Vanlo found that a sure sign of his recovery from that potion was the fact that he could rise at precisely the time he wished in the morning.

He stepped out into the cool, pre-dawn air, the Manor quiet and still around him, save for the calls of the birds stirring to greet the sunrise. He was in a chipper mood despite what he was sure his experiment was to tell him that morning. Perhaps it was the irony that within a day's time he would have discovered the truth by indirect means without having had to go through the trouble of measuring, mixing, and distilling.

Nevertheless, it did have a use. It made the case for the purpose behind the potion rock solid. Otherwise, he would have been left with the question of whether the effect was intentional or indirect.

At the thought of the Portal and who would be traversing it the next day, his mood became a little more somber, his gaze a bit more subdued.

He struggled to push it out of his mind. He should not be so concerned for just one slave. His concerns were with the health and happiness of all the Manor slaves, not just Amanda. When she was gone, there would be no less need for his services for those that remained.

Vanlo entered the office, leaving the door open to let in the refreshing breeze. His experiment was past the point where he needed to worry about wind interfering with delicately adjusted flames. He sat down at the apparatus, which had been cooling all night, leaving him with a jelled fluid in a flask.

He picked up the flask in his knobbly fingers and held it up to the light, where his sharp eyes could look it over with a critical gaze. He turned it around in his hands several times.

"Hmm, yes," he muttered.

He took a stirring stick from the table and dipped it into the solution, stirring once one way, and then twice the other. Colors swirled and slid past each other in layers as it became partially liquid again.

"Quite," he said in a louder voice.

Everything was turning out as he had thought it would, but there was one last thing to be done.

He stood up. He suddenly jerked his head towards the door to the treatment room, thinking he had heard something. He peered through the door for a few moments to satisfy himself that no one was there. He did not walk over to it, however, as he was anxious to see the final results of his experiment.

He headed over to a cabinet mounted under the counter. He opened it, withdrew the empty flasks within, and pressed his hand against the back. After a few moments there was a click. He lifted his hand, and the back sprang open like a door on hinges, revealing a tattered cloth bag with a broken drawstring.

Vanlo withdrew the bag and examined it with mild interest. He sometimes marveled at how one prepared herb could cause so much trouble and misery. However, he did not hate it. It was ridiculous to hate a medicinal herb. It did not control who used it or how. Just like any herb, even the toxic ones, it had a proper use.

Vanlo brought the bag over to the apparatus and sat down before it again. He opened the bag, light sparkling off the tiny, shiny black crystals within. He took a very small pinch between thumb and forefinger and dropped it into the flask.

The reaction was immediate. A pale purple flame burst silently from the surface of the concoction. It roared upwards so quickly that Vanlo's hand was caught inside it, as it was still poised over the flask. It did not burn, however. He felt nothing more than a slight warmth.

The flame flickered out barely one breath later, leaving a seething foam of black on the surface of the fluid. The reaction had been brief, but it was enough.

"Indeed," Vanlo said with a slow sigh.

"So now will you let me in on the big secret?"

Vanlo had bolted out of his seat the moment the voice rang out. By the time it had concluded, Vanlo was facing the younger Healer with a fury in his eyes that was most unusual for him. No less so was the anger in his voice. "Get out!"

Lanno leaned against the inside of the door frame, his arms folded, one foot crossed over the other, more lounging than standing. Once he heard Vanlo, however, his stance grew more confrontational as he straightened up and stepped inside. "I will do no such thing."

"I have told you this is my private experiment and is not to be interfered with!"

"It appears your experiment is over, Vanlo, and I am most curious about the results. Especially after what I have seen."

Vanlo narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath. "There is nothing for you to see here. Nothing at all."

"You didn't hear me. I said I have already seen much." His gaze turned towards the table.

Vanlo caught the man's diverted attention and realized a little too late what it had now focused on. By the time he lunged at the table, Lanno already had the cloth bag in his hand.

"You will be careful with that!" Vanlo snapped. "The bag is not strong and cannot be closed properly."

Lanno did not appear to be paying attention. He was staring at the contents of the bag, shaking it slightly to see more of it sparkle. He reached a finger inside and stirred the crystals. He scooped up some on a fingertip and delicately smelled it.

He gave the senior Healer a look of surprise. "This is Jonalla!"

"I am well aware of what it is, Lanno," said Vanlo acidly. "I do not need you to identify my own supplies."

"Yes, but why do we have this? And why did you hide it?"

"Perhaps because I do not care to answer useless questions on it."

"Useless? Oh, no, Vanlo, my questions are not useless. You realize how strict the Guild Hall is about this stuff? There is no way you could have proper permission for possessing it."

"And is that what you are? A secret enforcer to see that I toe the line with regards to the rules of the Guild?"

Lanno frowned. "Of course not! Don't play the fool, Vanlo."

"I play at nothing."

Lanno held up the Jonalla. "I beg to differ."

Vanlo stepped up to Lanno, eyes burning, though his body hurt from the prolonged tension caused by his anger and tempered his gaze somewhat. "You will differ with nothing. It is not your place to do so."

