e that did not, those that kept after the Aeradalla, were systematically eradicated.
	"Shiika used something to keep the Demons from teleporting into the city, but she also figured out a way to allow her and her daughters to get around that," Miranda told him.  "If they're over the city, they can slaughter any flying Demon and probably get away with it without being touched."  He saw what she meant.  There was one particularly large one over the city, and all six of them were attacking it with their long spears, jabbing it again and again.  Every time it tried to turn on one of them, that Cambisi simply vanished from sight, to reappear somewhere else and just within the reach of her long spear.  The six of them harried the monster mercilessly, until a large gout of black blood erupted from its neck, and the thing began to dissolve into black ichor even as it fell from the sky.
	"I didn't know that they could do that," Tarrin said in surprise.  "They never used that power against me."
	"Only Shiika can teleport.  She said that could use a spell to give her daughters that power for a limited time.  Shiika said that the Cambisi don't have any of the Demonic powers in our world.  They'd have those powers in the Abyss, but not here."
	"I wonder why."
	"Well, you can track down one of those Demons and ask it," Jula said shortly.
	Tarrin felt a sudden influx in the Weave, and realized that Jenna had begun to assemble her Circle.  Jula gasped and looked up, then stared at Tarrin in surprise.  "What is that?  The Weave is, I don't know what it's doing."
	"Jenna is building the Circle," he said grimly.  "She's getting ready to attack."
	Jesmind came over and looked into the disc.  "It looks like they are too," she announced, pointing at the disc's image.  The landbound Demons had destroyed their attackers, but at a massive cost.  There were only about twenty Demons left on the battlefield, and all of them were showing the extent of the viciousness of their fight with their own kind.
	"She's not going to attack.  She's supposed to erect a Ward that will eliminate all magic except Sorcery that tries to cross it, and smother any magic except Sorcery from being used within it.  Those Demons didn't use magic against each other, but they will when they attack the wall.  Jenna is supposed to stop that, force them to try to tear down the walls with muscle instead of magic."
	"Clever," Jula said appreciatively.
	"When she finishes the Ward, then she's supposed to start destroying anything not a Demon that tries to come at the walls."
	Tarrin considered that, and found it...inefficient.  They'd lead with their Goblinoids when they sent in their attack force.  Tarrin thought about that a moment, and realized that they could eliminate that threat without having to expend energy destroying them.  He turned towards the statue of the Goddess, her icon, but she cut him off.
	"I know what you're about to ask,"  she said audibly, though the statue didn't move.  "I'll tell her how to make it."
	"Was that--was that--" Jula stammered, going pale.
	Tarrin nodded simply.  "The Goddess," he told her.
	Jula clutched her amulet tightly in her paw, staring at the statue in awe.
	"What is she going to do?" Miranda asked curiously.
	"Show Jenna how to make a Ward that will kill any Goblinoid that crosses it," he replied.
	"Ah, very smart," Miranda said approvingly.
	"Wards take more energy to form than battle spells, but they last as long as you set them to last," Tarrin told her.  "It's not as tiring to just let the enemy kill themselves."
	Miranda chuckled.  "I'll say."
	Things quickly got very fast, very violent, and very chaotic.  The Demons reached the city gates, and began to batter against them with their fists.  In a sudden flash, the obelisk on the far side of the battlefield began to glow, with robed men and women surrounding it, chanting sonorously, and Tarrin could sense an oppressive weight suddenly form on the Weave, as if it meant to bottle up the flow of magic.  He felt Jenna's counterstroke to that, a blasting eruption of power that surged over the weight, around it, then infused it and shattered it.  Tarrin felt what was going on, and realized that an entirely different battle was being fought in the invisible reality of the Weave.  The men and women around the obelisk were using it to assault the powr of magic directly, to interfere with the Sorcerers, but Jenna and her very large, powerful Circle were resisting it.  Tarrin felt the enemy seek to charge all the local strands with an absolute saturation of magic pulled from elsewhere, which would increase the power of Wizard magic, but would also make Sorcery more difficult and exhausting to use by weighing down on the Weave's capacity to allow magic to flow.  Like filling a bottle half full of water the rest of the way with oil, making it impossible to reach the water beneath it without getting oil first.  He then felt Jenna counterattack that by spinning out a multitude of feeder strands, saturating the local area with strands to support that extra magic, and also making Sorcery stronger in the process even as it spread out the burden of containing the Wizard magic filling the Weave.  He then felt the Wizard magic within the Weave attack the integrity of the Weave itself, seeking to disrupt the strands, even feed back to cause damage within the Conduit.  He felt that, and realized that it wasn't the Wizards doing it, or even the Priests.  This was coming from somewhere else.  This was being done by some being of immense power.
