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be-tween his eyes.
"And I am certain that such will be the case," came the voice from above me,
where I lay beneath Raet on the cool grass.
Raet rolled from me, and Estrazi was all that my mother had promised, and
more. I rose to my knees, struck dumb and witless. The recording of my
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con-ception had not prepared me for him. Ah, rather, before whom the morning
star pales insignificant, and all that I have borne to kneel before thy
brightness becomes too meager to speak, I have no questions for you who have
labored in the lands of life interminably. I have in me no single query as to
right or fitness, you who bear unending query in the babbling tongues of
creation. No supplication, not from me, not when the torrent of thy grace and
compassion inundates my soul.
Through my tears, I saw him reach out to me. How did he appear, most supernal
of masters? In a flesh form so magnificent that his brightness illumined the
air around. I saw myself then, in that glow; myself as he saw me, a triumph of
life, a wonder so great that a song might be made for my singularity. I, his
creation, beheld him.
Our fingers touched.
He smiled, not with mouth, but with those eyes like universes forming.
I sensed rather than saw his attention shift. Before me that superb form
disintegrated and reformed into a writhing slitsa of light. It pulsed a
moment, dancing upon the grass. Then it shot into the air, to be met there by
another. And, clawing hair back from my face, turning round and round in vain
for sight of Raet, I knew what I had seen. Raet! It was up, then, I looked,
into the night sky, where he pulsed in his light form. Bright against the dark
firmament, the two spun and closed. I crammed my knuckles into my mouth and
sank down upon the grass, craning my neck to see them. They became one, flared
un-bearably, disengaged, and melded again. The pulsat-ing glare grew in
intensity until I threw my arm over my face and huddled, sobbing, my head
turned away.
When I lowered my arm from my face, Estrazi sat upon the ground before me.
Raet was nowhere to be seen. My father's countenance bore a contemplative
smile. His glowing eyes caressed me.
Still upon my knees, I sat back on my heels.
"Raet?" I whispered. "Surely you did not destroy him? I am deep in his debt. I
..." I could not fur-ther speak of him. His dissolution upon my account was
more than I could bear.
"He is not for you," Estrazi said sternly. "But I did not destroy him. I
merely chastised him. When Raet comes to an accounting, it will be to all of
us. If he does. As for debts owing, between you two there are none. You should
have come here bearing the child of one I have chosen for that honor, one
equal to you in all things. It was Raet's hand that stayed that life from
forming in you, and his hand also that caused you to expel an egg unquickened.
So you stand even with him; his takings and givings sum the same. That
brilliance of his may yet end much fallen." He paused, inclining his
magnificent head.
I shifted my knees from the pebbles that jabbed up through the grass. I said
nothing.
"Daughter," he said slowly, "I will rescind my in-junction. I would not
constrain you unduly on this our first meeting.
Do as you will with him. Only, remember that you owe him no allegiance, and
what I have said."
I went to him and sat by his side. He took my hand in his. I could not speak.
I merely leaned my head upon his shoulder, watching the light dance out from
his skin.
"You are much like your mother," he remarked. "Out of all the women of time
and space, I had the most hope for her. She, among all of them, was the only
one who knew me. She had no fear, no supersti-tion. If I had not needed you so
desperately, I would have brought her here. I have often thought of her. It
gives me great pleasure that you have so much of her strength, her fitness,
her beauty."
"For what did you need me so desperately? Are you not omnipotent, omniscient?"
"For what, you will summarily apprehend." Estrazi smiled, and a warm breeze
came out of nowhere and fondled my skin. His arm went round my back and I
leaned my weight against his cool flesh. "As for omniscience, upon such a tiny
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scale, none can claim it. The interruption of probability by a Mi'ysten is not
foreseeable, since they are not creatures of time."
And summarily, I did apprehend Estrazi's purpose, for I was thereupon lifted
up in my father's arms, and when he set me again upon the ground, we stood in
a vast natural amphitheater, wherin all the legions of creation had convened
to hear the assessors render judgment upon the worlds of time and space.
My father, as Architect of Days, presided. Beside him were arrayed the six
other fathers, Kystrai di-rectly upon his right. Upon his left sat the
assessors themselves, each of whom wore the aspect of a sil-houette before
flame, and those flames that came out from each dark man-form melded into one
another in one great conflagration. All around that central cir-cle were
gathered the factions who would this day hold forth. At the forefront of one
group was Teris, and of the other, Raet. Directly opposed to the as-sessors
stood the Hertekiean, myself, and the blond girl who had been beneath me in
the cubes. The Hertekiean took my left hand in his right and held it. It was
good. I reached with my right and clasped the hand of the blond girl.
Long did Teris hold forth in his impassioned plea for the flawed creatures of
time and space, while the winged and the mist-formed and those whose feet were
golden talons hovered and stood and sat, each in his circle, ranged around the
central pit. And even longer did Raet deliver his diatribe. With implacable
logic he submitted his appeal to reason and. order. Striding to and fro before
the assessors (upon whom it was difficult to look for more than a moment), he
stated his case for the purging from all the worlds of creation those children
hopelessly enfleshed.
The Hertekiean's grip upon my hand became pain-ful. It seemed to me, staring
around at the convoked host, that many leaned forward, that many nodded heads.
Upon his conclusion, Teris made rebuttal, using, as had Raet, myself and the
Hertekiean and the blond girl as example.
Once more, and briefly, did Raet speak. Not once in that final speech did he
even look upon me, but faced the assessors the whole time.
When that was done, my father directed the gen-eral vote. Both he and Kystrai,
and Raet and Teris, abstained, as concerned parties whose judgment could not
be unbiased.
There was no word spoken nor ballot passed, only a long silence, broken at [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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