Precisely," he said. "So you and I have that in common. We did not grow to manhood expecting very much of others. And the burden of conscience was private, terrible though it might be."
"But was it under the Christian god ... in the very first days of the Christian god that you were-born to immortality --as you said?"
"No," he said with a hint of disgust. "We never served the Christian god. That you can put out of your mind right now."
"But the forces of good and evil behind the names of Christ and Satan?"
"Again, they have very little if anything to do with us."
"But the concept of evil in some form surely. . ."
"No. We are older than that, Artemis. The men that made me were worshipers of gods, true.
And they believed in things that I did not believe. But their faith hearkened back
