Not by the strength of the Child, for the Child grows weak and old, the days of its dominion are almost done, and its worship is almost outworn.

Here alone that worship lingers, but new gods, who are still the old gods, press on to take its place and to lead it to its rest.' "How then shall you conquer that, when the Child has departed to its own place, a remnant of you may still remain?
In one way only--so says the Guardian, the Nurturer of the Child speaking with the voice of the Child; by the help of those whom you have summoned to your aid from far.
There were four of them, but one you have suffered to be slain in the maw of the Watcher in the cave.

It was an evil deed, O sons and daughters of the Child, for as the Watcher is now dead, so ere long many of you who planned this deed must die who, had it not been for that man's blood, would have lived on a while.

Why did you do this thing?
That you might keep a secret, the secret of the theft of a woman, that you might continue to act a lie which falls upon your head like a stone from heaven.
"Thus saith the Child: 'Lift no hand against the three who remain, and what they shall ask, that give, for thus alone shall some of you be saved from Jana and those who serve him, even though the Guardian and the Child be taken away and the Child itself returned to its own place.' These are the words of the Oracle uttered at the Feast of the First-fruits, the words that cannot be changed and mayhap its last." Harut ceased, and there was silence while this portentous message sank into the minds of his audience.

At length they seemed to understand its ominous nature and from them all there arose a universal, simultaneous groan.