“Well, have you asked her?”
“Not directly.”
“Well, you should, because she’ll tell you the truth.”
“Of course she will. Murderers always fess up when asked politely, because they don’t know how to lie.”
“It’s more like ‘can’t’ rather than ‘doesn’t know how,’” Ursula stated.
I gave her an odd look. “What are you talking about?”
“Endow,” Ursula answered. “She can’t lie.”
“What do you mean ‘can’t’?”
“Just what I said. She can only tell the truth.”
I made it clear that her comment seemed dubious, stating, “I find that a little hard to believe.”
“Ask Rune if you don’t believe me,” she said. “He’ll tell you.”
I didn’t immediately respond. Instead, I ruminated on the fact that, empathically, her comments were trustworthy and ingenuous — which brought to mind something else I’d noticed.
“So tell me,” I began. “Why aren’t you nervous?”
She looked at me in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Other than Gearbox, the other laamuffals — especially Albion — seemed edgy when I mention Cerek. But when I brought him up a few moments ago, you weren’t fazed.”
She nodded in understanding, but seemed to contemplate for a second before responding. “Typically, we laamuffals bask in the protection of our respective Incarnates. Physical harm is not something we usually have to worry about. But with Gamma murdered and Cerek missing…”
She left the rest unfinished, but I knew what she’d been implying.
“They’re worried about getting killed,” I concluded. “But not you.”
“I suppose I trust Endow to be able to handle those things,” she remarked with a shrug. “And either she can or she can’t. As to Albion, if he’s more jittery than the rest of us, that’s probably a function of serving Static.”
My interest piqued, I asked, “What do you mean?”
“Presumably he’s a harsh taskmaster. I just know that his churn rate for laamuffals is on the high side. He gets a new one every few years, so it’s not unusual for them to be twitchy. Needless to say, Cerek’s disappearance isn’t helping to settle anyone’s nerves.”
I drummed my fingers for a moment. “Do you think it’s possible Cerek could have done it?”
She frowned. “Killed Gamma? No way — he was completely dedicated to serving her.”
“I’m not asking if he would have done it,” I clarified. “I’m asking if he could have.”
Ursula snorted in derision. “Uh, nope. He didn’t have enough power. No laamuffal does.”
“But if he wanted to harm her,” I said, “could he somehow get the power to do it?”
She shook her head. “Not really, although you could always poke around the Relic Room and see if something there would suffice.”
I looked at her with open curiosity. “What’s the Relic Room?”
Eyes twinkling, Ursula stood up and reached across the table, taking my hand and pulling me to my feet.
Chapter 26
“The Relic Room,” Ursula announced proudly, apparently pleased by the fact that I — looking around almost in wonder — seemed to be impressed.
We were in a spacious chamber — the place Ursula had dragged me to after taking my hand. From what I could tell, it consisted of several interconnected rooms, the most dominant feature of which were recessed art niches that covered every wall from floor to ceiling. Each was cylindrical in shape with a domed top, and roughly two feet tall and one foot wide. Moreover, almost every niche was occupied by a curio of some sort — usually a crystal or jewel, but sometimes an unusual stone, metalwork, or some combination thereof.
In a similar fashion, the floors in each room were occupied by what I’d describe as open display cases. Like the art niches, these also contained an assortment of bibelots. In addition, most — but not all — of the items in the room seemed to glow softly, bathing the chamber in eye-catching, multi-colored light that was almost breathtaking.
“You asked about laamuffals somehow getting additional power,” Ursula continued. “The relics in here could be used for something like that.”
“So wait,” I muttered, dwelling on what she’d just said. “All these items bestow some kind of power?”
“‘Bestow’ is probably inaccurate. Rather, the relic contains power that someone could use.”
“Where do they come from?” I asked, glancing around.
“Many were fashioned by Incarnates. Others, we just don’t know.”
I scratched my temple, thinking. “Why would an Incarnate create a relic? If they wanted someone to have certain powers, why not just give it to them — the way Endow did with that driver?”
“We’re not built like Incarnates,” Ursula explained. “Physically, we’re nowhere near as durable. Having too much of their power conferred on you would burn you to a cinder.”
“I get it,” I said with a nod. “It’s kind of like wiring with too much current running through it.”
“Exactly. So the way around that is to imbue an object with the necessary power that the individual in question can access.”
“That makes sense,” I acknowledged. “So, what’s here that might allow a laamuffal to power up to the next level and take on an Incarnate?”
Ursula glanced around with a doubtful expression. “I don’t know what every relic is fully capable of, but I’m not aware of any that can do what you’re suggesting.”
“There’s got to be something,” I insisted. “For instance, I’ve heard of an object that a person can use to siphon sivrrut from an Incarnate and use as their own.”
Ursula just stared at me for a moment, and then mumbled, “The Kroten Yoso Va.”
“Yes,” I said with a nod.
She bit her lip, looking pensive for a moment, then seemed to come to a decision. “Follow me.”
Without a word, she turned and began walking through a nearby corridor.
Chapter 27
We ended up in a small anteroom that was about ten-by-ten feet in size. It was connected to the main chamber of the Relic Room via a few narrow passageways, and was — to my surprise — the only place in the area that didn’t have the ubiquitous art niches on the walls. (By contrast, even the corridors that we passed through en route had contained the floor-to-ceiling relic niches). In fact, the room was almost completely
