Chapter 9 first quarter

It's raining again.Reyabai's wizard was on the verge of moving, thinking of a weather spell, just a slight spell that sent rain to the other side of the mountain.His bones were aching, and he was sorely longing for the sun to show his face, shine all over his skin and flesh, and dry him completely.Of course he could chant a pain-relieving spell, but that would only temporarily hide the pain at best, and there was no cure for the disease.Old bones need sun.The wizard did not move, standing at the door of the house, between the dark room and the open sky where the rain was passing through, hindering himself from reciting the spell, angry that he hindered himself, angry that he had to be hindered.

Duzao never cursed—the Son of Power didn't because it wasn't safe—but he cleared his throat with a coughing growl, like a bear.After a while, a thunderclap rolled down from the misty and misty Gongte mountain slope, echoed from north to south for a while, and disappeared in the misty forest. Du Zao thought, this thunder is a good omen, and the rain will stop soon.He pulled up his hood and walked out into the rain to feed the chickens. He checked the coop and found three eggs.Red Buka is incubating eggs and will hatch soon.He got pediculosis, became unkempt and exhausted.Du Zao said a few words about lice prevention, and reminded himself that the nest should be cleaned as soon as the chicks hatch.He went to the chicken coop, and Brown Buka, Little Gray, Long Legs, Pure White and King were huddled under the eaves, making generous and vehement remarks about the rain.

The wizard said to the chickens: "The rain will stop at noon." He fed the chickens and stepped back into the house wetly, holding three warm eggs.He liked to walk in the mud when he was a child, and he still remembers that he loved the coolness of the mud between his toes; now, he still likes to walk around barefoot, but he no longer likes the mud.It was sticky, and he hated having to bend over to clean his feet every time he entered the house.It didn't matter if the ground was mud before, but now, in order to prevent the damp and cold from penetrating into his bones, there is a wooden floor in the house, just like a lord, a businessman, and an archmage.It wasn't the wizard's own idea, but Silence came up from Gond Harbor last spring and laid a floor for the old house.The two had another dispute over this.It's been so long, he should have known that it's no use arguing with silence.

"I have stepped on the muddy ground for seventy-five years," Du Zao said at the time, "I will not die if I step on it for a few more years!" Silence naturally did not respond, allowing Du Zao to listen to his own words from beginning to end, feeling the stupidity in them. "Mud is easier to keep clean." Du Zao said, knowing that struggling is useless.True, a well-packed clay field just needs an occasional sweep and a little water to keep the dust from flying up, but it sounds just as stupid. "Who's going to lay the floor?" he asked, now grumbling.

He nodded silently, referring to himself. The boy was really a first-class workman, carpenter, cabinet builder, stoner, and roofer.This point was fully revealed when he was still studying under Du Zao and living on the mountain.His life in the rich homes of Gont Port hadn't made him clumsy either.He drove the old woman's ox cart, bought wood planks from the old Sixth Mill in Rui Yabai, laid them for the floor, and polished them the next day when the old mage went to the mud lake to collect herbs.When Du Zao came home, the floor was finished, glistening like a deep black lake. "Now I have to wash my feet every time I enter the house." He grumbled and walked in cautiously.The wood was so smooth it seemed soft to the bare feet. "It's like silk and satin. You can't do it in a day without a spell or two. Look at that cottage in the country with a palace floor! Well, it'll look great when the firelight shines on it when winter comes! Or I must get a rug now? How about a fine wool rug woven with gold thread?"

Smiling silently, I am very satisfied with my handwork. A few years ago, Silence appeared at Du Zao's house.Um, no, it must have been twenty or twenty-five years ago.It's been a while since now.He was really a child back then, with long legs, thick hair, slender face, firm mouth, and clear eyes. "What do you want?" asked the wizard, knowing exactly what the child wanted and what the others wanted, so he kept his eyes from meeting those clear eyes.He was a good teacher, Gont's best teacher, and he knew it, but he was tired of teaching and didn't want to have apprentices around him.Besides, he felt in danger.

