Jimmy laughed. “Only if I’m lucky. I’m having the midday meal with her if I can stay awake.”
Arutha smiled. “You’ll manage.” Then his manner turned somber. “I just wish we had some word about your brother.”
Jimmy nodded. “Me too.”
Arutha squeezed his elder son’s shoulder briefly, then returned to die Prince’s office. Jimmy thought about lunch with Francie and decided he wasn’t as tired as he had been before. He decided he might wander down to the guard captain’s office to see if any reports from the West had come in since the night before. He might be lucky and hear something of Dash.
Pug moved through the door of the “temple,” finding it empty. From behind the converted warehouse he could hear the sounds of shouts and children laughing. He hurried through the empty building, past a makeshift altar, through a kitchen area, and into the work yard attached to the old warehouse.
Nakor squatted near a child who was blowing bubbles with soapy water. Other children chased and grabbed at the bubbles, but the former gambler stared intently at a bubble being formed on the end of the little boy’s pipe. It expanded, as Nakor said, “Slowly, slowly.”
Then, as it reached the size of a melon, the little boy gave in to the impulse to blow hard, and it popped as a stream of tiny bubbles surged from the tip of the pipe. The other children in the yard erupted in laughter, shrieking with delight as the bubbles sailed away on the afternoon breeze.
Pug laughed and Nakor turned. At seeing the magician, Nakor’s face split into a wide grin. “Pug, what wondrous timing!”
Pug approached and they shook hands. “Why?”
“The bubble. A thought came to me while watching these children and I needed to ask you something.”
“What?”
“That story you told me, of when you, Tomas, and Macros went back to the dawn of time, remember?”
“I could hardly forget that,” replied Pug.
“You said there was this gigantic explosion that launched the universe outward, didn’t you?”
“I don’t know if I put it exactly like that, but yes, that’s basically what happened.”
Nakor laughed and did a tiny dance for a minute. “I have it!”
“Have what?”
“I have been wrestling with a thought since you told me that story, years ago. Now I think I understand something. Watch the boy as he blows a bubble.” He turned to the boy. “Charles, again, please.”
The boy obliged by blowing a single large bubble. “Watch it expand!” insisted Nakor. “See how it grows larger!”
“Yes,” said Pug. “What is the point?”
“It’s a drop of soapy water, but you force air inside, and it grows! It gets bigger, but the content of the water droplet is the same. Don’t you see?”
“What?” asked Pug, genuinely perplexed at Nakor’s latest revelation.
“The universe! It’s a bubble!”
Pug said, “Oh . . .” He paused. “I don’t see.”
Using his hand, Nakor made a curving motion, as if describing a sphere in the air. “The stuff of the universe, it was blown outward, like the soap bubble! Everything in the universe, is on the surface of the bubble!”
Pug stopped a moment, considered what he heard, then said, “That’s amazing.”
“Everything is moving away from everything else at the same speed! That’s the only way it’s possible.”
Pug was genuinely impressed with the insight. “Now, what does it mean?”
“What it means is we now have a clue as to how things in the universe work. And that might give us a better understanding of what it is we do in the middle of this universe.”
“On the surface, you mean.”
“On the surface,” conceded Nakor.
“Then what is in the middle?” asked Pug.
Nakor grinned. “The void. That grey stuff you talk about.”
Pug paused. “That would . . . make sense.”
“And when you create a rift, you bend the surface of the bubble!”
Pug shook his head. “You just lost me.”
“I’ll explain it all to you some other time. Now, if I could just figure out how the Hall of Worlds figures into all this. . ..”
Pug said, “You’ll think of something, I am certain.”
Nakor said, “You had a reason to visit with me?”
“Yes, I need your help.”
Nakor said, “Children, continue playing.”
“Who are these children?” asked Pug as Nakor led him back into the temple.
“The sons and daughters of people who live nearby, people who are attempting to rebuild their ruined homes and businesses, but who have no place for their children while they do. We give them a safe place to leave the children rather than let them run the streets.”
“And when the businesses are rebuilt, the children will return to help their parents.”
“Correct,” said Nakor. “In the meantime, we build some nice credits with people who will be inclined to help us out along the way. Skilled tradesmen, for the most part.”
“You’re really committed to this Temple of Arch-Indar, aren’t you?”
“I’m committed to getting it built,” said Nakor.