"The items we've provided so far are gifts, to show our good intentions. Once your city has had time to get back on its feet, we can begin to talk in earnest." Ususi nodded. "All in good time." Zel turned from badgering the wizard and focused his attention on the swordswoman. "What about you, Kiril? Given any more thought to my proposal? Perhaps this Sildeyuir realm of yours would also like to trade with Vaelan. I could work a deal that would greatly benefit both parties." Warian sighed, but didn't interrupt. Instead, he returned to fiddling with his cards. The elf raised a single eyebrow as she regarded Zeltaebar. "You weren't really listening to me, if you think I have enough influence to open the hidden realm to trade. Or if you think I give a damn about trade in the first place." Zel reddened, but pressed on. "Right. You were saying something about a citadel-that it was time you returned? I'm sorry, what was it called? Deeprock? No?

Understar?" "Stardeep," corrected Kiril. The elf reached for the flask on her hip, spun off the top, and sipped. Even from where the wizard stood at the balustrade, she smelled the bitter tang of hard spirits.

The elf returned the flask to her hip and said, "It's not the kind of place that is interested in barter or luxuries. It's a prison. The less said, the better. Catch my meaning, tradesman?" Kiril fixed Zel with an ominous scowl. "Hey, I can take a hint!" Zel backed away and dropped onto the cushioned bench next to his nephew, muttering. The wizard was curious about the swordswoman's bitterness and veiled references. Kiril was adept at saying just enough to rouse interest about her past, before the span when she worked for Thormud. Then she'd invariably clam up, curse, and threaten anyone who asked questions. A story was hidden in her evasions, but not one Ususi had the energy to pursue. Not when she had her own newly minted dream to follow. Ususi looked back across the darkening sky. Since Pandorym's entrapment, she'd explored the palace a little. What she'd found amazed her. The entire edifice was a powerful relic of her vanished ancestors. Some of its chambers seemed bigger on the inside than out.

She'd sealed the weapons cache, but other chambers and vaults within the palace promised to reveal less dire secrets. Truth be told, with her discovery of the palace, her impetus to continue her original quest-locating each of the twenty gates into the Celestial Nadir-had waned. The palace alone would take years to fully plumb. Plus, its size and peculiar qualities offered unique opportunities. The seed of an idea, rooted days earlier, continued to grow in her imagination.

She wondered again-was it time for Imaskar to expand? The city behind the Great Seal would be rebuilt, of course. But perhaps the attack signaled the need for another colony of Imaskari to establish itself.

Perhaps even on the surface from which they'd fled nearly four thousand years earlier. She chuckled. She considered the Palace of the Purple Emperor as the location of her imagined colony. Her exploration of the palace had unearthed startling revelations. She'd discovered how to move the entire structure! Using magical controls in the emperor's suite, she could shift the palace to a kinder location in Faerun than the center of an inhospitable desert. But, before Ususi allowed such grand dreams to sweep her away on a new quest, she had unfinished business to attend. Each day she spent exploring the palace was another day she put off going home. She had to return to Deep Imaskar. She owed it to her people; she owed it to herself. She owed her sister Qari for her life. Without Qari's gift, when she'd flailed in Pandorym's gulf of darkness, they'd all have perished, or worse.

But the price for accepting her sister's gift was steep. Ususi suspected Qari was utterly severed from the world, blind and perhaps suffering. Ususi had run long enough. She would return to Deep Imaskar and help Qari as she was able. She would return her special perception to her sister, if possible. After that, she would reveal her grand plans to the lord apprehender. With or without his blessing, Ususi resolved to bring a kernel of Imaskar back to the surface. In that moment, High Imaskar was born. Whether in folly or in grace, only the future would disclose. The, gray clouds reared above the boundary separating day and night, in whose shadow grew a restful twilight of cooling desert sand. about the author Bruce R. Cordell is a longtime game designer known chiefly for his many adventures. His novel credits include Oath of Nerull (under the house name of T. H. Lain) and Lady of Poison. Bruce's published short stories include "Hollows of the Heart," in Children of the Rune, and "Not All That Tempts," in Dragon's Return. He maintains a blog at brucecordell. com.