‘Perhaps I made an error,’ Icarium said, still in that quiet, innocent tone. Mappo heard Fiddler and Crokus arrive on the sand behind him. Something in the air held them to silence, stalled their approach. ‘A mistake in the measurement, a slip of the script. It’s an old language, Omtose, faint in my memory – perhaps as faint back then, when I first built this. The knowledge I seem to retain feels ... precise, yet I am not perfect, am I? My certainty could be a self-delusion.’

No, Icarium, you are not perfect.

‘I calculate that ninety-four thousand years have passed since I last stood here, Mappo. Ninety-four thousand. There must be some error in that. No city ruin could survive that long, could it?’

Mappo found himself shrugging. How could we know one way or the other?

‘The investiture of sorcery, perhaps...’

Perhaps.

‘Who destroyed this city, I wonder?’

You did, Icarium, yet even in your rage a part of you recognized what you yourself had built, and left it intact.

‘They had great power, whoever they were,’ the Jhag continued. ‘T’lan Imass arrived here, sought to drive the enemy back – an old alliance between the denizens of this city and the Silent Host. Their shattered bones lie buried in the sand beneath us. In their thousands. What force was there that could do such a thing, Mappo? Not Jaghut, even in their preeminence a thousand millennia past. And the K’Chain Che’Malle have been extinct for even longer. I do not understand this, friend ...’

A callused hand fell on Mappo’s shoulder, offered a solid grip briefly, then withdrew as Fiddler stepped past the Trell.

‘The answer seems clear enough to me, Icarium,’ the soldier said, halting at the Jhag’s side. ‘An Ascendant power. The fury of a god or goddess unleashed this devastation. How many tales have you heard of ancient empires reaching too high in their pride? Who were the Seven Holies to begin with? Whoever they were, they were honoured here, in this city and no doubt its sister cities throughout Raraku. Seven thrones, look at the rage that assailed each of them. Looks ... personal, to me. A god’s or a goddess’s hand slapped down here, Icarium – but whoever it was has since drifted away from mortal minds, for I, at least, cannot think of any known Ascendant able to unleash such power on the mortal plain as we see here—’

‘Oh, they could,’ Icarium said, a hint of renewed vigour in his voice, ‘but they have since learned the greater value of subtlety when interfering in the activities of mortals – the old way was too dangerous in every respect. I suspect you have answered my question, Fiddler...’

The sapper shrugged.