She scarcely dared to think. But she would not leave. She spoke, whispered.
"We have seen you from afar, often. And you have never spoken. And you must be lonely."
"Lonely!" The word came in a racking burst. "I am not lonely. I do not wish to be disturbed. Now go."
She was filled with compassion. "I shall go. But I shall come again. And the others will know of you, and revere you, and perhaps those who seek knowledge will come to you. And you shall have a name."
Tenderly, remembering the naming of her youngest, she renamed her oldest. "To us, you shall be known as Oldster."
She left him with his thoughts....
—I thought to master destiny. But destiny masters me. I cannot exclude the universe which continues to give me life.
—There is space, and there are stars, and of the things to know about them I have little to seek out. I have traveled the star-lanes for eons, filled with my longing, and the search for knowledge has only been the disguised search for my life's completion.
—Yet I have learned. But what I have failed to learn is that which keeps my life burning.