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Oomphel In The Sky
by
“Then the Great Spirit saw what the Terrans had done, and became angry, for it was not meant for the Terrans to do this, and the Great Spirit cursed the Terrans with a curse of death. It was not death as you know it. Because the Terrans had sinned by laying hands on the Oomphel-Mother, not only their bodies must die, but their spirits also. A Terran has a short life in the body, after that no life.”
“This, then, is the Oomphel Secret. The last skin of the fooshkoot has been peeled away; behold the bitter nut, upon which we Terrans have chewed for more time than anybody can count. Happy people! When you die or are slain, you go to the Place of the Gone Ones, to join your fathers and your fathers’ fathers and to await your children and children’s children. When we die or are slain, that is the end of us.”
“But you have brought your oomphel into this world; have you not brought the curse with it?” somebody asked, frightened.
“No. The People did not sin against the Great Spirit; they have not laid hands on an Oomphel-Mother as we did. The oomphel we bring you will do no harm; do you think we would be so wicked as to bring the curse upon you? It will be good for you to learn about oomphel here; in your Place of the Gone Ones there is much oomphel.”
“Why did your people come to this world, Mailsh Heelbare?” old Shatresh asked. “Was it to try to hide from the curse?”
“There is no hiding from the curse of the Great Spirit, but we Terrans are not a people who submit without strife to any fate. From the time of the Curse of Death on, we have been trying to make spirits for ourselves.”
“But how can you do that?”
“We do not know. The oomphel will not teach us that, though it teaches everything else. We have only learned many ways in which it cannot be done. It cannot be done with oomphel, or with anything that is in our own world. But the Oomphel-Mother made us ships to go to other worlds, and we have gone to many of them, this one among them, seeking things from which we try to make spirits. We are trying to make spirits for ourselves from the crystals that grow in the klooba plants; we may fail with them, too. But I say this; I may die, and all the other Terrans now living may die, and be as though they had never been, but someday we will not fail. Someday our children, or our children’s children, will make spirits for themselves and live forever, as you do.”
“Why were we not told this before, Mailsh Heelbare?”
“We were ashamed to have you know it. We are ashamed to be people without spirits.”
“Can we help you and your people? Maybe our magic might help.”
“It well might. It would be worth trying. But first, you must help yourselves. You and your people are sinning against the Great Spirit as grievously as did the Terrans of old. Be warned in time, lest you answer it as grievously.”
“What do you mean, Mailsh Heelbare?” Old Shatresh was frightened.
“You are making magic to bring the Sky Fire to the World. Do you know what will happen? The World of People will pass whole into the place of the Gone Ones, and both will be destroyed. The World of People is a world of death; everything that lives on it must die. The Place of the Gone Ones is a world of life; everything in it lives forever. The two will strive against each other, and will destroy one another, and there will be nothing in the Sky Fire or the World but fire. This is wisdom which our oomphel teaches us. We know this secret, and with it we make weapons of great destruction.” He looked over the seated shoonoon, picking out those who wore the flame-colored cloaks of the fire-dance. “You–and you–and you,” he said. “You have been making this dreadful magic, and leading your people in it. And which among the rest of you have not been guilty?”