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Jercash paused, as well. That was an interesting reaction. He decided to wait and see how Bill elaborated.

'You have been bringing our brethren to this realm en masse for quite some time now,' said Bill. 'Fulfilling the long-held desire of all Idkin. You are a hero of the most beloved sort.'

Aha! Jercash couldn't help nodding and laughing. So from their perspective, they just saw a guy that was giving them free passage to their desired destination.

And even if they'd been secretly spying on him this whole time through stealthy psychic channels, they probably still wouldn't have seen much that was of concern to their alien--or partially alien--sensibilities. He doubted they would care much about how he treated his fellow humans, and his studies of the Yigorosks had also not yet progressed to the point of dissection, mostly because he wanted to let as many of them loose on the hapless fools of Intar as he possibly could. Taking them apart, even for the purpose of keeping Lozaro happy, could wait until this current incursion had run its course.

Hmm. But now, it was sounding like starting the dissections might be kicking a real hornet's nest. Perhaps that should be delayed indefinitely. Or at least until he could learn more about these so-called Idkin.

He looked at Lozaro, who seemed to have finally returned to himself. His aura was steady again, and the color and expression on his face had returned to normal. Those yellow eyes had their usual sharpness to them again, too.

Good. Jercash intended to make full use of that twisted brain again today.


Chapter Three Hundred Twenty-Four: 'O, marrow of stone...'
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Finally, the mountain was shifting again. Cracking and moving apart at its spot near the peak.

Unraveling the little rocky cocoon that he'd made for himself so long ago.

Of course, it hadn't actually been that long for him personally, but here in the middle realm, years must have already passed by. It was just a question of how many.

A terrible sacrifice, unfortunately. Giving up so much precious time here.

But it would have been much worse without these cocoons that Xander had helped him develop. The mitigation of the time dilation was what made these ventures increasingly feasible. Frankly, a part of him was still in awe that they'd managed to pull it off as well as they did. For so long, watching his own mentor struggle with this problem, the issue had seemed utterly insurmountable.