Preface
The legend said that their wise men and warriors stole the power source from the gods, and thereupon turned around and drove out the gods, who had been cold and angry and never satisfied. For this reason, the people had no gods, beyond the One who brought about the Creation and required only acknowledgment, not worship.
There had never been a great many of them, even on their own world, but the power source made them strong enough to resist most threats, and perhaps made them complacent, so that when a true threat arose they had no defense. Many died; the remnant used their personal powers enhanced by the power source to open the ancient portals and escape and, so the story went, the invading forces slammed the portals shut behind them, so that they would not return and take back what they had lost. What they had lost was their world and the universe around it and their way of life, and the place where they found themselves was very different, not entirely suited to them.
What they had not lost was the power source, which had been brought with difficulty and sacrifice into this new universe and divided among the surviving family groups; they had always been organized in this way. Joining their portions of the power source, they were able to build their own places on a plane more compatible to them, and construct pathways to the material worlds below where their hopes for the future could take shape. The natives of the worlds in this new universe were surprising; they had no central power source, not on any of the worlds that cradled them, but they were astonishingly powerful in themselves. If this natural power could be joined with their personal power and the power they had brought with them – who could ever threaten them, who could kill them or hurt them or stop them again?
And it might, with care, with knowledge of the material world and careful manipulation, be accomplished.
But it was clear even at the start that it would take a very long time.
At least, this was the legend; she had heard it in early childhood from her father, who truly believed in it.