"Study." The boy said softly. "To Roke," said the wizard.Boys wear shoes and a nice leather vest to pay for the boat, or earn money to go to college. "I've been there." Hearing this sentence, Du Zao looked up and down again.No cloak, no wand. "Failed? Driven away? Or escaped?" The boy shook his head at each question and closed his eyes.Mouth has long been closed.He stood there, concentrating, taking the pain, taking a deep breath, and looking the wizard straight in the eyes. "The things I'm good at are here, in Gont," he said, still in a whisper. "My master is Harley."

Upon hearing this, the wizard whose real name was Harley stood still like a boy, looking back until the boy lowered his eyes. Du Zao searched for the boy's real name in silence, and saw two things: a pine cone and the silent rune.He continued to search, and heard a real name in his mind, but he didn't say it. "I'm tired of teaching, talking," said Duzao. "I need silence. Is that okay for you?" The boy nods. "Then I will call you 'Silence'." The wizard said, "You can sleep in the corner under the west window. There is an old mattress in the cabin, take it to dry, and don't bring the mice in." Then he walked towards Gaoling Walking away angrily, angry at the child for coming, angry at himself for giving in.But it wasn't anger that made him palpitate.He strode forward--he could still walk in those days--the sea wind kept blowing and pushing him from the left, and the morning sun on the sea shone through the huge mountain shadow. Expert with power. "That kid is beyond their reach, isn't it? And will surpass me," he thought, smiling.Duzao is a peaceful person but doesn't mind a little danger in his life.

He stopped, feeling the soil under his feet.He was barefoot as usual.When he had learned his art at Roke he had worn shoes, but when he came home, to Gont, to Riaby, he took his wand and kicked off the shoes.He stood still, feeling the dust and rock of the cliff path beneath his feet, the cliff below him, and the roots of the island deeper, buried in darkness.In the dark, under the surface of the water, all the islands are connected one by one, becoming one.So said Ard his master, and so said Roke's master; but it was his island, and his rock, and his soil, from which came his witchcraft. "Here's what I'm good at," the boy said earlier, but it was beyond the realm of goodness.Perhaps Dulza could teach the boy something deeper than the Mastery, something he had learned here, in Gont, before going to Roke.

And the kid had to have a wizard's staff.Why did Nymore let him leave Roke without a wand, like an apprentice or a witch?Such power should not roam freely, without channeling or signalling. A professional does not have a witch's staff, Du Zao thought, and at the same time thought, this child wants to get a witch's staff from me.Gont's oak, from the hand of the Gont wizard.Well, if he achieves something, I'll make him a branch; if he keeps his mouth shut, I'll leave him with the Wisdom Book - if he can clean the chicken coop, understand the Danimo Commentary, and keep his mouth shut .

