"Something like that. I don't know--"
"No. No. Or--wait--" He tried to focus his thoughts upon a far, faint
calling that came from infinite distances. His name. An urgent summons--
It faded and was gone.
"There's nothing," Stuart said finally, and Kari moved her shoulders
uneasily.
"No help there, then."
"Tell me one thing. What's the Aesir's power? Hypnotism?"
"No," Kari said, "or not entirely. They can make thoughts into real
things. They are--what the race of man will evolve into in a million
years. And they have changed, into beings utterly alien to humans."
"They looked human--giants, though."
"They can assume any shape," Kari told him. "Their real form is
unimaginable. Being of pure energy ... mental force ... matrixes of
electronic power. They were striking at you through your mind."
Stuart said, "I wondered why they didn't set some of their Watchers on
me."
"I don't know why they didn't," Kari frowned. "Instead, they hammered
at your weaknesses--old fears that hung on to you for years.
Experiences that frightened you in the past. They sent your mind back
into that past--but you were too strong for them."
"Too strong--?"
"Then. They have other powers, Stuart--incredible powers. You can't
fight them alone. And you _must_ fight them. In a thousand years no one
has dared--"