Poison Song , Book III Content . Tay was eighteen in the year 685 of the First Era when he first saw Mournhold , the city of spires , home of the goddess . His cousin Kalkorith , already a senior initiate in the Temple , gave him a couple rooms on the ground floor of the house he had purchased . They were small and unfurnished , but bittergreen grew outside the windows , and when the wind blew , they filled his bedroom with a lovely spicy air . The chords of the Song did not trouble him anymore . Sometimes he was even unconscious to it , so low and melodic it had become . Occasionally when he was passing through the streets on the way to the Temple for his instruction , someone would pass him and the Song would rise in intensity before falling away again . Whatever was different about those people , Tay never tried to ascertain . He remembered the last time he had let the Song lead him , and called for him to murder his young cousin Vaster . The memory did not trouble him unduly , but he did not want to hurt anyone again unless he had to . House couriers regularly brought Tay letters from Baynarah , still back in Sandil House on the island of Gorne . She might have gone to study at the Temple , she was certainly intelligent enough , but she chose not to . In a year or two at most , she would have to leave and assume her place in House Indoril , but she was not in a hurry . Tay welcomed the trivial gossipy news the letters brought , and responded back with news of his own studies and romances . In his third month in Mournhold , he had already met a girl . She was also a student at the Temple , and her name was Acra . Tay wrote enthusiastically about her to Baynarah , describing her as having the mind of Sotha Sil , the wit of Vivec , and the beauty of Almalexia . Baynarah replied back merrily that if she had known how blasphemous students of the Temple were allowed to be , she might have become an initiate herself . “ You are very devoted to your cousin , ” Acra laughed when Tay showed her the letter . “ Am I looking at the last remains of a thwarted romance ? ” “ She ' s lovely , but I never thought of her that way , ” Tay scoffed . “ Incest never particularly interested me . ” “ Is she a very close cousin then ? ” Tay thought for a moment : “ I don ' t know . Truthfully , no one spoke much of either her parents or mine , so I really don ' t know how we were connected . They were casualties of the War of the Red Mountain , that I know , and it seemed to cast rather a pall on the adults ' humor whenever we asked about her parents or mine . After a while , we stopped asking . But you ' re an Indoril too . Perhaps you ' re a closer cousin to me than Baynarah . ” “ Perhaps so , ” Acra smiled , rising from her chair . She uncoiled her hair , which had been pulled up in the formal arrangement reserved for well - born priestesses . As Tay watched transfigured , she removed the small brooch that fastened her robe to her shoulder cape . The soft silken fabric slipped down slowly , exposing her dark , slender body to him for the first time . “ If we are , does incest particularly interest you now ? ” As they made love , the Song began a slow , rhythmic ascension in Tay ' s head . The vision of Acra before him darkened and was replaced by images from his nightmares before returning again . When finally he collapsed , spent , the room seemed filled with the fiery red clouds of his dream , and the scream of the woman and her child facing death echoed in his head . He opened his eyes , and there was Acra , smiling at him . Tay kissed her , grateful to have her in his arms . For the next two weeks , Tay and Acra were never far apart . Even when they were at study in opposite wings of the Temple , Tay thought of her , and somehow knew she was thinking of him . They would rush to be together afterwards , ravishing one another in his rooms every night , and in a private corner of the Temple garden every day . It was while Tay was rushing to see his beloved one afternoon that the Song rose up in powerful strident tones at the approach of an old , ragged woman . He closed his eyes and tried to quiet it , but when he looked again at her purchasing corkbulb papyrus from a street vendor , he knew who she was . His old nursemaid from Gorne , Edebah . She who had abandoned him without even a farewell to join her family on the mainland . She didn ' t see him , and as she passed down the street , Tay turned and began to follow . They walked through shadowy passageways into the very poorest part of the city , a quarter which was as alien to him as the wildest principality of Akavir . She unlocked a small wooden door on a street without a name , and he finally called out her name . She didn ' t turn , but when he followed , he found that the door had been left ajar . The chamber was murky and damp like a cave . She stood facing him , her face even more wrinkled than he had remembered it , etched with lines of sorrow . He closed the door behind him , and she took his hand and kissed it . “ You are so tall and strong , ” Edebah said , beginning to weep . “ I should have killed myself before I let them take me away from you . ” “ How is your family ? ” Tay asked coldly . “ You are my only family , ” she whispered . “ The Indoril pigs forced me to leave , thrusting their blades in my face , when they discovered that I serve you and your family , not them . That bitch girl Baynarah saw me at a prayer of mourning . ” “ You ' re speaking like a madwoman , ” Tay sneered . “ How could you love me and my family , but hate the House Indoril ? I am of the House Indoril . ” “ You are old enough to know the truth , ” Edebah said fiercely . Tay had bitterly joked about her madness , but he saw something close to it burning in her ancient eyes . “ You were not born of House Indoril ; they brought you into their house after the War , like they and the other Houses brought in all the orphans . It was the only way they saw to erase history and remove all traces of their enemies , by raising their enemies as one of them . ” Tay turned toward the door : “ I can see why you were taken away from Gorne , old woman . You are delusional . ” “ Wait ! ” Edebah cried , rushing to a musty cabinet . She retrieved from it a glass globe that shimmered with a spectrum of color even in the chamber ' s gloom . “ Do you remember this ? You slew that little boy Vaster because he possessed it , and I took it from your room because you were not ready to face the facts of your inheritance and responsibility then . Did you not wonder why this bauble drew you so ? ” Tay gasped , and though he did not want to , he said , “ I hear a Song sometimes . ” “ That is the Song of your ancestors , of your true family , ” she said , nodding . “ You must not fight it , for it is a song of destiny . It will lead you to do what must be done . ” “ Shut up ! ” Tay howled , “ Everything you say is a lie ! You ' re insane ! ” Edebah threw the globe to the ground with all her might , shattering it with a deafening retort . The shards melted into the air . All that was left was a small silver ring , simply wrought with a flat crown . The old woman quietly picked it up and handed it to him , while he stood with his back against the door , trembling . “ This is your inheritance , as the bearer of the Sixth House . ” The ring ' s crown was meant for stamping and sealing official House proclamations . Tay had seen his uncle Triffith ' s similar ring , crested with the wing which was the seal of House Indoril . This ring was different , with an insect design which he remembered from the day when Kena Gafrisi had taught the House heraldry to Baynarah and him . It was the symbol of the accursed House Dagoth . The Song took over all of Tay ' s senses . He heard its music , smelled its horror , tasted its sadness , felt its power , and the only thing he could see before him was the flames of its destruction . When he took the ring and placed it on his finger , his mind was not aware of what he was doing . Nor was Tay aware of anything but the Song when he removed his dagger from its sheath and thrust it into his old nursemaid ' s heart . Tay did not even hear her final words , when Edebah fell bleeding to the ground , and groaned with a blood - streaked smile , “ Thank you . ” When the veil of the Song lifted , Tay did not realize at first he was no longer dreaming . Before him had been flames , the very ones that destroyed the home of his birth , and flames were before him again . But they were flames from a fire he had struck outside the crumbling tenement that were already bursting through walls , consuming the body of his old nursemaid . Tay fled through the streets as people began to call for the guards .