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Delphe nodded, allowed hetself a shard of hope. She said, "Cynosure, please transfer me to the Thtoat now."

A shiver of discontinuity, and she stood in the mirrored chamber. The glow from up the Well cast her featutes in flickering orange hues. As usual.

"By the Sign, I'm happy to leave those transfers to you!"

"It is my pleasure, Delphe."

She walked to her glassy command chair and sat.

"Delphe, I have something I'd like to ask you about."

Her heart caught in her throat. Apprehension pitched her voice higher than normal as she said, "Ask away, Cynosure. Is something wrong?"

"Perhaps. As we speak, I am reacquainting myself with the nodes that have returned to my control, including the statue in the Throat, and those in the Inner Bastion and the Outer, as well as all those in between and underneath. However, I find myself unable to access certain memories stored in the loop."

"Memories?"

"I am unable to access records for specific places and times within Stardeep, beginning some two years ago."

A chill crawled across Delphe's neck. "Is it a corruption?" Did she need to flush Cynosure from Stardeep's control functions once more?

"I am unable to access specific memories because of a command lock. A command lock I wasn't even aware of until you reintroduced me moments ago. Prior to taking me out of the loop, one of the nodes, now inactive, must have been preventing me from noticing. But now the missing records are obvious, and I must admit, unsettling."

"What is the authorization on the command lock?" she asked. Unless the idol itself had experienced some sort of schizophrenic error localized to one of the nodes she'd dropped from the network-

"Keeper Telarian ordered the lock."

It seemed that the entire world dropped a foot.

She started breathing again and said, "Cynosure, listen. I am giving you a counter command. As a Keeper of the Cerulean Sign, I command you to erase those locks and integrate those memories. Now."

Just in case, she keyed her mind, ready to flush Cynosure. Clicking issued from the large statue on the ceiling, then the idol said, "All records are integtated." "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 fitst 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 Statdeep 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 yeats ago. No one connected to the Cerulean Sign didn't know Keepet 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