The Temple Explosion and Fire

The Temple Explosion and Fire is an incendiary attack on the Church of All Worlds’ temple, set while the building is empty of most of its congregation. It destroys the temple but kills or injures no one: the Nest’s members have gathered in the Innermost Temple for a special Sharing-Water in Mike’s honor, and Mike’s advance preparations allow them to escape and regroup. The destruction marks a reversal from a threatened community’s apparent entrapment to its survival, while leaving its physical home behind.

The Attack and Its Immediate Report

The explosion and fire occurred at midnight, and the ruined main entrance became the subject of a midmorning news report. The televised account showed the entrance as it appeared immediately after the explosion before cutting away to a commercial. That brisk transition turns the wreckage into a news image even as the congregants are still dealing with the attack’s consequences.

The temple was fireproof, but the building could still be destroyed with enough gasoline and dynamite. The damage amounted to a couple of million dollars, most of it uninsured. The loss was substantial, but the empty building and lack of casualties made the event different from the mass killing the flames might have suggested.

The Congregation’s Escape

The temple had been empty because arrests had disrupted its activities: everything had been canceled, and eight members of the Ninth Circle had been arrested on John Doe warrants. Apart from Mike, the church members still in town had gathered in the Innermost Temple for a special Sharing-Water in his honor when the explosion and fire were set off. The ritual gathering left them together inside the building as the attack began.

They were cut off by the fire, but the Nest escaped without anyone being hurt or even scorched. Once clear, the members adjourned to an emergency Nest. The sequence makes the temple’s destruction a forced evacuation rather than a fatal trap: the community loses its established place, but survives as a group.

Mike’s Preparations and the Loss

Mike had begun dispersing the community nearly two weeks earlier, clearing the nestlings’ Nest except for Maryam and her baby, whom he needed for her assigned work. He sent parents and children to other cities where he expected temples to be opened. By the time the fire came, only about a dozen people remained to move, a small enough group to relocate quickly.

The Nest lost belongings, including Stinky Mahmoud’s language tapes, a trick typer used by Maryam, and a Madame Tussaud picture of Jubal Harshaw. Mike had taken the members’ clothes and some cash that was on hand; the objects left behind were described as things they did not truly need. In this contrast between irreplaceable safety and disposable possessions, the community’s survival depends less on preserving its home than on Mike’s foresight and the members’ ability to move together.