Chapter 12

Memories that had been fractured for more than a thousand trine came together again.

A nameless urSkek neonate felt life well inside it for the first time. It dwelled in a place of warmth and darkness, well fed and never alone. It knew no fear, but it knew nothing else, either ...

The neonate became aware of light, and cold, and other new sensations. It became aware of its fellow neonates around it, and of the tall, shining ones who cared for them ...

The neonate felt a change coming over it. The shining ones took it away from the others, and lulled it into a death-like slumber where it knew nothing but its own dreams. Only in that state could it survive the metamorphosis it would have to go through before it could become one of them …

The dreams ended, and an urSkek neophyte awakened, body transformed and mind aware in ways it had not been before. He knew himself, and he knew his name: SoSu.

Elder urSkeks guided the young SoSu as he learned their world and their ways. He proved a brilliant, eager student, hungry for knowledge of all things, and that eagerness worried his elders. UrSkeks were not meant to chase so many different trails. Each was meant to have one place where they belonged, where their talents might best be put to use for the good of all - the Council had always said so. If SoSu could not find his place, he would leave his heart vulnerable to darkness.

But there was one place where such a variety of knowledge could be useful. In time, SoSu the neophyte became SoSu the Teacher.

He took newly-awakened neophytes under his care, guiding them to find their own strengths and explore what brought each of them happiness in life. He shared in each one's happiness, and for a long time, his role brought him joy.

But as Ages passed, SoSu began to grow discontented. He saw his students, all so eager for knowledge at the moment of awakening, have that eagerness drained away as they stagnated in the roles where the Council had deemed they would be most useful. Even more distressing, he found himself with fewer and fewer new students over time; since urSkeks almost never died, the Council had forbidden any more neonates from being conceived unless absolutely necessary.

SoSu missed the delight of sharing the universe's wonders with fledgling minds - and in the darker half of his nature, he also missed the adulation his students had given him. And it was the loss of both that set him on a new path, determined to bring change to their world.

With no neophytes brought to him anymore (the few new urSkeks that were still being born were always bred for some predetermined role, and sent to be trained for that role as soon as they awakened), SoSu began taking older urSkeks as his students. He had long seen that not all were content with their places in life, or with the rules and traditions the Council said they must follow. There were many willing to listen to his idea that each individual should follow the path that brought them happiness - that doing so was notselfish, and not tantamount to heresy. If everyone was truly happy with what they chose to do for their society, surely it could only make things better for all?

The Council knew, of course. Secrecy was not the urSkek way - not in that Age, not yet - and SoSu was not the first who had questioned their ways. They saw his sincere wish to help his people, and how easily his voice and charisma won him followers, and wondered how they might make use of him. When ZedGeb the Senior Councillor chose to step down, with SharSet taking his place and leaving an empty spot among the Grand Nine, they believed they had their answer.

They made the invitation, and SoSu the Teacher became SoSu the Councillor.

His was one of the highest ranks in their society. At last, he had the authority to dictate their people's future. Any other urSkek would have been satisfied with that, but SoSu was still discontented.

He chafed when the other Councillors refused his ideas, and in turn, he challenged their refusal to change. Each time, SharSet warned him that deviance would only bring tragedy. The urSkeks, she said, had existed as a race long enough for them to always know what was best - if all followed the same road, no one would be lost.

So he turned to secrecy, and SoSu the Councillor became, at the same time, SoSu the Neoteric.

By now, he had gathered a handful of favored disciples from among his followers, and they continued to gather in secret. Sixteen urSkeks, all from different walks of life, would listen devotedly as SoSu preached his philosophy of individual happiness. Each would then attempt to spread his teachings in their daily lives, both through word and through example. But with only sixteen against a population of thousands, any hint of change was slow in coming.

It frustrated SoSu. He had always been considered impatient by urSkek standards, and he believed in his heart that their world needed to change. If it did not, that would bring true tragedy in the end.

When GraGoh the Surveyor had come before the Council with a strange story of Crystal-bearing planets vanishing without a trace, SoSu had seized an opportunity. Here was a new, tangible threat to their world. Here was proof that the urSkeks did not have all the knowledge the universe had to offer. He brought GraGoh into the fold of his disciples (SoSu had genuinely liked the Surveyor's enthusiasm and flair for theatrics, and GraGoh had been grateful for the Councillor's support), and then he had begun his own research …

All these memories and more came back to SoSu's shade. And, from the final years of his sundered life, he remembered the Gelfling who stood before him now.