The new students had cleaned the chicken coop, dug the bean beds, learned the meaning of the Danimo Commentary and the Isles of Enlad, and kept their mouths shut.He knows how to listen; he hears what Du Zao says, and sometimes hears what Du Zao thinks; he fulfills Du Zao's wish, and also fulfills Du Zao's unconscious wish.His talent was far beyond what Du Zao could guide, but he was right to come to Ri Yabai, both of them understood. During those years, Du Zao sometimes thought of father and son.He chose Ard as his teacher, and for this he had a big fight with his father, who was a prospector.The father yelled that Arder's student was not his son, and he was always angry, and he refused to understand until his death. Duzao has seen young people weep with joy at the birth of their firstborn son; seen poor people pay witches a year's salary to ensure healthy boys; and seen rich people touch the face of a baby in gold and silver and whisper lovingly: "My eternity! He has seen men beat their sons, threaten and humiliate them, make things difficult for them, and resent the death they see in their sons; he has seen the resentment, threats, and ruthless contempt in the son's eyes.After seeing everything, Du Zao understood why he never sought reconciliation with his father. He has seen father and son working together from dawn to sunset, the old man pulling the blind cattle, and the middle-aged man pushing the iron plow. Although no words were exchanged, when returning home, the old man put his hand on his son's shoulder temporarily. He always remembers that scene.On winter nights, across the fire, he saw the silent dark face bent over a book of wisdom or a shirt in need of mending, eyes downcast, mouth closed, soul listening, and he remembered that sight again. "If you're lucky, a wizard will find someone to talk to in his life." Ni Moore said to Du Zao one or two nights before he left Roke.Ni Moore used to be the master of Xingyi, and was elected as the archmage one or two years later. He is the most charitable of Du Zao's masters in the academy. "Herley, I think if you stay we can talk." Du Zao was completely unable to respond for a moment.Finally, he stammered and said: "Master, I am willing to stay, but my career is in Gont. I hope to be here, to be with you..." On the one hand, he blamed himself for his ingratitude and stubbornness, puzzled. "It's a rare gift to know where you need to be, without having to run around vainly looking. Well, send me a student once in a while. Roke needs Gont sorcery, and I think we're missing something here, Something worth knowing about..." Du Zao once sent students to the academy, there were about three or four of them, all of them were good young men, each with talent; the people Ni Moore waited for came and went on their own, Du Zao knew nothing about Roke's evaluation of him.Silence certainly didn't say anything.Apparently, in his two or three years at Roke he learned some things that boys never learned in six or seven years, or even in their entire lives.For him, that's just the basics. "Why don't you come to me first, and then go to Roke for improvement?" Du Zao asked. "I don't want to waste your time." "Does Ni Moore know that you are coming to follow me?" He shook his head silently. "If you are willing to open your mouth and tell him your intentions, he may send me a message." Silence looked shocked and remorseful. "Is Ni Moore your friend?" Duzao paused. "He was my master. If I had stayed on Roke, perhaps, he would have been my friend. Do wizards have friends? Perhaps as impossible as having wives and children... He told me once that in our place Yixing, if you can find someone to talk to, you are a lucky person... Remember this. If you are lucky, one day you will have to speak." He bowed his head in silence, his unkempt head thoughtful. "If it's not too rusty to open your mouth." Du Zao added. "If you ask, I will speak." The young man said seriously, willing to go against his nature and obey Du Zao's request.The wizard had to laugh out loud. "I'm asking you not to talk, and I'm not talking about my needs. What I say is worth two people. It's okay, you'll know what to say when the time comes. That's the art, isn't it? while the rest are silent." The young man slept on a mattress under the Xiaoxi window of Du Zao's house for three years.He learns witchcraft, feeds chickens, and milks cows.He once suggested that Du Zao raise sheep, but he hadn't said anything for about a week before that, in the cold and wet autumn."You can have a couple of goats," he said. Du Zao has spread out the Great Wisdom Codex on the table, and is trying to reweave an Akastan mantra that was destroyed by "Fang Duo Sanli" hundreds of years ago.He was just beginning to feel that some words might fill