Disclaimer: Oh how I wish I had dreamed up these characters, especially Numair. But, alas, I did not. It's Tamora Pierce's.

Chapter 14 – Analysis

When Jon entered Harailt's office at the Royal University, Alanna, Harailt, Lindhall and Numair were clearly arguing in circles. Several large and ancient books lay open on the table and Alanna was cursing lightly as she gestured toward them, while Numair paced and Lindhall wrung his hands. Harailt was making the kind of columned notes he usually did when trying to figure out a difficult conundrum. His hands were covered in ink and there was even a black mark on his nose. This had all the hallmarks of a heavily academic argument, and still Jon ventured into the middle of it. "What have you sorted out, if anything?"

Numair had barely noticed the king until those words were uttered. "Good afternoon, Jon," he greeted. "I don't think we're getting very far."

"That's the only thing we can agree on," Alanna growled, throwing up her hands. She pulled up a stool and sat. She looked very frustrated.

Lindhall sat on a stool next to hers and ran his hands through his hair. "It makes no sense whatsoever," he added.

"I'm still trying to figure out why we used experimental magic at all without prior testing," Harailt threw in.

Jon and Numair answered simultaneously, "To save lives, Ral." The two looked at each other and chuckled. They had even used Harailt's nickname at the same time.

"So this cannot have happened based on everything you four have read from the text and have experienced from other similar spells?" Jon asked.

"Basically, that is correct," Harailt replied.

"Basically?"

"There is always the potential for outside influence on a spell of this magnitude," Numair explained.

"The distance being folded and the power consumed in the process were both great," Lindhall expanded.

"Plus we know that there were immortals in the path that were moved by Numair and Daine," Alanna interjected. "Some have magic."

"But there were not stormwings, winged monkeys, or other magical immortals," Numair argued.

"You cannot possibly know that," Alanna shot back.

"Daine would have known, so I would have known," Numair insisted.

"Now there's a subject I'd like to discuss for a moment," Jon interrupted. "I waited until you were recovered from your injuries, but now I'd like to know why I didn't know about your abilities with mind-to-mind magic. Daine told me you can mind-capture without an implement. Is that so? And if it is, why did you neglect to mention that?"

Numair realized Jon looked rather angry. "It wasn't perfidy, merely oversight. You know I'm sometimes absent-minded. I thought I told you." He shrugged.

Jon looked at him sternly. "Powerful sorcerers in our past," he gestured to Alanna and himself, "have wreaked havoc with powers they failed to inform us of. Do me the courtesy of letting me in on any great leaps you make in the future."

Before Numair could say anything, Alanna shot Jon a dirty look and said, "It's bad form to compare Numair to Roger. They are hardly the same."

"It's alright, Alanna. I should have told him. As I stated, I thought I had done so," Numair reiterated.

"Why do the women of this kingdom keep defending you?" Jon asked with a chuckle.

Lindhall snorted. "At least this one didn't yell in your face."

Jon grinned, eyes twinkling. "It was rather comical now that I look back on it." Numair, Alanna and Harailt all looked lost. Jon ignored the inquiring looks and continued, "How much may Daine's presence have influenced this? You started the spell while connected with her. Are you aware your magic was intertwined when you pushed the immortals aside? It was quite interesting. The color wasn't mixed, but twisted, like two pieces of colored thread in one of Kally's projects."

Numair tugged at his long nose and Harailt began to scribble notes again. Alanna stared at some point in the distance, obviously thinking. "I don't think I'm getting this," she admitted finally. "I wasn't here for that part and didn't witness this merger. Can you show me what you did?"

Numair reached for the memory and projected it on the table top. They watched the events in silent miniature as they unfolded, but it was a unique perspective because they saw the colors that appeared in his and Daine's connected minds. They saw the power surge and the copper fire that was Daine melding into the black fire that was Numair until it was hard to tell where the two magics separated. When Numair pulled his own consciousness free, they could see the disquiet of the moment and an inexplicable blight of darkness seep through the opening until Jon shoved the last healer through and Lindhall stopped the spell.

Numair looked up at Jon and observed, "Somehow I never realized how hard you pushed him."

"I was a little exuberant, wasn't I?" Jon smiled.

"What are all the colors?" Alanna asked.

"Those are animals and immortals. It's hard to explain unless you're part of it and then it makes perfect sense. It's like Daine once told us, they are colors to her, though it is really an emotional sense beyond what we experience."

It was Harailt who spoke next. "I don't understand why the two of you ever did this merging spell in the first place."

