Chapter 8

Imsoen

Gathered in my room in the Wandering Woman with the bearded man statue standing proudly on the desk, Sheraine regarded me with crossed arms. "How were you planning on using this ter'angreal before I offered my assistance with this quest? Surely you didn't plan on using this girl to do so for you?"

"I'm twenty-nine," Gemiad said. "I've told you before, treat me with the respect due an adult. I'm not one of your Novices."

"Even if you were double that age, you'd still be a girl to me," Sheraine said. "And if you were actually going to try and channel into an unknown ter'angreal, then you don't have the sense a ten-year-old has. At least a ten-year-old knows better than to stick their hand into the beehive."

"Ron's plans didn't rest on me coming along," Gemiad countered. "He made that clear." Her attention turned to me. "Which does make me curious, what is your plan? Why do you need it?"

"This statue is a small library containing a few thousand books," I said, gesturing at the ter'angreal. "Kind of like the crystal slate we recovered in Caemlyn, though this one works with the One Power. As for how I'll get to those books, I've got two options. I could just force it to activate, but that would probably damage it since it's meant to be used with the One Power. So instead, I'll just copy its content into the slate using this."

I produced a length of silver and crystal. To me, it looked like fiber optic cable with the most gaudy decoration.

Sheraine examined the cable with narrowed eyes. "And that won't damage the ter'angreal?"

"It shouldn't," I said as one end slipped over the head of the statue like a crown. The other end I inserted into a port on the tablet. "I'll know it if something goes wrong." I placed one hand on the cable and molded some Effort into a Miracle.

Let the truth flow free!

Only to get stymied at the first hurdle. There was more information in the statue than could be contained in the tablet. I had to make a choice. "Quick, what does ansoen mean in the old tongue?"

"Ansoen? Ansoen," Sheraine said, sounding out the word before she clicked her tongue. "Your pronunciation is horrible. That means lies. Or stories."

"Thank you." Then I wanted imsoen. And with my choice, the information began to flow through the cable. The cable warmed quickly, all of this only worked because it was powered directly by the divine power now churning in my soul and even then, it wouldn't work for long.

"That can't be what you're after," Gemiad said.

"No, it's not. I'm looking for a particular book, Mirrors of the Wheel. No copies survived the Breaking. Failing that, another book detailing the locations of the Portal Stones should work."

Gemiad gasped. "And you think these Portal Stones can take you home?"

I shook my head. "No, the Portal Stones only take you to different versions of this world. But from the account I found on the tablet, there should be a Portal Stone near the entrance to a Night Road. And Night Roads do take you to different worlds. I'm just using the Portal Stone as a landmark. If I can find it." The cable started to glow.

"Is that supposed to do that?" Sheraine asked.

"It's expected," I said, keeping a wary eye on it all. The smell of hot metal started to fill the room, smoke curling away from where the cable rested on the table. "The ter'angreal will survive, but as a trade off the cable won't."

At last, I felt the process complete and I yanked the cable out of the tablet and away from the statue. An ugly black scar snaked its way across the wooden desk where the cable had rested and a few of the crystals simply plopped out of their melted settings and fell to floor, shattering when they hit the floorboards.

"See," I said, lifting the statue in my other hand and showing it to Sheraine. "Perfectly fine. Not a scratch on it." I looked around. "Now, I'll clean up this mess first before I get to work. It might take me a couple of days so you'll have to make your own plans on how to spend those."

"And what if you can't find what you're looking for?" Sheraine asked. "You've gotten lucky so far, but don't think I've noticed how many times you've used the word should or hopefully. What will you do if you've guessed wrong."

"Then …" I looked off in the distance, weighing my options. I could ask Seana to try and use need to guide me to a solution, except that wouldn't work. I would have to do that myself in the Dream, and I have no idea on how to enter Tel'Aran'Rhiod. The most straightforward option might just be the Eelfinn or the Aelfinn, whichever are behind the gate in Tear. But I had no idea what would happen if I stepped through that gateway. "I might have to consult the Foxes and the Snakes."

VVVV

The statue now stood in a corner of the room, the one that got hidden when the door to the room got swung open. I'd had to put it there because there was no room on the desk anymore.

Outside, the city had gotten louder again. As well as brighter, I noticed with stinging eyes as I squinted at the bright light filtering through the slats of the shutters. In fact, the Wandering Woman had gotten louder as well.

When had that happen?

Someone knocked on my door, sending me out of my chair and on a scramble to hide everything, except I couldn't risk moving any of it. The door swung open, I'd forgotten to lock it, and Gemiad came in. "Ron, you missed … breakfast?"

She stared at everything on the desk for a long moment, before moving to look at it from a different angle. "What is this? Where did you get all of this? And did you get any sleep?" She was looking at me now.

"Ah." I had to give that some thought. "No, I didn't." I winched and rubbed my head. That did explain the tightness in my skull. And why my eyes stung. "When I found my solution, I just couldn't stop."

Gemiad nodded. "You were in a foul mood yesterday. Did that Mirrors book help you after all?"

