Paul Kemp - Twilight Falling

"Trickster's toes," Jak oathed, and snapped his fingers. "A map. Of course. But a map to where?"

Cale's mind raced. Why would Vraggen and Azriim risk so much for a map of the stars? They could simply look up at the night sky with a spyglass and obtain the same information. The sphere would tell them little more than Sephris's orrery.

"It is a map, at least of sorts," Sephris acknowledged, but gave a secretive smile. "The most elaborate, complete representation of the heavens that I have ever seen. It must have taken months to craft." He indicated his orrery and added, "This is paltry in comparison. But the sphere is more than a mere map."

In a rush, it all came together in Cale's mind. Sephris had described the motion of the heavens as predictable, but he had also said that some of the celestial bodies represented in the sphere appeared only rarely. In that instant Cale knew what the sphere was: It was a picture of the sky at a particular point in time.

"It's a timepiece," he breathed.

Sephris looked at Cale with raised eyebrows, obviously surprised that he had made the connection.

"Indeed," said the loremaster. "It could be nothing else."

Jak frowned and asked, "A timepiece? Like a Neverwinter clock? How?" Before Cale could explain, realization dawned on the halfling's face. "Because then-movement is predictable, because some of the gems-some of the celestial bodies, I mean-appear only rarely." He looked at Cale, smiling. "So it's not a map to a where …"

"It's a map to a when," Cale finished, and could not keep the excitement from his voice. He looked to Sephris. "When?" he asked, but knew the answer the moment the words came out of his mouth.

Sephris shook his head, frowned, and said, "I cannot tell with only half of the sphere."

Cale should have realized that, of course.

Sephris sank into his desk chair with an audible sigh. Exhaustion showed on his face. Cale realized that the loremaster had hardly mentioned numbers at all since they'd entered the library. Fatigue must have quelled his mania.

"Can you determine anything, Sephris?" Jak asked. "Does it show a time in the past?"

Sephris shook his head and answered, "The future, I believe, Jak Fleet. The future."

The halfling looked at Cale with raised eyebrows. Now they knew that Vraggen wanted the sphere to tell him when something would occur. . but what? Cale looked at Sephris.

"If we had the other half of the sphere," he asked, "you could tell us the time?"

"Easily."

Cale nodded. That was something.

"Cale …" Jak began.

"Let's discuss it outside," said Cale.

He picked up the half-sphere and put it in his pack. Sephris watched it vanish into the pack the way a man might watch his lover's back fade into the distance.

Cale looked at Sephris, then looked at the halfling and said, "Jak, let me have a moment."

Surprised, Jak looked a question at him but nodded. Without a backward glance, he exited the library.

Before Cale could say anything, Sephris said, "You are a priest, aren't you, Erevis? I could calculate the answer but I'm very tired and it would be easier if you would simply tell me."

Cale nodded and asked, "How did you know?"

Sephris chuckled, "I can see the abhorrence on your face."

Cale started to protest but Sephris held up his hand and shook his head.

"I'm all too familiar with it," Sephris said. "You see in me what you fear you may become. Only another priest has that fear. Only priests are wise enough to fear, rather than covet, the gifts the gods may give."

"The little man-Jak-is also a priest," said Cale. "You didn't see the same fear in him?"

Sephris waved his hand dismissively. "He is a seventeen. A seventeen is prime, evenly divisible by only itself and one, at least among whole numbers. Do you see? A seventeen is not divided in his soul. He is at peace because he already knows what he is. He is not becoming. He is what he is supposed to be. Do you want to know what number you are?"

Cale knew that whatever he was, he was not a prime number, but some number divisible by two. Cale's soul and his loyalties were divided, and he knew it. Light and darkness warred in him, man and god, faith and independence.

"No," he said, a bit more harshly than he had intended.

Sephris accepted that without a word.

Cale had planned to ask Sephris what he meant when he had called him the "First of Five," but he decided then and there that he didn't want to know. He didn't want to plumb any deeper into Sephris's thought processes. He did not want to plumb any deeper into his own nature. Except….

"Was it worth it?" Cale asked. "Oghma's gift?"

Had Mask granted Cale a "gift" of the sort that Oghma had bestowed on Sephris, Cale would have hated him for it.

Sephris nodded. He took Cale's meaning.

"That is a fundamentally flawed question, Erevis. Do you know why?"

Cale shook his head.

"Because it implies a choice."

Mentally, Cale rejected Sephris's statement. He insisted on believing that at some point choice entered into the equation.

Cale said, "I'm not a determinist, Sephris."

Sephris smiled softly. "Then let me answer you this way. Serving a god brings many rewards, but it also demands a price, always a price. The price I paid-" he sighed, a sound both contented and fatigued-"is simply more apparent to you than the price you have paid … and will pay."

To that, Cale could think of nothing to say. He found that his hand was in his pocket, clutching his mask. He released it as if it was white hot.

Sephris leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and said nothing further. Cale took that as an invitation to leave.

"Thank you for your help, loremaster. If we get the other half of the sphere …"

Sephris smiled, though he still kept his eyes closed, and said, "Then we will speak again."

Cale turned to go. The library didn't appear as disorganized before.

When he laid his hand on the door handle, Sephris called to him, "One last piece of advice, Erevis. Listen carefully, for here is the key to understanding Fate." He paused before he said, "Two and two are four."

Cale gave a smile. If only it was that simple.

"I don't believe in Fate, loremaster."

Sephris opened his eyes then and said, "That is only because you cannot yet do the math."

Outside, Jak didn't ask Cale what transpired between he and Sephris. Instead, the halfling and Cale filled Riven in on events. The assassin took it in without a word.

Afterward, he said, "So the sphere tells the time that something will occur. But we don't know what the something is and we don't know where it will happen."

Cale nodded. Almost involuntarily, all three glanced skyward, though no stars were visible in the daytime sky.

Jak took out his pipe and tamped it.

"But we can be sure it's not good," the halfling said.

At that, Riven scoffed. Cale suspected that the assassin didn't care if what Vraggen sought from the sphere was good or otherwise. He only wanted to kill the wizard whose spell had made him afraid. Cale would just have to use that.

Jak struck a tindertwig and puffed on his pipe. The pipeweed's aroma filled the overgrown yard.

"Cale," Jak said, "we can't give them the sphere."

"Still thinking like a Harper, Fleet?" Riven asked with a sneer. "What do we care what this sphere signals? Worried about the innocent?"

Jak blew smoke in Riven's direction. He started to frame a reply, but Cale's hand on his shoulder cut him off.

"Little man, he's just goading you," Cale said. "It's his way. Just leave it alone."

Cale shot Riven a contemptuous glance.

"We can't turn over the sphere," Jak repeated. "They aren't human, at least some of them aren't, and we don't know what they plan to do." He shot a heated glare at Riven and added, "And burn him if he won't think about innocents. Wearing a pin didn't make me what I was, Drasek Riven, and resigning from the Network doesn't change what you are."