Yet the darkness was more than the absence of light. It was more, even, than the utter jet-blackness of intergalactic space. It was an active blackness, a _presence_ of blackness, and it filled the room to the very edge of the door, untouched by the normal light from the hallway. The most frightening thing about it was that he felt an impulse to move into the room, a strong pull into the room, into the blackness. As he instinctively resisted, the pull grew stronger. And then Birkala was terrified. For the pull was so strong that he could not step back away from the yawning door. In a semi-daze, he fought with his mind, for the force was not a physical one. He fought, and he felt his control slipping. There came a commotion from the bedroom behind him, the sound of upraised voices. There was Direka's agonized chatter, a shrill protest, and the firm angry voice of a woman. He was able to turn his head slightly to see Spira come through the opening into the hallway. Birkala could not speak. He tried to warn Spira back with his strained, stinging eyes. But, unclothed as she had been at the fountain, she walked purposefully to him. "Birkala, you know Erik does not wish you tampering with these forbidden things!" she chided, and laid a restraining hand on his shoulder. At her touch, the powerful attractive force drained from Birkala in a rush. Released, he staggered back and fell against the opposite wall of the corridor. But Spira was yanked into the black room like a filing to a magnet, and vanished utterly. * * * * * When Spira left him to go into the house, Erik sat for a few moments, studying his unfinished canvas critically. Now, an arc of pure orange there, a trace of subdued green there.... A disturbing current intruded from the outer fringes of his mind, that still undeveloped realm of precognition. There was something ... something was to happen ... to Spira! He rose in haste, and strode swiftly into the house. He encountered the hunchback sneaking from the direction of the bedroom. At sight of him, Direka broke into an awkward trot toward the front door. There was something in his face that made Erik speed his steps. The hidden panel to the back of the house was open. Erik burst through it. The transmitter was on, and its electrical aura hovered ominously around the door of the transmission room. In the hallway across from that door, Birkala was struggling to his feet. Erik seized Birkala in time to prevent him from hurling himself into the blackness of the activated room. "Spira!" gasped Birkala. "She was pulled in there!" With the strength of a giant, Erik hurled Birkala the length of the corridor. "Get out!" he roared. "Quickly!" Erik plunged into the holocaust of hostile blackness. The room was endless, infinite. It was all space and all beyond space, and there was no light there for human eyes to see.