(disclaimers and associated descriptions in overture)
* * *
<<ACT TWO>>
We remember the R'kaht. We remember their great sacrifice, what it was they did, and why. We have heard of their Whisperglass, heard of the legend, but the few we were able to save after the fact would not tell us of its location... would not even tell us where their world had been, when destroyed it was by the Darkness. Their home, taken from them by force, so long ago. Rare this is, unusual enough that we took notice; momentous enough that the Well itself paid heed. Now, we have been sent in pursuit of a vessel that cannot be seen by most. And while this is as true for us as it is for the others, trace it we can. And the method we *use* to trace it is not a normal one.
Even for our kind.
* * *
February 15th, 2267; 09:05 hrs.
Almost silently, two portions of the SHARD OF NIGHT's outer hull slid apart at a spoken command, and a moment later, another command cast three violet fighters out into the vacuum of space, fighters that faded from sight a moment later as their pilots concealed their charges from plain view. While shortly thereafter, the two small transports those pilots had been assigned to protect emerged from the battlecruiser's launchpoints, their surface target long since chosen.
It was then that Sheynell decided she just had to ask the question which had been bugging her since the moment they'd begun preparing for the descent. "Why," she asked her first officer "Are you so glum? Is something about this mission bothering you?"
The Brakiri turned towards her then, her eyes narrowed, and nodded, as the atmosphere began to buffet the small Ranger craft. "Something? I would rather say *everything* about this mission bothers me, Sheynell! This world is a house of spirits, a memory of a darkness long undisturbed... a convergence I do not willingly walk into, even though I must. As if this were not bad enough, that *other* world hangs over this place like a weight upon the soul. So close it is, and even though I understand the theory, I cannot escape from the feeling that it is about to fall on us all."
"You didn't have to volunteer to lead the mission, you know."
"You are wrong in that." Klairika ground out, her words precise, the anger behind them barely held in check. "You know that if I had not volunteered to lead the mission, *she* would have descended in my place! I could not allow that to happen, not this time!"
"No. Of course not."
"And what of you, Sheynell?" came the next, penetrating question. "Word of the Z'shailyl's warning has reached even me. Why did you insist on replacing Larieken, if you know this place holds danger for you?"
"I... I guess I'd just like to show her and the rest that I'm good for something more then firing a gun, if you know what I mean? That being what I am can make a difference."
"But has it not already?"
"Compared to the chance of contacting whatever the R'kaht may have left behind them," she shot back, "Capturing a saboteur isn't much of a challenge, you know."
"And you believe that there *is* something down there for you to contact, then?"
"Yes..." she breathed out, as the transport's course began to level out over the barren wastes below them. "I'm sure of it."
"Are you, now?" At that point, Klairika turned her attention to a matter that was rapidly becoming more critical the lower they went. "The time is drawing near for us to pick a place to land; will you assist me in this?"
"Love to."
* * *
Millions of kilometers above the plane of the R'kaht system, a flicker of light appeared, a shimmer that could not be seen from below, for it was pointed *away* from the twin worlds and the warship presently orbiting their far side. A flicker that shimmered for a moment, before expanding into the maw of a tiny, extremely focused jump point. Out of this point came two ships, one slightly larger then the other. These ships were known and feared by all the races of known space, but for the wrong reasons. Coiled and spiked they were, and the hands that guided their course were full of purpose.
Though not the purpose normally associated with such vessels.
At least not yet.
"They are here."
"Yes. You were expecting otherwise?"
"What do you suppose they would say if they knew we had been following them?"
The Eldermost of the two sighed. "They would undoubtedly be upset that their cloak of light and darknesss had been pierced. Some among them would have cause to believe we were hunting *them*. Of course, they would be wrong.
For now, that is."
The other conceded the point. "As you say. Has the Sha'nahktoweire spoken to you, yet?"
"He has, and does not approve of our intent. Young she is, he says, and many years there are ahead of her... which is the truth, in its own way. Why do we hunt her, he asks? She is too young, she is not close to death; she has not yet attained the height of her greatness.
And what do we intend?"
"All these things are true, and yet, he misses the point, as is usual for his kind. I will assume you informed him of his error?"
"Yes. And while he is displeased we have used her in this fashion, he now understands his mistakes."
Both paused, then, and turned their attentions towards the worlds below. "Do you not sense it?" the Younger exclaimed.
A longer one. "*Yes*. It is here, concealed from us; it will not be easy to find, but now we are here, now that the Sha'naktoweire who is mistress of the vessel below has guided us to this place, we will find it. It is inevitable."
