As Anda suggested, it was powerful here. The ahmaean filled him, practically oozing from the pool. There was a pattern to it that was buried within the nearly transparent energy that swirled around it, and it reached toward the trees, joining with them, spreading out along the ground and the grasses there. That power touched him and added to his own ahmaean briefly before retreating. In that way, everything was connected.
Jakob didn’t have the same sensation when he was in other places. Perhaps the Great Forest, but that was the heart of the damahne power—or it had been. It was interesting to him that the daneamiin would have an even greater connection to the land than the damahne and interesting to him that the daneamiin forest would have even more ahmaean than what was found in the Great Forest.
As he walked, he had a sense of something trailing after him.
Jakob wasn’t nervous, not in these lands. There was no reason to be nervous here. He slowed and turned, expecting to see one of the daneamiin. Maybe it would be Aruhn, the elder daneamiin watching him, but then if it had been Aruhn, Jakob would have recognized his presence sooner. Having walked along that man’s fibers connected them.
When he turned, he saw nothing.
Jakob pushed out with his ahmaean. It radiated from him in a wave. What he did was like what Anda had done, only Jakob had much more ahmaean than the daneamiin, and he had much more strength with it than even she managed. As it washed away from him, he felt it merging with the ahmaean of the forest.
He was aware of everything within the forest. There was life here that was unlike anyplace else. The daneamiin were not the only ones to call this place home, and they were not the only exotic life that lived here.
What had he detected?
There was nothing there, at least not now.
Jakob continued around the edge of the pool, stopping on the far side. Looking across the water, he could see the edge of the daneamiin forest. Had he not visited, he doubted he would have recognized it as anything other than more trees. The daneamiin blended so well into the forest, and it made it nearly impossible to see them. His connection to the ahmaean helped, but even that was not enough to overcome their connection to these lands.
Anda had posed good questions, and they were ones that he hadn’t considered and one that Novan hadn’t even suggested to him. Why hadn’t the damahne been able to find Raime in the past? And why hadn’t the damahne attempted to remove the groeliin threat?
He needed answers, and he suspected they would be found along the fibers, but which pathway should he take? How far back should he continue to walk to understand what the damahne had faced, and why they had not challenged the groeliin?
The answer came to him. When had the groeliin last attacked in much force?
Jakob sat on the ground, crossing his legs. He did not fear for his safety in the forest, but pushed out slightly with his ahmaean, creating a barrier so that he could remain unharmed.
Then he turned his ahmaean inward and focused it so that he could walk backward, and trace the fibers.
Chapter Five
Walking along the fibers of time was easier the more that he did it. Jakob had learned that he could remain within his own ancestors, and could simply follow them backward, racing through a sense of darkness. As he did, he paused periodically, long enough to glimpse within the fibers, making sure that he didn’t go back too far.
There was one place along the fibers where he had traveled often enough that he didn’t need to fear overshooting it. He stepped into it, and retreated, not wanting to be too fully within the person he had joined.
Jakob simply observed.
He was inside the Tower. He recognized that immediately. Thick stone rose around him, and the decorations were ornate, but nothing like the style he saw in other places. There were statues scattered here, and Shoren barely looked at them as he passed.
You have come again.
Jakob shouldn’t be surprised that Shoren was aware of him. He had made a point of coming back after his first visit. Had he gone to a time before then, he would have had to explain himself once more. He had to be careful with these visits. Each one had to come in a specific sequence so that his memories were shared with Shoren. If he went back too far, Shoren wouldn’t remember helping him fight the groeliin and Raime. If he came too close to the end of Shoren’s life, he risked the man not remembering the visit the next time Jakob had need of him. Jakob had little doubt that he would need Shoren again.
I have come again. I still struggle with my abilities.
Your abilities are born within you. You have mastered walking back along the fibers, something that few of us have ever truly mastered.
You told me that it was unsafe to walk back as I do.
Unsafe, yes. But you have learned to not be so present when you do. Many damahne would struggle with this, but I do not.
It wasn’t boasting. Jakob had learned that Shoren was considered a master of the fibers, and had greater control over them than almost any of the other damahne. It was the reason he had chosen Shoren to step back in to. He had learned much from Shoren and knew that there was much that he still could learn.
I need to understand how to look forward along the fibers.
Shoren chuckled. It was a sound that came within his mind, and he didn’t even pause as he made his way along the hall. Forward is difficult. You may catch a glimpse, but untangling the fibers is a challenge for any damahne. Understanding the meaning of the glimpse… that is the true challenge.
I need to defeat the man who we faced the last time. He attempted to destroy the fibers. He won’t stop until he gains even more power.
I can help you understand the fibers, but it is difficult to teach someone how to glimpse forward along them.
Why?
Shoren seemed to smile. Because you have walked back, and you already know what has happened for me. For you, my future is your past. You have certainty where I have uncertainty. Do you see how this can be a challenge?
