Read on for more of this great sprawling mess,
The figure sat on my left, a slight and graceful part of the darkness, and took a deep breath. The eerie silence that surrounded these people made me conscious of some many sounds I usually disregarded.
Can you understand my words?
I jumped as if struck. I had heard the voice inside my head, as I had done earlier when I arrived, but much louder. Whoever this was, they were new at this.
My apologies. Yes, I am not very experienced at speaking into another’s mind. We have little need of it, and few of us ever learn or master it. Is this better?
Yes, it is, thank you. You perhaps know this, but I am called Angstrom.
I am Anatha. I was one of those who waited on you earlier. I am a servant of the circle and that is one of my duties. My task now is to take the thought speech of the circle and relay it to you as best I can. Please let me know if my thoughts are too loud or indistinct. Here is my hand. Squeeze it and just think your response.
The hand was small and warm, but was chapped and callused. My interpreter/translator was a hard worker. I laid my hand so my fingers just touched the back of Anatha’s hand, pressed and thought.
Please tell the others to resume. You and I will follow as best as we can.
Thank you.
And with that, the circle commenced its business.
Anatha’s anxiety was palpable. The pressure of monitoring thought conversations while relaying them someone unskilled with them intense. The currents of thoughts and ideas, arguments and assertions, flowed back and forth, and she relaying nothing for a few moments. There were several false starts, as she tried to distill the flurry into something she could transmit without explaining. That could come later.
They — the circle — are concerned about the people of the town or village you came from. They dig and explore but to what end? They mark and divide the land, they make the earth shake with things they bury, and leave the marks of their destruction behind. They —
I squeezed and thought: do they want explanation from me? Or are they merely citing examples?
The reply came: wait.
She continued: the ones who followed our guest were exploring around the gateway and persist in looking it over. They may be planning to rend the ground around it as they do in the hills and canyons. If they gain entry, what are we to do? Were we wise to bring someone here and reveal that there is a mystery of some sort? What kind of man is this one? Are we sure he is not like those others? Has be not been seen in their company?
There was a pause.
Erst now speaks. He is not happy with what he is hearing, both the news of what the circle thinks it knows and what they understand of what he has done.
Enough has been said of those outside our lands and what they do. We know about them, we know — or have discussed — what they do. We will learn from our guest why. The circle should know and understand that our guest was chosen based on careful observation. The idea that I or anyone in the circle would knowingly admit someone to our realm who might have the inclination to expose it to those outside is something I would not have expected.
Now. No one feels the anxiety, the uncertainty of knowing there are men rending the land, despoiling the canyons and valleys more than I. To that end, we discussed within this circle that we should learn what they seek, what they are doing. Whether we can prevent what they do, we don’t know.
Anatha spoke again, her own voice and her own words more fluid than her projection of Erst: Erst has paused and is addressed individual members of the circle. He is angry but not at you or your people. He fears them, not due to their intentions but from what their ignorance might cause. He wants the circle to stop talking amongst themselves about their fears and let him do what he has always done — lead them.
I realized those were not so much her own words — they showed more insight than I would have expected — as Erst’s and was sure that she was weaving the threads of Erst’s ideas and motivations as he focused his attention elsewhere.
A tap on the back of Anatha’s hand and a question: what do I do in this? I feel as I should do or say something to justify Erst’s willingness to take this risk. I have no idea what risks your people and this land face, but plainly he sees something. Can he tell me how I can help?
My faith is already justified, came the reply, in the strong, authoritative thought-voice of Erst. I looked up and he had turned to face me. I had not realized I was looking down while the conversation was going on. His eyes met mine, and his face was more relaxed than it had been. Our eyes locked for a minute or more, with silence, both in my head and in my ears. Then he turned and faced the rest of them.
Anatha relayed: I understand your fears. I know your uncertainty. I am old, perhaps too old, and these threats, if threats they be, are too new for me to understand. Can I still be depended on to safeguard what we have here? Is there another who can lead you with more certainty?
The doubt is all yours. I have none. I have heard nothing from anyone here who understands the work being done out there more than I do. I have been given no information on their motives or plans. Indeed, all I know has been discovered through my own plans and methods.
So what bends your minds away from me? What tests your allegiance? Is fear of the unknown — which is not unknowable — to be what dissolves our band, our community?
There was a pause. Anatha took a deep breath and I could not tell if she was shivering or sobbing.
Are you alright? What’s happening?
I have not set in a circle before this night but I cannot think things are this tense, this discordant, at other assemblies. I will tell what I can.
There are some who feel Erst is not doing anything to prepare or defend us from what could happen if the work your people are doing breaches our realm. This land and all you see is secured and hidden from your world by some ancient thaumaturgy that we but dimly understand. We know it works and will forever but if your people rend the rocks and pull down the hillsides, no one knows if we will remain obscured. As you know, there are places where the barrier is permeable, where we can pass through, but we have been careful not to let anyone know of their existence. There are some who grumble that Therian failed us by letting them know of one such gateway.
A pause, then she resumed. Erst still speaks to individual members. He is not accustomed to division. His leadership is all anyone here knows. Where everyone believed he was the only leader who could do all he has done, now some wonder if times have moved on and things now exceed his powers. I am not of that belief. I believe he knows more than he can share with the circle. One is born to the circle and birth alone does not confer wisdom. Some of the circle are easily led by naysayers and those who foretell doom from the shape of a cloud.
He speaks to all now.
Members of the circle, I have listened to your arguments and entertained your thoughts on what we should do. But I am unmoved. You offer suggestions and solutions of dubious efficacy but you ask no questions. We have lived here as well as we have, as safely and happily as we do today, because we listen, because we take the time to learn and use what we learn.
What I hear from various members is that we should close the breaches. But no one knows how. The thaumaturgy that keeps us hidden also controls those gateways and we do not know how to change them. So this is a wish, not a plan.
I hear we should use the gateways to draw in outsiders and terrify them, perhaps even harm or kill them, as a lesson to the others. This would only serve to inflame them and we could be sure of no peace. They could send word back to their cities and perhaps find some thaumaturges who could remove our protection.
And it has been suggested that we use the breaches and leave ourselves. This idea deserves but little attention. No one who has seen what lies outside our realm or even has heard about it would entertain this idea for a moment. Abandoning our home is not an option I can countenance.