There are stranger things here than Thebans know about.

Gods are nothing without their worshipers; they act on the affairs and the passions of men.

Bandara was not an easy place to return to: it could hide from the common worlds whose periphery it inhabited. But Bandara never had, in all its years, completely disappeared.

Proof of war, when it comes, always comes too late.

Shed your mortal skin and let me take you beneath the waves.

There are stranger things here than Thebans know about.

And what do the Theban hoplites see in this extended rending of the sky, this white-bright glory of Enlil's lightning? The future, but not theirs: paired cavalry fighters; formed ranks of armored death; grim men on their tall horses with lightning limning weapons tailored to the task; men spoiling for a fight if the gods allowed - the Sacred Band of Stepsons, out from shadows and the dark.