It was like a kind of sleep, and like a kind of awakening. Farinka drifted slowly out of the not-quite-sleep, aware first of the nebulous nature of the Mists, and second of the Presence of Raffi. He was just there, waiting. The third sensation was the one which threatened to drive her completely back inside the wall again; devastating loss and loneliness.

Raffi was there on the wall, blocking the way into that retreat.

- It is not the same, he said. I cannot explain further.

- Cannot?

- I apologise. May not. But it is vital for your part in the fulfilment of Shiannath's Quest that you do not retreat inside that wall. You will need access to all of your Awareness. There are patterns in place at this moment, in which you and the things that have happened over the past year are inextricably interwoven, which should not be interrupted.

- Why not? What would happen if they were? challenged Farinka immediately.

She felt Raffi's warm amusement - and approval.

- Ierreth is a good teacher. They would only have to be rebuilt again later; and the threads which may become available later would be no more likely, and indeed probably less likely, to resolve the patterns now in place. I feel your anger, laced with your loneliness, Little One. I understand your anger. I understand your resentment of being 'used'. But it was you yourself who made that promise, and that in itself is the reason for much of your anger.

- Yes; and I did know at the time that it was an 'open-ended bargain'. But it never occurred to me that it was a quest not based on that world, said Farinka quietly.

- I was not permitted to tell you its nature, Little One; though I did try. Sideways, if you like.

- You said that open-ended bargains have a habit of calling in things which I didn't even know I had offered. And yes, Raffi, I replied that I didn't think I had anything that I wouldn't give.

- And I did warn you that perhaps you didn't know what you had, replied Raffi. It was as much as I could get away with. You had total acceptance. You had a place - yourplace. You were surrounded by people whose very nature it is to accept that you belong completely and wholly to yourself. People who were steeped in Ierreth's Principles. People who were very different from most on your former world. Different from most, but not from all, Little One. Though your home world has forgotten its Elves and its unicorns, it still has people who are very much aware of principles which are very similar to Ierreth's, and not all of those people are of the Elven heritage.

- What sort of people, Raffi? I never met them.

- All sorts of people. The fact that you never met them is not relevant or important. They are there.

- And I have to find them? asked Farinka.

- Not necessarily. There are three ways of finding someone. The first is to go to them; the second is for them to come to you; the third is to meet them half way. Any, or any combination, will achieve a similar result. Many people have never met someone who shares in Ierreth's Principles. But many people have. There are things on your home world which you might not have believed in before you left it. Things which you, as most, 'take with a pinch of salt'. Sherath, even without going to your world, pointed out one such.

- The Bermuda Triangle, whispered Farinka, remembering. Is there another one, Raffi?

- Find out, said Raffi softly. Why take my word for it?

- You're not going to tell me, then.

- No. I am not. But you will find that almosteverything on your world, or that has happened on it, will be recorded or reported somewhere, though all records are written from the viewpoint and with the understanding of the recorder. The observer's view of the Wall. As Ierreth said, records have a way of surviving; and a surprising way of hiding, as well. For example, would you have said that there was at least one large cat, almost as large as Ierreth, living wild within a bus-ride of your childhood home?

- No, Raffi. I don't think I'd believe that one.

- Yet nearly a thousand people have reported seeing it, replied Raffi. Or them, he added. 'It' has been reported with several different size and coat colour variations. There are several such others - even in your home country. It's not likely that so many people, unknown to each other, could be so wrong in the same way. If you want to find the things that stay hidden from men, go and look in your Archives. The people in your world tend, as a rule, to have a common failing. They tend not to believe what they see as unscientific, unacceptable. Even when it stares them in the face, they tend not to see it unless it stares them in the face so publicly, and so many times, that they have to admit that it is there or look foolish by continuing to deny it. And even then, if they can get enough people to agree to look foolish together, to carry on denying it, they will continue to do so until it stamps on their toes. Their armour is arrogant obstinacy, their weapons ridicule and ostracization. They not only do not see the other parts of the Wall, they absolutely deny that the Wall can possibly have other parts.

- So what do I have to do? Challenge that? And how?asked Farinka.

- Sherath told you, last year, that he believes that your world, because of its legends, its myths, its folklore, did and therefore does have its Elves, its unicorns, its Power. He was right in that belief. Your own generic nature was not changed when you first came through the Mists, Farinka. What changed was your belief in your generic nature. You became able to fulfil your genetic potential, because your belief in that potential had changed. Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, you can achieve. The Power, the magic, on your home world is not dead, but sleeps. It sleeps because it is no longer believed. Your own belief in and use of it will start the awakening. What has to be challenged is not the ridiculers, but their mind-set, their paradigm of the world. They may have to be dragged to those other parts of the Wall, and they may be "kicking and screaming" while they are dragged. How you challenge that mind-set, that paradigm, is entirely your choice.

- I can do whatever I like? asked Farinka, beginning to smile.

- Within the constraints of Ierreth's Principles, you may do whatever you like, answered Raffi. It is the outcome that is important, not the method by which it is achieved, provided thatthat method is always within the constraints of Ierreth's Principles. You may not take that to imply that the end justifies the means. What was set was the Task alone, not the method. The method chosen is the independent choice of the ... thread ...in this part of the pattern.

- And the Task? asked Farinka.

- To reawaken the Power. It is not dead, but sleeps, answered Raffi.With the Power reawakened, it is possible to redress the balance between good and evil, though that is a Task for many, not one. To awaken the Awareness; to put in place the foundations. To challenge the mind-set.

