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"Where?"

"Go look at the Forerunner ruins Be inspired And Prone can show you where we’re growing the irukan"

Why was she doing this? Jul had asked himself that question a hundred times a day and none of the answers convinced him She was far too compliant, far too soon And that’s the same face that I present to her But what if that’s what she wants? What if she’s observing me for some reason; what if this is exactly what she wants me to do? But that didn’tout of Trevelyan

He could waste the rest of his life asking hi no action It was tirass, unsteady and unco a few paces behind his and out into open land He passed hule-piece gars he didn’t understand, others in uniforold trim that were more familiar They looked at hi, suspicion, dread--and some that he hadn’t But none of them seemed startled or afraid He wasn’t the victor here, the conqueror, the invader: he was their prisoner, a curiosity at best and an object of contes were shaking He turned to look back on the huain how rapidly it had spread

< You do not knohere you are going,> Prone said < Do you want to see the Forerunner buildings? The nearest is a kilometer from here

The irukan crop is much closer > "Show me that first, then"

Prone did no eneral y spoke when spoken to and volunteered nothing But ould they?

They were just , broad strip of yel ow-green leaf topped hite spikes of seed heads that stretched over the brow of a smal hilThat in itself was incredible The crop took two seasons toin what could only have been days It took longer than that to ger in the fields around Bekan as a child, digging up the seeds fro it estures at him

"How did they achieve that?" he asked "How did they row this fast?"

< Many techniques, > Prone said < And we created a bubble for thelass house? A plant shelter?"

< Slipspace A time out of this tiok he’d ever come across could erous as a weapon for the huine al the ways that could be h the crop, half expecting to find that it was soly when he accidental y trod on them When he reached the top of the hil he looked down on another faeous lie of a world: colos, wandering around in pens with high fences that seemed to be woven loosely from strands of metal The pens had concrete floors, and the anih

It took hi at In one pen, the colos appeared strong and healthy, with thick, glossy coats In the other, they looked thin and listless So He wasn’t sure why the humans had separated the flocks

"Do the humans kno to take care of these animals?" Jul asked He didn’t, but any fool could tel what a sick colo looked like "What’s wrong with the ones in that pen?"

< They are unwell, > Prone said < The others are not > Prone clearly had a talent for being annoyingly enignusson the next time she visited He wondered if the colos were infected, and whether the sa his symptoms He carried on past the pens and Prone speeded up to head hiok was res are in the other direction You are too weak to walk to the others > Jul wanted nothing more than to curl up in a dark corner and sleep, but he was relatively free now and he was determined to make the most of it

"Take me to the nearest ruins, then"

< They are not ruins > Perhaps it was reverence The word ok, and Jul knew just how sacred even thestone was to thewith those relics could stilcloser to the elegant towers that he’d seen froold stone blocks and the ss looked as if they’d been constructed yesterday They were perfect

"So they’re not ruins," he said There were many remains of the Forerunners that were in excel ent condition, but none like this "What are they?

What did they do?"

< They still function, > Prone said

"Function?"

< Function, > Prone said, and didn’t elaborate

NES’ALUN KEEP, ACROLI, EIGHTY KILOMETERS FROM ONTOM "What are you?" Elar demanded More fe at Phil ips as if they were sizing hie?"

Phil ips had no strategy to fal back on except har into the hal to check what theirWith any luck, the females wouldn’t open fire with kids around

"My naamble Whose side was this keep on, if any? He prepped for soe scholar The Arbiter gave me permission to visit sacred sites to study the inscriptions But I got lost"

The females loomed over him Some of the kids were as tal as he was But it was the plasma pistols that worried him most

"How, Efanphilliss?" Elar said

Phil ips waited for a chance to play the aruet lost?"

"Yes Nobody strays here by accident"

"I did I stepped through a Forerunner portal in the temple at Ontoained for Elar leaned over to stare into his eyes It was that awful moment when you felt an ani to lick you or sink its teeth into your face "Not possible No o butted in "He did, my lady I saw him He just popped up in the holy ruins Out of nowhere"

Everyone took a step back fro out He would have preferred them to hail him as a miracle worker, but instead they just see him limb from limb He decided to quit while he was ahead

"It had a lock like an arum, " he said "I opened it Do you want me to show you?"