"Jen."

The thought-voice was like urSu's, but with a strength and richness Jen had never heard from the elderly Mystic in life. When he listened to it, he could understand how the urSkek had inspired so many to follow him.

"Master…?" He approached, uncertain.

"...Yes, I was the Master. And the Emperor. I remember them both." SoSu looked down at his restored form, still comprehending the change from the bodies he'd inhabited for a thousand trine. Finally, he turned his white eyes on Jen again. "I remember everything. "

It had been hard at first for Jen to recognize the eight living urSkeks as the Mystics who'd raised him, and it was even harder to do so for SoSu now. He'd known urSu's face so well, from his arched snout with the healed-over broken spot, to his dark, gentle eyes, to the pattern of every wrinkled dream-spiral.

But as with the others, as he watched him, Jen began to see things he did recognize. A tilt of the head, the cadence of his words … yes, this was still his dear Master.

He wished he could take all the time in the world to speak to him - to enjoy this chance he'd never thought he'd have. But time was slipping way in the world of the living, and Kira and the others could not wait.

"Then, you remember about the Star-Shadow too?" He looked up at SoSu with eyes full of hope.

SoSu hesitated. "Yes."

"And you know how to stop it?"

SoSu did not answer him right away. He looked around the spectral Chamber, at the scores of ghosts watching them. All of them, Gelfling and urSkek alike, had died because of his actions in life. Most knew that, but none had known the whole truth of what had led to the Twice-Nine's exile and set Thra on its path to destruction.

"... I remember what I believed would stop it. But Jen, do you remember what my light shard told you?"

Jen nodded. "That the Star-Shadow was a thing of death."

"And that my designs would only have brought more death."

That gave Jen pause. He remembered that too, but he'd wanted to believe it was just more of the fatalism that had gripped urSu's shade. He tried to ignore it, but a cold dread began to grow inside him. "What did you mean by that? I still don't understand."

SoSu's corona dimmed to no more than a flicker. When he spoke, looking out at the gathered ghosts, his voice was low and heavy with guilt.

"Then I must explain. After GraGoh told me of his discovery, I made my own journey out into space. I went alone, and told no one, so no other lives would be risked." But that had not been the whole truth, so he admitted, corona dimmed further, "And because I wanted the glory of discovery to be mine alone."

SoSu's shade drew himself up straighter. "I finally came close enough to observe the force that had destroyed the other worlds. I called it the Star-Shadow did not know of any other name for such a thing. It is … it used to be a Crystal-bearing planet."

Jen stared, stunned. He'd tried to imagine what the Devouring might be, but he'd never considered that. And, he noticed, the other urSkek ghosts were shocked as well.

MalVa spoke first, his eyes narrowed. "Is that why you asked me so much about my explorations on planets with dying stars?"

TekTih's corona wavered. His right eye was darkened - a remembered echo of what he'd lost in life - but his left one flared bright with understanding. "I did wonder why you were suddenly so interested in the growth cycle and structural properties of our Crystal."

"Yes." SoSu lowered his eyes. "I was never able to discover how the Star-Shadow came to exist, but I knew what it was now. A dark ghost of a once-living world. And it was being drawn to other worlds with Crystals. It would consume them, down to the last particle, along with their suns and moons, and then move on as ravenous as before. I knew it would only be a matter of time before it neared our world."

A hint of darkness appeared in SoSu's dimmed corona as he remembered what had happened after that. "When I told the rest of the Council, they decided we should wait and observe further. They thought an answer would reveal itself in time. But all I could imagine was the Star-Shadow falling over my home and destroying all I loved. I had to act. I would have gone mad if I did not."

"And what was it you did?" Jen was almost afraid to find out.

"I meant to turn the Crystal into a weapon."

Now the secret was spoken.

Just as he'd expected, SoSu saw horror on the faces of the Gelfling, and dismay and guilt in the coronas of his fellow urSkeks. Some of them had surely suspected his plan, he thought, but it was one thing to suspect, and another to be told outright what they had nearly helped their leader do.

