The announcement was scheduled for two weeks later.

     It was another second downday, a day in which most of the wizards wouldn't have been doing much anyway, and it was held in the Chamber of Discourse, the chamber in which, twenty three years earlier, Tragius Demonbinder had argued for a change in the rules regarding rak transformation. This chamber was normally occupied only once or twice a year, during annual and special assemblies. Annual assemblies were held, as the name suggests, once every ten months, when all the qualified wizards in the valley got together to discuss various matters that had arisen during the previous year, while special assemblies were much rarer, generally being called whenever a situation occurred that was so urgent that it couldn't wait until the next annual assembly. Theoretically, any graduated wizard could call a special assembly, even one who'd only graduated the day before. They could call an assembly to which all the senior wizards would be compelled to come, plus as many of the junior wizards who felt that way inclined, but if the senior wizards thought that their time had been wasted then the unfortunate caller could look forward to a harsh reception as soon as the assembly was over, and a black mark on his record that would follow him to the grave.

     The assembly taking place today was more than just a special assembly, though. It was a very special assembly, a totally unprecedented assembly. It was an assembly to which the entire population of the valley had been invited, apprentices and mundanes as well as qualified wizards; the first time in the University's history that such people had been allowed into this hallowed chamber. It made things a bit awkward as the Chamber was technically among the research buildings, but the fact that it was located a little off to the side from the rest meant that a wall of force could be erected between it and the other buildings, preventing any of the mundanes, or any of the magical experiments, from coming to harm.

     The Master of Ceremonies fretted and scowled at the lack of precedent and the consequent lack of proper rituals to accompany the occasion. In the end he tried to persuade everyone to treat it as a Director's inauguration minus a new Director, since only this seemed to contain anything like the necessary weight and gravity for an occasion of this magnitude. It went well at first, but since none of the mundanes or apprentices had any idea how this ceremony was performed the attempt rapidly degenerated into chaos and the Director called the whole thing off in order to prevent it from turning into a farce.

     Fortunately, ceremony turned out to be unnecessary as the non wizards were already terrified by the place; by the atmosphere and sense of history that seemed to permeate every brick and floor tile, left behind by the awesome events that had taken place here down through the centuries. Here, decisions had been made that had toppled Kings from their thrones and redrawn the boundaries of nations. Here, matters beyond the comprehension of the average layman had been discussed with casual familiarity. Here, in this very chamber! What ceremony had ever been invented that could possibly encapsulate all of that?

     The non wizards filed in a quiet and orderly manner to their assigned places, therefore, whispering to each other and casting nervous glances at the officials around them. The proctors in their fearsome uniforms and the senior wizards in full ceremonial garb; clothing that left no doubt as to the terrible and awesome forces that these mighty beings were capable of wielding. The wizards themselves sat on the two innermost rows of benches, the benches closest to the floor, while the non wizards sat further up, on the benches behind them. There was plenty of room, as the chamber had been built back in the glory days of the University when it had boasted five times as many qualified wizards as it did today.

     The proctors scowled at the mundanes, most of whom had made an effort to smarten themselves up and make themselves presentable but who still looked shabby compared to the wizards, whose clothing had been brightened and enhanced by magic spells. The mundanes slunk shamefully to their seats, therefore, feeling like naughty schoolboys eavesdropping on the conversations of their elders and betters, and sat down quickly, trying to make themselves as small and inconspicuous as possible. Most of the wizards seemed to enjoy this and puffed out their chests with pride and self importance, but some of the older and wiser mages shook their heads sadly, knowing how quickly awe and fear could turn to anger and hatred. It's wrong to make the mundanes feel inferior, they thought to themselves. We have to make them see us as people, essentially no different from them.

     Some of these wise, old wizards got up to act as ushers, therefore, showing the mundanes to their places and asking them how they felt. Elmias Pastin was one of them, and that was how he happened to be standing by the door when Thomas, Lirenna and Derrin entered. "My boy!" he cried as his rheumy eyes caught sight of them. "Good to see you again! And this must be Lirenna, your wife! Ah yes, I recognise you now! A very promising young lady I remember thinking."

     "And you were always my favourite teacher," replied Lirenna, taking his hand. "Even though it took me a while to understand your human jokes."

     Elmias laughed, and then his eyes fell on Derrin. "And this must be the boy you told me about. What a handsome young man! And talented too, I hear."

     Thomas groaned and shared a rueful grin with Lirenna. "Everyone we meet mentions that. I just wish he could leave that behind and become an ordinary apprentice."

