unified in this decision,” Davim said. “I will accept nothing else. Eshonai, do you insist on objecting? Will we need to spend hours here making this decision?”
She took a deep breath, coming to a decision that had been working its way through the back of her mind. The decision of an explorer. She glanced at the sack of maps she’d set on the floor beside her.
“I will agree to this test,” Eshonai said.
Nearby, Venli hummed to Appreciation.
“However,” Eshonai continued to Resolve, “I must be the one who tries the new form first.”
All humming stopped. The others of the Five gaped at her.
“What?” Venli said. “Sister, no! It is my right.”
“You are too valuable,” Eshonai said. “You know too much about the forms, and much of your research is held only in your head. I am simply a soldier. I can be spared if this goes wrong.”
“You are a Shardbearer,” Davim said. “Our last.”
“Thude has trained with my Blade and Plate,” Eshonai said. “I will leave both with him, just in case.”
The others of the Five hummed to Consideration.
“This is a good suggestion,” Abronai said. “Eshonai has both strength and experience.”
“It was my discovery!” Venli said to Irritation.
“And you are appreciated for it,” Davim said. “But Eshonai is right; you and your scholars are too important to our future.”
“More than that,” Abronai added. “You are too close to the project, Venli. The way you speak makes that clear. If Eshonai enters the storms and discovers that something is off about this form, she can halt the experiment and return to us.”
“This is a good compromise,” Chivi said, nodding. “Are we in agreement?”
“I believe so,” Abronai said, turning toward Zuln.
The representative of the dullforms rarely spoke. She wore the smock of a parshman, and had indicated that she considered it her duty to represent them—those with no songs—along with any dullforms among them.
Hers was as noble a sacrifice as Abronai holding to mateform. More so. Dullform was a difficult form to suffer, one that only a few ever experienced for longer than a stormpause or so.
“I agree to this,” Zuln said.
The others hummed to Appreciation. Only Venli did not join in the song. If this stormform turned out to be real, would they add another person to the Five? At first, the Five had all been dullforms, then all workers. It was only at the discovery of nimbleform that it had been decided that they would have one of each form.
A question for later. The others of the Five stood up, then began to make their way down the long flight of steps spiraling around the tower. Wind blew from the east, and Eshonai turned toward it, looking out over the broken Plains—toward the Origin of Storms.
During a coming highstorm, she would step into the winds and become something new. Something powerful. Something that would change the destiny of the listeners, and perhaps the humans, forever.
“I nearly had cause to hate you, Sister,” Venli said to Reprimand, idling beside where Eshonai sat.
“I did not forbid this test,” Eshonai said.
“Instead you take its glory.”
“If there is glory to be had,” Eshonai said to Reprimand, “it will be yours for discovering the form. That should not be a consideration. Only our future should matter.”
Venli hummed to Irritation. “They called you wise, experienced. It makes one wonder if they’ve forgotten who you were—that you went off recklessly into the wilds, ignoring your people, while I stayed home and memorized songs. When did everyone start believing you were the responsible one?”
It’s this cursed uniform, Eshonai thought, rising. “Why didn’t you tell us what you were researching? You let me believe your studies were to find artform or mediationform. Instead, you were looking for one of the forms of ancient power.”
“Does that matter?”
“Yes. It makes all the difference, Venli. I love you, but your ambition frightens me.”
“You don’t trust me,” Venli said to Betrayal.
Betrayal. That was a song rarely sung. It stung enough to make Eshonai wince.
“We’ll see what this form does,” Eshonai said, picking up her maps and the gemstone with the trapped spren. “Then we will talk further. I just want to be careful.”
“You want to do it yourself,” Venli said to Irritation. “You always want to be first. But enough. It is done. Come with me; I will need to train you in the proper mindset to help the form work. Then we will pick a highstorm for the transformation.”
Eshonai nodded. She would go through this training. In the meantime, she would consider. Perhaps