"Not my place? See here, Vanlo! I told you from the start that I will not be treated as an apprentice! I am the same rank as you, and I wish to be treated as such. I simply wish to know what you have done here and why. I accuse you of no improprieties. I just want to know what is going on in this office. In our office."

Vanlo's anger reached a breaking point. In his fury he lunged at Lanno. Lanno feared that the elderly Healer was attacking him, and he did not want to hurt the man while defending himself. Yet instead of Vanlo's flailing hands going for Lanno himself, they attempted to grab the bag.

As startled as Lanno had been, he did not have a firm grip, but neither did Vanlo. The net result was that the bag landed between them on the floor, bursting open and scattering half the contents over the stones.

Vanlo looked down at the mess. Lanno tensed, expecting an explosion. Instead, the older Healer uttered a long sigh and his shoulders slumped.

The senior Healer finally looked up. He took another deep breath and folded his hands behind his back. "Yes, well ... age equates to experience. That is obviously not synonymous with common sense."

There was still an edge to Vanlo's voice, but it had softened considerably. He paused a moment and stepped away from Lanno, retreating to his chair. He sat upon it heavily, suddenly feeling very tired.

Lanno was unsure of how to react. "Vanlo ... do you wish me to fetch something to clean ..."

Vanlo shook his head and waved a hand in dismissal. "It was my fault, I shall clean it up in due time."

Lanno raised an eyebrow. Knowing how Vanlo liked everything meticulously neat and clean, this definitely meant something had deeply disturbed the man.

Vanlo finally turned to face Lanno, his face grim. "You must be made to realize something, Lanno. Feel free to blame it on a limitation on my part if that comforts you. I do not like you. I do not trust you. I am unsure if one of those has led to the other, or which one came first. But there it is. You see, now, my reluctance to disclose to you what I am doing?"

Lanno was a bit taken aback by the older Healer's brutal honesty. One part of him did want to fume at the idea that Vanlo would choose to think so negatively of him for no apparent reason, but he held this in check. This was the closest they had come to having an actual dialog instead of a veiled shouting match.

"I understand," Lanno said carefully. "Now allow me to repay honesty with honesty. I do not like you, either, but for different reasons. I actually do trust you. It is the fact that you appear to disregard my opinions that gets to me. Granted, we appear to come from opposite sides of the spectrum on some things ..."

"On many things," Vanlo corrected immediately.

Lanno smirked slightly, but quickly suppressed it. "On many things, then. And I know we likely will never agree on those points. But perhaps we can be a little less confrontational with each other."

"I can make no promises. I am an old man. I am set in my ways. I will not change. I cannot. This is what I know and what I will carry to the grave with me."

Lanno sighed softly. "I had a feeling. I'll try to deal with it better. Or perhaps you can try trusting me some more."

Vanlo brought his hands together and steepled his fingers as he leaned back in his seat. "I will try," he said simply.

Lanno decided to put it to a test immediately. "In that case, Vanlo, can you please tell me what you are doing with Jonalla? And what was the purpose of this experiment?"

Vanlo considered hard for a long moment. Finally, he stood up and raised a finger to Lanno, setting his gaze hard and cool. "I will tell you. But you will tell no one else outside this office nor debate with me what I intend to do about it. That will be between the Overlord and myself."

Lanno nodded once. "I trust that he already knows you have the Jonalla? And that you are experimenting with it?"

"Yes to the first, no to the second. But he trusts me to carry out whatever experiments I see fit. Now ... you will listen to me and do not interrupt."

Vanlo explained how the Jonalla had arrived at the Manor by way of a slave who was in reality an Imperial Agent. Jonalla was a mind-altering herb, and it had been used in pure form to sow disobedience among the slaves. He then explained how he had awoken one morning during the Conclave feeling terrible, and how his mental faculties had been affected, leading to his decision to give the Healer position to another. He went on to say how he had recovered, but was left with the question as to what had happened to him.

Then he explained his first clue.

"I noticed there was less Jonalla than I remembered," Vanlo continued. "Naturally this simply could have been my addled senses. Yet when I took a meticulous inventory of all my supplies, I found other ingredients missing. Someone had clandestinely made a potion and given it to me, most likely by vaporizing it in my quarters."

Lanno was aghast at this. Despite his personal feelings towards Vanlo, he could not stand the thought of someone forcing a potion with detrimental effects on another. It went against everything he had been taught as a Healer. "That is reprehensible!"

"Indeed. Thus I had proof that someone had mixed a potion with mental effects. But what effects? Surely not for the sole purpose of making me fuzzy-headed for awhile. There is no point to that, and there are far simpler formulations for such a thing. No, this was intended to make a permanent change to someone's psyche. To mine."

"That's a serious accusation, Vanlo."

"Yes, it is." He swept an arm towards the apparatus. "But clearly borne out by the facts."

"So that is what you have been doing? Recreating the formula and determining the effects?"

Vanlo's face grew grave and he nodded solemnly.

