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thought when Master Raan said what he did about you and your ancient brethren?”
    “I was pleased… not because he offered me or my ancient brethren honor, but in that he respects the old ways. I would that all Raknii returned to the old ways. There is wisdom in the old ways that our race has forsaken. Dol gave us this wisdom in the ancient days for a purpose, to guide us and shape us into what we should be to fulfill our role in nature. When herd beasts proliferated beyond the land’s ability to provide sufficient nourishment for all, the Raknii culled their numbers back, so that balance might be restored and there would once again be plenty for all. That was our great purpose in the universe.
    “We did not kill just because something other moved within our perception. We killed and ate solely to satisfy physical hunger, a message from our bodies that it required additional nourishment to fuel life. When our hunger was satiated, prey beasts were perfectly safe to walk freely among us, and often did. We did not kill just because they were there. Today, the Raknii suffer from a different kind of hunger, a craving not related to the need for nourishment of the body, but the need for acclaim and acknowledgement.
    “Now we kill whenever prey is present, simply because we can. We kill for amusement . Nothing is safe around us. We kill without consuming — the nourishment of the kill goes rotting upon the ground. Abomination! We no longer share the sacred life-death-life relationship with our prey. This insatiable hunger for glory and status is not a natural hunger, but an addiction.
    “We are now the ones who are throwing nature out of balance, for the universe itself cannot manufacture enough blood to slake our ever-growing thirst for more, and yet ever more. Dol will not allow this error to flourish forever. We have become a proliferating weed that strangles the fruits in Dol’s garden of creation and threatens the extinction of all of his creatures. Even now, I begin to perceive the beginnings of a great event… the birth pangs of an event that will cull the Raknii as we once culled back the prey herds when their numbers threw nature out of balance.
    “Do not fear this coming apocalypse, for it is necessary… required… ordained of Dol to restore nature’s balance and return our people to their natural role within it. Even if this event were somehow averted, it would be worse for our people in the end, for the universe itself would vomit forth the aberration of the Raknii, expelling us from physical reality, leaving only extinction as our heritage.”
    Drik stood stunned by the old one’s grave pronouncement. He knew that Dol sometimes touched Varq, which caused him to speak forth the god’s words without warning. He was thunderstruck by the implications of this dire prophecy.
    “More surprises from the Trakaan, Varq?”
    “No, the Trakaan are merely carriers of the disease that has eaten the soul of our people, by their docile nature and the mere fact that they exist. For generations, the Raknii have slowly been losing our way, as we have expanded among the stars. Our faith turned away from the ancient ways, weakened by the new gods of science and its cub technology . Dol and the ancient ways were gradually dismissed as mere superstition, unnecessary for beings who have mastered the stars themselves.
    “So Dol sent the Trakaan as a test... a test that our people failed, miserably. It was a test of the spirit, whether the Rak’s new self-inspired wisdom could stand in the face of unparalleled prosperity. The abundance of such easy prey poisoned the hearts and minds of our people. It deceived and lured them away even from their new gods of science and technology. The ancient hungers returned, but perverted without Dol’s moderating hand. The hunt, always the hunt — the hunt has now become the newest god of the Raknii. The hunt is a natural part of life, not the totality of life itself. We once hunted to