Some fought; some went seeking holy death. The monks of Cadmer, Moment of Calculation, knew they could not win and waited in the briarpits to receive the bullets. The monks of Zaori, Moment of Magic Wine, drank themselves to visionary death before a militiaman could touch them. But the Moment of Doves sent its birds to destroy themselves in the militia’s wheels and stop their engines; the Moment of Desiccation turned militia blood to ash; Pharru and Tekke Shesim, the Moments of Forgotten Snow and of Memory, came together and made ice storms.

But the militia thaumaturges were expert, the slave-officers relentless, and in the end the monastery could not hold out. And when it fell, it was only the monks of Tekke Vogu, the Moment of the Hidden and Lost, who escaped.

Their neophytes were murdered, but the monks’ devotions hid them. They were lost to their attackers. They crept away-away from the burning ruins of their temple and from Tesh, City of the Crawling Liquid, which was closed to them, which had been ready to let them die. They had gone out into the land.

The monk told them everything. Was eager to, somehow, Cutter could tell. "We’re hidden. We know hidden things. They’re entrusted to us. We find lost things. I travel quick: I travel by hidden passages, lost ways. When I came here, I had them build this place. It’s easy to be a god here. Whoever comes I tell a little secret, something hidden. So they believe in me."

"What’s your name, monk?" Cutter said.

"Qurabin. Eighth-ring red monk of Tekke Vogu."

"Is that a man’s name?" There was a laugh.

"Our names don’t discriminate. Are you asking am I a man?" The voice was suddenly very close. "I don’t know."

Every monk of Tekke Vogu was enfolded within the Moment, but it was a bargain. They would learn the hidden, and how to find the lost. But Vogu’s sacrament was sold, not given. The price for the Moment’s protection was something made lost, something hidden from the devotee, given to Vogu.

"I know monks who don’t know their names. Who had them hidden. Who lost their eyes. Their homes, or families. Me-when I submitted to Vogu it was my sex went hidden. I remember my childhood, but not if I was a boy or a girl. When I piss I look down but it’s hidden from me. My sex is lost." Qurabin spoke without rancour.

"So you want us to clear out this thing that’s attacking?" Cutter said.

"Not me," said Qurabin. " They want you, they want champions. There’s no point protecting this hovel."

The party looked at each other.

"As gods go, you ain’t much by way of a protector, are you?" Elsie said.