<em>It came to pass, best beloved, in those days when the dead body of the Great Ice Demon still lay upon the far, frigid lands of the distant north, and those who called him All-Father still wandered the face of the world, that the widowed matriarch of a bold clan gathered all her fortunes up and descended from the Wall of Heaven.  Bearing her husband’s armor and blade, leaving the hearth of her steading into the care of her eldest daughter, she came to walk beside the Holy River and seek the learned counsel of sages of all the greatest temples.  With her also she carried a grievous burden, willingly shouldered and carried forth into the broad and fertile lands below her alpine home.<br/><br/>In those days, too, a wanderer from afar, a stranger with the blood of the demon-folk of the frozen north, clad as a Returian thief-taker, came across the Stone Teeth to pass among the good and pious folk.  Where she strode, the plans of the mighty were confounded and the dreams of seer-priests grew dark.<br/><br/>Hear, best beloved, these tales of Kairavi Plaguebearer and Niassa One-Eye, called the Legacy Thief.  Hear and take heed.</em>