“As did the rest of us,” Mashiro answered. “Some of those same Envoys once sat at this table, and it was in this room that their plan was approved. But the situation has changed markedly in the short time between then and now. Because of Rustannica’s rapidly spiraling financial troubles and the advent of Vespasian’s new campaign, the Suffragat members would never entertain a peace proposal now, because this campaign has simply cost them too much of their already dwindling treasury funds. The die has been cast, and for Vespasian and thePon Q’tar this is a campaign of last resort. They simply don’t have the funds to sustain their country while spending decades conducting peace negotiations. They know that we could simply wait them out as they grow progressively poorer and further unable to control their restless populace. Vespasian and thePon Q’tar would never stand for that. We believe that the only way to stop them now is by vanquishing them in the field. In fact, we have no other choice, because if they take and hold our gold supplies we will soon find our economic situations reversed. But that is not to say that every facet of the Envoys’ peace plan was without merit.”
“I still don’t understand,” Tyranny said. “If you can vanquish the Rustannicans, what need would there be to ‘dismantle’ the craft?”
“Despite the craft’s mazelike complexities, your question is perhaps best answered with two simple words,” Mashiro said.
Wigg raised an eyebrow. “And what might they be?” he asked.
Mashiro looked deeply into Wigg’s eyes. “Free will,” he said softly.
Tristan glanced at Wigg to find a look of complete surprise. Then the First Wizard’s expression morphed into one of deep thought.
“Are you all right?” Tristan asked.
His thoughts racing, Wigg stared at Tristan with unseeing eyes, then blankly looked back at Mashiro.
“I beg the Afterlife,” he breathed. “The Paragon, the forestallments, the Tome, and the Scrolls of the Ancients-they were all crutches! Everything is gradually spiraling out of control and taking craft practitioners from both sides into the abyss with it! The more advanced our craft use becomes, the more we hurt ourselves!”
Pausing for a moment, Wigg simply stared into space. “I’m right, am I not?” he breathed. “I beg the Afterlife- how could we have been so blind? We worked so hard…we always believed that what we were doing was so right…”
Tristan gave Wigg a concerned look. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“As I said, we’re talking about free will,” Mashiro answered in the wizard’s stead. “The true purpose of uniting Shashida and Rustannica goes far deeper than just ending the War of Attrition. The unification’s greater goal will be not only to return all blood signature leans to the vertical, but also to forever rid the world of forestallments. This will allow a return to free will, which, because of blood signature lean, neither side truly possesses. Despite what you might have been led to believe, blood signatures did not always show a perceptible lean one way or the other. As endowed human beings evolved, so did this trait that so strongly influences them to pursue one side of the craft or the other. The stronger the blood quality, the stronger the compulsion. If all blood signatures can be aligned to the vertical without exception, perhaps blood signature lean can be wiped out for good. And without forestallments, people will again spend lifetimes learning to use magic rather than simply having its many gifts so easily imbued into their blood, thereby ending the overuse of the craft. Because the craft’s many gifts can be so readily imbued into endowed blood by forestallment, even here in Shashida many of our endowed persons have dedicated themselves to little more than lives of outright leisure. We have not yet succumbed to the depravity of the Rustannicans, but that is not to say it couldn’t happen. Hard work and the satisfaction of the struggle needed to learn the craft the traditional way-and with it a better appreciation of its many gifts-are becoming a thing of the past. Something earned by sweat and toil is far more treasured than that which has been effortlessly given. A new, unified culture will be forced to begin again, and to live in peace for the good of the craft and all mankind despite our differences. Forestallments were first conceived by thePon Q’tar to quickly empower their mystics with powerful, destructive gifts. They believed-and rightly so-that if they could do this fast enough, their mystics and soldiers could easily crush us. They nearly succeeded.”
Amazed by what he had just heard, Tristan looked over at Renjiro. “This is what you meant earlier, isn’t it,” he asked, “when you said that if we are to succeed in saving the craft and ourselves, we must first banish some of its applications and forever destroy the tools that have allowed those applications to flourish? That also means destroying the Tome and the two Scrolls.”
