After several calls he heard a faint and sleepy reply.
:Hello? Who is this?
:It is the one you know as Leiard.
He sensed his connection with her waver as she nearly woke up from shock.
:Leiard! But... you are not Leiard. You do not sound like him.
:No. I am him, and yet I’m not. There is much I need to explain to you. Do you remember the link memories I had of Mirar’s?
:Yes.
:They were not link memories. They were real memories. I am Mirar.
She paused.
:How long is it since you linked with another Dreamweaver?
:This is not a delusion resulting from me losing my sense of identity, Arleej. I created Leiard and suppressed my own memories in order to live. Let me show you.
He drew up the memories, feeling her react with sympathy, anger and wonder as she learned how he had survived. He explained how he had regained his identity yet also retained Leiard’s. When he had finished, Arleej was silent for a long time.
:So you are Mirar, she said finally.
:Yes. I’m back. And as always, I’ve made a complete mess of things.
He sensed her amusement.
:I imagine there was not much time to plan for the future while you were crushed and dying under the old House of Jarime. How could you have known the child you taught would become a White? She is an extraordinary person. This hospice she started in Jarime has been a great success.
:Hospice?
:Auraya has brought together Dreamweavers and priests in order to provide healing for the poor and encourage cooperation and tolerance.
:She never mentioned that.
:You’ve spoken to her recently?
:Yes, we have both been treating the Siyee, who have suffered badly from a particularly virulent plague of Heart-eater.
:I hadn’t heard. Should I send Dreamweavers there?
He felt a pang of guilt. If he had contacted Arleej earlier, Dreamweavers might have made the difficult journey into Si in time to be of assistance. But he had been so concerned with keeping himself isolated and hidden, and since no other Dreamweaver was powerful enough to heal magically their help would have been limited. Still, even those Siyee whose bodies could fight the disease needed care while they were sick.
:If there are any Dreamweavers willing to make the journey, send them. But Auraya may have the disease under control by the time they get there, he told Arleej.
:Will she? On her own? Her skills must be greater than I thought.
:I taught her all I know of healing with magic, he assured her.
:That was generous of you, what with her being one of the White!
:I know she will use it well.
:Yes. You are right. The hospice in Jarime is proof of that.
:There have been no protests? No trouble?
:Of course there has. But there’s been a rumor going around that she did it to prove that the priests and priestesses are better healers, so people won’t be tempted to join us.
:Which can’t be true. She knows we’re superior healers.
:But she can’t have meant the opposite to happen, either.
:No, he agreed. She would not encourage people to join us. Juran would not approve of this unless there was something in it for the Circlians to gain. He felt a chill. Knowledge. They will gain healing knowledge from us.
:Yes, but not everything. I doubt they’ll seek to learn any dream or mind-link methods.
:Wouldn’t they?
She hesitated.
:What do you think?
He considered.
An the long term, attitudes can be changed, he said. In a few decades, after she has encouraged the careers of healer priests who have open minds, the general attitude toward mind links will soften. It gives her time to work at changing the minds of other White, too. She is thinking like an immortal.
:I thought only that it was a chance to improve our standing among the people and...
:And?
:Sometimes I feel it is more important that our knowledge survive than that we survive. We have never held back from helping others, even if doing so was to our detriment.
Her admission disturbed him. That the current leader of the Dreamweavers felt this way about her people ought to appall him, but before he could think of the words to reassure her realized that he had taught Auraya for similar reasons. He was not free to roam the world performing healing miracles, so he had given her the ability.
Perhaps it would be better if Dreamweaver knowledge was given to the world, then the cult allowed to fade out of existence. In this age Dreamweavers could only live a life of persecution and division. The gods, through the White, were too powerful.
The way of life of Dreamweavers, of refusing to make war, of tolerance and generosity, might be lost, but what would rise in its place? While Dreamweavers represented that philosophy people would reject it. If Dreamweavers didn’t exist, some Circlians could take a similar philosophy to themselves without being accused of thinking like Dreamweavers.
:Now that you are here we will grow stronger again, Arleej said, perhaps interpreting his silence as dismay.
:Not if I don’t survive the next few weeks. When I taught Auraya I unintentionally revealed my identity to the gods. I am fleeing toward the Sennon coast.
:You can’t return only to perish so soon! Is there anything I can do to help?
:Perhaps. The Siyee are tracking me, and keeping my location known to the gods and the White. When I get to the coast I mean to take a boat and sail out into the sea. The Siyee can’t follow me far. It is my only chance to escape. But there is sure to be a White waiting for me at the coast.
:What can I do?
:Send Dreamweavers to the coast. Lots of them. Fill the streets of several villages with them. Hopefully I’ll be able to slip through one of the villages unnoticed.
:It will take some time for them to get there.
:I know. We must time this carefully. The Circlians may work out what we are doing and drive the Dreamweavers away. There is a danger they may retaliate if I am successful, too.
:We are used to evading danger. And once Dreamweavers hear about you, I’ll have too many volunteers to handle.
:No. They can’t know about me, Arleej. If they do the White will read our intentions from their minds.
:You’re right. I will create another reason for them to be there, she said.
:Thank you.
:If you do survive this, will we meet again?
:I hope so.
:Perhaps I will visit the southern continent. The Dreamweavers there lead a freer life than even those of us who live in Somrey.
