experience of my life, Ishvari. If that Sumerian witch had not—” A spasm of coughing cut him off. “Alatu was to blame for all your suffering, you know,” he continued persuasively. “She hated you, of course. You were the shining one, and she knew this, which is why she engineered your fall. As your gurus would say, evil always seeks to bring good down to its level.”

He sounded like an adolescent trying to soften her with half-baked teachings. “It was Alatu who coaxed me to send Kushal to Sumeria when I left to fight the Doms, and it was at her urging that I sent that weasel Ramses to you. I cared for you, Ishvari, truly I did…our nights of loving had brought you closer to me than my own breath…truth be told, the tumult within my heart as...

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