There are many things which the Shapers do not wish the common people to know, and thus many things which the elder healers must keep secret.

The fact their world, the Dominion, is not the only world, is one such thing. The fact that the Shapers possess the means to visit other worlds is, naturally, also secret.

Efol was not an elder, but he was born with a purpose, as most healer children are. That purpose was to be an explorer, to travel to these other worlds, to learn of them, and eventually to be recalled to the Dominion with whatever resources and information he had gathered, and to repeat this process for as long he and his series's function was deemed necessary. Because of this purpose, he was allowed limited knowledge of the means of travel, and of the worlds already explored. Most were barren, empty, lacking in even the most fundamental aspects of familiar reality, accepting of travelers only by the holy writ of the Shapers. Some, however, were merely lifeless, and one other had been found with something at least vaguely approximating life here within the Dominion. Thus, the Shapers found the exploration of other worlds a valuable service.

Most of the Shapers, at least. One, a young one or at least one who chose the appearance of youth, gave him a malevolent smirk just as the lid of the sarcophagus closed. The colorless glow of his recall stone died, then, and he was gone before he could make any word of its failure.

There was always turbulence, after the sarcophagus was sent away, though this time it was much more severe than normal. If Efol had not thought begin self-reinforcement immediately it's likely that the shaking would have concussed him or even rendered him unconscious. Then there was the characteristic shudder, static in his ears and pins-and-needles all along his body as the sarcophagus passed through the destination's worldskin and its ontomediation suite adjusted his existence to the local ontology. It was quiet then, for a long moment, then more turbulence and the sudden return of gravity indicating that the sarcophagus had been captured, and finally the crash of impact with some surface, either solid or fairly viscous fluid. The sarcophagus's earthwill indicates that the outside does not require any meaningful adaptations for him to survive, and in fact seems close to ideal for baseline humans.

Efol experimentally forms the sign of opening on the inside of the sarcophagus's lid, and thankfully it opens. The young Shaper, or whatever sabotaged his return stone, did not leave him permanently sealed nor forced him to exercise discretionary warping to escape.

Gently sliding the lid off, Efol sits up from the sarcophagus's basin and quickly assesses his environment.