He paused. "Who will go?"

"I will!" said Sashang. "For I saw the waters of that world, and they are swift and strong, unlike the placid lake Sonuria. That way I can be close to my lover, Sagin. I can be away from your 'justice' yet still do some good."

"It is well, Sashang. Then you will go, and all waters, especially those of the wild ocean, shall be your dominion."

Linfal spoke. "Sashang's doom must be my own. Indeed, in the ordering of that realm, wisdom and knowledge is needed. I can throw a light across the skies in my wandering, also. I will go."

"I will miss you, Linfal. Yet you do right to go. They will call you the Moon, and you will indeed shed a silvery light over all. Shall she be the only one to cast such a light?"

Tuao spoke. "Note that when Sagin cast your form down, I did not bring my light to full brillance, afraid of attracting attention to myself. I was acting the coward, which hurts my pride. Also, I would not even exist if it were not for Sagin's trickery. I will go also. There is no need of light here in the Greater World---you supply that in abundence. But there, I can muster a greater light even than Linfal."

"It shall be so. The Sun they will call you, and praise you, Tuao."

Mayalaph spoke. "There I must be, also. Reproduction and passion are my province. It will be in great abundence there, whereas it will always occur very rarely in the timeless Greater World. I am needed...and I am desired...there."

C'Don nodded. "You are right. Your passion is needed there."

Zaer spoke. "Here there is life unending. But if I felt aright, there the animals have an ending to their lives. They are mortal, and apt to die. I do not know about your later creations, but endings appeal to me. They are my province, just as passion is Mayalaph's. So I must journey there."

"You speak truly. Indeed, when men come, you will find your duties increased, to help convey a dead soul to the Greater World. You are indeed needed there, grim Zaer."

Angusin gazed at Linfal, whom he loved; then he gazed at his parents, and Pipiath and Iader. He had to choose, and the parting was bitter. Yet he said,"Shall all the second generation of Kaanho go to your creation except Angusin? No. For this world sounds like a true challenge, and I have ever loved challenges."

C'Don smiled. "You are indeed needed, Angusin. To you who dared strive with Sagin, who took action when none else would, who leads and does not follow...such a one will be very much needed in days to come. To you I give marks of especial favor." From his cloak of many colors C'Don brought out a small blue object. He gestured, and it grew in his light, until large enough to fit Angusin.

"This armor and spear is as impenetrable as Sagin's prison. Wear it, as a token of my favor. You shall be the leader, first among the Kaanho who journey to my world, Tu, the World Waterrimmed."

Seyhe spoke. "You do not want us--Nado, Iader, Pipiath, or myself--to go?"

"No. For you personify eternal traits. They do not. Here, they will always be subservient to you or me, and never happy."

"And will we be happy, without our children?"

"Will you be happy if they stay here...unhappy?" C'Don paused. "The parting will not be forever, though it will be long. I will finally bring the world of Tu to an ending, and then the Kaanho will be reunited. But for now...they are needed there...and you are needed here."

"How will we fit in your ring, C'Don?" asked Angusin.

Now, Pipiath had a boat that he sometimes maneuvered on the Lake Sonuria, called Release. C'Don said, "Pipiath. Bring your boat here."

Pipiath quickly complied. "Now. Put that boat in the river of Noth, the river of Time. Let the younger Kaanho enter it, and let Angusin take the helm."

A few minutes they took to say their goodbyes. Then Angusin, Tuao, Mayalaph, Linfal, Zaer, and Sashang were in the boat. Nado gave the boat a push, and swiftly it sped down the river. As they went, they noticed the pebbles on the riverside getting bigger and bigger. The stream, rather than narrowing with distance, seemed to be always the same size.

"We are shrinking," said Linfal. "Smaller and smaller we are getting." The river meandered around the mountains of Chaos, and suddenly they saw in front of them a great Flame, that the river of Time was going into. Tuao breathed fire in return. But from the Flame came the voice of C'Don.

"Fear not. This is your entryway to your new world."

They passed through the Flame...which did not burn, but rather filled one with joy unexcelled...and the boat and the river poured out of the flame into a pool...at the top of a tremendous mountain. Rocks piled up kept the boat from going further. Yet the water kept on pouring in a narrower stream, going down the western side of the mountain, to pour into the sea. Both Linfal, with silvery moonlight, and Tuao sun-dragon, with harsh sunlight, gave light to a world that had none. A tremendous world it looked, and slowly, the sleeping animals came awake.

"Here is our world!" cried Angusin. "A world of challenges and surprises, and not the steady peace of the Greater World."

Behind them, the voice of C'Don spoke. "Well said. You may always speak to me, Angusin, though this Flame."

"Then I will build my citadel here."

Sashang imapaitently leaped from the boat, feeling it was beneath her to ride such a craft. She leaped past the rocks, and rode the stream down, down, down until she reached the sea. There she abode and those seas she controlled.

Linfal said, "I must be true to my oath. But occasionally I will return, Angusin. First though, I must get all the knowledge I can about this new world...our new home."

Then clothed in her black cloak, she moved in the sky, a New Moon indeed shedding a very little silvery light.

Ever did the waters of the ocean follow the moon, though, which men would someday call the tide, as Sashang reached in sympathy for her sister, Linfal.

Tuao took wing, also. "I must explore and shed my light where Sagin's shadows lie." First Tuao flew underneath the "plate" on which Tu proper lies, to gaze at the under-ocean. Hours later, he returned above the "plate" and appeared as the sun in the sky for the very first time. As of yet, no stars were in the sky.

That left Angusin, Zaer, and Mayalaph. Together they started to build a great city, that gleamed like a star atop the highest mountain of Tu, nor were there other stars to take away from its glory. They called it the White City, or Chialta. Slowly they began the shaping of their world, ere Man was created. Sagin, too, via shadows, was exploring this new realm, to try to find how to turn it to his advantage.

Yet in the Greater World, it seemed almost too still. Seyhe sighed. "So it is back to us four."

"There will be more to come," said C'Don. "Without Mayalaph you cannot have any more children...while Mayalaph was unborn, that virtue belonged to Iader, but it went into her child, and her child is no longer here. Yet there are other beings who will soon start to fill the Greater World...once they spent their time in the lesser."

"Yet it does not recompense us for the loss of our children," said Seyhe, and her tears fell. C'Don reached out and caught the teardrops in his hand.

"Yes. That will be a grief to you. But not an intolerable one, I think." There was a pause.

"Now we will begin the creating of Man, who will take on both matters temporal and spiritual. Each of you will bear a part."

Next Chapter.