"So, you're the uncle I've heard so much about." Uerel kicked his feet up on a computer console and stared at Jaron with his strange, multicolored eyes. "I don't think you're as great as mother says you are. She's always living in her memories of you. She never saw you as I do."

{Just what do you see then, Uerel?} Jaron was unperturbed by his nephew's comments, though the fact that Uerel was technically older than him was a bit disconcerting. {Perhaps you have a bit more extrinsic view that you'd care to share?}

"Mother always defended any action you ever took, whenever she talked about you. You never did wrong. For a while I almost believed her, that you were the epitome of virtue. You were trustworthy, and she loved you for it."

{What have I done then in your young experience of me to cause that to change?}

"It's not what you've done, but what you haven't done! Thrakkiss and now my own mother - your sister!- have gone to face Shadow. Neither of them has returned yet. Here you sit, content to let others go without making an attempt yourself."

{I have considered plans, Uerel. A two-fold battle using technology and magic that Shadow cannot combat. Both have been tried.}

Uerel leapt to his feet. "And both have failed, Jaron! You know as well as I do that Thrakkiss and most likely my mother are dead now. There goes your plan. If they failed, how then can we stop Shadow and his Fatestop?"

{I try to plan for every contingency I can think of, nephew. Your temper has got the best of you, as well as fear for your mother. You see, I know she is not dead. I am her twin and am linked to her in ways you cannot know. She is not dead. Neither is Shadow. They have both traveled backwards in time and I can no longer reach them.}

"Why did you not tell me this earlier?"

"Tell what?" Sara entered in the middle of the conversation, and was understandably confused, having been doing research of her own elsewhere in Sanctum.

{Shadow and Lin have entered the past.}

"This is bad...oh dear. Look at this. It's a copy of the Häs Naledák. It tells of Shadow's origin. The most amazing thing is that I've read it three times now, and not once has it told the same story."

{What?}

"My master has something to do with it," she explained. "He's been leaving me messages, in my dreams, while I'm awake, and so on. This is the Häs Naledák. It changes so much I cannot decipher it. Jaron, would you read it and tell me what you think?"

{I shall do so.} He opened the book, and began to read...