“Yes,” Renjiro answered. “And all such documents and research on this side of the world as well. Here in Shashida, the Tome and two Scrolls do not carry the great importance that you place on them. To us, they are little more than children’s craft primers, and they are not needed. The Vagaries Scroll was created by thePon Q’tar and left behind on the world’s eastern side so that future generations of Vagaries practitioners might find it and put its forestallment calculations to the same use as here. Failee found the Scroll, but it came into her grasp too late to help her win the Sorceresses’ War. The next time the Scroll surfaced it was in Nicholas’ hands. Then it came to be owned by Krassus, Wulfgar, Serena, and finally you and your Conclave. Although doing so went against our better judgment, we were forced to create a Vigors Scroll and leave it behind so that it might counterbalance the Vagaries Scroll. It also came into Nicholas’ grasp but was stolen by the orphans called Marcus and Rebecca and was later given to you. The Tome and the Paragon were also created by us and left behind for the same reasons. Because we feared that the Tome might fall into the hands of Vagaries practitioners, we were forced to make its revelations purposely obscure.”
Tristan looked over at Wigg and Tyranny. Tyranny still seemed stunned, but Wigg’s expression had become resigned, accepting.
“You agree with this plan, don’t you,” Tristan said.
Wigg nodded soberly. “Now that I understand it, I do indeed,” he answered. Lacing his long fingers together and placing his hands atop the table, Wigg looked at Mashiro.
“But I suspect that there is something more to your hopes and dreams than what you have told us,” he said. “And as you told Tyranny, it might be best summed up in two words.”
Mashiro smiled. The wizard has grasped it, he thought. “And what might they be?” he asked.
“Respectful tolerance,” Wigg answered. “The concept that all Vigors and the Vagaries practitioners have done the things they did because they were compelled to do so by the nature of their blood. And that if this concept can be universally accepted and all blood signatures made the same, each side can forgive the other. Then the healing can truly begin.”
“Well said,” Kaemon spoke up from the other side of the table. “Now you understand that your many struggles east of the Tolenkas were only the beginning. The real war is here, and you have become a part of it.”
Tristan suddenly felt a distant memory tug at his mind. It was a puzzling recollection whose meaning had long eluded him. At long last he had his answer.
“Krassus…,” he said softly.
“What of Krassus?” Wigg asked.
“It happened the day I awakened to find myself a slave on one of his demonslaver ships,” Tristan answered. “Before condemning me to the galleys, Krassus ordered me tied to a chair and he beat me. I defied him, and I told him that like Nicholas, he represented nothing but evil. Until this moment, his answer mystified me.”
“What did he tell you?” Wigg asked.
Tristan thought for a moment, trying to remember the Vagaries wizard’s words.
“Evil?” Tristan quoted.“He who has yet to be trained calls meevil? Don’t you know that there are no such things as good or evil, Chosen One? There are only the Vigors and the Vagaries. Tell me, dear prince, do you really believe that Failee was ‘evil’? Or was she simply doing what she was compelled to do? Given the undeniable call of her left-leaning signature, did she truly have a choice? Don’t you see, you fool? It is the same with me. I’m not ‘evil.’ I don’t even know the meaning of the word.”
Tristan looked at Mashiro. “You speak of tolerance,” he said. “Do you mean to say that all the Vagaries practitioners-no matter how vile-should be forgiven their terrible deeds because their blood compelled them to perform them?”
Mashiro sighed. “That is a question that has plagued us ever since the discovery of blood signature lean and the terrible realization that it easily induces us into vastly opposing actions and beliefs,” he answered. “Shashidan philosophers have spent aeons trying to learn the answer to that question but to no avail. I cannot say whether the Vagaries practitioners should be forgiven any more than we should be, for what they believe are the many transgressions that we perpetrated on them. But what I do know is that it calls into question the conflicting natures
