"We came here from Heartspace," Teldin explained. "You might call it something else, of course. We followed the river in the phlogiston…"
A rush of thoughts cut him off. Incomplete animal [bafflement] nonsense no meaning. Talk mistake [doubt] after all?
The cloak wasn't capable of handling complex subjects, Teldin decided. Quickly-before the trilateral decided his incompletely translated words were just mindless babble after all-he rephrased his answer. "This world is in a crystal sphere," he explained. "Outside the crystal sphere is what we call the phlogiston, or the Flow. We came here from another crystal sphere, one with more worlds inside it."
No meaning [confusion] yet form of meaning. The creature's thoughts came slower, as though it were puzzling over Teldin's communication. Crystal sphere [frustration] no referent, phlogiston no referent. Incomplete animal [curiosity] incomplete thoughts? World beyond world [perplexity] meaningless. And then, with a sudden blast of mental speech that almost staggered him again, the Cloakmaster felt its comprehension.
Incomplete animals [shock] from above suns? [stupefaction] Words mean this, meaning complete after all. Yet what beyond suns [awe]? Nothing beyond suns [anxiety] nothing beyond world. Nothing [fear] but time ancient time before People [terror-shock] before people were Others [panic] can incomplete animals be Others be incomplete [disgust-denial] no no [shock] impossible mistake…
Discrete thoughts faded into a kind of "mental white noise," blurring into a mishmash of symbols for which Teldin had no referents, no basis for understanding. There was no mistaking the emotional content, however-profound shock, mixed with fear and a kind of panicked doubt.
Without changing its orientation, the creature strode quickly away from Teldin-one of the advantages of trilateral symmetry, he thought-and joined its comrades. Over the intervening distance, he could sense their rapid mental conversation-or argument, maybe-even though the cloak was incapable of distinguishing individual thoughts or concepts.
He felt a presence at his side and turned to see Julia standing next to him. Her eyes were fixed on the three trilaterals. "What in the hells was that all about?" she asked in a whisper. "What are those things?"
Teldin didn't answer at once. That was the question, wasn't it: what were the trilaterals?
Were these the Juna?
No. They couldn't be. Could they?
Even though they definitely matched Estriss's description, he couldn't bring himself to believe that these creatures were the all-powerful Juna-the race that had left artifacts behind them on a hundred worlds, possibly including both the ultimate helm and the Spelljammer itself. Hadn't the Juna been traveling the seas of the phlogiston millions of years ago? Hadn't they roamed the universe before humans and illithids-even before the thri-kreen that Estriss had talked about-had ventured into the void?
Yet the trilateral hadn't understood anything that Teldin had "said" about crystal spheres, or the phlogiston, or other worlds, had it? And that couldn't have been just a translation problem. Eventually the creature had grasped that Teldin meant he'd come from "beyond the suns," and that had disturbed it profoundly, almost as if…
Almost as if the sphere surrounding the planet was forbidden territory from both directions-from the Flow coming in, and from the planet going out. Almost as if Teldin and the others had become objects of fear because they'd come from the taboo region. No, these couldn't be the planet-shaping, sphere-altering Juna.
But then, what were they?
"I don't know," he replied to Julia's question.
Could the Juna have devolved? The thought struck him suddenly. Could they have somehow slipped backward, forgotten what they used to know, lost their powers? Could they have become marooned here on this single planet, cut off from the universe that had once been their playground- marooned for so long that their racial memory didn't contain any trace of what they'd once been? That would certainly explain why the Star Folk had vanished from the ken of all other races: they'd just turned in on themselves, somehow, leaving only artifacts behind.
He shook his head. It couldn't have been like that, he told himself. That was too sad an ending to the glorious story of the Juna. Leaving this universe for another plane of existence, as many rumors told-now that was a fitting conclusion. But to sink back into obscurity, to become savages again-at least, in comparison with their greatest achievements-was just too ignoble. Even worse, what did that say about humankind and the other demihumans-even long-lived elvenkind? That they, too, could lose everything they'd gained, including even the memory of those gains? It was a chilling, depressing thought….
With an effort, he forced the thoughts away. The trilaterals' argument of thoughts had ended, and one of the creatures-not the first one he'd "spoken" to, though Teldin didn't know what made him quite so sure of that-was approaching him again.
Teldin stepped forward to meet it. "I am Teldin Moore," he said.
Greetings [curiosity], Cloakmaster, the trilateral "said." Apparently the cloak had been unable to translate his name, Teldin realized. Interesting how it chose to identify him instead…. This one [pride] Speaks First, of the People. Incomplete person [acceptance] not of the People, not of the World of the People, but [curiosity] of elsewhere. True [anticipation]?
Teldin paused. This trilateral's mental "voice" was slower, more deliberate, and considerably clearer and easier to understand than the first one. Yet he still had to struggle to make sense of what it was trying to communicate. "Speaks First" seemed to be the creature's name-an indication that it was some kind of a leader among "the People," maybe?- and it seemed to view Teldin somewhat differently from the first individuaclass="underline" as an "incomplete person" rather than as an "incomplete animal." Considering that the Cloakmaster only had four limbs instead of six, he could understand the "incomplete" part. Did the transition from "animal" to "person" mean that Speaks First was willing to consider him an equal?
"Greetings, Speaks First," Teldin said. "You're right, we're not of the People"-he pointed, one at a time, to the three trilaterals-"or of the World of the People"-he indicated the ground under his feet. "We came here from beyond the suns. And that seemed to scare the first of your group to talk with us. Why was that?"
Looks Around lives the Legends too much [amusement]. No immediate understanding, then fear [condescension].
Teldin nodded slowly. He'd met two-legged people like that: anything they didn't understand at once was an object of fear. Yet there was more to it than that, wasn't it? All that babbling about the "ancient time" and "the Others"…
The creature edged forward. Although it moved slowly, Teldin didn't get the sense that it did so out of fear-more that it didn't want to frighten him with a precipitous approach. When it was less than a man's height away, it stopped. May this one [fascination] touch? it asked.
For a moment, Teldin considered refusing. This thing was just so alien-more so, he found, than even the beholder Beth-Abz. But he steeled himself and nodded.
It took him a few seconds to realize the creature wouldn't know how to interpret his gestures. But before he could express his agreement in words, the trilateral had started to reach toward him with one of its twice-trifurcated tentacles. Apparently the cloak will translate gestures as well, part of his mind noted. I'll have to remember that….