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years they had logged thousands of hours together in the net; and while it had
been vastly rewarding, and she prized their friendship, they'd reached a point
of needing a vacation from each other. But now she missed him terribly.
Of course, if she hadn't stayed behind, she would never have met that strange
and interesting man Kan-Kon. She was burning to tell At about him.
She sighed deeply, desiring sleep most of all. She gazed past the foot of her
bed at the faintly glowing stondai, the holographic parrot perched motionless
in one of its lower branches. The bird's breathing was soothing, and Jael
thought that what she ought to do was follow
Ed's example.
She nodded to herself and closed her eyes.
Images flickered up at once in her mind-images of dragons and strange
landscapes, and ifflings. Please, she thought.
Please give me peace.
Her plea was not answered; but eventually she did drop off to sleep, with the
images dancing vividly before her.
For Jarvorus, it was all happening so beautifully that success seemed certain.
The goal was close now; he could not conceive of failure.
The iffling-children had been easy to sweep aside. He was aware of them
flitting about on the outside now, seeking a way past his warriors, but they
were so meek as to pose no threat. jarvorus himself was already within reach
of the spirit-presence of "the One"-whispering his message, the words given to
him by his master, the one whose voice had sent them all on their way.
jarvorus was delivering his master's message, the one that would transform the
One into the
One-Who-Would-Fall.
His voice whispered like the wind. Windrush has abandoned ...
betrayed ... all that was good. All that you e to accomplish ...
was in vain.
Was she hearing his words?
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You have no friends in the realm ... all have failed ... will fail.
The glow of her presence flickered and trembled. His words were slipping
beneath the surface of her thoughts, causing ripples of disturbance. He was
confident that she would believe them. Together with his fellow warriors, he
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had only to persevere, spiraling ever closer, murmuring, until a perfect
fabric of disbelief was woven, a skein of distrust and despair. And in that
way, the warriors would gain the approval of their master.
The assault came as a swarm of fire, taking jarvorus completely by surprise.
The iffling-children blazed into the warriors' midst, scattering them and
turning their whispers to cries of alarm.
Jarvorus cursed and veered away from the human, fearful of letting the
delicate web of deception be ruined by a struggle with the iffling-children.
He swept back around to fight, calling upon his fellows to join him in battle.
But the ifflings shot past them, toward the human, crying out urgently. They
seemed not to care for subtlety or web@weaving. Whatever deception they were
planning, it was apparently so simpleminded that subtlety didn't matter.
Jarvorus arced across the slippery slope of space-time, pursuing the
iffling-children toward their quarry. He could not allow them to succeed.
His fire burned hot, as he called to the warriors to join him.
This time they would defeat the ifflings utterly. This time the battle would
be to the death.
Jael woke with a cry and sat up. She felt a pain in her chest; her face was
on fire; her vision swam and her ears rang.
Something terrible had awakened her, something more than just the pain.
Another nightmare. She remembered a terrible feeling of despair.
She glimpsed a movement near the foot of her bed, near the holographic
rainforest. "Who's there?" she cried.
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