It hurt, as he'd also expected, to see them looking at him that way. In the dark part of his heart, the terror and rage skekSo had felt when his followers abandoned him threatened to rise. But this time, the patience that had been in urSu was there to calm it - especially when he looked at Jen still in front of him.

His final student had come so far to speak to him. He deserved to know everything, no matter how it might reflect on his teacher.

"I'd studied enough to know that our facet of the Crystal of Truth is uncommonly large and powerful. I believed that if we altered its structure in just the right way, we could transform that power. We would generate a wave of destructive energy, and unleash it at the Star-Shadow."

TekTih stared. "That is how you meant to preserve our world?"

"Why didn't you tell us?" VarMa sounded almost sad.

This was the hardest part to admit. "I feared if you knew my true intention, you might try to stop me. To turn a Crystal into an instrument of destruction is one of the worst sins our people could imagine. So I deceived you all. I led you into heresy, and death, all because of my own arrogance."

Dismay rippled through the urSkek ghosts again, this time tinged with anger and hurt.

"None of us are guiltless," VarMa said, before the others could speak up. He kept his tone calmly authoritative, drawing on his centuries of experience as the Peacemaker. "We should not have agreed to help you so blindly. Any of us could have questioned, or turned back if we had doubts. I remember you made that clear. But all the same … SoSu, you could have trusted us. You did not have to bear this alone."

SoSu looked up, meeting his eyes. "And I see that now, too late."

Jen had been listening in silence, unable to find words as he learned the magnitude of what SoSu had done - or tried to do. This was the secret he'd come here to learn? This was the answer SoSu's surviving disciples had crossed the galaxy for?

"But that wouldn't have worked!" Mira spoke up angrily, and her words echoed Jen's own thoughts. "The Crystal is the heart of all life! Corrupting it like that would have destroyed the world!"

"She's right." TekTih watched Mira with a corona dimmed in bleak regret. "We all witnessed what happened when Thra's Crystal was … altered. What you're speaking of … even if the Crystal had withstood the process, the lasting results would have-"

"Brought more death," SoSu finished for him. "Now you understand. My plan was folly from the beginning. The Star-Shadow devours every Crystal it encounters. One alone could never have stopped it. All I would have done was doom our planet to its own Darkening, or something even worse."

He gazed down at Jen. "I'm sorry. I truly am. But I do not know how to stop the Star-Shadow."

If he'd been told this at the start of his journey, Jen might have been overcome with despair. He'd come here so hopeful, and with the hopes of his friends and loved ones also weighing on him, only to find that what he was seeking was worse than useless.

But he was not the same as he'd been when he started this quest. He'd already seen and accomplished things that had not seemed possible.

He'd inspired the Skeksis and urRu to become one again. He'd found a way to free the dead from this realm. He'd faced skekSo and broken his symbol of power. And, while he'd had help and guidance along the way, he'd ultimately accomplished it all by trusting his own judgment.

Sometimes more wisdom can be gained by taking the less direct path, he remembered. If we can't use SoSu's original plan, perhaps we can come up with another one. Together.

And it was that word, together, that sparked a new idea.

Images circled through Jen's mind. Stones scattered across a pond, their ripples touching as they spread across the water. Three suns lining up, casting a beam of power that could heal a broken world. Hundreds of voices joined in a single song, opening a path from death into life. The endless prism-like pattern GraGoh had shown him on the path between Crystals …

Jen looked up at SoSu. Glancing from him to the other urSkeks, he cautiously spoke. "You said one Crystal could never stop it. But what about more than one?"

He saw SoSu's dim, dark corona begin to brighten. "... Go on."

"All Crystals are connected, aren't they? That's how you were able to travel from your world to Thra, and the other planets. They're connected because they're all pieces of the one great Crystal of Truth, like you said. Isn't there some way to channel that power instead? Combine the power of the Crystals, without harming them or their worlds?"

SoSu was silent for a long moment.

"Perhaps. To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever attempted such a thing. It could be done, I think. But I do not know how one would make a Crystal send forth its power that way."

