“They’re the ones who saw Set as powerful, a protector, a leader. They attached to him and then found out that it didn’t get them anywhere. He let them down. Thousands of years of disappointment. Some of them might be pissed off. But Pat, they aren’t people, they aren’t part of anybody. They’re not even part of Set. They’re lonely, unattached. They don’t have to attach to somebody evil. They just have to attach to somebody strong.”

“I’m not all that strong,” said Pat.

“You can’t see your own pret,” said Danny. “You’re strong enough. But different from me. Strong in a different way. So are the others. If we all invite Sutahites to join us, and if Thoth allows bonds to form, then they become part of the ba of a Mithermage, and we get stronger. For all I know, that’s exactly what happens when a mage passes through a Great Gate—maybe as we leap from one spot in the universe to another, we pass through the unorganized place where prets come from. Maybe prets attach themselves to our ba as we go.”

“And maybe not.”

“Somehow we get stronger,” said Danny. “But I don’t think we can invite them to join us so we can gather more power. I think we have to offer them a place. A promise that we’ll use them wisely and well. Remember how Bexoi’s body rejected her? The prets of her body hated what she had used them to do.”

“And when Enopp’s ka left Eluik, and Enopp was going to leave his body behind and die,” said Pat, “Eluik’s body called to him. Not with a voice or anything, but it was a call. A hunger. An invitation. That’s what you want us to do. Give that invitation to the Sutahites.”

“And maybe none of them come,” said Danny. “Or they want to, but the bond can’t form. Or maybe it can form, but only five or six out of all these billions actually do it.”

“We’d be no worse off than we are,” said Pat.

“Maybe they come and maybe they bond, only they’re not completely reliable. Maybe they still want to subvert the organized universe,” said Danny. “Maybe they really are as evil as Set.”

“If that’s what they want, I’ll bet that Thoth won’t let them bond to us. Because they wouldn’t actually mean it, and Thoth would know.”

“We’re putting a lot of trust in Thoth, considering he didn’t actually tell us to do this.”

“We’ve got to do something,” said Pat. “And this is better than taking Set inside yourself and then relocating to the center of the sun.”