Abel thinks of the world's population as his children. To be loved and disciplined, nurtured no matter what. But he knows there is such a thing as inherent evil. He knows because he was such a creature, the devil spawn of a bastard project. He hated life once. His and everyone else's and prayed many a night for a reprieve. He prayed for the destruction of those foolish races that knew nothing of pain or abject loneliness. Imbeciles that knew nothing about spending experimental lives in an orbiting lab. Naive babes who suckled the mother earth's breast while slowly poisoning her veins.

But Seth, so deceptively wise, so seemingly innocent, believed that the years would heal a wounded world. She believed that given time, people would change, that the bitterness would fade if he let it. He wouldn't listen to that, but led his life with a promise, a hard lesson harder learned. He'd accept life and he'd preserve it with no regard for costs.

When they returned to earth their paths were so different. Built for everything but leading the people of earth and there they sat, empress and priest, liaisons and protectors 900 years in the making. But 900 years had not healed what millennia of abuse had done. Unrest like this world had never seen swept nations and the world once again fell into slavery and discrimination. A whole empire built on segregation and a religion preaching intolerance.

They walk amongst the populations, neither Terran nor Methuselah but named so nonetheless. They watch their people struggled to find a balance, a way to move forward, with or without the rest of the world. It's the duty of a hidden empress and a guilt ridden priest to lead the misguided races to peace and the task seems more and more impossible each day.

There are beacons of hope on both sides; The Duchess of Kiev, Count of Memphis Ion Fortuna, Sister Esther Blanchett. People with little more than a name and so much more to lose. But three people can seem odds deemed to fail. Father Abel Nightroad knows too well the scenario. But he's putting his faith in something more than the Vatican.

He listens to Seth. As much to her words as the comfort of the familiar voice. She tells him of the news relayed to her, about the growing bond between their two youngest warriors. He puts his faith in their efforts, in Sister Catalina and the Duchess of Moldova. He puts his faith in Seth because after all of this, they may very well be the last ones standing.

Father Abel Nightroad knows what the world is, and he knows what it needs to be and even if it takes a lifetime, he and the Empress will make it so; guide their people and shelter their hearts.

All it takes is a little time.