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I can travel at will, it seems Into each and every card, of every Deck that ever existed Ae of wonder and excitement he felt ran an undercurrent of terror The Deck possessed a host of unpleasant places

And this one?

A small stone-lined hearth smouldered before the hut’s entrance Wreathed in the s strips of ed eathered skulls -- doubtless from the beasts whose bones formed the framework of the hut itself The skulls faced inward, and he could see by the long, yellowed molars in the jaws that the animals had been eaters of plants, not flesh

Paran approached the hut’s entrance The skulls of carnivores hung down fro him to duck as he entered

Swiftly abandoned, froo … At the far end sat twin thrones, squat and robust, made entirely of bones, on a raised dais of ochre-stained huh to human in any case More like T’lan Ie blossomed in his mind He knew the name of this place, knew it deep in his soul The Hold of the Beasts long before the First Throne this was the heart of the T’lan Imass’s power -- their spirit world, when they were still flesh and blood, when they still possessed spirits to be worshipped and revered Long before they initiated the Ritual of Tellann and so came to outlast their own pantheon …

A realm, then, abandoned Lost to its makers What then, is the Warren of Tellann that the T’lan Imass now use? Ah, that warren must have been born from the Ritual itself, a physical manifestation of their Vow of Immortality, perhaps Aspected, not of life, nor even death Aspected of dust

He stood unly depthless layers of tragedy that were the burden of the T’lan Iods They exist in a world of dust in truth -- ht Sorrow flooded hi wave Beru fend so alone, now So alone for so long yet now they are gathering, co more …

Paran stepped back -- and stood on the flagstones once again With an effort he pulled his eyes from the carved Hold of Beasts -- but ere there two thrones and not just one? -- as he no the card was called Another etched stone, a dozen paces to his left, caught his attention A throbbing, crilow suffused the air directly above it

He walked to it, looked down

The i wostone Her flesh seemed to spin and swirl Paran slowly lowered hi Her skin was depthless, revealing ever more detail as the captain’s vision was drawn ever closer Skin, not skin Forests, sweeps of bedrock, the seething floor of the oceans, fissures in the flesh of the world -- she is Burn! She is the Sleeping Goddess

Then he saw the flaw, the h Paran, yet he would not look away There, at the wound’s heart, a huure Chained Chained to Burn’s own flesh Froth of the chains, poison flowed into the Sleeping Goddess

She sensed the sickness co claws into her Sensed and chose to sleep Less than two thousand years ago, she chose to sleep She sought to escape the prison of her own flesh, in order to do battle with the one as killing that flesh She -- oh gods above and below! She made of herself a weapon! Her entire spirit, all its power, into a single forging … a ha And Burn then found a man to wield it…

Caladan Brood

But breaking the chainsthe Crippled God And an unchained Crippled God h to sweep all life fro Goddess, was indifferent to that She would siain

Now he saw it, saw the truth -- he refuses! The bastard refuses! To defy the Crippled God’s unleashing of a deadly will, that would see us all destroyed, Caladan Brood refuses her!

Gasping, Paran pulled hi back -- and was at Raest’s side once again

The Jaghut’s tusks gliift, or a curse?’

Too prescient a question … ’Both, Raest’

’And which do you choose to embrace?’

’I don’t knohat you , mortal In joy or sorrow?’