Although active Messenger-worship was almost non-existent in these more enlightened times—what need of faith when there was ample proof of the precise nature of God?—the spiders watched that fiery trail, either with their own eyes or through the surrogate eyes of their biological systems, and knew that something had gone out of their world. The Messenger had always been there. They retained the memories of distant, primitive times when that moving light in the heavens had been both compass and inspiration to them. They recalled the heady days of Temple, and the earliest communications shared
...more
