As they resumed their journey across the dim, gradually rising plain, the conversation became even more earnest in character than before. “Although I was not born here,” proceeded Corpang, “I’ve lived here for twenty-five years, and during all that time I have been drawing nearer to Thire, as I hope. But there is this peculiarity about it—the first stages are richer in fruit and more promising than the later ones. The longer a man seeks Thire, the more he seems to absent himself. In the beginning he is felt and known, sometimes as a shape, sometimes as a voice, sometimes an overpowering emotion. Later on all is dry, dark, and harsh in the soul. Then you would think that Thire was a million miles off.” “How do you explain that?” “When everything is darkest, he may be nearest, Maskull.” “But this is troubling you?” “My days are spent in torture.” “You still persist, though? This day darkness can’t be the ultimate state?” “My questions will be answered.” A silence ensued. “What do you propose to show me?” asked Maskull. “The land is about to grow wilder. I am taking you to the Three Figures, which were carved and erected by an earlier race of men. There, we will pray.” “And what then?” “If you are truehearted, you will see things you will not easily forget.” They had been walking slightly uphill in a sort of trough between two parallel, gently sloping downs. The trough now deepened, while the hills on either side grew steeper. They were in an ascending valley and, as it curved this way and that, the landscape was shut off from view. They came to a little spring, bubbling up from the ground. It formed a trickling brook, which was unlike all other brooks in that it was flowing up the valley instead of down. Before long it was joined by other miniature rivulets, so that in the end it became a fair-sized stream. Maskull kept looking at it, and puckering his forehead. “Nature has other laws here, it seems?” “Nothing can exist here that is not a compound of the three worlds.” “Yet the water is flowing somewhere.” “I can’t explain it, but there are three wills in it.” “Is there no such thing as pure Thire-matter?” “Thire cannot exist without Amfuse, and Amfuse cannot exist without Faceny.” Maskull thought this over for some minutes. “That must be so,” he said at last. “Without life there can be no love, and without love there can be no religious feeling.” In the half light of the land, the tops of the hills containing the valley presently attained such a height that they could not be seen. The sides were steep and craggy, while the bed of the valley grew narrower at every step. Not a living organism was visible. All was unnatural and sepulchral. Maskull said, “I feel as if I were dead, and walking in another world.” “I still do not know what you are doing here,” answered Corpang. “Why should I go on making a mystery of it? I came to find Surtur.” “That name I’ve heard—but under what circumstances?” “You forget?”