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He returned a level look, which see whether he should kill"There is an aura about you, Mr Slade A peculiar netism that makes me want to trust you"

I al like this wouldn’t particularly appreciate it I took a deep breath and put on my best sincere look "How can I stay out of your way if I don’t knohat to watch out for? Or are you afraid to tell ood?"

"In truth, I see little disadvantage to inforh I must deflate your sense of self-i out "You have only a tiny notion of the scale of Daelissa’s manipulations, or how many I have defused over the years Your mind cannot even conceive the co a critical juncture Others of er with every passing day Most of them wish a return to the old days Others si sanity"

"Desecration? Are you talking about when the Grand Nexus blew up and husked everyone?"

He nodded

"I’ve seen how crazy Daelissa is," I said, not giving hi your ht with the dark keeps ard the dark as filthy and won’t touch it That is why they lose their grasp on reality They refuse to draw upon both essences, even though it happens naturally in our ho into confusion, as I usually did when trying to understand the difference between the dark and the light In ht, and dark was evil Not to the angels "What’s with the dark and the light with you guys? Darklings, Brightlings--what’s it all mean?"

Mr Gray turned from the , an amused expression on his face "Is that not always the question, Mr Slade? I suppose I should make allowances for one such as you--an entity of three worlds Part Seraphim, part Daemos, and raised as a human--you are unique Your sister was raised to believe only in the word of Daelissa, and lacks the perspective you gained" He walked to a liquor cabinet and poured hilass of ae"

The Seraphim raised an eyebrow "You see? Human perspective It is, perhaps, one reason you’re such an agent of chaos" He took a sip "There are two priht Our souls are the containers of this essence, which gives us the true spark of life Even though the aether in the air around us and in the ley lines beneath us roars with this lifeblood, there is so about the soul that transforic As part of a soul, it is so quite different"

I’d made a tenuous connection between aether and the two spectrums After all, I’d seen plenty of ultraviolet, white, and even gray clouds of aether floating in the air when I switched toto do with soul essence, given the little I knew about how angels fed Daelissa had fed on Elyssa once, drawing light essence fro white soul essence as well

"I’

He nodded "Neither the dark nor the light is evil, in and of itself All offroe, our bodies naturally take on an affinity for one or the other"

I waited, expecting a shocking revelation Hisdisappointed "That’s it? Why do Brightlings think Darklings are evil? Why did the Brightlings treat the Darklings like slaves?"

"Quite si I’d been through To the strange visions I’d suffered, deht or the dark His explanation made no sense in that context In other words, Mr Gray was hiding so from me I waffled, uncertain if I should call hi behind the whole Dark-versus-Light thing, would he tell me?

Mr Gray took another sip of his drink "There is, however, a rander scale to this, as I’m sure you’ve realized" His eyes met mine "The choice in Foreseeance Forty-Three Eleven pointed to a choice between the dark and the light As Lornicus stated, it is my belief the conditions for the foreseeance have been met The decision wasI already knew, or at least those of us in my extended family had surmised I’d had a chance to betray Ivy She’d had a chance to let me die In both cases, we’d chosen each other Whether that meant our choices were a wash or not, I had no idea

He paused, as if letting the iht before I said anything

"Which side did she choose?" I asked

"As with any foreseeance, it is rather unclear" Mr Gray finished his drink, and set the glass down on the granite bar countertop "Though the universe has long waxed and waned between periods where one essence was slightly more powerful than the other, it has enjoyed a reood and bad?" I asked

"Good and bad are ht you understood they bear no connection to the Murk and the Brilliance" Despite his rebuff, his face held no disappoints are ultraviolet Their ic utilizes the dark spectrus are the opposite"

"So, we’re not talking Yin and Yang here," I said, confused

He traced the air with a finger, forht He drew a line down the center, flicked a hand One side filled in ultraviolet, the other pure white "Is this what you iine the balance to look like?" he said

I aled to keep myI only needed to consider the speaker to realize what he thought the balance looked like "Everyone carries a bit of the Murk and Brilliance in theray"