JAKE MUNCHED ON SOME FRUIT AND THOUGHT longingly of a steak. He sighed when he realized he was also thinking longingly of rations.

When do we go back to Zeratul? he asked.

...We do not.

What? What do you mean?

He will either come to us now, or else we depart. We have pushed him as far as we can.

Jake bit his lower lip. I went too far, huh?

So I thought, at first. But perhaps it is what he needed. Zeratul carries more than one burden of guilt, of bringing tremendous harm to those he only sought to protect. Compassion is necessary, yes. But we do not have the luxury of days or months for him to heal from this. He must decide to join us, or we must press on.

Press on to where?

She was silent within him. Her stalwart spirit was close to despair. It rattled Jake and upset him more than he would have thought, and he was desperate to comfort her. More than just his life was at stake here, and Zamara had always been rock-solid.

He's not the only dark templar, Zamara.

We cannot go to Shakuras. He is the only dark templar I know of who is not on that world.

But... well... the protoss are on a lot of different worlds, aren 't they?

The protoss of Aiur are not the protoss who were banished from Aiur. The dark templar, to the best of my knowledge, stayed together. I knew of only two sources. One is closed to me by technology; the other has closed himself to me by choice.

Then we just go. We go somewhere that sounds logical and we eliminate places one by one.

Humor that was painful and sad moved through him. Jacob, there are quite literally hundreds of worlds. And each world is wide.

"Needle in a haystack," Jake muttered. "I understand."

She sent back a thought of utter bafflement until he explained the reference. Jake finished the fruit and tossed the rind and core into the little pool. He buried his face in his hands for a moment.

"Even if it is a needle in a haystack," he muttered, "we can't give up. We'll just keep trying, and trying, and if we fall down, we'll get back up."

"That," came a thought that was not Zamara's, "is the lesson of the humans."

Startled, Jake looked up. He saw nothing. He got to his feet, looking around. The mental voice belonged to Zeratul, but where was he?

And then, right where Jake was staring, something shifted. A ripple, a blur, then again nothing. And then there, over in the shadow of the large tree, there was a darker shadow, and then there was Zeratul.

Jake realized with a start that he had seen this before—he knew what to look for. His mind went back to the memories Zamara had shared with him: "The fugitives need to be able to cover themselves. To... hide," Adun had said.

And Raszagal's promise: "We will put our knowledge toward keeping ourselves safe. To merging with the shadows, unseen." And later, "We have studied hard, as I told you we would. Now we can bend light to hide ourselves."

"Adun toridas, "Jake whispered. Zeratul nodded.

"We learn, we dark templar. It is what has kept us alive," he said quietly. "We learned much when we were on Aiur, and we never forgot who we were. We learned from Adun that shadow and light are illusions, and how to clothe ourselves in them so that others see what we wish them to see. We learned from the cold darkness of the very Void itself knowledge and skills that we have mastered, skills that enabled us to work against the zerg in a way that other protoss could not. We learned from the zerg and their queen the price of trust too lightly given."

He stepped forward. Jake found him an imposing figure, dark and green and powerful in a way that the Aiur protoss, straight, gleaming, and sunlit beings that they were, were not. But there was nothing to fear from Zeratul. He knew that. There never had been, not even in the moments of his blackest despair or his hottest rage. And now there was a calmness about Zeratul that eased the tension in Jake's chest as the protoss drew within three feet of him.

Zeratul bowed. Deeply. Jake blinked. The gesture wasn't meant for Zamara—it was meant for him.

"From the humans, I have learned that it is possible to be willing to die for others. Others who are not friends, as might be expected,nor even of one's own race. James Raynor was willing to die to protect Shakuras from the zerg. He knew he would be stranded on the deadly side of the gate, and yet he willingly undertook that risk. And you stand here, Jacob Jefferson Ramsey, bearing Zamara. You do not even know her secret, yet I have touched your mind, and if it came to it, you, too, would give your very life for it."

He shook his head, and two emotions brushed Jake: hope.. .and shame.

"You were correct. I do not serve my people by retreating to this pleasant place, to nurse my wounds and indulge my guilt. To brood helps nothing and may indeed invite harm to the very people I have sworn to protect. I must not give up, not even in the face of utter despair. Not even against odds so dreadful I tremble to think of them, or beings so powerful and alien to me that I am but an insect to be squashed. As you said, I must just keep trying, and trying, and if I fall down—why then, I get back up. I am not proud that it took a human to teach me such an important lesson. But I am glad that at least I am not too old to have learned it."

Jake didn't know what to say, so he said nothing. But a smile stretched his face, and hope rekindled inside him.

"Humans are a remarkable race, though still young," Zamara said. "I, too, have learned from Jacob. And it has become important to me that he survive."

Zeratul nodded, then squared his shoulders. "I have heard you speak of your death, Zamara," he said. "And you and Jake now know of the burdens I carry that caused me to shirk my duties to the protoss people. I am ready to shoulder those burdens again. We began with a story. I would hear more of it. But before you speak of Ulrezaj, let me tell you what I know of him."

Jake listened attentively, for he realized that even he didn't know everything that Zamara did about Ulrezaj. Zeratul told him about the first time he and Ulrezaj had met. Under Zeratul's command, a handful of ships had landed on Aiur, investigating a rumor that three particularly powerful individuals survived in stasis cells.

"And of course, once we reached orbit, we realized how many were still alive on Aiur itself. That revelation, and my agreement to stay silent about it, is yet another burden of guilt I carry," Zeratul said heavily as the story unfolded. "We three—Selendis, Artanis, and I—decided that it was wiser to not plant false hope. We assumed, given how the zerg were rampaging across the surface of Aiur, that by the time a rescue mission of sufficient strength could be mounted, there would be no one left on Aiur to save."

Jake nodded slowly. "I remember that the protoss themselves were surprised when the targeted slaughter just stopped," he said. He felt pity for Zeratul. The guy had a lot to handle.

The dark templar prelate continued. "Ulrezaj and his followers attacked, destroying two of the three stasis cells and the templar within them. He was physically a dark templar then, one of the deadliest in our history. I know not how he learned to merge with more than one other, nor how he continues to exist. The dark archons are powerful weapons, but until Ulrezaj, they were finite beings. He must have some source of energy to replenish himself, and to continue to bring more dark templar into his madness."

"Maybe it was something he learned from the chambers," Jake offered. "Some long-forgotten xel'naga technology. If he was on Aiur's moon, maybe he'd already begun exploring the caverns."