one of the gaps, and the answer was ready, and then, silently, said, "You can keep some goats." Du Zao considers himself talkative, irritable and irritable.In youth not to curse was a heavy burden; for thirty years the follies of apprentices, customers, cattle, and chickens had severely tested him.Apprentices and customers are afraid of his sharp tongue, and cows and chickens are as good as his scolding.He had never lost his temper with silence before.There was a long silence. "do what?" Mo Mo obviously didn't notice that silence, or Du Zao's extremely soft tone. "Goat's milk, cheese, roast lamb, company." "Have you ever raised goats?" Du Zao asked in the same soft and polite voice. Ji Mo shook his head. Silence is actually a city kid, born in Gont Port.He never mentioned anything about himself, but Du Zao asked around to hear some.His father was a dock porter who died in a big earthquake when he was seven or eight years old, and his mother was a cook in a hotel by the harbor.At the age of twelve, the boy got into some kind of trouble, probably related to indiscriminate magic, and his mother managed to get him to study with Irason, a well-known sorcerer in Dale Estuary.Somehow the boy got his real name there, and some carpentry and farming skills, and Irathan was generous enough to pay for his boat to Roke three years later.That's all Duzao knows. "I hate goat cheese," Duza said. Nodding silently, accepting as usual. In the next few years, every once in a while, Du Zao would think of how he restrained his emotions when he silently asked to raise a goat. This memory brought him a silent sense of satisfaction every time, as if eating the last bite of a perfectly ripe peach . After spending years trying to recover the lost words, he made Silence study the Acastan spells.The two finally worked together, a long and drudgery job. "It's like a blind cow plowing the field." Du Zao said. Soon he gave Silence the wizard's staff, which he had fashioned for Silence out of Gont oak. At this time, the lord of Gont Port tried again to ask Du Zao to come down to finish the work that Gont Port needed.Duzao instead sent Silent to go, and Silent has remained there ever since. So Du Zao stood in front of his house, holding three eggs in his hands, and the rain ran down his back coldly. How long has he been standing here?Why is he standing here?He was thinking about the mud, the floor, the silence.Has he ever walked the path on the High Hill?No, that was many, many years ago, under the sun.It's raining now.After feeding the chickens, he returned to the house with three eggs. The silky, brown and lukewarm eggs were still warm in the palm of his hand. The sound of thunder was still in his mind, and the sound of thunder vibrated in his bones and at the soles of his feet.thunder? wrong.It's been thundered before.It's not thunder.He had this strange feeling before, and didn't recognize it, when... when?A long time ago, longer than the days and months and years he had just recalled.when?When does it happen? ...just before the big earthquake.Just before half a mile of the coast of Azsari sank into the sea, people were crushed to death by the toppled houses of their villages, and waves flooded the wharves of Gond Harbor. He walked down the doorstep and stepped onto the mud so he could feel the ground with his heel nerves, but the mud was slippery and muddied the messages the ground was sending him.He put the eggs on the steps, sat by himself, washed his feet with the rainwater accumulated in the small earthen pot beside the steps, dried them with the rags hanging on the handle of the earthen pots, washed and wrung the rags, hung them back Picking up the handle of the crock pot, he picked up the egg, stood up slowly, and walked into the house. He glanced keenly at the wizard's staff, which was leaning against the back corner of the door.He put the eggs in the cupboard, swallowed an apple quickly out of hunger, and picked up the wand.The wand was made of yew, with a copper back and a polished handle.Nemo gave him. "Stand up," he said to it in its language, and let go.The witch's staff stood as if inserted into a groove. "Go to the roots." He said impatiently in the language of creation, "Go to the roots!" He looked at the wand standing upright on the shiny floor, and then saw the wand tremble very slightly, a jerk, a quiver. "Ah, ah, ah," said the old wizard. "What should I do?" After a while, he asked loudly. The wand swayed, stopped, and trembled again. "It's all right, dear." Du Zao said, stroking the stick with his hand. "Okay. No wonder I've been thinking about silence. I should have called him...should have sent him a message...no. What did Ard say? Find the center, find the center. That's the problem, that's the solution The method..." He