     "Some people are born ordinary," said the old wizard, his eyes suddenly sharp and alert, "and some people are born to be exceptional. It does no favours to the exceptional child to treat him as an ordinary boy. Extraordinary people need extraordinary treatment. I strongly urge you to remember that."

     "We will," replied Thomas, staring in amazement. "I didn't mean..."

     "I know," said Elmias, grinning toothlessly. "I'm sure that if anyone can give him the love and support he's going to need, it's the two of you." He reached down and ruffled the boy's hair playfully. "What do you think, lad? Think your parents are up to the job?"

     "Yes," said the boy hesitantly, smiling nervously at him.

     The old wizard laughed again. "Not much wrong with him," he said in satisfaction. "I'd say he's got a splendid future in store for him."

     "We hope so," said Lirenna, taking the boy's hand and smiling down into his upturned face.

     "So," said Elmias as Derrin went off to take his place among the other children, on raised seats right at the back. "Looks like we're finally going to find out what's going on around here, except I don't think I'm far out in thinking that you've already got a pretty good idea. Am I right?"

     "I know part of it," agreed Thomas, who'd been casting Identify spells on the magical meteorite for two weeks now, ”but not everything. And even the bits that I do know are pretty hard to believe."

     "I certainly found it hard to believe when Tom told me," added Lirenna. "I thought he was just pulling my leg at first, except that he never lies to me and I can always see it on his face when he tries to play a joke on me. Incredible though it was, therefore, I knew he was telling the truth."

     "Well, don't keep me hanging in suspense!" said the old wizard eagerly. "Tell me!"

     Thomas did so, cutting it down to its bare essentials as wizards, apprentices and mundanes filed past them, looking for the best seats. Most of what he knew came from overhearing what the senior wizards had been saying to each other before, during and after his casting of the Identify spells rather from what he'd seen himself in the magically created images. Each casting of the spell had shown him the same scene as the first; the old, bearded man sitting on a fabulous golden throne in the middle of a huge, mysterious chamber, but while he'd been concentrating on that scene the senior wizards had been casting other spells through the link he'd created, creating images that he hadn't been able to share. The gasps of awe and incredulity he'd heard them utter had come close to driving him insane with frustration and curiosity, but Saturn had repeatedly refused to bring him in on it. Only the fear that they'd shut him out altogether had stopped him from going on strike in protest.

     From the overheard comments, though, he'd gathered that the throne he kept seeing was the control chair of some kind of vast flying ship; a ship that was capable of flying through space between two worlds in the same universe. It had been on its way to Tharia, apparently, when some disaster had overcome it and it had been destroyed. The throne itself had been left drifting through space until it had arrived at its destination, minus the ship it had been carrying, and had been melted into a shapeless blob of iron by its passage through the atmosphere, finally falling as a meteorite in the frozen wastelands of Rossem.

     He paused to see how Elmias was taking the news, and was astonished to see a look of terror on the older wizard’s face. “Elmias?” he said hesitantly. “Are you okay?” He shared a look of concern with his wife.

     Elmias stared back at him. “How sure are you of all this?” he asked, his voice trembling a little. “I mean, all this from one small lump of iron? Could it be a hoax? Some enterprising student having a lark?” His own voice betrayed his doubts, though. To pull off a hoax like this would have required high level magic. It would require the kind of skill far beyond anyone young and foolish enough to think it funny.

     Elmias clearly wanted it to be a hoax, though, and Thomas felt the older man's fear infecting him as well. Elmias had seen some implications in the news that Thomas hadn't seen yet. Something that terrified him. Seeing this, Thomas remembered that Saturn had been anxious as well, as had all the other wizards examining the iron meteorite. They all know something I don’t, he realised. Something I'm too stupid to see. “What is It?” he asked. “What's wrong?”

     “This is going to change everything,” said Elmias, wringing his hands nervously. It was something Thomas had never seen him do before. “Everything. The trogs will have to be told, and the great shae nations. The Fu Nangians... We'll have to send emissaries to all the nations of the world. We'll need them all. They all need to be told."

     "I think that's what this meeting is all about," said Lirenna. "It's the beginning of the spread of information. There are people here from all over the continent. They'll all go home and tell their friends and relations.”

     “Yes,” said Elmias, nodding. “The news will spread. They probably won't understand at first. It'll take a while for the implications to sink in. What this means for us.”

     “Er, what does it mean?” asked Thomas nervously.

     “Come on, lad,” snapped Elmias irritably. “You're a smart boy and you've known about this longer than I have! Use your head!”

