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I want you to watch out for this man. He may be on Earth. But he may be on Farholme. And if he is there, I want him found.”
    Lezaroth heard anger in Nezhuala’s voice now, and perhaps also fear.
    â€œI want him brought to me. Or at least destroyed. Whatever the cost. If you lose a thousand Krallen to kill him, then do it.”
    Could the lord-emperor be afraid of a myth?
    â€œMy lord, if he is there, I will take him or slay him.”
    The lord-emperor seemed to stare at the embers of the sunset. Through the dusty and contaminated atmosphere Lezaroth could make out the distant gleams of the domes on the slopes above Khetelak that gave the nobles and their families some protection from both the city’s pollution and the planet’s wildly fluctuating temperatures.
    Suddenly, Lezaroth felt again the prickling of the hairs on the back of his neck. He glanced down to the shadowy platform below and had to struggle to restrain a gasp. There around the plinth something prowled, something more solid than smoke and less solid than flesh, something indescribable, but with four legs and a head that bent to snuffle and lick.
    â€œIt’s all due to topology, my margrave.”
    Topology—the science of surfaces. But how?
    â€œThat being below us is, of course, The Master Exaltzoc. I am told that such sacrifices—rightly done—make a temporary and local adjustment in the topology of the boundary surface between the Nether-Realms and normal space. For a brief moment, the powers can appear in our world. Do you understand?”
    â€œYes. Of course, my lord.” Lezaroth knew his voice sounded numb and mechanical. I have glimpsed such things in the gray shadows of the deep Nether-Realms. I have seen steersmen and caught sight of a baziliarch. But never, however briefly, have I seen a power walking around freely on our worlds.
    â€œAh, Margrave, they long to be liberated. To move unfettered through the worlds of men. That is their great wish. The powers will give anything to the one who aids them in this.”
    â€œI’m sure, my lord.” Lezaroth knew that what the lord-emperor was saying must be of the greatest significance. But somehow the sight of a power prowling around a few hundred meters away was so astonishing, his words barely registered.
    As the figure slowly faded away, the lord-emperor said, “Come, it is time for you to leave. You have preparations to make. Follow me.”
    The door at the back of the balcony opened.
    â€œStay close to me, Margrave, through the hall. After sunset . . . with the blood . . .”
    They walked back through the hall. It seemed darker now, as if the shadows had solidified, and the whisperings and murmurings seemed clearer and more audible. This is my life from now on—protected from the powers by the lord-emperor .
    But as they left the hall and climbed the stairs another truth came to him. Admiral Kalartha-Har is dead and I am alive. And isn’t that, after all, all that counts?
    As they emerged onto the topmost platform, Lezaroth saw that the stars were out.
    â€œStay,” the lord-emperor said. “Look up.”
    Lezaroth followed his outstretched hand to where, above the dirty air, a tiny line of silver light cut the darkness.
    The Blade of Night.
    â€œYou were wrong on that, my margrave,” Nezhuala said. “The Blade of Night is of greatest value. And it will be even more so. You have landed at the access station?”
    â€œTwice, my lord. Once on exercise, once when delivering the condemned.” And the entire crew breathed a sigh of relief when we blasted off. It’s a haunted monstrosity. Enough extra-physical phenomena to drive the sanest man mad.
    The lord-emperor continued to gaze upward. “It is a remarkable structure. I have journeyed down to the lower levels,” he said, in a voice that was so strangely detached that it sounded like it belonged to someone else. “The very lowest depths.