Radix

Jac's face was bent with puzzlement. "How?"
"We all feel a psychic bonding here," Assia said, her voice softer. "That's why the eo brought us together. We are the only humans aware of what is happening. We know we can't let Rubeus dominate us. But we can't fight him with strategy. Rubeus is the master strategist. He was designed that way. We'll never outwit him. Yet because he has a design, he will trap himself. I know that. But we've got to keep ourselves from reacting to him—or he'll trap us."
A portentous feeling lifted through Jac. Frenzied voices dazzled like water at the back of his mind. In his excitement at what Assia was saying, his mind had opened into Iz, the time-matrix. Semiconsciously, he sifted through the whis-pered sounds until he found what was familiar, noumenal, and reassuring: Voice. note 20
A breeze of cool air sneered through the windplants, and the lynk throbbed. A simplefaced ort stepped out from be-hind the white ivy screen. By the sage glow around its eyes, they could see that it was animated by a force wiser than its shape. "Matter Mother Mutter," it said in traditional eo greeting. The artificial face caught a sunray and glowed with the suffused golden light of a shell. The ort faced Sumner, its yellow garments breathing with the wind. "The eo are aware of you, eth. We know you are metaordered, and we will help you against the ort-lord when the time is right. But first you must wait. Time Now is always more than measure. It is Event itself. We must let the moment fulfill itself."
Sumner's gaze shot beyond the ort to the enfilades of Masseboth soldiers across the river. "Those are Masseboth hellraiders over there, eo. They have strohlkraft and armor-piercing artillery. In twenty minutes they could, level this forest you're living in. Isn't that threat enough?" He looked at the eo, and the ort stared back impassively.
"I'm a man of blood," Sumner said, and the bonebeat of anger was in his voice. "I want to act, not wait." He faced Assia and then the ort. "Rubeus killed my son. He powers the Masseboth who oppress a world for a few dying cities. Have you ever seen a dorga pit? Or the inside of a shale processor where the air's so toxic only terminal brown card are supposed to work there?"
Jac was watching from beside Assia. He was a willful witness, fascinated by what he was seeing of the animal life of history.
"Kagan," the eo began, its voice soft as ferns.
"I know," Sumner cut in, the catlike span between his eyes shadowed with intensity, "the universe has no corners. Any moment is as full as any other." A laugh caught in his throat and came out soundless. "Any is nothing. If you want to help me, use whatever power you have now to kill Rubeus."
"Death isn't the answer to life," the eo retorted. "Unless
Rubeus moves directly against life, we cannot move against him."
Sumner's heart banged like a board in his chest. "If you were a human being, eo, you would understand freedom. We don't need directors like Rubeus, the Masseboth, or the Delph. You say I'm the eth. Well then, use me. I'm ready to destroy."
"You don't understand," the eo said evenly. "You're lost in your feelings. Every one of us is metaordered in some way. Assia's ancestors called it karma—the inexplicable pat-terns that shape our lives. Time is what makes the pattern ineffable, but originally, when people lived closer to the moment, the word karma meant doing. Do you truly want to champion death? Is that what you want to do? No. You are a precious lifeform, a human. What you need, Sumner, is to learn love."
"Love?" Sumner's gaze stalled in his head. "I've starved my emotions to hard bone to conquer myself. I've dragged my sex-pull straight up my spine so that my eyes could feel. I've chosen flow over shape every time. I love life."
"But is your life love?"
Sumner's face was glowering with an eerie, beastlike calm. "Why do anything? Why not just drift? Mama is maw, right?"
"No." The ort's face shadowed toward a frown. "We eo believe the Mother is the intermediary between our inor-ganic beginnings and our creative expression. That is why we greet each other: Matter Mother Mutter. Life, Kagan, is love. Yes, we have the weapons to thoroughly destroy Rubeus. But they're just science fictions without a spirit to guide them. That spirit is compassion and love. If Rubeus does not have that spirit, the universe will destroy him."
"Don't be so sure." Something like starlight gave out in Sumner's eyes, and he turned to Jac. "What do you want me to do?"
Jac stiffened. "I'm a twenty-first century man, Kagan. This is the thirty-third century. I don't know anymore."
"A friend of mine loves the kro," Sumner said quietly, thinking of Chief Anareta. "I once felt him think that human-ity recognized the value of the individual in your time. He called it self-anarchy. What you think means a lot to me."
"I trust Assia and the eo." Jac's mouth groped; then: "You and I have both felt the lifelove of One Mind and seen it change reality. But it wasn't us. It was the Delph and Corby. We were just hosts. Accidents. But we saw the lifelove. I think now we have to trust that power as individuals. I don't know what that means for you exactly, but the eo are good."
"What good have they done for the distorts? Or the voors?"
"What can we do?" the eo replied. "We're not human. We're just memories of knowledge. It takes people to do." The eo addressed Assia: "Sister, as you can see, the Masseboth have arrived. Rubeus has never allowed us any truly human-looking ort forms. Will you help us communicate with them? One of them, their spokesman, has been asking for you. And Jac—I invite you to stay with us. You'll be safer."
Assia went to Sumner's side. "The eo are right, Sumner. We have to wait now. But Rubeus will trap himself. I'm an old, old woman. Much older than Rubeus. My experience is deep. You'll see."
She, the eo, and Jac turned and walked into the lynk and out of sight. Drift touched Sumner's hand, and a psalmed feeling calmed him. He took out the seh and looked down into the ne's round face. "Let's fly."
They stepped out into the afternoon sky toward blue clouds swirling over the horizon, intricate as birdsong. Sum-ner's ears popped, and the air chilled brightly as they as-cended. They flew up the brown serpent of a river and over mountains where mists circled and bright glaciers rang with sunlight.
At the far end of the day they descended into Reynii, an abandoned city of glass spires and hanging gardens. They landed on a sconce of tall grass and watched the red haloes of sunlight lift off the empty towers. Cold worlds shook over the horizon: the dewdrop Llyr and, flecked within the sun's aura, the iron splinter of Macheoe.
Across the boulevard and a dark tree-park was a worship house between two moonshadowed elms. Over the doors, in ne-futhorc, was carved: /vfll Drift translated: One Mud of All Sculpting. Through the portals they could see statues of all the world's demiurgic and unnamable gods staring out from lux-lit enclaves. The close solitude of the fuliginous temple was inviting, and they entered.
You 've changed, Drift thought, but not loud enough for Sumner to hear without his voorsense. Lotus Face's golden kha was slimmer, and without the black mask of his faceburn, he looked human and vulnerable. When the seer stared into his eyes, it no longer felt the drowse of voor depths. This man's mind was as shallow as any simple tribesman's. A sadness stroked the ne's soul.

Note20

Revelation is in all things.