The spread of the abominations makes it terribly unlikely that anyone will ever read this, but I must write it. If you learn from it, wonderful. I, however, have the less honorable goal of unburdening my spirit, as confession is good for the soul.

The Symbiont is not what it seems.

By the time you read this--if indeed Tellus does not simply become a charnel house, or worse, a tomb world ravaged by Abominations--you will have deduced that Imperatrix Lunja herself is responsible for the scourge of Abominations that has begun to haunt our planet.

Tvorh hadn't deduced anything of the sort. He barely even knew Lunja's name.

This is, as is so often the case, half a lie and half a truth. The Imperatrix, fearing machinations, did awaken the Symbiont, but you must know our control of the Master-Mind--or, more accurately, the Synaptic Relay--in Umutukk and its satellite Tools and sites was not designed to cause Abominable mutations. It was an unexpected side effect, and its blossoming surprised us, like a snake in the grass.

We who follow the old ways have long suspected that a foreign intelligence seeded the Symbiont on Tellus. The scriptures tell us to remain aware at all times, for the adversary is a roaring lion, seeking to devour. Yes, I am one of these most hated men. Forgive me my deception. A man who wishes to defend Tellus, yet would be distrusted for his philosophy, must lie in order to gain the power he needs.

I have used that power only for Tellus's sake. Lions are awakening. Tellus must be ready for when they roar.

Disease spreads now among the gengineered populaces. This may be a side effect of the Imperatrix's attempt to awaken the Symbiont through the Synaptic Relay. Or perhaps it is a side effect of the emergency kill-signal I provided to the Relay without the Imperatrix's knowing.

Only after I sent the signal did the disease begin to set down its roots. I did not expect this, but as bad as this new death is, total transformation into an Abomination is worse.

Whole rexarchies have been lost to the Abominations. I would rather lose a kingdom to a disease than to an army of killing machines. The former can eventually be reclaimed by survivors. The latter may never give up.

You think me a traitor to the Imperium, but I am a patriot. Call me Amrician if you wish, but I will not see my people transform into monsters; and call me Adonist if you wish, but my people are all of humanity. I will not apologize for the kill-signal, even if it trapped the Abominable mutation in a half-state which sometimes transforms but more frequently kills outright.

And I saved a life, one which may perhaps awake decades from now and lead the rebuilding. One critical, central life.

A single life may seem like little, but imperial royalty studded Ittu, and her daughter bears that imperial blood. Once the danger is past, Thiyyatt may prove to be the key that unlocks all of our technologies and restores Tellus.

Enough digression. While I say I will not apologize, my conscience grows heavy, and time--and paper--grow short. Imperatrix Lunja's suspicions of Rex Markusu, Regina Ittu, and Rex Nabonahid did not lead her merely to experiment with the Synapsis Relay. Making the Magi of Tellus pliable to her will in an attempt to offset the pheromone-controls that the rising faction was developing was not the whole purpose of her inquiry.

Among other things, she insisted that satellites capable of distant spying and ships capable of launching orbital strikes be put into orbit.

I spearheaded this endeavor. Without her knowledge, I am placing several additional satellites in space. Their sensors will not point inward toward Tellus, but outward toward the stars.

The twin suns must burn somewhere nearby. Until we find them, Tellus will be in terrible danger.

The Synaptic Relay's unleashing of the disease clarifies the dangers of Synapsis. The additional orbital Tools will communicate solely by radio with a hidden relay in the city of Strathlic. If any of our agents in that city survive, they will monitor the transmission and provide verbal guidance to the satellites.

If our Imperatrix's meddling with Synapsis brought about this disease of Abominations and half-transformations, it can only mean that somebody is listening on the other end and sending messages back to our Wisdoms.

Our meddling told somebody that we were a species intelligent and strong enough to be a threat, and that somebody told our Wisdoms to turn on us in response, to produce phages that would target and attack our common genes. Little wonder that it targeted the nigh-universal alterations we make to allow gengineering to work.

Somewhere in a silver desert beneath twin suns, somebody is listening to us.

It is my hope that the satellites have survived and sent the answers we seek. Perhaps humanity can survive a century or two of destruction, then rebuild with an eye toward defending itself against whatever that Somebody's next maneuver will be.

