"I won't say more, but against all odds we won. You… won. You cast off the shackles of your overlords.
"Yet even in victory, and even with the death of my love, I could not kill my brethren. I gave them a choice: to die, or to flee through the portal into their new world. They left, but not before the Lord of the Night said his parting words. He said you humans would not be able to control your emotions; you are too filled with love and hate, ambition and aggression. You would not be able to rule yourselves, and if you called, the Evermen would return.
"I vowed not to rule the humans as my brothers had. Instead, I looked on and stayed silent as you fought amongst yourselves, though it pained me to see. I watched and did nothing as the nine loremasters formed nine separate houses. Each house took a land for their own, and a colour, and then I watched in silence as builders fought enchanters, animators fought illusionists, and chaos took the land.
"With no lore of their own, the templars stayed neutral, and as they were the only ones who knew how to operate the machines in Stonewater, they enjoyed a special status, able to shape the events of the war of the houses and bide their time until a victor became clear.
"I stayed silent, deciding my role was to intervene only when the most dangerous magic came into your possession, such as the Primate with his elixir, and the discovery of the portal inside the Sentinel.
"Eventually the Tingarans became dominant, leading to the formation of the Tingaran Empire and the banishment of the Akari — who were never one of the nine — to the north.
"The templars continued to occupy Stonewater, a sacred place even for the Evermen, and a distorted truth was put out, what you call the Evermen Cycles. Still, I did nothing as my brothers came to be worshipped, and the story of the brave humans who cast off their overlords was forgotten.
"At least…" Evrin said. "At least now some of those who will shape what the Tingaran Empire will become have heard this story. Perhaps this was my fault. Perhaps I should have let the truth be known earlier. But who would have listened? Would you believe me, if you hadn't been here to witness what happened today?
"There are so many of you who revere the Evermen. If they ever return, you will not only face their incredible powers, unlike anything you have ever seen before… You will face your own people, those who will mindlessly follow their god wherever he leads."
There was silence except for the sound of the waves crashing against the Sentinel's island as they each digested Evrin's words.
"If that ever happens," Miro finally said. "You will fight by our side, as you once did?"
"I will," Evrin said, "although since my powers were taken from me, there is little I can do. I have my knowledge of the runes, but that is all."
"Your lover…" Amber said. "Did you ever have a child?"
All eyes were suddenly on the old man. Ella looked again at his piercing blue eyes and the flecks of ginger in his beard. When Evrin hung his head, and a look of infinite sadness crossed his visage, Ella felt the blood drain from her face.
"Yes," Evrin said. "I never knew for sure, but yes, I believe we did have a child. And I think my child might have had a child of their own, and that perhaps I have a descendant, living today.
"I think I might have just sent him to his death."
Epilogue
PRIMATE Melovar Aspen had one last surprise left in store for the world he had plunged into war and then departed with his death.
His veins had flowed with raj nilas, the substance he had called elixir. Never had so much of essence's opposite taken residence in a man's body. Never had the two liquids been brought together in such concentration.
When the Primate perished, the violent clash of raj nilas meeting raj ichor caused his body to disintegrate, a result not attributable to essence alone. His skin fell off in slabs, the limbs fell from his body, and his face came away from his skull.
Deep within the individual cells that joined to make up the rapidly dissolving tissues, the raj nilas bubbled and fizzed angrily. Each miniscule droplet struggled to retain its form, desperate to maintain a separate identity to the raj ichor around it. It was a fight with an inevitable outcome, as finally the two liquids met and combined.
The essence easily swallowed the elixir within its much greater volume, but nevertheless, the raj ichor was changed.
The Primate's burning blood was now part of the pool.
The shift in the nature of the liquid that resided in the pool would have first been noticed by a new odour, tart and unpleasant. Yet the chamber within the Sentinel was empty and devoid of life.
As the sun passed over the Sentinel day after day, the composition of the fluid slowly altered. It retained most of the properties of essence, but it also developed some new properties.