be, the Weaver said. And that would be useful were the Shepherdess’s realm any other than what it is. But the Shepherdess commands the sphere and the spirits it contains. No soul in this world can raise a hand to harm her, no matter how justified. Even if I had every spirit behind me, they could not act against their Lady.
“So what are you going to do, then?” Eli asked. Because this was all starting to look pretty hopeless.
I told you, the Weaver said. We are waiting for my brother, the Hunter. The Shepherdess rules over the spirits who live within the sphere. I, the Weaver, maintain the boundaries, constantly rebuilding the world’s shell as it is torn down. The Hunter lives outside the world, defending the shell from those who would break it.
“Outside the world?” Eli said, his voice trembling.
The Weaver sighed. You would call it the other side of the sky. This world, all that you know, is but the last, tiny outpost of what was once a vast creation. The shell is the boundary between this world and what lies beyond, a wall against the dark created for your protection, you and all spirits. The Hunter is the one who protects the wall.
Eli was starting to feel wobbly. “So,” he said, “if the Hunter’s job is to protect, what’s he protecting against? What does the Hunter hunt?”
Such things are not to be discussed and have no bearing on our current predicament, the Weaver said coldly. The important thing is that the Hunter is returning to our world very soon. His rests are sacred and seldom, but this situation is serious enough to warrant interrupting him. I’ve already woven a message into the sphere itself for him to come to me as soon as he is inside. When that happens, we shall be two against one, and the Shepherdess will be completely overpowered.
“And what happens after?” Eli said, staring at the Weaver with growing horror. He hated Benehime, hated her for everything she had done, but he couldn’t think of her being killed.
“That’s what I was for,” Slorn said, his voice low and growling. “I was sentenced to life imprisonment for disobeying the mountain and fleeing with my wife after she became a demonseed. The Teacher offered to rescind that punishment if I helped the Weaver construct a prison capable of holding the Shepherdess.”
“Prison?” Eli said, astonished. “You’re going to put her in prison?”
We must, the Weaver said. We are Powers, created from the body of the Creator himself. Even if I wanted to kill my sister, I could not. We can restrain her, overpower her, but nothing in creation can kill a Power.
“So, what, you’re going to lock her up for a few thousand years and see if she won’t come around?” Eli said. “What are you even going to put her in?”
The Weaver’s eyes fell to the bone metal box, and Eli stiffened. “Ah,” he said. “I see.”
“I am the only thing in this world that can Shape bone metal,” Slorn said. “The Weaver cannot change spirits, so the lot fell to me.”
The substance you call bone metal is not actually metal at all, the Weaver said. At the beginning of this world, as the Creator fought to make the sphere, his hand was torn off. It fell to the ground. His bones are all that is left, and just like the Powers or the black cores of the demons, they cannot be destroyed. This bone is the only substance that the Shepherdess cannot shatter.
“Hold on,” Eli said. “If Slorn can Shape it, why can’t Benehime?”
Slorn looked at his hands. “All wizardry comes from the Shepherdess, even Shaping. But to Shape bone metal requires more than will and power. It requires sympathy. Sympathy, and a deep understanding of the spirit’s true nature. That’s why it is the perfect prison for the Shepherdess. If she was capable of the kind of sympathy needed to bend bone metal, we wouldn’t need a prison in the first place.”
