“The whole of your planet ejected it rather than try to tame it. The whole of our planet isolated it rather than destroy it. These things were all that could be done. You must not assume you are safe."
She was making sense. “What can we do, that we do not plan to do?"
“You have one key magic ability we lack. That may be useful."
“Precognition,” Gale agreed. “But it's really very limited."
“Your child does it best."
“Negation! I'm not taking my baby there."
Voila, asleep in her crib, woke suddenly, fussing.
Gale stared. “Horror! It's a wrong decision."
“She knows,” Iva agreed.
Voila did indeed know. Gale ascertained that the baby had no idea of the specifics, just that she needed to be there. That meant that it was an extremely broad path, that would narrow when she got closer to the place and time. The other Glamors, including Gale, had learned to see briefly into the future; the baby could see farther, for her range had been growing. On occasion it was eerie, as they verified something days later that confirmed an episode of Voila's anticipation. There was more to this magic than the adults or other children yet fathomed.
So it was that next morning Gale reluctantly put Voila in a backpack and went to consult with Havoc in the center of the illusion fields. She made her way through the chain of key transitions marked on the map and by Glamors at the sites, followed by Symbol with Flame and the Blue Glamor baby-sitting Warp, diverting him with weird ugly fascinating bugs. It seemed pointless for them all to go, for Havoc, Ini, and Red were already circling the illusion-free perimeter, verifying that their magic powers were restored. There was no reaction from the machine in the center; it was oblivious, uncaring, or defunct.
Gale navigated the route faster than they had done before, because they now knew what was essential, but she remained impressed by the variety of the settings. She played her hammer dulcimer to change the music of the dancing nymphs, and made her way to the single real tree, now comfortably serviced by bees. The space battle amazed her with its magnitude and scintillating drama, but Blue reported that Warp loved it. He would. The fear at the sea cliff was horrible, but now she knew that she didn't have to claw her way to the next ledge; she simply jumped from the first one. And so on through, until at last they emerged to the inner region.
Voila screamed in terror. And something stirred in the center of the circle. It was a huge metal thing with projecting spikes and spinning wheels. It came right at them.
Gale leaped back into the illusion, taking Voila with her. Blue and Symbol did the same, but in different directions, protecting their charges, and she knew Havoc would act appropriately. She plowed through a scene with cows grazing between the ruined buildings of an ancient city, turned, and waded into the wall of the solidest building she could find. Then she hunkered down, silent. Fortunately Voila had stopped screaming; her foresight surely warned her that that was not a good thing at this time.
She heard the whirr of the machine as it pursued. There was a dull thud and the anguished scream of a cow, followed by a crash as the alien thing collided with the wall. Then it ground on, departing. They had escaped it.
When it seemed it was safe, she emerged from the wall and wended her way back to find Havoc. She met him part way, as he came searching for her, carrying Weft, seeing her though the illusion, using his vision nulling capacity. He caught her and hugged her, and kissed Voila over her shoulder.
“Question?” Gale asked weakly as Blue and Symbol appeared with their charges. She was relieved to see that all were safe.
“You appeared, Voila screamed, and the machine launched toward you,” Havoc said. “It had not moved before. Now we know it is functioning and alert. It surely saw me before, and Red; why did you set it off?"
“Agreement: that was my question."
“Now we have seen how the illusion field balks it. The machine sees, hears, and feels the settings, and can't forge through walls lest it damage itself. It is subject to the same limits we are, except that it may not be able to null any of the senses. It got turned around and ejected, probably thinking it was still pursuing you."
“Reassurance,” she agreed dryly. “Second question: why did Voila scream? That's what triggered the pursuit."
The Red Glamor appeared, with swathed Ini; the illusion no longer covered any of them, so that they kept company with the cows. “She reacts to threat before it happens,” Red reminded them. “She knew the monster was about to attack, giving you time to escape."
“But it didn't attack anyone before,” Havoc said. “How is Gale a threat to it if we are not?"
