Free OrbSoul (Book 6) by Martin Ash Page A

hidden. But how will he be persuaded to tell?'
       'I don't know, but I think Orbelon wants me to go back, Iss. Into his World, to Urch-Malmain's tower.'
       'Will you go?'
       'If it can help us, there is no question. And I think Shenwolf should accompany me.'
     
     
     
    iv
     
     
       The morning was marked by intense debate between Leth, Issul, Orbelon and Triune. Uppermost in all their minds was a growing awareness of the d iminishing time available to them in which to achieve their ends. Triune emphasized once again that her own resources were far from unlimited. 'We work to maintain control of the Portal's tail. Strymnia, though she cannot bring any greater force to bear against us at present, likewise does not diminish the force that she already applies. The Reach Rider struggles ceaselessly against our mesh. In time, inevitably, unless we are strengthened, it will break free.'
       In Leth's and Issul's minds was the stark knowledge that Enchantment's Reach was under investment and vulnerable, might even have fallen to the Karai. If it still held out, what of Pader Luminis, who struggled against powerful internal forces as well as the common foe? Leth and Issul were agonizingly aware of their inadequacy. They were reunited, but lacked a military force of any kind with which to return to Enchantment's Reach and vanquish their enemies.
       Orbelon and Triune affirmed that the only possible hope lay in locating and recovering their sequestered Souls. And Orbelon made them all more keenly aware of the immense peril they now faced from the Portal constructed by Urch-Malmain's inter-dimensional entities. For the first time they came to understand what the Portal's instability could mean, now that Urch-Malmain had nullified the Reciprocity.
       'He seems to be using it virtually indiscriminately as a two-way, one-channel Portal,' Orbelon observed. 'As if he has no appreciation of the possible consequences.'
       'What are they?' enquired Leth.
       'I have never faced this situation before, and hence cannot say with precision. But he is creating a blockage of the way. Increased use under these conditions will wholly destabilize the fragile, natural balance between worlds: my world - that is my Self - and this one. I had not even believed such a thing - a complete nullification of the Reciprocity - was possible. My understanding was that the laws that bind the confluence of our worlds are constant and immutable. Somehow Urch, with his entities and his transient obturation, has overcome that to at least a limited degree. But profound and irreversible catastrophe will inevitably ensue if he continues to tamper with such laws and deny the Reciprocity. It is why I always warned you against entering my world without my knowledge, or in company. There will be an intense, unimaginably destructive clash of cosmic energies. My world, I believe, will be annihilated. Perhaps the process has already begun.'
       'What will that mean for you?'
       'The world, the universe, is its god, and the god is its world and its universe. The end of one is the end of the other. Something will remain, something of Cosmic pre-mind. But it will be the raw non-stuff of unthought thought and undreamed dream, the random churnings of Potentia, awaiting the process without consciousness or form. All that is thus far known and achieved will have been destroyed. Furthermore, the destruction of my world whilst it remains in any form of confluence with this one will engender terrible consequences for this world too. It will create an energy vortex of incalculable power. This world and all it contains could conceivably be drawn into it and likewise annihilated.'
       'Do you think he truly doesn't know this?' asked Issul.
       'If he truly knew it, I do not think he would do it,' Orbelon said. 'I do not believe he desires to taste non-existence.'
       Leth spoke. 'He spoke of 'fooling' the Portal into believing that its head and tail both