The excitement builds as the release
of
Kriki's Gift, Book Two of the Geometry
of Power
draws near.
After
she rescued Heleena, Ghesor had complimented her on her choice of an indirect
approach in that contest with the Nameless Ones. He had explained that there
was great wisdom in setting the indirect to act directly and making adversity
act as an advantage. History showed that those who triumph in a confrontation
knew beforehand how to analyze the indirect and the direct and to use it to
their advantage. It had taken her some thought to figure out the full import
what he'd been saying, but now she understood his wisdom. Acting contrary to
what was expected in a battle, in and of itself, created an advantage. It was
a superior strategy to appear soft and indirect when an enemy anticipated the
hard and straight, and unwaveringly direct when the opposite expectation held
true. She thought of Ghesor's lesson on strategy and focused her thoughts on
the light of the Spirit to counter the darkness of the Nameless Ones in her
indirect challenge of the Valkea.
Kalmar
had an instinctive and keenly sharp sense of justice. As the King, he was in
fact the highest judge in the land and what the Valkea and her wild horde had
done was a crime against all of his people. She and her band needed to be
neutralized so they couldn't carry out the evil designs of the Nameless Ones.
Revenge was not justice - in truth it fed into the Darkness - but it became
necessary to isolate and destroy evil to prevent it from inflicting harm on the
innocents of the land. He tapped into the righteous fury he had felt when he'd
learned of Blazina's ordeal and the infuriated outrage that had filled his
heart at seeing the nightmare spawn of the Valkea's horde born to threaten and
torment his people. His anger was not hot and reckless; rather it was cool,
patient and focused. He fed this energy into his vision of inexorable justice.
Calling upon his anger to fuel his attack was akin to a taproot finding a deep
well of water, which drew strength into the branches high above. He had passed
judgment on the Valkea and was now readying to carry out the sentence. Knowing
that the very concepts of truth and justice would be an anathema to her, he
focused his thoughts on these things to fill his zone projected around her with
an environment that would surely weaken her.
Gegen
was a soldier and his mind was conditioned to think in terms of defensible
lines and barriers. A strong wall could keep an enemy out, or in, as the
situation required. He sensed what Flindra and Kalmar were planning and
understood they were focusing their energies on conditioning the space within a
tight zone around her to neutralize the Valkea's strength, but their efforts
would only succeed if the barrier itself held. Thus, he concentrated the full
force of his thoughts on creating an impenetrable barrier that the Valkea could
not hope to breach. He thought of stone - freshly quarried granite - a rock
free of any planes of weakness. Granite stood at the root of most mountain
ranges and bore the weight of incalculable tons. This was the stone, which was
the first choice of masons and the rock that was capable of standing inviolate
for eons.
He
thought of the properties of granite and incorporated all these characteristics
into his vision of the barrier they would soon be projecting around the Valkea.
He had come to understand that fighting with the crystals was doing combat
within the realm of thought and imagination. He knew full well that he
wouldn't actually see granite appearing to entomb the Valkea, but he accepted
with faith that the attributes of granite could be called into existence around
her. He focused on these things and awaited Flindra's command to attack.
In
took but a moment for the three champions to prepare for this battle and
Flindra could feel when they were ready.
"Now,"
she commanded.
Acting
in perfect unison, they attacked and surrounded the Valkea with their combined
wills.
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