muttered to himself, pulled out his heavy cloak, and boiled water on the small fire that he had lit before, while wondering whether he had always talked to himself, whether he kept talking when he lived with silence.No, he thought, this is a habit developed after Silence left, a little brain to think about daily life, and the rest is used to prevent terror and destruction. He boiled three new eggs and an old one in the cupboard, and put them in his waist pocket, along with four apples and a capsule of resin-infused wine, in case he had to be out all night.With pain in his joints, he put on a heavy cloak, picked up the witch's staff, ordered the fire to be extinguished, and left. He has long since given up cows.He stopped, looked at the chicken coop, and thought.The fox had been visiting the orchard a lot lately, but if he didn't come back, the chickens had to forage for themselves, and they had to take risks like everyone else.He opened the bars slightly.Although there is only a misty drizzle left, the chickens are still huddled together under the roof of the chicken coop, unhappy.The king has not crowed all morning. "Is there anything you want to tell me?" Du Zao asked. His favorite brown buka wobbled and said his real name a few times.The other chickens didn't speak. "Okay, take care. I saw a fox on a full moon night." Du Zao finished speaking and continued on the road. As he walked, he thought, tried to think, and recalled carefully.He tried to recall what his master had said long ago.Strange things, so strange that he couldn't tell if they were real witchcraft, or just witches' tricks, as the Roke said.It was all things he had never heard of at Roke, nor had he ever spoken of it at Roke—perhaps fearing his Master would despise him for taking such things seriously, or perhaps knowing they could not understand; The truth of the truth, these things have not even been written into the wisdom book in the hands of Ard. This book was passed down by the great mage Anas of Perogao Island, and it has been passed down word of mouth. "If you need to read the mountains," the master told him, "go to the black pool at the top of Semel Ranch. You can see the road from there. You have to find the center and see where to go in." "Go in?" the boy Du Zao asked in a low voice. "What can you do outside?" Du Zao was silent for a long time before asking: "How to get in?" "Like this." Ard stretched his slender arms up high, and began to recite the grand and profound law of transformation that Du Zao would not understand until later.Ard distorted the pronunciation of the incantations--as all witchcraft teachers must do, otherwise the incantations would start to work, and Duzao knew the trick of hearing and memorizing them correctly.After Arder finished speaking, Du Zao recited these words silently in his mind, half-gesturing the strange and clumsy gestures that came with him.Suddenly, his hand stopped. "But it can't be undone!" he said aloud. Ard nodded: "This cannot be undone." Du Zao understands that there are no transformations that cannot be undone, and no spells that cannot be undone—except for the unbinding spell, which can only be said once. "but why……" "Because it's necessary," Ard said. Du Zao knew that it would be futile to ask for an explanation at this time.It is impossible for this mantra to be recited frequently, and the chance of having to use it is very low.He let this dreadful incantation dwell in his mind, buried under a thousand spells and incantations that were useful, beautiful, or enlightening, under all the lore of Roke, the laws, all the book-wisdom of the Ared heritage.Crude, misshapen, and useless incantations had been lurking in the dark recesses of his mind for sixty years, like a long-forgotten cornerstone at the bottom of a cellar under a brightly lit mansion full of treasures and descendants. The heavy rain has stopped, but the white mist still hides the mountain peaks, and patches of white clouds float among the towering forests.Although Du Zao is not like Hu Mu is an indefatigable hiker who would rather spend his whole life roaming in the forests of Mount Gont, but he is still a child of Reyabai, and he knows the nearby paths well.He took a shortcut at Lehi's Well and arrived at the mountainside platform of Semel Alpine Pasture before noon.A mile away from the mountain, the farmhouse bathed in the sun stands on the lee side of the mountain, and the sheep move like the shadow of the cloud.The port and bay of Gont were hidden behind steep, tangled hills that lay inland from the city. Du Zao wandered around for a while before discovering what he believed to be Heichi's location.It was very narrow there, half mud and reeds, and there was a vague path leading to the water's edge, which had been covered