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So I sat down and waited, not interrupting, and presently Madding lowered his hands and turned to me

"I should have kept my voice down," he said softly, a upmy arms around thehed "If you could have seen hilorious then We all loved him--competed for his love, basked in his attention And he loved us back in his quiet, steady way He’s changed so ave off one last liquid shimmer and then settled back into his stocky, plain-featured human shell, which I had come to love just as much over the years He was still naked, his hair still loose, still standing on water His eyes carried memories and sorrow far too ancient for any mortal man He would never look truly ordinary, no matter how hard he tried

"So he’s your father" I spoke slowly I did not want to voice aloud the suspicion I’d begun to develop I hardly wanted to believe it There were dozens, perhaps hundreds, of godlings, and there’d been even more before the Gods’ War Not all of them had been parented by the Three

Butfrom him "There aren’t many of us left who haven’t disowned him"

I licked , Ithe sky

"He’s not just a godling"

Confirht the Three would be… different"

"They are"

"But Shiny…"

"He’s a special case His current condition is te in my life had prepared eable about the affairs of gods, despite my personal association with soht what they wanted us to know, not necessarily as true And so

Madding caazed out over the pools, his manner subdued

I needed to understand "What did he do?" It was the question I had asked Sieh