The Moon Pool

by Abraham Merritt

  CHAPTER XXIX

  The Shaping of the Shining One

  We reached what I knew to be Lakla's own boudoir, if I may so call it.Smaller than any of the other chambers of the domed castle in which wehad been, its intimacy was revealed not only by its faint fragrancebut by its high mirrors of polished silver and various oddly wroughtarticles of the feminine toilet that lay here and there; things Iafterward knew to be the work of the artisans of the _Akka_--and nomean metal workers were they. One of the window slits dropped almostto the floor, and at its base was a wide, comfortably cushioned seatcommanding a view of the bridge and of the cavern ledge. To this thehandmaiden beckoned us; sank upon it, drew Larry down beside her andmotioned me to sit close to him.

  "Now this," she said, "is what the Silent Ones have commanded me totell you two: To you Larry, that knowing you may weigh all things inyour mind and answer as your spirit bids you a question that the Threewill ask--and what that is I know not," she murmured, "and I, theysay, must answer, too--and it--frightens me!"

  The great golden eyes widened; darkened with dread; she sighed, shookher head impatiently.

  "Not like us, and never like us," she spoke low, wonderingly, "theSilent Ones say were they. Nor were those from which they sprang likethose from which we have come. Ancient, ancient beyond thought are the_Taithu_, the race of the Silent Ones. Far, far below this place wherenow we sit, close to earth heart itself were they born; and there theydwelt for time upon time, _laya_ upon _laya_ upon _laya_--with others,not like them, some of which have vanished time upon time agone,others that still dwell--below--in their--cradle.

  "It is hard"--she hesitated--"hard to tell this--that slips through mymind--because I know so little that even as the Three told it to me itpassed from me for lack of place to stand upon," she went on,quaintly. "Something there was of time when earth and sun were butcold mists in the--the heavens--something of these mists drawingtogether, whirling, whirling, faster and faster--drawing as theywhirled more and more of the mists--growing larger, growingwarm--forming at last into the globes they are, with others spinningaround the sun--something of regions within this globe where vast firewas prisoned and bursting forth tore and rent the young orb--of onesuch bursting forth that sent what you call moon flying out to companyus and left behind those spaces whence we now dwell--and of--of lifeparticles that here and there below grew into the race of the SilentOnes, and those others--but not the _Akka_ which, like you, they saycame from above--and all this I do not understand--do you, Goodwin?"she appealed to me.

  I nodded--for what she had related so fragmentarily was in reality anexcellent approach to the Chamberlain-Moulton theory of a coalescingnebula contracting into the sun and its planets.

  Astonishing was the recognition of this theory. Even more so was thereference to the life particles, the idea of Arrhenius, the greatSwede, of life starting on earth through the dropping of minute, life_spores_, propelled through space by the driving power of light and,encountering favourable environment here, developing through the vastages into man and every other living thing we know.[1]

  Nor was it incredible that in the ancient nebula that was the matrixof our solar system similar, or rather _dissimilar_, particles in allbut the subtle essence we call life, might have become entangled and,resisting every cataclysm as they had resisted the absolute zero ofouter space, found in these caverned spaces their proper environmentto develop into the race of the Silent Ones and--only _they_ couldtell what else!

  "They say," the handmaiden's voice was surer, "they say that intheir--cradle--near earth's heart they grew; grew untroubled by theturmoil and disorder which flayed the surface of this globe. And theysay it was a place of light and that strength came to them from earthheart--strength greater than you and those from which you sprang everderived from sun.

  "At last, ancient, ancient beyond all thought, they say again, wasthis time--they began to know, to--to--realize--themselves. Andwisdom came ever more swiftly. Up from their cradle, because they didnot wish to dwell longer with those--others--they came and found thisplace.

  "When all the face of earth was covered with waters in which livedonly tiny, hungry things that knew naught save hunger and itssatisfaction, _they_ had attained wisdom that enabled them to make pathssuch as we have just travelled and to look out upon those waters! And_laya_ upon _laya_ thereafter, time upon time, they went upon thepaths and watched the flood recede; saw great bare flats of steamingooze appear on which crawled and splashed larger things which hadgrown from the tiny hungry ones; watched the flats rise higher andhigher and green life begin to clothe them; saw mountains uplift andvanish.

  "Ever the green life waxed and the things which crept and crawled grewgreater and took ever different forms; until at last came a time whenthe steaming mists lightened and the things which had begun as littlemore than tiny hungry mouths were huge and monstrous, so huge that thetallest of my _Akka_ would not have reached the knee of the smallestof them.

  "But in none of these, in _none_, was there--realization--ofthemselves, say the Three; naught but hunger driving, always drivingthem to still its crying.

