“I was a man once,” Darvezian said contemplatively, “a long, long time ago. But I have become a different order of being. Dark, Light, I have wormed my way through both sides of this world I have helped shape. I have been all your worst nightmares and terrorized the world; I have been your most glorious heroes, and saved it once again. History is a book of my victims, and a litany of my praise.”

“But… why?” Lief got out, his voice shaking. “Why all of that? Why would you do that to people?”

Cyrene expected some mocking retort, but apparently Darvezian took that part of his work seriously.

“People?” he spat, putting more than a lifetime’s contempt into the word. “People? What do I do to people, that they’ve not brought on themselves? That was my mistake at the start, trying to help people. And you know what, they don’t want to be helped. They deserve it all, everything the Dark inflicts upon them, every harsh judgment of the Light. People? Don’t make me laugh. Helping people is like beating your head against a wall, and in the end, when you live forever and you’re sick of the same mistakes over and over and over; in the end the only thing left is just to amuse yourself at their expense. Because you can’t make things better, and frankly, no matter how much evil you do, you’re not making things much worse, either.”

“That’s not true!” Dion challenged him. “The Church of Light is devoted to helping people.”

“Oh, spoken with the wisdom of, what, four decades? I am suitably chastened, I who was old before your church even began!” Darvezian advanced on her, but she held her ground, reclaimed disc clutched to her breast, and the others clustered behind her for what little moral support they could provide.

“I know,” the Dark Lord whispered, and a gauntleted hand rose up to rest on hers, closing about her holy symbol. “You were brought up proper, a good little girl. You were taught about the Light and the Dark, and told how everything was. And before I destroy you utterly, and your dreams, and your friends, I’m going to correct you on a number of interesting doctrinal points that will break your spirit and your faith, and amuse me just enough to make saying the words worth the breath it takes to speak them. But right now you’re burning with self-righteousness, because you know you’re right, and because you’ve lived your whole life only seeing the good in people, and ignoring all the bad—yes, even among your fellow priests—because you knew they were touched by the Light, and therefore they had to be Good. Good by default, no matter what they did.”