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"Right, right. And what have you found?"

The massive form of Cynosure Prime shifted its weight, evet so slightly, as it fixed its granite visage on Telarian. The construct spoke, its voice resonant and sure. "Delphe has riddled me with questions, and we've discovered I remain inviolate."

"That's a relief-"

"However," continued the smooth voice of the construct, "we suspect some of the outlying nodes have been partly compromised."

They knew! He managed to avoid flinching. Were they waiting for him to bolt, confess, or attack?

"Compromised?" Telarian inquired. Grab the blade and end this-no. He didn't know if Nis could stand before Cynosure's original avatar.

Delphe said, "It is the only conclusion that fits all the criteria. Thankfully, the avatar poised above the Well seems to be untouched."

True enough, thought Telarian guiltily. Most of Cynosure's homunculi scattered about the dungeon were too visible, too open to scrutiny by Cynosure itself. He recalled his covert interactions with Cynosure's most vulnerable node: a miniature statue carved of jade currently hidden at the bottom of a silver chest in his quarters.

Without so much as the ability to articulate its limbs, the jade sculpture was merely a handspan in length. The ancient statuette was a prototype created to test the possibility of adopting Cynosure as Stardeep's warden mind. When perusing the oldest documents in the archive, Telarian had stumbled across the reference. Sure enough, he'd found a proto-node in the dusty, cryptlike recesses of the repository. With his divinatory craft, he had soon determined how to inject the sculpture back into Cynosure's mental loop as a fully functioning node. Functioning save for a lack of wards against magical manipulations. Through this tiny flawed foothold, Telarian had begun to subvett the entire distributed intelligence of Stardeep, node by node.

"You have no idea what a weight is lifted from my mind to hear the avatar in the Throat is clean. Have you found the vulnerable node?"

Delphe shook her head. "Without bringing Cynosure back into the loop, no method exists to trace the corruption back to its origin."

It dawned on Telarian they didn't suspect he was the culprit. Yet. His mind whirled. Could he completely throw them off the trail of his culpability?

Telarian took a deep breath, said, "You should have come to me right away, the moment you suspected node corruption. I have an idea. What if we selectively activate Cynosure's nodes? We don't have to distribute Cynosure's cognizance across Stardeep all at once. Let us begin with nodes we know to be safe, as is the one in the Thioat, and work from there, one by one, carefully checking each node for distortion. Bring Cynosure back into the loop in controlled steps."

Cynosure's voice rang out. "A teasonable approach."

Delphe's frown finally broke. She said, "So simple and obvious. You may have just saved us, Telarian."

He spread his hands. "Keep me apprised of your progress- I must return to the Outer Bastion and review the disposition of the Knights."

"Certainly. Convey my thanks for their bravery as well."

Telarian waved at Prime's massive figure and took his leave. Through his own words, he'd guaranteed Cynosure's higher functions would remain unavailable. He would not be able to command the idol to open the Causeway Gate. But he'd had no choice. If he hadn't produced such a reasonable plan with aplomb, how long would he have been able to sidestep Delphe's suspicions? This way, he put himself beyond all questions.

Of course, it didn't hurt that he could inject his prototype node into a fledgling network as easily as into the complete Stardeep-spanning mind Cynosure earlier possessed. In a day, perhaps two, he'd do just that. Unless the sentient idol managed to discover the recollections he'd blocked its higher mind from incorporating… a possibility.

Either way, by then Kiril and her blade Angul would be long gone. His spy, the roguish Gage, would likely be dead in the bargain,