This study deals with time and with music, and the link between the two is the suggestion that music is a modeling of the way we construct time. Time--the now, duration, succession and order of succession; the past, the future--is seen as a resource for managing systemic disequilibrium and as the evolutionary elaboration of the now. As organic dynamical systems humans maintain themselves by means of self-regulatory actions, nows, and these nows are proposed as feeding off a pre-temporal, interindividually accessed energy in nature, an ongoing cosmic proto-present. Speech is a way out of...

Armies are gathering but Astalus, the Thracian court wizard, is in a quandary. Shocking news has arrived from an unlikely source. A spy, arrested brazenly entering the city, claims to be a prince from a royal household that was overthrown, the family members murdered over sixty years ago. Intriguingly, the spy's claim to be from Allund is more than a coincidence, for the army marching against them is also from Allund. Who indeed to trust? The stranger brings with him news of an army from Trosgarth, which can only mean one thing. Drachar's shade has been summoned and the Prophecy is coming to...

Astalus has returned. He has found an Eldric spell book and, in particular, a spell to summon dragons. The allies march north to confront the Trosgarth's growing might. Warrior priests can now communicate across the battlefield using their shaol, death knights have been resurrected, and in the air grakyn are supported by a new threat - a demon/dragon hybrid. To make matters worse, Astalus discovers that the power that Kaplyn recovered so long ago can open a permanent gateway to the demon world. Drachar is finally free and his minions will march from the very depths of hell. Astalus knows all...

Omnibus version. Soon men, dragons and demons will wage horrific war. A time is fast approaching when the fabric separating these worlds will thin sufficiently for demons to cross the divide, but the people are largely ignorant of this, preferring forgetfulness rather than confronting their fears. The Eldric, saviours of previous wars, have mysteriously disappeared from the world, leaving behind crumbling ruins. A sorcerer, Vastra, recklessly ambitious and driven by greed for power, seeks an Eldric talisman and recruits Kaplyn and Lars to help. Together they unravel an ancient secret that...

Vastra is a man possessed. Where other men require food to sustain them, his craving is for power. He seeks an Eldric talisman, ensnaring two men to aid him. Fate guides his hand and, unwittingly, he chooses Kaplyn, who is seeking to escape his own destiny and Lars, shipwrecked and friendless, an outcast on the Allund shore. An unlikely trio, they form a fragile alliance but, recklessly ambitious, Vastra will betray them in a heartbeat. Throughout their travels, there are clear signs that demons are active, stealing souls to slake their hunger. Their journey takes them to a mysterious tower,...