“Not Gale,” Ini said. “Voila."
And that had to be it. Voila—with precognition. The machine recognized her as a danger, and tried to destroy her. She had reacted in terror before it acted.
“Problem,” Ini said. “Voila screamed because the machine was about to attack. It attacked because she screamed. Paradox."
“Point,” Red agreed. “Had she not screamed, it would have waited longer, for her to get within range. Her scream showed she had caught on, so it had to act. So why did she scream?"
“This taxes my barbarian intellect,” Havoc said, smiling. They all knew that his mind was on a par with Ini's. “She can see the paths, so knew what a scream would do."
“Don't be dumb, Daddy,” Weft said. “She screamed because it frightened her. She knew it was alert and menacing. She says it's a Mino."
“Question?” Red asked.
“Bull-headed man,” Weft explained patiently. “In a puzzle."
“The Minotaur,” Gale agreed. “In a labyrinth.” That was from Symbol's illusion shows, the story of a man who navigated a labyrinth to encounter a monster trapped in the center.
“Apt analogy,” Ini said. “So she saw—Mino—and was terrified, and screamed without considering the paths. She is after all a baby. That showed the machine that she had caught on, and it charged, as a lurking panther does once a deer spots it. Ideally it would have waited for the herd to get closer, but then it has to act before they all spook. Paradox lost."
“So she foresaw the lurking danger, not the specific attack,” Gale said.
“Problem,” Havoc said. “We do have to get close, in order to capture it and take it back to Charm."
“Problem compounded,” Red said. “A pebble we might carry. A monster machine we can't."
“It would have to be dismantled and transported piecemeal,” Ini said.
“As if it will sit still for being taken apart."
“Challenge,” Ini agreed, her veil smiling.
“Observation,” Havoc said. “The illusion fields have stopped covering us, and perhaps won't balk our departure, now that we have made it to the center. But they exist to stop Mino from escaping, and surely won't let us move him out, in however many pieces."
Voila laughed.
“Interest,” Red said. “She knows something we don't."
“That's why she's here,” Gale said. “I didn't want to bring her into this danger, but the ifrits say we need her here, and she agrees. We had better find out what she has in mind."
“Complication,” Red said. “She's under four months old. She lacks language."
“Negation,” Weft said. “She just doesn't speak your words. She knows what's what, because of the precog."
“Agreement,” Warp and Flame said, almost together.
“Truth,” Ini said. “She relates to the children, as we saw when they negotiated for learning to become clouds. We have to appreciate that however young she is, Voila is a Glamor. There has never been so young a Glamor before, and never one who was Glamor before growing into the norms of human behavior, with such a supportive environment. The three children were close, but they were rejected by their families and put in foster care, which surely set them back. Voila is the first to have complete, supported openness to the Glamor state. The other child Glamors have been interacting with her, providing the benefi
t of their experience. She is showing us the true Glamor potential.” And the three children nodded; they know they had been stultified, which was why at first each had shown only one magic ability.
“Which it seems is beyond our imagination,” Havoc said.
“She'll be a terror when she grows up,” Red muttered fondly. “The others are bad enough.” She smiled at Weft, who smiled back. The two understood each other, to a degree, as did Warp and Blue, who had to an extent taken his interest now that Gale was occupied with Voila. Each child needed the special attention of at least one adult.
“And I understand Voila,” Weft said smugly.
“Then Weft will translate,” Gale said.
“Delight,” Weft said. She liked being important. Warp and Flame frowned but did not protest.
They settled on scattered stones while the cows continued to graze. Probably they were sitting on the ground, but the illusion masked that. Gale lifted Voila from her backpack and held her in her lap. Weft settled on Havoc's lap, facing them.
“Review,” Havoc said. “I said that the illusion fields would not let Mino out, even in pieces, and Voila laughed. Why? What are we missing?"
