To calm Dearborne and suppress her worry for the boy, Lloyd and Brook continued to talk. Brook told his guest that he recently taught his wife all that he knew about the Twentieth Century, revealing to her the secrets from that now forgotten time. "Have you taught anyone, other than Lady Dearborne, about the past?" inquired Lloyd. "Not as of yet, Lloyd! But I am prepared to teach the boy, for I believe that he is ready to understand." Brook answered. "We have no children of our own and though it would be wonderful, without is truly best. Our lives are too short and petty in the existence of this world of miseries. Dearborne is also spared a terrible fate by the monastics who are not permitted their lustful intercourse without the potential of a birth." Lloyd did not believe in Brook's notion of life being so miserable. He tried to give him a small dose of Bestenese faith. "That is the very same way that the Old Ones had spoken in Besten, but they found that our lives could be as long as we wished. And our lives could be worth while, too! This may even be our religion. If not, is at least the attitude that we possess! Lloyd closed his eyes and yawned. The talk that they have had, since that afternoon, was tiring even though it was fulfilling. Now he was weary. A need for rest could be seen in Brook's face, as-well-as in Dearborne. They glanced at one another with tear-soft eyes that craved sleep. Dearborne checked Lloyd's bandages before they prepared to leave him. "You will be fine. You are fortunate to survive those evil electrophorics. Maybe the true God is watching over you!" she said as she took Brook under the arm. "Rest ... tomorrow we will talk some more." Brook commanded. "Tomorrow, if you can move around, I will show you more things that you may not have seen before." "Thanks to you, both _ my friends." exclaimed Lloyd. Lloyd fell to sleep once he lay back, and his saviours left the room. CHAPTER FOUR The rain fell throughout the night and into the early morning hours. Just before dawn, the rain had stopped and the sky filled with rainbows as the sun rose over Carter Pass (named after Brook's grandfather, who made Pomperaque a powerful city-state, nearly two centuries earlier). On the streets were the people who hid from the rains, in the dry sanctuaries of their homes. They came out and gathered up their friends and relatives, that laid about in the streets half or entirely naked. Some were still in the dreadful perverted poses brought upon them, by the rain. The gatherers wore masks while they tried to separate those individuals still connected in their copulation. They wore the masks to keep the abominable stench of the human and animal excretions, from reaching them. The heat of the morning sun made the horrid reek worsened to an overwhelming degree.