Bale Time III

Tolteca points out that every Gwydiona who can walk treks to the Holy City at Bale time, including those with incipient diseases, weak hearts or old arteries. He implies that this would explain why some die and therefore do not come back. But, if that is all it is, then why do the Gwydiona not just say so?

The Gwydiona language is derived from archaic Anglic which was closely connected to ancestral English!

Research reveals that "Bale" can mean:

a bundle;
a fire;
a funeral pyre;
an evil or sorrow -

- and also that "Baal" was the name of a god.

"Bale" could mean "God" or "evil." We will see (in fact, see here) that the Gwydiona gravely misuse the word, "God," which should refer to trans-, not sub-, rationality.

Chapters XI and XII of The Night Face occupy pp. 641-660 of Flandry's Legacy and conclude the narrative. We will finally be shown what happens inside a Holy City.

The characters swear by "chaos" and even by "ylem." (p. 637) Will scientific terms replace divine names as swear words?