Secret meeting between Athor 77 and Folimun 66

The secret meeting between Athor 77 and Folimun 66 stands as one of the most consequential and morally ambiguous encounters in the months leading up to Nightfall. It was a negotiation between two men who regarded each other as enemies—the preeminent astronomer of the age, whose Theory of Universal Gravitation had defined the scientific understanding of the cosmos, and the sharp-faced public-relations adjutant of a cult that preached the imminent destruction of the world by divine fire. Yet both had arrived at the same conclusion: that on the nineteenth of Theptar, Darkness would fall upon Kalgash. The meeting was arranged by Theremon 762, who had been interviewing Folimun and who passed along Beenay 25's request that Athor speak with the Apostle. Folimun, when told that the Observatory had turned up data supporting the Apostles' belief in a coming Darkness, allowed himself a carefully controlled display of interest, an almost imperceptible raising of one eyebrow. "How fascinating, if it's true," he said calmly. "I may just do that." And he did.

The Terms of the Exchange

What passed between the two men behind closed doors was never fully disclosed to anyone else. Theremon, despite his best efforts, could learn nothing of the substance of their conversation; Beenay was able to offer only vague guesses. What emerged afterward was a clear bargain. Folimun provided Athor with certain data that had been in the possession of the Apostles since the previous Year of Godliness—tables of the movements of the suns in the sky, and other even more abstruse astronomical records. In return, Athor agreed to make public his mathematical confirmation of the Apostles' basic tenet that Darkness would descend on Theptar nineteenth. The old astronomer later acknowledged this arrangement openly, telling Folimun in front of witnesses, "I did exactly that. I've fulfilled my end of the bargain." The Apostle, however, saw the matter differently. He accused Athor of having acted "with a fox's subtlety," presenting a scientific explanation that "backed our beliefs and at the same time removed all necessity for them," making the Darkness and the Stars a natural phenomenon and stripping them of their real significance. "That was blasphemy," Folimun said.

The Strategic Rationale

Athor's willingness to meet with the Apostles was driven by a cold calculation about the survival of civilization. He had come to believe that the four people in possession of the proof of the coming catastrophe—himself, Beenay, Sheerin 501, and Siferra 89—had to take action. "Don't you see that the survival of human civilization may depend entirely on the four of us?" he asked them. He argued that the Apostles, whatever their mysticism, had been predicting the same calamity to the year and the day, and that they might possess ancient records of past eclipses. "We need to know more about those records," he said. He proposed forming an alliance with the Apostles against the coming chaos, so that the scientists could gain the attention of all strata of society, from the most credulous to the most critical. When Siferra objected that this would mean entering the world of politics, and Beenay warned that it would endanger their reputations for scientific responsibility, Athor pressed on. He was willing to meet with the Apostles, distasteful as it was, to obtain confirming evidence—even if the meeting had to be denied afterward.

The Aftermath and the Broken Trust

The meeting had consequences that rippled through the remaining months. Folimun, having given Athor the astronomical data, expected the Observatory director to prove the essential truth of the Apostles' creed and to make that proof known to the people of Kalgash. When Athor instead presented a purely naturalistic explanation, Folimun felt betrayed. On the evening of the eclipse itself, he forced his way into the Observatory, past guards who were apparently Apostles or sympathizers, and confronted Athor directly. He accused the astronomer of blasphemy and demanded that all the scientific work be destroyed. "Your ill-advised and blasphemous attempt to gain information by means of your devilish instruments must be stopped," Folimun declared. He offered protection in return for submission, and when Athor refused, he threatened that the Army of Holiness would attack within the hour. The meeting that had begun as a secret negotiation between two princes of hostile realms ended in open confrontation on the night the world ended.

The Deeper Revelation

Only after the catastrophe did the full significance of the meeting become clear. Folimun, in a later conversation with Theremon, revealed that the entire apparatus of the Apostles' faith—including the figure of Mondior 71 himself—was a manufactured construct. "There is no Mondior, my friend. There never was," Folimun said. The High Apostle was a convenient mythical figure, created by electronic synthesis to make speeches on television, never appearing in public. Folimun was the real leader of the Apostles. The secret meeting with Athor had been part of a larger plan: Folimun had known for many years, through the cult's ancient historical records, that Kalgash was doomed to periodic visitations of the Stars. He had been working all his life toward the moment when his generation of Apostles would bear the responsibility for ensuring survival. The meeting with Athor was an attempt to secure the cooperation of the scientific community in that project—an attempt that failed in the short term but that Folimun would renew after Nightfall, when he offered the surviving university people posts in the new government he intended to establish.