Dear friends, It has been a very long several days, so I shall be brief in my summary of what has happened in the name of the Athasian Survey Project.

The J’hol do not have a reputation for gentle treatment of their captives, and they did not disappoint. From my arrival, my time was spent moving from one holding cell to another, with several interruptions for questioning. By being both forthcoming and able to direct their psychic probing to what I want them to see, I seem to have given them enough to spare me heavier interrogation. Now I’m sitting in this cell while they decide what to do with me. The zock’n resin walls remind me of old memories…

—————————————–

Adicios paced back and forth across the room. Out of love and respect, he was still listening to my pleas, but my good will with him was evidently burning away quickly and I was running out of arguments to convince him.

*“You have everything you need already. You don’t need the cerulean crystals. You’re powerful enough.”

“I’m going after them before someone else gets to them first. We cannot risk their falling into the wrong hands.”

“Why can’t someone else go? You’ve already started your transformation. You are now a target to every evil power in Uran. Surely there are other powerful sorcerers.”

“It’s my kreen contacts in L’rax who found them. They won’t trust anyone else.”

“These crystals are dangerous! This power is lethal in anyone’s hands. The artifacts were used by Rajaa-”

“I KNOW WHAT THEY ARE, ESHMEL!*” he turned and snapped at me.

I was stunned into silence. I had never heard him speak that way. He was always so wonderfully patient. But this. This look in his eyes. Like a hammer blow to the foundation of our life together.

It was hard to even fathom my affection for him: student, colleague, confidante, closest beloved friend. I don’t know if there is even a word for what he meant to me. But at that moment, I felt as if he had forced me to make an impossible choice. Either I stood aside and lived with the decision that I let him kill himself chasing after a suicidally dangerous relic, or I pushed him until he shoved me aside and left anyway.

—————————————–

*“I’m sorry. Eshmel.” *

It was Margaba who told me. He was my old handler with the Consortium, and the man who had introduced me to Adicios in the first place.

I wanted to shout “I told you! I knew it! Of course it was a trap!” but he wasn’t there to hear. He would never be there again. All of those years, all of that time…lost.

I gradually found my voice. “…Did he find the crystals?”

Margaba paused for a long moment before responding. I think he wasn’t sure how much to tell me and what I would do with that information. “Yes. Our spies were correct about the location. But we were wrong about what was protecting it.”

“Did we at least get the crystals?”

“They were lost over Kazin’s Head. We are currently working on gathering another team to intercept them, led by your old friend Boanhma. She has experience working with the kreen…”

The rest of the conversation became a blur after that.

—————————————–

I now know who to reach out to. I will need to rest and conserve my strength. Presuming she’s still in the Crescent Forest, she is quite a distance from here, and it will be a very taxing missive.

Until next time, may the moons guide you.