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"You are a mortal, Tarrin," she told him pointedly. "Had I had the power, I would have destroyed Val myself rather than seal him into his icon. We, not even all the sui'kun together, have the power to destroy Val's icon, my brother. We may seem godlike to mundanes, but we are as mundanes compared to the gods, and we are as nothing compared to Val, because of the circumstances of his existence."

Tarrin wanted to growl in frustration at that. Val had been the directing force behind everything that had happened to him over these years. The idea that he couldn't avenge himself against him was like bitter medicine in his mouth. Had he been rational and calm, he would have balked at the idea. But in his current mental state, the need to punish was overriding his common sense.

Calming down a little bit, he looked over at the army. That army was going to make things difficult. If Jasana really was being held inside it, then any attempt to get her out meant that he'd have to go through an army of Goblinoids, fight a god, somehow beat him, then fight his way back out through the army of Goblinoids he'd battled to get in. And do it all inside a void that would rob him of his most powerful asset, his Sorcery.

"Hold on. The ki'zadun attacked the Tower to destroy the Goddess' icon. You just said it's impossible."

"It is impossible against Val, Tarrin. You continue to forget that since Val exists in our world both spritually and physically, it allows him to bring more power to bear here than any other god, even Ayise herself." She paused, clicking her tongue absently. "A mortal would have a much better chance of destroying the icon of any god other than Val. Only Val can exert his full and true power in our world, where all other gods are restricted. Someone such as you or I could possibly destroy the icon of a god. It would be exceedingly difficult, but it would be possible. All the sui'kun acting together would have a respectable chance of success," she admitted. "The ki'zadun used Demons in their assault on the Tower, and Demons would have a good chance of destroying an icon, because of their power. But not Val's. The power he can wield in our world makes him invulnerable to the attacks of a mortal, even invulnerable against the very Demons he summons. It is part of the reason why he has no fear of them."

Tarrin growled in his throat, a little angry with her that she could bring up a valid argument against everything he wanted to do, arguments he couldn't refute. "Where exactly is Jasana?" he asked.

"There is a structure at the center of the grass," she answered, raising her hand. An Illusion appeared, that of a grim black stone pyramid sitting out in the middle of the grassy tundra. "This. This is where Val is holding Jasana, and where Val is himself. He's also assembled the strongest of his servants among the ki'zadun, amassed this army, and has started summoning Demons to do his bidding." She lowered her hand, sliding it back under her cloak, but the image remained. "That is why I am involved," she told him grimly. "He has broken the strictures and brought Demons into our world."

"I thought they couldn't get in because you guard the gate."

"They cannot, unless a Wizard Conjures them. I cannot control that, because when a Wizard Conjures a Demon, they bring them here using the power of their magic, much the same way you have learned to Conjure using Druidic magic. They do not have to use the gate to gain entry into the world. I also cannot stop a god from doing the same thing. Where a Wizard can only Conjure and keep control of one Demon at a time, Val can raise an army of them. And that is what he is doing."

Tarrin paled. An army of Demons? It was going to be another Blood War!

"Exactly my fear," she nodded, somehow knowing what he was thinking. "Val tried this once, and nearly destroyed the world. Now he tries it again, either believing he can control his Demons this time, or not caring about what happens to the world he conquers. He may be content to rule over a wasteland of blasted ash, so long as he does rule. These are here for the same reason," she said, nodding towards the Goblinoids. "Val raised his army believing that when the Firestaff releases him from his icon, he could use them to sweep out of the tundra and begin his conquest."

"Why can't the gods stop him?" he asked. "And why can't they just destroy him?"

"Because he is a god, Tarrin," she said patiently. "If they face him directly, they could destroy him, but in that battle would come the end of the world as we know it. It is why the Goddess had you claim the Firestaff in the first place, my brother. Think."

She was right. The Goddess told him that if someone used the Firestaff, the gods would have to rise up and destroy him, and the entire world may be destoyed in that confrontation. Confronting Val would be no different.

"Because Val is a child of the Firestaff, it means that all his power is here," she told him. "That gives him a great deal of power dealing with the other gods, whose power is in another dimension. Where they have to work through an icon, he does not. Where they can only devote a portion of their power to the battle, he does not. It makes him as powerful as any Elder God on this world. Perhaps even more so. That is why even the Elder Gods would be wary of confronting him. Even they run the risk of losing their icons. And if that happens, then the world would be in chaos," she said grimly. "The power guiding the forces of nature would be cut off, and the entire world's workings would run amok until the gods could form new icons and regain control. Very little would survive that."

Tarrin frowned. She was being very careful to spell out for him what would happen if the gods started fighting. But why? And that caused him to ask a quesion that, though he had never even considered before, made him wonder why he had never asked it before. "If Val's already a god, why does he want the Firestaff?"

"Because if a god used it, it would cause the god to have his full power manifest in this world," she told him. "A Younger God that used the Firestaff would have all of his power in that other dimension where his spirit resides, as well as an equal measure of power residing right here in this world, and it is a power that does not depend on the faith of the mortals who worship him. It would make a Younger God something even greather than an Elder God, truly immortal and wielding a power that even the Elder Gods would fear. For Val, who is already a child of the Firestaff, it would double the power he already possesses, and that power would make him unstoppable." She looked at him. "Do you know the story of Val, my brother?"

"Some of it," he answered.

"Then you know that he is a god without rules, without constraints. Do you know why?"

Tarrin mulled over that for a moment. "Because he's a child of the Firestaff."

"Yes. He is not a child of Ayise. His power was not granted by her, and it means that he did not have to accept the responsibilities and restrictions that came with that power. He is truly a god without rules, a god that does not care about the Balance. In fact, in his own way, he is a god seeking to destroy that Balance. We call him Val, god of darkness and conquest. The gods have another name for him."

He looked at her.

"They call him Entropy, the embodiment of the force that seeks to unmake all," she said, looking at him. "They fear him more than they fear any other thing." She looked at the army again. "I brought you here to show you what stands between you and your daughter, Tarrin," she told him in a quiet voice. "Now that you see what you have seen and heard what I have told you, do you understand why?"

"To show me what I'm up against."

"To show you that what you intend is impossible," she told him bluntly. "There is no way you can get Jasana back without surrendering the Firestaff to Val. He is a god, Tarrin, and he holds your daughter in the very center of his seat of power. You cannot sneak in, you cannot trick him, and you cannot beat him with either magic or brute force. He will sense you coming from a thousand longspans away, and he will hear every thought that passes through your mind. Any bargain you try to make with him, he will not honor, seeking to kill you as quickly as he can to regain the Firestaff before the appointed day. And if you do face him, he will crush you as if you are nothing and take the Firestaff from you, and there is nothing you can do to prevent it. You intend to rescue Jasana, without thinking about the consequences. And now you know what will happen if you do."