THE CRUCIBLE OF TIME BY JOHN BRUNNER

But suppose adults too could fake such a transformation. Suppose, for instance, Aglabec had figured out a way…?

She wanted not to think about him, for fear of betraying her imposture, but her companions kept chattering on with mad enthusiasm, saying how he must be the greatest male teacher since Awb. Privately, Chybee did not believe Awb had ever existed. She had often been punished by her parents for saying so. If she were to voice a similar opinion right now, though, she could surely look forward to something worse than the penalties meted out to a budling. What if Aglabec were to recognize her from the meeting at Ugant’s? She could only reassure herself that there had been too many people present for anybody to single out one person’s trace, and try and believe that he would have refused on principle to register what she said.

Struggling to divert the conversation along another path, she demanded what the trio’s names were. The replies added to her dismay.

“I’m Witnessunbride,” stated the first girl.

“And I, Cometaster!” declared the other.

While the boy said, as though it were the most natural thing in the world, “Startoucher!” He added with curiosity, “Do Chybee and Whelwet and Yaygomitch have arcane meanings? At Slah we discard our old names after entering the knowledge state.”

But before Chybee could reply, Witnessunbride rounded on him. “And your new one is ridiculous! I could cite five-score of us who know more about what goes on under other stars than you do! Don’t take him seriously, Chybee! But how and why did you choose your new name?”

Chybee was briefly at a loss. Then inspiration struck. She said with contempt she did not need to feign, “Some of us, including me and my parents, felt no call to change our names, because they turned out to have significance in the speech of other worlds.”

Impressed, Cometaster said, “And yours means…?”

With stiff dignity, Chybee answered, “Those who attain enlightenment will recognize its purport in due time.”

The other three exchanged glances.

“Aglabec is going to be very interested in you,” said Witnessunbride. “He’s the only other person I ever heard say anything like that. And the only other person so advanced he can contact other planets without needing to fast. That is, assuming you got your knowledge about Sluggard direct. Did you? Or were you just told it by your budder or someone?”

Chybee was so taken aback by the audacity of Aglabec’s excuse for being in better fettle than his disciples, she could not think of a suitable answer. Luckily they mistook her silence for wounded pride.

“Hurry up!” Startoucher said. “It’s nearly sunset!”

And, hastening towards the fringe of this decrepit quarter, he explained how it was that he and his friends were going to meet Aglabec in person.

“Every full moon, unless he’s traveling to spread his knowledge, he returns to us, going from home to home to visit his oldest and most loyal followers. Sometimes, when he’s due to leave for a long trip, sick people choose to liberate their minds in his presence, for fear of never seeing him again. Isn’t that marvelous?”

To liberate—? Oh. Chybee hoped against hope that Glig’s leaves would mask the signs of her nausea. Hastily she said, “How did you earn your name?”

“Witnessunbride is jealous of it,” Startoucher said with a pout of his mantle. “But I’m fully entitled! Aglabec told me so—he said there are going to be a lot more cases like mine, people who start getting knowledge from other stars instead of just our local planets. Well, I mean I must have done! None of what I see and hear matches with what other people get from Sunbride, or Swiftyouth, or Stolidchurl, or anywhere! Unless, of course—”

He broke off, while Chybee wondered how anyone could be deluded by so transparently silly an explanation. But it was politic to seem interested. She said, “Unless what?”

“I was going to say: unless it comes from somewhere like the moons of Sluggard. But if that were so, then Aglabec would have told me, wouldn’t he?”

Much relieved, he hurried on in advance of the group, announcing that they were almost at their destination and it looked as though Aglabec must already have arrived, since nobody was outside watching out for him.

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