46

You peer deep into the False Icon, ignoring the illusions and enticements, trying to figure out how humanity might survive the coming calamity. And then an answer comes: agriculture! Just to say the word is obvious, but you see how people can eke out an existence even in the coming dark. You can get to work immediately upon awakening. The False Icon seems to sense you rooting around inside it. Suddenly incensed, it moves to lash out at you just as the dreamworld fills with golden light. You catch a glimpse of the Ziggurat's weapon, a huge and intricate sun lens constructed to destroy the mountain surrounding the False Icon. The light grows ever brighter, and before it or the False Icon can annihilate you, you throw yourself back into wakefulness.

You find yourself awake, not in your bed, but in the middle of the village, just before dawn. Did you sleepwalk here?

"Excuse me, Crowchar?"

It's one of the River People hunters, recently returned after an extended patrol. She holds an unlikely artifact in one hand: a letter sealed with red wax.

"There were Cerulean Guards downriver," she says, "but they did not attack. Instead they gave me this, to give to you."

Dear Crowchar Tenochtes,

(See, I can maintain a veneer of civility, despite your treacherous actions the last time we met!) You are no doubt aware that I have done everything in my power to stop the False Icon, including the raising of the Ziggurat, which even now is under attack by the Crowned Serpent. You are also probably aware that the Crowned Serpent is marching an army toward the River People to annihilate them, and that I, similarly besieged, cannot save you. But you might not be aware that I have constructed an object that is both a weapon and a prison. Having learned from the true Icons, I have constructed a lens to focus the light of the sun on the gray mountain, to burn it away before it strikes this world. After that, I will reimprison the False Icon in the crystal that now holds my faithful allies and helpers, the true Icons.

Isn't that simple and elegant? Best of all, once it's done, the true Icons have assured me that time will just roll itself right back up. With the False Icon imprisoned, this whole half-real world will slowly fade away. All I need is a way home.

I need the Specular. Between my capture of the False Icon and the total disintegration of the world, we will not have much time. We must work together, you see. I capture the False Icon, then together, we go back home, and everything returns to normal.

There is no other way. Fight off the Crowned Serpent, then come to me, and then we will flee this world together. -STRALCHUS IX PETRON, MASTER OF THE ZIGGURAT

The letter is a palimpsest, its original ink carefully scraped away, but you can dimly perceive Dr. Sabbatine's letter to Cyril, the soldier you spoke to on your journey to Byzantium, praising his virtues and offering employment.

Holding the letter and thinking of Cyril's fate, you realize you need advice.