“Don’t expect to step from here to Fortuna in the span of a heartbeat within the next three to four years. In fact, don’t expect to step from far northern to far southern Katan within the next three to four years,” he finished dryly. “But we will work on it, yes.”
The abbess chuckled. “That’s all she can rightfully expect, that you’ll work on it—and I’ll tell her so if she starts getting frenetic about it. I . . . hold on a moment.”
She shifted away from the mirror, face craning past its edge. Aradin, seeing he wasn’t needed, gave Saleria a reassuring touch on her back and moved off to resume his work once more. A moment later, the middle-aged woman with the white wimple and head veil leaned back into full view of her mirror, her expression a delighted smile.
“Well, now, Natua be praised! Serina’s actually in labor this time, and not just false pains. I should have enough time to wrap this up, but hopefully it won’t go on too much longer. I’ll want to be on hand for the traditional Natallian blessing of the newborn. So let’s not take forever parsing out who gets which verse to study and dissect, hm?”
“Study and dissect?” Sir Vedell asked her.
“Well, yes, of course,” Naima said. “If those of us who think the verse refers to our own purview study it in depth, we can look for specific local instances which match the prophecy. That will free up the rest to study the prophecy as a whole, looking for larger patterns, or for anything pointing it at some other place or person instead. It’s a good way to divide the labor.”
“I concur,” Kerric said. “That was my own thought.”
“Well, the next one would probably be my purview,” Alonnen stated. “I’m the Guardian tasked with keeping an eye on the Mekhanans, and ‘Gearman’ and ‘Guild’ both reek of Mekhanan society.”
“I suppose Tipa’thia and I will have to keep an eye on the fourth verse,” Pelai said. “It could mean any Painted ‘Lord’ anywhere around the world—any male Painted Warrior—but combined with the words ‘synod’ and ‘Temple,’ which is where Tipa’thia’s Guardianship resides, it should mean something will happen in Mendhi. Also possibly ‘beneath the granite face’ or whatever the verse said.”
Saleria nodded, since that was the correct wording for that line. She looked at the middle-aged woman with the pale platinum hair. “Guardian Ilaiea, you questioned the line about dragons?”
“It . . . well . . .” For a moment, the normally self-possessed woman looked a little flustered, before she gathered her dignity and her authority. “The Draconan Empire might have something to do with it, but they haven’t had any real dragon-sightings in hundreds of years. The Moonlands, however, have dragons aplenty, but we’ve been separated from the rest of the world by the will of the Gods Themselves.”
Guardian Koro spoke. Like Alonnen, he had once again hidden most of his dark hair behind a deeply cowled hood, and his eyes behind deep blue viewing lenses. “Somehow, I doubt the mighty Draconan Empire—the ‘Dragon’ of the southern hemisphere—would ever deign to bow to anyone.”
“The power of the Singer of the Moonlands is not to be mocked,” Ilaiea retorted. “We are the Voice of the Moons, and wield power beyond your comprehension.”
“Guardians, please,” Kerric interjected, his expression calm but his tone conveying a hint of impatient eye-rolling. “We are all on the same side. We do not need to play ‘my Guardianship is more powerful than yours’ . . . because if we judge solely by the size of the power-flows we handle, Guardian Saleria has all of us beat, as she commands the powers of three singularities at once.”
Saleria blushed at the mention of her power, and cleared her throat. She wished she could be like Aradin and return to some other task, but she had to stay here and be a good Guardian for the sake of the world.
“Sybaritic good, island city, and Host all refer to Senod-Gra,” Keleseth reconfirmed. Second eldest of the Guardians, not quite as old-looking as Sheren but still quite gray-haired herself, she nodded firmly. “That would be my Guardianship, and I can tell you that while I’ll allow quite a lot to happen in the City of Delights, demon-worship is not one of them. I’ll keep a very vigilant eye on what’s happening out here.”
“It does say ‘Host’ and not ‘Hostess,’” Guardian Miguel stated, speaking up for the first time since greeting everyone at the start of the meeting. “Perhaps it refers to your successor?”