Chapter 2: Seers and Dreams

I had spent an enjoyable time with Sid and his family in the Valley of the Wind, but Spirits take me, the shifts in my view of reality just wouldn't stop! First there was the mini-Transformation that Trunk and I experienced, what Andy and his family called being 'awakened', and the gifts that came with it. I can never express how utterly my life changed the moment I realized I was sharing Mat's mind, and could know, absolutely and utterly, the depth of his love for me, and see his own joy at seeing my love for him, captured in thought and emotion. The mental tricks, the communicating across distances, the being able to lift and move objects with my mind, even the jumping, were almost inconsequential next to that knowledge.

Having slowly begun to adapt to those changes, and to integrate some of it into my life, the peace of that adjustment was shattered again when we went to the pool and discovered that my future sister-in-law was a Mystic and Seer unmatched on Arbor except by her father, and perhaps not even then. The suggested scale of her Talent, and her pronouncements about Mat and I, and the way she seemed to separate those into the Mat and Sparrow parts and the Obsidian and River parts was scary and to be honest, just a little intimidating.

Perhaps the perfection of the timing wasn't coincidence, but before I could dwell to much on it, it was time to make the next big jump, this time an actual one, to the world called Meadow, or facet — I was still adjusting the way I thought about these things, and tended to get the terminology messed up. Spirits!

Merging your mind with another can lead to its own confusions. Mat and I had, on several occasions, come as close to becoming one mind as we could muster. He hinted that their were at least several levels beyond what we were currently reaching, but I found it hard to imagine.

The advantage of the jump to Meadow was that I got to wear blue jeans and sweaters the entire time I was there. We didn't even dress up for Christmas dinner, which was surprising to me. I had thought that this dinner would be even bigger than the Thanksgiving one, but it turned out to be more of a family-only event than Thanksgiving was for them. Not that it was a small gathering. Cor's parents — and imagine how much trouble I had calling the Wind of Arbor by her familiar name! - came for the celebration, which was called a 'holiday' here.

We also got Ginny McKesson's side of the family, or at least most of it. Along with her parents, Paul and Mary Parkin, I got to meet my first uniformed Legionnaires, Peter Parkin and his wife Sara. I also got to meet Their son Trevor and his wife Jeni, both childhood friends of Mat's dad. They were accompanied by their son Tim, a toddler of three, and their daughter Alianna and her boyfriend Lewis. Trunk's eyes really perked up when he saw Alianna for the first time, but all he did was smile at the both of them once he saw the boyfriend. There may not be an off switch for Trunk's female detector, but at least his conscience still had its say in things.

The McKesson house on Meadow was in an absolutely beautiful valley, madly resplendent in fall colors. It was still much warmer than the Valley of the Wind had been, and Sid, Trunk and I immediately voted to resume our morning run before working out. There was an absolutely perfect trail that followed the river for several miles, and we ran it our first morning with Andy's grandparents, who enjoyed running themselves.

<They hardly look older than your parents.> I thought to Sid as we ran.

<Welcome to the World of Light.> Sid thought back. <We're definitely going to live a lot longer than the average person, based on what I know about these things.>

Our drills after the run were stick work only. Sid and Trunk had left their swords back at the Tower, as I did with my knives, but the sticks were just too much a part of who we were to leave behind. Mostly it was a way to stay sharp and to work up a good sweat.

Dave and Ginny bowed out the next morning, in favor of some meetings they had to attend, the price they paid apparently for being able to come so early. In their place we got Trevor and Jeni Parkin. We also got Alianna, but she seemed in a bad humor at the beginning of the run. She cheered up as the run progressed though, the scenery and the run were just too perfect. The three of them stayed to watch as we went into our stick work, joined by Lewis Ryman, Alianna's boyfriend. Her sour mood seemed to have returned by the time we were done, but the morning meal, which they called 'breakfast' here, was being served, and good food was soon shoving other considerations aside.

We were aware, thanks to Sid, that this Christmas celebration, apart from the ancient religious aspects, featured a gift exchange as a component. We were at a loss as to what we might be able to offer as gifts, but the enthusiasm Sid's grandparents had displayed for the Arborian wines served during the Thanksgiving celebration back on Arbor gave us one good idea. Amazingly, giving alcoholic beverages, even wine as a gift to children under the age of fourteen was frowned upon on Meadow, and Trevor told us that it was even worse on Earth, it was considered a crime to give it to anyone under the age of twenty one where Trevor grew up. Sid seemed a little familiar with these notions, but Trunk and I were perplexed.

"How do they find out who has a weakness for it then? Wouldn't it be overwhelming for people, already adults to suddenly have access to something like that without having had parents to guide them in being responsible?" Trunk asked. We didn't think we got good answers to all our questions, but there were a lot of people who agreed that it didn't seem to make sense, so we let it slide.

"I can take care of gifts for the adults, but we've got eight kids who are too young for it, so what do we get them?" Sid asked.

We were stumped on that one for a while. We shelved it for the moment and I left Sid and Trunk to their own devices for the afternoon to have a get together with Jeni, Alianna, and Cor.

"I have to be honest with you River." Alianna said over a cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream — a new favorite of mine. "There are more than a few of us Legionnaire kids that have grown up here and on Earth, that have been curious about Mat for years. Cor and Andy do keep to themselves on Arbor, but Mat has been a hermit in comparison. This is the first time I've seen him since we were five, I think."

"There seems to be a lot of fate involved in my relationship with Mat." I said. "I'm beginning to learn that with the McKesson's fate is no stranger, and it is spelled with a capital F."

"That's for sure!" Cor said with a laugh.

"Are you all running again in the morning?" Alianna asked.

"Yes, definitely." I said. "Every morning the weather allows."

