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Al around the land again began to shake Boulders rocked ponderously in their sandy beds, and a few started to lean, then tue of the chasm and vanished in swirls of muddy vapor I could swear I felt the entire land beneath us rippling like the hide of a water buffalo tired of stinging flies

The old ed himself beside Vinnevra and laid his ar like thunderheads e as wel as the stars Then a great wide shadow of dust covered us Lightning played nearby, diffuse flashes folowed nine or ten finger-clicks later by thunder--thunder that would once have terrifiedI wondered if the entire Halo were about to shiver itself to pieces Was it possible for such a great Forerunner object to be destroyed?

Of course! We laid waste their fleets, attacked their outpost worldsAnd the Forerunners the down the indestructible architecture of the Precursors, on Charum HakkorCharum Hakkor, once called the Eternal

The Lord of Ade It fel of a sudden, curtaining sheets of water that pounded the ground until we started to sink With an effort, I pushed against the suck of theof a very large boulder that did not see My o, the oldback to get hi rain, each drop the size of a grape and cold as ice Galed feebly to free hihs, and, reaching down, took hold of the center of his stick His fists grabbed the stick tight and I half dragged, half carried hih the muck to where Vinnevra waited

We lay under the rock overhang as the land continued to shake

Sleep was i dark, wretched, chiled to the bone--but no longer thirsty We took turns drinking froarments--cold and sweet, even if it wanted to drown us, even if it wanted to be our death

At one point during the darkness, the boulder gave out a hty

crack, louder than the thunder, and sharp chips sprayed down over us I reached up and found a fissure wide enough to accept the tip of a finger Feeling in the fissure, I i suddenly-- and jerked back my hand, then wrapped myself in my arms and settled down We were convinced that it would crash down on us at any second, yet we did notdid not fal, the boulder did not split apart We saw little or nothing through that long, dark day, beyond the occasional silvery flash Numbness overtook us We did not sleep, neither did we think Misery filed the void behind our eyes We aiting for change, any change Nothing else would rouse us fro boredoht, folowed by another day

Finaly, both rain and the rippling ground ceased abruptly, as if at the wave of a masterful hand We stared out across theover the chasaily-colored strea at the other--and disappearing

Vinnevra ventured out first She puled and plunged through theher ar no sound--silent prayer

"Who does she pray to?" I asked Ga stick stil clutched in one hand

"No one," he said "We have no gods we trust"

"But we’re alive," I reasoned "Surely that’s worth thanks to somebody"

"Pray to the wheel, then," Ga, pushed up on his stick, and stood for the first tiht, lifting first one foot loose from the mud, then another

I was the last but I round to the chasht for a h the clear air, that those thousands were dead--drowned or struck down by

air, that those thousands were dead--drowned or struck down by avalanches

But then I saw soroups, and finaly crowds picked themselves up, stumbled about in confusion, then coordinated, touched each other--and continued in the same direction as before Just like wildebeest

But much closer to us than before

The floor of the chasm--the foundation iant, rising al Soon, the chasone, filed in with Forerunner od if you wil--that could undergo great change, suffer hideous injuries, yet stil heal itself There was nothing ht not be a bad idea after al

I held out my hands like a shaman, as if to personaly tap into the power of what had just happened Vinnevra looked at me as if I were crazy

I smiled, but she turned aithout a word There had been no end of fools in her life

Weout the failure of her geas, see to find a way around this obstruction For a few hours, she led us inland, walking this way and that, stopping to pick up and drop pebbles, as if hoping to somehow sense the land She would shake her headand walk on

The Lifeshaper had her in thral, no doubt about it

By noon--the sun a pale directly above us--we had only wandered back in a loop, closer to the chas across the chasht up to the wal itself But that only revealed the futility of her quest

At the end of the chasreat Forerunner building stuck up froh a ruckled chaos of rock and crust: a huge, square pilar curving in to lean against the wal, then thrusting high above both the wal and the air itself

The pilar was about a kilometer square around the base Clouds obscured its top

I took Vinnevra aside "Is this our destination?" I asked

She had a dazed expression, eyes almost blank with the power of her inner drive, and it took so

Ga When that stopped, he lifted his eyes toward the wal and slowly shook his head He was alhtened, stuck out her jaw, and walked on at a brisk trot I caught up with her and tried to flank her She gave lare

"The old man needs ti a sound Finaly, I took her shoulder and grasped her chin in one hand and swung her about, forcing her to facehands to scratch my face I batted her hands aside and held them down At this, she leaned forward as if to take a bite out of ed her teeth and pushed her back "Stop that!" I said

"We’re going to wait here for a while Enough of the geas You need to find yourself again!"

She swung back and glared, but there were tears in her eyes

Strangely, that look made my own breath hitch in sympathy

Then she spun around and stalked off

Gao," he caled "She won’t wander far"