"No," Pakhet agrees. "The Chamber of Isis is a single solid point. Archimedes’ fulcrum: the place where things can actually be real—or perhaps where the primacy of realities is assigned. Athenais can raise her son from the dead. The vase can be unbroken, the world made whole. The Alkahest is the solution to everything, the Holy Grail: a Universal Solvent that will heal all wrongs and empower the merest mortal to judge gods and bind monsters to her will. A new beginning is promised in the conjunction of things. The Chamber of Isis is not so much a place as it is a circumstance. A perilous one, as the chapel of the Grail always is. There must be sacrifice."