I.
Much later, when Robin holds all the threads in her hands, she can trace the knotted pattern that has neither beginning nor end, but if she had to choose she would say that it began with Ari. So much seemed to begin with Ari ~ Ari who should have died beneath the waters of Tethy's sea as Rathannan's three moons rose over Mawn. It is of Rathannan's moons that Robin dreams. The dream is always the same. Three moons: silver & bronze & gold. They weigh down the sky where bright stars cling like lint & the cold is sharp & clear. She dreams a cantlos wind snapping & snarling down frosted valleys & between the standing stones on the plains. The stones cast a net of shadows across the weirdway & the grass, brittle as ice, sharp as thorns. There is the sharp smell of coming snow on the air, of peat smoke & old stone. Robin stands on the weirdway amongst the dancing shadows, & begins the long walk along the spiral u...