	He felt it clearly.  He felt the presence of the Goddess suddenly rise up from the Heart, rise up and directly face this new power.  Her presence caught him up with her, caught up Jasana, even Jula, causing all three of them to have their awarenesses drawn up into the Weave even as the Goddess laid her hands upon them and commandeered their power.  The Goddess took control of them, caused them to Circle, and then joined her power to theirs in a way Tarrin did not think possible.  The direct might of the Goddess flowed through him, flowed through all three of them, and his senses were suspended in favor of the alternate reality of the Weave.
	He was within one of the strands, facing a rolling mass of liquid blackness that sought to consume the rainbow light generated by the flows within the strand.  It was a seething mass, without form, boiling angrily in place as its progress suddenly was impeded.  He could feel Jula beside him, within him, a part of him, even as he was a part of her.  Jasana was on his other side, joined to him in a similar manner, as they were joined to one another.  The Goddess was behind them, around them, her power surrounding them even as they caused her power to come to bear.  They were the instrument by which she enacted her direct might.
	"THIS WILL NOT BE," they heard her voice thunder through the Weave, directed at the black mass before them.  "Didst thou think that if thee violated the strictures, I would not be permitted to do the same?  Take back thy power, or I will strike at thee, Val.  In this place, thou canst not hope to defeat me."
	"I fear thee not, Niami," came a hissing reply.  "Come then, and strike at me if thou dares."
	"As thou wishes."
	What happened next could not be explained in rational terms.  He only had a sensation of the entirety of the Weave flooding into him, sending him spiralling to the upper limits and constraints of mindless pain, only have to have it vanish in a heartbeat, replaced by a glowing light that suffused him with boundless pleasure.  His mind, linked to the Goddess, saw into a fraction of her being in that fleeting moment, and his mortal mind shuddered away from the vast immensity that stared back at him from that place, nearly drove him mad as his mind tried to understand what it found there.  That indescribable power suddenly lashed out, driving into the roiling blackness like a shaft of solid light.  He felt the titanic clash of power that took place in the Weave, which suddenly began to thrash and tremble as it struggled to remain intact against one force that sought to destroy it and the other that sought to protect it.  The shining bar of light seemed to be sucked up by the black cloud without effect, but then the main Conduit seemed to reach out into the strands, providing its power to protect the integrity of the strand in which the confrontation was taking place.  When that happened, the bar of light became blindingly bright, and it blasted into the cloud with renewed vigor, puncturing it, penetrating it, causing it to fold in on itself where it was struck by the magical light.  He felt it drive through the darkness, then carry back to its source, the mafeli as a guide to track back to the origin of that power.  That might struck at what was there, causing it to recoil and retreat, even as he became dimly aware of the earth shaking beneath his feet. What the Goddess had done had carried such power that it had literally shaken the earth.
	In the real world, out beyond the walls of Suld, the black stone obelisk that was the mafeli flared with a sudden incandescent light, then exploded with such force that it killed every man and woman that had been tending it, sending shards of smoking black stone catapulting hundreds of spans into the air.
	For a lingering moment, the divine union of their minds to the Goddess remained, until she seemed to become aware of them.  She laid a hand over their minds gently, repairing the damage that being exposed to her true power had caused them, then doing something to Jula, and then he felt her retreat from them.
	As one, all three of them collapsed to the ground, weak as kittens.  Jesmind gave out a strangled cry and took turns checking on Tarrin, then Jesmind, but Jula lay on her back, staring blankly up at the sky, as Miranda tended to her.  Tarrin felt like all the life had been sucked out of him, but he also felt his strength beginning to return steadily.  He felt strong enough to move as he felt the earth continue to shudder beneath him.  He looked to Jasana, who was crying in fear, and then to Jula.
