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High above the hangar floor was a dark and silent abbey, large enough to accoh Council, heili and San'Shyuuh a perfectly round hole in the abbey's floor, they saw the room had only one occupant: the leader of the ascetic priests, the Philologist San'Shyuum

Like the cleric that provided Fortitude's reist's humble chair was made of stone not metal His robes were so tattered they looked like strips of shredded cloth wrapped around his withered fraarments were now so dirty they were actually a few shades darker than the Philologist's ashen flesh His eyelashes were long and gray, and the wisps of hair on his bowed neck were so long they draped almost to his knees

"We have not met, I think," the ancient San'Shyuum croaked as Fortitude's and Tranquility's chairs eased to a stop behind hireet the was large and long ago"

"How rude of et"

"Not at all I am Fortitude, and this is the Vice Minister of Tranquility"

The younger San'Shyuum dipped his chair forward in a bow But, as promised, he did not speak

"An honor to have ht in his arthritic hands, the Philologist turned For a e and ist wasn't feigning ignorance For secrecy's sake, Fortitude hadn't told the priest his purpose, knowing that his Ministerial rank was sufficient to gain an audience But while the Philologist's words were cordial, their et on with it I have much more ie

"Confir one of his chair's holo-switches A wafer of circuitry not ernails poked up beside the switch "And a blessing" He pulled the wafer free and extended it to the Philologist

"Two favors then" The Philologist sums split with lines of serrated bone

He moved his stone chair forward and took the wafer "This ed a friendly grimace "One of the Vice Minister's ships has discovered a reliquary of quite iist said, squinting one eye to better scrutinize the wafer

"And if the Luminations are to be believed," Fortitude continued, "an Oracle as well"

The Philologist's eyes widened "An Oracle, you say?"

Fortitude nodded "Truly shocking and wondrous news"

With ist rotated his chair and floated to a phalanx of shadowed raphics flicked on high above, revealing a cluster of onyx obelisks--powerful processing towers linked together--and before these: the Dreadnought's Oracle

Even though Fortitude had seen many representations of the holy object, it was smaller than he had expected Locked inside an arht above the floor, the Oracle was tethered to the obelisks with strands of neatly plaited wire These circuits connected to s: a teardrop of silver alloy not 's tapered end faced the obelisks Its round end angled toward the floor and held a dark glass lens There was a gap around the lens and the casing, and through this, Fortitude could see pinpoints of light--circuits running at loer These were the Oracle's only signs of life

"This is all the data?" the Philologist asked, slotting the wafer into one of the obelisks

"Froed closer to the Oracle For some reason, he was overwhelmed with a desire to reach up and touch it As old as the object was, its casing was absolutely sazed deep into the Oracle's lens "There are reports of a new species on the planet that holds the relics, but they appear to be primitives--a tier-four species I don't expect they shall--"

Suddenly, the Oracle's circuits blazed The lens refracted the light, sending forth a blinding beaasped An eye! He raised a sleeve before his face as the Oracle tilted toward him in its armature

< FOR EONS I HAVE WATCHED > The Oracle's deep voice reverberated inside its casing Its eye-beam flickered with the cadence of its words as it pronounced in the San'Shyuu the Oracle speak was, for any faithfulto the Forerunners' own voice Fortitude was appropriately humbled, but not just because the Oracle had finally spoken after Ages of silence In truth, he was just as surprised to learn that the Philologist was not (as he had always suspected) an utter fraud

Fortitude had made this appointment for formality's sake Luh Council required the Oracle's blessing, which for Ages had ist to affirm on its behalf But these holy hermits were just as political as any other powerful San'Shyuum--equally susceptible to bribes and blackmail

Fortitude had expected he would have to ist (a set the blessing he required

But if the old charlatan is putting ist stepped from his chair and dropped feebly to his knees before the Oracle, he's certainly giving it his all

"Blessed Herald of the Journey!" the Philologist wailed, neck low and arms spread wide

"Tell us the error of our ways!"

The Oracle's eye diht resu a hologralyph recorded by Rapid Conversion's Luminary

< THIS IS NOT RECLAMATION > the Oracle boolyph turned upside down, and its central shapes--the concentric circles, one low inside the other, connected by a thin line--took on a different aspect The shapes' previous arrangelyph now looked like a creature with two curved arlyph shrunk in size as the hologram zoomed out to show the entire alien world, covered with thousands of these newly oriented Luminations

< AND THOSE IT REPRESENTS ARE MY MAKERS > Noas Fortitude's turn to feel weak in the knees He grasped the arms of his throne and tried to colyph represented a Reclaimer, not a relic, and each Reclaimer was one of the planet's aliens--which could only

"The Forerunners," the Minister whispered "Some were left behind"

"Ier able to keep his peace "Heresy!"

"From an Oracle?"

"Froist "Who knohat the old fool has done to this divine machinery? The perversions he's accomplished with all his worasped the Philologist "In this most sacred vault!"