by swamps, and there was no one there except sheep's feet.Although the pool water is rippling under the clear sky and far away from the peaty soil layer, it is very dark.As he walked along the Yotei trail, his feet slipped in the mud, and he tried to avoid a fall, but sprained his ankle.He growled, stood still by the water's edge, bent over to massage his ankle, and listened. Everything was silent. No wind.No birdsong.There are no sounds of cattle, sheep, or people in the distance.The whole island seemed to be silent, not even a fly buzzing. He looked at the dark pool of water.There is no reflection. Reluctantly, he took a step forward, barefoot and barelegged.An hour ago, when the sun appeared, he had rolled up his cloak and put it in his backpack.The reeds scratched his legs, the wet mud under his feet was soft and deep, and the roots of the reeds were intertwined all over.He didn't make a sound, and slowly moved towards the pool, only causing gentle and small ripples.The water in the pool was always very shallow, and he didn't stop until he couldn't reach the bottom with his cautious steps. The water trembled.He felt first a furry slap on his thigh, then saw a shiver spread all over the surface of the pool.Not a circular ripple he caused, that was long gone; but a wrinkle, a bump, a quiver, again and again. "Where?" he whispered, and spoke the word in a language that everything without another language could understand. There is only silence.Then a fish jumped out of the dark and swaying water. It was gray in color and as long as a palm. When it jumped up, it called out in a small and clear voice in the same language: "Yafd!" The old wizard stands.He recalled the real name of Gont that he knew well, brought every hillside, cliff, and valley into his mind, and saw where Yavd was in an instant.That's where the ridge splits, just inland not far from Gont Harbor, buried deep in the hills tied to the city.That's the fault.An earthquake centered there can shake the entire city apart, attract landslides and waves, and close the cliffs on both sides of the bay like clapping hands.Du Zao trembled and shuddered like a pool of water. He turned and walked towards the shore, in a hurry, not caring where his feet landed, or whether the clattering and heavy breathing broke the silence.He staggered back to the path, through the reeds, until he was on dry land and short, rough grass, and he heard the buzzing of gnats and crickets, and he sat down heavily, his legs trembling. "No," he said, talking to himself in the Hittite language, "I can't do it," adding, "I can't do it alone." He was in a turmoil, and when he decided to call for silence, he couldn't remember the beginning of the spell, which he had memorized for sixty years!When he thought he remembered, he recited the summoning spell instead, and when the spell took effect, he realized that he had done something good, stopped quickly, and lifted the spell word by word. He pulled up a handful of grass and wiped the mud on his feet and legs.The mud hadn't dried yet, but it was all over the skin. "I hate mud," he whispered.Then he gritted his teeth and stopped trying to wipe his legs clean. "Mud, dirt," he said, gently patting the ground on which he sat.Then, very slowly, very carefully, start chanting the invocation mantra. On the street leading to the busy docks of Gont Port, the wizard Ogion stopped suddenly.The captain beside him continued to move forward a few steps before he turned and saw Ogion speaking into the air. "Sir, of course I will!" said Ogion, and after a short pause, "How soon?" Then he spoke a few words to the air, and made a gesture in some language the captain could not understand, It made the surrounding sky suddenly darken for a moment. "Captain, I'm sorry, but I have to cast a spell on your sails later. There's an earthquake coming, and I have to warn the whole city. Please tell all ships over there who can sail, and sail out to sea at once. Stay away from the Xiongwu Shuangya! Good luck to you." Ogion turned and ran down the street, the tall, grey-haired man running like a stag now. Gont Harbor is located at the bottom of a long and narrow bay between the steep coasts. The sea-facing entrance is between two large headlands, which are the gates of the harbor.The people of Gont Port are safe from pirates, but where there is safety there is also danger: the narrow bay follows a fault in the ground, and its wide jaws may close. Ogion tried his best to warn the people in the city, and confirmed that the guards at the city gate and the port were trying their best to maintain the order of several external roads, so as to prevent accidents from being blocked by the panicked people. After that, he locked himself in the port signal tower, because everyone