	Just looking at her told him everything.  For one, she was nude, her clothes having been destroyed by what happened to her.  The Circle had been too much for her power to bear, the communion between the two sui'kun and the Goddess had caused her to go beyond the limits of her body.  But instead of being reduced to ash, the Goddess had shown her the way, had accepted her into the fold, despite the rather unusual circumstances.  Tarrin stared at her, sensing it in her, realizing that the Goddess had done it to her to protect her life.
	Jula had crossed over.  She was a Weavespinner, a da'shar.
	"Umf," Jasana groaned, sitting up.  "What just happened, Papa?"
	"I have no idea," Tarrin replied as rubbed his forehead gingerly, remembering what he had seen.  He remembered looking into the mind of the Goddess...but he couldn't quite recall what he'd seen there.  He only remembered that it was probably best that he didn't remember.
	"What's wrong with Jula?" Jasana asked immediately.  Then she gasped.  "She's different now!  I can feel it!"
	"She'll be out for a while, cub," Tarrin told her, finding the strength to stand.  "She crossed over."
	"What does that mean, Tarrin?" Miranda asked.
	"She became a Weavespinner," he replied woodenly as Jesmind helped him to his feet, kissing him in relief.  "She couldn't handle the power the Goddess was putting into us, and made her face being Consumed.  When that happens, we either get Consumed or we find our way to the Heart and adjust ourselves to survive.  Jula was connected to the Goddess with us, so she was already halfway there.  All she had to do was prevent herself from burning up, which she did."  He grunted.  "Or the Goddess did for her," he reasoned.  "I can't remember."
	"Will you tell me what happened now?" Jesmind demanded.  "I almost fainted when I saw the three of you start to glow!"
	"I, I'm not sure," he said.  "The Goddess needed us for something.  She had to use us, because she couldn't do what was done without us."
	"That's not an explanation!" Jesmind snapped.
	"A dark man tried to break the Weave," Jasana said seriously.  "The shining lady there stopped him, but she needed our help to do it."
	"Val," Tarrin grunted.  "He tried to disrupt the Weave to rob us of our magic.  The Goddess stopped him.  From the feel of it, she even took the fight back to him."
	"That must be why the earth shook," Miranda said.  "The world isn't strong enough to support two gods fighting one another."
	"That is why I had to use you," the voice of the Goddess called from her icon.  "Val was acting through his mortal agents.  I had to do the same.  Had we confronted one another directly, the city would have been destroyed in our fight."
	Tarrin realized that that was why Val didn't care if the Goddess attacked him or not.  He wasn't in any danger.  The only ones to suffer would be the mortals doing his bidding.  He was willing to throw away their lives in a vain attempt to damage the Weave before the Goddess defeated his attempt.  But he had erred, and erred badly.  His all-or-nothing attempt to disrupt the Weave had cost him the mafeli, and now the katzh-dashi had a powerful advantage.  But there were still the Demons, so maybe he was willing to take that risk.  Thirty Demons when they had only Shiika and the Cambisi to counter them did make things rather even.  And even with magic, the numerical advantage for the other side was considerable.
	"Is she going to be alright, papa?" Jasana asked, squirming out of her mother's arms and kneeling by the dazed Jula.
	"She'll be fine, cub," he replied.  "She'll go to sleep as soon as she comes out of her daze.  Why don't we move her someplace comfortable?"
	They laid Jula on the bench, after Miranda brought some of the pillows and a blanket out of the tent for her to make the hard stone more comfortable, and he knelt by her, holding her paw, worried about what was going on.  He felt too tired to make another viewing disc, but it was apparent that the fight had started.  Aeradalla and Harpies were visible in the skies over Suld, fighting one another in a dance of winged aerobatics.  The sound of the Wikuni cannons rumbled over them, the sharp sound of their explosive discharges softened by the distance the sound had to travel.
	"It's started," Jesmind announced grimly at the first sound of the cannons.
	"It won't get nasty until the Wizards either send in the humans or find a way to break the Ward Jenna will lay down to stop the Goblinoids," Tarrin surmised.
