"Just what are these demons?" he demanded of Xintel. He expected her to refer to some superstition, but she surprised him with a definite answer. "They were the last of my race to live in the Above--not devil-spirits or supernatural beings at all. But they were outlaws and killers, and so were not permitted to pass through the Place Of Change. Over this there was great bitterness, and the Last Days were filled with hatred and slaughter that is still remembered. But they are all long since dead." "You mean your people came here from the Above deliberately?" Barry asked incredulously. "Why?" Xintel nodded. "We--my forefathers--were to have come to the Here for a short time only, for sanctuary. But our way back was closed when the Place Of Change was destroyed. And the Chosen, gaining power, saw that misfortune overtook those who knew the secret of the Place." She smiled tremulously. "I hoped that you could lead us back. But you too had lost the way of return." "But why? What made your people come to the Here?" The pain of ancient tragedy was in Xintel's eyes as she told the story. "Around us nearly everywhere are creatures, living creatures, small beyond all normal sight," she explained. "There." She pointed to the light. "And another sort live in the paste which produces gas. My people were always clever at making use of them. "In the Above live many more types of these unseen creatures. My people became too clever--but they were not as clever as they thought." She glanced at Barry and spoke with earnest seriousness. "Some of them, incredibly tiny as they are, are deadly. They get inside a person, causing him to sicken and die, killing as surely as a spear thrust." She hesitated as though expecting the Earthman to hoot in derision at such an idea, and continued only when he nodded slowly. "There were quarrels among factions of my people, breaking out again and again with increasingly vicious fury. "Ordinary weapons were not enough. With their skill my people took the unseen things--they understood, then, a way to see them--and made them change their natures to become more deadly still." Barry shuddered as he guessed the rest. He remembered talk on Earth of developing mutant, hypervirulent strains for bacterial warfare. "The ancients used the special unseen creatures they had created to fight their battles, and the slaughter was horrible beyond belief. But then the creatures turned against their masters. The other tiny creatures with which the ancient protected themselves failed, became ineffective, and Death walked the entire Above unhindered."