"Nope, it was bloody useless. For me, anyway. I'm not interested in the metaphysics of alternate worlds or what they reveal about the fundamental principles that operate reality. Especially since the authors were wrong." Hard to be right on all of that when you had no clue Celestial Engines existed.

"No," I said, a little too loud. I really should have gone to bed, like, hours ago. "No," I said in a softer voice. "I went back to first principles. I was looking for a location, so I needed something that talked about where the Portal Stones were. So I went and looked for a book for tourists."

"What's a tourist?"

I opened my mouth, only to realize that Gemiad didn't know what a vacation was either. Those weren't really things in a pre-industrial society. "It's something people used to do when they didn't have to work. They went to foreign places to experience them. Not important, the important bit is that I did find it and it did have what I was looking for."

"That's good, but how did that end up with … all of this," Gemaid said, gesturing once again at the desk.

"Well, as you know, the world looked a lot different before the Breaking. Okay, not entirely different, but still different." Even burning themselves out by using too much of the One Power no male channeler could rearrange the planet's tectonic plates. Simply too much mass. "But first, I had to figure out where the Portal Stones had been relative to each other. That's where the mechanical calculator and the first model come in."

I gestured at the rectangular box festooned with dials and the first sphere. The sphere had more than twenty stubs on it that I'd connected to one another with colored threads in a seemingly random pattern. It also had several little model cities on it, complete with name tags.

"Is that … is that a map of the world before the Breaking?"

I waved that away. "An incomplete one, but that was just the first step. Next I had to figure out where the Portal Stones were now. That's the second sphere. Which I actually made first." It only had a few stubs, a few more city models, and I went to the trouble of detailing the outline of the continents and a couple of mountain ranges. Probably hadn't needed to do those.

"Is that Seanchan? How do you know what it looks like?"

"I don't know for sure, there's a few different maps I've seen," I said with a huff of frustration. I had to do those from memory and my memory wasn't perfect. It should be close. "I just know this is roughly correct. More importantly, I do know the location of several Portal Stones. And two of them I actually saw so I know which ones those are on the model."

"But how does this help you find where the Portal Stone you're looking for is? The Breaking did change everything."

I grinned. "Because the Portal Stones aren't just in this world. They're in every, okay, in a lot of versions of this world. And because of how they function they have to be in the same place in every instance. Which means they can't shift without every Portal Stone shifting as well. So all I have to do is match their current layout with how they used to be laid out, and I'll know where the Portal Stone that I'm looking for should be."

"I see. I think. And this took you all night?"

"I started with it this afternoon. I mean, yesterday afternoon." I shook my head to clear my thoughts. It helped a little. "The problem is that location information in the book is in GPS coordinates. And before you ask, it's basically longitude and latitude," I said, slashing across the sphere to illustrate what those were. "So I started with a Portal Stone that I recognized since I actually studied it on my way back from Shienar and just calculated where Portal Stones were in relation to it. And I worked my way out from that. But because I only know the location of a couple of Portal Stones today, I need to keep at it until I've found the second Portal Stone I've personally seen." Which was the one on the Head of Toman. I'd only passed it, but it was enough for my divine nature.

Gemiad stared at the models with pressed lips, then sighed and looked at me. "Are you that desperate to leave?"

"Leave?" I blinked, trying to figure out what she was talking about.

"Us," she said. "I understand. The Last Battle is coming and this isn't your world. I just …"

"Oh, you mean leave this world." I shook my head. "I'm not going until I'm sure the Dark One's been dealt with. I can't risk it's minions somehow following me to my world."

"Then why are you so desperate to find a way out?" She asked with a raised voice.

"Ah, that. I … wasn't sure there was a way to get home until a little while ago. I mean, yes, the Butcher had come from outside, so had that … doesn't matter." Trying to explain an angel when his thoughts were so sluggish would be an exercise. "But now I have a lead. A real lead. I didn't leave home voluntarily, you know. Didn't have a warning, and neither did my family. Doctors had just given my Mom the news, I don't know how long she has. Less time then I've already been gone."

"Your mother? You, you don't speak of your family, or anybody else," Gemiad said, taking a step closer.

I took a deep breath. I hadn't meant to speak of my family at all. I closed my eyes for a moment just to rest them and think. "I'm holding out hope that time moves differently between our worlds. It's the only chance I've got to see my family again." Provided this wasn't actually the future of my own world, but that was so unlikely. It had to be impossible.

I opened my eyes with some effort. "So, I'm holding out hope. As I said. But it will be easier if I know that there is a path back home. Even if it is a long one and I don't know all the twists and turns ahead."

I moved over to the desk and studied the calculator. It had calculated the relative location of the next Portal Stone, as it would appear in scale on the sphere. Should have installed a bell into the thing, but that would have woken people up. With a sure hand unbothered by something as mortal as a lack of sleep I put it on and smiled. "Got it. That was the last one."

"You mean, you know where to find this … Night Portal?"

"I believe so. See for yourself," I said, turning the spheres this way and that until the pattern on both spheres lined up. I pointed at the little Portal Stone. "There, that's the Portal Stone I'm looking for. That's where the Night Road should open."

