“After two days we left Setia and her people behind, riding for the Stones of Achra. It was hard on the horses; we had had to bring two pack horses just to carry the water needed for the trip.

"We did not see sight of anyone, let alone Nargu, for the whole of the four day ride. When the Nargu had marched me from the stones, all those years earlier, we had taken five days, at least that was my recollection. So we did little better now on horseback. Nargu were accustomed to such desolate terrain and hardships, our horses were not, and we needed to pace them or risk a return on foot.

“I examined every inch of those stones, Jain the scholar at my side, and though he knew much of the old languages and magics, the writings that remained legible were as alien to him as they were to me.

"So we camped out there, a short distance from both the stones and the direct route we had taken to them, perched on a remote hillock perfectly sited to watch the stones themselves and all possible approaches – they would come again, I knew.

"Setia had told me that they had failed thus far, and so he would send them again and again to do his bidding, until at last they brought what he desired – a replacement for the one that had escaped him.”

“Why did he need someone from here to replace you, someone from Earth?” Alex interrupted, yet again. “I thought it was strange earlier when you said about the Nargu trips, but you were so engrossed in your story that I didn’t like to butt in. Couldn’t he have just used one of the Ellathia, or one of the other races?”

“I can’t say that I really understand why,” I replied honestly. “He supposedly changed the Nargu all those centuries ago, changed them to be stronger and more vicious, to use in his war machine. But I don’t think he did anything to manipulate the other races.

"There must be some difference between us and the Ellathia. We look the same, but perhaps we are completely different races, and our DNA more suited to his needs. Believe me, if he could have used the People instead, he would have… he would have built an army just like me, and then there would have been no hope.

"He did say something once though, it was early in my capture, when he first started to change me. I don’t remember his exact words as I was in enormous pain at the time and probably nine parts mad. The enhancements he made did not take easily, he somehow forced them into my body. Almost like a physical version of his learning process, the changes pushed their way into my body, into my very cells, every inch of me was in agonising pain for weeks.

"Anyway, what he said was something about how primitive my body was, how easy it was to manipulate, and how he wished all races were like mine.

"Other than that I really don’t know… for whatever reason he needed subjects from our world to make killers like me, and even then it was not an easy process. It took weeks to change my body and then months more to train me to be the coldblooded assassin that I was. That story I’ll tell you another time. At the moment I’m savouring the tale of my freedom, and don’t want to darken my mood by digressing into what was my most horrific time. So if you’ll permit me, I will continue.

“It was three days before they came, three very relentlessly hot days.

"The horses were tethered on the far side of the hill with makeshift tarpaulin shelters giving them, and us, some respite from the blazing sun. We took turns at the hilltop, crouched low scanning the horizon for signs of approach.

"Jain scolded me continually over my almost constant presence up there. But after all, it was my quest, my return home that we sought. Jain and Tarnia would gain nothing beyond my gratitude.

“Tarnia first sighted them, late in the evening on that third day. Again four, and again that steady, lumbering gait that I had come to associate with the Nargu.

"They reached the stones after dark, and then, I made my first of many mistakes. I thought they would pitch camp for the night and be about his business in the morning. So we agreed to watch for now, and then fall upon them in the early hours before they awoke.

"That night a thunderstorm struck; violent and loud, its flashes lit the night sky afire, and its rumblings were enough to wake those long since passed from the world. I had hoped that when we took them, I would be able to force them to show me how to activate the stones, perhaps make them transport me home.

"But that night I, like the others, watched the night sky’s torment as the storm raged, and completely missed what they did under our very noses.

“The morning found the Nargu gone, their packs and provisions still at hand waiting for their return. An opportunity missed, lost forever by my oversight in the night. We searched the stones again for signs of disturbance or change, but finding nothing we sat, encircling the stones as best we could with only three of us, and waited for the hunters to return.

"And return they did. I did not understand how, but suddenly they were just there. And with a captive, a young man, not much more than a boy really. They were boisterous and playful, full of the delights of their prize, oblivious to us, and happy to spend the remainder of the day in the confines of the stones.

"As I approached, two immediately fell to their knees, they had been part of the group that had first taken me all those years earlier. The others remained standing for only seconds before joining them at my feet.

"I had not planed for this moment, not thought what to expect, and their actions had been, if not surprising, unexpected. Four towering, hulking creatures prostrate before me with a single form stood between them, his face filled with a mix of bewilderment and utter terror.

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"It took some time to calm the lad, for he was only a boy, and it was much later that day before he was rational enough to speak.

“By then the Nargu had long since told all they knew. Their master had entrusted them with great and powerful crystals, they said. And crushing those crystals in the very centre of the ring of stones whilst also touching the symbols their master had shown them, transported them to the world where the boy was captured.

"The storms we had sat and watched, had been the emissions from the crystals. Vast bursts of energy that, for a brief period, had touched my world, and transport the Nargu there. Barely an hour later, in the Nargu’s time frame, they were snatched back with the prey they had captured.

