Editing Petrokov (section)

=Background=

Petrokov was always an eager, interested student of the Esoteries, collecting complete and fragmentary machines, reading books on them, but never quite achieving any power.

And then he found the Crown.

It looked incomplete, nonfunctional, but he thought he recognized neural interface togs, and put it on his head.  But it wasn't broken, it wasn't nonfunctional, and it struck at once, burrowing into his body, merging with him, echoing in his mind.  And its power was at his fingertips-- not merely ready, but ''eager.''

''Using'' the ice was never the problem.  ''Stopping'' the ice was more of one-- the Crown seemed to regard so many things as potential dangers, and was so eager to strike them down, to freeze them, slash them with ice, destroy them utterly with the force that carves mountains and levels plains.

Eventually, Petrokov learned to stop it, but by then he was in exile from his home village.  But that... that, he could live with.  He'd learned what he could, there.

Now came travel.  Now came exploration.

Now came the quest to complete the Crown, and master it, lest it run beyond control.