The return journey from the Beacon of Ulon to the Enclave of Kalonia seemed to take forever. Crinomu recounted details of the attack on the station of seers which had been relayed to him by his friends in the sanctum and he explained how the remaining defenders were imprisoned under siege in the heart of the dome. "We must be as swift as we can possibly be", he said, so to speed their travel the pair rode on into the darkness at the end of each day. Now the klane proved useful in a humble capacity for one of its simpler modes of operation merely cast light and some warmth around the bearer. Yet the men could only extend the time of safe travelling a little beyond normal limits lest tired limbs and minds endanger the horses. The coming winter would be hard. As they ascended through an Innobol wood in a wet and windy snow storm on the evening of the second day, Crinomu spoke to Asanka. "The time has come for me to tell you everything I know about this conflict, its origins and your own origins", he said. For the first time, Asanka heard the full story of how Crinomu had broken the laws of Kalonia and the Vow of Earth to bring him into being. "You should know that whilst Orietta is your true mother, I am not your true father. I was a facilitator, that is all. Your real fathers are all the seers of Kalonia, gene melded into a single representative line by the Utrian method. For the crime of your conception, I have been sentenced to a long exile in the vurtiverse though the punishment is deferred until your mother and yourself are both dead." "You must not think that this war is your fault", Crinomu said, "whatever you may hear. Nor is it mine. Trassamul would always have found some pretext to attack Kalonia for the same reason that they Cursed it long years before Oreitta ever came to the Enclave. It is because Kalonia is a centre for free thought. Free thought is easily described as heresy and disloyalty. Gyrun betrayed Kalonia because he was afraid that the seers were right in their shocking prophecies. So is Trassamul. Everything else is irrelevant."