Destiny (40 page)

"Since I'm still feelin' and seein' everythin' I did a minute ago, I'd guess that our Blendin' is permanent now," Vallant remarked with an odd smile. "Obviously, it's a good thing we like each other so well."

"No, it's more than a matter of 'like,'" Lorand said, wearing the same smile. "If you'll remember, we all had to
love
each other before we could all be heard individually in the Blending entity. That came before we started to take turns initiating the Blending."

"How is it possible that no one knows that
this
is what the Blending experience is meant to lead to?" Rion asked with a shake of his head. "And even beyond that, how could anyone give up the possibility of achieving this by suppressing knowledge of how to Blend?"

"You're obviously talkin' about the nobles in Gandistra," Vallant responded, his smile having turned wry. "I think it's safe to assume that this only happens to a
complete
Blendin', otherwise our former enemies would have reached this point a lot of years ago. And so would the Gracelians have, come to think of it. What we don't yet know is if their unbalanced Blendin's would have reached this point if they'd had Sight magic users added in."

"I have the feeling that that unbalance you mentioned would keep it from happening," Jovvi put in as she stood. "Balance comes from like joining like, and my guess is that any properly balanced Blending will reach this same point even if they don't happen to be High talents. If our training programs back home have gone as well as we hoped they would, we should have the chance to find out."

"But now we have to talk to our associate Blendings," Lorand said, also getting to his feet. "We have to let them know what's happened, but this time we really should charge them. Personally, I would have paid any amount to keep from being scared witless the way I was."

"You and me both," Tamma agreed as they all began to move toward the door of the house. "But after we talk to the others, we really need to do some more experimenting. I can't get rid of the feeling that there's a lot more we don't yet know about."

Jovvi knew exactly what Tamma meant, and the nodding of the others showed that they felt the same. As they walked out into the muddy street of the village, Jovvi got an idea. She really liked her soft riding boots, but going through mud was about to ruin them. So…

"Hey, what did you do?" Lorand yelped as Jovvi was suddenly three inches taller. His arm had been around her shoulders, which let him notice the difference immediately. "Are you somehow starting to grow again?"

"No, I'm just protecting my boots," Jovvi answered with a delighted laugh. "I don't want this mud ruining them, so I gave myself some hardened air to walk on. Rion, I had no idea how marvelous it was to be able to do this."

When Tamma and Naran heard what she'd done, they had to do the same. Then they also joined Jovvi's laughter while the men discussed whether or not to protect their own boots. They finally decided that it was very fitting for
all
of them to walk on air, and their laughter had turned more to juvenile giggling by the time they reached the place where their associates were.

"Have you six been drinking something other than tea?" Arinna asked with an indulgent smile once their rowdy group had gotten close enough. "Not that you don't deserve to celebrate your victory, but…"

"But we're gonna be havin' more rain purty soon," Pagin Holter said when Arinna let her words trail off. "Too many a them slaves are comin' out of it feelin' scared, so we could use a hand settlin' 'em down b'fore we start drownin' again."

"I can help calm those people," Rion said with a wide smile as he looked over at the shivering, terrified group of former slaves. "Watch and see how easy it is."

The now-freed slaves began to calm even as Rion spoke, and a moment later they were straightening up and looking around in curiosity rather than with fear.

"Nicely done, Rion," Jovvi said with a good deal of pleasure. "I couldn't have done that better myself."

"What's going on?" Arinna asked as Jovvi and her Blendingmates began to laugh again. "You can't calm people with Air magic, so why are you trying to make us believe you can?"

"Rion didn't
use
Air magic to calm those people," Lorand said in a very bland way. "He used Spirit magic, which was only fair. After all, Jovvi used Air magic to keep her boots free of mud."

"How can you possibly be using each other's talents?" Arinna demanded, confusion clear on her pretty face before her expression changed to one of stunned amazement. "No, don't tell me! Something happened that made it possible. What was it? Was it something that we'll also be able to do?"

"How much is that information worth to you?" Naran asked as blandly as Lorand had spoken. "We did warn you that we were going to charge for information from now on, so you can't say we didn't."

That brought on another bout of laughter that Jovvi joined in, and by the time the amusement played itself out Arinna stood with a gold coin in her hand.

"If this isn't enough, I'll get more," Arinna said, holding out the coin. "Now
please
tell us what happened!"

"Let's take pity on them," Vallant said with a grin matching the one Pagin Holter wore. "They can pay us after seein' how much knowin' about it in advance is really worth."

Jovvi was the one everyone else deferred to, so she described what they'd done with taking turns in initiating their Blending. When she described her own final efforts and what had happened, Arinna looked horrified.

"You couldn't Blend again?" Arinna exclaimed. "But that's terrible! How did you finally overcome the problem?"

"We didn't," Tamma answered when Jovvi gestured to her. "What we did instead was realize that we
were
Blended, with everyone awake and aware of what was happening around us. We were also able to use each other's talents, just the way our entity was able to. We can also do a couple of other things our entity could do, but we don't yet know just how many more are possible."

"Then whut'r ya doin'
here
?" Holter demanded, his own expression looking stunned. "Why ain't ya back in thet house practicin'?"

"We came to tell
you
people what was going on," Tamma answered dryly, clearly noticing the way Jovvi had that Holter's accent had suddenly gotten thicker. "But if you'd rather we didn't say anything next time…"

"No, no, that's perfectly all right," Arinna assured Tamma quickly as she glared at Holter. "Pagin is just shaken up, and doesn't know what he's saying. We want to know about
everything
, as soon as you're ready to tell us."

