The room was circular, with a floor of a highly polished grey stone that was cold underfoot, and walls adorned with hand-painted images. Lann took a step closer and peered at the first image. The background was black, but in the centre was an egg with a crack running down the outside.

‘The First Egg was all that existed in the darkness before time began. From the Egg came the giant spider, Shi’ith,’ the priest said, narrating the story for Lann as he moved on to the next panel, this one of a spider with all manner of people and things atop it. ‘She was assigned the role of carrying our world on her back, but she had no love for the task. In particular, she despised the humans she was made to carry. So she tried to throw off her burden and destroy it forever. But the great god Og stopped her from doing so. He killed Shi’ith and tore the legs from her body. And from each of the legs came a new god, each one charged with caring for the world and its inhabitants.’ Lann moved on again. ‘But Og did not kill Shi’ith fast enough, and she was able to lay an egg of her own before her demise – an egg full of the hatred she felt. That egg, and all the darkness it carried, hatched to create a powerful and malevolent creature.’

‘Lorgukk,’ Lann said in a low voice. Absorbed in the story and the images, he had not realised he was already a third of the way around the room.

‘Yes. The dark one’s hatred of the other gods was a powerful force and he used it to create more creatures like him to fight at his side. And so began a war that might have destroyed the world of men. But the spider’s spawn and his foul army were stopped. The black blade was entrusted to the god Trogir to cut down that monstrous army, and it did its job well.’

Lann studied the painted panel before him. The previous three or four had depicted terrifying battle scenes, Trogir scything through hordes of creatures in his attempt to reach the hulking, horned thing looming at the rear of those forces. This next panel, however, stopped Lann in his tracks. There were no figures in this panel. Instead it was of an ornate stone archway at the centre of which was a perfect blackness. Around the edges of this arch were signs and symbols he recognised as being the same ones he’d seen on the staff he’d once held in a dream.