He felt it clearly. He felt the presence of the Goddess suddenly rise up from the Heart, rise up and directly face this new power. Her presence caught him up with her, caught up Jasana, even Jula, causing all three of them to have their awarenesses drawn up into the Weave even as the Goddess laid her hands upon them and commandeered their power. The Goddess took control of them, caused them to Circle, and then joined her power to theirs in a way Tarrin did not think possible. The direct might of the Goddess flowed through him, flowed through all three of them, and his senses were suspended in favor of the alternate reality of the Weave.
He was within one of the strands, facing a rolling mass of liquid blackness that sought to consume the rainbow light generated by the flows within the strand. It was a seething mass, without form, boiling angrily in place as its progress suddenly was impeded. He could feel Jula beside him, within him, a part of him, even as he was a part of her. Jasana was on his other side, joined to him in a similar manner, as they were joined to one another. The Goddess was behind them, around them, her power surrounding them even as they caused her power to come to bear. They were the instrument by which she enacted her direct might.
"THIS WILL NOT BE," they heard her voice thunder through the Weave, directed at the black mass before them. "Didst thou think that if thee violated the strictures, I would not be permitted to do the same? Take back thy power, or I will strike at thee, Val. In this place, thou canst not hope to defeat me."
"I fear thee not, Niami," came a hissing reply. "Come then, and strike at me if thou dares."
"As thou wishes."
What happened next could not be explained in rational terms. He only had a sensation of the entirety of the Weave flooding into him, sending him spiralling to the upper limits and constraints of mindless pain, only have to have it vanish in a heartbeat, replaced by a glowing light that suffused him with boundless pleasure. His mind, linked to the Goddess, saw into a fraction of her being in that fleeting moment, and his mortal mind shuddered away from the vast immensity that stared back at him from that place, nearly drove him mad as his mind tried to understand what it found there. That indescribable power suddenly lashed out, driving into the roiling blackness like a shaft of solid light. He felt the titanic clash of power that took place in the Weave, which suddenly began to thrash and tremble as it struggled to remain intact against one force that sought to destroy it and the other that sought to protect it. The shining bar of light seemed to be sucked up by the black cloud without effect, but then the main Conduit seemed to reach out into the strands, providing its power to protect the integrity of the strand in which the confrontation was taking place. When that happened, the bar of light became blindingly bright, and it blasted into the cloud with renewed vigor, puncturing it, penetrating it, causing it to fold in on itself where it was struck by the magical light. He felt it drive through the darkness, then carry back to its source, the mafeli as a guide to track back to the origin of that power. That might struck at what was there, causing it to recoil and retreat, even as he became dimly aware of the earth shaking beneath his feet. What the Goddess had done had carried such power that it had literally shaken the earth.
In the real world, out beyond the walls of Suld, the black stone obelisk that was the mafeli flared with a sudden incandescent light, then exploded with such force that it killed every man and woman that had been tending it, sending shards of smoking black stone catapulting hundreds of spans into the air.
For a lingering moment, the divine union of their minds to the Goddess remained, until she seemed to become aware of them. She laid a hand over their minds gently, repairing the damage that being exposed to her true power had caused them, then doing something to Jula, and then he felt her retreat from them.
As one, all three of them collapsed to the ground, weak as kittens. Jesmind gave out a strangled cry and took turns checking on Tarrin, then Jesmind, but Jula lay on her back, staring blankly up at the sky, as Miranda tended to her. Tarrin felt like all the life had been sucked out of him, but he also felt his strength beginning to return steadily. He felt strong enough to move as he felt the earth continue to shudder beneath him. He looked to Jasana, who was crying in fear, and then to Jula.
Just looking at her told him everything. For one, she was nude, her clothes having been destroyed by what happened to her. The Circle had been too much for her power to bear, the communion between the two sui'kun and the Goddess had caused her to go beyond the limits of her body. But instead of being reduced to ash, the Goddess had shown her the way, had accepted her into the fold, despite the rather unusual circumstances. Tarrin stared at her, sensing it in her, realizing that the Goddess had done it to her to protect her life.
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.