The once-elves startled at the alarm. Even the obsidian-clad Perditioners broke their stoic watch to look toward the vortex. The ever-night was gone, light tore through the curtain that contained the veil and blinded the warriors who had never seen sunlight before. Which is why Rathus was here instead of under that light. His friends, if he hadn't slipped from their memory by now, fled the city to escape Haerlond's edict. Their fate was their own now; Rathus meant to use the distraction to check out what the elves called the Malachite Palace, a dark ziggurat with a portal at its summit.