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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 4809192" data-attributes="member: 3285">Drakmar: Part 5 – The Heart of the Upper HouseKham was outside.  He was in a formal plaza.  It was illuminated by the light of stars and by the reflections of those stars in the black polished floor.  Sebastian, Beldin, and Vlad were all there.  Sebastian and Vlad looked terrible, with cracked lips and sunken eyes.  Only the dwarf held his own, his constitution accustomed to long periods of hardship.Sebastian barely managed a wave.  He was weak from hunger and thirst. “Good to see you, Kham.  I don’t suppose you have any food?”“No food, but I found some water.” Kham threw the wineskin to Sebastian.  The dark-kin slurped from it thirstily.As they passed the wineskin around, Kham took a look at their surroundings. Aldebaran was visible very low down—its twin was reflected in the floor, the two touching and merging.  A breeze brought a scent of cypress trees.  Away from them, something stood out white, and there was a light, but it was distant and indistinct.Kham took a step forward.  He accidentally kicked a small object that slid and spun across the floor.  As it went, there sounded a single clear note, swelling then falling.  Sebastian picked up the object.  “Pipes,” he said. The pipes were intricately carved in black with two mouthpieces curving down around a slotted barrel to become six pipes.  The design resembled the byakhee, their mouths the mouths of the pipes, the ribbed wings the barrels.  Suddenly their surroundings changed.  They were in the center of a large space on a white stone dais, fifty feet square, which stood just above the surrounding floor.  On the dais were two rounded pillars eighteen inches apart.  Each was about ten feet tall and six inches in diameter.  The gap between them gave off a faint white light.  Just to one side of the pillars stood an empty stone lectern. A moment later there was a figure that could be observed clearly. “The King in Yellow,” said Kham.</blockquote>

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