"Solon Regh, from behind his steel door, where the pure air was, sorrowed for us, and counseled us to pick up our lives as best we could. He did not dare come out because the radiance did not leave, but hung about the palace. We did not care any more. We knew the radiance would always be there, but it could not hurt us now. Solon Regh and his family did all they could for us, and remembered all the wonderful knowledge that we had forgotten. They tried to teach us, but we had forgotten how to learn, too." "We? We?" George Seeling screamed. "What are you talking about?" "We ghels. Do you not understand? _We_ were the old ones." "Oh, God!" George said. "The Radiance is still in the buildings. That is what we tried to tell you before. But it is too late now. It has touched you." "Let me out of here!" Seeling sobbed. "I won't be changed by any damned radiation. I'll go back to Earth. They'll help me. They'll know what to do. He-help me, dammit!" "You will not go back," the ghel said. "I am sorry, but you really cannot go back like this; you will be more at home here from now on." All the ghels looked at George Seeling with sad, limpid stares. They were silent. There wasn't any more to be said. Nothing that they could think of. And George Seeling, squatting there, gazed back at them with big, saucer eyes.