Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary

The complaint is the answer. Orual recalls the Fox's glib saying the art and joy of words is to say precisely what one means. Orual has now said aloud things she has been repeating idiotically in her heart for 40 years, and she realizes it is senseless for the gods to speak to humans until babble gives way to what humans truly mean. They cannot meet face-to-face until humans have faces. The specter of Orual's father volunteers to teach her, but the Fox steps forward to accept her blame and punishment as her mentor. He admits teaching her to parrot phrases and neglecting to tell her about Ungit's other faces and the real, living gods.

Stuck by trite phrases, Orual has never asked penetrating questions, and he has never admitted he does not see what the old Priest gets from the dark...