From what he'd heard, such spitefulness wasn't misplaced. That man Kravon had hurt alot of people. Some people were more use to the world dead, and Kravon was one of them. "Jula, I have to ask. If you had my chance right now, would you stay human, or would you be a Were-cat again?"

"You're not being fair," she teased lightly. "I really don't know, Tarrin. I hated what I became at first, but now it's not so easy to decide anymore. Before, I was alone and afraid, and I hated what I'd become. But I understand things better now, and I have people like you and Jesmind and Jasana to be with. I miss being human, but if I wasn't a Were-cat anymore, I think I'd miss that too."

"Why were you working with those people, anyway?" he asked. "You just don't seem the type."

"Being a Were-cat has changed me alot more than most people think," she answered honestly. "I worked for the ki'zadun back then because I thought it was what I wanted. That they could give me the power I craved."

"It's hard to imagine you as a powermonger, Jula."

"Oh, I was," she said in a self-deprecating manner. "It was all I could think about. I even dreamed about getting power, any kind of power. Power in Sorcery, political power, personal power, anything that put me over others. The ki'zadun gave me that power, and alot of it, but I know now where that kind of power leads. It led me to a set of manacles bolted to a wall. The ki'zadun is about nothing but power, and if you don't help them or you're not useful to them, you stop being a part of that power and become a liability. They don't bother finding other uses for things once they decide it's no longer useful."

"It sounds like a lonely way to live."

"I didn't really care about other people," she said candidly. "All that mattered to me was my power. The only thing I really saw in other people was how I could use them to get more."

"That sounds really lonely," he said. "Didn't you have anyone you cared about?"

"I never really have, Tarrin," she told him. "My parents died when I was very young, and they'd just travelled to Ultern from Jerinhold. So there was nobody there to take care of me. Because of that, I grew up on the streets of Ultern as a street urchin. I learned from a very early age that the strong take what they want from the weak. If it wasn't for the fact that I'm a Sorcerer, I would have died on those streets. But being a Sorcerer let me come here, and it gave me what I thought was a chance to be so powerful that nobody would ever attack me or steal from me again. I learned Sorcery, but then my desires changed from wanting to be strong to protect myself to wanting power so I could be over others. I think that's what made them come to me. I hadn't even heard of the ki'zadun until they approached me and recruited me into their organization. I was still in the Initiate then," she said in a distant manner.

"How did they know to approach you?"

"They watched us, Tarrin," she said. "They had a good idea who'd join them and who wouldn't. I suppose that the ones that didn't join were probably killed, so as not to break the secrecy of the group."

"How did they watch you from inside the Tower?"

"Because they already had people inside the Tower," she explained. "Not just Sorcerers. Staff, guards, and servants too acted as spies for the ki'zadun. There was quite a little network here before you came along and destroyed it," she chuckled.

"It's hard to believe I did all that," he said.

"You did, father, trust me," she told him. "You may not have done it intentionally, but you did. When you broke free under the Cathredral and announced to the world we were here, you started a chain of events that put the ki'zadun where they are now. You have no idea how powerful they were, father. They owned entire kingdoms. But yet all it took to break them was a single Were-cat with the strength to oppose them. In its own way, I guess that's pretty remarkable."

"It sounds like I ran around and chased them."

"Actually, you beat them by destroying several critical plans," she explained. "At first, they were trying to kill you because they knew you were the one that would find the Firestaff, and they failed. They sent almost everything they could manage to get onto the grounds, even Trolls, and none of them could kill you. After you disappeared from the Tower and started looking for the Book of Ages, they changed tactics. They didn't think they were going to be able to kill you, not between you and the very powerful people that were with you, so they tried to drive you insane instead. They knew how unbalanced you were."

"How could they do that?"

"By putting so much pressure on you that it made you snap," she answered. "They saw it happen to me, so they tried to make it happen to you. They sent Jegojah after you, they hired thugs in every city to attack you if you showed up, and they were trying to devise a magical means to try to influence your mind. But you proved to be much stronger than they calculated," she said with a smile. "That, and the Wikuni truly hamstrung that plan when they nearly killed you in their operation to get back Keritanima. That put you under Triana's care, and once that happened, they knew that not only could they not get anywhere near you, that you'd also get the training you'd need to not go mad. So they had to change plans again. About that time, they sent me to Dala Yar Arak to try to get the city guard to turn against you, so I really don't know what they planned after that. Outside of the big one, anyway."

"The fight at Suld?"

She nodded as they turned down a path that led towards the hedge maze. "That's what everything they've done in the West for the last twenty years led up to. The battle at Suld. Their goal was to banish the Goddess and eliminate the katzh-dashi from the race to find the Firestaff. That was alot more important than before, since they knew you'd managed to get the Book of Ages and nobody would dare come into the Desert of Swirling Sands to try to take it from you."

"Why not?"

"The Selani, father. Not even the ki'zadun are stupid or crazy enough to take on the Selani. That's one hornet's nest even they knew better than to stir up. Anyway, since you had the Book of Ages, banishing the Goddess seemed the best way to go about handling you. They knew that if they were successful, it would kill you and just about anyone else strong enough to cause them problems, and they could literally take the staff unopposed. But they probably never in their wildest dreams imagined they'd be facing what they faced in that battle," she said with a vicious smirk. "I doubt that facing people like the Ungardt, Selani, Wikuni, Vendari, Were-kin, Centaurs, Demons, Aeradalla, and Arakites was anything they even thought would come up in the wildest situation. I'll bet that Demoness that led them had a cow when she found out what she was facing," she added with a smug look. "And all that was you."

"Me? How was it me?"

"Simple, father. You're blood related to the Selani and the Wikuni, you're the grandson of an Ungardt clan king, you were a Druid and a Were-kin, and you were personal friends with the rulers of Yar Arak and the Aeradalla. That allowed you to ask all of those groups for help, and they obliged you because they knew how serious the situation was. I'll bet they didn't tell you that, did they?"

"No, not really."

"Well, I hope it doesn't give you a big head, but you're the sole reason Suld is still here," she told him calmly. "If not for you, the ki'zadun would have taken Suld, banished the Goddess, and they'd probably have the Firestaff right now."

Tarrin thought that she was stretching the truth a bit there, but he said nothing and let her continue.

"After they lost here, everything went downhill for the ki'zadun ," she said. "They probably threw almost everything into this attack. They even revealed themselves to the world, something they've never done before. It was a huge gamble, and truth be told, if not for you, it probably would have paid off. Anyway, since they lost here and got a huge chunk of their army killed, I guess they retreated to one of their most remote and defensible strongholds. Castle Keening, probably. That, or they withdrew all the way to Zakkar."