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Having a cat whose head rests at one's thigh provide sight is enough to keep Karal from running into things these days, but stairs are still quite a bit harder to navigate; balance and vision seldom like being in conflict.

This is why, no doubt, after making his way back downstairs from the guestrooms, Karal sits rather quickly at the closest empty table. Food will, perhaps, come later, once he's regained his equilibrium.

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"Oh- I-" Svava blinks, and folds her hands together quickly, biting her lip. "I didn't know, or what to say. I- I wasn't even sure, but then..."

"I am sorry." She rather stares at her own bowl of stew.

He reaches over, fumbling again slightly, and finds and squeezes her hand, smiling.

"No, please, don't be upset. I'm not, I promise. I'm really just getting used to this myself."

"It wasn't something you were born with, then? It happened?" A faint, somewhat reassured smile, and she squeezes his hand back.

"A few months ago, yes," he replies, giving her right ear another smile.

"I came off rather lucky, really. Firesong was holding a sword when it exploded, and was burned quite badly. And Florian-- Florian died, so really things aren't that bad for me. I have Altra, after all," he adds, smile widening a little, his other hand reaching to scratch the cat's ears again.

"... Gods." Svava blinks, looking at him. "What did happen?"

"It's-- complicated, but there was a magical explosion thousands of years ago that could have destroyed the world, and when they echoed back they nearly did." He shrugs, pulling his hand back and looking slightly uncomfortable. "I'm a Channel, or-- well, I was, at least, and I don't think I'm not anymore-- I went along, in case they needed me, and... then they did. Three times, all told."

Because literary convention works that way, when your author publishes in trilogies.

Svava nods slowly, listening carefully. She may not know about Channels, but she knows some about magic-

And some about Fate. She raises an eyebrow. "It echoed, and at the time you where there, and needed?"

A small nod. "There were storms-- terrible blizzards, but also with magic effects. Some transplanted circles of land, some transformed them-- creatures were caught inside, sometimes, and made quite deadly in most cases. Even if there were no creatures caught, many plants grew rather carnivorous, we've heard since. And that was just when things first started-- they kept getting worse, you see, and we chose not to let these echoes destroy our world."

"... Your own Ragnarok, though from magic." Quietly. A deep breath, and she sips her hot chocolate. "But it wasn't quite the end, you were able to change it. If that was... an echo, what started it, in the first place?"

He tilts his head a little to the side, looking confused; no doubt if his eyes were properly focused on her face, if they reacted as he once was used to them doing, he would be giving her a funny look.

It doesn't quite have the same effect, this way.

"Ragnarok...? I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean. And-- thousands of years ago, there were two great mages-- or, well, one great, and one terrible. Both very powerful, enough to fully create creatures like the gryphons and the hertasi, and they were at war with each other. There were magical explosions at each of their strongholds within moments of each other."

"Ragnarok is the name of the battle that destroyed all of the Nine Worlds, where I was from." Svava goes for a faint smile and shrug. Then she blinks.

"... That powerful, to create creatures? That's-" She shakes her head slowly. "And then that power, into a war. I see."

He's quiet for a moment, visibly picking his words.

"My friend, An'desha-- it was not his fault, in any way, but he had all of Ma'ar's memories. Where Ma'ar's stronghold once stood, thousands of years ago, there now is Lake Evendim, lined with glass. Ma'ar was evil, although he at least was sane, unlike what he became. Urtho, the other-- he was kind, if meddlesome by some accounts. We went to his Tower, across the Dhorisha Plains, in the winter, in hopes that there would be something there we could find to counteract the Storms."

Svava toys with her cup of hot chocolate now, listening. Thankfully enough, she is able to follow along with the majority of this- unlike other accounts from people she had to pick out the meanings and try to follow along in context. Magic, war, memories, distruction-

Svava understands those.

She also understands speaking of such things, so when there is a pause, she bites her lip.

"... If you don't wish to speak of all of this, I do understand that, Karal. I- I really do. I will listen, and I know of some that you talk about, and it is something good to know, but if its something you don't wish to speak of, for your own reasons- I know that as well."

He smiles slightly at her, or at least in her general direction.

"No, I do not mind. My friend Lyam, a hertasi scribe, I told him of my life before we set off the second device in the Tower-- there were many great weapons, you see, creations of Urtho's even he was afraid to use, and did not think it safe to disassemble. Time did what he could not, in some cases, and when we sent out a counterwave to gain more time to find the solution, others were destroyed."

His smile fades, slowly, and he fumbles for his tea again, managing not to spill as he sips.

"We set off a second device, once we had a better translation of the instructions, and it was that experience which killed my friend Florian, and scarred Firesong, and blinded me."

"But you were able to save your world? That is what you were all trying to do, no matter-" She bites her lip.

"No matter what it may have done to you and yours. And all of you suceeded, even where this Urtho did not."

If Svava knew him better, she would even add that she was proud that they were able to do so, and change from the path fate was taking them down. It usually cannot be done.

If Svava mentioned fate, Karal would only be confused; after all, even the gods are constrained by Their choice to grant free will to Their people, are they not? Surely, then, if free will is so important, fate has nothing to do with any of them.

Besides, as one Karal knows would often say, Glorious Destinies make Glorious Funerals.

He shakes his head, meanwhile. "No-- no, I think perhaps I have misspoken. Urtho was a brilliant man, but he died thousands of years ago. It was his death, and Ma'ar's, that caused the first Cataclysm. This was an echo of that first disaster, but we did not wish for the results to be so great."

Unspoken: It took those thousands of years to make certain parts of the world habitable again.

Different views on fate, and inforced differently on other worlds. Though Svava quite agrees with the Glorious Destinies part. So very much.

Thousands of years. Svava nods slowly.

"If it had happened, though- how bad would it have been?"

"We don't know, of course," he says, simply. "We can guess, based on what we know of the first. Where Ma'ar's palace once stood there is now a lake, a lake where the rock melted into glass, in a perfect circle-- Lake Evendim. The first shockwave from Urtho's Tower created the Dhorisha Plains, and there is a great cliff around their circumference. Entire stretches of land, larger than any country I have ever seen, were rendered unlivable, poisoned by magic, filled with creatures changed beyond recognition, and the Tayledras were still working to clean the Pelagirs when the Storms came back again."

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