You are too big a man to beat a foe who is afraid. Make peace with them.

But even if you have killed the men you should forgive and spare, I will not stop loving you. Love is not something I command but something I obey, like a voice from beyond the cosmos.

Because of my love, I cannot doubt you will be waiting for me, faithful to your vow, and because you are faithful, because you are a man of such stature that I cannot doubt you, I find myself helplessly in love.

The time for me is less than a century, and for you, hundreds of thousands of years. Once we are together, none of that will matter. Love is eternal, it partakes of eternity, it is timeless, and the vast desolation of heaven cannot make love lose its way, nor starve, nor dwindle, nor diminish, nor any yawning gulfs swallow it nor hold it back; neither lightyears nor years can abate love that is true.

15. Postscript

Beloved, my Menelaus, my sweet, my strong man, my soul of strength, pray this prayer for me that I may return, alive again after dissolution, alive when it is impossible that I should live, alive after entering the mind of the Authority in the core of M3, and pleading with the inhuman, superhuman presences found within the core, and winning redemption for mankind, generations I will never know, but who are still bound to me, in iron chains of obligation, in soft ribbons of affection and maternal devotion. Even if no organism descended from man ever knows me, I left the world as its ruler and will do my utmost to save and vindicate those descended from my subjects, however great the time, for that love also knows no limit. For the sake of their forefathers, I mean them to be free.

Ask the world to pray for me, beloved. This is the prayer I select:

O Holy Protectress of those who art in greatest need,

thou who shineth as a star of hope in the midst of darkness,

blessed Saint Rita of Cascia,

bright mirror of God’s grace,

in patience and fortitude thou art a model of all the states in life.

I unite my will with the will of God

through the merits of my Savior Jesus Christ,

through the merits of the holy Virgin Mary

I ask thee to obtain my earnest petition,

provided it be for the greater glory of God

and my own sanctification.

Guide and purify my intention,

O Holy Protectress and advocate,

so that I may obtain the pardon of all my sins

and the grace to persevere my ordeal,

as thou didst in walking with courage, generosity, and fidelity down the path of life.

Let me survive dissolution into the pale horror

     Let me find what dwells within

     Let me win their inhuman hearts

     Let me overcome their malice of indifference

     Let them agree to free me

     Let me return to life

     Let me cross the desolation of heaven

     Let me return to Earth

     The blue waters and blue skies of Earth, the sweet scents of Earth

     Let me feel my lover’s arms again

     Let me face certain death in certain knowledge that my savior lives

     What I ask is impossible; and I who ask it am helpless

Saint Rita, advocate of the impossible, pray for us!

Saint Rita, advocate of the helpless, pray for us!

16. Not to Worry

A.D. 68010

As Montrose put the needle reverently away, Mickey saw his face and asked him what troubled him.

“I’ll tell you what’s wrong with me, since you asked. Rania gave me a prayer she wants all the world to say for her. I ain’t once got on my knees to pray for her return. Not once in sixty-six thousand years.”

Mickey said jovially, “Not to worry! My people back in the day performed many rituals to placate the Swan Princess who stole the divine fire from heaven and hid it in a diamond for the sake of Man, the Lady of Hope. Two turtledoves is the proper sacrifice for the poor, and a white ewe without blemish for those any goddess of bounty has blessed. So our devotion makes up for your lack! Were there any Witches aboard her ship?”

Mickey had evidently forgotten how long ago she had launched, or perhaps he had never been able to grasp the true magnitude of eons involved. The Hermetic dated from before the Ecpyrosis, the destruction of the world by fire; therefore, to Mickey, her ship was no more real than the ship of Noah from before the Deluge, the destruction of the world by flood.

Montrose said, “Damn! I need a priest. I reckon I should do some confessing.”

“Eh? And all this time I had you pegged as a confirmed skeptic, Menelaus Montrose.”

“Well, my religion was more like, Shut up and shoot straight, but I am beginning to think that is theologically insufficient for my spiritual needs. All these damned years; one drop at a time, time enough to fill a ocean, are weighing on me, piled on like I was at the bottom of a sea trench; all this hostile void and vacuum and emptiness and death outside the few little bright blue planets men live on; all these vast thinking machines, big as gas giants, and bigger. They are inhuman. Like things out of a nightmare of Saint Johnny on Patmos. Facing this, a man needs something more than a bottle of hooch to put the spirit in him.”

“You should take some of my pharmaceuticals, and it would open your third eye and allow you to walk the winds.”

“Or give me one more thing to fess up to the parson, I guess. Do they still have priests, these days? I suppose they must.”

“There is a group that calls itself the Sacerdotal Order, which is under the protection of the Fifth Humans. They say they are the heirs of the Old, Strong religion, and the successors to Saint Peter, but their doctrines have grown confused and corrupt with time. They say Peter holds the Keys to Heaven and Hell. My people taught that Peter lives with the souls of dead children called the Lost Boys, and he never grows old and never completed the journey to the afterlife, but dwells in the great star Canopus, the second-brightest star to the right of Sirius, the Dog Star. The tiny and bright spirit who dwells with him shines her light and rings her bell and calls the lost and wandering ghosts to her. She died, sacrificing her life saving Peter, but is resurrected when the innocent clap their hands, for their faith brings the dead to life again. You can see from where these Sacerdotes derive their ideas and myths: all is but a holdover from the pagan roots of yore.”

“Hm. Could be a different Peter. In any case, I feel pretty bad that I let a doubt about her come to trouble me and let it grow stronger as she got closer.”

“What doubt? Did you think her love would fail? That? Is that what has been disturbing your slumber these last few millennia? My dear friend: sleep now in perfect peace. I will stay awake and guard you. When you next wake, you will see her.”

Montrose patted him on the shoulder. “But what is Blackie up to?”

Mickey said, “He is already ignoring the return of Rania and looking to the next age, or the one beyond that. His eyes are on the future.”

Montrose said sadly, “Then maybe I shouldn’t worry. I know by now. The future will never arrive.”

3

The Hour of Her Advent

1. The Looking Glass World

A.D. 69396 OR 1 ULTRAVINDICATION

Montrose woke suddenly and completely. That was the first surprise.

Before he even opened his eyes, he was aware of three things. First, his entire mind, operating at the very lowest ranges of a Potentate level, was gathered into one coherent system. Last time he slept, he had not commanded the resources necessary to perform the reintegration processes. He had not had the money, or whatever they used for money in that era.