“And I need to know?”
“You need to understand.”
Gods. “Why me?”
“You have Samuel’s Light, that is why. Your Light can glow even in the darkest places, and we need it.”
Tristan took a ragged breath. “For Lethe?”
“Lethe is only the first step.”
“Tristamil’s Light?”
“Indeed, and it is stronger in you than it was in your father. You were raised in it.”
“What do you expect me to do?”
“Be the line between us.”
Tristan’s eyes darkened. “That line again.”
“I aim to tell you,” Torrullin said. “Usually a sorcerer is expected to discover it himself, and few do. You are not meant to know unless you find yourself pitted against an equal power, but I shall break that law and tell you.” He smiled. “I often break laws.”
“It’s not as if you are accountable,” Elianas said, and entered bearing a tray with three mugs, sugar and milk, and a plate of sandwiches. He set it down and flopped into a chair as far away from Torrullin as possible.
“There is always accountability, if only to oneself.”
“Gods, Torrullin, if that were true, neither of us would have moved a muscle in the ages past.”
Torrullin helped himself to a mug and a sandwich. “Thanks.” He raised the mug.
“Likewise,” Tristan said. “This morning my breakfast hit the floor when an earthquake smacked Grinwallin.” He took a sandwich and bit into it.
“Blame your likeness for that,” Elianas muttered.
Torrullin ate without rising to the bait. He helped himself to another and chewed through it slowly.
Elianas shook his head and snatched up his coffee, drank.
Tristan looked from one to the other and asked of Elianas, “Do you know why I am here?”
“I assume to fill the role of the Goddess of Souls.” Elianas raised his mug mockingly. “The line, Tristan.”
Torrullin finished his coffee. “You are confusing him.”
“We confuse ourselves.”
“Why is that?”
Elianas leaned forward and set his mug down. “You need to remember certain issues, and until you do, you race around bumping into things.”
“Really?”
“Torrullin, how can you understand why we do what we do to each other if you refuse to look deeper?”
“Why don’t you simply tell me?”
“Because, idiot, then it has no meaning. You must know.”
A sage nod. “Which is why you continually crash into everything.”
Elianas stared at him. “Interesting.”
Tristan cleared his throat. It surprised him how quickly they could forget they were not alone. “Someone needs to back up for my benefit.”
Elianas jumped in before Torrullin could speak. “You said you did not want to be responsible for another death, Torrullin. Is this wise?”
“It is most unwise. Tristan, however, is immortal, Kaval, Valla, partly Danae, and exceptionally talented with magic and he has the Light. We need a controlling element, but if you still disagree, then I shall end it now.”
“No, damn it,” Tristan said.
Elianas’ gaze was unreadable again as he sat there thinking hard. “In this, then, our unity.”
“Good. Let us begin.”
Chapter 55
A walk along pretty paths make for a restful soul.
~ Anonymous
Avaelyn
“LET US FIRST PUT the layers in place. One, there are innumerable realms under Reaume’s influence, and Ariann has the same. A few are shared by both. Our reality is a realm also and forms part of Reaume. Thus, if Reaume fails, we fail, but in what manner remains speculation. Reaume and Ariann are joined by Lethe, and we must assume Lethe also controls a number of realms. Further, not knowing of Lethe until now, it is not unlikely other bodies of control influence yet other realms. In other words, the spaces between might be so numerous we will never know the full tale.
“This is a form of Eternity. Time itself cannot be measured, for there is no beginning and end. It isn’t straight and directional. It is, however, cyclical, but is an ellipse that may stretch out so thin the opposite curve may be viewed by an adept, and it may widen so radically there cannot be view and, as we said earlier, it could even function as a coil. It goes on and returns without break or landmark, and this, too, is a form of Eternity.”
“Yes,” Tristan said.
“There are universes beyond this, there are galaxies we may never know of, and the stars may never be counted. We live and breathe with every kind of Eternity around us at every instant, and in such vastness we are made small. We should be humbled, but we are not. Given such Eternity, the grasp of a concept beyond imagination, I hope you might grasp an added dimension to it, for this is where Elianas and I function.”
Elianas glanced at him.
Tristan waited.
“Alternates, Tristan. Eternal alternates. I know we discussed this in the Time realm to Nemisin, and, yes, Kalgaia was restored in an alternate, but do you grasp they are with us right now?”
“Like realms?”
“Much like realms, but only certain realms occupies the same space as reality, and never all of it. They are able to overlap at points, where a Walker would use it as portal. Alternates occupy exactly the same space and do so all the time. There is no portal and there is no overlap. Each is separate and yet, where we are right now, this point, an eternity of this point stands with us. With me?”
“Theoretically,” Tristan muttered, and Elianas grinned.
Torrullin paced closer and sank onto his haunches before his likeness. “Imagine this point,” and he pressed the air between them with one finger extended, “as a line that goes up and down without end. Each tiny pixel on that line is an alternate and in every alternate there is Reaume, Ariann, Lethe and all other bodies, all other universes, galaxies, stars and planets, as well as eternal time. Above, below and all around us.”
“Goddess,” Tristan breathed.