wanted to Find him immediately.He sent the teleportation to the black pool in the pastures of Semel on the hill. The master chef was sitting on the grass by the pool, eating apples, eggshell fragments scattered on the ground beside his legs, which were covered with drying mud.He looked up to see Ogion's portrait, and smiled sweetly.But he looks old.He has never looked so old.Ogion hadn't seen him for more than a year because of his busy schedule.Ogion has always been busy in Gont Port, busy working for the lord and the people, and has no time to go for a walk in the forest by the mountain, or to sit, listen, and settle with Herley in the hut of Reyabai.Hurley was an old man, nearly eighty now, and he was frightened.He smiled with joy at the sight of Ogion, but he was afraid. "I think what we're going to do," Herley said bluntly, "is try to keep the fault from slipping too far. You're at the Harbor Gate, I'm at the bottom, in the mountains. You know? Two people working together. Maybe we can do it .I feel it picking up momentum, do you feel it?" Ogion shook his head and made the figure sit down in the grass near Herey without bending the stalk it stepped or sat on. "I didn't do anything but panic the town and send the boats out of the bay," he said. "What do you feel? How do you feel it?" These are mage-to-mage technical issues.Harley hesitated and answered. "I learned this from Arder," he said, pausing again. Hare never spoke to Ogion of his first master, a sorcerer not even known in Gont, and possibly notorious.Ogion knew only that Ard had never been to Roke, but had been trained on the Isle of Peregau, and that some mystery or shame had tainted the name.Though Haley was talkative for a wizard, he was as silent as a stone on certain matters.Therefore respect the silent Ogion, and never ask the teacher. "It's not Roke's magic," said the old man, his voice deliberately flat. "But it's not against the balance. It's not sticky." He used it consistently to describe evil deeds, self-serving spells, curses, black magic—"things that stick to the hand." After a while, searching for words, he continued, "Earth. Stone. This is earth magic. Ancient, very old. As old as Gont." "Swire?" Ogion murmured. "I'm not sure," Hurley said. "Will it control the land?" "I think it's more like entering the ground, inside." The old man buried the apple core and a large piece of eggshell in the soft soil, and then patted it neatly. "Of course I know the words, but I have to learn by doing. That's the trouble with big spells, isn't it? You can only learn by doing, you don't get a chance to practice." He looked up, "Ah... here it comes !Did you feel it?" Ogion shook his head. "Turning on," said Herley, still patting the ground involuntarily, like patting a frightened cow. "I think it's coming soon. Boy, can you keep the sea door wide open?" "Tell me what you're going to do..." But Hurley shook his head. "No," he said, "no time. You can't do it." Whatever he felt in the ground or in the air, he was more and more disturbed by it.Through him, too, Ogion felt the unbearable tension of gathering. The two sat without talking to each other.After the crisis passed, Herley relaxed a little, and even smiled: "What I'm going to do later is something very old. I wish I had thought about it before and passed it on to you. But it seems a bit rough and not flexible enough... She It didn’t say where she got it from. Of course it’s from here... After all, there are many kinds of knowledge.” "she?" "Ard. My master." Herley raised his head, with a puzzled expression on his face, perhaps a little narrow-minded. "Don't you know? Yes, I don't think I mentioned it. I've often wondered what her being a woman has done to her witchcraft, or what my being a man has done to mine... I think the important thing is whose house we live in, who we let in, that sort of thing... Here it comes! Here it goes again..." Herley's sudden nervousness, tense face and restrained expression resembled the appearance of a pregnant woman during uterine contraction. Ogian thought so, and even asked, "What do you mean by 'in the mountains'?" When the convulsions passed, Haley replied, "Inside. In Yavud." He pointed to the massed mountains below them. "I'll go in and figure out how to keep things from slipping around, huh? I know what to do as I do it, for sure. I think it's time for you to go back into yourself too, and it's getting tense." He again He paused, curled up and contracted as if in great pain.He struggled to stand up.Without thinking, Ogion held out his hand to help him. "It's no use." The old wizard grinned. "You're just wind and sunshine. Now I'm going to be a block of dirt and stone. You better go. Farewell, Ahar. Mouth... mouth open, just once, eh ?” Ogion obeyed his master, and