     Thomas stared at him in shock. Elmias was normally so polite and self effacing. To hear him speak like that…

     The older wizard saw his reaction and looked ashamed. “I'm sorry, lad. I shouldn't have taken that tone. It was just… The implications… When people find out, they either won't believe it or they'll just go ho hum, more visitors from another world. So what? After all, we get individuals, even fully equipped expeditions from other worlds all the time. Traveling to another world in a parallel dimension is easy. I used to do it all the time. You just cast a couple of spells and then you just step through a portal into the other world. But another world in our own universe? Excuse me, I have to go speak to Pablon about this.” He left the two younger wizards without another word and threaded his way through the crowd towards where another wizard was speaking to a pair of shae men beside the door.

     “I don’t understand,” said Lirenna as they watched Elmias clutching at the other wizard’s sleeve to get his attention. “Visitors from another world… What does it matter whether the other world's in our universe or another?”

     “He clearly thinks it matters,” replied Thomas. “I mean, Elmias was never the bravest man. He once jumped out of his skin when a butterfly landed on his arm, but I've never seen him like this. This has gotten him badly scared, and that scares me more than anything since the war.”

     Most of the room was seated by now, and Thomas and Lirenna made their way to take their place in the second row of seats, raised one foot higher than the row in front so that they were looking over the senior wizards' heads. There was only a trickle of people still coming in now, and as his brain fell back into its old habits Thomas found himself watching them despite his anxiety over what Elmias had said. He saw Karem come in, his scarred face creased into a scowl as he searched for an empty seat in one of the inner two rows, and Thomas tried to attract his attention, to direct his attention to the empty seat to his left. Karem hadn't met Lirenna yet, and there was sure to be time for a brief chat before the assembly started in earnest. Right behind Karem came Tassley Kimber, though, and Thomas was suddenly gripped with a new anxiety that she would take the vacant seat by his side. How would Lirenna react to that?

     To his relief, though, the human girl was followed by a handsome young man with sunbronzed skin stretched across bulging muscles. One of the stonemasons by the look of him. Tassley took his arm and the two of them made their way to a group of empty seats next to the necromancers, whom most other people avoided whenever possible. There they sat, and the human wizardess said something to her mundane consort that made him blush and look away in embarrassment, but a moment later they were holding each other’s hands and whispering to each other like starstruck lovers.

     Thomas directed Lirenna's attention to the pair. "Looks like she's finally given up on me."

     "Good. She may live to have grandchildren then."

     Thomas laughed. "Remind me never to get on your wrong side. Who knows. If she's really accepted that I'm out of reach, you and she might get to be friends one day. You might even swap tips on how to catch men."

     She stared at him. "You think she has anything to teach me on that subject?"

     "Not at all," replied Thomas, grinning. "I was thinking you could teach her a thing or two. Such as that little lesson you taught me last night."

     She grinned in reply. "That's a military secret. In the wrong hands it could be devastating."

     "I think it's already in the wrong hands. How can I possibly look at another women when you can do that to me?"

     They both chuckled at the light hearted exchange, but then Thomas saw Elmias looking grim as he exchanged words with two other wizards on the other side of the chamber and his mood fell again. Dammit, I just want to be happy and relaxed! he thought resentfully. I just want to get Derrin through University and get back home to Haven. I don't want to be worried about another looming crisis.

     Then a trumpet sounded to alert them that something was beginning to happen. Most of the conversations in the huge dome stopped as Saturn and a man in the uniform of a Beltharan Major entered and strode across the open area in the centre of the room. The Director, who'd been speaking to the Head Proctor, leaned forward on his large, ornate throne with sudden interest, and the doorkeepers closed the large, richly decorated ironclad doors after making sure there was no-one else coming. Anyone arriving late would now have to wait outside. It was the custom that once those doors were closed, they were not opened again until the meeting was over.

     Saturn waited patiently until the last of the conversations died out, then turned to the Director and bowed low before him. "Master Director," he said in a loud clear voice that was carried to all parts of the chamber by its superb acoustics, "I, your humble and obedient servant, beg leave to lay certain facts before the eminent persons gathered here today."

     The Director picked up the Staff of Lexandros, the staff that had been created by the founder and first Director of the University two thousand years before, and transferred it to his left hand, a gesture whose origin and meaning had long been forgotten. Some said that the staff had been given additional powers over the centuries by various Directors, some of whom had been immortal wizards, and that some of these powers depended upon which hand held it, a theory that still had to be either confirmed or denied despite centuries of research and experimentation.

     "You may proceed," the Director said.

     Saturn nodded before rising and turning to face the hushed and expectant audience.