  "So for time upon time the race of the Silent Ones took the paths nomore, placing aside the half-thought that they had of making their wayto earth face even as they had made their way from beside earth heart.They turned wholly to the seeking of wisdom--and after other time ontime they attained that which killed even the faintest shadow of thehalf-thought. For they crept far within the mysteries of life anddeath, they mastered the illusion of space, they lifted the veils ofcreation and of its twin destruction, and they stripped the coveringfrom the flaming jewel of truth--but when they had crept within thosemysteries they bid me tell _you_, Goodwin, they found ever othermysteries veiling the way; and after they had uncovered the jewel oftruth they found it to be a gem of infinite facets and therefore notwholly to be read before eternity's unthinkable end!

  "And for this they were glad--because now throughout eternity mightthey and theirs pursue knowledge over ways illimitable.

  "They conquered light--light that sprang at their bidding from thenothingness that gives birth to all things and in which lie all thingsthat are, have been and shall be; light that streamed through theirbodies cleansing them of all dross; light that was food and drink;light that carried their vision afar or bore to them images out ofspace opening many windows through which they gazed down upon life onthousands upon thousands of the rushing worlds; light that was theflame of life itself and in which they bathed, ever renewing theirown. They set radiant lamps within the stones, and of black light theywove the sheltering shadows and the shadows that slay.

  "Arose from this people those Three--the Silent Ones. They led themall in wisdom so that in the Three grew--pride. And the Three builtthem this place in which we sit and set the Portal in its place andwithdrew from their kind to go alone into the mysteries and to mapalone the facets of Truth Jewel.

  "Then there came the ancestors of the--_Akka_; not as they are now,and glowing but faintly within them the spark of--self-realization.And the _Taithu_ seeing this spark did not slay them. But they tookthe ancient, long untrodden paths and looked forth once more uponearth face. Now on the land were vast forests and a chaos of greenlife. On the shores things scaled and fanged, fought and devoured eachother, and in the green life moved bodies great and small that slewand ran from those that would slay.

  "They searched for the passage through which the _Akka_ had come andclosed it. Then the Three took them and brought them here; and taughtthem and blew upon the spark until it burned ever stronger and in timethey became much as they are now--my _Akka_.

  "The Three took counsel after this and said--'We have strengthenedlife in these until it has become articulate; shall we not _create_life?'" Again she hesitated, her eyes rapt, dreaming. "The Three arespeaking," she murmured. "They have my tongue--"

  And certainly, with an ease and rapidity as though she were but avoice through which minds far more facile, more powerful poured theirthough
ts, she spoke.

  "Yea," the golden voice was vibrant. "We said that what we wouldcreate should be of the spirit of life itself, speaking to us with thetongues of the far-flung stars, of the winds, of the waters, and ofall upon and within these. Upon that universal matrix of matter, thatmother of all things that you name the ether, we laboured. Think notthat her wondrous fertility is limited by what ye see on earth or whathas been on earth from its beginning. Infinite, infinite are the formsthe mother bears and countless are the energies that are part of her.

  "By our wisdom we had fashioned many windows out of our abode andthrough them we stared into the faces of myriads of worlds, and uponthem all were the children of ether even as the worlds themselves wereher children.

  "Watching we learned, and learning we formed that ye term the Dweller,which those without name--the Shining One. Within the Universal Motherwe shaped it, to be a voice to tell us her secrets, a lamp to gobefore us lighting the mysteries. Out of the ether we fashioned it,giving it the soul of light that still ye know not nor perhaps evermay know, and with the essence of life that ye saw blossoming deep inthe abyss and that is the pulse of earth heart we filled it. And wewrought with pain and with love, with yearning and with scorchingpride and from our travail came the Shining One--our child!

  "There is an energy beyond and above ether, a purposeful, sentientforce that laps like an ocean the furthest-flung star, that transfusesall that ether bears, that sees and speaks and feels in us and in you,that is incorporate in beast and bird and reptile, in tree and grassand all living things, that sleeps in rock and stone, that findssparkling tongue in jewel and star and in all dwellers within thefirmament. And this ye call consciousness!

  "We crowned the Shining One with the seven orbs of light which are thechannels between it and the sentience we sought to make articulate,the portals through which flow its currents and so flowing, becomechoate, vocal, self-realizant within our child.

