'And?'
'Delphe, we have a problem with Telarian.'
Delphe sat in her chair, watching a landslide of events unfold that she could scarcely acknowledge. She saw Telarian unearthing an ancient test node from the repository with Cynosure's unsuspecting help, a node that the diviner then used to infiltrate Stardeep's command functions. One of his first actions was ordering Cynosure to keep part of itself private and secret from its larger cognizance, and what's more, from her.
'How. . why. . why would he do that?' she murmured as she watched.
She saw Telarian leaving and returning to Stardeep via the Causeway far more often than she'd ever realized. Creeping dread tingled up her spine.
And Delphe witnessed Telarian accessing an ancient space known to the previous Keepers but which appeared on no map she'd ever seen: the fabled armory.
In that dark space, Telarian found a glass vessel containing a wraithlike essence-a soul, or part of one. In that container was the detritus of a spirit left behind after every hint of nobility was extracted to forge the Blade Cerulean.
Delphe was familiar with the history of Stardeep, especially the momentous events of ten years ago. No one connected to the Cerulean Sign didn't know Keeper Nangulis's personal sacrifice, though because it had occurred a decade ago, few recalled the event with any regularity. Nangulis's body had died, and his fellow Keeper had wielded his soulforged blade to quell the Traitor. The Traitor's foiled effort severely weakened him, and he had not stirred again within the Well until just recently. The remaining Keeper, unfortunately, had then fled Stardeep with the Blade Cerulean in hand, robbing the Keepers of the Cerulean Sign of a potent weapon.
She watched as Telarian moved around the darkened vault, slowly refurbishing its furnace, reconditioning its forge, and relighting its magical flame. He spent months studying the masterwork tools. He spent an equal amount of time staring into the carved alcove at the chamber's rear where a crystal vessel was stored. Where the half-soul writhed in anticipation.
Until then, Delphe had never considered the fate of Nangulis's soul-residue not used in the creation of Angul-she'd assumed it had simply. . dissipated. It had been stored in Stardeep all this time. Waiting, half-alive but alone. Wrathful, but impotent. Until Telarian found the armory. How had her fellow Keeper even known where to look? His divinatory talent, most likely-a talent, she now hypothesized, that perhaps left him too open to manipulation.
She watched Telarian decant the inky, deceitful spirit into a cast of molten steel.
She asked Cynosure to compress time. Days of Telarian's activity flew by in moments. Finally, she saw the diviner grasp the hilt and hold the darkling blade high. But who grasped whom? When his naked hands touched the blade, Telarian's features seemed to warp and flow, becoming an iron mask calculating the ruin of all fleshy things, all emotion, and all light. Telarian announced in a voice shorn of empathy, 'Your name… is Nis.'
'Stop!' Delphe yelled. The mirrors went dark.
Her hands trembled. She had wondered where the diviner acquired his new blade. When she'd asked, he had shrugged, as if it were unimportant, a mere affectation. Now she wished she didn't know the truth.
'Delphe, he used that blade to strike down Brathtar,' volunteered Cynosure.
'Strike down?'
'Knight Commander Brathtar is dead, slain by Telarian with the blade Nis. His body lies in a refuse pit of the underdungeon, along with those of the Knights who witnessed his death.'
'The Sign preserve us,' she breathed. 'He has betrayed us. Betrayed Stardeep. . betrayed me!'
She nearly shrieked the last as a sudden blaze of anger briefly scorched mounting fear and dread. Her mouth was dry and a haze seemed to hang in the air. She wiped at her eyes. All the years they had worked together, shoulder to shoulder, seeing to Stardeep's needs, keeping safe their promise to the future-how many of those years had she blithely, unknowingly lived Telarian's lie?
The images showed a man seemingly in the grip of some sort of possession. But even that couldn't be true. During her recent conversation with Telarian, his wit, reason, and personality were undeniably that of the man she'd always known. No alien entity spoke through Telarian's shape. No, the man was responsible for his own actions. Damn him. How had he been corrupted?
