Steven Brust - Issola

“My Lord Morrolan,” said Lady Teldra suddenly.

He stopped, and turned to her. He’d forgotten her, as had the rest of us. Her eyes were just a trifle wide.

“I know that look, Boss. She just got something. You get the same look when you finally figure out the obvious.”

“How would you know what I look like? You’re on my shoulder.”

“We have ways.”

Meanwhile, Teldra was holding up a finger, asking us to wait, making little nods to herself as pieces fell into place. Then she said, “If I may be permitted to express an opinion.”

Morrolan nodded impatiently.

“I think, perhaps, you do not understand the Jenoine.”

He chuckled. “That, my dear Teldra, is hardly news.”

Her smile came and went like a straight shot of plum brandy, and she said, “I learned something of the Jenoine years ago, most especially their language. I’m sure you are all aware that language holds the key to the thinking of a culture. And, of course, one cannot spend time in such illustrious company as my Lord Morrolan, Sethra Lavode, and such gods as they come in contact with from time to time, without learning more. And then, I spoke with them.”

She paused. I wondered if she got her sense of drama from Morrolan, or if he hired her because of it. “When you speak of place, you are speaking in terms that would not make sense to them. They have a concept of ‘place,’ but it is used in their mathematics, not in their daily lives.”

“All right,” said Aliera. “You have our attention.”

“I have heard some—including you, Aliera—speak as if the Jenoine had come to our world from another place. This is not entirely true. I—please bear with me, this isn’t easy to describe.” She hesitated. “The clearest way to say it is that they do not move as we do, nor do they remain stationary as we do. That room in which we were held captive is, in an important sense, the only ‘place’ they have. At least, as we would use the term ‘place.’ The world that Vlad and I explored was, to them, the same place as the room. When we shattered the enchantment that kept us from seeing some of what was in the room, what we did was the equivalent of breaking out of that room and exploring other places in the structure. When we physically left the room to explore the world outside that room, we were, in their view, spirit-walking. Well, that isn’t exactly right—it isn’t such a perfect reversal, but it is something like that.”

“Well,” said Aliera. “That makes everything clear.”

Teldra frowned. “Let me try again.”

“Take your time,” said Morrolan, giving his cousin a dirtv look.

“Think of them this way: They are to us as amorphia is to normal matter. To them, our world and the place where we were held captive are the same place, differing only as states of being. I ...” Her voice trailed off.

“I’m sorry to say,” said Morrolan, “that I don’t understand.”

I was glad I wasn’t the only one.

“The Necromancer,” said Sethra suddenly.

“Ah,” said Teldra. “Yes.”

Morrolan said, “Shall I summon her?”

The mere mention of her name explained some of it—it meant we were dealing with the sorts of mind-bending things that are beyond the powers of normal people to understand.

“I’m not certain,” said Aliera, “that I could survive that just now.”

I thought about making a comment about Aliera’s delicate emotions, but good sense prevailed. A lot of my best wit is shared with no one except Loiosh and you, so I hope you appreciate it; he usually doesn’t.

Teldra took her comment seriously. “It requires an adjustment in thinking that doesn’t come naturally. I began to get glimpses of it when I studied their language, but I didn’t actually understand it until speaking with them. Yes, the Necromancer must necessarily understand these things, and I’m certain she could explain it better than I.”

Morrolan cleared his throat. “I don’t suppose,” he said, “that you could explain the, uh, practical ramifications.”

“I believe I can,” said Sethra Lavode.

Teldra shot her a look full of gratitude. Meanwhile, I was thinking, “Wait a minute; how is it Teldra knows this stuff and Sethra doesn’t?”

She answered the question before I could decide if I wanted to ask it aloud.

“What you are saying, my dear Teldra, makes sense of many things I have almost understood. Yes. It explains why they were able to achieve access to Dzur Mountain just when they did. It was not, as I thought at the time, a failure of my mundane defenses, nor of the magical ones. It was an attack from a dire­ction that was unexpected, because, if you will, I didn’t know the direction existed.”

Teldra nodded. “To themselves, they would say they redefined your defenses.”

“Yes.”

“Okay,” I said. “Good. Now I understand everything.”

“In practical terms,” said Sethra, as if I hadn’t spoken, “it explains at least some of the peculiar behavior you witnessed while confined. In particular, the place they kept you is, as you said, the only place they have. The world the only world, the building the only building, the room the only room. They were, in that sense, in there with you the entire time. You didn’t see them or hear them when their attention was focused elsewhere. They—”

“Rubbish,” I said.

“Excuse me, Vlad?” said Sethra, who I imagine wasn’t used to being addressed that way.

I repeated my remark, then amplified. “I don’t care if they consider it a place, or a state of mind, or, well, or whatever they consider it. They are real beings. They have bodies. They have places those bodies are.”

“What is your point, Vlad?” said Sethra, who seemed to be doing me the courtesy of taking me seriously.

“You don’t sit a bunch of prisoners down in front of a powerful object, even concealed, unless either you want them to find it, or ...”

I stopped, considering what I had been about to say.

“Yes, Vlad?” said Morrolan. “Or?”

“Or unless you have no choice.”

Sethra said, “How could ... oh. I see. Yes, that makes sense.”

Morrolan and Aliera were already there. Morrolan said, “It was the trellanstone that was holding us in place, that was keeping that gate shut. Yes, I can almost see that.”

“Almost?”

“Well, it needs something to work with.”

“You don’t think there is enough amorphia on that world’” I said.

“Oh, right,” said Morrolan.

Sethra looked at us. “Amorphia? How could there be amorphia there? It only occurs on our world. They cannot duplicate the conditions that gave rise to it without, in all probability, destroying their entire world.”

I said, “I don’t suppose there is a quick explanation for that remark, is there Sethra?”

Morrolan and Aliera looked impatient, but Sethra said, “The Catastrophe that created the Great Sea in the first place resulted from several fluke occurrences, as well as some nasty scheming and plotting on the part of Verra and others with her. But the fact that it failed to entirely consume the world is the biggest fluke of all. Amorphia is not something that is containable, by its very nature. To create it is to end everything.”

“But Adron’s Disaster—”

“Very nearly destroyed the world again,” said Sethra, “but the one advantage the gods had in containing it was the existence of the Great Sea. Had the Great Sea not been there, the Lesser Sea might well have destroyed all life in the world.” She shook her head. “I simply cannot conceive of the Jenoine finding a way to produce amorphia.”

“Well, they did,” I said. “Or else found another way to get it, because they’ve got it.”