Before the light of the moon came to the downs, Crinomu woke for one last time and called out for Asanka. "I need to tell you three things", he said urgently in a feverish voice. "You must know these things and promise to pay heed to them when I am gone." "The first thing you should know is that I always loved your mother and it was out of that love that you were born. Even though I am not your father according to the strict codes of biology it was the love between us which brought you into the world." "You are born of the seers and of the riders and you have a little of the heritage of each in you. Do not forget that! But Kalonia is no more. And soon, if you are to live, you must go to your mother's people and become one with the Riders. Do not bear the burden of a grudge against them for they were only ever a tool used by another. Amongst the riders you must disguise your origins showing no knowledge of the learning of Kalonia and certainly not that you can read and write. But I hope and believe you will value all Enclave lore and that one day it will be useful to you. "And last I want to warn you about the klane. You are only an apprentice and you must be careful with it for it is a terrible instrument in the wrong hands. Yet I believe you can master it and it will be a great help to you in times of trouble." "Our journey was wasted", Asanka said. "We lifted the curse of Kalonia for nothing and our home was destroyed and our friends killed whilst we were away! All for nothing!" "No! That is not true!", Crinomu said. "It was not for nothing. Because we lifted the curse before the Riders attacked, some few of the seers may have been able to escape into the greater vurtiverse where none could have done so otherwise. The lifting of the curse means that the Conclave has seen the work of Trassamul first hand and they will not forget it. If our quest had failed there would have been no witnesses to Kalonia's destruction. I know this is of very little comfort to you now but our mission was not totally in vain." But now Crinomu's face turned a dreadful shade of white and he bit his lip as though to fight some secret pain for the last time. He gripped Asanka's hand and a moment after that he died. In the morning Asanka scraped a shallow hole under snow and soil where he buried the last mortal remains of the ancient artilect and though he wept a little for the death he had seen and the deaths he had been told about, yet there was still some part of him that refused to believe Kalonia was destroyed or that Orietta was dead. His eyes were dry when he broke camp and tethering Paramal to his own horse, Lyr, he rode onwards.