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lives. We pulled down our cities and carried away the
stones, and we betook ourselves back to the land so that
we might not alarm our neighbors nor arouse their envy.
And the years passed and became centuries, and the
centuries passed and became eons. And as we had known
they would, the children of Angarak came down amongst
us and established their overlordship. And they called the
lands in which we dwelt 'Dalasia', and we did what they
wished us to do and continued in our studies.
Now at about this time it came to pass in the far north
that a Disciple of the God Aldur came with others to
reclaim a certain thing which the Dragon God had stolen
from Aldur. And that act was so important that when it
was done the Second Age had ended and the Third Age
had begun.
Now it was in the Third Age that the priests of Angarak,
which men call Grolims, came to speak to us of the
Dragon God and of his hunger for our love, and we
considered what they said even as we considered all
things men told us. And we consulted the Book of the
Heavens and confirmed that Torak was the incarnate
God-Aspect of one of the spirits which contended at the
center of time. But where was the other? How might men
choose when but one of the spirits came to them? How
might man select the Good and abjure the Evil when he
could in no wise compare them? The spirit infusing the
Dragon God could not help us in our choice, for that spirit
perceived its goal as good and could not comprehend the
possibility that it might be evil. Then it was that we
understood our dreadful responsibility. The spirits would come
to us, each in its own time, and each would proclaim that
it was good and the other was evil. It was man, however,
who would choose. And some there are who believe that
it is man's choice which will determine the outcome. And
we took counsel among ourselves and we concluded that
we might accept the forms of the worship which the
Grolims so urgently pressed upon us. This would give us
the opportunity to examine the nature of the Dragon God
and make us better prepared to choose when the other
God appeared.
Now the forms of worship which the Grolims practiced
were repugnant to us, but we placed no blame for those
forms at the feet of Torak, for the pupil may corrupt the
intent of the master and do in his name that which the
master had not intended. And so we observed, and we
waited, and we remained silent.
In time the events of the world intruded upon us. The
children of the Dragon God, whom men called Angarak,
allied themselves by marriage with the great city-builders
of the east, who called themselves Melcene, and between
them they built an empire which bestrode the continent.
Now the Angaraks were doers of deeds, but the Melcenes
were performers of tasks. A deed once done is done
forever, but a task returns every day. And the Melcenes
came among us to seek out those who might aid them in
their endless tasks. And we aided them in some measure,
but concealed our true nature from them. Now as it
chanced to happen, one of our kinsmen who had been
selected by the Melcenes to aid them had occasion to