Lanno was beside himself. That was a incredible feat. There were very, very few Healers, even among those as experienced as Vanlo, that had a knack for that sort of analysis. It was very tricky work, meant only for those that were very patient and have highly associative minds.

"Vanlo, there are Healers that would kill for a skill like that," he finally said.

At first Vanlo was put off by the younger Healer's choice of words. Yet when it dawned on him that Lanno was finally openly acknowledging his experience, it softened his response. "Hmm, well, don't tell the Guild Hall that. They will be up in arms about Healers killing for greater experience."

Lanno started to smile at this, thought better of it and instead gestured towards the apparatus as he asked, "Is that something you can teach me to do?"

Vanlo raised an eyebrow. "You wish me to instruct you in something?" he asked dubiously.

"Yes, I do."

There was a long pause. "I will consider it. But let us get back to the matter at hand."

"Yes, please. Did you find anything else about the potion used against you? Like what it was intended to do?"

"I have a theory only. Much of it is supposition, but it will be confirmed or denied after tomorrow."

"Oh?"

"Are you familiar with Portal energy sensitivity?"

Lanno considered for a moment. "I believe so. It's something some Mages have. They can sense when a Portal is being energized or opened up nearby, right?"

"Correct. Though such an ability is not limited to Mages. It is innate, so it can come to anyone. It just so happens that many that have it choose to pursue the career of a Mage. There are those who develop the ability who choose a different path. Myself, for instance."

Lanno's eyes widened. "You can sense Portal energies?"

"Yes. Or, rather, I had, once. I do not believe I have the ability anymore. That is the intent of the potion, to still Portal sensitivity."

For a long moment there was leaden silence in the room.

"Vanlo," said the younger Healer in a cautious voice. "Are you sure of this?"

"To be honest, not completely. Some of this is circumstantial. Which is why we will see tomorrow when his Lordship energizes his Portal."

"But why do that to you? And who did it?"

Vanlo shook his head. "The Overlord may have his own guesses as to the former, considering the precarious political machinations at work in Oceanus at the moment."

Lanno nodded absently at this. He admitted that he had not been following current events of late.

"But as to the latter, I do not know. I have no clue as to the perpetrator."

Lanno wondered if this were too much to take in at once. Vanlo had handed him some revelations about what was really going on in the world that were far more than he had ever wanted to know. Yet someone had used Healer supplies in a blatantly malicious manner. No matter what his feelings towards Vanlo were, that went against every belief of a Healer.

If there was one tenet that was common among Healer-types across all the known worlds, it was "do no harm."

Lanno's expression became far more serious than Vanlo could ever remember seeing it. "Vanlo, I want to help. I want to see if we can find the monster that did this."

Vanlo was a bit taken aback by Lanno's vehemence. "Indeed? Monster?"

"Yes, monster. You don't go messing with someone's head like that."

"I sincerely appreciate the offer, Lanno," said Vanlo. "But it will likely be for naught without any clues to go on. I can give you the how and the what. We can speculate on the why. But the who will elude us."

Lanno sighed in frustration. He had hoped that this would be a chance to actually work with Vanlo as a peer and earn some respect from the man. He felt he had made some inroads that morning, but he wanted to build on it.

Vanlo took a deep breath and let it go, rubbing at his temples. "The stress has left me a bit fatigued now," he said in a soft voice. "I would like to rest before I speak with his Lordship about my findings. Could you find something else to do?"

The question was spoken partially as a polite request, partially as a plea. Lanno understood and nodded once. "If you would like me to clean up for you ...?"

Vanlo shook his head adamantly. "I clean up my own messes."

Lanno nodded again and ducked out of the room.

Vanlo stood up tiredly. It had started out as a good day, and now he felt as if he were ready to crawl back into bed. He fetched a dust pan and brush and carefully lowered himself to his knees before the spilled Jonalla, wincing a bit as he forced aged joints to move in ways that they did not care to be moved any longer.

Vanlo was about to bring the brush down at the edge of the spill when his eyes flickered over to something near the overturned bag. Once again, the fact that Vanlo's vision had remained clear and sharp into his old age served him well, for now they had spotted a detail that another may have missed.

It lay just at the edge of the bag. Barely visible. Just a tiny, thin curve. Carefully leaning forward, he reached towards it and grasped it between his thumb and forefinger. Several errant grains of Jonalla fell away as he extricated it. He brought it to his eyes for closer inspection.

"Master Lanno!" he called out sharply.

Lanno rushed back into the room, looking on in alarm. "Vanlo, have you fallen?! Do you ..."

Vanlo smoothly rose to his knees, and then to his feet, and presented his prize to the other Healer. Lanno blinked as he stared at the single, short black hair held in Vanlo's fingers. "This was in the Jonalla."

Lanno just stared. "In the ... how in the world did you spot ...?"

"Perhaps you can be of some assistance after all," said Vanlo with a small smile.

With a deafening crash, the door to Q'yros' quarters slammed into the stone wall of the corridor. The door frame was partially splintered on one side where the door had been ripped from its hinges. People that had been walking the passage suddenly came to a stop and just stared in shock.

