out ... whether it pleases you or not. And I won't willingly lay me down to sleep again until I think it's time. So you had better tell me what all this is about, or I will blunder around and perhaps break something you're fond of."

Adelie laughed.

Vigil swung his arm sharply toward her. "This—this would-be courtesan was once Mayron's great love, when he was First of us all. Because he could find nothing to conquer for her in all the Universe, he began dabbling beyond it for a worthy prize. And he found it. Oh, he found it, didn't he, my child?"

"Be careful, Father," Adelie spat. "The worshippers follow me now that I've wakened him as promised, and you—"

"Quiet," Greaves said mildly. "He was telling me something."

"That I was," Vigil said angrily, while his daughter's look at Greaves was the least sure it had ever been, "and for all the need you have of it, I might as well not. But if I may say it once and get it said, I can then go to my meal and the two of you will be free to amuse yourselves. Mayron discovered the Shadows, when his machines touched some continuum beyond this one, and the Shadows ate him. But like the fox that lost his tail in the trap and then cozened other foxes with the lie that it was better so and fashionable besides, Mayron made a virtue of his slavery. Those who give themselves up to the Shadows never rest and never hunger. They know no barrier. And no love. No true joy. No noble sorrow. An untailed fox is safe from catching by the tail. A Shadow has no spirit, no humanity, no—soul. But there are always dunderheads. Mayron has them, and down in that city of his down there—" the old man waved a hand at the horizon, but all Greaves could see from where he stood were the glowing tops of what he took to be three fitfully active volcanoes—"he has a city full of dunderheaded shadows who go to some temple he has built and enter the Shadow chamber to be changed. The admission is easily gained; the price of freedom from human care is humanity."

"And up here," Greaves said, "other dunderheads come to gain what in exchange for what?"

"Gain at least some sort of affirmation at the cost of remaining men!" the old man growled. "If they are simple, at least they are human! And even an intelligent man can see the value in what is embodied here."

"As witness yourself. Yes."

"I didn't want to wake you! We know enough so 

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