Outreach

He could hear his father asserting with that overwhelming aura of true knowledge, You're a Historian, Jindigar. You've never belonged to Aliom.

Trembling, he leaned over and placed his hands on the worldcircle, feeling for the vibration of this world, the stamp of its individuality. His hands were dark shapes against the whiteness. The pure flowing energy shimmered and blurred around all fourteen of his fingers, the distortion showing that he, unlike Krinata, was holding himself away from Phanphihy. At his level of the priesthood he should be superficially attuned to the world he was on at all times.

Why am I holding myself from Phanphihy rather than leading the community to attunement?

A chill clamped at his heart. In his fear of fighting the dysattunement battle he had overlooked how vital his personal attunement was, not just to his Oliat but to the community. Perhaps he, himself, was the disruptive source of all their errors. The act of Inverting the Oliat function, as he had done when he sent Takora to her death and as he had done so often to save Krinata from ephemeral death, produced a disruptive backlash in the Invert's life—so that a period of errors, disasters, and bad judgments ensued. Was that the source of their problems? Simply Inversion splashback? If so, there was no cure but to ride it out, taking care not to Invert again. And