Torrullin inclined his head and rose. He paced away again.
“A realm is a dimension added to what we know, usually from the fourth sense to the fourteenth. Most average out at about the eighth dimension of sentient perception, and most sentients see no further than the third. These dimensions are part of the space lattice, which is an arrangement of fourteen seemingly impossible points governed by wish and will. Every alternate has its own space lattice, but the understanding of an alternate is outside of any lattice.”
He halted. “Tristan, the concept understanding, never mind if one knows theoretically, academically or sorcerically, goes beyond law, lattice and eternity. Understanding is feeling without the explanations.”
Elianas stared frankly at Torrullin.
Torrullin paced around again and Elianas’ eyes followed. He paced behind the man and came to a halt there. Elianas was still, staring at an indefinable point.
He leaned to Elianas’ ear. “Understanding, Danae, is feeling without explanation. It doesn’t need to know.”
Torrullin straightened and moved away, and continued as if that had not happened.
“Elianas and I a long time ago realised - understood - this cyclical realm was too small to contain us, and once we understood, we realised there were alternatives. We call them planes.” He smiled. “Not the Plane realm - that is a flatland, and Plane describes that. The planes we speak of have curves and corners.”
He rounded the armchair he had been sitting in, flicked a searching glance at Elianas, and sat. “This is the fourth cycle for us, but if you really add together years by counting the actual cycles we have delved into …” He lifted an eyebrow at Elianas.
The dark man shrugged. “A thousand, twenty thousand cycles? Who counts these things?”
Tristan gaped.
“Some we visited a year, or a mere day, while others hosted us for a generation, two, three. Some an
era, some an age, some a mere millennium, others an entire cycle. They are all different and that, naturally, is where the allure and challenge lies. In some we were normal people, in others as we are here. In some we did only good, but in others … not. This is why Elixir works here; it is a power that could be harnessed due to the understanding of the planes.”
“Alhazen is explained the same way,” Elianas murmured. He had not again looked at Torrullin.
Tristan muttered, “And how do you get in and out?”
“Much like transport; we think ourselves in. A Walker here is a Walker there, but that is realm travel. Plane travel is as simple as wanting it and going.”
“Gods, and how do you land up in the same place?”
Elianas laughed. “At first we messed up.”
“The first time that happened,” Torrullin said, “I ended up searching for Elianas for a year before I realised he was on a different plane.”
“And now?”
Silence.
“Ah. Soul mates,” Tristan murmured.
Elianas’ eyes moved to him in the slow incremental manner that signified an astonishment he was unwilling to reveal. “We enter other planes, not just our souls.”
Torrullin’s gaze had moved to unobtrusively study Elianas’ reaction.
“It occurs to me,” Tristan said, “unless you are thus connected, you would go to different planes every time you try to go together.”
Elianas’ eyes hooded.
“Enemies can be soul mates, too,” Tristan added.
Elianas said. “And how would you know?”
“A feeling.”
Elianas leaned back and smiled. “Very clever.”
Tristan gave a lop-sided grin. For a moment there he felt quite clever, but now he was at a loss for words.
Torrullin filled the silence. “We use each other’s signatures to go in.”
“Except you have no signatures.”
“Not to you,” Elianas murmured.
Tristan dipped his head meaningfully. “Are you not making my point, Elianas?”
The dark man blinked and Torrullin smiled to himself.
Tristan moved on. “I assume what happened in these planes in the past is the issue between you? And the issue is why you need me?”
“Nicely put,” Elianas said.
“Stop it,” Torrullin muttered.
“Well?” Tristan demanded.
Elianas laughed. “Feels a bit like confession.”
“Isn’t it just like confession?” Torrullin asked. “Are we not talking to the Light?”
Elianas’ mirth was gone. “We?”
“You do not have to say anything. In fact, you don’t have to be here.”
“You will fill his head with crap, Torrullin.”
“You care?” Torrullin acted astounded.
Elianas pretended mortification. “You have to ask?”
Just like a bickering married couple, Tristan thought, and was then embarrassed when both men swivelled their heads to look at him.
“I thought you are able to guard your thoughts,” Elianas muttered, but there was a glimmer of amusement in his gaze.
“Sorry.”
Torrullin laughed, shaking his head.
“But, you know what?” Tristan tackled it. “That is how you are. So close and familiar with each other’s habits, to you it’s second nature to argue without thought.”
“About the little things, agreed,” Elianas said.
“We have spent much time apart,” Torrullin said, “enough to garner secrets. Due thought is given there.”
“And due argument.”
“And battle.”
“And score is kept,” Elianas said.
Tristan threw his hands in the air.
Elianas sighed. “Tell him, for god’s sake. The crucible awaits.”
Torrullin rose. “Let’s take a walk.” He strode over to the edge, jumped down, and set off on a path into the beauty of the forest.
Tristan, glad of a change in scenery, followed, but when he looked over his shoulder to check on Elianas, Elianas stood on the low ledge, sent a mocking wave, and vanished indoors.
“HE’S NOT COMING.”
“I am not surprised. I caught him off-guard in returning here, especially with you.”