“Luke was a quiet and gentle boy of no more than fifteen. He had been playing with friends on the mountainside when the monsters had captured him. He was young and innocent, much more so than I had been, and even more malleable to Dar'cen’s desires – I knew then that he could not be allowed to have him.

"Luke came with us, as did the Nargu. They could not be allowed to roam free with the knowledge of the prize I denied him, and I could not go back to being that man who would have so easily disposed of them.

"I did eventually have to kill them, but it was not under torture, duress, or to keep them silent. Despite their fear of me, their prize and the need to obey and please their master finally won out. One night as they thought I slept, they tried to murder Jain as he stood watch, and steal away with Luke. I did not sleep, and Jain was no easy prey to be taken unawares.

"They all died then, but not because they fought hard or resisted, but because then I saw the justice of taking their lives. They would kill us all in our sleep if they could, and Luke would never be safe while they lived.

“Once Luke realised that the monsters were no longer with us he calmed noticeably, soon relaxing into our company and, despite the differences in age, befriended Jain and Tarnia almost as long lost relatives.

"We took Luke to Setia so that she might help him with the language and teach him of this strange new world. She took to the boy immediately, and he to her. Luke was an orphan, he had lived in an orphanage and had not had a kindly childhood, so I believed that he would be happy with Setia and her people.

"I then, silently vowed to keep a vigilant watch over Luke, Setia and her people, a watch from afar. For I knew that Dar’cen would destroy them all if he even suspected that I had befriended them. And should he ever discover Luke and his origins, I knew that all would be lost.

“We did not stay with Setia long once it was plain that Luke would settle there and be happy.

"We left in the early hours when most slept. Setia saw us to the edge of her small town as we walked the horses not wanting to disturb the townsfolk. Luke lay in a deep sleep, while Setia’s magics filled his mind with the wonders of his new world.

"This time as I left, I saw that Setia’s eyes now held hope, rather than the pity they had held after our first parting.

“That first night, as the others slept, I mused over what I had learned, and the chance to return to my home that had so easily slipped through my hands. Had I intercepted the Nargu immediately, I could have used the power of the crystals to return home. I would then be free of this nightmare that was my life. Instead I remained and another was ripped from his home to join me here. But he would be safe, happier, I believed, than he had been. Setia would see to that, she would keep him safe.

“Only dust had remained of the crystals the Nargu had used, and so rare were they that Jain had only read of how they had been used as jewellery by the fabulously rich in ages long past; he knew nothing of the use my master made of them.

"The Nargu had told of the trips they had made to the stones and how grudgingly the crystals were given to them. But he had more they said; his slaves worked relentlessly in his mines, ever in search of this one treasure that he said would take him and his armies to his next conquest once Ellas was his once more. Despite their fear of me, they could not help but boast of that last – with their captive, he would make them his chosen, his first to be sent to start his new conquest.

“We pulled down the stones, dragged them off using the Nargu, the horses and all the strength we could lend. Some cracked and broke as they fell, but still we took them as far from each other as we could.

"There would be other stones, remains of other travelling circles, and perhaps he knew of them, but he would not use Achra again.

"And so Setia, Luke and her people would be left in peace; with the stones gone there would be no need for the Nargu to pass their way. At least not until he came to rule once more.

"And as that last thought lingered in my mind, I quietly asked myself, ‘And who is to stop him?’ I knew that, eventually, he would conquer all. I could stand against him, but I could not defeat him; I would hardly even delay him. He had given me strengths and powers, immortality of a kind, and I had knowledge of him, some little weaknesses; I knew that he feared the past and his defeat there.

"But I could never best him. My opposition would be futile, a waste of my life, and that of my friends should they join me. But even as my mind processed those thoughts, I knew that he would not take my life – he would enslave me again to his will, and so accelerate his conquest.

"Setia had said that I could now resist him, but I did not truly believe what she had said – he could break any man if he so desired.

"No, this was not my battle. I would find a way home, convince Jain and Tarnia to join me, and go back for Luke and Setia and any of her people who would risk the journey.

"My home and my family called to me, and I knew that to stay would be sheer and utter folly.

“And so we rode on. I in search of a way back to my home, Jain and Tarnia following with reasons I could never quite understand. Adventure, they said. Friendship. To fight the good fight. To thwart the demon, Dar'cen.

"Each time their answer differed, but I did not really care – they were at my side, and that was such a tremendous comfort.

"I loved them both in a way that was as difficult to understand as their need to be my companions.”

“Another happy ending, that’s two in a week. See, not everything you have to tell is full of violence and horror,” Alex said, with a smile.

I smiled back, a genuine heartfelt smile.

It was strange, but in Alex’s company, despite her resemblance to Carthia, I found it very difficult not to smile. Yet inside I couldn’t help but remember the look on Tony’s face as he stood on this very same spot, avoiding my gaze and humouring his mad father.

Why couldn’t he have been more like Alex? Why couldn’t he have listened, truly listened?

And, if he had, what would my life now be like?