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As you inch across the ledge, side by side, Therko describes his training at the Apostolic Mound, the unique ways of combat learned by those whose skin is nearly invincible…learned before one's first tattoo is applied. He seems to be hardening his heart for the work ahead.

Taking your time, you reach the ledge's far side and race downhill. Keimia had no time to double-back and sabotage your boats; the controllers leap aboard in silence, and in minutes, you're moving swiftly downriver, away from the feathered apes and the gargantuan corpse of the Apostolic Mound. You have Dr. Sabbatine's plans, but your fellow sojourners, from this world and Byzantium, sit in dazed silence.