(no subject)

[theravenboy]

Not long ago, the Circle of the Light took to a room in the west wing of the castle; night and day, in rotating shifts, the Old Ones focus on holding the damaged spells that guard the Summer Country. Half of the Circle, including Merriman and Will, is currently on duty, and the other half sleeps. Bran looked in on the Circle this afternoon, but there was nothing for him to see or do in that room; there were only Old Ones, hands linked in a closed chain, staring blankly into the air.

Bran has no other duties, for the moment, and he can hardly focus for the weight of the power pushing on his mind. He would seek out Moiraine, except that she has gone to Milliways. Instead, he crosses the castle courtyard to walk to his mother's chambers.

Comments

[gramarye1971]

'The natural defences of this land are not what they could be at the moment, I fear,' Merlion says, gritting his teeth. 'It is a mercy that matters did not escalate further. What precisely happened?'

[theravenboy]

"I was in the courtyard, near the fountain, and the land told me that someone was here who did not belong. So I came as fast as I could, and there was a wolf, except he was Galadan. I am sorry, I am not saying this at all clearly."

Bran swallows. The headache from before has not dissipated. "Of course, I had nothing at all to face him with, but I woke the Hunter, and somehow.. well. Galadan must know the Hunter, or something very like him. I think he might have fled even before you came. I don't know."

[sign-seeker.livejournal.com]

"Father, he said."

It's hard to think these days; harder to carry on a serious conversation. All of them have less and less attention to spare.

Today's sudden, desperate struggle helped none of that.

"I do not know if he was talking to you, Bran, or someone inside his head. It was closed, or at least I could not see. Couldn't look enough, at any rate." He did not exactly have attention or energy to spare. "Wolf and man, anyway, yes. Both."

[gramarye1971]

'It would not surprise me if there were further parallels between the worlds -- parallels of which we know very little.' He is attempting to slow his breathing, to marshall enough of his thoughts to draw upon any bit of knowledge that might be of use. 'In our own world...well, the stories of the Hunter have any number of connections to other gods of the island. Knowing where one legend ends and another begins is difficult enough without the added complication of another world's past.'

There is no point in even trying to begin to piece together connections of this kind. Not now, and perhaps not until much later, when they have had a chance to recover some of their strength.

'Whatever he was thinking, it was clear enough that his intent was to kill.'

[theravenboy]

"It must have been. But it doesn't make any sense. How did he come here? Why did he come here? Was he looking for me or for someone in some other world, and is he likely to come back?"

Bran sags against the castle wall. "And we have no way to find out about any of this."

[sign-seeker.livejournal.com]

Will pushes his hair back again, the habitual gesture now half a forehead rub against the pounding headache and exhaustion.

"Not just now, we do not."

Exhaustion or not, he meets Bran's eyes and then Merriman's.

"It depends partly on where precisely he came from."

[gramarye1971]

'I would hazard a guess that Milliways served as a bridge of sorts.' The statement is flat, and just this side of irritated. 'He would not be the first to find the way here from there. And if he came following a scent, so to speak, he would have a means of tracking his quarry to ground.'

One corner of his mouth twitches at the thought.

'The Hunt had that power in our world; it enabled them to chase the Dark to the ends of the earth.'

[theravenboy]

"Well." Bran sighs. "A good guess, and we are not likely to get anything better. In any case, nothing else is likely to happen right now, and you are hardly standing up, either of you. If I commanded you, as your regent, would you get something to eat and some rest?"

[sign-seeker.livejournal.com]

Will breathes out in tired, wan amusement.

And inclines his head with a faint irony that is, nonetheless, not refusal.

[gramarye1971]

'As you would have it,' Merlion replies, unavoidably formal, but his next words turn the formality into an irony of its own. 'Though I for one intend to seek out a suitable dosage of willowbark or the nearest approximation to aspirin before doing either, if that is agreeable to you?'

[theravenboy]

Bran's lip twitches. "Only if I can share it with you."