Pug said, “I think I understand what you’re saying. We have considered you the master behind some dark game, but the truth is you are the biggest pawn in the contest.”
Macros nodded. “I alone have not had free will, or at least lacked the courage to challenge my foreknowledge. I have known from the day I left that priesthood that I would live for centuries and that many times I would be required to manipulate the lives of others, toward what ends I am only now beginning to understand.”
“What do you mean?” said Tomas.
Macros looked about. “If things proceed as I suspect, we shall bear witness to that which no other mortal being in the universe, or even the gods themselves, have seen. If we survive, we will spend some time returning home. I think we can learn all we need during that time. For now, I am tired, as is Pug. I think I will sleep. Wake me.”
“When?” asked Tomas.
Macros smiled enigmatically. “You’ll know when.”
“Macros!”
Macros’s eyes opened and he looked to where Tomas pointed. He stretched and rose, saying, “Yes, it’s time.”
Pug also awoke and his eyes widened. Above them the stars raced backward in flight as time ran counter to its normal course at furious speed. The skies were ablaze with fiery beauty, as rampaging energies were released in colours of splendid intensity. And light was more concentrated, as if everything seemed to be drawing together. At the centre of this loomed an utter void. It appeared they were rushing down a long, glittering, brightly streaked tunnel toward the darkest hole imaginable.
“This should prove interesting,” observed the sorcerer. “I know you’ll think this odd, but I find it strangely exhilarating not knowing what’s coming next. I mean, I know what’s likely to happen, but I haven’t seen it.”
Pug said, “That’s fine, but what is this?”
“The beginning, Pug.” Even as he spoke, it appeared the matter about them was rushing faster and faster toward that total blackness. Now the colours were blending together to a pure white light almost painful to observe.
“Look behind!” said Tomas.
They did so, and where real space had been, now the utter grey of rift-space was seen. Macros applauded in obvious delight. “Wonderful! It is as I thought. We shall elude this trap, my friends. We are approaching that place where time has no meaning. Watch!”
In a final rush of stunning majesty, all about them collapsed downward, as if being sucked into the maw of that black nothing. Macros said, “Pug, halt our flight before we are pulled into all that.” Pug closed his eyes and did as he was bid. Faster and faster the last stuff of the universe was devoured by the giant thing before them, until the last vestige, the last mote of matter, vanished into the hole. Then Pug clutched at his temples and cried out in pain.
Macros and Tomas moved toward him as his legs buckled, and helped him to sit. After a moment he said, “I’m all right.” His face was ashen and his brow was covered in sweat. “It’s just when the time trap ended, the spell of acceleration ended; it was painful.”
Macros said, “Sorry. I should have anticipated that.” Almost to himself he added, “But little of what we know will have any validity here and now.”
Macros pointed upward, where a vast and utter darkness could be seen. It seemed to curve, along a limitless line that moved off beyond the ability of the eye to apprehend. And the Garden and the City Forever hovered at the edge of that boundary.
Macros said, “Fascinating. Now we know the City does exist outside of the normal order of the universe.” Macros regarded the massive thing above, counting silently to himself. “I think it’s about time, given how long ago Pug’s spells were cancelled.”
“What is this?” asked Tomas, pointing to the impossible black orb against the grey.
“The sum of the universes, Tomas,” answered the sorcerer. “The primal stuff everything else stems from. It is everything - except this little jot of land we stand on and the City itself. There is so much there that size and distance have no meaning. We are millions of times more distant from the surface of that matter than Midkemia is from its sun, but look how large it looms before us, blotting out more than half the sky. It’s staggering to contemplate. Even light cannot escape it, for light has not been created. We are back before time, before the beginning. We are witnesses to the start of all things. Ryath, attend this!” The dragon woke from her torpor and stretched. She approached to stand behind the three men. Macros said, “Keep watching.”