"Yes. A great task this is that the Primarch has set upon us, but a necessary one. *Think* of the souls within the Whisperglass, trapped by their ancient mistakes. We must save them."
"Have patience, young one. That time will come soon enough."
* * *
10:35 hrs, Ship's Time.
It had been a city, once. The world it had stood upon had been a living, breathing world... until the screaming missiles of a Shadow planetkiller had rent the crust asunder in thousands of places, bringing chaos, fire and ruin to the world of the R'kaht. Now, their city was only a monument to that chaos, but *what* a monument, Sheynell thought, as she slowly twirled on one heel, her eyes wide with wonder.
As far as she could see, great fingers of latticed silvery rock reached towards the heavens, their tops torn away, their bulk clear evidence of how high they must once have reached. In between those great murdered monoliths, the shattered ruins of thousands of smaller buildings could be seen, the destruction clear and present evidence of the earth-shattering quakes that must have shook the city when the Planetkiller's missiles had exploded miles beneath the surface of the world.
"Where do we begin?" Klairika mused, as a gust of hot wind blew across the cracked stones at their feet, an echo of the distant range of volcanoes that painted ash across the northern sky. "It's so..."
"Big?"
"Enormous. If you pulled together every city on the surface of Brakir and put it one spot, the resulting congregation would not come close to EQUALING this one. How many of these R'kaht could there have been, to build such a place as this?"
<The number is known, the atrocities will never be forgotten.> the voice informed her, and she smiled. "A lot, I imagine. And the Shadows murdered them, because they dared to stand at the side of the Vorlons..."
"While the Drakh tried to do the same to your people, because they committed the crime of banishing those very Masters." Klairika straightened. "Enough talk; we must begin to search for clues to this 'cure' the R'kaht may have found to the Drakh plague."
<This way, we are!> the voice insisted. <Come to us, and learn the answers to all your questions.>
"Whatever we do, we'd better hurry," she repied, while doing her best to ignore the thumping of her heart, so excited was she at the strength of the contact. For now, it was best not to make Klairika suspicious, though, so she turned towards the vast, white and blue misty crescent of the R'kaht binary companion, its arc filling the sky below the white blaze of the sun.
"Agreed. We would only seem to have about four hours until the R'kaht companion eclipses the sun," Klairika observed. "May I suggest you take half of our team into that complex over there, while I take the rest to explore the tower behind us?"
<Yes. That is where we are. Come to us!>
"Sounds like a good idea. Shall we?"
"Make sure, however," the other Ranger warned, "That you and your followers return to the shuttles before total eclipse begins. We do not know what dangers this place holds once darkness falls."
"Not a problem; see you then!" Even as she turned away, she winced at those words, and at the reason the lie had been given. Another lie, to add to the rest, but a necessary one, this time. <Was I right?> she asked the waiting voice. <Does that moment have meaning to you?>
<Yes. When the fires of Alieunni fall behind the Walls of Night, does the Whisperglass awaken. The others who came did not listen closely enough to our explanations, and made the attempt when they should not have; they paid the price for that mistake.>
<The attempt? What attempt?>
<We cannot tell you the answer to that question.> the voice from the past gravely informed her. <Not until you understand what is expected, and what you must do.>
<What must I do?>
Silence. It didn't matter though, she supposed, as she calmly walked through the ruins towards the pillared hulk ahead, the rest of her team close behind; she already knew what she had to do. And even though there would be a price to pay for it afterwards, what was that compared to the prize she might win?
* * *
14:07 hrs, Ship's Time.
"This tower," one of the Rangers noted with some trepidation, "Is swaying."
"Mr. Cradoach," Klairika noted, "If you were the same age as the tower, you would probably also be swaying." The other Rangers laughed, and the tension in the air, which had almost been thick enough to cut, finally faded away... which, of course, had been her intention all along. "Nevertheless, he makes a good point, gentlemen; going any higher up probably isn't that good of an idea, especially since there doesn't appear to be anything in here but ash and a lot of dust..."
<beep> With a sigh, she raised the communicator to her mouth. "This is Alidiae. Go ahead."
"Na'lai, this is Anla'shok Ellis. We've got a problem."
"Miss Ellis, some *expansion* on that would appear to be necessary."
"Ah, yes, ma'am! We were following Anla'shok Keynes in exploring the interior of this place when she just, uh, disappeared!"
"Disappeared?" Klairika dryly inquired. "As in, into thin air, as your kind says?"
"Yes! One moment she was there in front of us, and then, suddenly she wasn't!"
