Meanwhile Nona stood and gazed across at the ground of /R2 where they had been. She did not see any sign of man or horse, but that was to be expected. At least she had the comfort of knowing that the pair would be hard to catch, because the horse could do mind-magic and the man could conjure them away from the threat of capture.
Then she looked down at Colene, and realized that the girl was staring at her. Suddenly it registered: Colene was not used to being on a rad of this size. To her it looked as if Nona were standing sideways on an almost vertical cliff. For of course this rad projected from about the midpoint of the side of /R3, and they were on the side of /R4.
She tried to reassure the girl. “Do not be concerned. A person’s feet are always toward the center of the rad on which she stands. We experienced the same thing on Jupiter.”
“Yeah, but this is smaller and more intense, and I’ve been away,” Colene said. “I haven’t gotten my reactions realigned yet.” The words she spoke were unintelligible, but Nona was sure they related to her concern about falling.
“We can not fall.” To illustrate the point, Nona jumped.
Colene screamed.
But of course Nona landed immediately back on the surface. Colene, seeing that, laughed nervously, then got up the courage to stand. She remained anchored to the rad. Finally she gritted her teeth and made a little jump. She did not fly loose from the rad. She issued a shaky sigh.
Nona was glad that the girl had come to terms with the nature of walking on a rad, because they would be moving to ever-smaller rads to reach the key point. She would have explained about the way of it, before they left Seqiro, had it occurred to her. But now, alone with Colene, and not yet at the site for the anima—they couldn’t even talk to each other!
“Can. Some.”
The mind-magic! The girl had been learning it. Her power was little compared to that of the horse, but far better than none. “Then we go,” Nona said, speaking without vocalizing, to concentrate her thoughts. “Now. To the next rad.”
“Go,” Colene agreed the same way. “To Slash R Five.” The designation was clear, because they both knew it. Colene looked around. “There.” She pointed.
Then Nona saw the figure of a man. Was it a despot? She couldn’t take the chance. Quickly she fashioned a spell of nothingness to hide them both. She took Colene’s hand so that they could remain together without talking.
It turned out to be a fair distance, through fairly rough country, but they had no choice. This rad was tiny compared to its parent rad, and minuscule compared to the one from which they had been conjured, but it was far from the smallest. Nona relaxed the nothingness spell once they were sure they were not being pursued, so that she would be free to do other magic. When they came to a difficult ravine, she held Colene in her arms and flew across it. She could not go far that way, for the extra weight was extremely tiring, but for this short hop it really helped. Mostly they just walked, and talked. Colene was getting better with practice, but Nona still had to interpolate to re-create the full thoughts. The effort helped take her mind off her doubt about her situation.
“One thing I want to know,” Colene said approximately, though Nona was sure she had the essence. “This world is in animus phase, right? It’s a man’s world. So how come you can do major magic? Even considering that you’re the ninth.”
“It is because of the flow of the current of magic,” Nona tried to explain. It would have been so much easier with the horse present! “It originates at the center of the universe and flows out along the filaments to every part of it. It spreads out at each world, in an umbra, a field, with a current which the despot men can tap and adapt. I, too, can tap that current, because of my special nature.”
“But when you bring the anima, then what happens?”
“Then the current changes, and flows the wrong way for the despot men. They flow along the lines of the first of the first, but the anima will be the last of the last. The lastborn woman instead of the firstborn man.”
“So then why won’t you lose your power of magic also, when they do?”
“Because I am the key person, by order of birth and gender. I am the opposite, in perfect balance, able to draw on the flow from either side. When the flow changes, that other side will be the primary one. No man will be able to draw on it any more, except when there is a first of the first for nine generations, who will be able to travel to the center of the universe and change it as Earle did.”
“Well, maybe,” Colene said, evidently not really understanding it. “But shouldn’t the reversal point be at the spike? We’re headed off to the side.”
“It is not really a reversal, but a change,” Nona tried to explain. “The main flow remains from the center of the universe to the rest, but the field around our world will be changed, to be somewhat skew, in a manner only the lastborn women will be able to address.”
“Like a reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field!” Colene exclaimed. Nona found this incomprehensible, so did not argue.
But in a moment the girl had another question. “Angus—he’s of the animus. So what happens to him when it changes? Does he pitch headfirst into the sea?”
“Angus is not of this world,” Nona explained. “He responds to the rule of his own world, Jupiter. He did not lose his power when we crossed that small anima world.”
“Yeah, that’s right. I’m glad. He’s nice. Too bad you couldn’t have been his size.”
“A legend can have a happy ending,” Nona said.
“You’ll have one too. You’ll be queen.”
“True,” Nona said without enthusiasm.
“Well, I’ll sure be glad when it’s done and you’re queen and I can go back on the Virtual Mode with my horse and my man.”
The girl was wary of the effect another woman could have on such a horse and such a man. Nona could appreciate why. Nona herself remained upset by the thought of Stave and the rabble women, though Stave would gladly have stayed with her if it had been possible. How much greater must be Colene’s concern, for she had truly wondrous companions. Darius was a man among men, with powerful magic, and Seqiro was a horse among horses, wonderful to be with. It had been a great act of necessity and trust for Colene to leave both man and horse behind while she revisited her own world. She surely longed to reach the safety of Darius’ world, and to settle there to be one with him and Seqiro. How well Nona understood!
They were near the /R5 rad when darkness closed, but not near enough. Nona made tent material and bedding material and an assortment of foods, and they settled for the night.
“You’re so beautiful and so talented and so mature and so nice,” Colene remarked. “You have so much going for you. I’m jealous. I really am.”
She was jealous of Nona! What irony.
“Because both Darius and Seqiro like you and admire your magic.”
“I feel the same about them,” Nona said.
“Because you are halfway in love with both of them,” the girl continued.
“That’s not true!” Nona exclaimed, appalled.
“Isn’t it? You know that Earle in the Jupiter legend looks like a cross between Angus and Darius, and Kara looks like you. So it was a simulated romance between you and Darius, since Angus is out of reach.”
And Nona realized with expanding horror that Colene was right. Stave—it was not just that he was indulging his masculine appetite with other women. It was that Nona had found a stern, powerful, and magic man, and a completely understanding and mentally encompassing horse, and she longed to be with both. She craved distant adventure and passion, and both man and horse were creatures of exactly that, with their Virtual Mode.