Elijah the Vartan, Bhuz the Gigi boatman/fisherman, and the two spotted felines – Inri and Watches-Quietly – travel upriver on Bhuz's boat, passing by several settlements, some friendly, some not. On this day, they've not had a warm reception from the locals, and have been encouraged to move on, but a freak storm blows over the mountains, and soon Bhuz has to abandon hopes of getting to the next village, in order to get to shore. Elijah helps in this regard, and in short order, they have the boat up and away from the flooding river, on a pile of rocks that are from a collapsed facade of a ruined temple. They take shelter from the rain in the ruins, but Elijah is attacked by an Eeee warrior. Elijah easily subdues the warrior, and then, while the others start a fire, he investigates further inside to see if there are others.

Indeed, there are, as Elijah finds a temple where there is a prone female bat who looks the very image of Inala, lying on a stone slab. There is another bat who seems her double, kneeling before the slab, and an idol of Sunala stands behind. Elijah presumes that the kneeling bat is going to sacrifice the one on the altar, and he intervenes, but the girl introduces herself as "Sunala" (a slightly different pronunciation from the Sunala), and her comatose twin sister is "Srinala" (a name implying a blending of the words for Life and Death). Sunala indicates that she is to be sacrificed this night, in order to add power to a ritual to aid her village, for it has been beset by disease, drought, and raiders. Elijah tries to reason with the girl, but makes little progress, for while she says she does not wish to die, she is convinced that if she does not, someone will in her stead.

Watches-Quietly intrudes on the meeting, supposing that Elijah had not found any Eeee warriors (and, indeed, he hadn't), and as she hears Sunala's story, she asks permission to tell her own story. She is granted it, and she reveals her true identity as Pouncer … and her belief that she is descended from a race of people who were the ancestors of the present-day Gigis who live along the coast, only that her fur is spotted, and that she was born for the purpose of serving as an avatar to the undead queen Amenlichtli.

There is a disturbance with the bat warrior who was subdued earlier, and Elijah turns to check on it … but when he turns back, he can no longer see Sunala or Pouncer. His keen senses alert him to the presence of illusory magic, and he tries to break down the barriers, but an opposing force is stalling for time, erecting more illusions to slow his pace. As he mentally smashes his way through the obstacles, he witnesses a phantom-play – an illusion taking over Pouncer's senses – in which warriors come in and take over, and Pouncer is placed in the position of being pressured to sacrifice Sunala, or the village will die. Pouncer, however, refuses to do this, for she believes it would be murder and not a true sacrifice – and instead offers herself as a sacrifice.

At this moment, Elijah breaks through, and rushes to pull Pouncer away from the altar, but she sees him as the high priest lunging with a knife for the altar, and she throws herself between the illusory attacker and the very real prone body still lying there. She bumps the body, and when she does so, the phantoms disperse, and Pouncer snaps out of the illusion's grip. There is still a phantom image of "Sunala", who is livid at what has happened, though she fails to explain just what has happened.

Elijah is uncertain what to do about the prone bat lying on the altar – the only remainder of this whole illusory incident, save for the chamber itself – but then the bat begins to stir. She awakens, and proves to be more mobile than a bat who had been comatose since birth should be able to do. What's more, she can talk. Pouncer summons Inri, who cleans and bandages the bat girl's hand, though she protests greatly at the pain caused by the minor scrape. She introduces herself as Srinala … but she does not clearly explain just what is going on.

As they take her outside, and she seems to be gaining control of her body (and adopting an imperious disposition), the bat warrior throws himself prostrate before Srinala, believing her a goddess. The storm outside rages violently, with obvious traces of supernatural influence. Elijah comes to have concerns about Srinala's veracity of her origins, and how she insists that she must be taken to Babel. He is firm, however, that their next destination is Shabar, and that he cannot guarantee he would take her to Babel, for he has many enemies there. At last, Sunala relents, and has some fish that Bhuz caught and cooked, while Elijah praises Watches-Quietly/Pouncer for handling herself well in the face of the bizarre illusion in the ruined temple.