“In his fashion, Chosen, he offers respect. Respect, as you must be aware, is both cultural and situational. You might interact with an armed and threatening person in an entirely different way should they lay down those arms. You might learn to speak a difficult second language in order to convey your appreciation for your differences. And you might, instead, play chess, or offer to teach it.
“What Terrano sees is not quite what you see; what he hears is not quite what you hear. But that should not come as a surprise to you.”
Why not?
“I am as I was created to be. I touch the hearts of those whosee me. Many things exist in a living heart: love. Fear. Hatred. Pity. The blend of animosity and the desire for friendship. Desire itself. All of this might seem similar on the surface, especially in those cultures where a reserved, calm impression implies necessary self-control. But beneath the similar surface, the blend, the weave, of these living emotions creates something small, personal, unique.”
“You know my name, right?” Kaylin spoke Elantran, not the High Barrani that Teela had drilled into her head.
“You are Kaylin Neya. The Marks of the Chosen sing that name. But they sing another name, and that I cannot hear clearly.” She smiled. “You wish to know how to address me.”
Kaylin nodded. “I think of you as ‘the Shadow,’ but...”
“But I have changed enough that you are no longer comfortable with that designation? What you call me, how you address me, is entirely up to you. I will take no offense unless offense is intended.” She laughed. “And there is, on occasion, amusement to be found in taking no offense when offenseisintended. Call me what you wish. ‘The Shadow’ is one aspect, and it is the aspect of me with which your life overlapped most intensely.”
“But why did you choose that appearance? If... you meant to draw the Barrani to you so you could...”
“Kill them?”
Kaylin nodded. “Wouldn’t this have been better?”
“Those who have lived long lives have seen despair; they have lived in the shadow of their fears for far longer than the warmth of their joys. Fear is the stronger bridge for the Barrani people. Only the very young have not yet arrived fully in that place. And people like Terrano, for there are always those who could not quite fit in—and chose to stand out almost ebulliently. I recognize that in him: it shines brightly, even in the darkness.
“You believe that by offering a haven from despair and fear, more people would have chosen to join me.”
He was right. Kaylin did believe that.
“It would have made a difference to you. But the Barrani who chose to enter my domain did not believe in joy or comfort, except in strict circumstances all could understand: the gaining, the holding, of power. They would have been more suspicious, not less—they are a people who have built their existence on relative levels of power. Your kind live for such a short time, and without the burden of True Words.”
“Burden?”
The Shadow nodded. “I see Terrano has not taken the time to fully explain my presence here.”
Kaylin was glaring daggers at the side of Terrano’s face. Terrano, being Terrano, didn’t care. Hells, he probably didn’t notice.
“Terrano is not what I am, nor could he become so as he is. He clings—as you are aware—to the plane in which you, and his friends, exist. Some part of what he has become requires them. Perhaps, in a distant future, he will not; it was not my gift or talent to see glimpses of those possible futures.
“It was my gift, Chosen, to shape the present; to add to it new possibilities and new thoughts, from which different futures might arise. But I am not the only such shaper, and those once drawn to me were those intensely focused on their own thoughts, their own creativity. Some were considered maddened by their kin.”
“Terrano’s mostly considered maddening.”
Again, the laugh, almost the essence in that moment of something approaching the truth of joy.
Terrano’s expression soured further. But his annoyance—or rather his peevish annoyance—had always been reserved for people he actually liked.
“But teasing Terrano is not, in the end, why I asked for your presence. I do not require an audience for that.”
“But you enjoy having an audience,” Abel said, voice dry.
“I enjoy having alivingaudience, yes.” The music faded from the voice. Kaylin was deeply sorry to lose it.
“Terrano informed us of what occurred in the fiefs, in the very slender domain between Towers. He was injured, and you could not heal him because you could not reach him. I invite you to consider this with care. Terrano and his friend can move you between planes. Planes are multiple; they can exist stacked in the same space without affecting each other at all. In most cases.
“Terrano’s art, his devotion, is his tourism.”
“Hey!”
“Apologies. It has been so long since I had freedom and control of myself that I am perhaps overly frivolous. Lord Kaylin, I have asked you to visit because I—as Terrano—can exist both here and in other planes simultaneously. It was considered a signal strength in my youth—and a terrible weapon whenRavellonfell.