7 Someday, perhaps soon, we will learn the
purpose of your existence, but until that day we must simply do our
best to carry on and do all the good we can until the time we know what
purpose we are to serve."
8 Morn hugged his mother. "I'm glad in this time and place," he
praised, "destiny gave me you! I don't think anyone else would do!"
9 His mother laughed. "Get your lessons done, young man! " she
insisted, "No more of this goofing off! You've got tests coming up, and
your Father expects you to keep up your grades!"
10 "Yes, mother," Morn smiled. He returned to his lessons and soon had
them done. His mother wasn't the only one to notice his sad moods. The
Lord God too, was concerned about his son's depression. "My Golden
Dreamer is just not himself lately," The Lord God commented as he and
Morn played racquetball in the Palace courtyard.
11 "Father," said Morn, "I know it distresses you, but I would like to
speak of it. Why did your brother become the way he did? You told me
that in your youth you were both ordinary boys, that you had enjoyed
life in the Palace with all its educations. Why did your brother turn
from women to men?"
12 The Lord God let Morn's shot go by him, and held up his racket.
"Enough," he said. "Let's go sit on the bench and talk." Morn followed
his father and sat down beside him. "It all started," began The Lord
God, "after the third Western Rebellion. It's forbidden to speak of it
in the Palace, but I don't doubt you've heard the stories, the things
my Father did.
13 I was away at the time, completing a term of duty with The Fleet,
but my brother had been with the ships that had put down the Rebellion
and had been put in charge of the prisoners that had been brought back.
14 I do not like to think of the horror that was in this Palace for
those four years. But when it was finally