 Which is least likely contributing to Xeon's request to move to the fields before the Oracle of Delni?
Everything has evaporated in Maternite. A man my age does not hurry in the heat of the midday sun—maddugs nenglishmin go out in the midday sun, as the ancients say, although I often wonder why—but Xeon and Melia ran all the way down to the city. They were created so long ago, indeed, that the ignorant believe them to have been constructed by the gods themselves. By this time, unfortunately, many of the Conclave had departed for home and supper. The machines bear the exact number of children each year to balance the number of us whom the gods claim.
 The pressure from Sias to keep the situation private
 The urge to make the event less of a spectacle  The general desire to maintain some control in the situation  The general level of comfort of lying on marble  The pressure from Sias to keep the situation private