promises to suffer usury at the hands of Yahn, who is overskilled in
Law. Only Yahn sits and smiles, watching his hoard increase in
preciousness, and hath no pity for the poor shadows whom he hath lured
from their quiet to toil in the form of men.

And ever Yahn lures more shadows and sends them to brighten his Lives,
sending the old Lives out again to make them brighter still; and
sometimes he gives to a shadow a Life that was once a king's and
sendeth him with it down to the earth to play the part of a beggar, or
sometimes he sendeth a beggar's Life to play the part of a king. What
careth Yahn?

The men of Zonu have been promised by those that claim to be wise in
the Law that their Lives which they have toiled at shall be theirs to
possess for ever, yet the men of Zonu fear that Yahn is greater and
overskilled in the Law. Moreover it hath been said that Time will bring
the hour when the wealth of Yahn shall be such as his dreams have
lusted for. Then shall Yahn leave the earth at rest and trouble the
shadows no more, but sit and gloat with his unseemly face over his
hoard of Lives, for his soul is a usurer's soul. But others say, and
they swear that this is true, that there are gods of Old, who be far
greater than Yahn, who made the Law wherein Yahn is overskilled, and
who will one day drive a bargain with him that shall be too hard for
Yahn. Then Yahn shall wander away, a mean forgotten god, and perchance
in some forsaken land shall haggle with the rain for a drop of water to
drink, for his soul is a usurer's soul. And the Lives--who knoweth the
gods of Old or what Their will shall be?