It made sense. Jakob walked back the determined path, but Shoren saw what might be. Did Jakob’s presence here change those possibilities?
How can I learn to look forward?
Some never manage to do so. Even those who have skill with walking back along the fibers, not all have the same ability to step forward and untangle the fibers far enough so that they can see.
So I might never learn to move forward along the fibers?
I cannot tell you that answer now. It’s possible that you will not be able to untangle the fibers enough to see anything more than glimpses of what could be. Then again, it’s possible that you will discover a way to hold the fibers apart and see what few others have ever been able to. You have already shown that you have a unique capacity. It’s one that I’d don’t necessarily agree with, but that doesn’t mean it is entirely wrong.
Shoren continued along the hall and turned a corner at the stairs. He took them two at a time, his long legs making it easy for him. He passed a few landings before he stopped and headed down the hallway.
You said the damahne are no longer in the Tower in your time.
I am the only damahne remaining in my time.
That is unfortunate. The Tower took many years to build, and many committed much of themselves to the construction.
I was told by the last damahne that the Great Forest was the home to many of the damahne.
Shoren stopped in front of the door, his hand hovering near the handle. The Forest? We have spent some time in the Forest, but most of our time has been within the Tower. It is a place for all damahne.
Do you know why the groeliin were never attacked?
You mean those creatures like the one we faced in the cave?
You are familiar with the groeliin in your time?
Creatures like that have not been seen in my time.
If they haven’t been seen, then Shoren wouldn’t have answers as to why the damahne hadn’t gone after the groeliin. That was what Jakob wanted to know—what he
needed to know.
Once again, he wondered if he had changed something by showing Shoren the groeliin. Would that influence decisions that he made?
Shoren had mentioned how he couldn’t clearly see the future. Would it matter that he knew the path that Jakob had traveled?
It was time for Jakob to retreat and return to his time.
As the door opened and Shoren started in, Jakob retreated within Shoren’s mind.
He paused, remaining here as Shoren to observe, wondering what he might discover. He had a glimpse of several other damahne in the room, all sitting in massive chairs made out of a strange gray metal. Shoren approached carefully, and Jakob felt pushed as he did.
I am sorry, Jakob Nialsen.
Jakob was forced away as Shoren entered the room.
Separated from Shoren, he was forced back along the fibers and drifted. He turned his sense of ahmaean upon himself once more, and traveled, moving forward. As he did, he paused periodically to glimpse along the fibers, searching for signs of others of his ancestors.
What he needed was a damahne far enough along where they had experience with the groeliin, but not so far that he passed beyond his family’s connection to the damahne. He had caught visions of himself as daneamiin, and then as man.
As he tracked the fibers, something caught his attention.
He retreated and stepped out of the fibers.
The one lesson that Shoren had made certain to teach him was the need to remain accessible within the mind of the person he observed but not so connected that he was there fully, and took over. If he did that, he posed a danger to both the damahne and himself.
Jakob looked out through his host’s eyes. He stood on a ridge, overlooking a line of mountains stretching in the distance. The sun was setting, a soft orange glow hanging low in the sky. A gentle wind gusted, and Jakob was only distantly aware of it, the connection to his host faint enough that he could feel the wind. He was aware of how it fluttered at his cloak, but not much else.
“They are out there, Josun. I can sense them.”
The words came from Jakob’s host’s mouth. He was surprised to realize that it was a female voice, but it wasn’t the first time that he’d stepped back and had visions as a female.
“I can sense them as well, Lara.”
“How many?” As she scanned the mountainside, and Jakob resisted the urge to take control and to look around him better. He didn’t want to overwhelm the damahne—Lara—that he had stepped into. Were they searching for groeliin? Was that why he was standing along the mountainside or was there another reason?
When was this?
That was often the question for him. When he traveled along the fibers, it was often difficult to know when he visited, unless he spoke directly to his host as he had with Shoren.
“Dozens.”
Lara turned to him. “How are there so many? We’ve attempted to slow them—”
Josun grunted. “We’ve done little other than observe. Some of us have wanted to do more than that, but we’ve been restricted by the council. You know that as well as I, Lara.”
A memory drifted to the forefront of Jakob’s mind, and Lara shared with Jakob what she knew about the damahne council and the restriction. He borrowed it, understanding that their council feared unsettling the peace, that stepping into open warfare created dangers that the council was not prepared for. Lara had come with Josun simply to observe, but the longer she was here, the more she saw of these creatures, the more she questioned whether observation was enough.
“I know that we’ve agreed there is danger in us doing anything more than observing.”
“The danger will come if these creatures attack elsewhere,” Josun said.
“We don’t know that they will.”
“We don’t? We know that they’ve been willing to attack and that they show no remorse for what—or how much—they destroy.”
