Dark Universe

Each time his attention wandered to these irrelevant matters, he knew he was not rendering full service to the spirit of Withdrawal and Contemplation. Yet, he supposed all of these subjects deserved exploration under the special conditions of his Unification.

He spared himself one possible distraction, though, in not telling the Prime Survivor about the monsters’ invasion of the Upper Level. That would only have revived condemnation of his trip to the Original World.

On the fourth period of retreat he was jolted from meditation by a commotion in the world outside. At first he thought the monsters had reached the Lower Level. But there was not so much consternation as dismay in the voices of those streaming toward the orchard.

They had all abandoned the residential area by the time he decided on interrupting Withdrawal. He started after them. But halfway across the world, the central caster fetched impressions of the Prime Survivor and Elder Haverty coming in his direction.

“How long did you expect to keep it a secret?” Haverty was asking.

“Until I could decide what to do about it, at least,” the Prime Survivor answered glumly.

“Eh? What? I mean, what can you do about something like that?”

But the other had detected Jared. “So you broke Withdrawal,” he observed. “I suppose it’s just as well.”

Haverty excused himself, explaining that he was going to hear if Elder Maxwell had any ideas on how to cope with the situation.

“What happened?” Jared asked after the other had gone.

“We’ve just had nine hot springs go dry.” The Prime Survivor led the way toward their grotto.

Jared was relieved. “Oh. I thought it might be soubats, or maybe Zivvers.”

“I wish to Light that’s all it was.”

In the curtain-shielded privacy of their recess, the Prime Survivor paced aimlessly. “This is a critical situation, Jared!”

“Maybe the springs will start flowing again.”

“The other three that dried up haven’t started again. I’m afraid they’re out for good.”

Jared shrugged. “So we’ll have to do without them.”

“Don’t you hear the seriousness of this thing? We have a tight, delicate balance here. What’s happened might well mean some of us won’t be able to survive!”

Jared started to offer further encouragement. But suddenly he was preoccupied with self-concern. Was this part of the pattern of punishment he had brought on by provoking the Original World monster? Hot springs going dry in both the Upper and Lower Level, evil beings pushing past the Barrier — were they all actually strokes of vengeance by an offended Light Almighty?

“What do you mean — ‘some of us won’t be able to survive’?”

“Figure it out yourself. Each hot spring feeds the tendrils of a hundred and twenty-five ma

“But that’s just a fraction—”

“Any fraction that reduces the survival potential is a critical factor. If we apply the formula, we hear that with mne less hot springs we can support only thirty-four head of cattle instead of forty. All the other livestock will have to be reduced proportionately. In the long run it will mean seventeen less people can exist here!”

“We’ll make up the difference with more game.”

“There’ll be less game — with more soubats than ever flying the passageways.”

The Prime Survivor stopped pacing and stood there breathing heavily. Clickstone echoes weren’t needed to tell that he was crestfallen, that the creases in his face were etched even more deeply.

Jared couldn’t escape a sense of helplessness as he thought of man’s absolute dependence on the ma

Now, almost bitterly, he could recall his father’s voice finding new depths of respect and thoughtfulness gestations ago in reciting one of the legends:

“Our ma

“But Light’s plant wasn’t good enough. It seems we had to fashion a tree without the graceful, whispering things at the top — one which has, instead, great masses of awkward feelers that grow deep into the boiling pits. There they draw energy from the water’s heat and use it to transform the foul air of the worlds and passageways and the elements from compost into fibers and tubers, fruit and fresh air.”

That was the ma

“What are we going to do about the hot-springs situation?” Jared asked finally.

“How are you coming along with Contemplation?’

“I suppose I’ve just about exhausted the subject.”

“That helps.” The Prime Survivor lodged a hand on his shoulder. “I’ve an idea there’s going to be drastic need for help from the Upper Level before long. You realize, of course, that you don’t have much of a choice in Contemplation. Under the circumstances, this Unification couldn’t possibly be Unwise.”

“No. I don’t suppose it could.”

The Prime Survivor cuffed his arm warmly. “Fm sure you’ll be ready to return to the Upper Level just as soon as the Seven Periods of Withdrawal are over.”

Outside, a deep silence that had fallen over the world was interrupted by the first phrases of the Litany of Light. The Guardian of the Way’s fervent voice cracked with veneration as he shouted out the Recitations. More subdued but no less reverent were the Responses by the worshipers.

Recalling that Revitalization Ceremonies had failed after the first three springs had gone dry, Jared brushed the curtain aside and headed for the Assembly Area to join the services. That it would be a novel experience added little to his enthusiasm.

He stayed on the fringe of the Congregation. To have gone up front at the first ceremony he had attended in gestations would have distracted Guardian and Survivors alike. And he felt even more self-conscious when he heard a sharpeared child nearby grip his mother’s arm and exclaim, “It’s Jared, Mother! It’s Jared Fenton!”

“Hush and listen to the Guardian!” the woman reproved.

Guardian Philar was circulating among them, his words rebounding clearly from the object he clutched against his chest.

“Feel this Holy Bulb,” he exhorted. “Be inspired along the passageway of virtue. Let us hurl back Darkness. Only by renouncing evil can we discharge our obligation as Survivors and listen ahead to that great period when we will be Reunited with Light Almighty!”

If the Guardian of the Way wasn’t the gauntest man in the Lower Level, Jared felt certain, then he was at least in close ru

He reached Jared and paused, his voice stooping for but not quite finding a bass fervor. “Among all the things in this world, our Holy Bulb is the only one that has ever been in contact with Light. Feel it.” And, when Jared hesitated, “Feel it!”