“Are you so slow to learn that?”
“It is the mud from the pit, the same from which the clay tablets were formed, from the old land between the rivers. I’ve dreamed of the six-fingered hand reaching up from the pit and overshadowing us all. And I have read: ‘The people first counted by fives and tens from the number of fingers on their hands. But before the people—for the reason that they had—counted by sixes and twelves.’ But time has left blanks in those tablets.”
“Yes, time in one of its manifestations has deftly and with a purpose left those blanks.”
“I cannot discover the name of the thing that goes in one of those blanks. Can you?”
“I am part of the name that goes into one of those blanks.”
“And you are the man without a face. But why is it that you overshadow and control people? And to what purpose?”
“It will be long before you know those answers.”
“When the choice comes to me, it will bear very careful weighing.”
After that a chill descended on the life of Charles Vincent, for all that he still possessed his exceptional powers. And he seldom now indulged in pranks.
Except for Jennifer Parkey.