Wellspring of Chaos

XXXV

The journey back into Brysta proper was far easier than their flight-except that Jeka had been right about the effect of so much fruit on Kharl, and that had slowed their travel. By late afternoon, they had reached the upper cross streets of Brysta. Kharl insisted on observing his cooperage from a distance. While there was no guard, and the proclamation had been taken down, it was boarded shut.

Somewhat later, they had reached the White Pony, where Jeka used some of Kharl’s coppers to buy them some fowl and bread. After eating, and visiting the fountain, they had made their way back to Jeka’s place. Along the way, Kharl had checked the harbor, but none of the vessels he knew had ported. There had also been no trace or sign of the white wizard, and that bothered Kharl almost as much as if the wizard and his men had been chasing Jeka.

Still…she could use the respite, and Kharl had no doubts that sooner or later the wizard would show up once more, although he had to admit to himself that he didn’t understand why he felt that way.

While Jeka dozed in her hidey-hole, in the space between the walls, under the inadequate roof, in the last light of day, Kharl leafed through the blackstaffer’s book, trying to find something that would give him some insight into what had happened with the wizard.

…the greater the effort to concentrate order within material objects, the greater the amount of free chaos within the world…

What in light was free chaos? He turned another few pages.

…all that is, everything that exists, is little more than the twisting of chaos in a shell of order, and the greater the complexity of those twistings, the more solid the object appears. A thumb of lead or gold may appear more solid than a feather or a flower, and may indeed overbalance the scales, yet there is no difference in the fashion in which they are constructed…

He kept turning the pages, reading a phrase here, a sentence there.

…the form of everything under the sun is determined by the amount of order and chaos and the way in which they are combined and intertwined…

After more than a glass of turning pages, he had found all too many incomprehensible phrases. He turned yet another page, stopping and rereading it.

Water is of both chaos and order, yet it is order, and represents order, for its structure overweighs its parts…

Kharl rubbed his forehead. How could water have parts? Water was. You could boil it or freeze it, and it changed to steam or ice, but it was still water. He took a deep breath and kept reading.

Because water is both order and of order, yet comprised of parts that are totally chaotic, it challenges chaos with the depth of its order. Truly a river people or a sea people must hold to order or they will be lost. Chaos fares best upon the dry land, and least in a steady rain or snowfall…

Rain or snow affected chaos? A faint smile crossed Kharl’s lips.

Even a fog will affect a chaos-wielder, but only those who are of the weaker sort. A steady rain is a patterned fall of ordered chaos. A raindrop is ordered, and the fall of each is unpatterned, chaotic, yet all raindrops falling together results in a pattern ordered by chaos, and that order can weaken or destroy many of the links of power created by those who wield chaos, as the fires of sun itself can weaken those who wield order, if they do not understand that the sun is a furnace of chaos…

The cooper blinked. What did the sun have to do with order and chaos? Like water, it was. It gave warmth and light, and how could those be of chaos? And the sun weakened order? The book implied that a chaos-wielder could affect the sun. How could that be? A wizard could no more affect the sun than…Kharl couldn’t think of a comparison.

After a time, the cooper closed the book and nodded to himself. He did have one answer, but more questions than ever.