"And you think this gives you some sway over me?"

"No, but I hoped that it might influence you." Ildacer hesitated. "If only a little."

Reefglamor waved a hand at him. A few minutes of the junior mage's prattle wouldn't mean much in the scheme of dangers that faced them. "Speak, but cogently and with brevity, and always with respect in mind. I lack even more patience than usual."

"Thank you, Senior. I believe you should rethink your decision to try to summon a vision about the Ravager. We've gone all these centuries without success in that regard."

"I've never before attempted it," Reefglamor pointed out. However, he hadn't with good reason. It was only the great danger he felt now that prompted him to make this decision.

"But others have," Ildacer hurried on. "Six that I can think of. Four were driven mad. One slew himself, and the final one was drawn into a gate that had never existed before or ever existed afterward. There have been no successes connected with attempting to learn more of the Ravager. It was those attempts that brought the number of High Mages so dangerously low in these past years."

Reefglamor considered the younger man's words. They carried only the truth. He spoke softly, persuasive instead of demanding for the first time in centuries. "The Time of Tempering is upon us. We've done as much as we can do in every other avenue we've had open to us. There lies ahead only this way."

"But you've outlawed this spell's use against the Ravager."

"Yes."

Ildacer appeared surprised. "You made the law."

"So it's only just that I break it." Reefglamor paused. "No one else had better dare."

Shaking his head in regret, Ildacer settled back in his chair and reached for the wine bladder on the table. He drank from it quickly, glancing out the cut crystal window that overlooked Sylkiir.

Reefglamor followed the other mage's gaze. Most of the homes glowed with the luminescent lichens. Though only two hundred feet below the Sea of Fallen Stars, not much light got through to the depths, and when night fell even elven vision didn't help much.

His house was built on the side of the hill overlooking the underwater valley where the city had been built. From there he could see the twisted coral spires of Deep Sashelas's temple where he'd spent so much of his life. He'd designed the god's temple, and helped shape the magics that had encouraged the coral growth that created the structure. Long-bodied fish and other sea creatures traversed the currents throughout the city, but no predators that would dare attack the sea elves finned through those depths. Sylkiir had been well warded against those.

"Do you remember how long it took us to grow the temple?" Reefglamor asked.

"Centuries," Ildacer answered. "And I remember all the hard work that went into the construction of it, all the mistakes that we made till we had it exactly right."

"It's beautiful."

"Yes."

"Yet," Reefglamor said, "the Ravager could come among us and destroy it in heartbeats. Nothing would stand to show the strength of our worship of Deep Sashelas. I find that intolerable."

"As do I."

"The Ravager's free again." Reefglamor looked back at the younger man. "You and I have both known it since we heard of the attack on Laakos' Reef in the Shining Sea nine years ago." The attack had taken place fourteen years ago, but the story of it hadn't reached Selu'Maraar and Sylkiir till five years later.

"That could have been a tale made up by the mermen," Ildacer objected. "An undersea quake, or perhaps they hadn't built their reef as well as they thought they had."

"The mermen went from there to Waterdeep," Reefglamor said.

"You never told me that."

Reefglamor knew the other mage was little surprised by that. He told his juniors only what he felt they needed to know when they needed to know it. "I only found out these past few days from a merman called Thraxos, who has his own mission here in Seros. A merman shaman named Narros sent him here to bring the message to me, but this Thraxos's journey was a dangerous one and he had to depend on a human girl to get the word to me. Remember, even our legends of the Ravager, handed down by Deep Sashelas, say that the mermen will be the first to discover the Taleweaver, the human singer who will unite the histories of the world above and world below. The one who will find the way into that which was lost to us."

"The City of Destinies," Ildacer whispered reverently.

"Yes. All that once was to us and one day will be again."

"That doesn't mean the mermen of Laakos' Reef were the ones meant to discover the Taleweaver. There are many others."

Reefglamor fixed his colleague with his stare. "Doubt if you wish, but you’ll only be a hermit crab hiding in its shell."

"You don't have any doubts? It has been fourteen years since their city was destroyed."

"Of course I have doubts," the Senior High Mage responded. "Unlike yours, though, mine haven't gone away. They've only grown larger. That's why I want to pursue this course in spite of all the risks inherent in it."

"You've said from the beginning that attempting to work a divination on the Ravager would be risking certain death," Ildacer said, "and it has."

"The Ravager has many protections left to him despite the punishment he's been given in the past," Reefglamor agreed. "Seeking him out in this manner isn't something to be lightly undertaken. He may be able to strike back along the spell I use. However, we need to know something at this point."

"Chancing your own fate isn't a good idea."

Reefglamor regarded the junior mage coolly. "I should risk someone else then?" They both knew from past experience that he would-if he thought it worth the risk.

"That's not what I said," Ildacer said quickly.

"No, but given the parameters of your statement, that's what you meant. And I would. If I felt any were better equipped to attempt this than I." Reefglamor turned his gaze back out through the window. "We've already risked much by using the seluldira on Jhanra Merlistar, Keryth Adofaer, and Talor Vurtalis. The memory gems have wrought great magic to bring them up to the level of High Mages these past thirteen years." Even then, that decision had not come easily, but the High Mages had wanted to be at full strength when the Ravager appeared.

"I know."

"You've done a good job with them," Reefglamor stated. Ildacer had been responsible for their training.

Surprise momentarily stole Ildacer's words. "Thank you, Senior."

Reefglamor faced him. "You know it is my way to seldom give praise."

"I know it well."

"Yet you overlook the obvious praise you're given this night. I trusted no one else with watching over me while I attempted this."

Ildacer nodded. "I understood that, Senior. I thank you for your trust, but I'm afraid that even I'm not good enough to protect you should anything go wrong."

"Argue though you may, I won't shirk from this. Events have been put into play. According to the merman Thraxos, the Ravager has already taken action against the surface world. Though it is not widely known yet, above water or below, sahuagin attacked Waterdeep two tendays ago. They were accompanied by all manner of sea creatures."

"You believe this to be the work of the Ravager?"

"Could it be anyone else?"

Hdacer held his gaze only a moment before looking away. Fear stamped into his features. "No. Of course not."

"That's why we need to know," Reefglamor said softly. "If there is any way to foretell where the Taleweaver may soon be, or discover who he is, I have to try. And if there's a way to discover the Ravager's whereabouts, I have to attempt that as well."

"There's nothing, then, that I may offer as argument in this?"

"Pharom Ildacer, I've argued with myself for days," Reefglamor said sternly. "Can you imagine a fiercer opponent?"