TekTih's corona flared around his head with sudden insight. "Aughra might. She understands the nature of the Crystal in ways even I could never comprehend." He turned to GraGoh. "You were able to communicate with her through Thra's Crystal. It stands to reason she may have the insight needed to open a line of communication between all Crystals." He looked at the distortion above the shaft, and his tone grew uneasy. "I … don't imagine she'll relish encountering me again."

"She accepted the others," Jen tried to reassure him. The voice was so much like urTih's, except he couldn't remember ever hearing urTih sound afraid. "She'll listen to you. We're facing something too big now to dwell on the past."

"But at least we have reason to hope now!" said GraGoh. "Your idea is a good one. But you can't put it into action from this side."

SoSu nodded slowly, and drifted closer to the young Gelfling. "Yes. You've done all that you can here, Jen. Now it truly is time for you to return to the world of the living. You must tell Aughra and the others of your idea, and quickly!"

Jen knew he was right. Who knew how long it might take to open a channel between multiple Crystals? But at the same time, looking at the scores of ghosts around him, he hated the thought of leaving them behind.

"But what about all of you?"

GraGoh's corona rippled in mingled fondness and annoyance. "Didn't I tell you there was no point in returning to a world that's about to be devoured? We'll be fine here. Go stop the Star-Shadow, then you can come back for us."

The other urSkek shades seemed content with that idea, but Jen could see worry spreading through the Gelfling ghosts. They murmured among themselves, wanting to hope but afraid of losing this chance. Up on one balcony, he noticed the black-haired guard who had doubted him earlier - Tolyn, that was what the other ghosts had called him - looking down at him with suspicion.

Jen approached Mira, still at the head of her crowd of ghosts. "If you want to leave now …"

The white-haired Gelfling shook her head. "He's right. You need to go back and do this first. Save Thra, so we can return to it."

"... All right. But once that's done, I will come back and free you." He looked up and around, raising his voice as he addressed all the dead Gelfling. "Right away! I promise! I'll come back for all of you!"

"I believe you." Mira smiled. "We've all waited this long. We can wait a little longer."

Jen smiled back. "It won't be long at all. I promise that too."

He stepped away from her, walking toward the distortion. At the edge of the dark shaft, he lifted his firca.

Time to see if this really is the way out.

The gathered ghosts watched as he played the double note. One by one, they each joined in, adding their voices to the song, watching as the distortion glowed white and took on the shape of the Crystal of Truth.

Last of all, SoSu joined in, his strong voice carrying over the others. As he did, a curving bow of light arched out from the bottom of the shining portal. It formed a narrow bridge across the shaft, mirroring the one EktUtt had so recently sculpted in the living world.

Summoning all his courage, Jen stepped onto the bridge of light.

It wavered for an instant, but steadied as he kept playing the note. He must not let himself be distracted, he understood, or he faced a fall into endless darkness.

Keeping the music steady, and resisting the urge to look back at the ghosts who still sang with him, Jen took one step, a second, and a third. On the other side of the Crystal-shaped portal, he could see nothing but more white light.

He stepped through the portal. The world turned around him as he felt himself pass through air and fire …

Jen opened his eyes into light.

His heart sped up. Air rushed into his lungs as he drew in a gasping breath. Muscles that had been laying motionless twitched with new life.

Directly over him hung the Crystal. Above it was the ceiling of the Crystal Chamber, sparkling white under its cover of vines and flowers. The sky through the open portals was rose-tinted blue.

He'd made it. He was back in the world of the living.

"You're awake!"

A voice, familiar and beloved. His heart beat faster.

"Ki-"

He tried to say her name, but it turned into a cough in his throat. He tried to turn, tried to follow her voice, but his limbs had not fully awakened, and he nearly rolled off the narrow bridge he still lay on.

{"Easy!"} A male voice spoke, and a hand gripped his shoulder. {"Hold still. We'll get you off of there."}

More hands were on him, and Jen found himself half guided, half dragged off the bridge. The warmth that had been rising from the shaft gave way to cool stone under his back.

Now he could see Kira. Her beautiful face hovered over him as she knelt by his side. Fizzgig was next to her, one front paw on his arm as he sniffed and yapped excitedly. Across from them, Hup crouched on his other side, and the old Podling's eyes were wide with amazement and joy.

