Free The Door Into Fire by Diane Duane

and dangers of the many worlds should wipe out the worldwall-breaching ability and all its practitioners forever. But there are so many stories, he thought. Still --
    (Sunspark,) Herewiss said, doing his best to mask his slight uncertainty with a feeling of conviction. (You would have been left mad and in horrible pain if I hadn’t helped you.)
    It looked at him, no emotion showing in its eyes or its tone of thought. It moved its legs experimentally. (I think I could stand up now—)
    (Sunspark. You owe me your well-being at this moment. Otherwise you would be out there still, in the rain.)
    It shuddered all over, so that its nonchalance of thought did not quite convince him. (What of it?)
    (A favor for a favor, Sunspark. Until the End.)
    He held his breath, and held its eyes and mind with his, and waited to see whether the line that appeared again and again in Ferrigan’s old tale would work.
    Sunspark looked at him, its eyes distraught, his underhearing catching its consternation and unease, its desire to be out of there, away from this horrid narrow little creature who knew of the Pact but didn’t even know what its own self was—
    (Sunspark,) Herewiss said again, this time letting his thought show his disgust at the elemental’s trying to slip out of an obligation by concealment. (A favor for a favor.)
    It closed its eyes. (What do you want?)
    (You know very well!)
    It sighed inwardly. (A favor for a favor,) it said. (Until the End. What do you want of me?)
    Herewiss paused for a long moment. (I’m not really sure yet. Get up, if you think you can, and we’ll discuss it.)
    Sunspark struggled a little and then heaved itself all at once to its feet. It stood there for a moment swaying uncertainly, like a new foal. (That’s better,) it said. (You know, I am likely to be a lot of trouble to you—)
    Herewiss stood up too. It was distinctly unnerving to have something the size of a horse looking down on you and talking to you, especially when it wasn’t really a horse. (You’re trying to frighten me,) Herewiss said. (The stories are true, it seems. If you refuse to aid me, you’re forsworn, outside the Pact, outside the help of any of the other peoples who walk the worlds. No traveler survives long under such conditions. You owe me a favor, a large one, and you will repay it.)
    The elemental looked at him with grudging respect. (I will. You understand, though, why I did not—)
    (You weren’t sure whether I lay within the Pact or not. And who wants to be bound when it’s not necessary? But I’m within it, by intention at least…and if that’s not enough, there’s ancestry.)
    (Oh?) It understood him, but there was some slight confusion about some of the nuances he had applied to the thought, and Herewiss didn’t know which ones.
    (Yes. I am descended from Ferrigan Halmer’s daughter of the Brightwood Line; she walked between the worlds, or so our traditions say. My father is presently Lord of the Brightwood—)
    Sunspark stared at Herewiss, and emitted a wave of total shock and incredulity. (Your progenitor is still alive?? )
    (Uh—yes. My mother is dead, though—)
    (Well, of course. Why two different concepts for your progenitors, though?)
    Herewiss was becoming more than slightly confused himself. (One of them is a man, and the other was a woman—)
    There was a brief silence. (You are a hybrid? Well, such matings aren’t unheard of in parts of the Pattern—)
    (Uhh—no. “Man” and “woman” are different forms of the same creature.)
    (Oh. Like larval and pupal?)
    Herewiss was shaking his head in amazement. (Well, uh, not really—)
    The elemental was bewildered, but still intrigued. (This is too hard for me,) it said finally. (I can’t understand how your “father” is still extant after union. But there are patterns within the Pattern, and no way to understand them all. No matter. Your “father” was a master of energies, you said—)
    (I did? Well, yes, you could say that, though how you