Free storm by Unknown Page A

was accompanied by a pang of loss.  He pushed both image and feeling away and held Cal close.  "Eat with me now.  I'll tell you the horrors of Galhea."
     
                Pellaz usually enjoyed conducting caste ascensions, but that night his mind was elsewhere.  He noticed that Caeru seemed to be aware of his distraction, because the Tigrina took over most of the officiating.  Pellaz was so accustomed to not feeling grateful for anything Caeru did, he was quite shocked to discover this had changed.  More than that had changed.  Pellaz no longer sensed the hungry, desperate and often vicious need that normally oozed from Caeru like the essence of disease.  He even smelled different.  Caeru raised his arms to channel energy, and thereby raise the initiate from Neoma to Brynie level.  For a moment he transformed into a skinny young har with ragged yellow hair and artfully ripped clothes.  Pellaz could almost smell the perfume of a night, 30 years ago.  Was Cal working some subtle magic?  But there were more disorienting things to consider.  As the ceremony progressed, Pell's mind kept flashing back to the otherlanes journey, and the black entity that had accosted him there.  Sometimes, it felt as if that presence was still with him, tainting the sacred atmosphere of the High Nayati.  Shadows pressed close and the vaulted ceiling was lost in darkness.  Unearthly creatures might cluster there, whispering together.
     
                Cal and Caeru intoned the words of the ceremony and the young har they initiated knelt before them, while Pellaz fought a battle with the demons of his imagination.  He remembered the words that Cobweb had said to him, the mention of Dorado.  Cobweb had implied Pellaz needed help: as usual, he'd concealed more than he'd revealed, but that was the way of seers.  For the first time in years, Pellaz felt young and powerless.  He did not have enough information, certainly not enough to feel secure, and had no wise har to go to for advice and assurance.  Despite Cobweb's warning, he found himself thinking of Opalexian.  He wanted to speak to her.
     
                The ceremony concluded, and the newly elevated har went home to celebrate with his proud parents.  Tentatively, Caeru asked Cal and Pellaz if they'd like to come back to his apartment for supper.  Cal did not answer, but directed his attention to Pellaz, who felt himself consenting, simply because the thought of being alone was too unsettling.  All of Pell's senses were heightened.
     
                Before they left the High Nayati, Pellaz went alone to the shrine of the Aghama, Wraeththu's prime deity.  Here, a bronze image of Thiede was lit by the soft glow of candlelight.  Pellaz cast some grains of incense over the flame that eternally burned there.  The perfumed smoke rolled over him.  He prayed to Thiede for guidance, and perhaps there was a sense of a tall presence behind him, the ghost of a hand on his shoulder.
     
                You are Tigron, said a voice in his head.  Take control.
     
                "I need you.  There are cracks in the world."
     
                Fight darkness with light.  Fight light with darkness.
     
                Pellaz sighed deeply.  For so long, everyhar had believed that Thiede had influenced everything that happened to Wraeththu.  He was their progenitor and their god.  But he had also been a har of flesh and blood, and Pellaz could not believe one individual could have controlled so much.  Had he forced Pellaz to create a pearl with Caeru against his better judgement?  Had he influenced all that had happened to Cal?  If it were true, then surely Pellaz would have sensed it in some way.  He saw his own life as a pageant, parading across his mind's eye.  Historic events, deep passions, betrayals, victories.  If Thiede was not the greater power, then what was?
     
                A