“Off-guard?”
“He has plans to make before the crucible.”
“Like?”
“Only he knows.”
“You don’t mind?”
“Mind? No. Everything he does brings us a step closer.” Torrullin turned a mysterious smile on him, and then slowed to a relaxing amble through the glory of the autumn trees.
Tristan changed the subject. “This is a beautiful world. How did you manage to have it deeded to you?”
“Most worlds were uninhabited during the Dancing Suns and with the stagnation in first cycle little had changed. I found this one by chance, and in second cycle made sure Nemisin heard about it, telling him I suspected the prize quartz could be mined here. He annexed it, I had done him a favour, and he deeded it to me.”
“Why tell him? Why not simply make it yours?”
“It would not be valid through time.”
“Ah. What favour?”
“A little matter of a concubine, a spy and a thief. A conspiracy. I exposed the spy, caught the thief red-handed and slept with the concubine. Nemisin was very relieved, and averted political suicide.”
“He bribed you?”
“For Avaelyn I was prepared to be bribed. And the concubine was sweet, amorous.” He laughed. “Unbeknownst to Nemisin that liaison went on for years.”
“Where was Elianas?”
“Mixing potions and studying hard.”
Tristan pulled a face. “Yiddin put me in a room doing that almost as soon as we returned to Valaris twenty-nine years ago. My mother was horrified and my father intrigued.” He smiled. “He tried some spells in later years, did you know that?”
“Samuel?” Torrullin chuckled. “And?”
“He wasn’t very good.”
“Samuel’s magic was in the heart.”
“Yes.”
“Tristan, you do know you cannot have children, right?”
“I know.”
Torrullin did not push further. “Elianas is co-owner of Avaelyn.”
“Ah. The neutral ground.”
“More than that. This is home. This never belonged to anybody else.”
They came to a clearing. Green grass peaked through leaves of gold, russet and amber, and tiny birds swept among the treetops.
“One could be happy here,” Tristan, said, entranced.
“Yes, and I have been happy here.”
“I’m glad.” The question was unspoken.
“Elianas has been happy here also. This is why we always come back. This is why the deed needed to be unassailable.”
Tristan nodded as he wandered further into the bright glade. “And here is a good place to tell me why there is also underlying hostility.”
Torrullin sat in a sunny spot. He squinted and then undid his boots and loosened his tunic. The Medaillon glittered against his chest. He tilted his head to catch the sun on his face.
Tristan lowered to the grass and likewise removed his boots. He was soon flat on his back, one knee raised. He waited.
Neither had removed swords.
“Nemisin started it. He wasn’t a bad person, just undermined. Lord Sorcerer attempted to avoid future stagnation, and thus made fires under his butt and one blaze saw him use Elianas against me. Elianas’ loyalty, however, lay with me, and it lay with the Danae. He told me what Nemisin expected, but I accused him of being a traitor. There was a storm and a fight and when I had subdued him, there was fire in his eyes. It began that night, collusion, a conspiracy, acknowledgement of attraction. We pushed, testing the limits, and I knew betrayal approached. We were pushing too hard; there was no other option.”
Torrullin paused. “There was no other option - I never saw that bef
ore. Betrayal began in dream state, and it exposed desire, completely laid it bare, until we knew we were no longer dreaming. The line - the Goddess of Souls - appeared between us.”
Another pause then and Torrullin decided not to be graphic. “It went to the very edge. Elianas fled this place and I had to let him go. A week later there was a report of a murder in Kalgaia, then another two days later, then more. A serial killer, an evil beyond the ken of the Valleur, and the Danae in particular. I investigated to discover Elianas literally slitting a man’s throat.”
“My god.”
“He had lost control on reality. I covered it up, the death I discovered him at, but there was a witness, and there was a witness the next night when he did it again. It spiralled out of control. Within a month Kalgaia was a city of ghosts. Elianas, insane by then, wanted to take his vengeance to the Lorin also, and I knew it had to stop.
“I took recall from him, for I had seen a future where we were forgiven and together as brothers. He came to view the fate of Kalgaia as my betrayal. Anger and hate drove us then, and it spilled into the planes. We fought and as we fought we grew wings …”
Tristan stared at Torrullin.
“… great shadow wings, a sign of the darkness within. In some worlds on some planes in the spaces we are Shadow Wings. This, Tristan, is a greater accusation than Darak Or. There were periods when calm prevailed, thank the gods, and then we saw beyond pain and suffering and lies. In cycle four, this one, we entered another such period and chose to use Kalgaia to frighten Nemisin, but using horror to manipulate has intensified the inner struggle. We were cursed anew, but we had already cursed ourselves. We went into hiding, until now.”
Tristan sat up, wordless.
Torrullin closed his tunic as the sun moved on. “Last night Teighlar took us into a Luvan cave to the Goddess of Souls. To us it was simply the ‘line’. Last night’s events were too close on the heels of Elianas remembering the truth of betrayal. He was already furious. It also came on the heels of speaking about the Danae. And Lowen had reminded us of Shadow Wings.
Lore of Sanctum Omnibus Page 110