“You bare the responsibility of your kin, Thayne.” Apotheosis gathered his wing blades into two pure light sabres and crossed them. “You thought to control that which cannot be tethered. The Tap is not for mortals. We were wrong.”

Lysander smirked.

“I disagree. The Tap does not belong to gods and monsters. I will set it free. I will give your children their choice of fate and be shot of you all.”

“Your self-included?”

“I was first amongst the Thayne, testament to the fallen artistry of your ancestors. I will be the last.”

The vision froze again.

“Oh gods. Is that true?”

“Ruby…listen to me. This will be hard for you to hear.”

Ruby turned to Leopold with a worried expression. The vision shattered and fell away into blackness, leaving the duo once again suspended in cold, silent space.

“Tantalus was created first. The Illar, free of mortal need spent their time creating. Stars. Moons. Planets. They wanted to pass that on to the first races and thus Tantalus came into being. He danced amongst the stars with his harp inciting brilliance in the first elves, accompanying the drinking of men, and the war drums of dwarves and orcs.”

“Does Lysander know that?”

“I suspect he does. Perhaps not all of it, but he knows he was made first and wants to ensure what has happened to this world does not happen ever again.”

“Why do the Thayne always corrupt?”

“Mortal lives are so much less…capable than the Illar. You feel the reverberation when he speaks, yes?”

“It was like thunder in my chest.” Ruby touched her breast as though she still felt it.

“The very presence of an Illar is enough to fray even the strongest of minds. They could shatter mountains with a single word and rewrite history with a single thought. The Thayne were their avatars in every sense of the word; they spoke through the Thayne.”

“Like envoys?”

“Precisely. Tantalus was the first to question this. He proposed to the others that they should live on the worlds they protected; to separate themselves from the alien Illar. The Thayne, not as free-thinking or strong willed as the god of bards rejected the idea.”

“Do I want to know what happened?”

“They stripped Tantalus of his wings and cast him here, to Althanas. In rebellion of his fall, Tantalus wove new tales about the Thayne and inspired the people of this world to dream of new gods.”

“Fuck me. I always thought the Thayne were other worldly.”

“Did you not ever wonder why our gods are so much alike to the people who worship them?” Leopold smiled warmly. “Their effigies reflect the values of the first people who worship them.”

“I thought belief made gods, not gods belief.”

“I always thought that too, but when I saw this vision, I realised the Thayne we have been fighting all these years are not the same as those our forebears warred against.”

“If Tantalus created his own gods to protect Althanas, what happened to them?”

“It’s well known that the Tap is the source of all life. As punishment for his ideas, Tantalus was stripped of its power, as was Althanas. The planet began to die, even as the first people rose to power the heart and soul of the world faltered. The Thayne did not survive. But their death throes gave birth to more mortal forms who rose to power quickly as the first people called out to survive the turmoil gathered their power to create something unholy.” Leopold paused for dramatic effect. “You know their names now. Y’edda, for example.”