Vell scratched his chin.
"It leaves me with questions. A few grave and pressing, but the others will be without answer: How did Endrith know? If that was really what he was searching for, then he must somehow have known that it existed. Which would mean he somehow reasoned his way toward something that I have never even encountered in my own studies. If that's true, then I must begrudgingly say that Endrith is smarter than me."
He said the last sentence with some humor.
"Or he was resourceful enough to find something that I couldn't. Unlike him, I had no one working under me for hundreds of years under an iron fist."
The Yellow Mage's glow intensified slightly.
"Hidden research?"
"Sure. Why not? Old writings. Something buried somewhere. Some record that survived from a civilization or a mage who knew about it. I mean, he even figured out how to kill an immortal. More than once. He had a drive to find fragments of knowledge and then spend centuries following them."
From underneath the table, Vell produced Endrith's mask.
Sonder cringed when she saw it.
"And there is the mask," Vell said.
"The mask may be all that is left of Endrith in this world. It's not really a problem in itself, but what it symbolizes."
"I think it still may be," the Yellow Mage argued.
"I got it under control. Don't worry," Vell said.
He set it down on the table.
"When I was there, in that other plane, I had no power; none at all. I eventually got some power. Not much, but enough to do something with it. I owe that to you. I don't think I could have done it without either of you. And when I had power, Endrith took notice of me. I imprisoned him after some unpleasant dealings with his essence. He had no power. I began to draw more from the vortex; I couldn't before. When I made my escape, he bothered me again. He either escaped the prison I made for him, or I couldn't keep it up anymore, as all my power was focused on leaving that place. But at the very end of my escape, Endrith seemed more alive and aware than he had ever been before. But then I came to, here, in the tower. I don't know what happened to him after that. I don't know if he found himself. I mean in a true way, in the way that I did. If he managed that, then things are not all right."
Vell's expression had lost some of its usual calm.
"They are not safe. He had no power, so unlike me, he couldn't draw from the power, but if he somehow managed to take the smallest amount from me- even just a smidgen…"
He held up his hand in a pinching motion.
"I can't know how much it was. I can't even be certain that he took any of it. But if he did, things are bad. If he can absorb more power, he will."
There was no uncertainty in that.
"Endrith has always wanted more. More power. More knowledge. More control. Whatever he found in that place, if he discovered that he could take from it, he won't simply stop."
He looked at Sonder and the Yellow Mage.
"Then we have a very serious problem."