The Mage approached the wrecked doorway. His staff still glowed faintly from the release of magical energy, his eyes blazing with equal measure of anger and frustration.

Suddenly, all the curious in the corridor found someplace else they needed to be, and quickly left Q'yros alone. No one bothered to summon a guard. Indeed, even the guards themselves that were stationed at either end of the corridor decided it was a good time for a break.

Q'yros paused and took a few deep breaths to try to calm himself. It did no good. He gripped his staff tightly and marched off towards the Emperor's chambers.

And how do I learn of these latest edicts? From his mouth? From his talks with his supposed adviser? the Mage thought bitterly. No, I hear it like everyone else does, by these damnable parchments!

The last time he had been in such a towering rage, it had been when he had learned of his appointment to adviser in the first place. Now he was doubly angry; first he was forced to take on this position, and now the Emperor was disregarding his advice at every turn.

Unlike the last time, Q'yros did not bother to temper his fury before advancing down the corridor to the throne room. As he had expected, the two guards on duty immediately advanced and drew their swords.

Q'yros raised the staff, and the guards as one brought steel to bear on the Mage.

A flash of light, and the guards were slammed into opposite walls of the corridor, swords flying impotently from their hands and clattering loudly to the stones. They slumped to the floor and were still.

Q'yros waved a hand and uttered an incantation. The gilded doors opened before him.

The two guards on the other side leapt out at the Mage. Q'yros already had his staff stretched out horizontally before him, the faint glow of a shield forming around his body.

"Hold!"

The two guards paused and exchanged a single look. They slowly lowered their swords and backed up a step. Q'yros likewise lowered his staff, the glow around him flickering out.

Footsteps echoed in the chamber as the Emperor calmly stepped between the guards. He waved a single hand in the air without looking at them. The guards returned to their posts on either side of the door within the chamber.

Z'haas stepped up to Q'yros, his gaze icy. "I trust there is a reason for you abusing my personal guards?"

Q'yros did not wither the least under the Emperor's cold gaze. He turned his staff in hand and thumped the end against the floor. "And you do not believe I am about to strike you dead? Are you not afraid that I have perhaps come to usurp the throne and take the power for myself? You seem to pick and choose who your enemies are, my Emperor."

Despite the overall respectful tone, Z'haas sensed the bile in the Mage's voice. "Are you accusing me of being paranoid, Q'yros?"

Q'yros had not expected a point-blank question such as that, but felt that the time for amenities was over. He reached into his robes and yanked out a scroll that he presented to the Emperor. "Yes."

Z'haas' eyes flicked down to the parchment, but he made no move to take it. Instead, he gestured for the Mage to follow before turning and walking back into the throne room.

Q'yros gripped the scroll tightly, crushing it in the center before stuffing it unceremoniously into his robes. He thumped his staff once loudly and proceeded into the chamber.

As he marched behind Z'haas, he noted there were more guards stationed around the periphery of the chamber. "Really, is all this necessary?" Q'yros declared, sweeping his staff towards the other guards.

"I will determine what is necessary," said Z'haas as the guards closed the doors to the chamber before returning to their posts.

"Yes, I see you already have," said Q'yros acidly, brandishing the scroll again.

Z'haas turned just short of the dais that held the throne and cast a stony gaze at the Mage. "And you have a problem with this?"

Q'yros was too flabbergasted to reply at first. When he finally could speak, there was a tone of incredulity to it. "Have you given any thought whatsoever to how you intend to placate the Nobility when they arrive in less than a quarter moon? Do you even have any concept of what it is like to deal with a full compliment of Nobles and their representatives?"

"Are you accusing me of being ignorant of protocol?"

"Yes, I am. Your assignment of personal guards to each of the Nobles is proof of that."

"And you think they will be insulted at this rather than accept it as a sign of concern for their safety?"

"When you stipulate that the guards will need to escort them wherever they go, and you declare certain areas of the Imperial Palace off limits to them, yes!"

Z'haas narrowed his gaze. "And you would wish to give them free run of the Palace? After we had a conspiracy to usurp the throne right in our midst?"

"The Nobility are not about to make so blatant a move against Imperial power," the Mage declared. "If they wished to do so, they would arrive at the Imperial City with an army and take it by force! That is how they operate. You are carrying your paranoia over your safety too far, and it threatens to undo any good that may come with this Caucus."

"Good?!" the Emperor exclaimed. "You expect something good to come out of this? You seriously believe they will be swayed by mere words? No, Q'yros, they will understand nothing less than a show of force, and that is what this security measure will do."

"And that will push them into opposing you. Then they will return, and this time it will be with an army!"

"By that time, I will have secured our western frontier. Colos will be neutralized and the crisis will be over for the time being."

On this point, Q'yros continued to be frustrated. He was trying to find the logic in Z'haas' thoughts. Q'yros himself realized that some action was necessary, but the more he thought about the politics involved, the more he began resisting the idea of a military excursion again. He could not make up his own mind on the matter, and there was little further information to go on from the Guild Hall.

