He had felt the will working against his, and he recognized it. Lindon looked up to Eithan, who was giving a broad, innocent smile. “How did you do that?”
“If your will is the only one working on an object, you have complete authority over it. If someone else wants to do something with that object, you must overcome their will first.” He took the mug from Lindon by hand and drank from it.
“As I am not yet a Sage, I can’t do what you can do. But I can stop you.”
Lindon had hundreds of questions, most of which could only be answered through practice.
“Dross, can you model this?”
[Can I? Of course I can! Accurately? No. I don’t really understand the limitations. We’ve seen enough Sages and Monarchs working, but I don’t know what Icons they have connections to, and you weren’t advanced enough to sense what wills might have been working against them at the time, and also being here in this valley tires me out, and I’d kind of like to start fresh in the morning. Maybe several mornings from now.]
Lindon couldn’t wait. The sooner he could get a grasp on his abilities, the sooner he could begin thinking of new applications. Maybe new solutions.
He swept the table clear, moving his rolled-up map of Sacred Valley carefully to the side in case he spilled some water…and then he stopped with the map in his hand.
The ground shook beneath his feet.
“A few mornings from now,” Lindon agreed. “That should be plenty.”
Orthos glanced nervously at the earth aura beneath his feet.
Eithan cheerily raised his mug. “Plenty of time! I can’t think of a single reason why we might need a Sage in the next few days.”
Lindon snatched the mug back.
When everyone had returned and gathered around the table, Dross materialized in front of Lindon. He clapped his boneless arms together, projecting a deafening clapping noise into everyone’s mind.
[We’re going to make this quick, all right? Just listen to me, I’ll give you your assignments, and everything will go smoothly. Focus…actually, that’s too much, that’s embarrassing. Everyone looking at me. Give me about eighty percent of your attention, that should be plenty.]
Little Blue, seated on the table, turned slightly so that she was only halfway looking at Dross.
[That’s perfect, keep that ratio exactly.] He gestured, and a purple light shone over the map of Sacred Valley spread across the table. It lit up Mount Venture, the sacred peak to the west.
[There are four schools here, one on each mountain, and three clans splitting the valley part of the…valley. The school over here, to the west, is the Golden Sword School.]
He gestured again, and the purple light indicating the Golden Sword School was crossed out by a red slash. [They’re gone! They’re out. Vanished. Complete ghost town over there.]
The Fallen Leaf School had several methods of contacting the other schools, and some of the Akura Golds had techniques or constructs intended to spy on far-off locations. They were often slow or blurry because of the suppression field, but they all indicated the same thing: the Golden Sword School had left days ago, if not weeks.
“Where did they go?” Mercy asked, concerned.
Ziel sighed. “Anywhere’s better than here.”
“Yeah, but can a school full of Jades make it in the real world on their own?”
“They’re going to have to,” Lindon pointed out.
[Forget them, they’re already dead. Probably. But who cares, really?] Dross waved again, and this time a light shone over the mountain to the south. The Greatfather.
[Holy Wind School, not gone yet, but going. At least there are some smart people in Sacred Valley.] A few images floated in the air, showing the mass exodus of the Holy Wind School. Most of them were carried on the back of a huge floating raft, not a cloudship, that inched its way south.
“They’ve been trapped here for generations,” Orthos rumbled. “That doesn’t make them idiots.”
Lindon felt a surprising amount of irritation from Orthos on behalf of the inhabitants of Sacred Valley, which was touching. Lindon rested a hand on the back of the turtle’s head and just enjoyed having him back.
[Oh, of course, yes. Not idiots. There are two more schools of non-idiots: here at the Fallen Leaf School—] A light shone on the north mountain. [—and the Heaven’s Glory School. The most…wisdom-challenged…of them all. Then, of course, we have the three clans.]
Three more lights shone in the center of the valley. The