"I was afraid you'd never come back." Kira stroked his hair, reassuring herself that he really was here and alive. "Are you all right?"

"I'm -" Jen coughed again, "I'm fine. How long was I gone?"

"Three nights." Jen turned his head at the sound of that voice, and watched as SilSol floated closer. "This is the morning of the third day. Oh Jen, you don't know how glad I am to see you returned!"

With Kira and Hup supporting him, Jen managed to sit up. "... I saw them. All the dead ones. They -" He started to cough again.

UngIm and AyukAmaj were by his side in an instant. With his corona pulsing gently, the Culinarian filled a cup with clear broth from the jug he still carried, and levitated it in front of the Gelfling.

"Don't try to talk too much yet," the Physician ordered. "We all want to hear, but you need to hydrate yourself and restore your waking rhythms first. Drink."

Jen recognized the voice of the Healer he had grown up with, and knew there was no arguing with him. He put his lips to the cup, and let AyukAmaj tip the broth into his mouth. It was cool on his dry tongue, salty and sweet in equal measure, and it refreshed him in ways he hadn't realized he needed.

By the time he'd drunk his fill, ZokZah and NaNol had joined them. There was still no sign of ShodYod, OkAc, or EktUtt, and none of the person Jen most needed to speak to.

He took a deep breath, and his voice came clearer. "Where's Aughra? I would've thought she'd be here."

{"She's gone back to her old home. Lenev had the idea to rebuild her orrery."} Hup gave a proud smile. {"They left with the other three,"} he gestured at the urSkeks with his spoon-arm, {"the morning of the first day."}

"When is she coming back? I have to talk to her!" Jen's legs wobbled as he got to his feet.

"Have patience." ZokZah held out a hand, steadying him with a hint of telekinesis. "Aughra and the others will return when their mission is complete. Until then, you must tell us of your mission, Jen. What have you learned?"

UngIm cut right to the point. "Did you speak to SoSu?"

Jen breathed deep again, hardly knowing where to begin. "I spoke to all of them. They were all there. The Mystics, the Skeksis, the Gelfling … I never dreamed I'd ever see so many Gelfling!" He glanced at Kira as he spoke in wonder. "And there was an urSkek too! That's who Aughra was speaking to. His name is GraGoh."

A bright gleam of amazement radiated through the coronas of the urSkeks.

"So his shards did manage to rejoin," ZokZah said softly. "Even in death."

"They all did." Jen smiled, still awed at the memory of what he had witnessed. "They were divided when I got there, but not anymore. They've all become one again, just like you."

"And SoSu?" UngIm still sounded calm, his corona glowing warmly, but there was an edge of impatience in his voice.

Jen's smile faded.

"He told me about his plan for the Devouring. But it's … well, we can't use it."

UngIm's corona flared with disbelieving gray and agitated red. "What do you mean by that?!"

The Gelfling swallowed. For the first time, he was seeing a hint of the loud, wrathful skekUng who still lived in the Physician's soul. A reminder that this being was not purely the gentle urIm he had known.

"His plan was a mistake. It wouldn't have stopped the Devouring, and warping your Crystal like he planned to would have destroyed your world. Just like Thra was almost destroyed."

The red faded from UngIm's corona, while the gray darkened as anger gave way to dismay. "Jen, are you certain? "

"SoSu said it himself. And TekTih and the others agreed with him." Jen kept his head up. "But we still have a chance!"

It was Ydra who finally insisted Jen needed something more substantial than broth now that he was awake. After he'd told them all of his new idea to channel the power of more than one Crystal, she all but dragged him to the well-ventilated outer chamber that served as the Castle's kitchen.

The vast ovens, roasting spits, and other equipment that had filled it during the time of the Gourmand had mostly been destroyed on the day of the Great Conjunction. But there was a crystalline water tap that had remained intact, left in place from when the urSkeks had first built the Castle. The spout stretched out from the wall like a thrushpog from a tree trunk, and supplied the Castle's residents with water for drinking, washing, and cooking on days when they did not go down to the village for meals.

