Jula had crossed over. She was a Weavespinner, a da'shar.

"Umf," Jasana groaned, sitting up. "What just happened, Papa?"

"I have no idea," Tarrin replied as rubbed his forehead gingerly, remembering what he had seen. He remembered looking into the mind of the Goddess… but he couldn't quite recall what he'd seen there. He only remembered that it was probably best that he didn't remember.

"What's wrong with Jula?" Jasana asked immediately. Then she gasped. "She's different now! I can feel it!"

"She'll be out for a while, cub," Tarrin told her, finding the strength to stand. "She crossed over."

"What does that mean, Tarrin?" Miranda asked.

"She became a Weavespinner," he replied woodenly as Jesmind helped him to his feet, kissing him in relief. "She couldn't handle the power the Goddess was putting into us, and made her face being Consumed. When that happens, we either get Consumed or we find our way to the Heart and adjust ourselves to survive. Jula was connected to the Goddess with us, so she was already halfway there. All she had to do was prevent herself from burning up, which she did." He grunted. "Or the Goddess did for her," he reasoned. "I can't remember."

"Will you tell me what happened now?" Jesmind demanded. "I almost fainted when I saw the three of you start to glow!"

"I, I'm not sure," he said. "The Goddess needed us for something. She had to use us, because she couldn't do what was done without us."

"That's not an explanation!" Jesmind snapped.

"A dark man tried to break the Weave," Jasana said seriously. "The shining lady there stopped him, but she needed our help to do it."

"Val," Tarrin grunted. "He tried to disrupt the Weave to rob us of our magic. The Goddess stopped him. From the feel of it, she even took the fight back to him."

"That must be why the earth shook," Miranda said. "The world isn't strong enough to support two gods fighting one another."

"That is why I had to use you," the voice of the Goddess called from her icon. "Val was acting through his mortal agents. I had to do the same. Had we confronted one another directly, the city would have been destroyed in our fight."

Tarrin realized that that was why Val didn't care if the Goddess attacked him or not. He wasn't in any danger. The only ones to suffer would be the mortals doing his bidding. He was willing to throw away their lives in a vain attempt to damage the Weave before the Goddess defeated his attempt. But he had erred, and erred badly. His all-or-nothing attempt to disrupt the Weave had cost him the mafeli, and now the katzh-dashi had a powerful advantage. But there were still the Demons, so maybe he was willing to take that risk. Thirty Demons when they had only Shiika and the Cambisi to counter them did make things rather even. And even with magic, the numerical advantage for the other side was considerable.

"Is she going to be alright, papa?" Jasana asked, squirming out of her mother's arms and kneeling by the dazed Jula.

"She'll be fine, cub," he replied. "She'll go to sleep as soon as she comes out of her daze. Why don't we move her someplace comfortable?"

They laid Jula on the bench, after Miranda brought some of the pillows and a blanket out of the tent for her to make the hard stone more comfortable, and he knelt by her, holding her paw, worried about what was going on. He felt too tired to make another viewing disc, but it was apparent that the fight had started. Aeradalla and Harpies were visible in the skies over Suld, fighting one another in a dance of winged aerobatics. The sound of the Wikuni cannons rumbled over them, the sharp sound of their explosive discharges softened by the distance the sound had to travel.

"It's started," Jesmind announced grimly at the first sound of the cannons.

"It won't get nasty until the Wizards either send in the humans or find a way to break the Ward Jenna will lay down to stop the Goblinoids," Tarrin surmised.

They waited in tense silence for a while, at least an hour, listening to the Wikuni cannons sending out their sharp reports that told them that their forces still held the walls, as well as the magical attacks and counterattacks he felt in the Weave that told him that Jenna and her Circle were still battling with the magicians on the other side, despite the loss of the mafeli to aid them. Tarrin recovered his strength over that hour, until he felt strong enough to use Sorcery once again. Jula came out of her daze and slipped into a deep, natural slumber, and Jasana had calmed down from the frightful experience of being hijacked by the Goddess. Tarrin paced nervously where Jesmind had been pacing before as Jesmind and Jasana sat with Jula, and Miranda sat on a chair she drug from the tent and sat with her knitting. He wished he was calm enough to knit at a time like this, but he knew Miranda. She knitted for the same reason he paced, to occupy her mind and expend some nervous energy. He wanted to use Sorcery to see what was going on, but he wasn't sure if that was a good idea at the moment. He may need his energy to repel an invader.

There was one way to find out. "Mother, what's going on?" he finally asked.

"The Demons have finally battered down the gate," she replied. "They sent in the Goblinoids, which died by the windrows when they crossed the Ward. Now they've recalled the Goblinoids that are left and sent in the Fae-da'Kii and their undead troops to try to establish a foothold in the city while their Wizards and what Priests that survived battle with Jenna and her Circle to try to break the Ward. Even without the mafeli, Val is influencing the power of his magicians, and they outnumber Jenna's Circle by about a hundred to one. So Jenna is a very busy young lady at the moment."

"More or less what we expected," Miranda said confidently. "The idea now is to let the Demons pass and force the troops entering through the breach to seek refuge from the muskets and arrows by running into the city, so the Centaurs and Selani can wipe them out before their numbers get too great. That way they keep coming in, but can't organize a large enough force to threaten our defenses."

"That's pretty clever," Jesmind grunted with a nod.

"I thought so myself," Miranda agreed. "It was that Arakite General's idea, Kang. He's a devious man. Few would think to create a defensive perimeter by allowing enemy troops to gain a foothold. It was pretty ingenious."

They waited for long moments, until Tarrin heard an unmistakable roar from outside the Tower grounds. A Demon. They had allowed the Demons to pass unmolested, so the Wizards at the Tower could deal with them, but he didn't know if they could take on thirty at once. He immediately stopped pacing and recalled his sword from the elsewhere. "Jesmind, Miranda, take Jula over to the corner of the courtyard, and keep her there. Jasana, you stay with them," he ordered, feeling the sword in his paw. Its weight was comforting to him now, for he knew that it gave him a weapon against the Demons coming. He set himself directly before the fountain, sword in paw, and waited with his senses open. He felt an oppressive surge of magical power flow through the Weave, and then another, and then another. Those were spells cast by Wizards, and they were not simple or weak spells. The third was marked by a great explosion on the eastern edge of the grounds. He felt several more spells flow through the Weave, flowing from that other place where Wizards drew their power to the Wizard, coming faster and stronger than the last. There was another roar of a Demon, and then another different one, and then a flurry of spells all drawn from the Weave at the same time.

Then there was a great crashing sound, the sound of the magical fence surrounding the Tower being ripped asunder. The enchantment on the fence was disrupted with its mauling, and caused it to explode as a Wildstrike at the point of destruction. He felt that clearly, even as he heard the loud bang of the torn fence section literally exploding as the magical power contained within it was released from its containment. Tarrin was certain that now there were Demons on the Tower grounds, and it made him worried. He gripped the sword in both paws and started turning in his stance, watching in all directions for whatever may appear tramping through the maze.