almost begun to think that you were beyond our reach. I am sure you know
all about the conflict between us, and the circumstances of your time
that brought its beginning about?"

"Yes, I do," I responded as we walked through the great entry hall of
the temple, lined with bookshelves and a rich red carpeting. He was
silent for another moment as we crossed into another room that led to a
chamber with a long table in its center and a great many statues and
works of art scattered throughout its whole. There was an altar at the
far end, built into a giant statue of a White Eagle that graced the
entire wall, it holding the altar in its giant claws.

He saw me look at it and told me, "This is the Hall of Time, and that is
the altar to Temis, the God of Time. It is a very sacred place, to both
us and the Canitaurs, for it was built by Temis himself, before the race
of man inhabited the earth. By the time any men came to live on Daem, it
had been buried by the dirt and debris of thousands of years, but when
the Great War took place, the shock uncovered it and revealed it to men,
a sort of revelation that came only as it was needed the most. Daem's
war started over the control of it, and to a point still is. To a
certain extent is has helped us greatly, since the Canitaurs are afraid
to lay siege to us in the regular fashion, for fear that it will be laid
to ruin, and then our fate sealed in flesh and bone as well as earth and
stone. But come, there is something I want to show you," he told me.

With that he started over to a door in the wall adjacent to the
entrance, which, as there were only two doors, was the only other exit.
It led to a long, winding stair that went up to the top of the tower
that I had seen from below. We walked up it in silence, more from awe of
its magnificent construction on my part than fatigue in climbing its