My fall came to an abrupt stop, but my body did not slam into anything. I flung open my eyes in utter shock and looked around. I was surrounded by a beautiful cloud of familiar sparkling yellow light tinged with deep brilliant greens.

I gave a nervous laugh and then shut my mouth tight as I felt the desire to weep sweep over me. Now was not the time for laughing or weeping. Kinabuhi had saved me. She'd given me this chance and I wasn't going to waste time on my fluctuating feelings. All would have to wait. Right now I had to find Det, who was somewhere in this deep cavern.

"Kinabuhi," I managed to whisper in a voice cracking with emotion, "Please help me find Det."

I let out a little sob. I tried to hold it in but it wouldn't be held back.

"Please," I begged again as the tears came and spilled down my dirt and dust-caked cheeks. I was just too overwrought to stop myself from sobbing.

Through blurry eyes I watched the yellow mist grow and increase in brightness until it lit the cavern around me. The sight was more gruesome than the kurku. Body parts were strewn everywhere. I saw fingers, partial limbs, torsos, smashed skulls and entrails everywhere. My stomach muscles clenched and I felt nauseous enough to spew. Both prisoners and security personnel alike were strewn all over the jagged rocks of the dark cavern.

I wept openly as the yellow mist moved me along. I didn't know where it was taking me but I didn't have the energy to resist. All I knew was that Det, who'd been strapped to another torture device and whose arms and legs had ceased to work weeks ago after being mangled beyond recognition, could not have survived this fall. She was likely in a million pieces and splattered all over the cavern like everyone else.

I gasped and choked on my sorrow. It was such a horrendous way to die. Even the knowledge that her physical misery had come to an end was no comfort to me when that end must have been brutal and terrifying. 

My heart was breaking like it had broken when I knew my mother was gone. I cried and sobbed afresh just thinking of the comparison. I mourned not just Det's passing, but my one chance to redeem myself.

What about her transformation and her shroud? I looked around with watery eyes. The shroud, if it even appeared, was probably lost in this gigantic gaping grave. How would I ever find it? Surely the shroud was lost and I was lost right along with it.

Despite my fears and my weeping, the mist continued to carry me along. At some point it stopped and let me down gently on the cold, jagged rocks below. I stood, teetering back and forth, in the frigid cavern and wiped at my tears.

I wasn't in a hurry to look for Det now. I knew I would only find bits and pieces of her at best. The very idea was mortifying to me even after all the terrible, inhumane things I had seen in the kurku over the last 4 years. So, I stalled by taking forever to wipe my eyes and clam myself down. I did not look around me until I felt I could do it without bursting into tears.

When I finally did look there was nothing grisly to see. The mist had brought me to a small package that sat perfectly undisturbed on a rock slab that acted much like a little table. I was so curious about the strange artifact that I ignored everything else around it as I stepped up to the package. Leaning over it, I examined it closely.

It looked like it was wrapped in a delicate paper made from silvery fish scales that reflected the light of the yellow mist all around me. I reached out a single finger to touch the scales, but the moment I did the material dissolved into shimmering dust.

Left behind was the most beautiful blue fabric. It looked as fine as silk and just as delicate. Not wanting to ruin it with my blood stained fingers, I tried to wipe them clean by rubbing them into the thin fabric of the ratty old harka I wore - a cast-off from some dead prisoner. My efforts were much in vain. My harka was just as filthy as my fingers.

Sighing with disgust, I looked my hands over and frowned at the expensive blue fabric. I hated to soil something so pristine, but what else could I do. I was certain this was the Shroud of Vecnost and I had to take hold of it. That's what Det had told me to do. So, with some hesitation I reached out now with both my hands and shook the fabric free of the shimmering dust that covered it.

The fabric came to life and jumped from my hands quite unexpectedly. It swirled around a few times and there was a brilliant flash of blue light. A light that seemed, in the moment, vaguely familiar to me. My mind started to race as did my heart. The shroud was not just sacred, it was imbued with an enchantment! How else could it flit around as if it were a living thing?

