Slave of eternity

Arnol Heric is an overseer of grain fields on the rim of Nyark, the first great city, living a modest, peaceful life. One night a patrolman arrives with a warning: the Council has detected the strange dreams that have begun to trouble him. When the officer draws a silver shock‑cone, Heric reacts in panic, killing the man and escaping in a beetle‑black copter with his wife Marta beside him. The violent act drags him into the Council’s grip and a punishment of endless life for the death he has taken.

Back in their cottage, the recurring dream shows a shattered Earth, a ruined city, and a silent procession moving eastward toward an unknowable revelation. As the Council’s agents return at dawn, Heric must choose between submitting to their adjustment or pursuing the promise of total understanding.