 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
Mishrak, the City of Endless Night, to reclaim the Orb of
Aldur from the iron tower of the maimed God of Angarak.
But what some men do not know is that at the same time
indeed within the same moment - another EVENT of
equal importance took place half around the world in the
Vale of Aldur. There it was at that particular time that
Poledra, Wolf-wife to Belgarath, labored and brought forth
twin daughters and died in bearing them. And the birth of
Polgara and Beldaran and the death of Poledra shaped the
future as much as did the recapture of the Orb. And as we
read in wonder of these EVENTS in the Book of the
Heavens, a strange Seeress came down to us from the
mountains above Darshiva, and she spake unto us, laying
upon us the task of gathering. And we went up and down
in the world, gathering the Prophecies whispered into the
hearts of diverse men by the two Fates which rule creation.
And Behold, there arose yet another generation of Seers
to consider the Prophecies and to speak of their meaning.
And these were the Generations of the unknown Seeress,
whom men called the Speakers. And we carried to the
Speakers both Prophecy and the ravings of the demented,
for we determined that no possible word of either Fate
should escape us. And the Speakers who were of the
Generations of the unknown Seeress went down to the
city of Kell, where the priests of the God of Angarak
feared to come, and there they received what we had
gathered. And we beheld there a wonder, for the
documents
which reported our gatherings were delivered into
the hands of the mutes who guarded the Seers, and the
mutes read the documents. And if the Seer spake not, the
document was known to be false. and the mute who had
read it committed it immediately to the fire. But if the
document was truly Prophecy - of either of the two Fates
- the Seer would begin to speak almost as soon as the
mute began to read. And we perceived from this that the
Seers communed with the minds of their silent guides,
and despite the binding of their eyes, they were not blind,
but saw rather through the eyes of their mute protectors.
Now from all that we gathered, but little was truly
Prophecy, and the Prophecies all spake the same story
that one day the Child of Light and the Child of Dark
would meet and that in their meeting would be decided
the Fate of all creation. And this was bitter to us, for we
had known of it before, having read the self-same words
in the Book of the Heavens. But the aged Seer Encoron of
the Generations of the unknown Seeress spake in his last
days, and at last we understood the meaning of what was
taking place and had been since the'beginning of time.
'Variations,' quoth Encoron. 'Each EVENT is but a
variation of the same EVENT which hath repeated itself
innumerable times down through all the ages. The Child of
Light and the Child of Dark will meet - as they have met
times beyond counting before. And they will continue to
meet in these endless variations of this same EVENT until
at one meeting a choice is made between them.'
'What is the choice, Master?' we urged him, 'and who
must make it?'