“Hades…,” Josh began, voice rising in alarm. A flicker of movement distracted him and he turned to look out his window. The car was now creeping along the dirt road, and he saw a figure step out from between the trees on one side. It was followed by a second and a third, and suddenly a long line of vaguely human-looking beings lined the narrow track. They appeared unformed, ill-shaped, with heads too large or one arm longer than the other, big feet on thin legs, hands with too many fingers. The faces were almost blank, with just slight impressions where a mouth or eyes would normally be, and they were all bald and had no ears or noses. As the car drew close, Josh saw that their deep brown skin was cracked and seamed with countless wrinkles… like dried mud. “They’re Golems,” Josh whispered in horror, remembering the mud men who had accompanied Dee when he’d attacked the shop.

“Not Golems…,” Sophie murmured. Memories were tumbling through her head; images had started to flicker, dark, terrifying thoughts of an ancient nameless city. “No, not Golems…”

“Not Golems,” Aoife snapped, twisting in her seat to look at him. “Do not even mention them in the same breath. Golems are mere shadows of these creatures. These are the last remnants of the First People.”

“The First People?” Josh shook his head. “I’ve never heard of them.”

“You haven’t?” Aoife asked incredulously. She looked at Nicholas, Perenelle and Sophie before turning back to Josh. “You do know that my uncle Prometheus created the original humani out of mud?”

The idea was so ridiculous that Josh started to laugh, and then he realized that no one else in the car was even smiling. He looked at his sister and saw her nod slightly. “The First People.”

“He made humans out of mud? That… But that’s just…”

“We’ve seen mud and wax people this week,” Sophie quickly reminded him.

“I know, but they were artificial creations, animated by the power of Dee’s and Machiavelli’s auras. I can-sort of-understand that.” He looked at the misshapen figures lining the road and turned back to Aoife. “But you’re saying that Prometheus created the human race!”

Aoife looked directly at Josh as she spoke. “My uncle appears in the mythology of many races. He has many names, but the story is the same: Prometheus created the first humani out of mud using an ancient technology that was so advanced it seemed magical. Some of the other Elders created beasts, but Prometheus went one step further. A step too far, for many. That was the reason the Elders hated him and banished him, and why he was sentenced to a long drawn-out death in the Hades Shadowrealm.”