'I am Marrain, my lady. You saved my life once, remember? At Ashinagachi. I never repaid you.'
Tirivail stumbled back. 'You are dead. You....' She turned to Sinoval. 'I will give Lord Sonovar your message.' Then she left the room, her movements swift, but uncertain.
'I think more has survived than you may have thought,' Sinoval observed. 'How did...?'
'We will be leaving. I will not be returning to Cathedral, and the Tak'cha will not be going back to Sonovar. We have.... some.... understandings to reach.'
'Good fortune. Then the Tak'cha will leave this war?' Marrain nodded. 'Then it will just be Minbari against Minbari.... as it should be. Or so I hope.'
'What are you saying?'
'I had a vision. There should have been nine warriors here to fight me, Sonovar amongst them. But there were only four. Sonovar did not come. Someone, or something stopped him. I do not know why.... and I do not like mysteries.'
'Valen told me something once. The universe will resolve all mysteries for us before the end.'
'But will we like the answers? It does not matter. The answers will come whether we like them or not.' He fell silent, and stared out into space.
'I assume the temporal devices have been switched off again?' Marrain added conversationally.
'Yes, I.... How did you know about them?'
'Valen had them all deactivated soon after his arrival. Some of them had been.... malfunctioning, and some of us were seeing ghosts, and flashes.... images. He showed Parlonn and me where they all were.'
'There is no temporal rift here, so the station cannot travel through time, but perhaps time can travel through it. The devices were built into the station by its architect. I merely.... modified them for my own purposes. Were the visions.... instructive?'
'Very.'
'Then they served their purpose.'
'Then all went as you planned? Apart from the mysterious involvement of some.... others?'
'All? No. Kozorr was badly wounded, almost to death. I healed him, through the Well of Souls. But nothing comes free. I cannot create life. It can merely be extended, suitably. A similar ritual was used on me once.... and my soul and the Well are now as one. I live by its sufferance. While it lives, so shall I. That was not possible for Kozorr. He received merely enough for a brief resurgence. Soon it will expire, and so will he.'
'How soon?'
'Months.... less than a year.'
'I see. Will you tell him about this? Or his pretty worker?'
Sinoval gazed deep into space and then turned, heading for the door. As he reached it he looked back at Marrain, and spoke a single word before leaving.
'No.'
There were moments, brief and golden, when Lyta Alexander could close her eyes and see a brilliant light, warm and inviting, that tingled in her mind and whispered gentle wind chimes in her ears. It is a saying that nothing is truly appreciated until it is gone, and Lyta had not truly appreciated the being who had shared her soul for two years, not until he was gone and another lay in his place.
But somewhere, a part of Kosh still lived. The memory of his actions, his words, his wisdom still existed. Soft, fragile, but meaningful threads linked her to others Kosh had touched. Her bond to Delenn had been almost severed, plunging her into near despair, but now it was renewed, stronger than ever. She could feel a terrible sadness in her friend, perhaps her only friend, but she could also sense hope.
And somewhere also, although trapped and muddied and dank, there was a thread to Captain Sheridan, one she could sense but not use. She had tried to talk to him as she had to Delenn, to sense his feelings.... but she had failed. This connection had been a shimmering mirage at the edge of her perception since the Third Line, but by the time she had tracked down its source the thread was too murky to use. Something corrupted the golden beauty. Something inside Sheridan twisted the bond.
But there were other bonds than those of the soul. With Delenn and Sheridan both unavailable to her, she had been forced to find others, and to her surprise one had appeared.
There was a chime at the door and she gently probed outwards. She knew almost instantly who it was. He had come after all, although a little late. She had managed to hide herself briefly from Ulkesh, and for the moment the Vorlon had other concerns, but she did not know when he would turn back to her.
'Come in.' It was Corwin, a haunted look in his eyes. A telepath far less powerful than Lyta would have had no problem recognising the chaos in his soul, the conflicting loyalties and tormented convictions. There was a brief flash of light when he saw her, but it soon faded.
'I'm sorry I'm a little late,' he said. 'I came as soon as I could, but.... we were clearing up some of the mess. We found Clark's body.... or what was left of it.... God, he was.... torn apart. The Shadows must have killed him, but....' He shook his head. 'And what happened to Captain DeClercq....'
'Did you know him?' Lyta had heard about the last act of the Coward of Vega 7.
'No, not really. I knew of him of course, but we'd never met. It's just.... Anyway. I think you promised me some answers.'
'Yes, I did. What do you want to know?'
'Well, for starters, what on earth happened? You know a bit more about this than you're saying.'
'I wish I didn't, but yes, you're right. It wasn't the Shadows who turned the defence grid on Proxima. It wasn't even Clark, at least not really. It was the Vorlons, a faction of them, working through Clark.'
'Okay.... why?'
'Any number of reasons. A beaten, battered humanity would be less likely to ally with the Shadows again, especially if they were the ones who caused all that carnage. It would be easier to force them into the Alliance, to rule from the ashes. But mostly I think it was a punishment.'
'Punishment. What for?'
'Choosing the wrong side. The Shadows.'
'Then.... Oh God. Then this is all our fault. We're the ones who set the Government up with the Shadows. We....'
'No!' she snapped firmly. 'A deal would have been made eventually, if not through you and Captain Sheridan, then others. Humanity couldn't stay out of this war forever. Unfortunately they were brought into it on the.... wrong side. So they had to be punished.'
'But it's not as if we even knew....'
'It doesn't matter. Not to the Vorlons. To them this isn't a war of weapons, it isn't about military strength. It's about being right, about ideology. Humanity chose the wrong ideology, and that's why they must be punished.'
'But the Vorlons failed.'
'Thanks to you.'
'And you. And Captain DeClercq. And.... others. Are they going to try again?'
'I think the punishment is going to be more subtle, more long–term. They can't really use the Shadows as scapegoats again.'
'Oh God, this is crazy. I just don't believe it.... It's as if everything's just turned around and muddled up so it makes no sense whatsoever. Shadows, Vorlons, ideology.... And then there's Carolyn.'
'Ah.'
'Yes. I can still see her when I close my eyes. Lyta, who was she? Was she real, just an illusion, what?'
'She was real, alive. Somewhere in the heart of your
'The Vorlons did that? That's monstrous!'
'Yes,' she said. 'It is. Kosh.... never liked it. It was originally used as a defence network around parts of Vorlon space. It was.... necessary. There were too many secrets the other races must not be allowed to uncover, and the network was.... one of the best ways of keeping them out. It.... didn't have to destroy people, you see. It could be used to misdirect and confuse. It was never designed for outright destruction.'
