Page 118 of Cast in Atonement

“How so?” Kaylin asked.

“When Shadow threatened us all, magics were developed that might detect subtle incursions. Shadow was endlessly inventive, and endlessly evasive; our spells required both research and time to develop. We lost a fair number of scholars to such practical research.

“It is not much taught in the modern age, and it is possible that everything I know has become hopelessly outdated. The Towers were created to evolve their detections and protections, because Shadow was so transformative. Regardless, if Shadow exists beyond these pillars, I cannot see it. An’Teela?”

“I didn’t have your training, but something’s off in the space.”

Larrantin frowned and turned to Teela; he froze in place. “What are you doing to your eyes?” he demanded.

“A trick of Terrano’s. I am being coached through the minor transformation, but it does not come as easily to me as it would to almost any of the rest of my friends. Terrano does it constantly; it’s his way of being aware of differences in phases or planes that intersect ours.”

“And you can survive this.”

“Demonstrably.”

“So it is true, then. You were one of the twelve exposed to the regalia in your childhood.”

“I have never attempted to deny it,” Teela replied, her tone of voice distinctly chilly. “I believe Kaylin to be correct in her description, except in one way. It’s not Shadow.”

“Why are you so certain?”

“What she saw, she’s describing accurately: it looks like a dark outlands. I have no sense that it’s sentient or alive.”

“Or dead?”

“Or dead,” Teela agreed.

“May we proceed?” Emmerian asked, his voice a rumble.

“Kaylin?”

Kaylin desperately wished Terrano were here. But one of the reasons they’d come was to find him. “Are you comfortable with letting me go first?”

“No,” Teela replied.

“It seems wisest,” Larrantin said. “Given that she can see clearly what you can barely detect, and the rest of us cannot detect at all.”

“We almost lost her to the portal passage,” Teela snapped. “I don’t intend to lose her to landscape. Something is looking for her.”

“It’s probably the dead Ancient,” Kaylin offered.

Larrantin frowned. “I believe we must come up with a different term.”

“For Ancient? God?”

“For dead in the case of the Ancient. Death has meaning to the rest of us.”

“It has some meaning to the Ancient as well—I believe he thought of death as the end of purpose. Something like that. He said his purpose had been fulfilled.” She frowned.

“Do you believe the dead Ancient attempted to speak with Azoria?”

“No. No, I don’t. I’m pretty sure Azoria thought of the Ancient as dead in the usual way. But she was aware of the power inherent in the Ancients, or aware of the words. And the words persisted.”

“They were the foundation of language, the true tongue. Of course they persisted.”

“But...”

“But?”

---