But she had found another body, and like a parasite had attached herself to the first host that had had the misfortune to stumble across her. And so she, and the secret she carried, still existed and could possibly ruin everything.
Ulrezaj would not permit that to happen. Zerg or no, he would travel to the place where he knew she would come. He would rest, and heal, and think.
Zamara had eluded him once. She would not do so again.
All heads turned to the dark templar.
"You do? You can?" The exclamation came from Artanis. Even he, apparently, was startled by this statement. Thus taken by surprise, Artanis inadvertently seemed very young in his reaction.
A dry raspy chuckle came from Mohandar. "We have shared much with our brethren from whom we were separated so long ago. But we dark templar have a thousand years of history separate from you. Not all can be explained or revealed in a mere handful of years. Especially when the present and the future seem more dire than thepast."
Rosemary watched him closely, her eyes narrowing. That much was true, yes—but she suspected this canny elder would not play his hand before he had to. She was willing to bet there was a great deal the dark templar still kept to themselves. After all, that was the great lesson, wasn't it—to hide in the shadows, to keep themselves secret and therefore be safe? That, too, wasn't going to change in a mere handful of years.
"Speak now, then," said Selendis. For all her counsel to Rosemary on patience and always having time to do things the right way, she clearly was more than ready to depart. "Where is this place?"
"I said that I believe that I knew where Zamara would wish to go. It is possible though that Zamara herself does not know this. Preservers know a great deal, but it is unlikely she is aware of the existence of this place. This is dark templar knowledge—profound, and powerful, and sacred."
The old bastard's enjoying this, Rosemary realized.
"Yes," came Selendis's private thought, obviously annoyed. "He is."
Mohandar sat back in his chair, surveying the protoss who were all gazing at him with rapt attention. His eyes crinkled in a smile. "When we were cast out of Aiur, we traveled for centuries. We became nomads, explorers, finding and investigating many worlds. Some we stayed on only temporarily. Others, we built structures upon, and they became anchors of a sort. But nothing permanent. Nothing we could truly feel in our souls as home, until we found Shakuras and its temple.
"The site I mention, though, is still an important place to my people. It is called the Alys'aril, the Sanctuary of Wisdom. The little moon upon which it was built is called Ehlna. It means 'Haven' in our language," he added for Rosemary's benefit. "It was one of the first places we settled, and we stayed there for well over a century before we decided to move on. Still, it was not abandoned. It could never be abandoned. Many stayed behind, to tend the Sanctuary of Wisdom. And to this day, those of us who left to find our true home return there on pilgrimage toward the end of our days, if such a thing is at all possible."
Like creatures that returned to the place they were born to reproduce—or die, Rosemary thought. But why? Just for nostalgia's sake?
"There is a nexus of energy there that alters the khaydarin crystals," Mohandar continued. "I will not say 'refines' them, for that is not truly accurate. I think even our terran friend here knows that the crystals serve us in many ways. They can calm us, channel and focus our energies. We even use them in our technology. One use of the crystals is data storage. The energies on Ehlna render them uniquely fit for this specific task, less so for others." Mohandar turned and looked squarely at Rosemary. "Therefore, it is a library of the greatest sort. A collection of as much knowledge as the dark templar can assemble—taken from the very minds and memories of our people to be recorded forever."
Rosemary gasped. "Yeah, that would be where Zamara would want to go all right," she agreed. "She knew you guys had the ability to do something like this, but she had to find a dark templar to find out where. That's why she wanted to come to Shakuras."
"Friend Mohandar," said Artanis reproachfully, "why have you not told us of such a place as this before?"
"Friend Artanis," replied Mohandar, not using Artanis's formal title, "you had no need of such information. After all, your people have preservers. You have living embodiments of memories who advised your Conclave. We dark templar utilize a technological substitute—one that maintains our individuality. Why would we need to tell you of our Sanctuary of Wisdom when such 'sanctuaries' walked among you?"
A good enough explanation, but Rosemary realized—as did everyone present—that the leader of the Nerazim was cannier than this simple, self-effacing explanation would convey him as. He didn't tell because he had had an ace in the hole. But now the need had arisen, and he had revealed the existence of this place.
"The tenders of this place, the Keepers of Wisdom, will likely be able to assist Jacob and Zamara with the process of transferring Zamara's essence to a crystal. Rosemary, you spoke of a crystal that you and Jacob found in the chambers beneath the surface of Aiur?"
Rosemary nodded, sensing a renewal of interest in her from Zekrath and also from Selendis. "Yeah. Zamara seemed to think we'd need that crystal."
"She may find all that she needs at the Alys'aril, but perhaps not. The alysaar are trained to extract memories from ordinary dark templar, one at a time. We keep them in the Chalice of Memories. A preserver, however, has literally billions of memories. Perhaps Zamara was wise to bring a crystal from so powerful and ancient a place. Regardless, eventually her path will lead her and Jacob there. I am surprised she even knew about our abilities to do this thing."
"She's a preserver," Rosemary said. "She knows a lot."
"Mohandar, I am deeply grateful you have chosen to tell us of this place," said Selendis. "Otherwise I fear we would not have been in time. We can only hope that Zamara learns of its existence as well. In the meantime I will travel there with Rosemary and see if the preserver awaits us. If she does not, we will have to take other measures to—"
"No." Mohandar's blunt response silenced Selendis in midthought. "It is a sacred place to the dark templar. We alone will travel there."
Ah, crap, thought Rosemary. We were finally going to do it and now it's going to get all tied up in the " who gets to go" issue. She didn't bother to even try to censor her thoughts. She'd had it about up to here with protoss red tape and chafed for action.
"The Shelak have long tended the things of the Wanderers from Afar," murmured Zekrath. "And yet we share them with all protoss —even your tribe, shadow hunter."
Mohandar's eyes flashed. Rosemary had sudden confirmation, as if there was any doubt, that this ancient being was far from nonthreatening.
"The xel'naga created us all, Zekrath. All protoss, including the dark templar. To forbid any of us entry to such things would be indefensible and foolish. But this is not of the xel'naga's doing, or of any Aiur protoss. This place we built, we, the exiles, banished from our home that we loved so dearly. It arose from our experiences, to serve our needs. It is nothing of yours. For me to even speak of it, toencourage a preserver to travel there, to aid her—so much is already a great gesture on our part."
"We understand and appreciate the place this holds in dark templar history," Artanis began.
"I am far from certain that you do," Mohandar replied dryly.
"Then come with us," said Selendis. Rosemary whirled to stare at her. She'd have thought the executor would argue this point. "Come with us, Mohandar. Let this be more than a gesture. Let this be a healing, a new beginning. The knowledge a preserver has can serve us all. You have the ability to keep that knowledge from vanishing. You know full well no one in this hall will reach agreement on this if you insist on being the sole protoss to oversee it. If you truly mean what you say, if you truly wish to aid Zamara and Jacob and bring an end to the malice that is Ulrezaj once and for all, then withdraw your sole claim to this expedition."