creation. And in a certain time shall those spirits meet
upon this world, and then will come the time of the choice.
And if THE CHOICE be not made, the spirits will pass on
to another world and confront each other there, and this
world will be abandoned, and the beloved guest of whom
the Seeress spoke will never come. For it is this which was
meant when she said unto us: ‘Behold, he may not choose
ye unless ye choose him.’ And the choice which we must
make is between good and evil – for there is an absolute
good and an absolute evil, and the division at the heart of
creation is the division between good and evil, and the
reality which will exist after we have made -THE CHOICE
will be a reality of good or a reality of evil, and it will
prevail so until the end of days.
Behold also this truth; the rocks of the world and of all
other worlds murmur continually of the two stones which
lie at the center of the division.
* The Orb and the Sardion.
Once these stones were
one, and they stood at the very center of all of creation,
but, like all else, they were divided, and in the instant of
division were they rent apart with a force that destroyed
whole suns. And where these stones are found, there
surely will be the next confrontation between the two
spirits. Now the day will come when all division will end
and all will be made one again – except that the division
between the two stones is so great that they can never be
rejoined. And in the day when the division ends shall one
of the stones cease forever to exist, and in that day also
shall one of the spirits forever vanish.
These then were the truths which we gathered from the
stars and from the rocks and from the hearts of men and
from the minds of the spirits. And it was our discovery of
these truths which marked the end of the First Age.
Now the Second Age of man began in thunder and
earthquake, for lo, the earth herself split apart, and the sea
rushed in to divide up the lands of men even as creation
itself is divided. And the mountains of Korim shuddered
and groaned and heaved as the sea swallowed them. And
we knew that this would come to pass, for our seers had
warned us that it would be so. We went our way,
therefore, and found safety before the world was cracked and
the sea first rushed away and then rushed back and never
departed more.
And it was in the Second Age that we saw the coming
of the chosen ones who had been selected by the Seven
Gods. And we studied them to determine if there were yet
some mark upon them to distinguish them from the rest
of mankind, but we found no such mark or sign. And our
seers communed with the minds of the seers of our
brothers who had gone into the west before the seas came in to
divide the lands of men. And our brothers in the west also
studied the chosen ones of other Gods, and their seers
spake unto the minds of our seers, and they said that they
– even as we – could find no mark or sign. And our
brothers in the west looked at the chosen of the Bear God and
the Lion God and the Bull God and the Bat God and the
Serpent God and found no mark or sign, and we looked at
the children of the Dragon God, and it was the same, even
though the Dragon God’s people warred with the people
of the other Gods.
Yet was there another God, and some men thought that
this God dwelling in solitude might indeed be the God
who would in time take up all of the unchosen people.
And our brethren in the west went up to the Vale in which
he dwelt with his disciples and prostrated themselves
before hhnhim and besought him that he disclose to them the
secrets locked in the future. And the God Aldur spake
kindly unto them and counseled them, saying: ‘Abide
against the coming of the Beloved One, and know that my
brothers and I, and our people as well, strive to insure his
coming – and our striving and our sacrifice is for ye, who
are destined to become the Chosen of Him who is yet to
come.’
And one of our brethren spake, asking the God thus:
‘And what of the Dragon God, Lord, that is Thine enemy?
Doth he also strive for the coming of the Beloved One?’
And the face of Aldur grew troubled, and he spake,
saying: ‘My brother Torak doth indeed strive, though he
knoweth not the end toward which he moves. I counsel ye
to dwell in peace with the children of the Dragon God, for
ye dwell in lands which shall be theirs, and they will be
Lords over ye. Should ye resist them, they will cause ye
great suffering. Endure that which they lay upon ye and
abide in patience as ye continue the tasks which have been
given ye.’
And the Seers of the West disclosed what Aldur had
told them unto the minds of the seers who dwelt among
us, and we took counsel with the seers and considered
how we might least offend the children of the Dragon God
so that they would not interrupt our studies. In the end
we concluded that the warlike children of Angarak would
be least apprehensive about simple tillers of the soil living
in rude communities on the land, and we so ordered our
lives. We pulled down our cities and carried away the
stones, and we betook ourselves back to the land so that
we might not alarm our neighbors nor arouse their envy.
And the years passed and became centuries, and the
centuries passed and became eons. And as we had known
they would, the children of Angarak came down amongst
us and established their overlordship. And they called the
lands in which we dwelt ‘Dalasia’, and we did what they
wished us to do and continued in our studies.
Now at about this time it came to pass in the far north
that a Disciple of the God Aldur came with others to
reclaim a certain thing which the Dragon God had stolen
from Aldur. And that act was so important that when it
was done the Second Age had ended and the Third Age
had begun.
Now it was in the Third Age that the priests of Angarak,
which men call Grolims, came to speak to us of the
Dragon God and of his hunger for our love, and we
considered what they said even as we considered all
things men told us. And we consulted the Book of the
Heavens and confirmed that Torak was the incarnate
God-Aspect of one of the spirits which contended at the
center of time. But where was the other? How might men
choose when but one of the spirits came to them? How
might man select the Good and abjure the Evil when he
could in no wise compare them? The spirit infusing the
Dragon God could not help us in our choice, for that spirit
perceived its goal as good and could not comprehend the
possibility that it might be evil. Then it was that we
understood our dreadful responsibility. The spirits would come
to us, each in its own time, and each would proclaim that
it was good and the other was evil. It was man, however,
who would choose. And some there are who believe that
it is man’s choice which will determine the outcome. And
we took counsel among ourselves and we concluded that
we might accept the forms of the worship which the
Grolims so urgently pressed upon us. This would give us
the opportunity to examine the nature of the Dragon God
and make us better prepared to choose when the other
God appeared.
Now the forms of worship which the Grolims practiced
were repugnant to us, but we placed no blame for those
forms at the feet of Torak, for the pupil may corrupt the
intent of the master and do in his name that which the
master had not intended. And so we observed, and we
waited, and we remained silent.
In time the events of the world intruded upon us. The
children of the Dragon God, whom men called Angarak,
allied themselves by marriage with the great city-builders
of the east, who called themselves Melcene, and between
them they built an empire which bestrode the continent.
Now the Angaraks were doers of deeds, but the Melcenes
were performers of tasks. A deed once done is done
forever, but a task returns every day. And the Melcenes