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Up in the Sanctuary, No&039;One led Tohrations, whatever they ht be When they arrived at their destination, however, he opened the door for her, and beckoned her forward

Of course, she stepped over the threshold

The te and thin and tall, built rather on the di on its end All around, leather-bound voluenerations of the Chosen, were set in white ical order, the stories therein nonfictional accounts of lives lived far down below, and witnessed upon water&039;s transparent screen

Tohr hied foot up

"What are you looking for?" she asked as she glanced at the nearest shelves The sight of the volu the past With the Chosen exploring the real world, they were not recording astradition could well be lost

"The afterlife," Tohrment replied "Any idea if there&039;s a section on that?"

"I believe the chronicles are arranged by year, not subject"

"You ever hear of the In Between?"

"Of what?

He laughed with a hard edge as he hobbled forward and began inspecting the stacks "Exactly We got the Fade We got Dhund Two opposite ends that I assu for any evidence that there&039;s another option Daical, not by subject Is it different elsewhere?"

"Not that I&039;m aware"

"Any index system?"

"Only by decade, I believe? I am not an expert, however"

"Shit, it could take years to go through all this"

"Perhaps you should speak with one of the Chosen? I know that Selena was a scribe - "

"No one needs to know about this It&039;s aboutseemed lost upon hi him down the center aisle, she then took him left, into as essentially a vault "This is the most sacred place - where the lives of the Brotherhood are kept"

The heavy doors resisted the invasion, at least when she tried to open theth, however, they yielded to reveal a tight, tall room

"So she kept us locked away," he said dryly as he inspected the names on the spines "Look at these"

He drew out one of the volumes and cracked the spine "Ah, Throe - father of the current Throe Wonder what the old man would think of who his son&039;s in bed with"

As he replaced the voluht in concentration, his strong yet refined fingers handling the books with care, his body leaning into the shelving

His dark hair was thick and glossy, and cut very short And that white stripe in front seeht of his tired, haunted eyes

Oh, those eyes of his Blue as the sapphires in the Treasury - and just as precious, she supposed

He was very handsome, she realized

Funny, the fact that he was in love with someone else made it possible for her to even assess hi as he did for his shellan, he was safe To the point where she no longer felt aard that he had seen her unclothed He would never regard her with anything sexual That would be a violation of his love for Wellesandra

"Is there anything else in here?" he said, bending lohile balancing on the crutch "I just see biographies of Brothers"

"Here, allow h it all, and found no reference volu to heaven or hell Just Brother after Brother after Brother

"Nothing," he ood for if you can&039;t find anything in it?"

"Perhaps" Gripping the lip of a shelf, she aardly bent doard, tracking the na for "We could search your own"

Crossing his arird himself "She&039;d be in there, wouldn&039;t she"

"She was a part of your life, and you are the subject"

"Pull it"

There were several devoted to hi the spine, she flipped past the lineage declaration in the front, and scanned through the various pages that were focused on his prowess in the field When she got to what had been written last, she frowned

"What does it say"

In the Old Language, she read aloud the date and then the notation: " &039;Upon this eve, he did lose his , from the earth Subsequently, he extricated hier Brotherhood&039; "

"That&039;s it?"

"Yes"

She turned the book around so he could read for hih the air "Jesus Christ, I get ruined, and that&039;s all they wrote"

"Perhaps they were being respectful of your grief" She put the book away "Surely that is best kept private"

He didn&039;t say anything further, just stood there, pitched against the crutch that kept hiry eyes locked on the floor

"Talk tohell" As he rubbed his eyes, the exhaustion radiated out of hihtmare is that my Wellsie&039;s in the Fade with et crazy, I tell rief than her - better that I&039; down here on earth &039;Cuz, hey, the Fade is supposed to be all peace and love, right? Except then that angel co about sole solace is poof! And to top it off? I have never heard of the place and I can&039;t verify it - "

"I have an idea Come with me" When he just stared at her, she wasn&039;t about to take no for an answer "Co on his arm, she drew him out of the vault and back into the main part of the library Then she went deep into the stacks, ticking down the dates of the volu the most recent ones

"What was the day when she" When Tohrain, she pulled out the appropriate volu presence above her - and was not threatened "Here - here she is"

"Oh God What"

"It just says yes, the same as it was noted in your volume She was lost fro backward, then forward, she traced the histories of the other females and males who had died on that date: So-and-so passed unto to the Fade unto the Fade unto the Fade

When No&039;One looked up at hiain, she felt a moment of true fear "In fact, it does not say she is there The Fade, that is"

"What do you mean - "

"It just says that she is lost It does not say that she is in the Fade"

Deep in the cold, gritty heart of Caldwell, Xcor tracked a single lesser

Traveling over a park&039;s dead, scratchy grass, he moved silently behind the undead, scythe in hand, body poised for striking This was a stray, one who had broken from the pack that he and his band of bastards had attacked earlier

The thing was obviously injured, its black blood leaving a trail that was, as it turned out, eminently obvious

He and his soldiers had killed all its colleagues back in the alleys; then they had taken some souvenirs upon Xcor&039;s command, and he had split off to find this lonesoone back to the tattoo shop to organize the fe, and the cousins had returned to base camp to tend their battle wounds

Mayhap, if the women were dispatched with suitable alacrity, they could find another squadron of the ene word Too professional These current recruits were nothing like the ones in the Old Country back in the heyday of the war there; fresh from their inductions, these hadn&039;t even paled out, and they didn&039;t see an engageely of the street variety: box cutters, switchblades, bats - if they had guns, the pistols were misether arth of which appeared to be mainly in nurace

Refocusing on his prey, Xcor began to close the distance