Now I must see to Imperatrix Lunja. She delves into the Tool to access the Synapsis Relay one final time. Perhaps she will succeed in stopping the spread of the disease and the Abominations. Perhaps she will fail, in which case she intends to lock away the palace entirely and set the defenses to lethally assault any unauthorized personnel attempting to access this site and the Relay. Either way, courtiers are transforming on a daily basis. She requires protection.

Hate me if your hatred gives you the strength and the will to stand for humanity. The betrayals I have committed, I have committed for humanity as a whole. May Adon forgive us.

--Daonial Ollstrent Pellnias

Tvorh withdrew his hand from Eztli's as her eyes scanned the last of the words. The terrible note became a blank gray slate to his ears.

"They unleashed it," Eztli murmured. "A century or two, then rebuilding? It's been two millennia. We've spent countless generations fighting over scraps."

"Treating Chimeras like they're normal facts of life," Tvorh said.

"Chimeras, Chimera syndrome, the genophage." Eztli placed the note on the table. Her hands were shaking. "None of it is normal or natural."

"Somebody is listening to us," they both said at once.

Tvorh didn't need eyes to meet Eztli's gaze. She shuddered, smelling horrified.

Someone called Tvorh's name in the hall. "I'm here," he replied automatically.

Aoife ran into the room. "Tvorh! Uh, Era Eztli. Better come quickly."

Eztli's unease vanished. She stood up straight, and her voice was strong as she replied, "What is it, Aoife?"

"Shortsphere message back in the throne room. They're coming to get us out."

It was enough to make Tvorh believe in Adon.

Aoife flicked her hair offhandedly. "Oh, yeah. And Thiyyatt's awake."

What?

Thiyyatt was seated on the dais, chewing listlessly on a nutrient cube. Senrii and Piotr stood watch over her. "Blood, kid, I'm glad you're here. Can't keep watch over Blue Bitch and watch the doors as well."

"I watch," their Chimerical friend rasped from down the entry hallway. They'd locked him in overnight, while they'd slept in the throne room. He hadn't seemed to mind.

No idea what they were going to do with him, though.

"Wait," Tvorh said. "The doors? You said someone was here for us." Oh, great. They needed Tvorh to dive into the Tool and open up the doors, didn't they?

Senrii waved at the shortsphere pack on the ground where Piotr had dropped it the day before. "Yeah, and hop to, kid. Apparently we've got another example of how the Chimeras in the city don't like it when you invade. Cornartis's little legion is well armed, but they're taking casualties. We need to get out of here."

Tvorh took a step toward the throne, then paused. "Thiyyatt?"

She chewed her cube, not looking up.

Tvorh knelt down. "Thiyyatt, are we in the city of Umutukk? Is that this place's name?"

That got her attention. She looked up at him with tired eyes.

Tvorh needed to be sure. "That's the Synaptic Relay, isn't it?"

"It is mine by right." Thiyyatt spoke without conviction. "My mother always told me the Symbiont would be mine by right if not by marriage."

"You were trying to control the Chimeras through Synapsis."

"The Chimeras?" Thiyyatt barked an empty laugh. "They are even lower than your Bound. Still, those Bound and the low-blooded beneath them were to be my retinue. I was to rule." Some life came back into her eyes; they flared with angry passion. "If Amaluk would consort with every low-born strumpet, then I would take my bride-price without his consent, or his mother's."

Tvorh looked at Eztli. "Ittu was conspiring against the Imperatrix. She knew Lunja was trying to counter their pheromone development."

"Using her daughter as an agent," Eztli replied. "How... human."

"And that daughter just tried to dominate all of us," Tvorh said, looking at the throne. "Every Magus on the planet." He shuddered, not wanting to consider what Thiyyatt might have forced him to do had she succeeded in wrestling the Relay into agreement with her will.

"Uh, guys? I'd ask what the bile you're talking about, but we're on a tight schedule." The sound of gunshots and the men shouting commands echoed from the shortsphere.

In order to get the doors open, Tvorh would have to dive back into the Tool. The Synaptic Relay. The Master-Mind.

The one that had killed the world. Or maybe the one that had carried the message that had killed the world.

That didn't make it any better.

"I'll do it," Tvorh said. "On one condition. When I get out of that Tool, you give it enough Symbiont-killer to sterilize half the continent."

Senrii blinked. "Are you sure?"

"We are." Eztli handed some pages to Senrii. "Read that. Erus Tvorh, please get to work. We don't have a lot of time."

