“The blue moss also eats Power as well as gathering it,” Fan laughed. “The Twilight needs the blue moss for one purpose. The Tiger for another. And the Others for yet another. But all of us together do the same thing—we stir up humankind, we jolt people, make them do something, invent something, strive for something . . . sometimes they achieve success, sometimes they take a beating. We are all part of the Twilight, its symbiotes if you like. Its hands and feet, eyes and ears. The rakes and spades it uses to cultivate its vegetable patch—humankind. Do you wish to rebel against the Tiger? You will be rebelling against the Twilight. And therefore against yourself, against your own nature, your abilities, your life. The Tiger cannot be killed.”

“Then what did you do?” Arina asked. I looked at her and shuddered—she had aged. No, her camouflage hadn’t disappeared, but now it was only the mask of a beautiful and confident woman on the face of an unhappy, devastated old one.

“We sacrificed to him. A Tiger has no need to kill a Prophet if the Prophet has already proclaimed his prophecy to human beings and thereby set the mechanism working. And if the Prophet is willing to die in order not to reveal the prophecy . . . if the Tiger realizes that really is the case . . . then he leaves. He is not cruel. He does not punish for resistance. All he does is try to achieve a result. If no result is possible—the Tiger loses interest in the Prophet.”

“And you killed your friend to show the Tiger that the prophecy would not reach human ears . . .” Arina whispered.

“No. I was the one who should have died. We had thought it all through . . .” Fan hesitated. “But Li had thought a little further. He deceived me. He arranged things so that I killed him, I killed him in front of the Tiger, while certain that I would die myself. That convinced the Tiger. He realized that Li was sacrificing himself and that I would never insult his heroic deed by repeating what he had said. The Tiger turned and walked away. New Prophets are born in the world all the time, and each of them on one occasion utters something that can turn the human world upside down. The Tiger walked away.” Fan stopped, but then went on after all: “After saying that he felt for me. It was moving. I wanted to die too, but Li had asked me to live. So I had to live.”

“Wait,” I whispered. The old magician’s words had roused something in my memory. “Wait, Fan. Something’s not right. Something doesn’t fit. I . . . I believe you. Or rather, I believe you are saying what you think is the truth, and it looks like the truth, but . . .”

“But?” Fan repeated, obviously intrigued.