6th Desire (cont’d)

Ishta sends word to all the magi warning them that the Judge is fifty miles away and there should be an immediate council meeting. Ndapé’s preparing to travel with Calvus, Gi, and Nil; they’ll drop him off up the valley, then head down to the Here. He finds Cameron and Nishoba and tells them he must leave; you can’t leave! says Nishoba. Haven’t you ever disobeyed your parens before? Not on anything so obvious, says Ndapé. —They agree to try and baptise Murry immediately, and head off to his office. Ndapé announces there’s something in the basement of the Great Hall that requires his attention. Sword? Axe? says Murry. No, says Ndapé. It can’t be helped by sword or axe, but it requires my attention. We can’t explain in any more detail until you see it. Murry shrugs and comes along.

They take him to the pool. Ignore the children, says Ndapé. They explain about the pool, and defending the covenant, and the power it seems to hold, and how all the magi are aware of it. Murry explains he has a God who usually ignores him, but getting involved with some other god-stuff like this might wake Him up, and, well. But the baptism is only an investigation, so Murry shrugs and plunged himself under the water. The water swirls about him, and they all now know that he’s a good champion, but it’ll only be temporary, until the Day of Transformation. Murry stays underwater, waiting for some sign it’s done. The children swim about him, blowing bubbles; he figures that’s it. He stands. For the agreement to take effect, they must pledge their troth; they stand foursquare touching fists, and the water swells up to swallow their fists. Huh, says Nishoba.

Gi heads to Ishta’s room to ask for a parma ring for Nil. Sure! Didn’t you get my message? She repeats the news that the Judge is on the move again, and how Tully wants a council meeting, and how they should work on learning how to manipulate the enivironment around the Judge to cut him off from the sky. Lætitia asks if she can help. Gi says, can you protect the covenant from open sky? Just weather conditions? asks Lætitia. Gi explains about the lightning. Clear or cloudy sky? Clear, says Gi, the only times I’ve ever seen it. Gi gives Ishta a connection; she gives him a parma ring.

Tully asks Palpebra if the Judge walks past a cliff or a mountain or something can he drop it on him? Sure, I guess, says Palpebra. Marzipan wants to use his flame-throwers. —The Judge is approaching a village. The Judge begins a silent exhortation, and lightning begins to slam down silently from the sky, blasting huts into silent infernoes as the villagers flee, screaming soundlessly. Murry starts recalibrating his device to turn the earth under the Judge’s feet to quicksand.

Nil’s getting Lhimpat ready to go. Aren’t we scared of the sky? Yes, but this should be fun. Nil gives Calvus written instructions on disconnecting the Judge from the Judge. Gi gives Nil and Lhimpat a blanket to pull over their heads. (“At least let it be an enchanted blanket!”) The water children want to come, but the water isn’t interested; Nil leaves the shells behind, and is quite stern with Omphalé. Gi enchants the blanket, and picks up Lhimpat, wrapping her in a cloak. (“I can walk on my own,” she says. “I can’t help it if your master interrogated a Judge while you were in the room,” says Gi.) —They step away, and drop Ndapé off in the woods eight miles or so ahead of the Judge, and then step away again, north.

Ndapé finds the Judge on the map, and heads off in that direction; he’s going to sink the Judge in army-stopping mire, but when he gets there, Palpebra and Tully have buried the Judge in a steel ball. They decide to sink the steel ball in more mud and turn that mud into more steel. The lightning blasts, continual, turn into a single column of electricity. Marzipan suddenly runs down the hill and leaps into the lightning bolt. He’s kicked out, smoking. Huh, says Tully. That impervious ring is even stronger than I thought. The earth is cratering and smoking, and the steel softening and slagging; the Judge crawls out of the steel-pit, surrounded by a constant fence of lightning strikes. They climb into flying tubs and head ahead of the Judge’s path. There’s one more village between them and the covenant. Tully will keep an eye on the Judge; the others will fly ahead to evacuate the village.

Sonata trains down to Okla Lokchok, and inquires after Perdix’ whereabouts; she flies up to Tikba’atta and finds the big yellow house. A conversation ensues. Sonata is adamant that Perdix return; Perdix is as adamant that they cannot risk hearing the Judges’ horns. Perdix offers to rewrite Nil’s spell to disconnect a Judge; Sonata points out that Perdix is the best possible caster for that spell; Perdix points out Calvus is as good at rego; Sonata asks so what happens if Calvus is killed before he can cast it; if Calvus is dead, we’re all fucked, says Perdix; the upshot: Sonata insists that Perdix return, Perdix asks if that’s an order; Sonata says yes, yes it is. Very well, says Perdix. Go tell Ishkin to pack up. Ilba, after a moment, does so. Sonata will fly back to the covenant. Ishkin will take the train back with their baggage, come back, and remain behind as Perdix and Ilba return.

Lætitia contacts Somnex to ask for some notes on lightning; Tully pings Ishta, to let her know the latest re: the Judge. The covenant can see the lightning strikes off away in the distance, now; with Tully’s sound device on, it’s like heat lightning. (With it off, the thunder can be heard.) Lætitia and Ishta discuss a weather-something between the covenant and the Judge to block the sight of the lightning. Lætitia creates a fog-bank.