"Except Christmas morning." Jeni amended. "That morning is reserved for waking up early and watching the kids open their presents."

"That reminds me." I said. "We've got something in mind to give all the adults, but we're at a loss when it comes to the kids. Gift exchanges aren't a common tradition on Arbor, so we didn't come prepared."

"Toys are always good, but we really don't have time to go shopping, and these kids aren't your typical ones anyway. Not with Legionnaires and McKesson's for parents." Cor said.

"Well, think about it, we want to give the kids something, but from what I understand, Arbor is technologically on a par with the folks over on the eastern continent of Meadow, so there are no great treasure trove of wonderments waiting to be plucked out on their behalf."

"We'll think about it for you. There are still a couple of days to come up with something."

"Can I run with you all again in the morning?" Alianna asked.

"Sure, the more the merrier." I answered. "What about Lewis? Not a runner?"

"Lewis, I'm discovering, is not fond of anything that causes sweat." She said with disgust. "He actually had the nerve to complain that I was sweaty after our run yesterday, before I'd had time to cool down and have a shower!"

"Pity." Cor said. "Nothing that causes sweat? You poor girl!"

That managed to get an embarrassed blush from Alianna, which dissolved into a chorus of wicked laughter, which she eventually joined.

The run the next morning was well attended. Andy and Cor were the big surprise, but we also had Dave and Ginny back for the day's run, and Peter and Sarah Parkin joined in along with Trevor, Jeni and Alianna.

As we ran along the river this morning, I discovered that Mat McKesson had been replaced by the Sid McKesson I knew on Arbor.

"Reach out to the river and try to draw some power." Sid asked me as we ran. I did, and discovered I couldn't, at first. There was a tremendous amount of resistance to the Magic, but with some effort and application of a little willpower, I finally managed to tap into it, and drew some power from the river.

"I did it!" I said at last.

"Hard though, huh?"

"Yes, why is that?"

"The things that make up Magic on Arbor exist here." Sid's dad answered, as if he had been waiting for this conversation. "Here and everywhere, Light, Dream Stuff, the gifts — it's all here, but the unique blending of them is harder away from Arbor. Arbor seems to have these aspects primed, or pre-loaded in some way."

"The Spirits." I answered. "Conventional wisdom on Arbor say 'Nothing happens save the Spirits wish it so.' That's a little fatalistic as outlooks go, and is usually dragged out at funerals in an attempt to make the grieving feel better, but it is a core belief, isn't it?"

"Yes, and maddeningly accurate, as far as I can tell." Cor answered this time. "The Spirits are more real than a collective desire for them to be so could explain. They have an agenda, and we've seen the benign nature of the parts of it we know. Are there parts we don't know that are not so benign?"

"The philosophers say that pure good cannot exist without pure evil." Trunk added from the other side of us. "If we see the Spirits as pure good, then there must be an unknown agency to balance them that could be defined as pure evil."

"Or else the Spirits themselves are a mixture of good and evil, and each person knows those spirits for which their own condition is suited." Alianna offered.

"That's a very Arborian sentiment." Trunk said.

"I read it in a book once." Alianna said. 'Practical Philosophies of Evil in Ancient Societies' by Master Artulan Cohl, a Taluatan philosopher.

"One of the things I loved about being friends with Sid at the Academy was his love for reading the works of the great philosophers." Trunk said. "But he never really studied their philosophies like I did. That's because Sid is a philosophy all to himself."

"So you are the most preeminent philosopher and guide to the arcane mysteries of the Obsidian sphere of dynamism?" Alianna asked.

"Well I was, but not anymore." Trunk said. "River holds the title now."

That brought a chuckle from everyone on the trail, and Trunk took the appropriate pause before he added the punch line he'd probably had in mind all along.

"Of course she had to sleep with him to get the title away..."

That unhitched our cart for sure, the entire group of us were suddenly laughing too hard to keep running.

I finally got to see exactly what Sid meant when he had said there were two people better with the staff than he was, and his Dad was one of them. His dad joined us for our drills that morning. He had an unusual style, but it was mostly by way of compensating for his using NeedleThorn. The Wizard's staff was longer than a traditional staff and not balanced in the same way.

With four of us to do stick work, it was decided we could get in a little more sparring than usual. We rotated through the various combinations, and I had the good fortune, if you could call it that, to match up with the High Wizard first. After three minutes of cautious sparring, he began to talk to me as we fought.

"Yes, your going to step into that reversal there. Feel where the knee flex comes in? Power through it. You want the surge of power to come as you begin to rise up."

So it went for another three minutes, with him describing every move I was about to make, suggesting moves, positions, even thoughts!

"Do you feel as if the stick is a part of you that you send out? - Duck here. Sweep, watch the return stroke. Good! - Or do you see yourself as the stick and feel like you are sending yourself out?"

I was too damned busy avoiding the massive collection of bruises that he seemed intent on loaning me to answer, even if I thought I understood the question well enough to try!

I matched up with Sid next, and we fell into a familiar routine, where he would show me something I didn't expect and then wait for me to match it. It was his usual quiet way of teaching. I could soon hear Trunk's cursing in response to his education. Weaver was telling Trunk exactly what would happen next, even when and where he was going to hit him. It got to be so loud and funny that Sid and I stopped to watch the last of it.

Then it was Sid's turn to spar with his dad. Trunk was too bruised already to want more, so we skipped our match in favor of watching the two of them. The beginning was deceptively slow and casual looking. For the first time I realized that Sid was taller than his father by a palm width. His naturally longer reach was more than compensated for by NeedleThorn's extra length though.

After a couple of minutes of slowly increased speeds and added power, the two of them were circling each other like two opposing forces of nature. Hah!, as if that was a metaphorical description instead of bare reality! Alianna had come over to stand by Trunk and I, and she was the first to react to the speed of it.