Nodding, Mari smiled at the woman. “You can see that this man is a Mage. He can tell when someone speaks the truth. And when they don’t.”
“He wears the robes of a Mage,” the woman agreed. “But Mages do not accompany Mechanics. One of you is false. Perhaps both of you are.”
Mari smiled. “I wouldn’t be so certain of that if I were you. I am Master Mechanic Mari of Caer Lyn, and this is Mage Alain of Ihris.” She noticed some of the robed figures reacting slightly when she said her name, and wondered what news the person they had seen on the path might have brought here. “We have questions which we hope you can answer.”
“Then you will surely be disappointed,” the woman replied, more severely this time. “I ask you again to go. You are not welcome in this valley and will not be permitted to go farther.”
“There’s nothing in that tower?” Mari asked.
“Our homes. Nothing more.”
Mari glanced at Alain, who shook his head, then back at the woman. “But I have read that there is much more there,” Mari said. She didn’t need Alain’s help to see the way the robed figures tensed after that statement.
But the robed woman recovered quickly, smiling sadly. “There are many stories with no basis in fact. Whatever you read of that tower is no more real than one of the tales of Mara the Undying.”
That made Mari fix a cross look on the woman. “At the moment, Mara is kind of a sore subject with me. Do you want to know where I read about this tower? I’ll show you.” The robed figures all watched as Mari shrugged off her pack, kneeling to carefully unseal the watertight package holding her half of the banned Mechanic texts from Marandur.
She stood up slowly, holding one of the texts, then carefully opened it to the page with the drawing on the side. “It says here, ‘The tower on Altis, where records of all things are kept,’ and the drawing certainly resembles your tower.”
The robed woman was staring not at Mari but at the book she held. “What is that?”
Mari turned it to read the cover. “Survival Technology Manual, Base Level Two, Volume Four, Wireless Communications, Second Edition, Revision Three, Demeter Projekt.” She looked back at the men and women facing her. “Demeter. That sounds like our world. Dematr.”
A ripple passed through the ranks of robed figures. “The tech manuals,” a woman whispered. “Coleen, it’s one of the tech manuals.”
One of the men cried out in a much louder voice. “We cannot let this opportunity pass!”
“Silence, all of you,” the woman ordered. “We know nothing of this, or of that book you hold,” she insisted to Mari.
“Don’t you want to know where I got it?” Mari asked.
“Such knowledge could be extremely dangerous to us,” the woman named Coleen replied, but even Mari could see the yearning for answers in her.
“Not as dangerous as it is to me and my Mage. We got it in Marandur. It’s from the vaults of the old Mechanics Guild Headquarters in that city.” It hadn’t come directly to her from those vaults, but the statement was still true.
She could see the people before her wavering. Mari held up the text. “This is only one of what we have. If you truly value knowledge, perhaps you would like to see the texts. All of them.”
“What… what is you want?” Coleen asked.
“We are here seeking records of the past,” Mari said. “Records which might tell us how our world came to be as it is. I need to know this.”
The woman rallied. “We cannot help you.”
Alain spoke to her for the first time. “You choose not to help us.”
“I’m offering a trade,” Mari said. “You answer my questions, and I let you look at the texts that are in our packs.”
“Can you tell us about Marandur?” a man asked. “What it is like right now?”
Coleen turned to glare at the man as Mari answered. “Yes. And about the masters and students still occupying the university there.”
“They still survive?” a woman cried. “Coleen, please, this is priceless.”
“We have our mission,” the leader said, but her resolve was clearly wavering. “What do you seek in our records?”
Mari met her eyes. “I need to know why the world is the way it is, why the Great Guilds control its fate. I need to know if there is a good reason for that, if the world’s subjugation to the Great Guilds was in the name of some higher purpose or in response to some awful events. And I need to know anything about other ways that the world could be, ways that give more freedom than anyone has now.”
“Why do you need to know this?”
Mari took a deep breath and then spoke steadily even though the words felt as if someone else were saying them. “Because I am the daughter of Jules, and our world will soon face a great crisis that will destroy everything. I can stop that, if I can unite Mechanics, Mages, and the common folk to overthrow the Great Guilds and bring freedom to this world.”
Another of the robed men spoke. “It is her, and the Mage. The ones we were told of.”
Coleen gazed at Mari. “Do you have any idea of the cost if we reveal ourselves to you, and if that information becomes known to the Great Guilds?”
“I swear to reveal nothing of this place, not unless you give me permission.”
Her eyes went to Alain. “But what of the Mage? What oath can he give?”
Alain inclined his head toward the woman. “I vow also to say nothing.”
“The word of a Mage means nothing.”
Mari felt anger that she couldn’t quite suppress. “That may be true of most Mages, but it is not true of my Mage. He is a man of honor.” She held up her left hand so the promise ring shone in the sun. “He is also my husband, and I will not have his word questioned.” She could see the eyes of the entire group focusing on her hand in disbelief, then shifting to see the identical ring on Alain’s.
The woman leader stared at Alain. “Why did you marry this Mechanic?”
“Because I love her,” Alain answered.
“But the wisdom of Mages says that all people are shadows, and no feelings must bind you to others.”
“Lady Mari has shown me a new wisdom, one stronger than that which the elders of the Mage Guild teach. That is why we walk together, and why I have resolved with her to do the right thing.”
Mari spoke into the silence which followed Alain’s declaration. “We wish you no harm. Please. We need to know that what we are doing is the right thing.”
The woman shook her head, looking down at the path. “We hold knowledge, Lady Mechanic, but the answers you seek may be beyond the wisdom of any man or woman. We can provide facts, but right and wrong are judgments, and only you can decide them.”
“Then give me the facts to make such a decision wisely! That’s why I came here, to have the data I need to make an informed decision!”
The woman turned to look at her fellows, and one by one they nodded back at her. She faced Mari and Alain again. “We cannot deny your request, for knowledge must have a purpose, and for too long our only purpose has been to protect it, not to assist in the use of it as our calling demands. I am Coleen, head librarian of the librarians of the tower. If you will come with us, we will try to answer your questions, and in exchange you must grant us access to the materials you carry. The knowledge in them will be a great gift to us and to the people of this world.”
Mari nodded, smiling. “It’s a deal.”
Coleen led the way to the tower, the rest of the librarians following behind Mari and Alain. People they passed stopped to look at the procession in amazement, but either Coleen or one of the other librarians always assured them that all was well. Mari endured the slow walk, wanting to run to the tower, but Alain’s hand in hers helped hold her back.