Dravidian c****d his head. “Imperium Locus. Control room?”
“Yes ... at the end of Ursathrax, before the last porta. It is there, some say, that the great doors between regions can be opened once again.”
An awkward silence followed as Dravidian and Shekalane glanced at each other, and she wondered if he was beginning to doubt his sanity as well.
Shekalane looked at him with something akin to pity. “You speak as if Ursathrax were a person. A lover, perhaps.”
Jamais laughed. “I suppose that’s true. It is the hallmark of lonely people, to anthropomorphize. They do it to their pets quite frequently. But that is just one of her secrets ... for while not a person same as you or I, she is, I believe, sentient. She is self-aware. Surely you have felt it, on those days when the leaves of the tre
