The Big Meow

They slipped outside into the back yard, where a few of the local felines were already starting to show up for the morning buffet. Rhiow and Urruah greeted them, then headed off into the shrubbery nearest the wall.

“Leaving no unnecessary traces of wizardry behind us, you said.” Urruah gave her a look as he sat down on the pine needles that had fallen under the shrubs on that side. “What exactly are you thinking?”

Rhiow tucked herself down on the needles and breathed in the clean dry scent for a few moments. “Well. If Arhu was right – and there’s another wizard involved in this, one who’s overshadowed – “

“We wouldn’t want them to catch sight of us and know we were in play.”

Rhiow had to drop her jaw a little. “It’s always hauissh with you, isn’t it.”

“What else is life,” Urruah said grandly, “but the Game?”

She gave him an ironic look. “Well, surely sex must fit into that worldview somewhere for you.”

Urruah put his whiskers forward. “But you told me to stop discussing the Sex-As-Hauissh paradigm, oh, moons ago now.”

There is no way I can win this, Rhiow thought. “Anyway, yes, I prefer that we stay well out of sight as long as we can. I’m just starting to fear now that we’ve already been seen and lost that advantage. I wish we’d detected that charm sooner.”

“If it wasn’t there, there’s nothing we could have done differently,” Urruah said. “And if it was there, then either it was very subtly done – which warns us of the caliber of opposition we’re dealing with – or it was very underpowered: which suggests that the charm might have been incorrectly built by someone who didn’t understand what they were doing, or ill-handled by someone who was badly instructed.” He paused to wash down the back of his shoulder for a moment, and then gazed off into space. “Either situation might be diagnostic. In any case, I want to look at the thing myself, and I also want to get out there and have another look at that former gate emplacement – if that’s in fact what it is.” Then he looked over at Rhiow again. “But somehow I think that’s not all of what you’re worried about.”

Rhiow’s tail was twitching, and not just at his perceptiveness. “’Ruah,” she said, “if this is the Game, then we’re playing it far deeper than any wizard has before. Deeper than maybe even the Powers have – otherwise why would the Whisperer’s fur be as ruffled as it is? We’re dealing with things from outside the normal physical and spiritual order of our worlds. The Lone One is trouble enough. But at least She’s our trouble. Who knows how power is constituted outside the One’s sheaf of universes? What goes on in other sheaves? Who rules them? Are they even ruled? Is there wizardry there? If so, how does it work?” She shivered. “And can ours compete?”

Urruah’s tail too was twitching now. “You’re thinking we might find ourselves up against some other sheaf’s version of a wizard,” he said. “Or worse: some other sheaf’s version of a Power.”

Rhiow flicked an ear in agreement. “Not a prospect I’m excited about, I assure you! But being prepared is half the battle. If someone contaminated by another continuum’s version of wizardry, or some Power from outside, is working here – then just knowing that’s what’s going on gives us an advantage of sorts. If they expect us to have been taken completely by surprise, then that’s an advantage they’ve lost. It’s hauissh all right, my kit! And we’re caught in the game of our lives.”

“Of everyone’s lives,” Urruah said softly. “Everywhere.”

“So we’d best play hard,” Rhiow said. “Here more than usual, knowledge will be power. We need to know everything that the other players here know – and more than they know. And in a hurry!” Her tail lashed. “Arhu is going to get more of a workout than he’s going to like. And we’re going to catch grief from Siffha’h because of it. Can’t be helped…”

Urruah sighed. “So here we are having to break new ground one more time,” he said. “You’d think that maybe by now some ehhif wizards somewhere might have run up against something similar, and taken a little of the edge off the problem…”

Rhiow had to laugh at him. “’Ruah, as if we’re not perfectly capable of handling what errands the Powers send us without having ehhif help us out! That’s not a sentiment I’d expect to hear from you.”

Urruah gave her a dry look. “But Rhi,” he said, “it still brings up the question. Why us? Why now? Why haven’t other wizards in our worlds had this problem before?”