Soul Mirror

Soul Mirror is a powerful soulsteel grand daiklave created by the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears. It is detailed in Savant & Sorcerer (ISBN 1-58846-675-2), according to which the sword was carried centuries ago by the Lover's champion, a powerful nemissary, until he "fell to two incomparable dragon-blooded martial artists, and the sword was lost. Both terrestrial warriors paid dearly for their actions, but they did succeed in hiding Soul Mirror away from the furious deathlord."

Even the names of the terrestrials have been erased from memory, though scattered references to them remain. Based on research into these references, Sundial believes the sword was hidden in Rathess, and has entreated the circle to find it. According to Sundial (though how they discovered this is unknown) the terrestrials feared that, should they die, their ghosts might reach the Lover and be interrogated as to the location of the sword. Fearing this, they magically removed critical memories of the sword's concealment and embedded them into gemstones, using a variation of the Theft of Memory spell. When they hid the sword, they somehow did so in such a way that each one was solely responsible for one aspect of the concealment, so that individually they did not know how to retrieve the sword.

Memory Gems

The gemstones containing the memories of Soul Mirror's location were scattered by the terrestrials just prior to the Lover's vengeance. Sundial has determined that the gems were both sapphires, containing five points of light glowing from within. They have spent a good deal of effort tracking down the whereabouts of gems that match this description. So far, they've uncovered four leads:

• The most promising is a visual sighting by a mortal agent of a sapphire with five glowing points inside in the possession of Peleps Java, an unexalted member of a dynastic family living in Chiaroscuro. The circle has been informed of this one, and eventually recovered it.

• One of Sundial's teams recovered a sapphire with five internal lights in Gethamane, but chose to flee into the underways to avoid capture. Once there, the party was savaged by creatures of some kind, with only one making out alive. The gem, however, was carried off along with the body of the man who was carrying it.

• A sapphire with glowing points is said to be in the possession of Nefvarin Alixa, scion of a minor house of terrestrials in Lookshy, though this as never been confirmed.

• A reference to a gem that meets the description was found in a family will, but the disposition of the will is unclear, as family in-fighting claimed the lives of most involved. It is thought that the gem most likely returned to the Blessed Isle with one of the survivors, but this could not be tracked.

Upon arriving in the Lap, the circle spotted a terrestrial who turned out to be Peleps Trinarin wearing a sapphire with five glowing lights within as they were stepping onto the docks. They eventually stole this necklace, but are not sure if it actually contains memories.

The circle eventually tracked down this proper stones and, mixed with some other magic extracted a vision from them revealing the exact location of the sword.

Terrestrials & the Nemissary

The terrestrials that hid the sword were tracked down by the Lover, in spite of a number of enchantments intended to erase their names various records. It is unknown exactly what she did to them, but the circle has determined their spiritual resting place. Their souls, and the soul of the nemissary who wielded the sword in creation, were alloyed into Bonewedge, a soulsteel axe wielded by the deathnight Carrionis. The circle defeated this abyssal, taking his axe and giving it to Regret of the Sun. Using a soulsteel crevashe they found in Watch Valley, Regret and Stag conspired to communicate with the souls in the weapon.

While the nemissary had been placed into the weapon to torment the souls of the terrestrials forever, in fact the reverse had happened. Normally, being forged into the magical metal distorts the soul significantly, but the terrestrials, the nemissary and one of the other souls in the weapon -- that of an officer who served with the woman who became the Scarlet Empress during the great contagion -- held up remarkably well, though the centuries spent in the metal were starting to play on their sanity, particularly the nemissary's.

Jorias is of the opinion that, since the memory gems are based on Theft of Memory, it may be necessary to somehow use the souls of the terrestrials to extract the memories from the gems. He is unsure how this is to be done, and the circle is not sure how the terrestrials will react.