	They waited in tense silence for a while, at least an hour, listening to the Wikuni cannons sending out their sharp reports that told them that their forces still held the walls, as well as the magical attacks and counterattacks he felt in the Weave that told him that Jenna and her Circle were still battling with the magicians on the other side, despite the loss of the mafeli to aid them.  Tarrin recovered his strength over that hour, until he felt strong enough to use Sorcery once again.  Jula came out of her daze and slipped into a deep, natural slumber, and Jasana had calmed down from the frightful experience of being hijacked by the Goddess.  Tarrin paced nervously where Jesmind had been pacing before as Jesmind and Jasana sat with Jula, and Miranda sat on a chair she drug from the tent and sat with her knitting. He wished he was calm enough to knit at a time like this, but he knew Miranda.  She knitted for the same reason he paced, to occupy her mind and expend some nervous energy.  He wanted to use Sorcery to see what was going on, but he wasn't sure if that was a good idea at the moment.  He may need his energy to repel an invader.
	There was one way to find out.  "Mother, what's going on?" he finally asked.
	"The Demons have finally battered down the gate," she replied.  "They sent in the Goblinoids, which died by the windrows when they crossed the Ward.  Now they've recalled the Goblinoids that are left and sent in the Fae-da'Kii and their undead troops to try to establish a foothold in the city while their Wizards and what Priests that survived battle with Jenna and her Circle to try to break the Ward.  Even without the mafeli, Val is influencing the power of his magicians, and they outnumber Jenna's Circle by about a hundred to one.  So Jenna is a very busy young lady at the moment."
	"More or less what we expected," Miranda said confidently.  "The idea now is to let the Demons pass and force the troops entering through the breach to seek refuge from the muskets and arrows by running into the city, so the Centaurs and Selani can wipe them out before their numbers get too great.  That way they keep coming in, but can't organize a large enough force to threaten our defenses."
	"That's pretty clever," Jesmind grunted with a nod.
	"I thought so myself," Miranda agreed.  "It was that Arakite General's idea, Kang.  He's a devious man.  Few would think to create a defensive perimeter by allowing enemy troops to gain a foothold.  It was pretty ingenious."
	They waited for long moments, until Tarrin heard an unmistakable roar from outside the Tower grounds.  A Demon.  They had allowed the Demons to pass unmolested, so the Wizards at the Tower could deal with them, but he didn't know if they could take on thirty at once.  He immediately stopped pacing and recalled his sword from the elsewhere.  "Jesmind, Miranda, take Jula over to the corner of the courtyard, and keep her there.  Jasana, you stay with them," he ordered, feeling the sword in his paw.  Its weight was comforting to him now, for he knew that it gave him a weapon against the Demons coming.  He set himself directly before the fountain, sword in paw, and waited with his senses open.  He felt an oppressive surge of magical power flow through the Weave, and then another, and then another.  Those were spells cast by Wizards, and they were not simple or weak spells.  The third was marked by a great explosion on the eastern edge of the grounds.  He felt several more spells flow through the Weave, flowing from that other place where Wizards drew their power to the Wizard, coming faster and stronger than the last.  There was another roar of a Demon, and then another different one, and then a flurry of spells all drawn from the Weave at the same time.
	Then there was a great crashing sound, the sound of the magical fence surrounding the Tower being ripped asunder.  The enchantment on the fence was disrupted with its mauling, and caused it to explode as a Wildstrike at the point of destruction.  He felt that clearly, even as he heard the loud bang of the torn fence section literally exploding as the magical power contained within it was released from its containment.  Tarrin was certain that now there were Demons on the Tower grounds, and it made him worried.  He gripped the sword in both paws and started turning in his stance, watching in all directions for whatever may appear tramping through the maze.
	He didn't have long to wait.  A dog-headed, four-armed Glabrezu appeared over the hedges, which were waist-height to it, trampling them down as it moved directly towards the icon.  It looked quite the worse for wear, with one of its pincer arms missing and black blood flowing liberally down its manged fur body.  It was also missing an eye, and had a rather gruesome wound over the same side of its face.  Keritanima and Shiika had been right; what did reach him had definitely been put through a meat grinder.  Tarrin blocked its path to the icon, sword held at the ready and simply waiting for it to enter the courtyard.  It approached, closer and closer, stepping to flatten down the hedge that formed the wall of the courtyard.  Tarrin settled down into a defensive posture, letting it come to him.  Jesmind jumped up and put the others behind her, claws out and ready to fight that monster if it came after them.  It stepped over the flattened hedge, but then the statue of the Goddess exploded in a bright, radiant white light.  The Demon flinched away from that light, snarling and snapping, the pincers on its outer arm clacking together in a sound that still made his stomach quiver at the memory of being crushed between them.  Tarrin felt that light on his back, felt it permeate into him, reassuring him that the Goddess was with him.  He stood his ground against the wounded Demon as it stalked warily into the courtyard.  It could see its objective, but it could also see that there was one more barrier standing in its way.  Clacking its pincers together, it regarded the smaller foe, holding a sword that could injure it, seeing its tail lash in anticipation and the grim look of business all over its face, glowing green eyes glaring back at it.  The little creature actually snarled at it, baring its fangs as its tail lashed straight behind it suddenly and its ears laid back against its head.  Some kind of threat display, that would have been comical if not for the sword in its furry hands.  But it would not move, staying firmly between the Demon and its goal.  It paused to consider how to best finish off this small foe--
	--and then its head was suddenly soared from its body, to bounce once on the grass of the courtyard before coming to a wobbling halt.  The body remained stock still for a moment, then collapsed in on itself in a heap even as it began to dissolve into that horrific black ichor.
