vital that I know.'
Leth, seated, bowed his head in recollection. Then he began, at the beginning, the point where he had wandered fearfully with Galry and Jace in the walled blue void. He told of finally, weak and almost starving, seeing the glimmering arch and stepping through to find himself before Summoner and his chanting followers. Leth told how Summoner had presented him with the Sword of the Orb, and then made off; how, at the same moment, Prince Galry and Princess Jace had been abducted. Then he went on to speak of his first encounter with Lakewander in the subterranean chamber of the ools , of her father, Master Protector, and their home, Orbia, whose walls were inhabited by the ghosts of the dead.
'They believed me to be a god, Orbelon. They believed I had come in answer to their prayers, that my coming was pre-ordained. In essence they thought I was you, or your emissary, though they do not know who you are. To their minds I had been among them before, and in their eyes there was no one but I who could save them from the scourge that was destroying their lives. I denied all of this, vehemently. I had come from no 'Godworld'; my arrival among them was sheer happenstance. But they would have nothing of it. I could wield the Sword, which no other could. Hence I was the Saviour they had so long awaited.' Leth shook his head from side to side. 'In the end, though I know in myself that it was not so, they were proven right. I travelled across their world - your world - and I slew the creature that was devouring it and devouring the dreams of children, stealing any future it might have. How can this be, Orbelon? How?'
'We should not look to explain things in ordinary terms,' said Orbelon softly. 'Did I not tell you before, Leth, that for you who have lived your entire life within the Reach the time had come to step over, to enter Mystery? There is much here that even I cannot account for. But continue, Leth. Before analysis, the whole story.'
Leth spoke of his feelings when he had first set eyes upon the bright Orb of the Godworld and the World's Agony in the night sky of the Orb. He described his journey with Lakewander: the Sufferer at the roadside, the Plain of Imprisoned Souls, the End of the World, and his hallucinatory experience on the Shore of Nothing which culminated in his first encounter with the Noeticist, the former 'god' of Enchantment, Urch-Malmain, in the Tower of Glancing Memory.
Orbelon quizzed him here, keen to settle in his own mind all he could regarding Urch-Malmain. Then Leth told of his final nightmare journey into the Death Abyss. He described his descent in the dubious company of Harg, Rasgul and their murderous companions; told of the wolfhearts, the Meadows of Dreaming, the curious death of Cerb Two-Heads. Finally he recounted his experience in the Fortress of the Dark Flame and his battle with the evil Ascaria, the Kancanitrix, who by some indefinable alchemy transformed the thoughts, hopes and dreams of children into a dreadful corruption that devoured Orbelon's World.
'Then she is gone?' enquired Orbelon when Leth had done.
'Aye, she is. Whatever she was, she is that no more.'
'I felt it, I believe. A lightening, as though something dark and unwholesome within me had been removed. And I believed that it was you who had done it.'
'Were you aware of me, Orbelon?'
'In a sense I was. And I strove to make you aware of me.'
Leth nodded to himself. 'I believe I sensed you at times, though to begin with I knew only anger. I could not explain how or why you had put us into your world and abandoned us there. I believed we would perish, or at best be stranded forever, until we died. Yet as the days passed I seemed to become more conscious of your presence, as if you were somewhere beyond, trying to make me aware of you.'
'That is how it was. It was not by my conscious doing that you were cast into my world, but had it not occurred
Leth, seated, bowed his head in recollection. Then he began, at the beginning, the point where he had wandered fearfully with Galry and Jace in the walled blue void. He told of finally, weak and almost starving, seeing the glimmering arch and stepping through to find himself before Summoner and his chanting followers. Leth told how Summoner had presented him with the Sword of the Orb, and then made off; how, at the same moment, Prince Galry and Princess Jace had been abducted. Then he went on to speak of his first encounter with Lakewander in the subterranean chamber of the ools , of her father, Master Protector, and their home, Orbia, whose walls were inhabited by the ghosts of the dead.
'They believed me to be a god, Orbelon. They believed I had come in answer to their prayers, that my coming was pre-ordained. In essence they thought I was you, or your emissary, though they do not know who you are. To their minds I had been among them before, and in their eyes there was no one but I who could save them from the scourge that was destroying their lives. I denied all of this, vehemently. I had come from no 'Godworld'; my arrival among them was sheer happenstance. But they would have nothing of it. I could wield the Sword, which no other could. Hence I was the Saviour they had so long awaited.' Leth shook his head from side to side. 'In the end, though I know in myself that it was not so, they were proven right. I travelled across their world - your world - and I slew the creature that was devouring it and devouring the dreams of children, stealing any future it might have. How can this be, Orbelon? How?'
'We should not look to explain things in ordinary terms,' said Orbelon softly. 'Did I not tell you before, Leth, that for you who have lived your entire life within the Reach the time had come to step over, to enter Mystery? There is much here that even I cannot account for. But continue, Leth. Before analysis, the whole story.'
Leth spoke of his feelings when he had first set eyes upon the bright Orb of the Godworld and the World's Agony in the night sky of the Orb. He described his journey with Lakewander: the Sufferer at the roadside, the Plain of Imprisoned Souls, the End of the World, and his hallucinatory experience on the Shore of Nothing which culminated in his first encounter with the Noeticist, the former 'god' of Enchantment, Urch-Malmain, in the Tower of Glancing Memory.
Orbelon quizzed him here, keen to settle in his own mind all he could regarding Urch-Malmain. Then Leth told of his final nightmare journey into the Death Abyss. He described his descent in the dubious company of Harg, Rasgul and their murderous companions; told of the wolfhearts, the Meadows of Dreaming, the curious death of Cerb Two-Heads. Finally he recounted his experience in the Fortress of the Dark Flame and his battle with the evil Ascaria, the Kancanitrix, who by some indefinable alchemy transformed the thoughts, hopes and dreams of children into a dreadful corruption that devoured Orbelon's World.
'Then she is gone?' enquired Orbelon when Leth had done.
'Aye, she is. Whatever she was, she is that no more.'
'I felt it, I believe. A lightening, as though something dark and unwholesome within me had been removed. And I believed that it was you who had done it.'
'Were you aware of me, Orbelon?'
'In a sense I was. And I strove to make you aware of me.'
Leth nodded to himself. 'I believe I sensed you at times, though to begin with I knew only anger. I could not explain how or why you had put us into your world and abandoned us there. I believed we would perish, or at best be stranded forever, until we died. Yet as the days passed I seemed to become more conscious of your presence, as if you were somewhere beyond, trying to make me aware of you.'
'That is how it was. It was not by my conscious doing that you were cast into my world, but had it not occurred
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