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ing quieted down so about the power drain

Mother glanced atSeidr is difficult for huhter must carry the burden alone I will therefore be blunt, for my time here is brief She has come to ask you for the life of one et a reaction, in the form of a dull blink, from me And a mental replay of some of Pritkin’s history lesson Please tell ht blankly Please, please, please

"Then why are you here?" the htly As if he wasn’t any happier with her answer than I was

"To grant you a boon, Adra Or should I say, another?"

"When has the World Destroyer ever done us anything but harm?" It was a harsher voice this time, but I couldn’t tell where it caure sto

And, okay, that was better The first guy ht have lulled me into a false sense of security, had I met him anywhere else, but that wasn’t an issue with this one Not that that uy was a pushover I’d learned froe on looks

But that was kind of hard when the looks in question were so bizarre

He--and I was guessing that solely based on voice-- was pasty-pale and lumpy under a dark robe And as far as I could tell, he had no facial features a hunize He did have a head; at least I was assu were shoulders could be called, although it was a toss-up But in place of eyes, nose, and mouth, he had a bunch of feelers or tentacles or, hell, I don’t knohite waving things e from pustules on the lu a hole lined hat had to be at least a couple of hundred tiny, pointy teeth

And okay, maybe that was the h to find out And yeah, that was oted and whatever, but

I still didn’t

But Mother didn’t look bothered She lifted a single eyebrow, the way I’d never been able to do Every ti surprised instead of elegantly a? When I killed Ninurta, and set your people free fro with half his legions, and thus put an end to the war you could not When the great Ka froh to allow you to hunt and exile hi to save us!" The voice was furious

"Of course not But the result of otten how they scourged you, the ones you now term ‘Ancient Horrors,’ but who with all your kin? Have you so quickly forgotten how they gloried in blood and hile your people suffered in want and endless fear, waiting to be called up again and again, for no victory was ever enough, and no defeat dee real trouble concentrating on her

I was experiencing so like the electric frisson I’d felt with Mircea, only that was like saying a raindrop felt like a deluge And okay, yeah, thisinto other people’s heads, or theht have if I knehat the crap was going on But I didn’t, and I couldn’t focus hat felt like a few thousand volts running along every vein

Help, I thought vaguely

"They left you bleeding on the battlefield," Mother was saying "Fodder for the carrion eaters Or cowering behind your wards, alone on your little worlds, unable to grow or interact or explore, for fear of what prowled in the night--"

"You chief of all!" The de, surely Not for you I only preyed on the powerful"

The roohtly uncomfortably It didn’t dowould

"Whatever you may think ofof the great ones allowed saner voices to prevail atabout the end of the ancient wars, and did much to usher in the current era of, if not peace, at least of more stability than you have ever known"

"And we should thank you for this?" the one she’d called Adra asked mildly

"No, but you should, perhaps, thank me for thousands of years of freedom from my people’s depredations When I barred them from earth, it cut them off from your worlds as well You may think I took a heavy toll on your numbers, but how many would they have taken? Indemanded "She is our benefactor now!"