	Tarrin blinked, then saw a bat-like wing out of the corner of his eye.  He turned in time to see one of the Cambisi, probably Anayi, swoop away with a huge scimitar-like sword in her hands, sending drops of Demonic blood falling onto the grounds below.  It had been so intent on Tarrin that it had never heard the winged Alu approach, and she took it completely by surprise.  For that matter, Tarrin hadn't noticed her either.
	Tarrin decided that he was going to soundly kiss each and every Cambisi after all this was over.  Given what happened the last time he shared a kiss with Shiika, perhaps a hug would be more in order for her.  He let his breath out explosively, then regretted it as the horrific smell of the dissolving Demon reached him.  He heard Miranda laugh delightedly.  "I didn't expect that!" she remarked from the corner.
	"It didn't either," Tarrin called in reply.
	"What was that?" Jesmind asked.
	"One of Shiika's daughters," he told her.  "I think I'm going to give her a big kiss when this is over."
	"I may give her one too," Jesmind admitted with a laugh.
	There wasn't time for any more chitchat.  Another Demon appeared, one of the thin tusked ones with wings, coming in through the hole the first had made.  It didn't hesitate like the first, it howled in a victorious manner and rushed forward, huge clawed hands leading to rend apart the last obstacle to the goal.  Tarrin put his ears back and darted forward to meet this threat.  It pulled up just as Tarrin reached it and took a swipe at its midsection, managing to nick it slightly.  That seemed to take the Demon out of its bloodlust, causing it to take another step back and regard the smaller foe with wary respect.  It held out its hand again, and then a searing blast of fire erupted from its open palm.
	That was a very bad idea.  For a moment Tarrin wondered if they'd bothered to explain a few things to these Demons as he charged confidently through the blaze of fire, sword leading.  It seemed genuinely surprised as the Were-cat erupted from the gout of fire, and nearly lost the taloned hand casting the spell as the Were-cat slashed at it. But it recovered from its surprise quickly, moving with a speed that belied its height and bony, ungainly appearance.  It reached out and tried to grab Tarrin in its taloned hand, but the Were-cat slid underneath its grasp in a display of his own unnatural agility.  He tried to stab it in the narrow belly, but it slithered aside at the last moment.  He turned to face it, but the light suddenly was swallowed up by some kind of impenetrable blackness.
	Tarrin didn't panic.  He sensed that it was a magical effect of some kind.  He heard the thing moving, and ducked underneath a broad swipe of one of those hands with their huge talons.  In the single step it took to square himself, he had puzzled out how the spell worked, then willed the Weave to disrupt it.  The Weave responded, choking off the flow of power that caused the spell to function, and then light suddenly reappeared, nearly as quickly as it had appeared.  This startled the ugly creature, severely startled it, for it was caught trying to sneak up on him.  It was easily within reach of his sword.  "Fool," Tarrin chided as he skewered the monster on his weapon, driving the blade up and into its chest.  The Demon gurgled incoherently, and then staggered backward off the blade and collapsed to the ground.  Its body began to decompose into that horrid black sludge, smoking and sizzling on the grass and the ground, sending up fumes of toxic smoke.