Numair looked around nervously at all four faces that seemed to be focused on him. "It was to see things the way she does so I could understand better. I've spent a couple of years teaching her based on sciolism of her magic. Daine is all alone in the world. She's neither completely human nor animal. There is no one that we know of who has the level of wild magic that she does. So while I understand the theory and basic concept of each working, I have never sensed an animal or immortal on my own, let alone heard them speak or healed them. I can turn into a hawk, but it isn't a completely accurate transformation. I offered to try to reach her existence and experience it for a few minutes. She agreed and we looked at some wildlife that way and I petted a few deer." When he finished his mouth was so dry. He didn't say that he thought of these things as he contemplated the meaning of love. Still Lindhall was staring at him with an odd expression and Alanna wore a soft smile. Jon looked as if he'd been chastised, which was surprising and Harailt had at some point obviously placed his chin in his hand, because now he wore ink there as well as his nose.

Jon cleared his throat and said, "You must be a very observant man, Numair. I have never given much thought to her solidarity."

"It's brilliant really. You cannot teach what you don't know, so you find a way to understand," Harailt said. "I've always got a position waiting for you here if you get tired of working directly for Jon." He followed that with an apologetic grin to Jon. Numair noted uncomfortably that Lindhall remained silent.

"Back to business, boys," Alanna directed. "While it was nice to see your perspective, it still doesn't show me what I need to understand. How intertwined were the two magics when you actually cast the opening spell?"

"They weren't." Numair answered. "When we repositioned the immortals, our magics were interlaced. When I opened the window, all three" he indicated Lindhall and Harailt "were helping me with power, but the main driving force was my magic alone, unless…" He halted mid-sentence. Everything he knew and understood about wild magic raced through his mind. Daine's power couldn't be trapped because it was in everything naturally. Some philosophical arguments had suggested that other things were alive too – the world itself and the air and water. He could back that up to a certain degree because he could see the faint image of magic in everything when he allowed himself to look. It was a natural skill to him, though if he had not learned to ignore it as a child it might have driven him mad. He wondered if in that five minutes the weather had changed between Corus and the Village of Panquesh. If there were rain or snow falling, the dynamics of the passage might have altered and forced by Daine's power, they might have been controlling weather too. It still didn't explain the ripping. That seemed like somehow he had opened a path to another realm or maybe someone else had.

When he pulled himself from his brown study, his four companions were staring at him. Alanna looked to be nearly out of patience. So he explained, "I have a theory. The problem is it cannot be based on concrete knowledge because there is a piece missing in this puzzle. In our realm, I bent two pieces of the world and connected them briefly." He picked up a map and folded it, spreading the paper above the fold so that they could see. In this way, it looked like Legann and the Copper Isles touched. "Now imagine if somewhere along the path another doorway to the divine realms were opened so that either an immortal or a god could enter or leave our realm. With this distance compressed, the very nature of the expanse might be pulled into the divine realm with only me to anchor it."

"Which would probably pull you apart," Lindhall remarked.

"Good theory," Alanna interjected, "But then why aren't you dead?" She drew her index finger across her throat, earning a snort from Jon.

"Because I was anchored by another divine connection," he said with a big smile of realization. "I wouldn't probably have suffered if I had stayed merged with Daine because of her connection to the Badger."

"I think you'd need a more solid divine connection than a simple token," Harailt said. "It would have to be divine blood or the assistance of at least a lower-level God."

"The Badger uses the claw as a way to find her quickly. He might have chosen that moment to check on her," Numair surmised.

"There is always the possibility that she does have divine blood," Lindhall proposed. "The Banjiku in Carthak certainly believed her father must be a god."

The realization crashed into Numair like a sledgehammer. He hadn't given it a single thought. When the Banjiku had said that to Daine, he merely worried about her humiliation at admitting she did not know her father. Now the Goddess' words from a few months ago echoed through his mind. "Now as Numair Salmalin you are a great man, worthy of the daughter of a god if you so choose." Could she be the daughter of a god? That would be too perfect and nothing is ever that perfect. His heart swelled with a little hope that he knew he shouldn't allow. Nothing's changed, Numair, he told himself. Your past behavior with women will still encourage the worst kind of gossip and it will eat her alive. Then there's an age difference. When you're 60 and complaining of your aches, she will be just 46 and lively. She could turn to you someday and see an old and wrinkled man while she's still vibrant and beautiful. What woman wants that? He tried to ignore the possibility and focused on the academic argument that had erupted between Lindhall and Harailt during his ponderings.

"…don't live through baring a child from a god. The chances are practically a million to one. Daine is more likely the daughter of a traveling salesman."

"Please stop," Numair interrupted. "I invited Daine to join us when she was finished with Onua so we could practice with her cartography kit. I would really hate for her to walk into a quarrel about her parentage."

