He was crying. His face and his beard were streaked with tears. He was crying, almost screaming at them—but he would not let them pass....
"I didn't mean to kill them! Mother of God, why didn't you take me instead! Only wanted to cripple the power so they'd be stranded.... All right! Keep back! You, too, Dark Eyes! Those sacrifices mean nothing now, boys.... Just a smoking pit back there filled with radiation. But what would you know about that? Thank God now you'll never know! That's the first and the last mushroom cloud you'll ever see. Go on back to your Paradise. Maybe you'll never know I saved it for you.... Go on! Beat it!"
"He killed all the other gods, Derla. In his madness he destroyed the great sky-cave, and now not even he can return to the country of the sky."
"I don't think he meant to kill the others. He cried for days about it."
"And got terribly drunk! We had to stop giving him qaral-juice. It was making him sick so that he could not eat, and he grew thin."
"But he has been gone for many, many suns. Do you think he is dead?"
"He is a god. Perhaps he will never die. He went away because he knew we were afraid of him. In fact, he is not welcome in any of the families."
"He is a lonely God. I have made up my mind, my brother. I am sad because he is sad. If our people will not comfort him then I must. I am going to him. I will try and make him a happy God once more."