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that She changed aspect in the darkest days of the war and
sent forth a legion of storms that destroyed most of Cyne Earwyn’s navy and
that of his enemy, as well. At the same time that She lashed the Sea to
rebellion against human arrogance, She unleashed upon the Royal House at
Creiddylad a plague of Osraed all Telling a future that frightened the Cyne
into finding a peaceful solution to the war.
    “And then,” he reminisced, as if he could remember it,
himself, “there was the year that an Osraed Council ordered all practitioners
of the Wicke expelled from Nairne. Those embittered females then spread across
the countryside, leaving evil in their wake. No sooner had they left Creiddylad
than that city was struck by a plague that killed by the hundreds. That year
the Meri changed her aspect and elected not one Prentice to be Osraed for many
Seasons. It was ten years before another Osraed was chosen. And then...” His
eyes fell on Meredydd briefly. “...there was at least one occasion upon which a
girl went from Halig-liath as Prentice.”
    Startled, Meredydd raised her eyes and met his in what she
thought must be an audible collision. Old Scir-loc merely raised his brows and
moved to stand behind his workbench.
    “Begging pardon, Osraed Ealad-hach,” said Lealbhallain
tentatively, “but if the Meri is, as the Book says, a child of the First Being
and Its Vision, then is not the Meri a creation?”
    Ealad-hach turned and speared the young Prentice with a
practiced and accurate eye. “The Meri is identical with the Creator.”
    “But, pardon again, sir—but I have heard it advanced by the
Osraed Bevol that the Meri is both a creature and an instrument of creation. ‘The
Lover and the Beloved have become one in Thee,’” he quoted swiftly, practically
tripping over the words in his haste to get them out. “He explained to me that
it is Her spirit that is transcendent, but that her body, being a physical
phenomenon, must be subject to the Universal laws of integration and
disintegration, and that-and that She-She....”
    The look with which Osraed Ealad-hach fixed poor
Lealbhallain had so intimidated him that he simply stopped speaking.
    “It is the Osraed Bevol’s opinion that the Meri’s body is a physical phenomenon. It is not an opinion that we share. Do you share that opinion?”
    Leal swallowed noisily, drawing a snicker from his
confreres. “Well, sir, I.... That is, it would explain...certain
...things...sir. About the Meri, I mean.”
    “And do you deem it necessary that the Meri be explained?
She is the Meri. Perhaps She need not be explained at all. Perhaps She is
inexplicable.”
    Prentice Brys-a-Lach and his pet, Phelan Backstere, both
hummed and nodded sagely, patting their fingers together in silent applause.
    “Then why do we even discuss the subject?” asked Meredydd,
before she could think better of it. “Why aren’t we simply told, ‘The Meri is
as the Meri is,’ and have an end to it? What good does it do to study something
which will not permit study?”
    Ealad-hach, a tall man, raised himself to his tallest and
looked at Meredydd over one high ridge of cheek bone. “Are you being
impertinent, Prentice Meredydd?”
    “No, sir. I’m being frustrated. The Corah tells us we must
seek out knowledge with open minds and that when the conscious spirit commands
the mind, the mind can think all thoughts. All thoughts, not just two or three, not just thoughts of here and now, but of
spiritual things. Thoughts of the Meri. Thoughts of the First Being.”
    “So, you think you can study your way into the Meri’s good
graces, do you? Recall, Prentice, what the Book of the Meri tells us on that
score; Chapter Two, Verse 5: ‘One does not reach the Meri through much
learning. Nor is She reached through the intellect or religious teaching. She
is reached only by those chosen. To Her chosen, the Meri reveals her glory. On
Her chosen She bestows Her kiss.’ Her chosen ,
Prentice Meredydd, not