Alain wondered how he managed to keep his expression emotionless. “How can a shadow be so important?”
“A reasonable question, given the training that acolytes receive. I will explain,” the Elder said, frustration once more apparent. “Normally foresight tells a Mage what will or might happen to someone. Some specific event. Some specific danger. Yes? They did not tell you that, either, did they? But it is so. You see an image of a Mage or a shadow somewhere, doing something, and so you see what will someday happen to that shadow. Understanding what you see is far more difficult than the seeing, young Mage, for the vision cannot tell you why anything came to pass or what led to it. All you see is an event, with no way of seeing the occurrences or decisions which created it. But in this case you did not see the shadow in the vision, but rather a vision focused on the shadow. What you saw in this vision, then, was not the shadow’s future, but the future that shadow will decide.”
“You are certain?” Alain did not know how to take what the old Mage was telling him. “This shadow is that important?” he asked again.
“Important? Yes. All are shadows, yet shadows can cast their shade widely on the illusion of the world, and Mages do not exist independent of that illusion. This shadow, the one you saw, is the only one who can stop the storm which threatens the entire illusion which we call this world.”
“The Mage Guild—” Alain began, overwhelmed by what he was hearing.
The elder stopped his words with a sharp gesture and an actual frown. “There are two sides to the visions and the prophecy, young Mage. This shadow can stop the storm, but she is also foretold to overthrow the Mage Guild. Many elders do not wish to acknowledge the visions which warn of the coming storm. They mistrust foresight, and they mistrust anything which might lessen their own power.” She looked toward the door, as if ensuring no one was close enough to hear, and lowered her voice. “For that illusion, young Mage—the power many elders wield—is of great value to them. I have heard them talking.–They say that if this one the commons call the daughter should appear, she must be destroyed. For the Guild must be preserved, even if such an attempt only leaves it exposed to the storm that will follow.”
“Destroyed?” Alain said.
The elder gave him a sharp look, causing Alain to wonder if that single word had betrayed his feelings. “They wish to protect what they have, young Mage. They will destroy anything that threatens their authority. You already know this.”
“What should I do?” Alain asked.
“Walk carefully, young Mage. Decide what is important to you.”
“Nothing is real, nothing is important,” Alain recited the lesson automatically.
“That is not so,” the elder whispered. “I sense you have already learned that. Do you wish to try to stop the storm—for nothing is certain and no outcome guaranteed—or do you wish above all to try to preserve the current form of the MageGuild?”
“Elder, if what you say is accurate, then the current form of the Mage Guild is doomed.”
“Exactly, young Mage.” The elder looked into his eyes. “The question is how it will fall. The storm threatens this world, and it threatens that shadow. I do not know what path that shadow must walk to become the sun that will light the new day and hold back the storm. But if I knew who that shadow was, I would do what I could to protect and aid her. The storm the Mage Guild, the Mechanics, shadows of every kind will aim at her. Only she can stop the storm. If her image vanishes from this world, the storm will triumph, perhaps within only a few more years, and then those who destroyed that shadow will themselves be consumed, along with all else. The daughter must live, or all else dies.”
“I understand, honored Elder,” Alain said.
“Do you? Then do not speak of this again. Any mention of that vision could bring the storm’s wrath upon that shadow, who must depend upon remaining hidden and unknown until she has the means to stand against the storm. Tell no one. We have not spoken of this. Do you understand that?”
“Yes, Elder.” Alain rose, bowing, emotions churning inside him. “This one has listened, honored elder. Your wisdom has given me much to think about.”
She waved off his words. “We have talked only of small matters,” she said loudly enough for the words to carry into the hallway beyond. “But remember this, young Mage,” the elder added in lower tones. “Do not let others tell you that wisdom decrees a Mage must see the false world in only one way.”
Alain had been about to leave, but he paused. “Honored elder, if all is false, as we are taught, how can wisdom exist as a single path? How can there be but one proper road for all of us?”
The old Mage smiled once more for an instant. “You have gotten there, have you? Well done, young Mage. Many Mages never reach that place, to question the wisdom of that which is wisdom.”
“But, what is the answer, honored elder?”
“The answer? There is no answer. Only choices which can have many outcomes, some expected, and some unforeseen. Perhaps that is the only wisdom there really is, young Mage: that our choices matter. As your choices matter, perhaps more than those of anyone else at this time.”
Alain bowed his way out and walked back toward the room he had been given, aware of little outside himself as the elder’s words kept running through his mind. One who would unite Mages and Mechanics. One who the commons would also follow.
One who could stop the storm.
He felt as if a cold wind were blowing hard upon his mind. What should he do? The elder said he must protect Mari, but how best to protect her when his presence might endanger her? She had also said that Mari’s best protection was anonymity, to be but one more shadow among the others, lest the storm know exactly where to bend its efforts.
He sat in his room as if meditating, but his thoughts were centered not on wisdom but on Mari. She would seek to learn more about the dragons imperiling Dorcastle. Amid all of his uncertainties, Alain felt sure of that. Mari would seek to find the answers, the way to “fix” the dragon problem. And that in turn would very likely lead her into danger.
He did not know exactly what to do, but if Mari would be facing danger then he needed to be close to her. He needed to “help” her, by learning what he could.
His plan for the immediate future decided, Alain went to the dining rooms and ate a quick meal, barely aware of the food and drink, then sought out the other Mages the elder had said were still at the hall. By nightfall he had been able to talk to them about the predations of the dragons and what the Guild had been doing to try to stop the spell creatures. The latest attempt involved trying to use spells to trace the common people the dragons claimed to be holding prisoner. Those people were being forced to write out the dragons’ ransom demands. In theory, some connection to the persons might be discovered using the ransom documents which had mysteriously appeared in the city from time to time. Alain nodded with understanding, thinking of his thread to Mari, though of course he was not so foolish as to mention that. But he was not surprised to hear that the Mages undertaking this effort, having no ties to the shadows they sought to trace, had seen no success.
Later Alain lay in bed in a small room with bare, white walls, staring at the ceiling and trying to think through what he had learned. Worrying about Mari, about what he should do, only led his thoughts in circles, so he tried to concentrate on the problem posed by the dragons. They do not act like dragons, yet the destruction they have wrought seems the work of dragons. They are here, but cannot be found. As the elder said, even this false world is supposed to maintain its illusion in a predictable way.