	But those two were just the first of them.  Two more Demons were trudging towards them, and a vulture-headed third was in the air, flying just ahead of them.  All three of them looked to be in rather good condition.  The vulture-headed one had no visible wounds, carrying a guisarme built for its twelve span tall frame that was stained with blood.  The other two were both those frog-headed Demons, smaller than the vulture one, but more solidly built and looking remarkably uninjured.  What happened to the gauntlet they would have had to run to reach him?  Tarrin would tangle with a single Demon, given the sword, but not even he would try to stop three uninjured Demons at the same time.  He took a few frantic steps back towards the icon, his mind racing and his heart speeding up in his chest as he saw an undefeatable enemy advancing on the courtyard.  Where was Shiika?  He needed her help right about now!
	His heels hit the edge of the fountain.  He couldn't back up any further.  Where was Shiika?  Where were the Cambisi?  Where were those damned Wizards and Priests?  Sorcery and Druidic magic wouldn't affect a Demon, and he couldn't fight three by himself!  His mind raced as he considered all the possibilities.  He could try to blow them away with wind; they couldn't be harmed by magic, but they were still subject to the application of physical force.  It could do them no harm, but it could very damn well pick them up and hurl them out of the courtyard.  That would give the others time to put some wounds on these three.
	Yes, that would work.  It wouldn't hurt them, but it would buy him some time, maybe split them up so he could deal with them one at a time.  He raised his arms out to his sides and prepared to weave together the flows to do it, but then he saw his shadow on the ground before him, a shadow cast by his body interposed between the ground and the light emanating from the icon.  The light of the Goddess, his Goddess, shining her power upon him to bolster him, to reassure him, to remind him that she was with him.
	Or was it?
	Tarrin hesitated, realizing that he had made a fundamental, elemental blunder.  He'd even thought it several times, and had never made the connection.  Priest magic affected Demons.  And the katzh-dashi were the Priests of Niami, the Goddess of the Weave.
	Whenever you need me, I will be there.  All you need do is ask, and I will give, the Goddess had told him once, long ago.
	Don't experiment, my kitten.  My constitution couldn't take it.  The clue that had made him realize that he could use Druidic magic.  He had completely forgotten the fundamental reason she said it.  To not experiment with Priest magic.
	And him, the fool, had even learned some of the Priest magic used by the katzh-dashi, and hadn't thought that since he wasn't technically mortal, he could go beyond that!  All it required was the blessing of the Goddess!
	He threw the sword down in disgust, a move that surprised the three Demons that stood against him.  The Goddess hadn't been shining her light to scare the Demons, she'd been doing it to make him understand!
	Alright, I'm a thick-headed fool, Mother, he thought inwardly.  What must I do?
	There came, of all things, a silvery laugh in reply.  All it takes is faith and belief, my kitten.  Ask, and I shall provide what you need.  The words will come to you of their own volition.
	Faith and belief.  Those were no problem.  He believed in his Goddess, he had faith in her power, he loved her.  He stared at th three Demons and words did indeed simply come into his mind, strange words in some language long forgotten by the world.  Those words definitely seemed to have meaning to the Demons, for they suddenly recoiled from him, recoiled from the glowing icon of the Goddess.  He was aware of a massive surge of magical power flowing directly from the Goddess, a power unlike Sorcery yet related somehow.  This did not come from the Weave, it flowed directly from the Goddess, from wherever her real being existed, which was some place beyond his imagination.  This was a direct blessing of her power, akin to the power she had used to smite Val not an hour before.
	He grabbed his amulet and held it before him.  "In the name of Niami, Goddess of magic, I abjure ye, creatures of darkness!" he thundered at them in a voice that seemed to make the very air quiver, a voice charged by the power the Goddess poured into him.  In that moment, he was a living extension of the Goddess, had been entrusted with a tiny fraction of her power, which was still enough to make the Demons before him tremble in fear.  "Begone to the pits that spawned ye, or face the wrath of the Goddess!"
	They stared at him in shock and horror, but then they squealed in pain when the amulet around Tarrin's neck flared with intense light, a light that seared and burned at the Demons' eyes and flesh.  They turned and fled from the light of the amulet, but by then it was too late.  The light flared again, and then the bodies of all three of them simply evaporated into a misty vapor, which itself disappeared from view.

	Far to the southwest of Suld, far beyond Wikuna, a sudden bar of shining light suddenly erupted beyond the horizon.  It was only visible to the fish and whales in the sea, shining with a radiance that made the sun seem dim, sending great light out over the trackless ocean.  It flared thus for a long moment, and then faded from sight.  But the sudden release of magical power exhibited by that display rushed away 