Fall; or, Dodge in Hell - Neal Stephenson Page 0,265

to do,” Zula said. Not agreeing. Just trying to translate what the Metatron was saying.

“Exactly.”

Part 9

45

During the months that they had ranged over the sea of grass, dwelled on the hill, and explored the valley of the wolves, Adam and Eve had from time to time noticed small knots of aura nestled in deep grass or lodged in the forks of trees. They were typically no larger than a fist and could be difficult to see when looked on directly. In the corner of one’s eye they could be detected, and their presence confirmed by the gentle thrill that they raised in the flesh when the hand was brought near them. But they could not really be touched, or clearly discerned, being more the absence than the presence of form. Some grew stronger than others and emitted a faint light of their own that could be seen on dark nights as dim soft gleamings. These came and went, and on moonless nights, when observed from the top of the hill, they seemed to drift westward toward the wooded river valley as if drawn toward the red glow in the night sky beyond.

Mab had explained to them that these were new souls but lately come into the world, which were still in need of solid forms. Those that came into the world at the Hive surrounding El’s palace were predisposed to fashion themselves into cells and conjoin themselves to those that had got there before. But others, such as Mab herself, began their lives as solitary motes and might drift about the Land for some while before adopting forms. It was the natural way of such nascent souls to be drawn toward the habitations of others who had dwelled longer in the Land, and this was why Adam and Eve could observe the westward drift on dark nights: these new souls had sensed that a city existed to the west.

During the night that they had spent high up in the tree, they had seen no such wandering souls because their vision had been dazzled by the light of the fire they had kindled below to ward off wild beasts. But earlier today, as they had hiked up out of the valley and over the ranges of hills between it and the city, they had many times glimpsed bubbles of aura or sensed them in their toes as they’d happened to plant a foot near one. After Adam and Eve had spied the tower of white stone that topped the ridge above the city, they’d had eyes only for that—and, when it had come into view below them, the city itself with its innumerable roofs, smoking chimneys, and open fires. But as evening had drawn on, Eve had looked back behind them, checking for wolves, and had seen that they were being followed, not by beasts, but by scores of new souls drifting and bumbling along in their wake.

The tower on the hill had evidently been made by piling one stone block atop another until the desired height had been reached. The closer they came to it, the less it truly resembled the Palace, and yet it could not be questioned that those who had piled up the blocks had sought to imitate the stupendous Pinnacle of El. The structure was several times the height of Adam or Eve—comparable to the height of the great nut tree that stood atop their hill. Its lower portion was simple in design, being just a tapering cone with a spiral ramp twining around it, but above a certain point it became square and vertical, with columns and arches modeled after those of the Palace. Three levels of these, narrowing as they went up, were topped by a small flat roof upon which a fire burned. Adam and Eve by now knew enough of fires to understand that they must be fed, and indeed they could see other souls, of a shape similar to their own, ascending the spiral ramp bent under bundles of wood that they had collected from the forest.

“Welcome in El’s name to Elkirk!” were the first words spoken to them by a soul who was standing not far from the base of the tower. Like the wood carriers, he was of a size and a general shape similar to that of Adam and of Eve. He was dressed in a long garment that looked as if it was supposed to be white. Or perhaps it had been once, and had become darkened