"Mother is dead now," Yorda replied. "But they brought children to her, and she made them hers." She shuddered, knowing the process it took to change them in such a terrible way. "They would do as she said, even if it destroyed them." She thought for a moment. "My mother was their queen." She looked away from the older man, rubbing her arms, cold for reasons she didn't know. "The hooded men who brought her the children were afraid of her."