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Many more years pass. Torosh and his followers are freed during this time. They are as confused as everyone else when they learn what has happened, but Torosh is able to galvanize the Hun’Sho and help guide the Hun’Kui toward order. It is difficult, because the ashen wretches have much to learn and are often unwilling and even violent.

A firmer hand is required. The Hun’Sho are in agreement. It may have been against the wishes of the Avaross whom they most recently remember, but they do not believe it would be against those of the Avaross whom they remember raising them.

So they subjugate the Hun’Kui by force. It is a miserable process. Grueling and often bloody. But the boy does not see hope in the alternative. Letting the Hun’Kui remain free to bring ruin upon themselves does not strike him as wise.

The boy cannot hold slaves himself, however. He finds it too distasteful, even if he understands his kin’s logic and does not think any less of them. He cannot wholly disregard the shadow of Avaross, as the others seem to.

Instead, after a semblance of structure and hope for peace has been achieved, the boy decides to travel. He believes there is much to be learned, elsewhere in the world.

And indeed, there is.

He learns of other gods. He learns of their sudden absence.

And perhaps most importantly, he learns the tales of He Who Is Not. The God of All That Is Not. The Void. And the many other names. It is confusing, because each culture calls Him something else. It seems as though He never identified Himself properly.

From all the tales of different gods that the boy hears, the God of All That Is Not seems to be the most mischievous among them. They always tell of how He interferes in the other gods’ plans, disrupting their efforts, playing pranks on them. Some even describe Him as evil--or as Evil itself.

But the boy does not think so. He wishes that he could meet the God of All That is Not again, but the one thing he learns definitively from all of these tales is that He is gone.

All of the gods, the Primordials, have left. The God of All That Is Not has removed them from this world, save one.

Malast. The Idle God. The God of the Underworld.

The boy seeks Him out, this remaining god.

It takes a very, very long time. Thousands of years, even.

The boy becomes a thief along the way, because from all the tales he has heard, there is only one method for acquiring Malast’s attention. Stealing--or at least, attempting to steal--the Urn of Growth.

The boy worries. It is terribly dangerous, of course. No one in the tales survives Malast’s wrath. They all die in the attempt. But the boy has confidence in his skill. He has acquired several useful artifacts during his journey, artifacts which he has stolen from the irresponsible and undeserving. The Staff and Pendant of Unso, in particular.