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Authors: Robert Adams
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naturally produce, the Elder Ones—having meantime discovered some large islands which contained fewer deposits of the natural elements which had proven so inimical to their kind—departed the enclaves, taking with them
a few of the most promising of the newer generations, added a few more promising pure-strain humans that they gathered from here and there, then began all over again in the newfound, more-salubrious lands."
"Is this place, this Tiro-whatchamacallit, one of those islands, Puss?" asked Fitz. "What ocean is it in, anyway?"
"It is . . . and it isn't," replied the feline. "Once, long and long and very long ago, as humans measure time, there existed an island exactly like to this one in the world from which you came, but shortly after most of the great ice-sheets melted away, it ceased to be, as did the entire archipelago save one island. No, Tiro-na-N'Og, wherein we now lie, long ago ceased to exist in the world from which you came, old friend. Fish swim over its bones and sea creatures of the great depths crawl upon them, in that world."
"How did the inundations affect the breeding experiments of the ones you call the Elder Race?"
"The subsidences were mostly gradual, so no lives were lost among the hybrids. Some of them and most of the ever-fewer Elder Ones went to the one remaining island, which had been most northerly of the archipelago. Of the others, small groups roamed here and there for a while among the savage, predatory races of pure-strain humans. Here and there, a few settled amongst their near-kin and, with their powers and relatively advanced technological abilities, became leaders of one kind or another to the primitives they and their get came to rule. But each succeeding generation became shorter and shorter lived and possessed less and less of the powers until,
in time, their descendants were only rarely different at all from their fellow pure-strain humans, so dilute had their precious heritage become.
"Other small groups, wishing to keep their heritage intact and pure in their children, sought out and settled in out-of-the-way places—mountaintops, oases deep in vast deserts, in the depths of swamps or the frigid wastes of the ice-lands, all of these places made comfortable to them by their great powers and that capable of being wrought by such powers. But these hybrids owned also great compassion for their near-kin, pure-strain humans, and despite the dangers— for more than just once, that great compassion for suffering beasts and humans has been the eventual ruination if not physical death of them and their
g get—they moved among their powerless kindred to teach them ways to live better-fed, more comfortably, threatened by fewer natural dangers. They did much to better the lot of the pure humans . . . and sooner or later all were repaid, but always in a hard, bitter coin—suffering and even death being the lot of some/' "Are there any of them still around in my . . . in
f the world I came from, Puss?" asked Fitz. "Any of the Elder Race or these hybrids?"
\ The response, though silent like all telepathy, bore
! a tinge of sadness. "Of the Elder Ones, old friend, no, there are none left in that world of humans and other beasts. But, yes, a few of the descendants of those who survived the subsidence of that archipelago still dwell here and there, though wishing to continue to survive, they have all used their powers
to conceal their true nature from their still-savage near-kin, the relatively pure humans/'
"These Elder Ones all finally died out, then?" asked Fitz.
"Five remain extant, in this world," stated the cat, "though even the youngest of them is old beyond the calculations of any pure-strain human. But not even the Dagda has knowingly seen or enjoyed converse with one in the space of centuries of human-reckoned time . . . or so I have been told."
"Then just how does anyone know that they are still alive in this world, or just how many they are, if they're not seen
a few of the most promising of the newer generations, added a few more promising pure-strain humans that they gathered from here and there, then began all over again in the newfound, more-salubrious lands."
"Is this place, this Tiro-whatchamacallit, one of those islands, Puss?" asked Fitz. "What ocean is it in, anyway?"
"It is . . . and it isn't," replied the feline. "Once, long and long and very long ago, as humans measure time, there existed an island exactly like to this one in the world from which you came, but shortly after most of the great ice-sheets melted away, it ceased to be, as did the entire archipelago save one island. No, Tiro-na-N'Og, wherein we now lie, long ago ceased to exist in the world from which you came, old friend. Fish swim over its bones and sea creatures of the great depths crawl upon them, in that world."
"How did the inundations affect the breeding experiments of the ones you call the Elder Race?"
"The subsidences were mostly gradual, so no lives were lost among the hybrids. Some of them and most of the ever-fewer Elder Ones went to the one remaining island, which had been most northerly of the archipelago. Of the others, small groups roamed here and there for a while among the savage, predatory races of pure-strain humans. Here and there, a few settled amongst their near-kin and, with their powers and relatively advanced technological abilities, became leaders of one kind or another to the primitives they and their get came to rule. But each succeeding generation became shorter and shorter lived and possessed less and less of the powers until,
in time, their descendants were only rarely different at all from their fellow pure-strain humans, so dilute had their precious heritage become.
"Other small groups, wishing to keep their heritage intact and pure in their children, sought out and settled in out-of-the-way places—mountaintops, oases deep in vast deserts, in the depths of swamps or the frigid wastes of the ice-lands, all of these places made comfortable to them by their great powers and that capable of being wrought by such powers. But these hybrids owned also great compassion for their near-kin, pure-strain humans, and despite the dangers— for more than just once, that great compassion for suffering beasts and humans has been the eventual ruination if not physical death of them and their
g get—they moved among their powerless kindred to teach them ways to live better-fed, more comfortably, threatened by fewer natural dangers. They did much to better the lot of the pure humans . . . and sooner or later all were repaid, but always in a hard, bitter coin—suffering and even death being the lot of some/' "Are there any of them still around in my . . . in
f the world I came from, Puss?" asked Fitz. "Any of the Elder Race or these hybrids?"
\ The response, though silent like all telepathy, bore
! a tinge of sadness. "Of the Elder Ones, old friend, no, there are none left in that world of humans and other beasts. But, yes, a few of the descendants of those who survived the subsidence of that archipelago still dwell here and there, though wishing to continue to survive, they have all used their powers
to conceal their true nature from their still-savage near-kin, the relatively pure humans/'
"These Elder Ones all finally died out, then?" asked Fitz.
"Five remain extant, in this world," stated the cat, "though even the youngest of them is old beyond the calculations of any pure-strain human. But not even the Dagda has knowingly seen or enjoyed converse with one in the space of centuries of human-reckoned time . . . or so I have been told."
"Then just how does anyone know that they are still alive in this world, or just how many they are, if they're not seen
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