“That might work for you, but I keep bobbing—”

“You’re trying too hard. Forget it,” he said. “If you were in your physical body, you probably wouldn’t even see those children, you know. The place would look empty.”

“Will I remember any of this in the morning?” she asked. “Anyway, do you think I will? I’m getting better. During the day bits and pieces of our dream activities keep returning.”

“I hope you will,” Sumpter said. “Tonight’s Tribunal is very important, and I’ve tried to prepare you for it.”

They were nearly at their destination. The robed Speakers were congregating in a small natural cup of the valley. Seeing them, Ma-ah said, “They’re part of my dream, then?”

“What’s happening now is an event. A dream event is as real as a so-called waking one. You know that.”

Ma-ah nodded; but the colorful robes of the Speakers blended with the landscape, and now and then one of the figures would disappear, then reemerge. She shook her head, and blinked.

“Your consciousness is fluctuating,” Sumpter cautioned. “Remember what you learned a few nights ago. Get the feel of your consciousness again. Mentally swing it around until this entire scene comes into clear focus. Then hold it.”

She did as he directed, grinning up at him because the instructions worked so beautifully—when she remembered to follow them. Now she could make out the individual faces of the men and women who seated themselves on the grassy banks of the circular hill. Sumpter walked over to the center of the natural arena, and stood there. Ma-ah sat down, to his left. The people quieted, and Sumpter began to speak.

He said: “It’s written that all events occur at once, and as Speakers we know this. Yet past, present, and future seem to exist. So a prophecy has come down through the ages in our records about a woman who would come into our midst from the outside. She would learn our customs with great rapidity, and be a pivot point of energy in a way that even she would not understand. Her actions would deeply affect our work, opening up new probabilities that would appear in Earth time as it is experienced, pulling together the future and the past. She is here, now, among us. Of this I am confident.”

He was silent for a moment. The Speakers stirred expectantly. Sumpter went on, with a certain dryness. “She has mated with one of us. Our stock will be reflected through hers. Though she appears in this present time as predicted in the apparent past, we know that in other terms, this has already happened—and yet is still to occur. So what we discover here will affect all other realities and times in which we are in any way involved.”