I apologize Sarge for replaying these two parts of an earlier story but I hope it may be of interest to some other folk such as my mathematician friend Paradigm Shifter (his WoS handle. I don't usually reveal names unless to avoid either confusion of needlessly long type ins...ahem!)

However my excuse is that this seems to have a particular hold on my imagination and I may be adding some new tiles to it.

BRYTHAN - part 2

Timothy put the ornate book marker in place before closing the Tome of Time and asked Liet the Elven List Keeper "Yes, I see how the Capitol rock came to be where it is now, because I've often wondered about that but what I was really interested in was the Barrier and these records don't mention who made it."

"We don't know" came the reply "We assume it's some sort of magical influence using powers that we no longer possess or if we do have them then we've forgotten how to use them over the millenia."

Tim said nothing but privately thought it unlikely that the Barrier would still be getting stronger if it wasn't being maintained continuously by someone or something.

For his part the Secret Keeper noticed Tim's polite but obvious expression of disbelief "I see by the look on your face that you don't accept that explanation?"

"Well just lok at the devices you use and seem to take for granted. The Time Window, for example, don't you ever consider why and how it works the way it does? Yet on the other hand some of the artifacts in daily use are quite primitive and others which are more functional you rely upon the Dwarves to build and keep in good repair.

Then again its obvious that they hold you in high regard as the intellectual leaders of the fey folk. These disparate observances of mine don't make sense, they are contradictory. Worse still they appear to suggest you are extremely vulnerable to sudden changes in circumstance. Just supposing the Dwarves decide to move away to a new area, perhaps because their current veins of ore have been used up. Who will you turn to that can keep your equipment in good repair?"

"We've been quite satisfied with matters so far and many of our dwarven pieces of equipment have run without requiring attention for many decades. What makes you think this happy state of affairs will not continue?"

"We have a saying about the dangers of skating on thin ice" replied Tim "and I have this instinctive feeling that the ice is getting thinner for all of us, men and fey. I can sense danger it's a legacy of growing up on the Capitol streets having to look out for myself. Further I have mentioned this to Stiv Preem a friend of mine whose occupation requires him to be on constant alert for attempts on his life and he agrees that he has a heightened sense of danger too."