I watched it with wide eyes and great astonishment. But I suddenly became afraid. What if it flew away from me? How would I ever get a hold of it? How would I ever get it back to Det's sister?

I reached out for it quickly, grasped it again in my hands, and pulled it down to my chest not caring one bit that I was filthy and would stain the flawless fabric. I held it there and cried a well of tears for Det. She had lived long enough for the transformation to occur and I would be able to fulfill my promise to her after all. I sank to my knees feeling overwhelmed with sadness and gratefulness. I would do my utmost to deliver on my promise to Det and see the shroud reunited with Toshiyo in the Cave of Morah.

When I finally stopped weeping and sobbing, I wiped the tears from my eyes and promised myself that this would be the last time I'd be swept away by my emotions like this. As I struggled to rise to my feet on shaky legs the shroud began to move about in my arm. A blue shimmering mist spilled from the rich fabric and soon enveloped me entirely. Instead of flying away this time the shroud slipped around my limbs. I stood in quiet astonishment as it bound itself around me.

When the thick blue mist cleared, I looked down at myself startled. The Shroud of Vecnost was not a simple piece of fabric or a shawl. It was the most exquisite blue silk harka I had ever seen.  It easily outshone anything Master had ever worn. What on earth was it doing wrapped snugly around my filthy, bony frame?

Stunned to see it one me and terrified I would ruin it beyond repair, I tried to remove it. I tried to untie the beautiful knot that held the delicate fabric in place. However, the shroud-turned-harka appeared to have a mind and a will of its own. It would not budge.

I made several attempts to remove it, feeling more and more unworthy of it. All I could think was that Det's sister would be so furious when she found out I'd been wearing it - me, a slaveborn. I was sure she would want to rip and tear me to shreds, as she should. I had no right to this incredible harka. And, this was not the time or the place to be wearing such an costly and precious gown. It would be little more than a rag by the time I escaped from the kurku, if I even could escape.

Frustrated, worn out, and afraid, I sighed deeply and decided to take a chance and speak to the shroud. It acted as if it was alive. Perhaps I could speak to it. Under any other circumstances I would not be caught dead talking to a harka or any other inanimate object, but, these were no ordinary circumstances and this was no ordinary harka.

"Shroud of Vecnost," I began, feeling more than a little awkward and incredibly foolish, "You do me a great honour. However, you must release me. I promise to take you to Toshiyo. Only, I'd like you to be in one piece when I do. I'm afraid she'll be very upset if I ruin you."

I looked down at the harka and waited. I really did expect it to unravel itself. However, it made no move at all. So, I decided to try and untie it once again. My efforts were met with much resistance and it didn't take me long to figure out that the shroud was going nowhere.

"Suit yourself," I said to it with resignation.

Instead of fighting with the shroud or looking around for the remains of Det, I turned my attention to the gaping hole above my head. No sooner had I thought 'how will I get back up there?', then I was raised up off the ground by a blue mist and skillfully maneuvered to the top of the cavern. The shroud really was enchanted. I could hardly believe my eyes.

As I was taken higher and higher it dawned on me that this was the same blue mist that had illuminated my dark cell after I had a strange waking-vision of an exotic woman with a mouth full of sharp teeth. It was the same blue mist that had led me directly to Det that night. She had been on the verge of dying in the kurku and that was the night I discovered that Kinabuhi had not forsaken me. She let me draw on the gift like it was a well of endless water, and I had healed Det - bringing her back from the very brink of death. It was on that same night I awoke from the dead myself, after languishing in mind and in body since my mother's suicide.

The waking-vision, the mist, Det, Kinabuhi, my gift, and the shroud were all connected in some strange way. I couldn't put the pieces together. I could not fathom the how or the why. But, seeing the blue mist now, in the midst of so much devastation and uncertainty, calmed me - mind, body and soul. I was not in this alone. Whether it was an enchanted shroud or Kinabuhi herself, together they were working to help me fulfill my promise to Det. At least, that's how I chose to interpret it all in that moment as the terrifying flames in the kurku came into view.