  "But as we shaped, there passed some of the essence of our pride; ingiving will we had given power, perforce, to exercise that will forgood or for evil, to speak or to be silent, to tell us what we wishedof that which poured into it through the seven orbs or to withholdthat knowledge itself; and in forging it from the immortal energies wehad endowed it with their indifference; open to all consciousness itheld within it the pole of utter joy and the pole of utter woe withall the arc that lies between; all the ecstasies of the countlessworlds and suns and all their sorrows; all that ye symbolize as godsand all ye symbolize as devils--not negativing each other, for thereis no such thing as negation, but holding them together, balancingthem, encompassing them, pole upon pole!"

  So _this_ was the explanation of the entwined emotions of joy and terrorthat had changed so appallingly Throckmartin's face and the faces ofall the Dweller's slaves!

  The handmaiden's eyes grew bright, alert, again; the brooding passedfrom her face; the golden voice that had been so deep found its ownfamiliar pitch.

  "I listened while the Three spoke to you," she said. "Now the shapingof the Shining One had been a long, long travail and time had flownover the outer world _laya_ upon _laya_. For a space the Shining Onewas content to dwell here; to be fed with the foods of light: to openthe eyes of the Three to mystery upon mystery and to read for themfacet after facet of the gem of truth. Yet as the tides ofconsciousness flowed through it they left behind shadowings and echoesof their burdens; and the Shining One grew stronger, always strongerof _itself within itself_. Its will strengthened and now not always wasit the will of the Three; and the pride that was woven in the makingof it waxed, while the love for them that its creators had set withinit waned.

  "Not ignorant were the _Taithu_ of the work of the Three. First therewere a few, then more and more who coveted the Shining One and whowould have had the Three share with them the knowledge it drew in forthem. But the Silent Ones in their pride, would not.

  "There came a time when its will was now _all_ its own, and it rebelled,turning its gaze to the wider spaces beyond the Portal, offeringitself to the many there who would serve it; tiring of the Three,their control and their abode.

  "Now the Shining One has its limitations, even as we. Over water itcan pass, through air and through fire; but pass it cannot, throughrock or metal. So it sent a message--how I know not--to the _Taithu_who desired it, whispering to them the secret of the Portal. And whenthe time was ripe they opened the Portal and the Shining One passedthrough it to them; nor would it return to the Three though theycommanded, and when they would have forced it they found that it hadhived and hidden a knowledge that they could not overcome.

  "Yet by their arts the Three could have shattered the seven shiningorbs; but they would not because--they loved, it!

  "Those to whom it had gone built for it that place I have shown you,and they bowed to it and drew wisdom from it. And ever they turnedmore and more from the ways in which the _Taithu_ had walked--for itseemed that which came to the Shining One through the seven orbs hadless and less of good and more and more of the power you call evil.Knowledge it gave and understanding, yes; but not that which, clearand serene, lights the paths of right wisdom; rather were they flarespointing the dark roads that lead to--to the ultimate evil!

  "Not all of the race of the Three followed the counsel of the ShiningOne. There were many, many, who would have none of it nor of itspower. So were the _Taithu_ split; and to this place where there hadbeen none, came hatred, fear and suspicion. Those who pursued theancient ways went to the Three and pleaded with them to destroy theirwork--and they would not, for still they loved it.

  "Stronger grew the Dweller and less and less did it lay before itsworshippers--for now so they had become--the fruits of its knowledge;and it grew--restless--turning its gaze upon earth face even as it hadturned it from the Three. It whispered to the _Taithu_ to take againthe paths and look out upon the world. Lo! above them was a greatfertile land on which dwelt an unfamiliar race, skilled in arts,seeking and finding wisdom--mankind! Mighty builders were they; vastwere their cities and huge their temples of stone.

  "They called their lands Muria and they worshipped a god Thanaroa whomthey imagined to be the maker of all things, dwelling far away. Theyworshipped as closer gods, not indifferent but to be prayed to and tobe propitiated, the moon and the sun. Two kings they had, each withhis council and his court. One was high priest to the moon and theother high priest to the sun.

  "The mass of this people were black-haired, but the sun king and hisnobles were ruddy with hair like mine; and the moon king and hisfollowers were like Yolara--or Lugur. And this, the Three say,Goodwin, came about because for time upon time the law had been thatwhenever a ruddy-haired or ashen-tressed child was born of theblack-haired it became dedicated at once to either sun god or moongod, later wedding and bearing children only to their own kind. Untilat last from the black-haired came no more of the light-locked ones,but the ruddy ones, being stronger, still arose from them."

  [1] Professor Svante August Arrhenius, in his _Worlds in the Making_--theconception that life is universally diffused, constantly emittedfrom all habitable worlds in the form of spores which traverse spacefor years and ages, the majority being ultimately destroyed by theheat of some blazing star, but some few finding a resting-place onglobes which have reached the habitable stage.--W. T. G.