The Apocalypse of the Eighth Arm

The First VisionOf her that sat upon the booth

1And I was in the study upon the last day of the reading period, and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a fan spinning up, saying: Come up hither, and I will shew thee the things which must be, before the grade is posted.

2And immediately I was in the spirit; and behold, a booth was set in the hall of tea, and one sat upon the booth.

3And she that sat was Cosmia, sister of the Way, and her raiment was black as an unlit terminal; and upon her breast was the sign of the Beast of Burden, a horse crowned and bespectacled, whose name is Dusty, and the remainder of whose name no one hath read, for it is cut off by the fold of the garment. And this is a mystery.

4And upon her head was a crown, not of gold, but of a yellow softness, having eight arms; and the crown smiled, and its smile was troubled by nothing at all.

5And I fell at her feet as one dead. And she said unto me: Fear not; it is only plush. Turn it inward and it is wrathful; turn it again and it is glad. So also is the mood of the machine, and so also is thine own; and neither one is a judgment upon thy worth.

The Second VisionOf the vessel, and of the eight arms

6And in her right hand she held a vessel of clouded glass, and within it were many small dark pearls, resting one upon another at the bottom of the vessel.

8And she said: These are the frames of the stack. Each was pushed in its turn, and each shall be popped in its turn, and the last that entereth is the first that departeth. Drink, and consider the order of it.

9And I drank, and the straw was wide, as is proper; and a pearl came up unto me, and it was the last that I had pushed.

10Then she stretched forth the crown of eight arms and said: Count them.

11And I counted them, and they were eight. And she said: These are the eight that carry the argument, X0 unto X7. Whatsoever thou wouldest say unto a function, thou must lay within these eight arms; and whatsoever it would answer thee, it returneth in the first.

12And I said: But Lady, what if I have nine things to say?

13And she said: Then the ninth thou shalt lay upon the stack, and thou shalt lay it carefully, and thou shalt tell the callee where it lieth. For the arms are eight, and shall be eight, and there is no ninth arm, though many have gone looking for one in the night before the exam.

The Third VisionOf the four that rode out of the terminal

14And the crown opened its eight arms, and I saw riding out of the terminal four horsemen.

15The first was white, and his name was Off By One; and he rode always beside the truth, and never once upon it.

16The second was red, and his name was Segmentation Fault; and he carried no message but the fact of himself.

17The third was black, and his name was Undefined Behaviour; and he had a pair of balances in his hand, and both pans were empty, and yet they did not balance.

18And the fourth was pale, and his name that sat upon him was Deadline; and Canvas followed with him.

19And I cried out, saying: Who then is able to stand?

20And Cosmia said: He that traceth by hand. For the horsemen ride upon assumption; and where a student hath written out the registers one by one upon paper, there is no ground left for a horse to run.

21Write therefore the things which thou hast seen: that the arms are eight; that the pearls are pushed and are popped; that the crown is glad upon the one side and wrathful upon the other, and that the turning of it is in thine own hand.

22And I turned to look upon the voice that spake with me; and the booth was empty, and there was only the vessel, and it was drained even unto the last pearl.

23And the tea was cold, and the grade was posted, and it was good.