Now, standing at the balcony’s railing, Nadja shook her head to clear away the memories. She wiped tears from her face with a handkerchief and stood up straight. Carla hadn’t been able to explain why the explosive blast had been contained, had stopped and reversed itself. That was the only reason that Nadja had survived at all. Carla had found no magical barrier. Nothing simple like that. The best Carla had come up with was that somehow, when the manastorm had been created, the blast energy had been sucked back into the vortex and had vented into astral space and the metaplanes.