Ishta’s looking for Jerry. He’s helping his wife with the orphans, who have been moved from the whorehouse to Calvus’ new school. She tells Jerry that when he has a minute she’d like to apologize. For what? says Jerry. Got a minute? says Ishta. Huh, says Jerry. So is there something going on I should be aware of? says Jerry. Ishta says, look, I made those plans last night, okay? Anyway. She tells him about the plans for the party, and maybe he should make a speech or something, because they’re going to get some bad news, a lot of deaths, the whole Crow thing, villages eradicated, only they shouldn’t tell everyone about the whole Judge being here in a couple of days thing, because they don’t want a couple of days of screaming. Okay? You want me to write a speech in just a couple of hours? says Jerry. —Nipi arrives, waving. She asks Jerry what’s up with the party she’s heard about, and can she help? Yeah, what party? says Jerry. Ishta explains about how they want to get the refugees together, and talk to the priests about what the covenant can offer, and what happened with the villages, only they don’t want to talk about what happened to the villages tonight anymore. What is so pressing that you must put off discussing the results of your investigation, that they demanded? asks Nipi. Pressing things, says Ishta. Question by question, mage by mage, Nipi finds out Ishta’s the only mage at the covenant currently. Nipi offers to speak to the priests, as representatives for the town, on behalf of the magi, as representatives of the crown. Ishta goes off to speak with Palpebra to see if that’s okay; Nipi compliments Jerry on his services for Love and Reason. Such eloquence for a man who works with such rough stuff!

Nipi plots with the Finger as to what might best be done with the knowledge they have. It’s a species of truth, and it might prove poisonous, and having known it beforehand would taint them. But the priests should be forewarned to expect something. The Finger will speak with Woochi; Nipi will speak with the Weaver, and will endeavor to cross paths with one of the amnesiac priests during her rounds.

Ishta goes to the Chatelaine to have messages sent to the priests to expect a meeting that night, followed by a feast on the lawn for the refugees.

Here! The magi touch down. Nil, crawls from under his blanket, and wants to scrub down from a residual Judge-panic effect; but the magic in the air about him screws with his goggles. He’s motion-sick. He closes his eyes and takes Lhimpat’s hand. They walk a ways into the Here. Gi’s asking the Here, can we talk yet? Can we talk yet? The Here’s waiting, silent. Calvus looks agitated. They’re being scanned; Nil scans right back. They’re all swallowed up by the Here. Nil can’t see a goddamn thing.

The Here and the water talk for a while. They all need to drop their barriers. Gi drops his parma; Nil takes off his ring; the Here keeps demanding they drop their barriers, all of them, for forty-five minutes. Then Calvus drops his parma.

Sonata flutters into the covenant and meets with Ishta and confirms that it was the consensus of the council that she deliver a command to Perdix that they return. Sure, says Ishta, shrugging. Ishta updates Sonata on what’s up with the Judge. They discuss using perhaps Perdix’ castle as someplace to flee to if the Judge breaks in; they also attempt to come up with a story about what happened to the villagers’ memories. They decide to say they don’t know what happened.

Palpebra returns to find Claudio waiting for him. How’s it going? asks Claudio. Badly, says Palpebra. We’ll likely be leaving soon. I’m going to bathe. You go find the village priests and ask them to meet me here. But there’s a meeting already set up at the Great Hall— But I want them to meet me here. Because I will then immediately leave and go back to fight the Judge some more. If they don’t want to meet with me, that’s fine. I’ll be leaving in an hour. If they have something more important to do, fine, but I have things to tell them, and I don’t think they know what’s what.

The refugee priests are headed for the Great Hall for their meeting with Ishta.

One of the runners Caludio grabs is the Chatelaine’s runner; he lets the Chatelaine know about Palpebra’s plans for his meeting; the Chatelaine lets Ishta know.

Ishta asks Lætitia to speak with the refugee priests for a few minutes while she tries to speak with Palpebra. Will they already have received the terrible, terrible news? No, no, you’re going to tell them that.

The village priests assemble in Palpebra’s workshop, and Ishta shows up almost at the same time. She tries to get his attention, but he imperiously orders her out of his labs; he only has so much time before he has to go back to fight the Judge. The priests gasp. They’d all thought the Judge contained. Ishta shakes her head. The Weaver, breathing shallowly, clutches her arm. Oh, dear, she says, and falls. Honey shrieks. Palpebra finishes his speech and climbs into his flying tub. Gieron tries to get Ishta’s attention, but she says Palpebra’s they’re liaison now, it’s on his head, she turns to go. Who do we go to for a dying priest! bellows Gieron. Dear, says Honey, it’s too late. She’s gone.

A runner is sent for Cameron to find Sonata; a priest has had a heart attack. She flies up, but the Weaver wasn’t brought to the Great Hall; Heshe and Tishkilla have taken her to the Lover-priest house instead. Gieron tells Sonata that the Weaver was old, and there’s nothing to be done. I’m sorry, she says. What’s it like being birds? asks Gieron.

Lætitia tells the assembled refugee priests that they’ll address them shortly; one of the village priests just died, and it’s thrown things into a tizzy.

Ishta addresses the refugee priests, telling them the Judge is on his way, and Lætitia steps up to tell them what happened to the destroyed villages, although no one knows what happened to their memory, they’re still working on it, really. Nipi comes in just as Lætitia gets started. It’s an impressive performance.

Lætitia speaks with the Pickler from Naapisaachii, consoling him on his possible loss. There are refugees at Manu Tenére, after all. There’s a chance. But I won’t know for days, he says.

7th Desire

Gi and Nil and Calvus are all spit back up, their skins heavy, infused with Here-earth that they’re to bring back.

Gi asks if negotiations are done; yes, they are. You may go now. The Judge will not be able to connect with the land.

It takes much less time for the magi to get out of the Here than it took to get in, but once they’ve left, they’re weighed down, each of them, by almost a hundred extra pounds. Calvus straps on his seven-league boots.

meta

“Such tactical niceties are beneath divine justice.”
“Because I’ve got a lot of glass, and lightning and glass, ennhh...”
“We got stew—!”
“Apparently, we can be in the here and now without being Here now.”
“Worst. Quest. Ever.”