Q'yros looked the Emperor squarely in the eye. "Then perhaps you can enlighten me as to your own reasons for seeing Colos as a threat large enough to require conquest as the answer? Because I am still not seeing it!"

Z'haas was losing patience, his eyes burning in anger. "I have made this clear before," Z'haas said in a deadly voice whose tone warned against further debate. "The threat posed by Colos is indirect. It is part of a much larger threat. Surely you see this with the Portals that have been opened up into Oceanus."

"I accept that the Portals are a threat, as they represent an unknown advance in magical technology," Q'yros said in a somewhat lower voice, but with no less of an edge to it. "And I will accept that agents could have infiltrated Oceanus with focusing pearls to direct the Portals. But would not sealing the borders accomplish what you wish without the need for conquest?"

Z'haas raised an eyebrow. "Is that what you believe I wish? To simply stop agents from coming into Oceanus?"

Q'yros seethed. He was getting to the end of his own patience as well. "That's just it! I don't know what you wish because you will not tell me! Time and time again I have questioned your actions and you will not explain ..."

"My actions are not to be questioned!"

"Well, I am questioning them! I am supposed to be your adviser! Yet I cannot be if you tell me nothing, you listen to nothing, and you see nothing." He threw the parchment down at Z'haas' feet. "That's it. I have had it. I resign my position. If you do not like that, then arrest me. I simply do not wish to be in a role that is nothing more than a source of frustration for me."

Without waiting for the Emperor's leave, Q'yros turned and started marching for the doors.

"Q'yros, stop! Stop!"

What stopped the Mage was not the fact that the guards at the door had unsheathed their swords and crossed them before Q'yros near the door, for a single sweep of his staff would have taken care of this obstacle. What stopped him was the note of desperation in the Emperor's voice.

He turned, but said nothing.

Z'haas jogged over to him. "You cannot resign."

Q'yros hesitated. It was spoken more as a plea than a command.

The Emperor continued speaking in the wake of the Mage's silence. "You are the only one I truly trust. It is why you are still alive even after what you had done to my guards outside. I simply knew you would not attempt to harm me. You are the only one in Oceanus who has that distinction."

Q'yros was not sure what to say to this. He had known that the Emperor trusted him, but only now did he see how deep that trust went. That was what broke the pattern of the typical dictator descending into greater depths of paranoia to preserve his power. There was something else behind it.

And he had to know what it was.

"My Emperor, while I am honored to have gained this distinction from you, my objections still stand. You tell me nothing of your motivations, thus you leave me in the dark as to how to advise you. It is obvious to me that you know something I do not. I wish to know what that is if I am to continue being your adviser."

Z'haas paused for a long moment, his gaze averted as a thoughtful look came over his face. Several other emotions flickered across it as well, and Q'yros grew more curious than angry now.

The Emperor finally turned his gaze back to the Mage. "Very well. You will follow me."

Z'haas crisply turned and started towards the door to his private chambers. Q'yros was almost too stunned to follow at first, and had to quicken his steps to catch up. As the Emperor neared the door, two guards approached, intending to fall into step with them. Z'haas waved them off, and they returned to their posts, leaving them alone as they entered the corridor.

Q'yros realized that he was entering an area of the Imperial Palace into which he had never ventured, but nothing he was seeing was a surprise to him. The hallways were done in muted elegance, as if the mindset of a spartan appearance that was so evident in the throne room had been carried forth here.

"Q'yros, you are aware that I had a brother, are you not?" the Emperor said as they walked down a wide corridor, their footsteps muted by the carpet that lay atop tile.

"Yes, I am aware," replied the Mage. "I also recall he met an untimely death about a year ago at the hands of his wife."

Z'haas' jaw tightened. "Yes, his wife was instrumental in his death."

Q'yros gave the Emperor a curious look but it was not returned. What the official history had said was that Kenris V'haas had been murdered by his wife in retaliation for an illicit affair that Kenris was supposedly engaged in at the time.

"Was he not a general of yours, my Emperor?" asked Q'yros.

"Indeed. Head of the Imperial Guard. One of my best."

Q'yros sensed the tightness in the Emperor's voice, but pressed on anyway. "He was in Colos at the time, was he not? At their request, I believe."

"Yes. They had trouble with vandals and brigands that had holed up in the mountains near the west coast of the continent. Where they had gone so long without fielding an army, their domestic security forces did not have the necessary military discipline needed to root out the threat."

Q'yros raised an eyebrow. "You sent an army?"

Z'haas gave the Mage an even look and shook his head. "I do know protocol, Q'yros," he said acidly. "At the time, we were at peace. I had suspicions of possible threats, but nothing definite. So I acted in accordance to the Charter. I raised a small force, small enough to not require approval from the Nobility, and sent them with my brother in command. The idea was that my guards would form the core of a military force and would train the native Colosians."

"I see. But his death did not disrupt the operation. The threat was dealt with anyway. That is at least what is recorded of the incident."

The Emperor said nothing in reply.

