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Go, do this, but I'm not going to tell you any of the reasons behind it. My bosses in the Jhereg were experts at it: Kill this guy, you don't need to know what he did. I'm done with that sort of rubbish. Where are Morrolan and Aliera, why are they missing, and what is all the other stuff you aren't telling me?"
    Lady Teldra opened her mouth, but I cut her off. "No," I said. "I won't go into it like this. I want to know."
    "Do you, then?" said Sethra, almost whispering. There was something in her voice I had never heard before: something chilling, and powerful, and very dark. I was in the presence of the Enchantress of Dzur Mountain, and I was daring to question her. For one of the few times since I'd known her, I felt the power of legend bearing down on me; I sat there, silent, and took it; I could say nothing, but I didn't crumble, either. She said, "Do you really want to know, Vladimir Taltos, Easterner, Jhereg, and renegade?"
    "Yes," I said, though it took considerable effort; and even more effort to keep my voice level.
    "And if I don't tell you, what then? You'll leave Morrolan e'Drien and Aliera e'Kieron to their fate? Is that what you're telling me?"
    I looked into her eyes, which I discovered I had been avoiding. They were black and went on far past forever; the focus on me was terrible. I controlled my breathing as if I were fencing, or reaching the climax of a spell. "Are you going to make this a test of wills, Sethra? Is that it? You will threaten to leave them to their fate if I won't help, or I must threaten if you won't answer my questions? Is that how you want to play this game?"
    "I don't want to make it a game, Vladimir Taltos."
    Looking into her eyes, I saw again Aliera's face as I returned to life after the Sword and the Dagger of the Jhereg had taken me down; and I saw Morrolan in his Great Hall defending me from the Sorceress in Green, and, I recalled faces, incidents, and conversations that I didn't want to remember. Then I cursed. "All right," I said. "If you push it, you'll win. You're right. I owe them both too much. If one of us needs to back down, I will - I'll go run your Verrabe-damned errand for you, like a two-orb street Orca hired to bust heads. But—"
    "Then I'll answer your questions," said Sethra, and I shut my mouth before I made things worse. "I'll answer you," said Sethra, "because you're right, you deserve to know. But I will speak of matters I have no wish to reveal so, damn you, be grateful."
    "I'll be grateful," I said.
    Teldra stood abruptly. "I shall be in the library," she said, "in case you—"
    "Please," said Sethra. "I wish you to stay."
    "I... very well," said Lady Teldra, and sat down again.
    Tukko emerged, and I realized that my klava had gotten cold. He replaced it, freshened Teldra's, and left.
    "Where should I begin?" she mused. I held my tongue in check and waited.
    "Perhaps," she said, "I should ask: Who are the gods? No, I've already taken a false step. That is not the question: Ask, rather, What are the gods? What freaks of chance, what hidden talents, what cataclysmic events combined to produce those whom your people worship, and mine strive to emulate? What are they, why are they, what do they do? Is their power acquired only because there are those who worship them? Is their power, in fact, imaginary?
    There are no simple answers to the question you have asked, because everything is tied to everything else." I drank klava, and listened.
    "Part of the answer to the question I have posed is this: The gods are beings who are able to manifest in at least two places at once, and yet who are not subject to the forcible control of any other being; this latter marking the difference between a god and a demon." That much, actually, I knew already, but I let her continue. "An interesting ability, and one that implies many others. The Jenoine, for all their talents and skills, cannot be in two places at once. Many of the gods, of course, can be in many, many places at once. I