Cover Artist: Dave Stevenson

The Keshiri Adari Vaal is on trial for espousing heresy, ie: scientific reasoning, but they refuse to see what she is saying. In the middle of the trial, a granite mountain appears to erupt like a volcano, causing everyone to retire to their homes. The next day the people are back, and this time it looks like they want blood, so Adari takes her dead spouses uvak, Nink, and leaves. A day later, she arrives at the new volcano to find that it's not a volcano at all, it's the crash site of something that she doesn't understand. She retreats, only to find herself drawn back to the crash site, where she is taken by the strange beings. Several days later, she has taught the leader of the beings, Korsin, and several others to speak her language, and they send her back to get them help from her people. She does so by luring the rest of the uvak riders after her to the mountainside. The Sith then use her knowledge of the Skyborn that the Keshiri worship to insinuate themselves into the Keshiri society. They begin the work of quarrying for metals to repair the Omen, but Adari knows they will be on Kesh for a long time, because if there are any metals, they will have to dig very deep.