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
had been warned by Belgarath to listen for the Voice of
Prophecy and to record it when it came. And so it was that
King Bull-neck sent scribes to the village of the Prophet to
record his words.
And we marveled at this, for the God of Angarak dwelt
in a great palace high in the mountains of Karanda, and
the Prophet of the River Mrin dwelt in a mud and wattle
kennel by the riverbank, and yet the rapture of Prophecy
was equally upon them – and it seemed in some wise that
the higher and more exalted Torak became, the lower and
more degraded became the one who spoke the Prophecies
of the Destiny which opposed him. And behold, in his
final days, after he had Prophesied for twenty years, the
mind of the Prophet of Mrin broke entirely, and his idiocy
became tainted with madness, and King Bull-neck
perforce was obliged to have him chained to a post before
his kennel lest he do himself injury or run into the fens to
live with the beasts.
And from afar we watched and we waited, and when
the rapture of Prophecy had passed we sent certain of our
number to copy down the Prophecies of the idiot of Mrin
and the God of Angarak that we might compare them and
learn from them.
And there were lesser Prophecies as well during this
time. The First Destiny spake through the mouth of a
merchant of Darine in far-off Sendaria, and the Second
Destiny spake from the mouth of a slave at Rak Cthol in the
wasteland of Murgos. And a scholar in Melcena was seized
by an ecstasy and spake in the voice of the First Destiny for
three hundred and nine hours – and then he died. And a
seaman and warrior of the far northern kingdom of Cherek
leapt from his sleep aboard a Cherek warboat to speak
Prophecies of the coming of Torak, and his shipmates
bound him in chains and cast him into the sea.
And there was in all of this a design which we could
not perceive. The Destinies which contended with each
other at the center of creation moved mysteriously to
counter each other, and whom they chose to speak and
where the Prophecies were spoken were as vital as what
was said – and it was beyond our understanding.
But with the beginning of the Fourth Age, the time of
Prophecy ended and the time of EVENT began. And the
first EVENT was the slaying of the King of Riva, who was
the keeper of the Orb. And Torak exulted in the death of
the King of Riva, which Zedar the Apostate had caused to
come to pass. But the Dragon God knew not that by that
act had his own fate been sealed. For behold, the death of
the Rivan King consumed the heart of Polgara the
Sorceress with eternal hatred for the maimed God, and if
he could not win Polgara’s love, he was doomed.
And the next EVENT was the coming of Angarak
against the Kingdoms of the West. And upon the field at
Vo Mimbre was Torak overcome by the power of the Orb
and bound by it to await the coming of his enemy
And EVENTS, both large and small, followed the
overthrow of Torak, and we saw in the course of those
EVENTS the hands of the two Fates, and we saw also the
intricate moves of their eternal game. But no EVENT
resounded more in the stars than the birth of Belgarion.
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