"I had not thought of it in that fashion," Zamara said slowly. "It is intriguing. You are suggesting that something similar happened with Adun?"
"You survived, after a fashion, by using extremely powerful energies from a xel'naga temple. You were able to put your essence into Jacob. Adun was the first to wield both the mental energies traditional to the Aiur protoss, and the darker energies of the Void that we have wielded for over a thousand years. It is not illogical to assume that, for want of a better word, both you and Adun tapped into energies that had consequences far greater than anticipated."
The glowing eyes half closed and Zeratul tilted his head in amusement. "Although for us, the story of the Anakh Su'n, the Twilight Deliverer, is a bit more mystical than something so prosaic. We saw him ascend before our very eyes—sacrificing this existence to achieve another, higher spiritual plane. A prophecy slowly began to take shape around this remarkable incident. We believed Adun was waiting until a similarly great need arose to return to us—to all of us, Aiur protoss and dark templar alike. Did he not use both powers? Did he not die protecting us—not because we were different, but because we were the same as those who would have seen us dead or cast out?"
Zeratul's eyes flashed as he spoke, and Jake saw he was sitting up straighter. He remembered the image Zamara had given him of the prelate, before the disappointment of actually meeting him. Zeratul had seemed to him powerful, controlled and yet passionate, an inspiring presence. For the first time since Jake had met him, Zeratul seemed like that protoss.
"I firmly believe that while Adun wanted to keep us safe, he also wanted to keep the Aiur protoss from committing an atrocity from which they could never recover. To have slaughtered all of us—the stain of such a thing could not have been removed. We could never be a united people, with so vast a river of blood flowing between us. It was to help them as much as us that he summoned the powers he did and made his sacrifice."
Jake boggled at the depth of compassion it took for Zeratul—and by implication, all the dark templar—to see the incident in such a light.
"Those who had such talents meditated on the prophecy. They were given visions, signs to look for, for the return of Adun. How he would return we did not know. But return he would, once these signs had come to pass."
"And.. .you think he has?" Jake asked. At the same time as his lips formed the words—old habits died hard, and he found himself still speaking to the protoss rather than just thinking at them— Zamara asked, "What are the signs?"
Zeratul chuckled. "Ah. So many questions. I think I have said enough. Zamara has told a story—a poignant and powerful one." Heinclined his head respectfully. "I have told a story, a myth of my people that is not quite so fictional as it might seem to be at first. I think it is time that you, Jacob Jefferson Ramsey, told a story."
"Uh..." He was no raconteur. These two beings had lived much, much longer than he had, and had seen far more. They knew far more. What could he possibly say to interest them? Zamara already knew him practically down to the cells of the marrow of his bones. "I...really don't have a story. I'm just a digger in the dirt, honestly." Jake shrugged, slightly embarrassed.
"How did you come to find our friend Zamara, Jacob?" Zeratul asked. He had turned his full attention on Jake, and that intense regard was unsettling. "You are far away from the worlds of your people for one who is a mere digger in the dirt. Zamara crafted a puzzle that most protoss might not have been able to decipher, let alone terrans. How is it you were there to solve that puzzle? I am intrigued."
Jake knew that this was a key moment. He knew he was being analyzed by one of the shrewdest minds he had ever stumbled across. The members of the nominating committee for the Flinders Petrie Award for Archaeological Distinction had nothing on this guy. He suspected Valerian might—the young Heir Apparent was extremely intelligent and very canny—but even then, Jake would put his money on the dark templar prelate. Zamara's respect for him rivaled that which she had felt toward Adun and Tassadar.
He and Zamara had to get this guy on their side. Had to convince him to lend his aid, to get back in the game, to stop sitting here on this out-of-the-way planet nursing his pain. Zamara had hooked him, by playing to that most protoss of traits, a deep curiosity and a desire to know. It was up to Jake to reel him in, as it were, though it was nothing so manipulative as that. Zeratul might be persuaded to help Zamara. But Jake realized the dark templar also needed to be persuaded to help Jake. And therefore, Jake needed to be worthy inthose glowing eyes that had seen so much.
"Okay, then. I'll tell you about how I got to Nemaka and found Zamara. It's pretty boring," he warned.
"That is for me to determine," Zeratul replied, reinforcing Jake's supposition that this was about a thousand times more important than any interview he'd ever had. Even the one with Valerian.
Jake sighed. Here goes nothing, he thought to Zamara, and began.
He spoke briefly about his career as an archaeologist under first the Confederacy and then the Dominion, letting a little pride creep into his thoughts and voice as he mentioned his work on Pegasus. "Unfortunately funding ran out before I could find anything to prove my theories that there was something more to the place besides what was immediately apparent, but it was those theories that started attracting attention—both good and bad. Lots of people started calling me a crackpot, but it was my work there and my publication of those theories that attracted the attention of Valerian Mengsk."
"Mengsk?" He had Zeratul's attention now, for sure.
"Yes. Emperor Arcturus's son. He sent me an invitation to work for him while I was on Gelgaris. Full funding, state-of-the-art equipment, and a promise of a great intellectual challenge—a very nice offer."
"I see," said Zeratul. "So the heir to the Terran Dominion plucks you out of obscurity with no warning. How very boring this story is." Sarcasm, it seemed, was something terrans and protoss both understood.
Jake continued, warming to the tale. He described his encounter with Valerian, the youth's passion and curiosity about ancient civilizations, the promise of a glorious and comfortable excavation. "It was only later that I found out that I wasn't Valerian's first choice. There had been other teams there already. Seems there was a hollow area in the temple, a chamber, that Valerian desperately wanted to get into. None of the other teams had figured it out. I did.. .but I started down that path by sheer luck, by quite literally falling on my ass.
Zeratul blinked.. .and then laughed with more warmth than Jake had yet seen from him. Jake grinned crookedly and chuckled slightly himself.
"Happy accidents have been responsible for more glorious discoveries than you can imagine, Jacob," Zamara told him. "And you achieved more than.. .falling on your ass."
Jake nodded. "That's how I found the doorway. Completely by accident. Fell through two tunnels and landed right at the door." Jake sobered slightly, remembering. "I saw the writing in blood. That's when I knew I was on to something. I realized that while I might not be the first to know about the chamber and try to break into it, I was the first to get a real crack at solving this puzzle."
"Zamara did not make it easy," Zeratul said.
"Indeed I did not. I assumed that only a protoss who was profoundly knowledgeable and spiritual would comprehend the message I had left. And yet, even though he could not read it, Jacob was able to open the door."
"I figured out that in the end, it wasn't about thinking like a human, or even like a protoss, that would get me anywhere. It was about thinking on a grander, more universal scale. And when I saw the spiral in the fossil, it came to me. Rosemary and I went through, found the wrecked ship and...Zamara."