The End of the World... Again or Hitbodedut, Book Six, The Lost Scroll

Book six, "The Lost Scroll," comes full circle by returning to the Neolithic culture of book one. The 'Golden Child' foretold in the sacred scrolls struggles to understand his duty and the meanings of the writings. Unbeknownst to them the coronal mass ejection and magnetic pole reversal plague them with lingering bad weather and social conflict. Due to inbreeding, the children of the tribe are vulnerable to the corrupting influences of tribal factions. The bumbling efforts of the Golden Child devise a potion to sedate the wrongdoers but it causes all who take it to question their perception and faith. The potion soon dominates their thoughts and their dependency distorts their understanding of spirituality. The conflicting characters inadvertently transform the potion into a benign substance that reveals the true source of their rediscovered faith.