What an understatement. If that note was right, all of humanity was several millennia overdue.

#

How long had Oralie been evading capture and suffocation? Days? Weeks? Years?

Oralie's mind was so terribly tired. It was all she could do to stay away from the silver stars, their silver dust, and the green stars that wanted to eat her.

She so longed to speak again to her husband. To her daughter. To her sons. To Lenaa and the other Generosi of Nethress. To Rosabella.

But she had no time to spare to seek them out. Her enemy was relentless, seeking to drown her in chaos.

Which was why she didn't see the blue star until it was right on top of her. Era Oralie! it pulsed.

"Tvorh?" she asked. "Is that you?"

A small silver star tried to slip past Tvorh's blue star. He smashed into it, sending its bits spiraling away. His star shuddered, then recovered--quickly, yet far too long. It's me. I need to get back into the Archon Tool of the palace. The Synaptic Relay. Um, it's a long story. We're getting out. They came for us. You got through to the Princeps.

Senrii would be fine. If Oralie could have sighed, she would have. "I can guide you back through its dark roots to its center."

But then you need to get out of here, too. We're going to destroy the Relay. It's the source of the genophage, or a signal that caused the genophage, or something. Like I said, long story. I don't know what'll happen to you if you're in this place when we kill it.

Oh, Tvorh. Oralie would have left the inky sea eons ago given the slightest opportunity. "Don't worry about me, Erus Tvorh," Oralie said, trying to pulse soothingly. "Do your duty."

I will, Era Oralie. Once I get your daughter out of here, I'll tell you all about what we found. Promise.

Oralie wished Tvorh were telling the truth.

She led him back to the silver-streaked stalk of dark branches stretching up through the sea. Though Senrii was no longer trapped, Oralie still knew the path by instinct, the same way that she knew the locations of Senrii's star, and Dorsin's, and...

Lenaa's?

Everyone's star. She knew them all. She knew them, yet she had no time to speak to them, lest her enemy strangle and swallow her.

Tvorh vanished into the stalks, his bright gleam sucked up like water by roots.

Oralie drifted back and allowed herself a single moment to rest.

In that moment, the stalk crumbled like a demolished building.

Its dust flowed into Oralie, and Oralie became the black sea.

#

Senrii reabsorbed the almost-empty Symbiont-killer syringe and staggered back from the vines waving wildly around the throne as her mother pounded at her brain. Senrii! Oralie gasped. Help!

"Mom?" Senrii said. "Mom, what's happening?"

Kill... me...

"Mom? Are you all right? Mom? Mom!"

But Oralie was gone.

"Bile." Senrii leaned against the throne as the Synaptic Relay died. "Bile, bile, bile, bile, bile..."

"Door's opening," Aoife shouted from the entry hallway, then glanced over her shoulder. "Ductrix Senrii, are you there?"

"Bile, bile... yeah. I can hear you." Senrii rose. "I think something bad happened to..."

She looked around the room. Really looked, as if for the first time.

Tvorh and Piotr were looking at her with concern. Aoife just looked scared. Eztli--something was obviously chewing at her, and she was trying to hide it by keeping a perfect watch over Blue Bitch. As for Thiyyatt herself, she seemed halfway between catatonia and insane rage, drawing sharp breaths that made her whole body tighten, then exhaling out all the light and life in her eyes.

Their ragtag little band couldn't afford any more worries. Not even about Oralie's mom. Not even if something terrible had happened.

If Senrii was leading them, it was time she started acting like it. "Nothing," Senrii said. "Tell you later. Aoife, report."

"Gates are open now. People are shooting from the buildings around the courtyard. Our friends must be holed up there." Aoife clicked her tongue and jerked an elbow toward their Chimerical companion, who was looking nervous--Senrii didn't know how a Chimera managed to look nervous, but somehow he did--near one of the pillars in the entry hallway. "Don't know what they're going to think about our buddy here."

"Bones. I don't know what to think about him myself." Maybe once they were in a more secure position, preferably with about a billion Magi guards, they'd be able to interrogate him and find out exactly what his deal was. "Hey. Chimera. You wanna come with us?"

"I come," the Chimera rasped. "No kill."

"That settles that," Senrii said. "All right. Let's meet our brave rescuers. Travel light and leave the shortsphere."

Senrii had a feeling speed was going to matter.