'Where is Telarian now?' she demanded, her voice rough.
'I have been querying all nodes, but I cannot locate him.'
'He's left Stardeep?'
'Possibly,' replied the idol. 'Though I note all my perception pools in the Knights' barracks are blacked out. He could be there.'
Delphe stood, her face flushed with sudden decision. 'We must confront him-neutralize him. By his own deeds he has shown himself to be Stardeep's enemy. Who knows what he'll do next, or what damage he's already done? At least now we know why the Traitor has been so active. Cynosure, activate a defender statue near the Knights' barracks, and transfer me there.'
'I've already activated five,' Cynosure said. 'But Delphe, you are exhausted. I have tracked your activities, and I know how little rest you've taken. Do you think it wise to confront Nis's wielder now?'
Delphe swept her hand in a dismissive gesture. 'We have to catch him before he suspects we know of his betrayal. If we wait, we may miss our best chance to move against him.'
'Very well, Delphe,' said Cynosure as the world blinked.
She then stood in the wide, high Parade Hall outside the Knights' barracks, where the Empyrean Legion often drilled and perfected its techniques. The many doors of the stables fronted the Parade Hall to the west, and to the south a high archway opened onto the main corridors of the Outer Bastion. To the east was another high archway, opening onto a steep, little-used ramp that led to Stardeep's underdungeon.
Flickering magical flames cast warm light down from the ceiling-mounted braziers, striking glints and gleams off the five humanoid constructs that shared the otherwise empty chamber. Each had thick metal plates bolted over a stone-sculpted body, reinforcing the granite strength with the protection only a magical forge could offer. Eight or nine feet tall, each defender's hands were curled into stone-and-iron fists as large as Delphe's entire body. Empowered soulsword or not, Telarian was about to meet the justice his perfidy had earned.
'Still no contact from within,' uttered the lead construct. Cynosure equally inhabited all five mobile idols, while at the same time inhabiting all the rest of Stardeep. His power was vast. It frightened her to think Telarian had managed to insert his own twisted control over the powerful sentient artifact.
'In we go,' she replied. As the lead construct moved to the barracks door, she quietly uttered words of hardening and strength, such that her own skin took on a hardness akin to stone.
A gasping, wide-eyed Knight's apprentice met them at the door. A young elf, not yet a month out of Sild?yuir, the apprentice had never seen one of Cynosure's statues walking about, let alone a group of five. All color drained from his face, and he tried but failed to produce any sound to greet Delphe.
'Where is Telarian? Is he within?' demanded Delphe.
The apprentice blinked and shook his head. He finally gained enough control over his voice to say, 'He was, but he just rode out-he took most of the Knights with him, to counter the attack!'
'What attack?'
The apprentice stuttered. 'Wha-you don't know? Telarian said-'
'Tell me what Telarian said, and where he has gone,' she commanded.
He nodded. 'Keeper Telarian perceived an attack against Stardeep launched from Sild?yuir itself, through the ancient tunnels of the underdungeon. Telarian led the Knights to oppose the Traitor's allies who seek to sneak in upon us all unawares.'
'Which allies of the Traitor did Telarian indicate are moving against us-do they have a name?' she asked. Not that she expected anything but lies from the diviner's mouth. What was shockingly, horrifyingly apparent was that Telarian had emptied the barracks of an elite fighting force of more than two hundred Empyrean Knights. Two hundred Knights, whom he was apparently leading into the forlorn, unmapped tunnels whose existence predated the building of Stardeep, and Sild?yuir itself. For what purpose? Did he hope to sap Stardeep's strength by leading its defenders into an ambush?
One of the constructs stepped past the apprentice before the elf could answer Delphe, its metal footfalls echoing like a boulder-fall as it moved to investigate. The elf turned to watch the construct with wide eyes.