Weft leaned forward, reaching across to take Voila's tiny hand. “Question?"
They remained in silent communion for a moment. Then Weft's mouth fell open. “Amazement!"
The adults exchanged a glance. What had Weft learned?
The child recovered. “She says Idyll will let Mino go, when he is tame."
“Who is Idyll?” Havoc asked gently.
“Idyll Ifrit.” Weft waved her arms. “Here. She's listening. She's real old."
Now more than one adult jaw dropped. “The illusion fields!” Ini exclaimed. “One huge ancient ifrit!"
“But the ifrits can't enter this region,” Red protested.
“Because they don't want to overlap another ifrit,” Havoc said. “The ancient ifrits didn't make impenetrable illusion, they formed a Glamor ifrit. Here, around the menace. Idyll."
“Which explains how the illusions can be interactive,” Ini said. “They are consciously controlled. The setting would be permanent, but when any creature enters them, Idyll takes over and modifies them to address the intruder. It also explains how the illusions can be continuous, crossing different Chroma zones and even nonChroma zones. A Glamor—drawing magic power from some other region, a distant ikon."
“Many ikons,” Weft said.
Gale was as amazed as any. “How can Voila know that?"
“Idyll's talking with her. Mind contact."
“But telepathy is scrambled here!"
“Not for Idyll."
And of course the ifrit who was scrambling the senses of others would not have to scramble her own. “Why does she talk to Voila rather than us?"
“Voila's mind's open,” Weft explained. “Same's when she turned cloud first, and precogged first."
There it was, as Ini had conjectured. The adults in their certainty were far less open to new things than the children, and the children less than the baby.
“Can we talk directly with Idyll?” Havoc asked.
“Doubt. I'm barely feeling her mind, and I'm not nearly as stultified as you grownups.” She was still increasing her vocabulary. “Voila's the only one who can, because—” Weft paused, surprised again. “Not just because her mind's open. Because she's the greatest of all the Glamors, or will be when she grows up, and Idyll's the greatest of all the ifrits right now. They relate. Idyll's what Voila will be."
“Idyll's the strongest ifrit?” Havoc asked. “And a Glamor?"
“Stronger than all the other ifrits put together,” Weft said, translating. “And all the other Glamors."
“Than all of us?” Red asked.
“Affirmation. That's why she could limit you. She could have stopped you entirely if she wanted to."
They digested that. After their experience in the illusion fields, it was believable.
“Voila will do, for now,” Gale said. “Tell Idyll we are glad to meet her, and hope to work with her to take Mino away from here."
Weft communed again with Voila. “She knows. She wants to get rid of Mino. That's why she let you in. Then she can fade out."
“She wants to die?” Red asked. “That is, cease to exist as an entity?"
“She's been here a long time. She's tired."
Surely so! Yet she surely had all the knowledge of the ancient ifrits, including feats of illusion like none seen since. What a waste it would be to lose that.
“She says it's a burden,” Weft said.
“She's answering my thought?"
“Sure. It wasn't shielded."
“But ifrits don't know telepathy."
“She says it's not exactly that. We're all in her cloud, so she knows more about us. And she likes you, Mommy."
“Flattered.” What a discovery this was! Gale had at first thought that their study of the ifrits was a diversion during the frustration of their effort to penetrate the illusion fields; now it was clear it wasn't. “And she's a Glamor. Why aren't the modern ifrits aware of Glamor status, then, apart from our examples?"
Weft concentrated, working on a difficult transfer of information. “I think—it's like us,” she said at last. “Only so many Glamors, and Idyll is all of them. No room for others."
“Glamors have constituencies,” Havoc said. “Why did she leave that poor tree isolated from insects?"
“Different. They don't relate to life forms. Just to—whatever."
Gale realized that they could study the different modes of Glamor another time. “Right now we need to deal with Mino,” she said. “How do we tame him?"
“Idyll doesn't know. She keeps him cooped, but he mines magic and she can't touch him directly."
