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And in his sixteenth year he put forth his hand to claim
the Orb, and when his hand touched it, all of creation rang
like some vast bell.
And now the EVENT for which the universe and Time
itself had waited drew near, and the two Destinies
confronted each other in the ruins of the City of Night.
And it came to pass that Torak, Dragon God of Angarak,
was slain by the hand of Belgarion, the Keeper of the Orb.
and that EVENT signaled the beginning of the Fifth Age.
And the Fifth Age began in darkness and confusion, for
the Book of the Heavens had changed in the instant of
Torak's death, and we could no longer read it. Moreover,
with the death of Torak we felt a shudder pass through
-- and we were chagrined, for one of the
Destinies appeared to have been vanquished - and we
had not yet chosen between them. The First Destiny had
been fulfilled and the Second had failed, but we still did
not know which was Good and which was Evil. And if the
Prophecies of Torak had been the voice of truth, then
Good had passed forever from creation, and we were
doomed to eternal Evil.
Desperately we sought to learn anew the language of
the Great Book of the Heavens, but one of our number,
who had ever bent his attention to the voices within the
rocks, came to us and spake, saying: 'Behold, the rocks
still speak with two voices.' And the spirits also spake
unto us, saying: 'Behold, the Child of Light and the Child
of Dark still contend with each other in the spirit world.'
And as the Book of the Heavens became clear once more,
we read with astonishment that the two Destinies
continued their endless game. In the meeting between Belgarion
and Torak one aspect of the one Destiny perished. And we
perceived that other such meetings had taken place - and
that still more would. Even now, a new aspect of the
Destiny which had failed with the death of Torak had
begun to move about the world - and in some regard this
aspect seemed a dark reflection of Polgara the Sorceress.
And we shuddered at the prospect of the meeting
between this dark shape and terrible Polgara.
And as the Book of the Heavens became clearer, we
read there that the struggle between the two Destinies will
continue for so long as the two stones which once were
one still exist. For even as the stones were once the center
of all creation, each is now at the core of a different
Destiny, and so long as both exist, the endless struggle
will go on.
And we searched even more urgently for that stone
which is the counter to the Orb, for Behold, the Orb is in the
hand of Belgarion, and he is a nighty sorcerer. Should the
two stones be drawn together for their final confrontation,
the hand of Belgarion will surely enter into the struggle, and
we do not know if this is as it should be - but how might we
deny to mighty Belgarion anything he chooses to do?
The second stone is here. The rocks of this world