Lara glanced at him, and despite the serene features on his face, she noted the way his ahmaean swirled, the steady agitation that Josun felt. “You’re right. The Maker knows, but you are right.”
“Interesting choice of words, even for you, Lara.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that so many ignore what’s in front of them. Including the council.”
She watched him, and he said nothing more. She didn’t expect him to. Josun had said all he could to their council and had made his point repeatedly. Their only concession had been sending her along with him.
Had the damahne council—especially Shoren, the greatest among them—known what she would experience?
It was possible.
“I serve the Maker, and all that has been created,” Lara said.
“As do I.”
She breathed out, resisting the frustration that attempted to steal through her. She had enough experience with men like Josun to know that she couldn’t let him be the reason she questioned her understanding.
“The Maker demands peace. That is what the council would serve,” she said.
“There is a settled peace and an unsettled peace. What do we serve if we don’t protect those unable to protect themselves? If we don’t defend them and if we don’t attempt to slow this threat, then we will have failed the Maker.”
“We don’t need to destroy to ensure peace,” she said.
“We are not the ones who destroy.”
“If we do what you suggest, then we do.”
Josun remained silent for long moments. His ahmaean streamed out from him before returning, the thin tendrils that he used to probe and join with everything around him, controlled. He was a powerful damahne. Many believed—Lara included—that had he not believed as he did, he would have been asked to sit on the council.
“Did the council tell you what I saw along the fibers?” Josun asked.
“I didn’t realize you had much talent with peering into the future.”
He turned to her, his face earnest and his wide eyes practically begging for her to understand. And she wanted to. The Maker knew that she did.
“Not at first, but I’ve discovered my talent. It’s the reason I push as I do.”
Her breath caught. If that was true, then why wouldn’t the council listen, especially as Shoren was known to have more than a little talent with peering along the fibers.
“What have you seen?” she asked.
“You don’t want to know any more than the council wanted to know.”
She shifted across the distance to him and grabbed his hand. He stiffened, but he didn’t object to the familiarity she showed in doing so. “I’ve come with you this far, haven’t I? Did I not offer to travel with you?”
“The council asked you to come.”
“Not this far,” she said with a soft laugh.
Josun closed his eyes, and his ahmaean swirled. As it coalesced, images flashed within it. Each one revealed destruction, and each one revealed a growing threat from the creatures out of the north.
Groeliin.
Jakob offered the name and wondered if his presence would be too much for Lara to handle. Shoren had managed, and hadn’t objected, but would Lara?
She couldn’t take her eyes away from what Josun showed her.
Could these images be real? Was it possible that such destruction could happen?
Josun shared images of many villages and cities destroyed. The people within slaughtered. An entire landscape altered, ruined by these creatures.
“This is what you saw?” she whispered.
“Some of it. There are others, but this is enough, don’t you think?”
“Why do we need to head north then?”
He breathed out and released his ahmaean once again. Another series of images formed, this time showing the land shifting, changing. A great gash formed, separating them from the daneamiin, their cousins to the east, mountains rising in the north, pushing back the onslaught of these creatures. The land to the south changed, altered in such a way that they would n
ot make it quite as easily south.
“This… this is too much change,” she said. “Even the Maker—”
“If we do nothing, everything that was created by the Maker will fail. This is what peering along the fibers has shown me. This is what the council ignores.”
Lara considered Josun. “Show me.”
As they shifted, moving elsewhere, Jakob retreated from the fibers.
Chapter Six
When Jakob opened his eyes, stepping back out of the fibers, he saw that night had come, and there was a certain pall in the air. The pool of water remained still and undisturbed. Ahmaean stretched away from him, radiating from him in a soft cloud. Nothing else moved.
How long had he been here?
It was difficult to tell the passing of time when he remained focused within the fibers. Sometimes, only moments would pass, while others, hours would go by. And there had been the time when he had traveled along the fibers, attempting to help Aruhn, when many days had passed.
He didn’t think much time had gone by this time, but it was possible that more time had passed than he realized.
He stood slowly, shaking out a sense of achiness from his joints. He had stiffened up, which told him that he been here long enough for him to become uncomfortable.
As he stood, he detected something else within the forest.
This time, after having stepped back along the fibers, and having seen the way the damahne had resisted chasing down the threat of the groeliin, he had less patience for such mystery. There were things the damahne could teach him—he’d discovered that quite clearly when working with Shoren—but apparently, there were things the damahne couldn’t teach him.
He had no one to teach him how to look forward along the fibers, so he would simply have to attempt it on his own.
There were other things that he wanted to know, too. What was it about the north—and about the groeliin that made the damahne hesitate? Why were they nervous about facing them? There had to be an answer, but he didn’t know whether he would be able to find it on his own.
The Lost City (The Lost Prophecy Book 5) Page 5