a man my age does not hurry in the heat of the midday sun—maddugs nenglishmin go out in the midday sun, as the ancients say, although i often wonder why—but xeon and melia ran all the way down to the city. they are of an age to enter manhood, and have all the energy such young men do.

as we entered the city, we were surrounded by confusion and consternation. and can the simple people be blamed? they were aware that they stood in the midst of an unprecedented happening; indeed, an emergency. for a machine had failed!

not in the memory of the eldest among us has a machine failed. they were created so long ago, indeed, that the ignorant believe them to have been constructed by the gods themselves. and never, so far as i know, has one failed. small wonder that the watcher had been negligent. indeed, the watcher is more a tradition than a necessity. besides, had he been sober, he would not have known what to do. for who knows the mysterious workings of the machines?