Q'yros considered carefully. He knew the old maxim, one that was echoed on many worlds: history is written by the victors. There was likely more to the incident than he knew.

Z'haas led him down a narrow side-corridor that ended at a single, unadorned wooden door. The Emperor paused a moment and opened it into darkness. He ushered the Mage inside and closed the door behind them before uttering the command, "Light."

The two candles flickered to life.

Q'yros' eyes were only momentarily drawn to the candles, as it was simply an unimpressive bit of spell-setting. What truly intrigued him was the object that sat upon the bed of velvet between them. So surprised was he at what he saw that he instinctively stepped forward and reached a hand towards it before remembering his place.

"You may touch it," the Emperor said. "You alone of all people I know I can trust to handle it, as I am sure you will recognize it."

The Mage gave Z'haas a curious look as he took the glass orb in his fingers and brought it to his eyes. In reality, he hardly needed to. He had already seen the tell-tale glow the moment he stepped into the room. Only a Mage's eyes would see it.

Nevertheless, he turned it around in his fingers to be sure. "This is Mage Glass," he said with a hint of amazement in his voice. He looked up. "Who did this for you? Or do I need to ask?"

"Your Guild Master Q'ixanna made it."

"As I thought. He and I are the only two Mages in Oceanus that can produce Mage Glass. Yet he never made mention of this."

"He kept it a secret at my request," the Emperor explained. "As I wish you to do as well."

"I will. As much as I will keep in confidence the reason why you had this done to what appears to be an expended and useless blue pearl."

Q'yros was indeed curious. The sole purpose of Mage Glass was preservation. It could be used to protect a delicate item from damage, or to hold together a cracked blue pearl. Yet the pearl within this orb appeared beyond the help of even Mage Glass.

Z'haas stepped up to Q'yros and took the orb from his fingers. "It is not quite expended," the Emperor explained in a subdued voice. "It was once a Farviewing pearl bound to my brother."

Q'yros nodded once. That explained the damage. When a person to whom a blue pearl was bound died, the pearl would suffer some sort of damage, rendering it useless. Peaceful death produced a simple crack or flaw. Violent death produced more damage, and usually shattered the pearl outright.

"The pearl had another spell upon it. It would remember the last conversation that was held and allow it to be viewed again. He wished me to keep a record of his mission. After each communication, I took the pearl to a clerk that would transcribe the conversation."

The Mage put two and two together and spoke solemnly. "You had the pearl preserved to keep safe the final conversation you had with your brother. I can understand that. In a damaged state like this, it is likely the only thing allowing the replay spell to operate. You are fortunate the pearl remained as intact as it did. That alone is something of a miracle."

Z'haas' eyes hardened as he turned and placed the orb back in its velvet nest. "More so in another way, Q'yros." He sat down before the orb. "I was conversing with him when he was murdered."

Q'yros' eyes widened. "Great gods ..."

Suddenly the Mage had a lot more sympathy for the Emperor. It was one thing to see your brother's Farviewing pearl char and crack and know he has just been killed. It was quite another to have seen it happen on the Farview itself. Yet it explained the speedy trial and execution of the wife. With the Emperor's own eyes having witnessed it, there was little that a jury could do but convict.

"I am terribly sorry, my Emperor," Q'yros said softly.

"Spare me your pity," said the Emperor in a bitter voice. "I do not need it. In fact, I need you with a clear head. You want to know my motivations. They are here. Watch and listen."

The Emperor passed his hand over the orb, and a piece of Z'haas' past life began to play.

The image of a man that was nearly the twin of Z'haas shimmered into view above the orb, though much more jovial in temperament despite the gravity of his speech. The images flickered at first, and the sound would fade in and out, but Q'yros was able to piece together the missing parts and allow him to make sense out of it.

"Good afternoon, my dear brother," said the image of Kenris. "Another of my updates, as promised."

"Good day to you, General V'haas," said the disembodied voice of the younger Z'haas. "Really, Kenris, you must adhere to protocol when you begin your reports."

Kenris laughed. "Now, Fenric, who is going to hear and who is going to care? Have the clerk skip the greeting part in his transcription if it worries you."

A sigh from the younger Z'haas. "Very well. Do you have any more to tell me? I sincerely hope it is better news this time."

"Actually, I do indeed. I believe we have pinpointed the location of the enemy stronghold in the mountains."

Q'yros raised an eyebrow at this. Enemy stronghold? That did not sound like a name someone would use to describe a bunch of brigands holed-up in the high country.

"And have you come around to my thinking now, Kenris?"

Kenris sighed. "I am afraid I must. You were right, something bigger is going on here."

"This must be stopped. This is as I had suspected. If this continues, it could spread to the borders of Oceanus ..."

Kenris raised a placating hand. "Now, now, Fenric, don't get excited over this. They are small in number and we have already laid siege to the mountain valley where they are located. They have no means in or out."

"Then why have you not closed in on them? Why do they still live?"

"Because, Fenric, they hold several of our men prisoner. I want to explore every option to save them first." He grinned. "And give them a chance to escape themselves and do some sabotage to the enemy's works."

