[Repost]

> "No, Guildmistress, and it may be she could be useful. But before we
> call her from whatever duty she is on, my own skills work better on
> catatonic minds than those fully awake. If I could find a chair to
> rest on, will see what I can do."

Duplar sends his mental probe into the unconscious being. It takes three
tries before he manages to lock on to anything at all; his head aches
just as Ryzar's presumably has done.

The mind is alien, more alien than any mind he has probed before.  This
is not like the mind of a kandar or a human; it's something quite
different indeed.

There's a strong emotion of confusion and loss; a swirl of disconnected
thoughts, and a great black void where something important ought to be.
There are images of machines, not like the mirror machines in the
tunnel, and just as unlike the devices of the Karazthan.

Then there's a man with a metal cap covering his skull; wires connected
to machines.  He is the leader.  He gives meaning.  He is gone.

The creature is dying.