A pot of porridge, rich with milk and summer vegetables, was warming over the clay-lined fire pit the Podlings had built several trine ago. While Ydra filled bowls (along with a dish of milk for Fizzgig), Jen pulled the stopper from the tap and rinsed his face and hands. He didn't feel as grimy as he knew he ought to after three days without bathing (he supposed the urSkeks had been cleaning him and tending to his bowels while he slept), but the fresh water still felt wonderful. At last, he felt completely alive again.

Kira and Hup had stayed close by his side. The four of them gathered around the kitchen's small table, and as they ate, Jen told them more of what he had seen on his journey.

"I hope they really can still return to Thra," Kira said. "Jen, the Gelfling you saw. Were any of them ..."

He shook his head, and clasped her hand gently. "I didn't see your parents. They already returned to Thra when they died in battle, like Hup told us the other night -"

Jen's eyes shot wide as he remembered. He leapt to his feet, quickly hurrying over to the Podling man in his excitement. "Hup! I learned something else while I was there! Deet's son, the one you thought was lost … Hup, it was me! I'm the son of Rian and Deet!"

Hup stared at him, porridge falling off his spoon-hand. Open-mouthed, he took in the Gelfling's features, hardly daring to believe what he was hearing.

{"... I didn't want to let myself hope,"} he whispered.

Jen gaped. "You mean you knew already?"

Hup shook his head insistently. {"I couldn't be sure. I saw you had Rian's eyes, but blue eyes were common among the Stonewood. And the baby had pale streaks in his hair too, but that wasn't strange for Gelfling either."}

Jen was almost trembling. "Hup, what was their son's name?"

Hup swallowed. {"His name was Jen. When I met you, I did wonder. But then I remembered there were a lot of Stonewood babies named that during the war. I told myself not to hope you might be him. If I was wrong, it would be like losing him and Deet all over again …"}

Jen pulled the old Podling into a warm, joyful embrace before he could say another word. And Hup hugged him back fiercely, neither of them caring when his spoon left a smear of porridge on Jen's tunic.

"You didn't lose me. UrSu must have found me before you could get back to the village that day. I've been safe all this time. You didn't fail."

Tears twinkled in Hup's eyes. {"Deet would be so proud of you. Rian too."}

Some minutes later, as the four of them were finishing their meal, Lenev made her way down into the kitchen.

{"You are awake!"} she declared at the sight of Jen. {"I am glad."}

{"I'm glad to see you back too!"} In their time knowing each other, the two had each picked up a few words of Gruenak and Gelfling, but Podling was still the only language they could truly communicate in. {"Is Aughra with you? I must talk to her!"}

Lenev pointed. {"She is in Chamber. Talk to urSkeks. Come, we all go! She see much, want to tell much!"}

As they headed back to the Crystal Chamber, Jen watched Hup and Lenev talking excitedly back and forth in Gruenak as they told each other all that had happened while they were apart. And as they did, Jen found himself looking at Lenev in a new way.

Both of them were children the Podling had taken under his care. In a way, Jen thought, that made them family.

Jen loved Ydra, and the rest of Kira's adoptive clan, and they had always made him feel welcome. But even so, there were times when he felt lonely among them. All of his own family were either dead, or had been transformed and left Thra - and him - behind.

Now, it turned out, he still had family here on Thra after all. And that was new and wonderful to think about.

Aughra was still in conversation with the eight gathered urSkeks. As Jen and the others entered the Crystal Chamber, she turned and approached him.

"There you are! Seem to be none the worse for wear. And learned some things worth knowing, if what this lot tell me is true!"

"I did learn a lot," he said. "I hardly know where to start."

"At the beginning, of course!" Aughra huffed. "Where else? You try to start somewhere else, you're just going to get yourself lost!"

Jen couldn't argue with that.

As the suns climbed higher above them, he finally told the full tale of his journey through the realm of the dead. When he came at last to what the reunified SoSu had revealed, Aughra shook her head.

"Was afraid that might be true. He only had half the knowledge of what he was facing, and that can be more dangerous than no knowledge at all. The Devouring is a dead thing, but it's also alive. Aware. I saw that for myself."

Kira spoke up. "If it's aware, can't we talk to it? Reason with it somehow?"

