'And three, stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent. Only those with an active malice in their hearts need answer for their cruelty. The unwilling pawns of evil and the bystanders caught in their wake do not deserve the sting of our steel.'
'This is the decree of the Hidden Ones. Three tenets, together with the Creed, to define our path forward. Only these and nothing more. To encumber ourselves further would only dilute our resolve.'
Here Magas spoke again, most ardently now. 'Yet, if nothing is true, how can we justify such strictures? Should we not be free to pursue our goal in whatever fashion we see fit?'
'You find this is a fatal irony?' the woman asked.
'I only wonder at the contradiction,' Magas replied. 'From what authority do these tenets derive?'
'We are the Hidden Ones, a title we gave ourselves. And we gave ourselves a goal, the physical and spiritual liberation of man. These are self-made ambitions. To achieve them, therefore, we need laws to guide us. There is no magic in these words, no appeal to a higher authority. We follow them only because they help us achieve what we ourselves have defined. These laws, they allow us to persist. The effectiveness of any tenet must be judged on the outcome of its practice.'
She grew silent for a moment, looked at Master Hakor, then back at us.
'Let it be known and recorded; these are the conclusions of the final Synod of the Hidden Ones. There will not be another. Today the shadow falls, now and for all time, to obscure us forevermore. Let our work continue only in the dark.'
