“I have seen such beads, but they are out of reach.”
“There are others. Find those two, and they will take you to the turning-point where everything will be decided.”
“Why can't you just tell me?”
“The knowledge was judged to be too dangerous.”
One year, whispered the count in her head. How could that be? The thought of losing all that time was sickening. She saw why it was: they were slipping into the black hole at an increasing rate. Toruk was aware of it, too. “Yes. My ship senses the presence of Eb and something stirs within it. It knows its journey is almost over, as well.”
“Do you know Eb?”
“I know of him. He left the Tok behind to become what he is long before my days, but I relied on him, and one or two others like him, to fulfil my plans.”
She pressed on with her questions. “What did you mean when you said, the knowledge was judged to be too dangerous? Don't tell me, you vowed not to reveal the truth and a Tok never breaks a promise?”
Again, there was the flicker of amusement over the brain-to-brain connection. “We Tok were wise and, with rare exceptions, respected all life absolutely. But we weren't naïve. Some secrets were considered too dangerous. No, they cut the knowledge from me before they let me live. It was the price I paid for surviving. It was considered too hazardous to simply let me roam the galaxy, telling everyone the truth. I was reduced to leaving hints and scraps of knowledge. If I'd made the path too obvious, it might have been revealed millions of years before it was needed. Too subtle, and it might never have been found.”
“How could you know it wouldn't be followed by someone malicious?”
“Oh, I couldn't; it was a risk. Then again, you found me by befriending the Aetheral and Eb, and because of the sacrifices they made for you. No one who was malign could have done that.”
“Omn,” she said. “Who or what is Omn?”
“A word. The wrong word. It is everything. The light at the heart of the galaxy. You must find it; it is your only hope.”
“Are Omn and Morn words for the same thing?”
“Omn is not a name we ever used. You must find them both. The answer to everything lies at the galactic core. The Magellanic Cloud went there, now you must go too.”
“But are they two names for the same thing?”
“No, no. They are opposite in just about every way it is possible for two lifeforms to be opposite.”
“Are you saying Omn is real?”
“Yes.”
“Do you honestly believe they're still alive out there, the Morn and Omn?”
Toruk considered that. “It is hard to be absolutely sure, as I am blind to so much. But, yes. I am sure the Morn survive, and as to what you call Omn – yes, that, too.”
“How is that possible? Millions of years have passed by in the galaxy since you journeyed into this black hole. These lifeforms can't be alive after so much time.”
“They can, and they are.”
Two years, whispered the count in her head.
“What are these Morn?”
“Whether they were there before us, we never knew. They were confined, isolated, until we, with our urge to explore, turned over the stone beneath which they were hiding and unleashed them upon the galaxy. Before then, we lived in a long age of peace and learning. After that moment, our days were consumed with fighting the long war, with isolating and obliterating them. Where we could, we cauterized the wounds. Where we could not, we isolated whole regions of space in an attempt to contain them.”
“You exploded stars in an attempt to kill everyone.”
“Such calamitous times. They were our civilisations that you saw at the dead star. The remains of our people. They knew there was no other way. The sacrifices made were … terrible. To stem the Morn contagion, they accepted their own end.”
“What else can you tell me that I need to know?”
“The Morn survive and they must be ended. That is all that matters.”
Three years.
“You have to help me more, give me weapons or information,” she said. “There must be something.”
“I don't have weapons, but I have two things to give you. My beloved fellow Tok excised much from my brain – the whereabouts of the Being and the Morn and the waybeads that would take you to them – but they didn't remove what I am. I could still deceive them when I needed to.”
He reached up to touch a blue-green gem, very small, embedded in the long lobe of his left ear. It was the first physical movement he had made, and his fingers shook as he lifted them. He tapped the gem in a rapid pattern, releasing it, then held it out to her with his long fingers.
“Take this. It is the only one in existence, now.”
“It's another bead?”
“No, it is purely decorative, although its crystalline structure is unique. It is an insignia worn by all the Tok. The being you refer to as Omn is blind, perceiving the galaxy through cracked and broken lenses, but it will recognize this, and it will know you have come from me. It might help.”
“Which ear should I put it in?”
“It makes no difference. It will embed itself in either.”
She did as he said, touching the tiny gem to her own left ear. She registered a brief fizz, a tickle, and the stone embedded itself in her flesh just as he'd said. She picked up no energy signature from it. It was just a stone.
“What's the other thing?”
The old Tok delved into the folds of his gown for a moment, then pulled out a metallic object. “You have seen keys like this before, I believe?”
It resembled the objects they'd used to open the metaspace tunnels, although this one was a simple design of three overlapping circles.
“The metakey and the neverkey, yes.”
Her words seemed