Aughra shook her head again. "It's too far gone. Too full of pain and hunger to stop itself." She turned to Jen. "But your idea might just be the answer. The Crystal of Truth is alive too. It has its own mind. Can speak for itself when it wants, and call out to others. None of us here can talk to the Devouring, but the Crystal itself - the true, greater Crystal, all its facets together … yes, that might do it."

Jen brightened, then hesitated. "But how do we get the Crystal to do that?"

"Hmph. That is the question." She looked back over her shoulder at the shining white stone. "Aughra will see what she can do."

The ancient seer approached the Crystal. As she stood before it, bathed in the light of the rising Greater Sun, Jen saw the third eye in her forehead begin to glow yellow. She closed her remaining eye in deep concentration, and began to hum under her breath. Slowly, she reached out toward the Crystal …

Abruptly, she stopped.

The glow in her eye snuffed out like a candle. She yanked her hand back as if burned, dismay written clearly on her face.

"Mother Aughra, what's wrong?" ZokZah asked.

Aughra did not take her eye off the Crystal. "We're about to have more visitors."

A moment later, the white stone started to glow with the same strange, blinding golden light it had three days ago.

Once again, the light spread out into beams - ten of them this time. Each beam formed itself into a tall, luminous figure, and ten urSkeks appeared.

For an instant, Jen dared to hope that his dead Master and the others had somehow found a way to enter the world of the living on their own. But no, he saw; these urSkeks were clearly alive, their coronas bright and steady.

The patterns on their white robes were different too. The front panels prominently featured two symbols Jen remembered urZah teaching him: the ones for 'protect' and 'order opposing chaos'.

The eight's coronas turned pale at the sight of the newcomers.

One urSkek, whose robe also bore the symbol for 'command', floated forward. When she spoke, her thought-voice was stern and cold. "Once-Fallen. I'm pleased to see we find you all in one place."

Red flickered in UngIm's corona. "What are you doing here, MbasMbet?"

"You and your comrades have been ordered to return to OmPhaben at once, Physician. We are here to escort you." She made a polite wave of her hand toward the Crystal, as if inviting him to enter. "And you will address me as Commander. "

SilSol moved across the now-crowded Chamber as he spoke. "And why is our presence so insistently requested?"

MbasMbet narrowed her eyes. "I'm sure you know that already, Cantor."

"Mmmm, perhaps. But there have been far too many secrets kept already. Enlighten us, Commander. Speak openly."

"I see no reason to," she said sharply, watching SilSol. "You are ordered by the Council. That should be enough for any true urSkek to obey."

SilSol's corona turned gray. "And yet it is not. We have good cause not to trust the Council. If you would listen, I think you might be convinced too -"

In the blink of an eye, MbasMbet whipped something curved and dark from inside her robe. It flew across the Chamber and struck SilSol directly in the throat.

The Cantor's thought-voice was instantly silenced. A disk-shaped collar of black metal, spreading out like the rings of a planet, had locked itself around his neck. It was so dark that it visibly drained the light from his corona, and the terrified, voiceless SilSol clawed at it in vain.

"You won't sway anyone else with your lies," MbasMbet snapped. "Did you think you could defy the Council without consequences?"

Aughra marched up to the Enforcer Commander, pointing her walking stick threateningly. "How dare you! He and the others came here trying to save both our worlds! They're here as my guests. You are intruders! Let him go, and then get out, all of you!"

MbasMbet looked down at the horned sage as if she were a worm or rodent that had somehow learned to talk. "I see you've taught some of this planet's lifeforms to communicate with us. How charming. Your work, Chronicler?"

Two of the other Enforcers had flanked the now-powerless SilSol. "Commander," one of them spoke up, "we must hurry. The connection between Crystals cannot be kept open for long."

"You're right. We've wasted enough time."

With a wave of telekinesis, MbasMbet shoved Aughra into the mouth of the Crystal shaft. The fragile web of roots and vines tore open under her as she fell.

MbasMbet did not even glance at her. "Get nullifiers on the rest of them."

UngIm quickly turned to the Gelfling. "Jen, Kira, run!"

"Come on!" Kira snatched up the snarling, screaming Fizzgig under one arm. With her other hand, she caught Jen's arm, trying to get him to flee with her through the nearest archway. But he lingered, unable to look away in his horror.