Gemiad joined me and looked from one sphere to the other, a frown growing as she looked back and forth. "That's south of here, thousands of mile south if that is supposed to be the distance between Ebou Dar and Tar Valon." She looked at me. "I've never heard of any lands that far south."

"I have," I said. "The Sea Folk call it the Land of the Mad Men. Or the Mad Lands."

"Ron, don't tell me it's a land overrun by male channelers."

"It's not overrun by them," I said. "The Breaking never really stopped there, though, and the locals are apparently very hostile to any outsiders."

"And you want to go there, of course. How would we even reach such a place? How much would the Sea Folk ask for passage and how long will such a journey take?"

"Sea Folk have forbidden everybody from going there," I said. I remembered that much from what little had been in the companion guide. "And sailing will take too long. We don't have that much time."

"Can you fly that far when there's no land to rest for the night?"

I grinned. "No, I can't fly it, but that doesn't mean that's not the answer."

Gemiad regarded me. "You're not making any sense. Are you alright?"

"I …" It took me a couple of seconds to fight the yawn back down so I could speak. "Am not making sense, yes. I'll go sleep and if my idea still makes sense this afternoon I'll tell you. You and Sheraine. Can you tell her we'll be leaving soon?"

She sighed, then nodded. "I will. Just don't feel like you need to charge into this situation. You said so yourself, you're not planning on leaving right now. Which means you have the time to plan this properly."

I yawned again and shook my head. "Maybe, but there might be something there that will improve our odds against the Dark One as well. I have to know, Gemiad. I have to."

VVVV

I got woken up by someone kicking me out of my own bed. My "What the hell?" came out all mushy and slurred as I ended up on a tangle of sheets on the wooden floor.

"Get up!" Someone shouted, grabbing me and dragging me up. Blinking, I looked around and found a lot of people suddenly in my room. Most of them strangers and all of them men, with one exception.

Setalle Anan was looking over everything on the desk, which included not just the ter'angreal as well as the models of the planet and the mechanical calculator, but also the crystal slate. She didn't look happy with what she'd found, but nobody appeared to be escorting or threatening her. And her keys would explain how they got into the room without me hearing it.

Damn.

"What are you all doing in my room?"

"It's a room in my inn, Master Shen," the innkeeper said, turning to me. "And since I don't rent them out to thieves, it's no longer your room."

Double damn. I shouldn't have gone to sleep it seemed, but I'd been ready to crash. It made sense for the Kin to search for the people that had stolen something from their One Power items storeroom, but I figured that their connection to Setalle was too tenuous for her to hear about it. I'd guessed wrong.

"I hope you haven't sent some ruffians after my friends as well? Gemiad had gone through quite enough already and I made a promise she wouldn't have to worry about getting captured again."

"Perhaps you shouldn't have stolen then," Setalle fired back.

"Borrowed without asking, it's only stealing if you intended to keep it."

The man holding me was about twice my apparent size and tried to shake me now. "Do you think you're funny?" There was a lot of onion on his breath, and his face reddened as he struggled to move me when I didn't want him to.

"I prefer to relieve tense situations with humor."

"Master Shen, why did you steal all of this?" Setalle gestured at everything on the desk and I blinked.

"Uh, I only borrowed the statue," I said, holding up a finger. "The rest is mine."

The innkeeper glanced at the crystal tablet, then shook her head. "We'll let the … Wise Ones decide what is what. Including how your two friends are involved."

I considered that, then shook my head. "Unfortunately, I don't have the time for that. Apologies."

"You don't have a…" The guy holding me began before I picked him up and threw across the room. Three other men were buried underneath his bulk which left one standing.

That last man, young and sharing some facial features with Setalle herself, pulled his dagger. Two quick strides and he intercepted me before I could reach Setalle, which was as far as he got. I sidestepped his swipe, since I didn't want to show off anymore than I already had, and my punch to his jaw had both physical and metaphysical power sufficient to knock him out.

Which was when Setalle herself drew her dagger. "Don't you hurt him."

"I'm not the one that decided to barge into another man's room, kick him awake, and then tried to stab him." I put my hand in my pocket and Setalle tensed, only to frown when I pulled out a money bag. "So, there's no settled rate for borrowing several thousand books that date from before the Breaking, but the … inner circle didn't know they had them anyway. Oh." I pulled out another bag, this one much lighter. "This should cover what we still owe you for our stay."

I threw both of the on the desk, then walked around Setalle and snatched up my crystal tablet. "You can keep the globes. One of them is actually an incomplete map of the world as it was before the Breaking. That might be of interest to a former scholar such as yourself."

"Master Shen … who, no, what are you?"

I couldn't help but smile. "Just a visitor. I would ask that you don't jump to conclusions in the future, but the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills. Goodbye," I said, noticing that the others were disentangling themselves now.

Grabbing my boots and my jacket, I jumped over them and closed the door behind me. It took only two seconds for me to fashion a door bar so they couldn't follow easily. But it would only buy me time.

"Gemiad, Sheraine! We're leaving right now!"