“I think,” Arachne said after a pause, “you may be selling yourself short.”
I looked at Arachne curiously. “How?”
“Your reasoning is correct,” Arachne said. “You do need more personal power. But I think you have more channels available than you realise.”
“Just because I’m a Keeper and Morden’s aide, that doesn’t mean . . .”
“I don’t mean exploiting your position,” Arachne said. “Yes, yes, that’s how the Council do it. And some Dark mages too. But as you said, you’re stepping in late. Influence and politics are the Council’s game, and they’re better at it than you are. You should be looking at your own advantages.”
“Like what?”
“Three that I believe you should focus on,” Arachne said. “First, your allies. You may not have many friends in high places, but what you do have is breadth. You are one of the few mages in this country who can count Dark mages, Light mages, independents, adepts, and magical creatures among their friends. Make use of it. Don’t be afraid to ask for their help, and don’t wait too long.”
I thought about it. “Second is your skill with items,” Arachne said. “You probably have as much proficiency with magical items of all varieties as any mage in Britain.”
“Yeah, but if I could use the same spells as other mages I wouldn’t need to rely on items.”
“Don’t underestimate the power that imbued items can bring.”
My spirits had been starting to lift, but at Arachne’s last words they sank again. “Oh, come on,” I said. “There isn’t an apprentice in Britain who hasn’t dreamed of getting his hands on an imbued item and lucking into huge unearned rewards just from picking it up. It’s like winning the lottery: it happens just often enough to make clueless people keep on playing it. All the useful imbued items are either claimed or they’ve got some horrible curse or agenda just waiting for someone dumb enough to pick them up. Usually both.”
“You may have the potential to circumvent those problems.”
“Yeah, I’ve kind of tried that already,” I said. “Didn’t go too well.” I had access to at least two imbued items of the kind Arachne was talking about. There was the fateweaver, able to guide and shape destiny, and the monkey’s paw, able to grant wishes. One was in a locked bubble realm to which Luna held the key; the other was hidden away where I’d stowed it. I could get my hands on either of the two in less than three hours, and both had the power to make all of my problems go away with a snap of my fingers.
Except that the power was the item’s power, not mine. That’s the thing with imbued items that most mages don’t get. Imbued items don’t do what you want, they do what they want. Both of those items had a history of taking bearers who’d made the mistake of trying to use them, and eating them alive. Maybe literally, in the case of the monkey’s paw—I still didn’t know exactly what had happened to Martin. “All the ones I can think of that could do anything like that, using them’d be a death sentence.” A thought struck me. “Unless you could make one? Like my armour, or . . . ?”
“No,” Arachne said. “Oh, I could make you a weapon, but it wouldn’t be enough. And any protective item I made would have its own problems. Imbued items can be possessive; you learnt that lesson, I think. And I could direct you to other items, but I doubt they’d be any more powerful than the ones you’re familiar with. No, what I had in mind was something different, and to do with your third advantage. Your knowledge of Elsewhere.”
I looked at Arachne in surprise. “But everyone knows about Elsewhere.”
“Your Light mages are taught about Elsewhere,” Arachne said dryly.
“Don’t most of them use it?”
“If I had to make a personal estimate,” Arachne said, “I would guess that less than half of Light mages visit it even once. And less than half of those return for a second try. The number who use it frequently enough to build up any real proficiency? Perhaps one in twenty. Light mages like environments that are controlled and predictable, and that is something that Elsewhere is most definitely not.”
I thought about it. Now that I actually tried to remember, it occurred to me that I’d hardly ever heard Light mages talk about going to Elsewhere. Lots of warnings; not many eyewitness accounts. Nearly everything I’d learnt about the place had come from firsthand experience or from books.
But I still didn’t see what Arachne was getting at. “What’s that got to do with items?”
“How do you think imbued items influence their bearers?”
“I don’t—” I looked at Arachne sharply. “It’s something to do with that?”
“Did you ever wonder how you were able to survive wielding that fateweaver four years ago?” Arachne answered. “Abithriax had been subverting and possessing mages before you were even born. You used the fateweaver, let him in—and yet you were able to drive him away. Oh, you had help, but even so, he should have been able to overcome you easily. Then the next year, when you drew too deeply on the mist cloak, the same thing happened. It took hold of you, but again you survived. You retained enough of yourself to come here, to me. Did you think about how you did that?”
“Honestly?” I admitted. “No.”
Arachne watched me, waiting for an answer. “So you’re saying . . . what?” I said. “I can handle items that other people can’t?”
“Travelling Elsewhere and making use of imbued items require similar qualities,” Arachne said. “First and foremost is self-knowledge. Understanding who you are and what you can do. Recognising when you are being influenced. Knowing when to walk away.”
“Doesn’t seem like that much.”
“You’d be surprised.”
I shrugged. “I can buy that it helps, but it doesn’t seem like it’s enough either. I mean, yeah, I survived going up against Abithriax, but that was all. As soon as he started losing, he just pulled back into the fateweaver.”
“Yes,” Arachne said. “If you picked up the fateweaver now, you would be able to fight off Abithriax easily. But as you say, you would only be able to fight him off. He couldn’t defeat you, but neither could you defeat him. And training wouldn’t help. It’s a matter of the tools available to you.”
“I know, but that’s what I’ve got,” I said. “I’m a diviner, not a mind mage.”
“Which is why I think you should look to better tools.”
I looked at Arachne. “You sound like you’ve got something in mind.”
“There is a type of magical item known as a dreamstone,” Arachne said. “It allows a bearer to touch Elsewhere more directly, and more deeply. In Elsewhere, you can reach someone else’s dreams, but with a dreamstone you can make that connection while awake.”
“Someone else’s dreams,” I said. “Or to an imbued item? Link to it the same way it links to me?”
“It wouldn’t make the item serve you,” Arachne said. “But it would put you on an even footing.”
I frowned. It could open up opportunities, but I had the feeling there was a problem. “What’s the catch?”