“It’s all right. Don’t be frightened.” She heard Sumpter speak, but couldn’t find him. “I’m right in front of you,” he said. “You’ve lost your focus again, that’s all. Relax. Don’t worry.”

His voice reassured her. For a moment she felt held in a soft blackness. Sumpter said, “You know what to do. Feel around now with your consciousness until you begin to see us—”

She gasped. The scene instantly cleared. The Speakers were smiling and nudging each other. “She’s still learning,” Sumpter said.

“I’m back in the dream again,” she said, astonished.

“Remember, dreams are events as real as waking ones,” Sumpter said. “Now—the pyramid.”

“Pyramid?” She’d forgotten.

“Tell about climbing the stairs of the pyramid,” he said gently.

“Why can’t we do all this in the day, with my usual consciousness?” she asked, suddenly irritated.

“One kind of consciousness is as normal as the other,” Sumpter said. “And this way we’ll be able to find out far more, as you’ll see. Now go on.”

“I was with Sumpter, and I saw the three pyramids, only then I didn’t know what they were. Then again I fell into a dream or something like one. When I came to, I was standing way up the stairs that lead to the top of the middle pyramid, and I was scared to death because I’d never been up so high. Then I realized that the old man had done it somehow…. The pyramid was familiar to him, but not to me. But even this vanished from my memory until a few days ago when I suddenly remembered it again.”

When she finished speaking there was such a silence that Ma-ah was frightened. Though she still saw the Speakers, she had the oddest feeling that they’d withdrawn in some way that she couldn’t fathom, or disappeared into some inner dimension where she couldn’t follow. Disconcerted, she turned to Sumpter—and stared. The same thing had happened to him, or he was causing it to happen. All those people there, in plain sight, and she felt completely … alone.

“We just switched our awareness to another level for a moment,” Sumpter said. “Forgive us. It isn’t very courteous, but it was necessary. We’ve decided to tell you more about the prediction, and see if you can help us.”

Ma-ah frowned. “It wasn’t my imagination then? Well, it frightened me. I’m going back to my body and forget the whole thing. What good is it if I hold my consciousness at the right level, and you go off someplace else?”

Some of the Speakers smiled. She glowered back at them. “It’s uncomfortable being with people who know more than you do all the time,” she said angrily.