"Since you're being so nice about it, we will," Jovvi assured Arinna, and then she turned to her Blendingmates. "Let's also take Pagin's advice and go back to experiment. After all, we don't really have to be here in order to help out. We can help as well as experiment, and still stay dry."

The others considered that a marvelous idea, so they began to retrace their steps to the house. There was an eagerness inside them all that Jovvi hadn't felt since the first time they'd Blended. They'd been through a lot since that first effort, but hopefully all the hard times were now behind them…

"All right, what are we going to experiment with first?" I asked when we were back in our house. "What could our entity do that we haven't yet tried alone?"

"You know, you should have asked that question before we left here," Lorand said, looking and acting as giddy as I felt. "Our entity could float along a street or road without using Air magic. Maybe we can do the same."

"That's a good thought, so I'll try it," I agreed with a laugh I couldn't hold back on. "Let me concentrate for a minute."

I concentrated on the desire to rise up off the floor without using Air magic, but a very long minute passed and nothing happened. I thought about the failure for a very brief time, and then the obvious answer came.

"This is the wrong experiment," I said, getting the impression that most of the others had also been trying to rise into the air. "Our entity floated because it had no physical being, but we do. If we want to be up in the air we
will
have to use Air magic."

"You know, this isn't the first time you've had a definite answer to something, Tamma," Jovvi observed while Vallant and Lorand made very loud sounds of disappointment. "Since you don't seem to be guessing, I wonder where that certainty is coming from."

"Don't be silly," I started to say with a laugh. "I'm not - "

And then the laughter stopped when I realized that Jovvi was right. I
was
getting more than just ideas about things. Facts were coming that I had no doubt about at all.

"It could be happening because you're the 'oldest entity' among us," Jovvi mused, apparently seeing nothing of how momentarily upset I'd been. "Most of the new things have started with you, Tamma, but I wish I could be sure that we'll have access to the lost knowledge as well. There are still so many things I want to know about, including the question of where this knowledge can be coming from."

"Now
that's
a good question," Lorand said as I stared at Jovvi with raised brows and thought the same thing. "Our entity seemed to have access to memories that we didn't, and it never occurred to me to wonder where the knowledge came from. How does it work for
you
, Tamrissa? Are these things just coming to you?"

"Not really," I answered, actually thinking about the process for the first time. "It's as if I have all these different memories, ones I'm reaching for the first time. The information is just
there
, but now I'm wondering where 'there' really is. It isn't in my own mind, that's for certain."

"You might want to spend some time now and then thinkin' about it," Vallant suggested as he stepped closer. "Our entity sometimes took a short while before it 'knew' things, as if it started a search and then let the search go on by itself. If the memories do work that way, you might suddenly find yourself with the answer."

"If I do, I'll be sure to let everyone know," I said, then dismissed a matter I couldn't do anything about right now. "But we were trying to think of a good experiment. Has anyone had any ideas?"

"I've had a thought," Rion said, speaking up before anyone else could. "When our entity looked at something, we could all see that something even though we seemed to be looking out of our own individual eyes. I've been wondering if we could all see what only one of us happens to be looking at."

"Now, that's worth trying," I said, knowing a good idea when I heard it. "I'll look at something, and at the same time I'll try to give the picture to the rest of you. But I think you'll have to … open up in some way for me to do that."

"You go ahead and try it, and we'll see if we can do the opening up," Jovvi said. "But don't tell us what you intend to look at. That way we'll know if we're seeing it ourselves or only through you."

That was another good idea, so I thought for a brief moment before deciding I wanted to see what our former enemies were doing. They'd been put into that shed building under guard, and although they were also under control I thought it might be a good idea to check on them.

As soon as my mind was firmly made up, part of it seemed to … break off and flash away. The next thing I knew I had our former enemies in sight, watching as they snarled at one another. Each one seemed to think that their troubles were the fault of the others rather than themselves, the attitude rooted in a lack of true belief in their ability and talents. The accusations came from their individual fears, of course, and their Spirit magic user did nothing to calm his Blendingmates.

I looked around at the interior of the shed, but paid more attention to the workings of my mind. What I looked at was being seen only by me, I knew, but then I realized that if I made only a small adjustment…

"Oh!" Jovvi and Lorand said together, and I could feel their excitement as Jovvi continued, "I just relaxed and waited, and now I can see the invader leaders. Is that what you're looking at, Tamma? Can the rest of you see them as well?"

"Yes, that's what I'm looking at," I agreed as Lorand, Vallant, Rion, and Naran all confirmed that they saw the same. "I'd say that this experiment was a success."

"Definitely," Naran said as I brought my attention back to the house we stood in. "And now I have another idea that's almost the same as two of the last ones. We know we can see at a distance, but just how
far
a distance? What's the limit of our range, so to speak?"

"Yes, that's definitely worth knowin'," Vallant said at once with real enthusiasm. "You can't use your ability to its fullest extent if you don't know what your limits are - and aren't."

Everyone including me agreed with that, so the next step in our investigations became obvious.

"Let's see if we can find out what our … 'friends' in Liandia are doing," I suggested. "But let's all look at the same time, to make sure we all have the same range."

"There shouldn't be any differences since we're supposed to be a single being, but checking won't hurt," Jovvi said with a nod. "First, though, I'd like to get a cup of tea and make myself comfortable. Being able to drink tea while we do things just may prove to be the best part of all this."

"I support that idea wholeheartedly," Rion said at once, making the rest of us chuckle. "Being able to divide our attention
is
what I consider marvelous."