"But what if that is the answer?" Jon asked, stroking his beard. "Imagine that someone did open the doorway to the divine realms in the middle and the only reason you're alive is because Daine was beside you?"

"Jon, there's no point. We could stand and conjecture all day. I doubt very much if we can reach an epistemic conclusion without all the information and it doesn't seem likely that we will ever have all the information," Numair shot back. "Furthermore, if someone opened the divine realms, what was the purpose? It wasn't to send an immortal through. Daine would have sensed it. That means it has to be a god and who can know what they do until they reveal it?"

"Ultimately, it seems like a bad idea to use this spell again unless it's a desperate situation and even then, there can be no dawdling. That healer ought to have his ass kicked," Alanna interpose. "Let me be the first to volunteer." They all laughed and it was exactly what was needed at the moment. Numair made a mental note to thank her later.

After Jon had left with Alanna in tow and Harailt went to clean the ink off his face (the others finally decided to say something), Lindhall and Numair stood cleaning up notes and tucking away texts. "I heard the maids gossiping about you in the corridor this morning," Numair commented.

"Ohh?" Lindhall replied, absently, studying the spine of one of the books he was putting away.

"They said you have moved Elyra and the children in with you." Numair smiled. "I hope it's true."

Lindhall's face lit up. "Thank you. It means a great deal that you would say that."

"You deserve some happiness. Will there be a wedding in your future too?"

"Perhaps, although Elyra believes it is best to let the kingdom get used to the idea for a while first. I did ask."

Numair patted his friend's shoulder. "How is her magical training going?"

"I have been meaning to talk to you about that actually. When she originally asked for lessons I – well I thought you and she would…" Lindhall blushed a little as he broke off. Numair thought it seemed strange to have embarrassed his friend. Of course their usual banter was much more academic and much less personal. "I've never – ummm – I've not asked Elyra and I almost – why…"

Numair grinned and decided to save his friend from stuttering. "We simply talked. Her attentiveness toward me was nothing more than gratitude for her son's life. And though several friends thought I ought to be interested in her, my heart had other ideas. Some things aren't meant to be and some things are. She let me know she was attracted to you in November, right after you met actually. You seemed like a good match to me. It's your fault you made her wait until midwinter."

Lindhall seemed to study him a moment. "May I ask you something personal?" Numair nodded. "Why haven't you ever found a wife and settled down?"

"Maybe for the same reasons you didn't. It's hard to find a woman who can handle my book fetishes," he joked.

"That's the only reason?" Lindhall questioned, not looking at Numair.

Numair became uncomfortable and shuffled nervously. "You started to say something about her magical training?" He hoped Lindhall wouldn't notice the change in subject.

"Ah yes." He sighed. "When she asked me to teach her I didn't know there would be another relationship in our future. I – I've always kept a – a distance between my personal life and my teaching. It's safer. I have known other teachers who began relationships with their students. It destroyed careers and inevitably broke the heart of the young girls or worse, ended in a miserable marriage. So I'm not used to the idea of having a student as a lover and – I think maybe I should have someone else teach her."

Numair looked into the stoic face of Lindhall and remembered a conversation from several months ago when this former teacher and he had discussed their friendship. Lindhall had said that he thought of Numair as a son and was proud of him. He didn't think he could bear to watch that evaporate. He also didn't think he could bear to see disappointment in Lindhall's eyes directed at him. He knew they were discussing Lindhall's relationship with Elyra, but it seemed almost to be a warning in disguise to Numair. He responded cautiously, "There is nothing wrong with a husband helping his wife improve her knowledge though, wouldn't you agree?"

"Of course," Lindhall answered.

"Is this really much different? Married or no, you would want her to share information with you that she had and you lacked, as you should with her. I can help her learn skills that you cannot teach if I have them. And I will offer now to do that at any point. Still, Lindhall, you have always been a much better teacher than I am. It would be a shame to send her to me for lessons when she already lives with the finest teacher in the realm."

Lindhall smiled again followed by another look that Numair couldn't define. It seemed almost calculated. "In equal response, if there is anything I can teach Daine, you could send her my way."

"I cannot remember the last time I gave Daine a lesson. I offered to show her the bespelled inks that were included in her gift but – it isn't exactly a lesson. She's at that point where she is hardly a student any more. She still teaches me things and asks questions once in a while. But I can extend your offer to her when I see her tonight."

Numair hoped that would be the end of it. He couldn't face Lindhall with regard to his feelings for Daine, especially when the point was moot. Daine did not return his affections and she probably never would. There was little point in ruining his friendship with Lindhall to discuss unrequited love.

While the two men stood there, neither saw the small black spot slide liquidly from the leg of the stool Jon had used earlier. It attached itself to Numair's boot and hid where it would remain unnoticed.

-

-

-

Please review