Part 40 (1/2)
”No, Bastin, I don'twill prevent this h in what shape I do not know And now good night I aht in the chill dead hour before the dawn Oro caain I woke up to see him seated by h this e liberties with e liberties with you, it does notme with his calm and terrible eyes
”Why do you presu the main issue
”For this reason, Huans, the same instincts, the same desires, which in essence are but two, food and rebirth that Nature coh it is true that millions of years before I was born, as I have learned from the records of the Sons of Wisdo the same there is between thee and others none, or little Those who have none or little, a whom youwhohter and I are the sole survivors, are the Instructed”
”There are nearly two thousandpeople in this world,”
I said, ”and you na, of course, hter who are not known to be alive You think that you have learned norant The commonest of the outer nations, when I destroyed them, knew more than your wisest know today”
”You areof the soul”
”Ah!” he exclaimed, ”that interests me and perhaps it is true Also, if true it is very important, as I have told you before--or was it Bastin?
If a man has a soul, he lives, whereas even we Sons of Wisdom die, and in Death what is the use of Wisdom? Because you can believe, you have souls and are therefore, perhaps, heirs to life, foolish and ignorant as you are today Therefore I adh Bickley, who like , is but a common chemist and doctor of disease”
”Then you bow to Faith, Oro?”
”Yes, and I think that my God Fate also bows to Faith Perhaps, indeed, Faith shapes Fate, not Fate, Faith But whence co cannot coiven to you and Bastin?”
”Because as Bastin would tell you, it is a gift, though one that is never granted to the proud and self-sufficient Become humble as a child, Oro, and perchance you too may acquire faith”
”And how shall I beco away all dreams of power and its exercise, if such you have, and in repentance walking quietly to the Gates of Death,” I replied
”For you, Hus, that may be easy But for me who have much, if not all, it is otherwise You ask me to abandon the certain for the uncertain, the known for the unknown, and fro with the stars, to beco blind eyes towards the darkness of everlasting night”
”A God who must die is no God, half or whole, Oro; the earthworreater than he”
”Mayhap Yet while I endure I will be as a God, so that when night comes, if come it must, I shall have played my part and left my mark upon this little world of ours Have done!” he added with a burst of ihter?”
”What man has alilled of woman--herself, body and soul”
”Her soul perchance is yours, if she has one, but her body is ht at a price,” he added slowly
”So she told uess what she told you Did I not watch you yonder by the lake when you gave her a ring graved with the signs of Life and Everlastingness? The question is, will you pay the price?”
”Not so; the question is--what is the price?”
”This; to enter my service and henceforth do my will--without debate or cavil”
”For what reward, Oro?”