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had subsided, there were two places where men dwelt,
and the men in one of those places followed the First
Destiny, and the men in the other place followed the
Second. And we marveled 'at the perfection of this. Yet as
we considered what had taken place, we found a flaw in
it, for there was not symmetry within it. The God of
Angarak and the stone which men call the Orb are
not equal. For Torak is one aspect of the Second Destiny,
and the Orb is a different aspect of the First. And we
concluded that there must be a symmetry between the
two - that there must somewhere be a God to match Torak
and that somewhere there must be a stone which will
represent the aspect of the Second Destiny which the Orb
represents for the First. And as we turned this over in our
minds, it became clear to us that when any aspect of the
one Fate meets the same aspect of the other, that meeting
will be the final meeting between the two, and one will
triumph and one perish - but should we be unable to
perform our part in this meeting, all that is will perish.
Thus it was that we became aware that it would be upon
this world that the ultimate contest between Good and
Evil was destined to take place, and that we must prepare
ourselves to do that which must be done.
And we bent our efforts to find the stone which had
been revealed by the flaw in the event which men call
the Cracking of the World, for we reasoned that the coming
together of the two stones was the most likely form of the
final conflict, and could we find the other stone, we might
be able to keep the two separate until we were ready for
their meeting. But the Book of the Heavens spoke obscurely
and the voices of the rocks muttered indistinctly, and our
search proved in vain. Finally we realized that the two
contending Destinies were concealing certain aspect' of
themselves from each other and from the eyes of men.
With the beginning of the Third Age, which came into
being when Belgarath and certain Alorns recovered the
Orb of Aldur from the City of Endless Night, there
dawned the great Age of Prophecy. And the - fervor of
Prophecy descended upon the maimed God of Angarak,
and he spake in an ecstasy, and his words were the words
of the Second Destiny. And we waited, for we knew that
the First Destiny must also speak - for the word sets forth
the meaning of the Event, and each Destiny must put its
own meaning to the Events which inevitably must come
to pass. Then from far to the north in the lands called the
Kingdoms of the West came the voice of the First Destiny.
And all in amaze we heard that voice - for Behold, the
First Fate spake not in the voice of a God, but in the voice
of an idiot.
In a rude village on the banks of the River Mrin there
dwelt a man so like a beast that his family kenneled
him. He spoke no human speech, but rather howled and
whined like a very dog. And yet in his thirtieth year
the power of Prophecy came to him, and the rapture
descended upon him, and he began to speak. And as
chance had it, the King of that land was one of the sons of
Bear-shoulders, and he had gone with his father and
ancient Belgarath to the City of Endless Night to reclaim
the Orb. Now this King - whom men called Bull-neck