Cyaxares gave Justin a moment to absorb her words.

"Unfortunately," said Cyaxares, "our present problems stem from the heroes of the past. Not your father, in this case, but the Brethren. In the beginning, the Brethren were devoted to the peaceful study of the spirit. In your father's time, we became warriors out of necessity, but in the following ages, Amphidemus's belief that aurym and daemyn could coexist led to increasingly... radical practices. Aurym was, and is, the natural life ...