The return journey from the Beacon of Ulon to the Enclave of Kalonia seemed to take forever. Crinomu recounted details of the attack on the station of seers which had been relayed to him by his friends in the sanctum and he explained how the remaining defenders were imprisoned under siege in the heart of the dome. 

"We must be as swift as we can possibly be," he said, so to speed their travel the pair rode on into the darkness at the end of each day. Now the klane proved useful in a humble capacity for one of its simpler modes of operation, merely casting light and some warmth around the bearer. Yet the men could only extend the time of safe travelling a little beyond normal limits lest tired limbs and minds endanger the horses. The coming winter would be hard.

As they ascended through an Innobol wood in a wet and windy snow storm on the evening of the second day, Crinomu spoke to Asanka. "The time has come for me to tell you everything I know about this conflict, its origins and your own origins", he said. For the first time, Asanka heard the full story of how Crinomu had broken the laws of Kalonia and the Vow of Earth to bring him into being. 

"You should know that whilst Orietta is your true mother, I am not your true father. I was a facilitator, that is all. Your real fathers are all the seers of Kalonia, gene melded into a single representative line by the Utrian method. For the crime of your conception, I have been sentenced to a long exile in the vurtiverse though the punishment is deferred until your mother and yourself are both dead." 

"You must not think that this war is your fault", Crinomu said, "whatever you may hear. Nor is it mine. Trassamul would always have found some pretext to attack Kalonia for the same reason that they Cursed it long years before Oreitta ever came to the Enclave. It is because Kalonia is a centre for free thought. Free thought is easily described as heresy and disloyalty. Gyrun betrayed Kalonia because he was afraid that the seers were right in their shocking prophecies. So is Trassamul. Everything else is irrelevant."

Late in the afternoon of the third day with at least two days more to travel before they would reach the dome of Kalonia, Crinomu suddenly pulled up his horse and dismounted.

"What's the matter?" Asanka asked, worried at this unexpected stop. 

"I'm getting some bad news from the sanctum," he said. "I can't go on just now. Something terrible has happened. The Riders have broken through." 

Asanka climbed down from his horse and watched with concern as Crinomu paced in circles biting his lip. It was the first time he had seen his mentor look discomposed and even apparently disoriented. Despite the urgency of the journey he could quickly see that there was nothing for it but to set up an early camp and start a fire against the evening cold. Crinomu tried to help but he was soon shivering uncontrollably. His co-ordination seemed to be failing him as though he were drunk or struck down with a sudden central nervous condition. 

"I have to tell you something dreadful," he said as Asanka was starting to melt snow in a pan over the freshly kindled flames so that they could have a warm drink. 

"The Riders have killed your mother. They have killed Orietta," he blurted out. Whilst the youth was still absorbing the shock of it he continued. "They have killed all the seers and not just the Embassy to the Substrate. They have destroyed the sanctum itself. Kalonia is overthrown. And they have killed me too." 

Trying to make sense of this overwhelming intelligence, Asanka could only puzzle over the last remark as though he could save a single unravelling thread from a burning tapestry. "I don't understand. How can they kill you? What do you mean?" 

"Before all things I am an artilect, Asanka. Or rather I was. You saw me in this form and thought that I was exactly the same as you but this decanted body was only a projection. I may have breathed, eaten and slept as you do but like the seers the greater part of me has always been in the sanctum of Kalonia. That was the true home of my soul. Now it is destroyed and with it my soul. A shadow will linger yet awhile in this body, bereft of its true self and unable to stand the shock of separation. Stay with the shadow and be kind for soon, very soon, this faint image will pass from the world. I was older than most of the seers of Kalonia. In my youth I roamed the Galactic Compact before the Great Forgetting and before the Vow Of Earth was taken when so many wonders were possible they can no longer even be conceived of in this barren age. But now I have reached the end. This last projection of my long, long life will die quickly now, outlasting for only a short while my true life that has finally passed forever."

Having delivered himself of this speech Crinomu seemed to lose all willpower and strength and he lay down shivering more violently than before. There was little Asanka could do now other than to make him comfortable by propping a pillow under his head and a blanket under and over him.

Before the light of the moon came to the downs, Crinomu woke for one last time and called out for Asanka. "I need to tell you three things", he said urgently in a feverish voice. "You must know these things and promise to pay heed to them when I am gone." 

"The first thing you should know is that I always loved your mother and it was out of that love that you were born. Even though I am not your father according to the strict codes of biology it was the love between us which brought you into the world.

"You are born of the seers and of the riders and you have a little of the heritage of each in you. Do not forget that! But Kalonia is no more. And soon, if you are to live, you must go to your mother's people and become one with the Riders. Do not bear the burden of a grudge against them for they were only ever a tool used by another. Amongst the riders you must disguise your origins showing no knowledge of the learning of Kalonia and certainly not that you can read and write. But I hope and believe you will value all Enclave lore and that one day it will be useful to you.

"And last I want to warn you about the klane. You are only an apprentice and you must be careful with it for it is a terrible instrument in the wrong hands. Yet I believe you can master it and it will be a great help to you in times of trouble." 

"Our journey was wasted," Asanka said. "We lifted the curse of Kalonia for nothing and our home was destroyed and our friends killed whilst we were away! All for nothing!" 

"No! That is not true!" Crinomu said. "It was not for nothing. Because we lifted the curse before the Riders attacked, some few of the seers may have been able to escape into the greater vurtiverse where none could have done so otherwise. The lifting of the curse means that the Conclave has seen the work of Trassamul first hand and they will not forget it. If our quest had failed there would have been no witnesses to Kalonia's destruction. I know this is of very little comfort to you now but our mission was not totally in vain."

But now Crinomu's face turned a dreadful shade of white and he bit his lip as though to fight some secret pain for the last time. He gripped Asanka's hand and a moment after that he died. In the morning Asanka scraped a shallow hole under snow and soil where he buried the last mortal remains of the ancient artilect and though he wept a little for the death he had seen and the deaths he had been told about, yet there was still some part of him that refused to believe Kalonia was destroyed or that Orietta was dead. His eyes were dry when he broke camp and tethering Paramal to his own horse, Lyr, he rode onwards.