You're alone. So Tolman's... You didn't go to the Crematorium?
No, of course you didn't, this isn't your fight. I'm sorry. It was wrong of me to put that on you, to ask you to risk your life for someone you don't even know.
Don't worry. I'll work something out. I always do.
I don't mean to sound ungrateful but we've no time for talk. Tolman was out here with me and now... you found him? Where?
Oh my God... Tolman.
Wraeclast takes everything from us... My family, we always keep something from those we've lost. A silly tradition, yet we hold on to what we can, especially here. Please, if... I don't know why you would... but if you are in the Crematorium again, could you find Tolman's bracelet for me? It would mean a great deal.
No, you go on ahead. I'll meet you back at the encampment, later... we'll talk some more then. Just for now, I need to be alone.
You're alone. So Tolman's... You didn't go to the Crematorium?
No, of course you didn't, this isn't your fight. I'm sorry. It was wrong of me to put that on you, to ask you to risk your life for someone you don't even know.
Don't worry. I'll work something out. I always do.
Poor Tolman. I made this bracelet for him... when he first arrived here. Idiot said he'd never take it off. I called him a liar. He didn't, though. Not once.
Those keys unlock the gates to the sewers. Tolman found them... figured that in the worst of times people will hide their wealth in the worst of places.
We were never game to test his theory, not with the Undying down there. But you're strong... stronger than any of us here. I don't think you need to fear the dark.
Halfway across the world and yet the tie between Vinia and I endures. That was Piety's real name back in Theopolis, before her rise to greatness.
Vinia sold her thaumaturgy in the day, her body at night. Sought after, she was. Enough so to become one of my best buyers.
But money never meant much to Vinia. No, she was striving for something better... nobler. Used to tell me that "Life needn't be this hard. It's time you all realised that."
Wherever he is, I'm sure Tolman knows what you've done. I know you didn't do it for him, or for me. It doesn't matter. Piety's reign of cruelty is over. Thank you.
Vinia was arrested for 'Consorting with the Unholy' and condemned to the pyre. This was before the banishments.
Dominus shared a last supper with her, heard her confession. Most think Vinia earned Dominus' patronage on her back. I don't. Vinia gave Dominus her 'better life' and got a new name in return.
You can count on one thing: Piety's grand future won't include the likes of you, me, or Tolman.
You find a high enough spot and you can see the Lunaris Temple over the river, at the western edge of the city.
Since the Blackguards arrived, the clouds above that temple have been stained with the blackest of smoke. You can see it sometimes, when the westerly blows. It stinks worse than death.
Gravicius dined with us once. This was before my father's gambling debts caught up with him. I dined with him again, in Theopolis prison, the night before my exile. He wasn't so polite that time...
Thank you. That's one memory I can now put to rest.
On the fall of the Empire, the historians are deathly silent. After the Purity Rebellion, the Kingdom of Kaom blockaded Oriath, preventing any trade or correspondence with the mainland. It's said that Kaom planned to invade.
Only when the Karui retreated did Oriath get any news from Wraeclast, but by that time there wasn't really anyone left to tell the tale.
I know, so strange that stone and metal should move and live as you and I.
Still, I read that Chitus' sculptors used to soften their materials with 'thaumetic sulphite', a by-product of gem refining. It's the only connection that I can fathom between the cataclysm and the living sculptures of Sarn.
Chitus thought that the Gemling was the pinnacle of human progress. "These glorious gems have brought us within spitting distance of godhood", he once said.
The High Templar at the time, Voll of Thebrus, thought they were a perversion. He wanted the Empire made pure, "cleansed of the stain of thaumaturgy". You look at Sarn and tell me which one you think was right.
And while you're out there, look out for monkeys. No, not those bloody monkeys from Phrecia. These ones are painted on the walls. I think you'll find them enlightening.
Exile... you've helped me before. You can help me again, can't you? My hope waits for me to the east, tucked away in a shrine in the Quay.
The Ankh of Eternity. Veruso, Prima Imperialus, placed it there himself at the dawn of the Empire. If the legends are correct, the Ankh has powers over life and death... when paired with the correct Azmerian ritual.
I've learned the ritual. All I need is the Ankh of Eternity and I know I can bring Tolman back... properly this time.
Will you retrieve the artefact for us? I've tried but the creatures around the shrine... simply too dangerous.
Yes, yes, Tolman, I'm getting to that.
I've already prepared a site for the ritual, out in the Quay. Please, meet us there with the Ankh so that I may yet breathe life into my dearest love.
Poor Tolman... he was never really with me, was he. Just the shell of a man I loved. Wherever he is now, I hope he is at peace, and that he can forgive me for not being able to let go.
Here, take something, for at least helping me. And thank you, for... for everything.
My heart aches for Grigor. I know the battle in which he is engaged. It's like my own, a fight to make sense of life in a land that deems life to be worthless.
I don't know where he's gone, but I do know he's looking to find himself, his true self, as we all must do in our own time.
By all accounts, Tarcus Veruso was a ruthless despot, a man to rival even the likes of Dominus. Yet his heart of stone contained one precious seam, his love for his wife, Chiara.
So when the poor young woman died giving birth to Veruso's son, the grieving emperor threw aside his great convictions and placed his last hope in thaumaturgy, in the Ankh of Eternity.
Perhaps it was shame that drove Tarcus to lock the ankh away, to steal such hopes from his descendents. It was he who had asked his people to turn their backs on the ancient arts, so what right had he to enjoy that which he forbade? Love gave him that right.
As I understand it, the Ankh of Eternity was somehow able to return the dead to the full bloom of life. There was nothing necromantic about it, rather it was a source of true resurrection.
How it came to exist, I honestly don't know. A couple of inscriptions I read treated the ankh as some sort of gift to Veruso from the Vaal. But surely the Vaal were long gone by Veruso's time... weren't they?
No matter. Despite the vagaries of the Ankh's origins, Veruso used the Ankh to return his young wife from the death bed to the wedding bed. The accounts are unanimous on that point.
As it was for Veruso's love, so shall it be for mine.
Give it to me, quickly! Finally, Tolman, we can be together as before.
Alright... let's begin.
Suffering will besiege us and yet love will prevail. Pain will imprison us and yet love will prevail. Grief will engulf us and yet love will prevail. Death will surely take us and love... will...
No... this isn't right. This is... oh, Tolman, please... forgive me.
How could I have been so stupid? Veruso didn't hide the ankh out of shame. He hid it out of fear, out of... oh my, what did the ankh really do to his wife? Everything I saw, that I read... lies to cover the truth of what Chiara had really become.
Alright, I'll destroy the ankh. We've come a long way since Veruso's day so I'm thinking I can manage where he so sorely failed. At least that's something I know I can do right.
I'll meet you back at the encampment soon. For now I need to... look, I'll just see you there. I promise.