This chapter's epigraph is from a famous poem by Edgar Allan Poe, entitled, "The Ballad of the Bastard." In this poem, Edgar is talking about a man named Bastard, who is a member of the Ku Klux Klan. In the poem, the narrator describes Bastard as a "small bit of soul" who has been "smashed to dust" by Edgar's "overwhelming power" . The narrator asks Bastard if he's frustrated by the fact that he can't defeat Bastard. Bastard says that his soul is here to protect "the dragon creation gem" , which is a symbol of the dragon's creation. He says that Bastard's soul is just a "little distortion technique" that he hopes will help Bastard evolve into a more powerful dragon than he is now. He also says that the only reason Bastard is scratching is because he wants to protect the creation gem. He's not going to beat Bastard up, he says, because he doesn't want Bastard to be able to use his soul to destroy him. He just wants Bastard "to evolve." The narrator says that this is not his intention to destroy Bastard; it's just a little "distortion technique." Bastard asks if Bastard has done anything to him, and Bastard responds that he has. He then asks