We moved in the circles of such creatures as herself. We joined many secret societies, which met in crypts, in tombs, or on the estates of the decadent rich. Yes, we defiled holy places, we murdered, we offered and blood to the darkness. And the darkness answered us, for we freely and knowingly came to worship the Shadow Titans, who are a myth, in whom no modern theologian will aver belief. In the storybooks the Shadow Titans are equal and opposite to the ancient, pagan gods—the very ones which our Bright Empire has banished by force of Reason. Yet those ancient gods beheld the Titans on the first day of the world—they saw their own shadows as the Sun rose behind them; and the gods were afraid, and the shadows have dwelt in the darkness ever since, to whisper, to summon, to tempt and seduc
