Whatever regret I felt at losing the solitude of the morning walk was quickly replaced by excitement. Revealing the contents of the journal could have so many effects. As Katya started to tell me, I felt nothing but hope. At the least, the journal might turn out to be rambling nonsense. I felt that to be a fairly likely outcome. I had struggled, in my distraction, to make any sense of the disjointed writing, drawing, and equating. If the journals were nonsense, then maybe I could finally start to dismiss Joel's rambling as well and push his presence from my life.

But a bigger part of me wanted the juice. A bigger part of me wanted there to be more to it than nonsense. I felt the pressure of Enki in my life constantly now. I felt, for all my power and sudden success, that my freedom, my own ability to act with agency, was limited by the voice. If there were greater mysteries in the Griid to be revealed, then maybe there could be leverage to use against Enki.

And really, very simply, my mind craved to unravel a mystery.

Katya said, "I can see why Claw gave you that book with such an easy heart. I'm sure it's quite priceless, having come down through the centuries from such a figure as John the Dispeller. But, in terms of what it's really worth…" She blew air through her lips dismissively.

She went on, "There's not that much in there. Just enough to really fire my curiosity. Most of the pages are filled with diagrams and page upon page of maths. I'm working on the math, trying to understand it, but so much of it is derived from what came before that I can't make that much sense of it."

I said, "You… you can do the math? I wasn't able to make heads or tails of it… it looks very complicated."

She smiled sweetly—and dangerously—at me. "I grew up in the palace of Miami, Tiberius. Did you think my education consisted of nothing more than swordplay and the arts of seduction?"

I blushed slightly. "My upbringing was just swordplay. Nobody even taught me about the seduction."

She pinched her lips. "Yes… that much was clear enough."

My blush deepened.

She said, "The palace in Miami has a vast library—perhaps the finest in the whole world. I had servant tutors at my beck and call. I never devoted myself to mathematics, but I went through my phases. I can't swear that I can understand the equations in the journal, but there's a chance. If—if I can get more volumes."

I said, "Okay… okay… I think Claw will give me more. This one was a taster. What does it contain? Was there anything good in there?"

She looked a little uneasy. "Is that voice in your head listening to us right now?"

I waited a few beats to see if Enki would announce itself. If it was present and sensed drama about to unfold, it would probably still stay quiet. I had developed a sense for when the voice was watching. It was unreliable, but it was the best I had.

"I don't think it's here. It's probably somewhere else. If it thinks I'm just walking to start a Griid-train, it's probably off paying attention to greater dramas somewhere else. There's no real telling. Why? Did John the Dispeller write about it?"

Katya said, "John liked to think on paper, I think. A lot of the writing is just hypotheses and notes on the evidence to support or deny them. He speculates a lot. On lots of things. The origins of the Towers. He seems very interested in the Falling itself."

We walked on, the gate to the next sector appearing at the end of the winding, sloping street.

Katya said, "There's a deep mystery he speculates on regarding the Falling, but I can tell that there must be much more written about it in some earlier volume. He notates volumes and pages to link ideas. It's frustrating—but exciting."

I said, "So the book is useless? A lot of disjointed maths and notions that are useless without the other books?"

She shook her head. She did it in a girlish, almost childish way. I could never tell if these affectations were genuine or put on. It was hard to reconcile the ferocious warrior she could be with the hyperactive child that showed itself in other moments.

She said, "There was one bit. Something… a little unnerving."

I said nothing in response, but I could feel my own excitement rising.

She said, "He has some fairly coherent musings on Entropy Storms."

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"Go on…"

"John clearly thought as we did—that the storms were random events. But he has more clout to his thinking than the magical thinking we get from the priests. Wherever he came from, he has a more technical appreciation of the Order fields. He sees Order and Entropy as existing as wells, that neither can be destroyed. In his view, to create an Order Field was to move, not delete, the Entropy that was there. Like weather fronts, where a mass of high pressure can shift a mass of low, or block it, he sees large Order and Entropy fields existing in the same kind of relationship. It was natural to him to assume that there could be turbulence, that eddies of Entropy could become overly concentrated and express themselves with violence."

I said, "Okay… but that's not really that much different from what we already know about them. They happen with randomness."

She said, "John believed that most of the storms were random—organic evening-outs of the pressures that exist between the forces of Order and Entropy in the Griid. Most, Tiberius. But he most definitely didn't believe that all of the storms were natural."

