Iahn helped Warian and Zeltaebar Datharathi prepare Eined for burial. The boy, Warian, wept quietly as he worked. Zel's eyes were bright with restrained tears and his fingers shook. Neither quailed from what had to be done. The vengeance taker respected them for that stability of character. They'd obviously both been close to the girl, in their own ways. For his part, Iahn was impressed with the strength of personality that had propelled Eined as far as she'd gone, even without martial skill or magical aid. Without her, he and the fugitive wizard would still be casting about for a way to regain Deep Imaskar.
That was their destination, and they needed to move quickly. Ususi had glared at him when he demanded she take them straight to Deep Imaskar.
Apparently he'd failed, once again, to observe protocol. He sighed. He recognized that she knew more about Pandorym and what to do about it than he, a strong-arm vengeance taker. She was a wizard, Imaskar-trained. She said they needed Warian's help, and therefore, his good will. So they aided the young man in paying final respects to his sister. Ususi magically produced rolls of fine white linen for funerary wrapping, along with fragrant oils and a tome titled The Writ of Adama the wizard somehow managed to draw from the sunlit world into the lightless artificial void. Ususi's Celestial Nadir expertise, plus her knowledge of spells and sorceries, made her a potent force. Potent enough to deal with Pandorym? The vengeance taker shrugged. Time would tell. Before long, Eined was fully wrapped and prepared according to the Vaelanites' wishes. Ususi lit a brilliant magical light over the three paths. They stood around the tiny form that lay at the nexus's center, their heads bowed. Many moments passed. Warian bent down on one knee. "Good-bye, Sis," he breathed. "I'm… I'll miss you…" He couldn't finish. In one hand he clutched Eined's blue sash. Zel stepped forward and laid his hands on Warian's shoulders. He said nothing. Ususi swallowed. Her eyes glistened. With a taut voice, she said, "The Celestial Nadir has seen its share of burials. The remains of powerful emperors drift within this great dark, in grand mausoleums of granite and crystal. But it is not the style in which our loved ones are given over to the great gulf that matters. It is our memory of the departed and the esteem in which we hold them that lets them live on." Ususi coughed slightly and continued. "In the short time I knew Eined Datharathi, I found that her character was among the finest and strongest I've known. She was willing to endanger herself to accomplish what she thought was right, and for that willingness, she made the ultimate sacrifice, despite our best efforts to guard her."
Ususi paused, leaned down, and laid her hand on the wrapped figure's forehead for a moment. She straightened, and a tear traced a sudden line down her cheek. She said, "Eined Datharathi's sacrifice in bringing us here, to the Celestial Nadir, could be the difference between the extinction of the rest of her family and its survival.
Moreover, had she not risked all to guide us here, Deep Imaskar would have no chance at all for salvation. If we survive to record it, Eined Datharathi's name will be remembered among the greatest heroes of our people." Iahn squinted slightly, the only outward sign of his consternation. Ususi had broken the law of the Great Seal again by speaking of Deep Imaskar to those who did not dwell there. He hoped he would not bear the burden of imposing discipline on her. "And," added Zel, "If we survive this, those of us untainted by Shaddon's folly will raise her to the status of family saint, and put her likeness in stone in our hall." Zel squeezed Warian's shoulder again, and the young man bent down to tie Eined's blue sash around her wrapped wrist.
With a gesture from Ususi, the body slid toward the edge of the path.
Instead of dropping, it drifted gently into the dark. Iahn noted that the wizard had the keystone clutched in one hand. Ususi's mastery of the Nadir uplifted the wrapped body. The white form slowly receded. As Eined dwindled, she flared with illumination, taking on the same glow as all the other objects that drifted within the artificial space. The body receeded, growing smaller and smaller, until Eined's light was indistinguishable from the other motes that wafted through the darkness. She was gone. With a subtle swing of her head, Ususi gestured Iahn to follow, and they walked a few paces down the stone path. Warian and Zel remained together, gazing into the dark. The vengeance taker said in a low voice, "A good sendoff." Ususi said,
"Thanks. That was one of the harder things I've had to do." She rubbed her lower lip. Then, "Let's give them a few more moments. Besides, I want to tell you something." He cocked his head, disliking drama.
"Iahn, I know you want me to create some route that'll connect us immediately to Deep Imaskar. But listen. The source of the attack on our city is close. And unless I miss my guess, it comes from…" the wizard pointed down the path that was blocked by a shimmering screen, blurring the image of an incredibly tall fortress tower, "… there. "That fantastic structure, my friend," explained Ususi,
"exactly matches a painting hanging in the audience chamber of the lord apprehender." "I've seen that painting. What is it?" "The Purple Palace. The ancient seat of the Imaskari Empire." Iahn blinked.
"Incredible." "A paragon of understatement. Do they train you for such subtlety?" asked Ususi. "Apparently, the entire palace was stored in the Celestial Nadir before the end of the empire. The records in Deep Imaskar assume that the palace remained in the world, buried below the shifting sands of Raurin. Turns out, it's been here all along." "It does not quite look 'here,' though," commented the vengeance taker.
Ususi's brow furrowed, and she gazed at the structure through the keystone. Still gazing through the translucent stone, she said,
"You're right. It's not. How strange!" "What?" "It has slipped into our world! It has returned…" Ususi continued to observe the structure through the lens of her keystone, apparently learning additional information through its tiny aperture, "… can it be? Yes!
It has found its original foundation. But it retains a tenuous link with the Celestial Nadir. The link is Pandorym's influence. Its psyche is entangled with something still here." "Let me take a stab-is it entangled with that?" Iahn pointed down the path to the great misshapen boulder. "Difficult to say." "Then let's find out." The vengeance taker gripped his dragonfly blade, wondering what sort of violence he could bring to bear on such a large rock. Ususi followed him. She said, "Whatever the link, Pandorym remains rooted in the palace. Which makes sense. Some of the creatures it threw at us, like the shadow eft, are remnants of a race that now exists only in the Imperial Weapons Cache. Pandorym must have released and subverted them to its own power. I wonder what else it's released." Iahn nodded as he studied the great rock, more concerned with it than Ususi's musing for the moment. The vengeance taker looked to the wizard and saw she was standing some paces back, inspecting the boulder through her keystone.
After a few moments, he grew impatient and sheathed his weapon. Then he pulled himself up onto the stone. With skill acquired during a childhood spent in a gargantuan cavern, he free-climbed the overhanging, bulging rock surface. He easily reached the lowest jagged crack in the boulder's mostly smooth surface. Iahn was somewhat familiar with geology, thanks to Deep Imaskar's location, and therefore knew a geode was a hollow, spherical rock whose cavity was lined with crystals. Some geodes were completely filled with crystals.