[center][h3]Invidia, the Liaison[/h3][/center]

[i]”If you think that Escre hates the Anju, you have a poor conception of its mentality.  Like me, the Great Spirit thinks only in terms of logic.  The Anju presented a balance to outsiders that could be allowed to continue.  Of course, killing things for simply existing, and not even to survive, is a strange sort of balance, but nevertheless it has been allowed to stand.  If Escre found the Anju intolerable, it would eradicate every single one.  If not—congratulations.  Your race of murderers has been allowed to persist.”

“Surely you're not attempting to paint the Anju as the victims here?  There is nothing to them but death and discord.  If  we didn't kill them, all they'd be doing is killing us more quickly.  When peacetime is nigh, the Uri have culture, creation, and a million other things that make their lives worthwhile.  Your analogy is faulty.  I expect that was the point, but the only reason this audience is extending as long as it is lies in my pretending that every word from your mouth isn't lies.  It remains that your Anju are nothing but killers if they do not limit themselves to those they were meant to slay.”

“Your infiltrators are not so clever as you think.  The Anju's existence is known to every Communion member, as is their modus operandi.  Posing as mortals, perhaps they may cause a momentary stir, but the lifeblood is incompatible with them.  The places where my monks congregate are drowned in its fumes.  You are also mistaken about the nature of our powers.  Other magics require gesticulation, incantation, flashy displays and spell preparation.  The lifeblood flowing in us is more passive.  When we are wounded, it instantly begins to heal us.  Strike a skilled monk a hundred times, until the walls are soaked with his blood, and he will still rise.”

“And finally, you are wrong a final time.  The Great Spirit resonates with every living thing.  When it created the Astral Home, it filled Galbar with life energies without which this planet would be barren and dead.  It is why every animal has a spirit.  Escre's workings are subtle, but they go deep.  Any being with a spirit is linked to Escre, and though it cannot feel them all the time, it can reach them through the Astral Home.  Would that you could see the souls streaming into the Astral Home even now, through those veins.  They are colored and shaped very differently.  Humans are white and soft, Cimex are yellow and ridged, Dyun [/i]were[i] red and in flux, outsiders are black and soft, Mer are blue and fluid, and so forth.  Anju have none, but like hair, a perceptive individual can pick the bald one out in a crowd.  They all hum to their own tunes, and their tempo resonated in time to that of the Great Spirit's.  The more potent of Escre's creations hold a permanent beat on its own spirit, such as mine, and the Home itself.  These, Escre can feel all the time.  The High Ones are sympathetic in nature, and often answer when called upon.”

“I may not yet fully understand human emotions, but I am acquainted with the idea of patience.  I believe my own is running thin.  It is time that you left this place.  Take a good look, as well; soon, none save Escre and those it summons will be able to enter.  Then, depart.”[/i]  Invidia stretched its arms out before holding up spindly black fingers as if they were claws.

[center]-=-=-[/center]

An unnameable distance away, the god of Life was beginning to home in on a destination.  It had found a section of space near an empty planet, alight with a gorgeous yellowish nebula and lined with asteroids.  It had grown tired, however, from creation and travel both, and stopped now to rest in this wondrous, cosmic garden.  It felt in the distance, the dim pangs of something extraordinary happening.  A godly soul had been destroyed—no, partially destroyed.  Then...reborn, in glory and power.  Escre made a mental note that it would have to pay whomever it was a visit.

[center][i]Invidia is level 25, with 18 Khookies[/i][/center]