“They wouldn’t understand.” Kile turned away, walking in a circle over to the map of Elan, crossing the Green Sea, stepping through the eastern archipelago until he returned to her. “It’s too complicated for anyone to follow, and it takes a certain sort of mind to even begin to allow for the existence of the sort of ideas necessary. Most don’t have the tools needed to put the pieces together. In all the years I’ve walked this world, I’ve never met anyone who had a hope of grasping the nature of what I do, or how—much less why.” He stared at her. “Until now.” Cupping her cheek briefly with his hand, he added, “That’s been the problem with all of this. Unlike everyone else, you understand.”

Farilane forced her hands to her sides and did her best to stand up straight. She felt as if he was about to pass sentence on her for a crime, and she wanted to take it bravely. “I’m listening.”

“You know who I am?”

“I don’t have any proof.”

“Take a guess.”

“You are Erebus, father of the gods.”

Kile smirked. “Erebus was a city.”

“It is?”

“Brin got that wrong, and the retraction was lost, so it’s an easy mistake to make.”

“Well, you’re certainly not Arkum, but you’re part of that pantheon, aren’t you?”

He nodded.

“Who are you, then?”

“I’ve had many names, Turin, Uberlin, Caratacus—”

“Malcolm?”

He nodded.

Most of these were names she knew, but only as absurdities. They were the titles given to superstitions, the totems and good luck charms that ignorant villagers used to push back their fears of the dark. For her, these ancient words brought a blanket to smother the light of the truth.

“Why Kile? Why that name?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s easy to say, isn’t it?” He struggled to present a smile. It died a quick death. “Look, I’ve done a lot of terrible things, but I’m trying to fix them. It’s not easy, though. When you make a mess as big as I have, you look at it and wonder where to start. The person I hurt the most was my sister, and her children suffered horribly as a result, so I started there. I gave them a horn linked to the afterlife. I meant it as a safeguard against infighting. It worked, for the most part, but I made a mistake. Believe it or not, I failed to see this.” He held out his hands to her. “I failed to see you, of all things.”

“Me?”