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“So, the Bellator aren't actually demons?”

“They are demons with fae blood, created by the Bell-ai fae.” Perl takes a breath. “For a long time the Bellator mostly lived in the Amber Forest, but mortal men were starting to live there too. The Bellator had grown in number and there was one who you might think of as a king. In the texts he is sometimes called The King of the Earth. Life was hard then, in the Amber Forest. There was famine and harsh winters and The King of the Earth told the mortal men of the Amber Forest that the fae were their enemies and the cause of all their hardship. The Bellator persuaded those men to join with them and make war upon the fae. The Bellator would help the men drive the fae north, into The Waste and the isles beyond Ismagaar. They even told the men they would require a tribute to help them do this.”

“A tribute? Even though it was their idea?”

Perl nods. “The Bellator are as wily as the fae. As good at making slippery bargains. They told the men they would have to make a sacrifice. A great one. And the men of the Amber Forest agreed that the Bellator could take some distant isles. Or the lives on them. These were the most eastern of the Klishian isles. Pia and Prim.”

“Pia and Prim?” Kerik frowns. “So this is a Priam story? Pia and Prim the lost Klishian isles sunk to the bottom of the Priam Sea. They aren’t real.”

“They are quite real. The Bellator sunk them to demonstrate their power and bind the mortals to them. All that is left of where they once were is the Dark Water.”

Kerik shakes his head. “Are you telling me that the Priam tales are true? That Pia and Prim existed and really did sink to the bottom of the sea?”

“Yes,” says Perl. “Or at least, what the Priams believe is based on something true. The legend has become twisted. But that did happen. That action and the men agreeing that the Bellator could do it was a sacrifice that released great power, power that fuels the Bellator even now.”

Kerik still looks disbelieving. “The Priams claim that the isles of Pia and Prim are still down there at the bottom of the Priam Sea and the men of those isles live still.”

“I cannot say if that part is true. It is likely fancy. But I have heard similar stories, usually involving the Merek-Dur saving them. But what is certain is that it happened. The men agreed and the Bellator sank those isles. The magical power from that act exists on Klish still. Outside of the Amber Forest it is still one of the most magically rich places in the mortal realm.”

And because of that power he had advised her to take a youth from Klish to be her vessel, Perl thinks. He hadn’t known what she would put him through, but he had advised her to do it. He had been desperate.

Kerik rolls onto his side, propping himself up on an arm. “ The men and the Bellator went to war. As the fae no longer live in the mortal realm, I assume that war was lost by the fae.”

“The war lasted over a century,” Perl says. “But when it was done, the men and the Bellator were victorious. The Jura-il were gone. The Merek-Dur never left the seas again. And the Bell-ai were forced north to the isles of Oria, Ulla and Varia. But less than fifty years after that victory, the Bellator turned on the men and enslaved them. For the Bellator mortal’s minds are a great source of power. When mortals revere them, the Bellator grow stronger. This is why they gained such strength from mortals letting them destroy Pia and Prim. And why, when the war ended and mortal men celebrated the Bellator as saviours, the Bellator grew stronger still. Strong enough that they could ravage the mortal realm. They destroyed everything mortal men had built. The only things that survive from those times are the ruins of the fae structures that weren’t raised in the war.”

“So it was all a trick? The Bellator were traitors?”

“Indeed. As I said, the Bellator are as tricky as the fae who created them. They tricked men into helping them rid themselves of the fae, by giving them power from their devotion, but the fae were the only thing stopping the Bellator from taking the world for themselves.”

“And the story about the Bellator ruling over the land and the Gods sending five fae princes to destroy them. Are you saying that story is true?”

Perl nods. “Correct. And after another long and bloody conflict the Bellator were all imprisoned in a vault beneath the Amber Forest. Where they remain to this day.”

Kerik looks at Perl with an expression that suggests he does not believe a word of what Perl has told him. “And what part of this story of yours involves me?”

Perl nods, quite a reasonable question. “We know now that the Five Fae Princes were not wholly successful. One of the Bellator managed to hide her child, a Bellator youngling in the forest. That child grew to become Ur-Durik. The Bellator we fear is returning.”

“But only one? Surely one Bellator can be easily defeated?”

“Perhaps, but perhaps not. This creature has spent centuries watching and learning the ways of men. Ur-Durik has found ways to amass power that no other Bellator has ever done. Ur-Durik understood the power Bellator can gain from men’s reverence. He has convinced many men to worship him as a God.”

“There are men who worship demons in the Amber Forest?”

“Yes. But not only that. Sarelik Darek met the demon when he was in those forests. He made a deal with that demon to give him the power to start his revolution. In return he declared that all of Azuria would follow the faith of Zai. Zai is another name for Ur-Durik.”

“Zai?” Kerik says, sounding shocked.

Perl nods. “I told you the Bellator grow stronger when mortals worship them. Ur-Durik had Sarelik Darek build an empire to worship him. He is more powerful than any Bellator has ever been. He has been trapped for a long time in the Amber Forest. But we know he has found a way to rise. It cannot be stopped.”

Kerik says, “Zai is a demon. The Great Zai? The God, Zai?”

“Yes.” Perl knows how this must sound. He has had this conversation before. Explained all of this to other mortals who considered Zai their God.

“You would die for saying this in Azuria,” Kerik says.

“I am aware of that. Ur-Durik has protected himself well. Nevertheless, this is the truth.”

“And me, you still have not said anything about me. How does this tale explain why you kept me in your tower for five years?”