"I am not sure I like this, Kenris. To me it would seem more prudent to ..."

The younger Z'haas' voice abruptly fell silent when there was a sudden flash of light from somewhere behind Kenris, followed closely by a clap of thunder.

"What??" Q'yros suddenly cried, taking a step forward. Even in a faded and deteriorating recording, the sight and sound of a Portal opening was instantly recognizable to him.

"Kenris, what is happening?!" came the tinny shout of the younger Z'haas.

Kenris was already turning around. There was the brief glimpse of an open door behind him. As he turned, Kenris made a gesture and barked a few odd syllables that Z'haas had never understood.

But Q'yros did. He knew a Shadow Hide spell when he saw it. The wily Kenris had just masked the image of his brother floating in the air where he was taking his Farview. He must have had some basic Mage training at an earlier age to accomplish that spell. The intruder would never know a Farview was taking place.

Someone entered the room. Kenris, his back to the pearl, shouted, "You! How in Hellfire did you manage to ...?!"

Then the stranger spoke, but where the Farviewing magic worked in a small radius, and where the newcomer was soft-spoken, not everything of what he said had come through. "I am here . . . more fitting way for us to resolve . . . pitting our people against each . . . have the difference, not them."

"Your words mean nothing to me!" Kenris declared, still sounding confused over the sudden turn of events. "I demand to know how you opened that Portal here! I ..."

The stranger had taken advantage of Kenris' confusion to strike.

It was hard to see what was happening. It was clear that the stranger was using little more than his fists and feet, yet his moves were lightning fast and almost impossible for Kenris to counter. Yet Kenris fought, and fought hard, managing to connect with two solid punches to the stranger's face.

It was not enough. Q'yros winced as he saw Kenris savagely beaten by the stranger. Kenris tried lunging towards the man in one final desperate attempt, only to have it violently thrown back. Kenris staggered towards the point of the Farview, and in that moment, Q'yros clenched his staff with both hands at the sight of the Emperor's brother. Parts of him were badly bruised, and blood trickled from his nose and mouth.

And then, very faintly, Q'yros thought he had heard a high-pitched scream.

Kenris filled the Farview image and then abruptly disappeared as he fell through where his brother's image would have been. Only his ragged breathing could be heard.

Now the stranger approached, and for the first time, he could be seen very clearly. This part of the recording was in the best shape, as if the Guild Master had paid special attention to this section.

The man was remarkably slim of build for the damage he had inflicted. One of his slightly almond-shaped eyes was purpled and bruising. His hair was raven-black. He looked forward, straight at the modern-day Q'yros and Z'haas. It was clear that Kenris was likely leaning against the wall behind the image.

The stranger looked on with relative equanimity as he drew a dagger. "If it is any consolation to you, my dear General, I am not at all pleased with this course of action," said the stranger in an even voice. "Yet we all must do our duty and what is commanded of us. I have a task to perform. You stand in the way of that task. Thus I take this action." He paused and frowned. "Even as I find it ... most distasteful."

Steel flashed in the air as it came forward through the image, the stranger surging forward with it. Barely a breath later, the image flickered out.

Absolute silence followed in its wake.

The Emperor took a deep breath, as if taking a moment to choke down a strong emotion. When he turned to the Mage, his eyes were hard even though his face was somber and sad.

At first, Q'yros had been overcome by the shock of actually witnessing a murder before him over a Farview recording. Yet when he started to think about it, he realized that there was a glaring detail that was wrong. "I do not understand," he finally said.

"You do not yet know the whole story," said Z'haas in a low voice. "But I wish to hear this."

"Your brother was supposedly murdered by his wife. Yet it is clear that he was not."

"Indeed. So?"

"Why was she found responsible for his death and executed?"

Z'haas rose from his chair. "What she did ... was as good as murdering him."

Q'yros simply shook his head.

"You saw for yourself! The murderer had come through a Portal. How do you think he could have possibly done such a thing if someone had not had a focusing pearl? His wife was the only one with him!"

Comprehension dawned in Q'yros' eyes, and he felt stupid for not realizing that himself. Yet something was still not right. Something was off. There was still something nagging at him.

As if sensing the small glimmer of doubt in the Mage, Z'haas stepped up to him, eyes blazing. "Do not even attempt to dispute what I did! She was a conspirator to a murder and a traitor to the Empire! And she had the gall to lead the guards to the scene of the murder herself, as if taking perverse pleasure in the act!"

"Did they find the focusing pearl on her person or her effects?" Q'yros asked.

"No. She would not have been so foolish to keep such evidence with her. She had disposed of it at the earliest opportunity."

"And I trust a court Mage verified the presence of the residual magic on her hands from handling ..."

"There was no time for such formalities!" thundered Z'haas. "I insured that justice was swift. She was convicted by military tribunal and ..."

"Military tribunal? That is not what the history scrolls state!"

"To the blazing hells with history! This is much bigger than merely keeping the records straight!"

