"She was different. Her people had made her a leader, which is how we met, and it didn't take me long to see why. I had never met a human before who saw herself as my equal. Not until I met her. She was intelligent, and charming, and filled with new ideas. She was beautiful, and I took her to my bed.

"Yet even as I did so, I knew it was only with her permission. She would have rather died than give in to anyone who sought to control her by intimidation or force. My feelings crept up on me. I thought I was ruled by my passion, but it was more. I was in love.

"Suddenly I felt that I could see for the first time. With her to open my eyes, I came to realise that my brothers had lowered the cost of human life to nothing. You were worth more to us dead than alive. The slightest provocation and you were killed — one more body for the vats. I started to feel sick to the stomach. What we were doing was wrong.

"I confronted my brothers, but they would not give up their ways. They were disgusted that I had taken a human lover and tried to bring me back into the fold. We argued, and I left.

"You have to understand how hard this was for me. They were my brethren, and together we dreamed of wonders you cannot possibly imagine. Yet I loved her even more than I loved my brothers. I felt responsible for the humans in my dominion, as well as for those in my brothers' dominions. I made my decision, and chose a path I would never be able to turn away from."

The expression on Evrin's face told Ella how hard the decision had been.

"I gathered nine of the human loremasters to me. Looking at these men and women with my newly-opened eyes, I saw that these were bright, intelligent people who deserved to be given the opportunity to be all they could be.

"I presented the loremasters with nine Lexicons, one for each school of lore. With these books, not only would the humans have the knowledge they needed, they would have a source of power that the Evermen would not be able to take away.

"I then told them the truth. My love was shocked beyond belief to discover we were no longer obtaining our essence from the lignite ore we found below the ground. The loremasters couldn't believe their gods had betrayed them.

"I let them think. They needed to come to the conclusions that I had on their own — it is no easy thing, to rise up against your gods. The shock was replaced with rage, as I knew it would be.

"Yet the revelations did not stop there. When I next spoke with these ten humans — my lover and the nine loremasters— I had their full attention. This is when I told them.