returned to his stuffy, brocade room in Gont Port, and entered himself.He didn't understand the old man's joke until he turned to the window and saw the majestic twin cliffs at the end of Long Bay, the jaws preparing to snap together. "I will," he said, and began. "You see, I've got to do it," said the old wizard, still talking to Hush, and it was reassuring to talk to him even when Hush wasn't around. "To the inside of the mountain, the innermost part, but not like a prospector, not just sliding into things to observe and taste. Go deeper. Go all the way. Not into the blood vessels, but into the bones. Good." So, at noon, Hurley Under the light, I stood alone in the alpine pasture, spread my arms, made a gesture of blessing to open all the grand mantras, and began to recite. When he recited the words Ard taught him, there was no movement.His old witch mentor, with bitter lips and long, thin arms.The words that were distorted and recited at that time are recited according to their true appearance now. Nothing happened.He still had time to regret the sun and the sea breeze, to doubt the spell, to doubt himself, before the earth bulged around him, dry, warm, and dark. inside.He knew he should press on.The bones of the earth ached to move, he had to be bone to guide, but there was no rush.He is experiencing the confusion after transformation.He had been a fox, a bull, a dragonfly in his heyday and knew what it was like to change lives, but this time was different, this slow expansion.I'm expanding, he thought. He reached out to Yavud, to the aches, pains.He gradually approached, feeling a strong force from the west, as if silence had finally grasped his hand.Through this connection, he can send his own power, the power of the mountain, to assist.I didn't tell him I wasn't going back, Haley thought.These are his last words in Hirth, his last mourning, for he is now in the Mountain Bone.He knew the arteries of fire, the beating of a great heart.He knows what to do.He's not speaking human language: "Quiet, relax. Okay, okay. Hold on. Yes, okay. We can relax now." And he relaxes, he stays still, he braces.Stone within stone, earth within earth, in the fiery dark place in the mountains. What the islanders saw was their mage Ogion standing alone on the top of the signal tower by the pier, the streets were rushing up and down in the waves, the stone pavements were cracked, the clay brick walls were crumbled into powder, and the majestic cliffs leaned on each other and groaned.What they saw was Ogion's hands reaching out, pulling, separating, and the cliff parting with it, standing upright, motionless as a mountain.The whole city trembled and stood still.It was Ogion who stopped the earthquake.They saw it with their own eyes and spoke it with their own mouth. "The master was with me, and his master was with him." When the people praised Ogion, he said, "I can keep the sea gate open because he has fixed the mountain." They praised him for his humility, but did not listen to him.Listening is a rare gift, and people make their own heroes. Order was restored to the city again, and the ships returned, and the walls were rebuilt, and Ogion fled from the praises into the hills above the port of Gont.He found that strange little valley--the one called the Valley of the Trimmers, whose real name was Arfd in the Genesis tongue, as Ogion's real name was Ahar.He walked around there all day, seemingly looking for something.As night came, he lay down and spoke to the ground, "You should have told me. I can still say goodbye." Then he wept, and his tears dripped on the dry dust between the grass stalks, forming little bits of slime, little slimy spots of mud. He sleeps on the spot, with no mattress or blanket between him and the earth.At sunrise he arose and walked up the road to Riabai.He didn't go into the village, just passed it, and continued on to the house at the beginning of the Gaoling, isolated to the north from the rest of the houses.The door was open. The last beans grew big and rough on the vines, and the cabbages grew stronger.Three hens came clucking and pecking around the dusty front yard: one red, one brown, one white, and the gray hen was brooding in the henhouse.There were no chicks, and no sign of a rooster—Herrey called him "the king."The king is dead, thought Ogion.Perhaps a chick hatched at this moment to take its place.He thought he caught a whiff of fox coming from the small orchard behind the house. Dust and fallen leaves blow in through the open door and settle on the smooth wooden floor.He swept out the dust and leaves, and put Herley's mattress and blankets in the sun to air out. "I'm going to live here for a while." He thought, "This is a nice house." After a while, he thought, "I might have some goats."