She shook her head. “Not if the Patricians are running everything. We made a race our own tricks would not work on. And if I regret it, I will have another baby!”
“Some women have higher ambitions.”
“Higher than life? I’ve been a queen and the mother of a race and a mistress of intrigue, and I’ve arranged a duel between an immortal man and a tyrant power of heaven. Isn’t that enough for one life? Ambition is lonely. Even a fox deserves a den of her own.”
“You are too good for him.”
“Too wicked, you mean! Norbert thinks he can tame me. I intend to struggle and scratch, and drive him crazy if I can, and break him if he is weak like you. But I want him to win.”
“You are a mad thing,” said Del Azarchel. “But I will be your bridegroom’s best man, if he will ask me, and be honored that you want to have me present. When is the happy occasion?”
She pointed. “There is the cathedral yonder. I will be baptized and alter my cells so that I can never alter them again; and this same day is the solemn wedding mass, and tomorrow we enter the lifting vessel to reach the Sky Island, and then the star port. The Interdict was artificial, a trick, and with Jupiter dead it must be lifted, and the next sailing vessel will depart for Proxima Centauri in a few months, a voyage of only four years at near-lightspeed. He will see the trees of which he dreams, and settle on his little farm, and we will have snow every Sunday and springtide every Monday. I will be his forever, and he will be mine. And…”
“I know. Babies.”
“Lots of them! Life serves life, right? Your Hyades monster friends would approve. What else is life for?”
“I want more,” said Del Azarchel. “I want the stars.”
“And do what with them? Without love, they mean nothing.”
“I will change the constellations to make them mean whatever I see fit that they should mean.”
“Poor, unhappy, doomed man! I pity you! But come and see me wed. I might let you kiss the bride.”
“But why wed him? Be my lover again. You will be dead long before Rania returns, and you are quite right that there are nights when I grow lonely.”
“For you, the story goes on and ever on to the end of the Eschaton, the end of evolution, until you count to infinity. Norbert may only be playing a bit walk-on part in the great drama of human history, but he has something you haven’t got.”
“And that is?”
“A happy ending. For us, the story comes to rest. I can give him a happy ending.”
He nodded in defeat, smiling, and offered her the crook of his elbow. While Jupiter burned overhead, a freakish and unexpected second sun, brighter than the morning star, they walked together into the shadow of the nave, beneath the tall and richly carven doors that stood wide open, and into dark and solemn silence.
APPENDIX A
Dramatis Personae
Persons named but not present are listed in italics.
Tellurians
FIRST HUMANITY [Intelligence = 100 to 650]
Elders, also called Early Posthumans
Menelaus Illation Montrose—the Judge of Ages
Ximen del Azarchel—Master of the World
Nymphs
Amphithöe—their Conscript Mother (of the First Comprehension)
Witches
Zoraida—an Intercessor (of the Second Comprehension)
Giants
Sancristobal—Friar Sancristobal of the Remnant Order of the Post-Final Stipulation, and a Brother of Penance of the Third Order of St. Frances, called Greyfriars
Melusine
Isonadey, the Ship’s Voice—Captain of the Hysterical Blindness
Manitra, Angatra, Ranavalon—Judicial, Military, and Royal Cliometric leaders of the Remnant Order of the Post-Final Stipulation, which is a Second Comprehension polity
Rosicrucians of Proxima
Norbert the Assassin—Norbert Brash Noesis Mynyddrhodian mab Nwyfre of Rosycross
Exobert—his emulation
Svartvestra—his paramour
Rose—his beloved
Yngbert—Yngbert Perpension Mynyddrhodian; his father
Maier—a peace officer for Dee Parish
Zolasto Zo—a Rosicrucian expatriate and mountebank
Nocturnals
Nochzreniye—a Zarya of Nocturne of Epsilon Eridani, Norbert’s adjutant
SECOND HUMANITY [Intelligence = 1,000]
Swans
Enkoodabooaoo—an Inquiline of the Noösphere (Third Comprehension)
Photinus—a Hierophant and heresiarch of the 36th Millennium
Lares—a prophetess
Lemur—revives the heresy of Photinus in the 47th Millennium
THIRD HUMANITY
Myrmidons
Dissent—emissaries to the Judge of Ages in the plutino Ixion
Superintendent of the First Elite Process—a command segment of the Black Fleet. Slain by Montrose in a duel.
FOURTH HUMANITY
Fox Maidens
Cazi—a sovereign and trickster
Gitsune and Strega—her attendants
FIFTH HUMANITY
Patricians
Cnaeus—called the Father of Neptune
Nemenstratus—a Lord of the Golden Afternoon, that is, Cliometric Historian for the Triplanetary Jurisdiction
ARCHANGEL [Intelligence = 10,000 or 10^3]
Mother Superior Selene—Abbess of the Order of the Discalced Friars of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, called Whitefriars. The moon.
POTENTATES [Intelligence = 800,000 or 80^4]
Tellus of Sol
Rosycross of Proxima
POWERS [Intelligence = 250 Million or 25^7]
Jupiter of Sol
Neptune of Sol
Cerulean of 82 Eridani; Peacock of Delta Pavonis; Immaculate of Altair; Twelve of Tau Ceti; Vonrothbarth of 61 Cygni. Atramental of Epsilon Eridani is technically a superpotentate, but not a power.
Hyades
VIRTUES [Intelligence = 500 Million or 50^8]
Asmodel the Living Planet—First Sweep in the 12th Millennium
Cahetel the Dark Cloud—Second Sweep in the 25th Millennium
Shcachlil the Salamander—Third Sweep in the 37th Millennium
Achaiah the Immeasurable—predicted to arrive at the behest of Jupiter in the 61th Millennium
PRINCIPALITIES
Ain—which men call Epsilon Tauri but Myrmidons call Oculus Borealis
ARCHON
Circumincession—Sovereign of the Sagittarius Arm
APPENDIX B
Middle-Scale Time Line
(Thousands of Years)
Each entry on the list below represents a millennium.
Notable Events and Epochs for each millennium briefly noted.
Changes to Earth’s pole star due to procession noted as aid in comparison of time scales.
Preposthuman Era
• 1st Millennium A . D . (Anno Domini) / -3 V (Antevindication or Precountdown)
Imperial Rome. Caesar, Christ born. Western Empire Falls, creating a Dark Age in Europe. Heavy cavalry. Islam rises.
Gamma Ursae Minoris (Pherkad) is the Pole Star
• 2nd Millennium A . D . / -2 V