“But if she's that strong, why can't she handle a mere machine?” Havoc asked.
Voila laughed. “He's not mere,” Weft said. “He's stronger than anything. The ifrits had to make Idyll just to handle him."
“She must know something about him, to coop him."
“Just that's he's a dangerous machine who can null magic."
“Why doesn't he null the illusions and escape?"
Weft communed, getting the answer via Voila. “Because there's nothing there. The illusions are mostly projections—no magic to take. You couldn't even null single senses if Idyll didn't let you to make it fair."
The adults shared another glance, chagrined.
“But there is something else,” Weft continued. “Idyll says now you have a hard choice."
Gale was wary of this. “Question?"
“To go home now, or to tackle Mino."
Havoc laughed. “Decided."
But Gale's wariness remained. “Question,” she repeated.
“If you tackle Mino and win, and maybe you can if you all work together, gratitude and cooperation. If you lose, all of us will be trapped here."
Now Havoc became cautious. “Clarification: how can Glamors be trapped? Mino has such power?"
“Maybe. Idyll doesn't know, because there weren't little Glamors like you when Mino came so he didn't fight any. He mines magic, and maybe can take Glamor magic too, because Glamors aren't illusion, they're real."
“If he sucks the magic from one Glamor, the others will retreat to consider alternatives,” Havoc said. “We won't be trapped."
Weft struggled to get the complicated concept into words. “If he beats one Glamor, he'll know how to beat all Glamors. But even with just one, he would use it to get free, and that can't be allowed. So all of us would have to stay here in—in—"
“Indefinitely,” Gale said.
“Negation,” Havoc said, and the other Glamors agreed. “Mino might catch one of us, but not all."
“Idyll would keep us,” Weft said. “Indefinitely, until something comes to tame or destroy Mino."
The Glamors exchanged grim glances. Such a threat had to be empty, but they didn't like it.
But Gale knew Weft, and Voil
a. There was more here. “How would Idyll do this?"
“By intercepting our magic beams from our ikons. Voila's ikon is already here, with Symbol. Idyll's letting its magic through because she relates to Voila. The others are sending from outside, and she can stop them. That will make us all regular folk who can't get through the illusion fields when she doesn't want us to."
This was a chilling prospect. “Idyll can do that?"
“Affirmation. She doesn't want to, because she likes Glamors, especially Voila, but Mino is just too dangerous."
“Mino is just a machine! We should be able to handle him, once we learn more about him."
“Clarification: the regular ifrits have a distorted history. Here is the real story. Mino is a scout sent by a galactic machine culture to survey planets for mining magic. Many like him were sent out, and the machine masters come to suitable planets as convenient and needed. They may take mil—mil—"
“Millennia."
“Millennia to come, because there are a lot of planets in a lot of space, and they finish one before moving their heavy equipment to the next. When they are done mining, there is no magic left. So we don't want them here, but they will come sometime. Idyll thinks in about another century. Everything was planned for then, to be ready."
Gale kept her voice unnaturally calm. “Why does Idyll think they are coming then?"
“Because Mino came to Charm, surveyed it, and sent out his report. The signal goes at light speed, which is pretty slow. If Mino had completed his round, he would have gone back faster himself, but when he came to survey Counter Charm the ifrits trapped him and stopped him from going. They knew to do it because they saw what happened on Charm. So only that signal went out, and judging by his report, his culture is about fifteen hundred light years away. It went out fourteen hundred years ago. So if they need magic, they'll come soon's as they get it. Maybe later, if they're not in a hurry, but we need to be ready then, to be sure."
Havoc whistled. “Four centuries before humans colonized! This crisis has been long in the making."
“Conjecture,” Ini said. “They could come sooner, if they missed their scout and tracked his course."
“Doubt,” Weft said, concentrating. “They have so many, they send them out pretty randomly and don't follow them. They wait for them to return, or to send their signals. It's more ef—ef—"