His eyes, which also seemed paler to Jake than Zeratul's, crinkled and he hunched in laughter. Jake felt heat rise in his face.
"Yes, Jacob Jefferson Ramsey, I remember the expulsion from our homeworld. I was even older than Raszagal, and I do not anticipate my life to extend overmuch longer. But glad I am to have lived this long, to see our people reunite, to meet a non-protoss who honors our knowledge as we do, and to give my aid to a preserver. You are right about the crystals. There is a rare combination of energies here that alters the crystals on a deep level. There are two such places where the energies converge. One is in the ocean depths, the other is beneath our feet. It is why we chose to stay and create the Alys'aril on this precise location."
He shifted slightly, and Jake could no longer hear his thoughts. Jake assumed he was talking privately with Zamara. Something Zamara said affected the old protoss profoundly—Jake saw his eyes widen and his body stiffen, then settle sadly into the closest thing to a slump he'd ever seen a protoss display. At length, Krythkal nodded.
"Dark times indeed are upon us, that it comes to this," he said. "Zamara, here in the Alys'aril we have ever sought to preserve memories in our own way. That does not mean we do not respect the way our brothers kept their wisdom—through protoss such as you."
"I know this," Zamara said. "I am grateful beyond expression that the dark templar used their skills to such ends. Now information vital to the survival of not just the protoss as a united race, but perhaps many other species as well, can be passed on."
He nodded, but something else concerned him. "You speak of Ulrezaj. Do you know if he was defeated on Aiur or if he survived?"
"I couldn't stay long enough to determine whether or not we'd brought him down," Jake said. "I had to get through the warp gate before it was too late—I'd lingered long enough to miss the boat to Shakuras as it was. But he was definitely being weakened, that much is for sure."
He expected Krythkal to express at least some pleasure in the news, if not exactly delight. Ulrezaj, after all, was originally a dark templar, albeit a misguided one. But even the dark templar feared the power of the dark archons, and the horrors Ulrezaj had perpetrated on the protoss would move all but the hardest heart. So he was surprised when Krythkal seemed genuinely saddened.
"I am glad that his evil was stopped, but I will mourn him," he said.
Jake blinked. "Come again? I know he was one of your people once, but I don't think anyone should weep over the death of something so awful."
"Something? No. A dark archon of such tremendous power and malice—no. That I do not mourn. But I will mourn Ulrezaj."
He regarded Jake steadily. "I will mourn my student."
Jake stared. His student? "Ulrezaj—used to be a Keeper of Wisdom?"
Krythkal nodded. "Many centuries past, he studied these crystals. He was passionate about the cause of our people, as we all were then, with the wound still so very fresh. His was a sharp mind, an eager mind, not content with merely cataloguing memories and transferring them from one crystal to another. He hungered for knowledge, and we foolishly granted it to him."
The dark templar looked, if such a thing were possible, even older as he spoke. "We let him rise in our ranks, for he proved an able student. We took great care to allow him only limited access, for much of whatis recorded in the Wall of Knowledge is forbidden lore. We understand that, and while we preserve it because all knowledge is precious, we do not access it. No one living in the Alys'aril, not even I, knows most of the secrets contained in the Wall."
"Ulrezaj did not confine himself to the areas that he was permitted to explore, did he?" It was a rhetorical question from Zeratul; he, Jake, and Zamara already knew the answer.
Krythkal nodded again. "No, he did not. Secretly, he was rising in the night, and studying the darkest, most forbidden knowledge the dark templar possessed."
"That's how he did it," Jake breathed. " That's how he figured out how to become a dark archon that's greater than just two dark templar joining!"
"We caught him one night," Krythkal continued, his mental voice laced with pain. "I confronted him, begged him to tell us why he had so betrayed our trust. I thought I could reason with him, but by then, he was too far gone in his zealotry. Anything that advanced the dark templar cause, he claimed, was worth doing. No matter whom it harmed, no matter the cost, even to our own people. We would have our vengeance on the protoss who had banished us, and he would be the weapon of their downfall."
He lifted his eyes to Zeratul and Jake. "I barely recognized him then, as he stood here raging. I could see no trace of the scholar, the bright youth I had been so proud of. All that was left was burning anger and hatred, and a firm conviction that however abominable the means, the end—revenge on the protoss of Aiur —was worth it. We begged him to tell us what he had discovered, but he refused. We implored him to let us erase what he had learned, so that he could again return to us as an alysaar, one who tends the knowledge but does not abuse it. Again, he refused. He left us that night, seething with rage and a hatred that was at once so dark and so pure as to astound the mind. I did not think to see or hear from him again. To discoverthat he used the Alys'aril—to become this.. .this monstrous entity..."
Krythkal was overcome and quickly shuttered his thoughts. Zeratul reached out a hand and laid it on the old protoss's shoulder. "Your remorse is understandable, but no one could have foreseen this. Do not overburden yourself with guilt. What is done is done. That Ulrezaj chose to steal knowledge for such reasons was his own decision."
The elderly alysaar'vah nodded, but it was clear that he did not quite believe Zeratul. "You speak wisdom, yet the doing is not so easy. But I will do what I can to make amends. You are aware, Jacob and Zamara, that I cannot guarantee a positive outcome."
"We know," Zamara said.
"But we have to try," Jake added.
"I think you must, and all the skills we have are offered to you. I understand you have a crystal from the chambers beneath Aiur, where the Wanderers from Afar kept knowledge of their own, safe and secret."
Jake nodded and fished in his pocket for the fragment of the crystal. Krythkal suddenly froze, his head cocked, listening. "Excuse me," he said. "I will be right back. There is some kind of commotion—"
He strode down the long stone hallway. Zeratul and Jake exchanged glances. They did not even need to touch thoughts to realize they were both thinking the same thing, and as one, turned and followed their host. Despite his age, Krythkal, like every protoss Jake had yet seen, could move very quickly when he so chose, and Jake had to break into a lope to keep up with him and Zeratul.
Several alysaar were hastening to them, their robes fluttering, every line in their bodies speaking of their agitation. A silent conversation that was clearly of great importance went on, and Jake chafed at being left out of it.
I, too, am not being included, Zamara said.
"Zeratul?" Jake asked, because clearly the dark templar prelate was part of the conversation. Zeratul's gaze was fastened on Krythkal and he did not respond away. All at once he hunched his shoulders and hallclosed his eyes. Jake frowned slightly—why was Zeratul laughing? And then Zamara was laughing too, and in the silent chambers of this ancient temple a strong, assertive, and quite definitely female voice rang out: