Eventually, on the horizon, he sees the group of three mountains that the holy man told him
to look out for. After another hour’s drive, he arrives at the bottom of the mountain, and sees
yurts sitting in rows. Stacks of spears and swords are lying at one end of the rows, and at the
other are fruits and vegetables. In the front of all the rows, he sees a larger yurt which may be the
leader’s. He decides to enter the yurt and meet the leader to answer some of his questions.
As he is going in, he sees lots of objects that somehow manage to fit in the yurt. Cameron
looks at an old man wearing a straw skirt, kneeling on a mat, praying. He thinks to call out
hello but doesn’t want to disturb the kneeling man. Then, all of a sudden, the kneeling man says,
“What do you want?” in a Mongol dialect Cameron was surprised to be able to understand.
Cameron slowly takes the red prism from his bag, to the kneeling man’s astonishment. The
professor gives it to him gently, making sure it doesn’t drop. The kneeling man looks closely at
the prism, checking every single detail to make sure it isn’t fake. After checking it, he smiles and
looks delighted.
The man kneeling can’t stop looking at it, he thinks it is the most amazing object he’s seen in
his life. He looks at the professor. It seems like the kneeling man is thinking about something that
he shouldn’t tell him. The man kneeling stares silently, then he starts to speak, “My name is Igor.”
Igor explains that it is remarkable that Cameron walked in just at this moment, as Igor had
been praying for just such a moment to happen, for a good soul to bring back the last piece, and
here Cameron is.
The professor doesn’t know what to say, he feels so special that it is him out of everybody
in the entire world. He feels nervous too. A big change is perhaps going to happen in his life,
maybe he has to stay here forever to be their new king or emperor. Cameron asks if he can see
the missing pieces, but hears that they are hidden far away with another tribe. Igor explains that
they will have to walk to the other tribe’s village in the morning. Igor shows Cameron to a yurt
reserved for VIP guests, where there is a fire lighting the dark tent, and a bed made of hay. Igor
gives Cameron some privacy to rest until daybreak.
Next morning, just as the sun is climbing over the horizon, everyone is preparing for the
trip to the other tribe. They travel by foot. With every step, the sky gets brighter, hotter. Even
before half way, Cameron’s legs begin to cramp. Looking for distractions from the pain, he sees a
beautiful mountain that’s the shape of Buddha lying on dry sand. It’s too bad he hasn’t brought
his camera, so he could capture this view forever.
Finally they arrive, and are led into an open-air public square, with all the villagers
surrounding the edges of it, and a large table in the middle, with important looking men with the
longest beards of anyone in the tribe. Cameron and his walking companions stop at the edge of
the square, and Igor is invited to step forward to the middle, carrying the long lost prism. As he
walks toward the table, the crowd begins to whisper with excitement.
The front row around the edge of the square begins to chant a strange prayer in a language
that Cameron doesn’t recognise. As the 3 prisms, one blue, one green, one red, are laid out on the
table, side by side, Cameron too feels the excitement, realizing that this is the first time in 3,000
years the 3 have been together.
One of the tallest men behind the table speaks. “Today we are united with our past and our
future. These prisms, invented by our first king 3,013 years ago, were not just a gift to his queen,
but a gift to all his subjects. He wished to show his people that science is not to be feared, that
newness is not dangerous, that there is beauty in these things. In a place as white as here, a little