- To make the ridiculers appear ridiculous? suggested Farinka.

- To do as Ierreth does. To make the ridiculers think, instead of assuming. You will have noticed, even in your short acquaintance with him, that Ierreth does not teach facts. What Ierreth teaches is Principles; acceptance that not all people view things the same way, and that their views may well be as valid as your own. Ierreth teaches reasoning, understanding, the power of perception, and the nature of true justice. He teaches you to understand the power of belief; both yours and others'; and the power of your own choices and decisions. What you have to do is to challenge their disbelief that there arepossibilities other than those which they currently describe as 'all possibilities'. To lay the foundations of the Wall. To give them again the line which was given to them once before, by one of your home world's great poets. 'There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamed of in your philosophy' - and to give it to them with a little more force. It is not their actions which need to be challenged, it is their beliefs. Their paradigm. Once their beliefs are changed, the actions will follow as the night the day. That much I can surely guarantee - the actions of all are based on their beliefs. You need only to change the paradigm to affect the actions which spring from it.

- Simple, said Farinka wryly.

- Yes, simple; but not necessarily easy, said Raffi.

- I can see it posing a few problems, said Farinka.

- May I suggest that you delete the word 'problem' from your mind, and replace it with the word 'challenge'? said Raffi. A 'problem' is by definition hard, drags you down. A 'challenge', on the other hand, is something to be met, and the search for the best of many ways to meet it is stimulating.

Farinka laughed. - What about the word 'lucky'?

- It's amazing how the world's luckiest people are often - but not always - those who don't give up when faced with a challenge, said Raffi. Quitters never win, and winners never quit. I'll quote you from another of your home world's poets: 'If you can make one heap of all your winnings, and risk it on one turn of pitch and toss, and lose, and start again at your beginnings, and never breathe a word about your loss...'. That is the essence of luck, or of winning. Anyone can build something once. It takes strength to lose it all, and then rebuild again. And again, if necessary. I suggest that you look up that particular poem. The poet's name was Kipling, and the poem encompasses several of Ierreth's Principles. Your home world is not devoid of the spirit of Ierreth.

- What of Sherath? The Quest was his before it was mine, said Farinka quietly.

- Sherath's future depends on his decisions. On the choices that he makes, said Raffi. It has been duly noted that an agreement was made with him in good faith; that, so far, he has not been called upon to honour that agreement, and by that token that the other side of that agreement has also not been met. But Sherath's future rests with Sherath himself. I cannot tell what choices he will make, or when he will make them. But he has tochoose, consciously to choose, and not just to be taken. As with all agreements, there were two sides. He offered to take on Shiannath's Quest, and his offer was allowed. Therefore the agreement includes the fact that he was, and is, allowed to take on that Quest. But the fact remains that I was only permitted to take you. I do not know why. I do not know everything, Little One. Only the Patterner sees all of the Wall, and knows the reasons why particular patterns form in particular ways. The ultimate Pattern does not fail; there are no failures, only alternative outcomes.

The purpose of Shiannath's Quest in the pattern was to set the foundations for the restoration of the balance between good and evil on your home world. And while that part of the pattern was delayed, by Shiannath's choice, the balance on his own world was upset. It was not a result of his choice; it was coincidental. But it was almost inevitable that, from that point, the balances on both worlds were intertwined. One cannot destroy evil without also destroying free will; and in the hierarchy of ultimate Principles, free will stands high. Both the unicorns and Sherath made that point, in their own ways.

In Moonwind's words to Tarke: Dominn gives everything, Little Sister. Even freedom of choice. Dominn does not permit slavery, even in the name of Good. The Evil One might enslave you - Dominn would never. The difference is in love. The Evil One feels no love for you as Dominn does. Those who follow Dominn do so by choice, not by force.

And in Sherath's words to Nishihra: A position of leadership or honour is a responsibility to be wielded for the benefit of those under that leadership, not a weapon to be used against them. Ultimately, a leader is followed by choice, not by force. Power should never go to a leader's head.

When the balance between good and evil is upset, the ability to choose good over evil is also reduced. The Evil One would enslave all, or almost all. Those who were not enslaved would be destroyed. It is the way of the Evil One, it has happened before. Almost, and more than once. The Evil One was one of us, but the Principle of free will made the choice to become evil an option, and the Evil One chose that path.

- So where do I go from here? asked Farinka. I presume back to my first world. I will not call it my home world, because I never felt at home there. I will not call it my own world, because it does not belong to me. I do not feel that I belong to it, either.

- You will return from the Mists to the world from which you were first brought, said Raffi. You will be returned to that world, as you were brought to the world from which I have just fetched you, in similar circumstances. When you were brought to this second world, you were left there as a 'Seeker', in circumstances in which tradition on that world demanded that you had to give no explanation of who you were, where you had come from, or where you were going. You will be returned to your first world in similar circumstances - and there are places where the traditions for the not-asking of questions are as strong.

- And how much time will have elapsed between my leaving and my returning? she asked.

- The time on both worlds is the same. You have been gone from your first world for about a year. However you choose to account for that lost year is your own choice.

The Mists began to thicken again around her.

- Before I go, Raffi, she said, may I ask one last question?

- What is your question?

- Has that first world already seen nuclear devastation; as I assume the second world has?

- Your answer to that question lies in the Archives of your first world.