She seized the broom. A sob came to her throat. "The devil! The renegade
devil! He didn't have to kill Dave! He didn't--"

Her voice died away as she ran toward the clearing. Dave made no
protest. He suspected Bork was putting the spell on her for her own
good, and he agreed that she was better out of all this.

"Now where were we?" Bork asked. "Oh, yes, I was trying to convert you
and knowing I'd failed already. Of course, I don't know that they killed
you first--but those are their methods. Take it from me, I know. I was
the youngest Ser ever to be accepted for training as a Sather. They
wanted you, so they got you."

Dave considered it. It seemed as likely as anything else. "Why me?" he
asked.

"Because you can put back the sky. At least, the Satheri think so, and I
must admit that in some ways they are smarter than we."

Dave started to protest, but Bork cut him off.

"I know all about your big secret. You're not the engineer, whose true
name was longer. We know all that. Our pools are closer to perfection
than theirs, not being contaminated by city air, and we see more. But
there is a cycle of confirmation; if prophecy indicates a thing will
happen, it will happen--though not always as expected. The prophecy
fulfills itself, rather than being fulfilled. Then there are the words
on the monument--a monument meant for your uncle, but carrying your true
name, because his friends felt the short form sounded better. It was
something of a coincidence that they had the wrong true name. But