Klairika spat a curse in her native tongue, then, as she realized that Courtney Ellis was being absolutely serious. "I *see*." she frostily replied. "Very well, then; you and the rest of her team are instructed to pull back to the landing area at once."
"But...!"
"This is *not* a discussion!" she sternly informed the younger Ranger. "You will pull back NOW, Anla'shok Ellis! We are less then half a standard hour away from an eclipse that will plunge this entire city into darkness, and I do not wish to lose any more of my Rangers to unseen dangers you may stumble across in that darkness. Do I make myself clear?"
"You do." Ellis sullenly replied. "Signing off."
Klairika let out a long breath, then. What Sheynell had done had been a classic telepath's trick, but why, in Valen's Name, *had* she done it? Why had she abandoned her team and gone against one of the most important codes of Ranger discipline, that never, ever, did you abandon your cadre members in a place of danger?
She had her suspicions about why... and none of them were good. Nevertheless, there was a still a way to find Sheynell, a way that not even her telepathic abilities could disrupt.
"This is Na'lai Alidiae to SHARD OF NIGHT."
* * *
"Do you not sense it? The moment draws near. The moment we have been waiting for!"
"Yes..."
* * *
"What did you tell her?" Julia furiously exclaimed, as Moreil, accompanied by an equally grim-faced Larieken, entered the conference chamber. "What did you say to her, that she would do a thing like this?"
"I?" the Z'shailyl angrily spat. "I, as you now reali-ss-ze, warned her againssst descending to the world below! Warned her I did that thisss place was dangerous, but listen to me, ssshe did not. Voices she hasss heard, I believe, voices that have summoned her to a place of danger."
"You are supposed to be our ally," she reminded him. "And that role does not involve keeping your own council when the safety of one of my senior officers is in doubt!"
Moreil shrugged. "Difference, would not have made, Huntleaderrr. Your telepath would have found way to sssurface even if permission you had not given."
"The point is a moot one, in any case," Julia reminded him, as together with Moreil, she stepped back onto the bridge, Larieken close behind them. "My errant tactical officer seems to have forgotten that we can locate her with a precision of millimetres from up here in orbit..."
"Thisss may be true," Moreil noted, "But hurry your Rangers mussst, along paths they know not. Keynesss was summoned, I believe, and would not have problems finding what she sseeks."
"And what might that be?"
"Anssswers."
* * *
The path spiralled down into darkness, but up ahead, a beam of light could be seen, rapidly narrowing now as the limb of the R'kaht companion bit ever farther into the sun. <Hurry you must!> the voice insisted; although, all things considered, it seemed to be voices now, instead! <It is almost time; the awakening is near.>
<I'm coming.> she replied, too calmly for her own peace of mind. <Don't worry; there's plenty of time!>
Finally, the end of the path appeared, and she stepped out onto the floor of the chamber... the very heart of the massive building that she'd taken her team into; the team she'd later abandoned in her haste to reach this place. The answers were here, ALL the answers that Julia and the rest were seeking! And she was the only one who could do this thing; the only one who could make contact with the force that lived here, still.
<Where are you?> she cried out. <I don't know what to do!>
<You must follow the light.> the voice reasonably replied. <Between day and light, there you will find us.> Suddenly understanding, her eyes came to rest on the beam of light cast on the floor... and the circle of crystal that lay there, slightly higher then the obsidian-black floor around it. <You want me to step onto the glass, don't you?>
<To receive the answers you seek, you must. To dance with the fates, and set us free, you must.>
<I will.>
<Only understand this, Wanderer.> the warning came. <Once the attempt is made, there is no going back... only forward. There-and-back you will travel, and dance with the fates.>
<I don't understand!>
<You will.> Suddenly, the voice sharpened, as the beam of light cast upon the crystal shrank towards extinction. <The moment comes, Wanderer! Act now, or not at all.>
Sheynell took a deep breath, as the bead of light flickered, and began to fade away.
And then, she stepped onto the crystal surface... and looked down. Only then, did she begin to tremble, because...
Because it had begun to GLOW.
<What is this?> she cried out.
<A means to an end.> one voice told her.
<A gateway through which many have walked, and some have not returned.> another noted.
<A trap. The end of all days.> a malicious whisper explained.
<An absolution. Ours...
And yours, as well.>
<THE MOMENT IS HERE!> all the voices cried together, and Sheynell flinched as the glow beneath her intensified into an intolerable glare. And then screamed, as a massive telepathic shockwave swept through her, and dragged her down into the darkness.