Destruction. Darkness before destruction. Oru thought back to the words of the Twilit Father, spoken on their caravan to the temple of the Morning Sun. He had touched Oru's shoulder, lovingly, had looked at him, pain in his eyes, and said that the day came when that their order would witness the vernal pilgrimage no more. The Cerupas Paati were as old as the empire, and the emperor had made the pilgrimage each year since the Hidden God has founded Suurra. Did this mean the end of the empire? The end of the line of emperors? Did it mean the end of the order?