The pope’s primary reason for agreeing to help Daniel was to preserve the supply of flying stones. He reluctantly had to admit that the king was right about the impact an interruption in the supply of this essential power source would have on every aspect of inter-level travel. With no connection between the levels, there would be no way to collect the tribute from Levels Three and Four and no way to transport the collected funds from all levels, including his Level Two, to Sisilia ... that would not be tolerated by the First Level Crystals. If he didn’t step up to assist with a solution to deal with the unrest in Sdel, they would consider him part of the problem. Still, it rankled to know the king was virtually blackmailing him. He didn’t trust that man. He felt that Daniel only
