Rosemary had spent a lot of time in the shadows herself. She respected that.

She climbed in and sat down, watching the pilots as best she could, wishing that this was her vessel and that she and Jake were about to head somewhere and—

She blinked. Since when had her fantasies about open space and a ship to fly it in included Professor Jacob Jefferson Ramsey? It was an alarming thought.

Rosemary distracted herself by peering out the window. She could make out dim shapes in the purple-blue below her, spires and towers and smaller, shorter buildings in a variety of shapes and sizes. They were darker blue, with tiny dots of illumination flickering to show that living beings dwelt there. At one point, she passed over something looming and huge that did not resemble any of the architecture she'd seen before. Even she, who was seldom moved by art or architecture, found herself barely breathing, pressing her face to the window to gaze at the thing. It looked like an ancient pyramid, or ziggurat, made of several levels that climbed skyward. Each level was limned with glowing, pale blue and purple light. Khaydarin crystals. At the top, visible even from this distance, an enormous crystal hovered. It was very similar to the one she'd seen in the chambers beneath the surface of Aiur.

"That is the temple," Vartanil said reverently. He, too, was gazing almost hungrily out the window at the mammoth structure that was slowly moving out of their field of vision.

"Oh? Like what Jake found?"

"Yes and no," said Selendis. "Both bear the mark of the Ihan-ril's, the xel'naga's, guidance. But the temple which you and Jacob explored is something quite different from this. Such a thing is more —organic. Wild." Something in the tone of Selendis's mental voice indicated she did not approve of wildness. "The temple you see below you is mathematically precise and orderly."

"Like the Golden Mean. One to one point six."

A flicker of surprise from Selendis. "You know of the ara'dor? The perfect ratio?"

"Jake did. That's how he found Zamara in the first place—she'd left a note, which of course we couldn't read, and sealed herself inside the temple somehow. So Jake was at even more of a disadvantage than a protoss would have been. But he made the connection. He.. .doesn't think like other people do."

"Obviously."

The temple and its flickering, oddly haunting lights was gone. Rosemary leaned back in the chair. "Selendis—can you tell me what I'll be facing when I go in there? I'm not really a people person, in case you hadn't noticed."

At that, Selendis ducked her head and half closed her eyes and laughed more heartily than Rosemary would have given her credit for. "Yes, Rosemary Dahl, this thing I had noticed." She sobered slightly. "Yes. I will prepare you, because I believe in this cause, if not the messenger of it."

That stung more than Rosemary expected, but she brushed it aside. "All I want is for us to find and help Jake and Zamara."

"I know this now. And—they will know that as well. Be prepared to have your mind read immediately upon entering the hall. By everyone present. For the entire duration."

Rosemary's fists clenched and she almost literally growled.

"Rosemary...do you know about Matriarch Raszagal?"

"Raszagal...Jake met her through Zamara's memories. She was just an adolescent when she left Aiur. She's still alive?"

"No. And let me tell you why."

Jake stared at Zeratul. "You...you killed her?" Zamara—why did you bring me to this guy? He betrayed his world and killed his leader! We 're supposed to put my life and the fate of this secret of yours in those kind of hands?

Patience, Jacob. To know all is to understand all.

Jake's voice revealed his shock, abhorrence, and trepidation. Zeratul did not cringe from it. He stood straight and nodded confirmation.

"Yes. By my own hand, I murdered our beloved matriarch." "In God's name, why?" "Because she asked it of me."

Jake's mind continued to reel, and Zamara continued to be silent. Jake thought about why someone might ask such a thing. "She... was she ill? Wounded beyond healing?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes. Raszagal... our beloved matriarch.. .powerful and wise.. .was being used. Used to betray herown people. Used by one so cunning and unscrupulous that to this day, I cannot fathom the depths of that mind."

Jake thought he'd gotten it. "Ulrezaj!"

"No." Glowing eyes bored into blue ones. "Though I am intrigued as to how you know that name. But that question is for another time. No, I do not refer to Ulrezaj, but to Sarah Kerrigan. The Queen of Blades. She who had once been human and is now the leader of the zerg."

Jake grimaced slightly. "Zamara and I were once discussing her. From what I understand, the zerg turned her into one of them."

Zeratul nodded. "They infested her, but somehow did not destroy her individuality. Kerrigan came to us seemingly in good faith, proposing a plan that would aid the protoss and Kerrigan both. But even before she arrived on our world, Kerrigan had gotten to Raszagal and perverted her to her will."

The words were flooding out of Zeratul now, as if a dam of some sort had been broken. Jake listened intently.

"It was all a trick. A ploy. Kerrigan planned to turn on us the moment she had gotten what she needed. We would never have listened to her at all, no matter how reasonable she sounded, had not our own matriarch urged us to do so. Kerrigan knew that was the only way to get what she wanted from us. She kidnapped Raszagal, and I managed to rescue her."

He looked away for a moment. Protoss facial muscles did not reveal much. It was through their thoughts, so much more nuanced and subtle than human thoughts, and the movements of their graceful and powerful bodies, that they communicated. While Zeratul's expression did not change, the pain and outrage of his thoughts and the slight hunching of his powerful form told Jake as much as—more than—if he had been a human speaking. Zeratul was in torment.

"It was only my matriarch's powerful will that enabled her to speak as herself in that moment," Zeratul continued. "In that moment...as she died. Kerrigan knew that I believed I could free her from the zerg queen's influence. And...so I had hoped, too."

He turned back to Jake. "But in the end, I was mistaken. I could not liberate her—at least, not that way. Death was the only freedom I could grant to one I respected with all my heart. And in that moment, she thanked me."

He bowed his head and shuttered his thoughts from Jake. But not, it would seem, from Zamara.

"’You have freed me from her vile control at last,'" Zamara said softly, gently, and Jake knew she was quoting the ill-fated Raszagal's last words. '"You have always served me with honor... Thus I must ask you—"'

"No!" Zeratul cried violently, spinning around to face Jake and Zamara. "You will not say those words!"

Oh crap, what the hell did Raszagal say? Jake thought, panicked that in his outrage and hurt Zeratul might forget that he wasn't supposed to kill preservers and throttle Jake right on the spot.

Zamara ignored him and implacably continued. "Thus I must ask you to watch over my tribe.. .Zeratul. ..into your hands I give the future.' That's what she asked of you."

The anger seemed to bleed out of Zeratul and he turned away again, hunching over, looking much smaller and more vulnerable.

"I thought Kerrigan would kill me. I expected it. I., .planned on it. Instead, she praised me, calling me a worthy warrior." His eyes narrowed, and the anger—no, not anger, it was deeper, larger than that—the offense returned to him. "She said she had already taken my honor. She was going to let me live because my every waking moment would be torture. Because she knew that I would never be able to forgive myself for what she forced me to do. That, Kerrigan said, would be the best revenge she could imagine."