The forest is now Equality 7-2521’s new home, at least until the forest animals come to kill him. He now has no bed but the moss and no future but the beasts. Equality 7-2521 feels old now, but he was young this morning when he carried his glass box through the city to the Home of the Scholars.

No one stops him from entering the great hall where the World Council of Scholars is conducting its solemn meeting. It is an impressive sight. They are gathered around a table below a painting of the “twenty illustrious men who had created the candle.”

Everyone turns to look at Equality 7-2521 when he enters; they are puzzled by his appearance and look at him with great curiosity, as if he were a miracle. Perhaps that is due to his torn, blood-stained tunic. After he greets the Council, Collective 0-0009 (the wisest man on the Council) asks Equality 7-2521 who he is, for he does not seem to be a scholar.

Equality 7-2521 introduces himself and says he is a Street Sweeper in this City. The Council is outraged that a mere Street Sweeper has invaded their meeting. It is against all the rules and laws, but Equality 7-2521 knows how to recapture their attention. He asks them to listen, for he has brought them the greatest gift ever offered to men. Finally they listen.

Equality 7-2521 places the glass box on the table in front of them and tells them about the tunnel, the experiments, his escape from the Palace of Corrective Detention, and his discovery. The Scholars remain motionless as he demonstrates the glass box. He touches the wire to the box. Very slowly, a red flame trembles in the wire and then glows.

The Council men are terrified, leaping to their feet and pressing themselves against the walls. They huddle together as if to draw courage from each other. Equality 7-2521 sees them and laughs, assuring them they have nothing to fear. Although there is a great power in the wires, it is controlled power, and he now gives it to them.

Equality 7-2521 explains that he has given them the “power of the sky” and the “key to the earth.” He asks only that he be embraced as one of them, the humblest scholar. He encourages them to work together to harness this power to make life easier for all men. Torches and candles can be eliminated and cities can be flooded with light. Together, they can “bring new light to men.”

Suddenly Equality 7-2521 fears how the Scholars are looking at him.  Their eyes are still, small, and evil. He begs them to speak. Collective 0-0009 finally proclaims that Equality 2-2521 has boastfully broken all the laws. How could such a man dare to think his mind holds more wisdom than those of his brothers? He has been made a Street Sweeper, yet he dares to think he can be of greater use to his fellow men than to sweep streets.

Other scholars threaten him, but Collective 0-0009 calms them. They will take him to the World Council so it can decide Equality 7-2521’s fate. Equality 7-2521 pleads with them. He cares nothing about what happens to his body, but the light must remain.

Collective 0-0009 smiles and asks Equality 7-2521 if all his brothers think as he does; the answer, of course, is no. In that case, what he thinks is not true, for what is not thought by all men cannot be true, and what is not done collectively cannot be good.

In the past, many men in the Home of the Scholars had “strange new ideas,” but when the majority of their brothers voted against them, their ideas were abandoned. One scholar says the box is useless; another says its use would ruin the Department of Candles. Candles are a benefit of which all men approve and therefore can not be destroyed by the “whim of one.”

If this invention helps ease men’s burdens, it is a tremendous evil, for men exist only to toil for other men. The Council proclaims that the invention must be destroyed. Equality 7-2521 leaps onto the table and grabs the box before running to the window. He turns to call them all fools before pounding his fist through the window and leaping out.

He runs as if the earth is burning beneath his feet, and he knows he must keep running. The next thing he knows is that he is lying on the floor of the Uncharted Forest. Finally he begins walking. Equality 7-2521 knows there can be no turning back, no redemption. His only strength comes from the glass box in his arms.

He has been lying to himself. He did not build the box for the good of his fellow men; he built it for itself. Equality 7-2521 does not have long to live, but he has no regrets. Thinking of the Golden One causes him to reel with pain, but this passes and he knows it is for the best. He is condemned, and it is best if the Golden One forgets about him.