“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

Age of Discovery. Industrial revolution, scientific method. World westernized. Man walks on the moon.

Polaris is the Pole Star

• 3rd Millennium A . D . / -1 V

First Age of Star Travel. Diamond Star found. Croesus Launch. Little Dark Ages. The Jihad and the Japanese Winter. Hermetic Launch. Rania, “The Swan Princess,” first human created by mixture of human and Monument genetic codes. Monument partly deciphered.

RANIA DEPARTS FOR M3. Vindication Countdown begins. The Long Wait begins.

Earthquake Wars decimate Japan, California, Italy.

(A.D. 2500) Humanist Wars shatter the Concordat. Exarchel augments the Cetaceans.

Cryonarch Period—The heirs of Montrose rise to world power. Montrose in disgust disinherits them, and donates their power and resources to the Roman Pontiff.

Ecclesiarch Period—Giants born.

Diamond Star carried off. Moon marked with the hand of Del Azarchel.

Rise of the Ghosts, human brain-patterns kept unalive in electronic limbo. Frankenstein Panic.

(A.D. 2525) Decivilization. Exarchel reduced.

Simon Institute Founded. Lifespan of women expanded to 350 by nano-cellular xypotechnology.

Alrai is the Pole Star

Era of the Hermetic Millennia

• 4th Millennium A . D . / 67 V (Countdown to Vindication)

(A.D. 2525–3100) Giants.

(A.D. 3050–3150) Cetaceans raise the Cloud.

(A.D. 3100–3300) Simon Families.

(A.D. 3300–4000) Under Witch rulership, collapse of Christianity undermines faith in scientific worldview, leads to radical loss of technological civilization on three continents. Decimations of Exarchel copies. Extinction of the Cetaceans.

• 5th Millennium A . D . / 66 V

Warlocks. Nameless Empire oversees a brief reindustrialization. Nine Centennial Empresses of Canton. Butlerian overthrow and the return of barbarism.

Rise of the Chimera. Chimera Eugenic Republic spreads from Virginia. Proscopalianism.

• 6th Millennium A . D . / 65 V

Centennials in China overthrown by Chimera. Rediscovery of Atomics. Unification wars. Chimerical World Empire. Third Age of Space Travel. Space Chimera created. Cities in Space founded. Fall of Richmond. Cities in Space abandoned.

Iota Cephei is the Pole Star

• 7th Millennium A . D . / 64 V

Naturalists. Weather Control initiates seasonless Earth. Decline. Winter returns. Rise of the Leeches.

• 8th Millennium A . D . / 63 V

Iatrocrats organized into mutually bio-incompatible clades. Third Biotechnological Revolution.

(A.D. 7500) Locusts. First neuro-infosphere or Noösphere. Fourth Age of Space Travel.

Locust Wars. Genocide.

Triage.

Mars Colony.

First Interplanetary War ends Mars colony.

Linder.

Alderamin is the Pole Star

• 9th Millennium A . D . / 62 V