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‘This weapon,’ Fear said as he halted five paces from Trull, ‘is Letherii steel’

‘I saw them on the field of battle They defied the K’risnan sorcery, when all else was destroyed Swords, spear-heads, undaed’ Trull studied his brother ‘What of it?’

Fear hesitated, then looked out on the river ‘It is what I do not understand How did they achieve such a thing as this steel? They are a corrupt, vicious people, Trull They do not deserve such advances in craft’

‘Why them and not us?’ Trull asked, then he s people, and so inherently driven We Edur do not and have never possessed such a force of will We have our Blackwood, but we have always possessed that Our ancestors brought it with them from Emurlahn Brother, we look back-’

‘To the time when Father Shadow ruled over us,’ Fear cut in, his expression darkening ‘Hannan Mosag speaks the truth We must devour the Letherii, we must set a yoke upon thee’

‘And ill that do to us, brother? We resist change, we do not worship it, we do not thrive in its midst the way the Letherii do Besides, I aht way to live I suspect their faith in progress is far ile than it outwardly seems In the end, they must ever back up what they seek with force’ Trull pointed to the sword ‘With that’

‘We shall guide the understood this-’

‘You revise the past now, Fear He was not intending to ar on the Letherii’

‘Not immediately, true, but it would have come And he knew it So the K’risnan have told me We had lost Father Shadow It was necessary to find a new source of faith’

‘A faceless one?’

‘Damn you, Trull! You knelt before him – no different from the rest of us!’

‘And to this day, I wonder why What about you, Fear? Do you wonder why you did as you did?’