I felt my own heart starting to beat faster. "I… okay. This makes sense. I've been wondering about this a little myself. What happened in the arena, on the last day, when the storm appeared in the basement and produced that great fiend…"

She nodded. To me, the topic was terrifying, but she just had that usual birdlike excitement.

"You told us that you questioned your voice-friend and it denied involvement. And you believe it can't lie, so we can, for now at least, eliminate Enki from having been a part of it. What is for absolute surety is that John believed some of the storms were controlled by intelligences in the Griid. He was beyond certain of it. He documented storms that occurred during his lifetime. He dove into the records available to him, in Pittsburgh and other great cities he traveled to. There are lists of storms recorded in this volume. Each of them occurred at a moment most opportune, affecting the outcomes of events that impacted our history."

She bobbed her head a little as she thought and spoke at the same time. "Storms are so rare. Think about the storm in Dodge. There are thousands of square miles of nothing out there. What are the odds of the storm striking so near to a city like Dodge? What are the odds of it affecting a person of such import as your father? What are the odds of a storm erupting and killing the father of someone with such an affinity for the Griid—someone who had been able to do things with the suit that hadn't been done in centuries, if ever?"

I heard myself stammer, "Murder… Katya, it was the Horde that killed Father."

She said, "The Horde are integrally linked to the storms. They don't appear in every storm, but they never appear without one. I think it's quite obvious that whatever entity sent that storm to Dodge had an awareness, somehow, that it heralded a Horde attack as well."

I felt my bones chill. "So you believe the storm and the Horde were sent specifically to kill Father? Katya… I don't know… that's a bit…"

She said, "Oh, don't be so naive. Think on the probabilities involved and it becomes a much simpler explanation than random chance. John has pages of evidence supporting this notion. And the evidence supports the idea that there is more than one disgruntled intelligence acting as part of the Oracle."

I said, "How so… this doesn't warm my heart, Katya. If there are other beings wielding power within the Oracle, other beings able to affect the world in ways as destructive and profound as Entropy Storms… that's frightening. The cults that orbit society in the wilds are disturbing enough just for their ritual and zealotry… the very notion that they could actually have support from, or influence over, entities like that…"

I shuddered.

Katya was beyond being disturbed. She said, "I think it's beyond question at this point. The evidence is beyond question. There are too many events in history where storms landed at pivotal locations at pivotal times. You have to let go of your assumptions. Looking at it with total logic, there's almost no way to doubt it."

She looked up at me, caught my eye. I could see the devil gleaming in her expression.

She said, "But it gets so much more interesting if you really think about it. Thrax was inspired by John. He sought to unite the whole world under a single empire, all for the intention of somehow destroying the Griid. At the moment of his imminent defeat at the hands of the Western Coalition, a storm erupted to end the battle and save him. It makes no sense. Thrax sought to disrupt the Griid in some way that would have been truly disastrous for the Oracle. It would only make sense that the Oracle—or the beings within it—would be happy to watch the armies of the West break his forces and slay him as well. But instead, a storm fell on the field, fiends in tow, and ended the battle, giving Thrax the chance to retreat and lick his wounds. What could have been a sudden end to the Burghsman Empire was a reprieve instead."

I said, "Okay… okay… if I buy what you're selling, that means a being in the Griid, in the Oracle, employed the storm to save Thrax. And because that obviously wouldn't have been in the interest of the Oracle, it implies a struggle between different forces—entities that somehow have different wants and motives…"

She nodded, giddily. "And when you think about the storm in the basement of the arena and how that fiend nearly slew you… and the storm that killed your own father… well it's obvious…"

I felt a deeper cold settle in my marrow. I could see what she was saying. But I couldn't express it. I just said, "Is it obvious?"

She said, "Of course it is. In the machinery of the Griid, with different entities vying for some kind of control over outcomes, you are a pawn of Enki. You're its soldier. While that means you might benefit from Enki's help, Enki's power… it also means you are inherently the enemy of other beings."

Heat spiked at her words. Maybe she meant it to. She was right, at that moment I was trapped as Enki's tool. My fist clenched involuntarily as I remembered its talk of partnership. When I had stepped out of line, it had punished me with the Burgh Griidlords. I'd been controlled long enough. I'd make lies of what she'd just said.

She seemed to have thrilled herself. She had the kind of terrible enthusiasm of a child recounting a horrifying campfire tale.

"Something in the Griid wants you dead, Ti. Something very powerful indeed."

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