Q'yros paused to collect his thoughts. Perhaps the Emperor was correct. Certainly what he had seen had bigger implications. "What happened after that incident?"

"A new general was appointed and they attacked the stronghold. The enemy had long since vanished. A smashed Portal generator was found. Days later, some of them were spotted in distant parts of Colos. Do you see now what is going on, Q'yros? They had long since infiltrated Colos when we discovered them. They must have had agents and sympathizers in other parts of the country with focusing pearls to allow the enemy to escape."

"Was the wreckage of that Portal generator saved?" Q'yros suddenly exclaimed, his eyes wide. "Please tell me that it was!"

Z'haas looked annoyed at the question. "It was, but the Mages could do nothing with it. Before you ask, yes, they attempted to use their spells to tell where the last Portals it had opened had been targeted, but the damage was too great."

"But where is it now?"

"I imagine the Guild Master still has it."

Q'yros stared at Z'haas in incredulity. "And he never revealed this?!"

"I had told him not to. I had decided secrecy was best at the time so as not to reveal to the enemy how much we knew. He is to do nothing with the remains except at my order."

Q'yros' mind raced. Even if that Portal were heavily damaged, energy resonances would remain. If this were indeed built by the same enemy they faced now, the same one opening these advanced Portals into Oceanus, that would be extremely valuable information.

But only if the Guild Master would even admit to having it in the first place.

"But do you see my motivations now, Q'yros?" the Emperor said. "Do you see why I must suspect Colos? You see what happened to my brother. The enemy managed to find someone close to him to be their agent. And now they open Portals into Oceanus! Now do you see why I am 'paranoid' as you put it? Why I am very careful about who remains close to me? If I loosen my grip on the Imperium even slightly, that is another chance that someone will slip an agent near me and murder me as they did my brother. They managed to sway his own beloved wife into working for them. Who is to say that they cannot do the same with a Noble? Or an Overlord? Or anyone?"

"And ... your attempt to infiltrate the Overlords' ranks with Yanna ..."

"The Overlords, I felt, were the greatest threat," Z'haas said darkly. "They wielded the most influence in Oceanus. Roquan was trading with the Far West. The enemy is in those lands. It was natural for me to suspect him, and to wish to disrupt his operation. This Conclave of his was simply a way to gain more followers, more potential agents for the enemy with which he conspires!"

Q'yros slowly nodded. Yes, it did make a certain amount of sense to him. Yet much of it was based on circumstantial evidence. But a great deal of circumstantial evidence.

If nothing else, it explained the Emperor's thinking. It was no longer a mystery to him. Now there was some credence to the actions Z'haas was taking.

"Yes, I understand now, my Emperor," Q'yros said in a calmer voice.

Z'haas looked visibly relieved.

"At the same time, however, you cannot expect there will be no repercussions from your actions. If you take a hard line with the Nobility, they will push back."

"Then give me an alternative to my initial decree, Q'yros, and I will hear it," declared Z'haas.

Q'yros was quite surprised at this response. Was the Emperor now going to actually listen to his advice? Yet he knew Z'haas would not rest unless he had some means to insure that the Nobility could not move against him.

"I will consider this carefully. Perhaps I can come up with some magic that will see to your protection without the need for being overt."

Q'yros did not like that. It struck him as vaguely unethical to perform magic on someone without their knowledge. Yet he had to satisfy the Emperor somehow.

The information about the Portal, however, had made something click in his mind. He felt he was close to a revelation concerning the matter of the advanced Portal technology. The wreckage of that Portal device may be the key.

"I need to ask one thing of you, my Emperor," Q'yros said carefully. "I need you to request of Guild Master Q'ixanna that he is to re-examine remains of the Portal taken from the stronghold."

Z'haas' eyes burned. "Do you realize what that means?"

"Yes, I do, but I feel it is more important to understand what we are dealing with."

"Why is it so important to understand the technology behind their Portals? Is it not more important to learn where and how the enemy will strike?"

"It is hard for me to explain, my Emperor," the Mage said with forced patience. "But you said that you trust me. I am asking you to do that now."

Z'haas paused for a long moment. "I will consider it."

Q'yros inwardly sighed. He had a feeling that the Emperor would do it only after Q'yros had managed to come up with an alternate solution to handling security with the Nobility. "Thank you."

The Emperor looked back towards the orb. "I wish to be alone now, Q'yros," he said in a somber voice. "I will be taking no more audiences today."

"As you wish, my Emperor. I will see myself out."

Q'yros left Z'haas in the tiny room and started away.

The Mage had seen a side of Z'haas that he had never known existed. He finally had a glimpse into the Emperor's human side. There were moments in that room when Z'haas seemed more man than Emperor.

If the Emperor had assessed everything correctly, then he had been right all along. Oceanus was in grave danger, and the move against Colos was likely the right one, as it would allow Z'haas to take a firmer hand in removing the enemy conspirators. He could see that Z'haas truly had no ambitions for conquest for its own sake.

But it was still an "if," for Q'yros felt that there was yet a truth to be uncovered.

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