"I plan to stop them."
"So you spent all that time with the Raziq making the keys, and now you're hell-bent on stopping them? That doesn't sound very logical to me."
The heat of him was closer now. It spun around me—a warm, nonthreatening presence that nevertheless made my skin crawl because of the power behind it. Because there was no underlying sense of humanity. This was a being who wore flesh rarely and who had no love or understanding for those who possessed it full-time.
Which made me wonder why he was now trying to stop the Raziq.
"Magic alone works the portals, and it is because that magic can be corrupted that the keys were made. If magic wasn't as intrinsic in the opening of the portals, then neither those on this plane nor anyone on the other could affect them."
Which made basic sense, but it also meant the power of the gates lay in those keys rather than magic. And that seemed ultimately more dangerous to me.
"So why not simply destroy the keys yourself? If you helped make them, then you must know how to unmake them."
"I do. The trouble is, the keys are on this plane, and I no longer can interact with this world."
My eyes widened. "But aren't you interacting with it now?"
"Not on a flesh level. That ability was torn from me when they discovered the part I played in the keys' disappearance."
"Meaning there's more than one of you trying to destroy these keys?"
"No, but all Raziq have Razan, and mine hid the keys while I created a persion."
"So why not just ask them where they put the keys?"
"Because they are dead. They were under orders to destroy themselves should I not return by a certain time."
Charming. But then, why would an Aedh care whether one of his servants lived or died? He could undoubtedly create more as needed. "And you couldn't return because you were captive?"