Ella couldn't believe what she was hearing. It turned upside down everything she had ever been taught about the Evermen. She could understand now why Evrin had kept them all in ignorance. Who would cast down their own gods?

"There was one of us, Sentar Scythran, the Lord of the Night…"

Dain Barden looked up, his gaze intent.

"You," Evrin said. "Dain of the Akari. You need to hear this most of all."

Barden's knuckles were white as he gripped the hammer at his belt.

"Sentar Scythran found his slaves' free will to be offensive. He didn't humans having emotions or singing songs. He didn't want his subjects speaking to him out of turn, or breeding without his permission. Sentar Scythran preferred to be served by the dead."

Ella wondered how the Dain would react to Evrin's words.

"None of us took much notice. We were powerful and knowledgeable, and we could do almost anything we set our minds to. Drawing runes on a corpse and teaching it to pour wine was nothing to us."

Evrin coughed for a moment, and in the break Ella looked over at Seranthia, wondering if the world would ever be the same again.

"However something happened that made us take notice. For, being constantly around the dead as he was, the Lord of the Night discovered a new source of power. Sentar discovered that essence's power comes from life. We all knew that, of course, but we always thought the essence itself had to come from lignite, from below the ground, where the life energy of a thousand trees or a million blades of grass condenses over eons.

"Yet, Sentar Scythran, the Lord of the Night, made a new discovery. He found a way to harness the life energy of humans."

Evrin looked down at the ground as if filled with shame.

"My brothers, the Evermen, began to adopt this process. At first we were pleased. We had found a use for the dead humans, and our power was never greater. We could do anything. We pooled our knowledge and we discussed ways of exploring worlds beyond this one."

Ella thought about the hidden relic, a portal to another world. She wondered if Killian was lost to her forever.

Evrin looked up again. "But then I fell in love with a human."

He took a deep breath. ""You have to understand, this was something unheard of among my people. Unimaginable, perhaps that might be a better word. We Evermen did with our slaves whatever we willed. We bedded those who we ruled whenever the mood was on us. Yet never was the fruit of our passion allowed to survive. Never did we feel anything more than lust. How could we? We were your gods. We were as far above you as the stars."

"Who was she?" Shani asked.