The Enforcers moved fast, locking two more of those black disk-collars on ZokZah and ShodYod. The Ritualist and Arithmetician froze, unable to speak - barely even able to keep themselves levitated.

"This isn't neces-" OkAc's words were cut off as they silenced the Chronicler too.

NaNol, his corona burning with rage, tried to fight back. He channeled his power into the vines around him, bringing them to life in a writhing forest of green. With them, he lashed at the Enforcers, and managed to knock the first nullifier aside. But MbasMbet's second in command shredded the vines with his own telekinesis, and the next nullifier caught the Botanist from behind. Splintered, broken vines and crushed flowers instantly dropped to the floor.

In the corridor, Hup yanked at Jen's sleeve with his good hand. {"Hurry! We have get out of here!"}

"No!" Jen pulled his arm away sharply, and turned back to the archway. "I'm not running away this time. We have to help them!"

"Jen, no!" Kira ran after him, Fizzgig yelling in dismay behind her. "There's nothing we can do ..."

Back in the Chamber, EktUtt and AyukAmaj held their ground together, fending off strike after strike, until the Enforcers surrounded them. They forced the Designer and Culinarian to bow down, overwhelming them with raw telekinetic power, and locked them in nullifiers too.

UngIm was the last one standing. Even now, he was the strongest and most skilled fighter of the eight, and his corona burned red as flame as he deflected the nullifier over and over, and forced back each Enforcer who tried to subdue him.

"Surrender, Physician!" MbasMbet ordered again. "You're alone. You cannot win this."

UngIm's teeth were bared. A bestial growl rose in his throat - a sound that no urSkek had made in Ages. "I will never surrender!"

MbasMbet paused. Slowly, she looked past him ... and caught sight of the two Gelfling who stood half-hidden in the archway, watching them.

"... Those lifeforms. You spoke to them. You must care for them."

UngIm's rage instantly turned to horror.

Before he could stop her, MbasMbet telekinetically seized hold of Jen and Kira. They cried out, their voices carrying as she snatched them across the Chamber. An instant later, she held them suspended in the air, paralyzed and helpless in her invisible grip, directly over the fiery shaft.

UngIm's corona was pale, but red still flickered at his core. "Commander, don't hurt them. They've done nothing! They had no part in this!"

"Then surrender. Stop resisting, come back with us now, and they will not be harmed."

"Let go of us!" Kira shouted. "You can't-"

Another Enforcer reached out, pinching his thumb and finger together, and Kira found her mouth slammed closed by unseen power. Her teeth and jaw ached from the force of it.

For a moment, UngIm faced the Commander in silence, glancing back and forth between her and the Gelfling ...

… The last trace of red faded from his corona. He bowed his head, and when an Enforcer locked the last nullifier around his neck, he did not resist.

While MbasMbet still held Jen and Kira over the shaft, the other Enforcers herded SoSu's former followers into a line. The Crystal was still glowing that unnatural shade of gold that had signaled the arrival of the urSkeks. One by one, each with an Enforcer by his side, the eight were forced to enter it, and their corporeal forms dissolved into light.

Just before UngIm passed into the Crystal, the Commander spoke again. "To make sure you stay compliant once we arrive, I think we'll take your two pets with us."

{"NO!"} Hup charged from the archway, spoon brandished in righteous, protective fury. {"I won't let you take him-"}

MbasMbet flung the Podling across the Chamber as if she were doing no more than swatting a fly. His spoon snapped in two as he hit the crystalline edge of a balcony, and he fell to the floor, unmoving.

The Commander levitated Jen close to her, and pushed Kira through the air toward her second in command. "Be careful. These creatures might carry disease."

Down in the shaft, Aughra had just barely managed to cling onto the broken web of roots when she fell. "You're all being stupid!" she roared at the urSkeks as she struggled to climb up. "You don't have time to waste on fighting like this! The Devouring is coming for your world!"

The second in command glanced down at her. "We know. And be assured, we have the means to stop it."

As Jen watched in horror, Kira and her urSkek captor disappeared into the Crystal.

Then MbasMbet took him in with her. Endless refractions of light filled his senses. There was no sound or touch, no space or time, only white into rainbow into white …

To Be Continued…