Darkvision - Bruce R. Cordell [36]
The wizard pressed him. "Nothing about their identity, who might have sent them, or where they hailed from?"
"You already have the pendants, Ususi. You must have some way to divine their nature."
"There are some spells I might try," she allowed. "Once I get this place ship-shape."
Iahn nodded. Just as Ususi was about to return to the task, he said, "Ususi, I am curious. What exactly is the Celestial Nadir? I hardly feel I understand it. How can I assess the wisdom of anything we do without that knowledge?"
"It is an ancient space. A half-space, where forgotten things litter the void."
"Imaskari-fashioned? "
"It is," replied Ususi. "It is an artificial void created thousands of years ago by our ancestors. They used it to store their secrets, their refuse, and their… mistakes."
Iahn leaned forward, waiting for her to continue.
"The ancient Imaskari used their artificial demiplane to conduct their most hazardous arcane experiments. They also used it to store the fruits thereof, hidden safely behind the walls of the world."
"Has one of these walls weakened? Has someone liberated one of these 'mistakes,' seeking to use it against us?"
Ususi nodded slowly. The creature Iahn had faced had seemed to hint along those lines. "That's a possible scenario. Also, the lord apprehender's message seems to imply as much. My research shows that thousands of years without maintenance weakened the once strong boundaries of the Celestial Nadir. Contiguous planes bled together, and pseudo-reality gave the realm a permanence, and unpredictability, never intended."
"Can you identify our attacker? Is it an entity from the Celestial Nadir with which you are familiar?"
"Not at present, but I need to learn more. To be honest, for all my research, the Celestial Nadir is a project of many lifetimes. All I can currently say with any certainty is that whoever or whatever our foe is, it seems capable of using the fabric of the Celestial Nadir against us. This crystal"- Ususi pointed to her satchel-"is a manifestation of the Celestial Nadir's existence. It seems to have been somehow… corrupted."
With these words spoken, she decided the time was right. The travel coach was clean enough. She would see what she could see with the clues at hand.
Ususi retrieved the three pendants and placed them on the ground. From the coach, she fetched a yellowish vial from a cupboard where several more glass containers were neatly snugged into a wooden rack. Many of the little vials had been smashed by the intruders, but enough remained for her to seek answers.
She seated herself next to the pendants. Iahn didn't move from his position. She removed the cap from the vial and drank down the citrus-flavored elixir. Ususi didn't believe in brewing foul-tasting potions.
Her lips tingled, her eyes sparked, and her mind quickened. The sky above became a portent of the day and night to come. Odors wafting on the air revealed landforms for many miles in every direction-the scent of a thousand things normally too subtle for human notice. The menhirs on the distant bluff were revealed as the warning markers they'd been constructed to be, meant to scare away intruders, not draw them. The wheels of her travel coach were a history of every rock, every sand pit, and every cool river crossing they had endured since each had been fitted to the axle. Connections between herself and the vengeance taker she had not previously realized suddenly crystallized, and she feared him less-and more. Iahn's eyes were so much like a cloud-scrubbed sky in the dead of winter-but were they capable of reflecting the sun?
Ususi shook her head-the elixir lasted only moments. She concentrated on the three crystals.
At first the pendants seemed mute, scrubbed of all history. But then each revealed that it was not of this world. Instead, they were brought in from a mine-a mundane mine? The crystals had been mined in the Celestial Nadir. How had they come into this world? Vague hints and half-remembered