The gate swung open. A scuff of sandals, and then a door opening and closing immediately. It was Father, then, since he was the only one in the family who could reach his room without coming in view of the kitchen door. Nafai started to get up, to go see him.
"Finish your supper first," said Issib.
"He didn^t say it was an emergency," added Truzh-msha.
"He didn't say it wasn^" answered Nafai. He continued on out of the room.
Behind him, Issib called out. "Tell him I'll be there in a second."
Nafai stepped out into the courtyard, crossed in front of the gate, and entered the door into Father's public room. He wasn't there. Instead he was back in the library, with a book in the computer display that Nafai instantly recognized as the Testament of the Oversoul, perhaps the oldest of the holy writings, from a time so ancient that, according to the stories, the men's and women's religions were the same.
"She comes to you in the shadows of sleep," Nafai said aloud, reading from the first line on the screen.
"She whispers to you in the fears of your heart," Father answered.
"In the bright awareness of your eyes and in the dark stupor of your ignorance, there is her wisdom," Nafai continued.
"Only in her silence are you alone. Only in her silence are you wrong. Only in her silence should you despair." Father sighed. "It's all here, isn't it, Nafai?"
"The Oversoul isn't a man or a woman," said Nafai.
"Right, yes, of course, you know all about what the Oversoul is,"
Father's tone was so weary that Nafai decided it wasn't worth arguing theology with him tonight. "You wanted to see me."
"You and Issib."
"He'll be here in a second."
As if on cue, Issib drifted through the door, still eating some cheesebread.
"Thank you for bringing crumbs into my library," said Father.
"Sorry," said Issib; he reversed direction and started floating out the door.
"Come back," said Father. "I don't care about the crumbs."
Issib came back.
"There's talk all over Basilica about the two of you."
Nafai traded glances with Issib. "We've just been doing some library research."
"The women are saying that the Oversoul is speaking to no one but you."
"We aren't exactly getting clear messages from it," said Nafai. .
"Mostly we've just been monopolizing it by stimulating its aversive reflexes," said Issib.
"Mmm," said Father.
"But we've stopped," said Issib. "That's why we came home."
"We didn't want to interfere," said Nafai.
"Nafai prayed, though, on the way home," said Issib. "It was pretty impressive stuff."
Father sighed. "Oh, Nafai, if you've learned anything from me, couldn't you have learned that jabbing yourself and bleeding all over the place has nothing to do with prayer to the Oversoul?"
"Right," said Nafai. "This from the man who suddenly comes home with a vision of fire on a rock. I thought all bets were off."
"I got my vision without bleeding," said Father. "But never mind. I was hoping that the two of you might have received something from the Oversoul that would help me."
Nafai shook his head.
"No," said Issib. "Mostly what we got from the Oversoul was that stupor of thought. It was trying to keep us from thinking forbidden thoughts."
"Well, that's it, then," said Father. "I'm on my own."
"On your own with what?" asked Issib.
"Gaballufix sent word to me through Elemak today. It seems that Gaballufix is as unhappy as I am about the situation in Basilica today. If he had known that this war wagon business would cause such controversy he would never have begun it. He said that he wanted me to set up a meeting between him and Roptat. All Gaballufix really wants now is to find a way to back down without losing face-he says that all he needs is for Roptat also to back down, so that we don't make an alliance with anybody."
"So have you set up a meeting with Roptat?"
"Yes," said Father. "At dawn, at the coolhouse east of Market Gate."
"It sounds to me," said Nafai, "like Gaballufix has come around to the City Party's way of thinking."
"That's how it sounds" said Father.
"But you don't believe him," said Issib.
"I don't know," said Father. "His position is the only reasonable, intelligent one. But when has Gaballufix ever been reasonable or intelligent? All the years I've known him, even when he was a young man, before he maneuvered himself into the clan leadership, he's never done anything that wasn't designed to advance him relative to other people. There are always two ways of doing that-by building yourself up and by tearing your rivals down. In all these years, I've seen that Gaballufix has a definite preference for the latter."
"So you think he's using you," said Nafai. "To get at Roptat."
"Somehow he will betray Roptat and destroy him," said Father. "And in the end, I'll look back and see how he used me to help him accomplish that. I've seen it before."
"So why are you helping him?" asked Issib.
"Because there's a chance, isn't there? A chance that he means what he's saying. If I refuse to mediate between them, then it'll be my fault if things get worse in Basilica than they already are. So I have to take him at face value, don't I?"
"All you can do is your best," said Nafai, echoing Father's own pat phrase from many previous conversations.
"Keep your eyes open," said Issib, echoing another of Father's epigrams.
"Yes," said Father. "I'll do that."
Issib nodded wisely.
"Father," said Nafai. "May I go with you in the morning?"
Father shook his head.
"I want to. And maybe I can see something that you miss. Like while you're talking or something, I can be looking at other people and seeing their reactions. I could really help."
"No," said Father. "I won't be a credible mediator if I have others with me."
But Nafai knew that wasn't true. "I think you're afraid that something ugly will happen and you don't want me there.
Father shrugged. "I have my fears. I am a father."
"But I'm not afraid, Father."
"Then apparently you're stupider than I feared," said Father. "Go to bed now, both of you."
"It's way too early for that," said Issib.
"Then dwft go to bed."
Father turned away from them and faced the computer display again.
It was a clear signal of dismissal, but Nafai couldn't keep himself from questioning him. "If the Oversoul isn't speaking to you directly, Father, why do you hope to find anything helpful in its ancient, dead words?"
Father sighed and said nothing.
"Nafai," said Issib, "let Father contemplate in peace."
Nafai followed Issib out of the library. "Why won't anybody ever answer my questions?"
"Because you never stop asking them," said Issib, "and especially because you keep asking them even when it's clear that nobody knows the answers."
"Well how do I know that they don't know the answer unless I ask?"
"Go to your room and think dirty thoughts or something," said Issib. "Why can't you just act like a normal fourteen-year-old?"
"Right," said Nafai. "Like I'm supposed to be the one normal person in the family."
"Somebody's got to do it."
"Why do you think Meb was at the temple?"
"To pray for you to get a hemorrhoid every time you ask a question."
"No, that's why you were at the temple. Can you imagine Meb praying?"
"And marking up his beautiful body?" Issib laughed.