In chapter 18 we go from Princess Elega to Geraden to Artagel to Adept Havelock. Funny how misleading the chapter's title is-once again SRD manages to cram an amazing amout of information into a tiny space. Most chapters in the second part of TMOHD are pretty jammed packed-but this one is especially important. Here Elega and Prince Kragen's relationship and plots are fleshed out and become real as she attempts to enlist Terisa to their side. She tells Terisa that she is affecting things in ways she didn't know possible. Indeed, Terisa is beginning to become fully "real" to herself and others in chapter 18-and some folks might say, "Finally!"
Terisa is exerting power and changing events in Orison (even though she has no idea how) as much if not more than Elega. The next morning, massively hungover and disturbed by these turn of events, she lets Geraden into her suite and they talk about a number of things. Terisa and Geraden later go on to try to test her powers as an Imager and she (and we) learn more about mirrors, the Congery, arch-Imagers and the swordsmen that attacked Terisa and Prince Kragen than we ever have before. I'm the type of "read lead" that doesn't really use alot of quotes and tries not to run on, but this chapter is so important to the entire story that I have to. The explanations of how mirrors, Orison, Mordant and it's two neighboring countries work are essential to understanding the story, and in retrospect the foreshadowing, here, is incredible.
Geraden visits Terisa the "morning after" and starts apologizing for everything under the sun-and Terisa threatens to kick him if he "...apologizes more than once a day." They talk about her visit to Master Eremis and Terisa tells Geraden that Eremis wants her to spy on him. They talk about what happened after he was dismissed from King Joyse's chambers and Terisa dismisses it as 'hop-board' talk and can't bare to tell him that she believes Joyse is destroying Mordant on purpose, or of the number of enemies Master Quillon believes Geraden has. In fact that and some of Eremis' postulations re: Geraden's "hidden powers" make Terisa's common sense begin to waver, so she resolves to watch his actions closely.
Then they talk about Elega's visit and Terisa tells him about the plot against King Joyse, and Geraden makes a very interesting observation,
Thinking it's usless to tell Joyse about it and probably a bad ideal to involve Castellan Lebbick, they decide to approach Argus and Ribuld about keeping a clandestine eye on Elega."That always worried me about her," he murmered, brooding. "I've always had the feeling she was more interested in what kings are than what they do. More interested in the power than in what the power is for. She might be capable of some pretty unscrupulous decisions."
Interspered in the conversation are a number of funny moments and Terisa and Geraden begin to get back to where they where with each other-I'd still like to know what Geraden thought when Terisa said she was so hungover her head felt like a football. "What in the heck is a football?" And when they crack heads and almost kiss. Why she feels torn between Eremis and him is beyond me...maybe SRD is really getting into the female mind and sparking "the bad-boy" question... In anycase the bud of her feelings for Geraden are apparent here and her desires, period, make her grow that much more "real" to us.
SRD then takes that to to an even higher level as Terisa and Geraden begin taking about imaging, mirrors and the attack in the corridor. Geraden feels that Terisa has more power than she knows and wants to begin exploring that. He wants to take her back to the point of translation to see if she can feel anything. Before they do that Terisa harkens back to her talk before the incident with Prince Kragen and asks Geraden what an arch-Imager is. Here Geraden reveals information essential to understanding the mechanics of mirrors and imagers for the rest of the story,
Geraden then goes on to wonder why the flat mirrors in Terisa's apartment didn't effect him, the difference between her world and his and the possibility that she may be the most powerful Imager to ever set foot in Mordant's world. He tells her that the ability to become an arch-Imager is a talent you are born with, as opposed to skill. Adept is the highest title in the skill category. Havelock earned the title because he was better at translating and better at using other peoples mirrors."An arch-Imager is someone who has mastered what we consider the apex of translation--the ability to pass saftely through flat glass. As far as we know, only one man has ever done it--the arch-Imager Vagel.
"In theory, the difficulty is that translation changes whatever it touches. When the translation involves a passage between separate worlds--or, if Master Eremis is right"--he grimaced--"between our world and Images which are known not to exist in our world--the changes are appropriate. For instance they solve the problem of language and breathing. But when you pass through a flat glass, you don't actually go anywhere. I mean you move from place to place, but you stay in the same world. So you don't need to be changed. But you are anyway." He looked down at his hands. "It made Adept Havelock mad."
"theoretically, if you looked into a flat mirror that showed you to yourself--in other words, a mirror that was focused on the exact spot you were standing, so that you were also in the Image looking out at yourself--you would go into a kind of translation cycle, passing simultaneously back and forth between yourself and your Image, changing literally without going anywhere. Probably nobody who looked at you would be able to see the difference. But your mind would be gone. Not just mad. Taken away."
Artagel had discovered a sigil among the fallen swordmen that attacked Terisa and Prince Kragen in the corridor. The sigil proved they were Apts of the High King's Monomach and came from Cadwal. The Perdon and Prince Kragen deduced that because of that Vagel (who many thought dead) must be involved with the translation and still in league with Festen. But how could these men pass through flat glass if they're not arch-Imagers? Geraden attempts to answer that question by telling Terisa a theory of his that he's mulled over for years. It involes shaping a flat mirror's focus where you need it to be-and then translating that mirror into a normal one showing an inactive place,
If this was what really happened then it implicates Master Gilbur is working with Vagel and exhonerates not only Geraden but Eremis as well. Geraden also goes on to theorize that another Imaging talent might be knowing you are in a mirror's focus and wonders if Terisa can do it. To test these theories they enlist the aid af Artagel who guides them back to spot of the translation. Shunning light Terisa approaches the spot when suddenly"...and position it so that it fills as much of the Image as possible. And then, if the first mirror hasn't changed--and if it's actually possible to work two translations almost simultaneously--you might be able to pass through and keep your mind in one piece."
He grinned. "Ingenious, don't you think?"
"Yes." Actually, she thought it was more than ingenious: she thought it was brilliant. But some of the implications--"It would take two people wouldn't it? One to translate the other?"
"Not to go. But it would to come back. That's true of any translation."
Then Zombies step through the wall and when Geraden throws them down, or Artagel cuts them, monstrous coackroaches pour out of them and they go after Terisa is if they have her scent. Artagel fights them as she and Geraden try to run away--they can't, Geraden throws lamps on them and they burst into flames but the smoke almost kills them and Artagel goes down....a touch of cold as thin as a feather and as sharp as steel slid straight through the center of her abdomen.
Havelock, who had been watching that spot since the intial incident, appears out of nowhere and rescues them. Geraden picks up Artagel and Havelock guides them into the inner reaches of Orision: past the nexus of all the secret passages, through a room full of confiscated mirrors no one knows about and into Havelock's hidden apartments. Luckily for them Havelock is having a "lucid" period and prepares a balm for Artagel. Havelock says he's seen these creatures before as part of Festen's Imaging Cabal in Carmag years ago and that they would have infected and bred inside thousands of people in Orision if they hadn't stopped them. He knows Vagel has big plans for that spot and has been watching it constantly.
Havelock verifies that the "man in black" (who got away with Gilbur in the sword attack) was Gart, The High King's Monomach and tells Terisa a story of an Augury he threw as Joyse was being born and he was "pet" Imager of a despot Cadwal ruling Orison. Two of the more interesting things it showed-in hindsight -was Joyse becoming king after a gaping hole is ripped through the side of Orision and a vision of Myste begging the Champion not to kill her.
After Artagel begins to recover and Terisa is back in her rooms Saddith tells her that the incidents in the corridor have become public knowledge, that Orison has been attacked by Imagery and that Master Eremis has been released from the dungeon.
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