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He held up a hand in calm salute. "I wish you pleasant travels and success in
all future endeavors."
"The sentiment is naturally valued," said Cugel with some bitterness. "You
might however have rendered a more meaningful service by extending a share of
your noon meal."
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Pharesm's placid benevolence was as before. "This would have been an act of
mistaken altruism. Too fulsome a generosity corrupts the recipient and
stultifies his resource."
Cugel gave a bitter laugh. "I am a man of iron principle, and I will not
complain, even though, lacking any better fare, I was forced to devour a great
transparent insect which I found at the heart of your rock-carving."
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The Eyes of the Overworld
Pharesm swung about with a suddenly intent expression. "A great transparent
insect, you say?"
"Insect, epiphyte, mollusc who knows? It resembled no creature I have yet
seen, and its flavor even after carefully grilling at the brazier, was not
distinctive."
Pharesm floated seven feet into the air, to turn the full power of his gaze
down at Cugel. He spoke in a low harsh voice: "Describe this creature in
detail!"
Wondering at Pharesm's severity, Cugel obeyed. "It was thus and thus as to
dimension." He indicated with his hands. "In color it was a gelatinous
transparency shot with numberless golden specks. These flickered and pulsed
when the creature was disturbed. The tentacles seemed to grow flimsy and
disappear rather than terminate. The creature evinced a certain sullen
determination, and ingestion proved difficult."
Pharesm clutched at his head, hooking his fingers into the yellow down of his
hair. He rolled his eyes upward and uttered a tragic cry. "Ah! Five hundred
years I have toiled to entice this creature, despairing, doubting, brooding by
night, yet never abandoning hope that my calculations were accurate and my
great talisman cogent. Then, when finally it appears, you fall upon it for no
other reaeson than to sate your repulsive gluttony!"
Cugel, somewhat daunted by Pharesm's wrath, asserted his absence of malicious
intent. Pharesm would not be mollified. He pointed out that Cugel had
committed trespass and hence had forfeited the option of pleading innocence.
"Your very existence is a mischief, compounded by bringing the unpleasant fact
to my notice. Benevolence prompted me to forebearance, which now I perceive
for a grave mistake."
"In this case," stated Cugel with dignity, "I will depart your presence at
once. I wish you good fortune for the balance of the day, and now, farewell."
"Not so fast," said Pharesm hi the coldest of voices. "Exactitude has been
disturbed; the wrong which has been committed demands a counter-act to
validate the Law of Equipoise. I can define the gravity of your act hi this
manner: should I explode you on this instant into the most minute of your
parts the atonement would measure one ten-millionth of your offense. A more
stringent retribution becomes necessary."
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The Eyes of the Overworld
Cugel spoke in great distress. "I understand that an act of consequence was
performed, but remember! my participation was basically casual. I
categorically declare first my absolute innocence, second my lack of criminal
intent, and third my effusive apologies. And now, since I
have many leagues to travel, I will "
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Pharesm made a peremptory gesture. Cugel fell silent. Pharesm drew a deep
breath. "You fail to understand the calamity you have visited upon me. I will
explain, so that you may not be astounded by the rigors which await you. As I
have adumbrated, the arrival of the creature was the culmination of my great
effort. I determined its nature through a perusal of forty-two thousand
librams, all written in cryptic language: a task requiring a hundred years.
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During a second hundred years I evolved a pattern to draw it in upon itself
and prepared exact specification. Next
I assembled stone-cutters, and across a period of three hundred years gave
solid form to my pattern. Since like subsumes like, the variates and
intercongeles create a suprapullulation of all areas, qualities and intervals
into a crystorrhoid whorl, eventually exciting the ponentiation of a
pro-ubietal chute. Today occurred the concatenation; the 'creature,' as you
call it, pervolved upon, itself; in your idiotic malice you devoured it."
Cugel, with a trace of haughtiness, pointed out that the "idiotic malice" to
which the distraught sorcerer referred was In actuality simple hunger. "In any
event, what is so extraordinary about the 'creature'? Others equally ugly may
be found in the net of any fisherman."
Pharesm drew himself to his full height, glared down at Cugel. "The
'creature,' " he said In a grating voice, "is TOTALITY. The central globe is
all of space, viewed from the inverse. The tubes are vortices into various
eras, and what terrible acts you have accomplished with your prodding and
poking, your boiling and chewing, are impossible to imagine!"
"What of the effects of digestion?" inquired Cugel delicately. "Will the
various components of space, time and existence retain their identity after
passing the length of my inner tract?"
"Bah. The concept is jejune. Enough to say that you have wreaked damage and
created a serious tension hi the
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The Eyes of the Overworld ontological fabric. Inexorably you are required to
restore equilibrium."
Cugel held out his hands. "Is it not possible a mistake has been made? That
the 'creature' was no more than pseudo-TOTALITY? Or is it conceivable that the
'creature' may by some means be lured forth once more?"
"The first two theories are untenable. As to the last, I must confess that
certain frantic expedients have been forming in my mind." Pharesm made a sign,
and Cugel's feet became attached to the soil. "I must go to my divina-tory and
learn the full significance of the distressing events.
In due course I will return,"
"At which time I will be feeble with hunger," said Cugel fretfully. "Indeed, a
crust of bread and a bite of cheese would have averted all the events for
which I am now reproached."
"Silence!" thundered Pharesm. "Do not forget that your penalty remains to be
fixed; it is the height of impudent recklessness to hector a person already
struggling to maintain his judicious calm!"
"Allow me to say this much," replied CugeL "If you return from your divining
to find me dead and desiccated here on the path, you will have wasted much
time fixing upon a penalty."
"The restoration of vitality is a small task," said Pharesm. "A variety of
deaths by contrasting processes may well enter into your judgment," He started
toward his divinatory, then turned back and made an impatient gesture. "Come,
it is easier to feed you than return to the road."
Cugel's feet were once more free and he followed Pharesm through a wide arch
into the divinatory.
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