‘There is that paradox, isn’t there.’
‘More, there are laws that we can’t begin to contemplate.’ He fell silent, and Miranda couldn’t judge if it was a moment or a year before he spoke again. ‘All of reality as we know it is but an illusion, a dream of some agency we can barely comprehend.’
‘It sounds so trivial, put that way.’
‘It’s not. It may be the most profound thing humankind is able to comprehend.’
They moved down toward a scene familiar to Pug. Standing near the wreckage of the city of Sethanon was an army, led by King Lyam. Pug felt odd emotions as he viewed himself, fifty years earlier, listening to Macros’s goodbye, again.
‘What’s he saying?’ asked Miranda.
‘Listen,’ said Pug.
A younger Pug said, ‘Yes, but it is still a hard thing.’
A tall, thin man, wearing a brown robe with a whipcord belt and sandals, said, ‘All things come to an end, Pug. Now is the end of my time upon this world. With the ending of the Valheru presence, my powers have returned fully. I will move on to something new. Gathis will join me, and the others at my island are cared for, so I have no more duties here.’
Miranda said, ‘Gathis didn’t leave!’
Pug said, ‘I know.’
She focused her attention on her lover and felt something that was familiar. ‘You find this funny?’
‘Ironic, perhaps,’ came the answer.
Macros the Black, legendary sorcerer supreme, was bidding goodbye to a younger Tomas, who stood resplendent in his gold and white armor.
Miranda said, ‘He’s doing it again, isn’t he?’
‘What?’ asked Pug.
‘Lying to you.’
‘No, not this time,’ answered Pug. ‘He honestly believes what he’s saying about the Pantathians and Murmandamus.’
Macros said, ‘. . . the powers granted to the one who posed as Murmandamus were no mean set of conjurer’s illusions. He was a force. To have created such a one and to have captured and manipulated the hearts of even a race as dark as the moredhel required much. Perhaps without the Valheru influence across the barriers of space and time, the serpent people may become much as others, just another intelligent race among many.’ He stared into the distance a moment. Then again, perhaps not. Be wary of them.’
‘He was right on that count,’ said Miranda. The Pantathians could never be redeemed. The Valheru heritage has warped them beyond redemption.’
‘No,’ said Pug. ‘It’s something else. Something much larger.’
Pug and Miranda watched as Macros finished his goodbyes, and Pug felt stirrings of old emotions. ‘It was a difficult time,’ he said to Miranda.
He sensed more than heard her understanding.
Macros, more than any other man in Pug’s life, was the center figure in Pug’s development. Pug still had dreams of his days in the Assembly of Magicians on the world of Kelewan, dreams in which Macros was among his teachers. Pug knew there were things still locked away in his head, things that only Macros or time could unlock.
Pug and Miranda saw Macros turn and walk away from the assembled army, from Pug and Tomas. As he moved, he began to fade from sight.
‘Cheap theatrics,’ said Miranda.
‘No, more,’ said Pug. ‘Watch.’
He shifted his perceptions and saw that Macros was not vanishing from sight, but was changing. His body continued to walk, but it became intangible, a thing of mists and smoke. Power flowed upward as Macros spoke to some unseen agency.
‘What is this?’ asked Miranda.
‘I’m not sure,’ answered Pug. ‘But I have suspicions.’
‘Master,’ said Macros to the unseen agent. ‘What is your bidding?’
‘Come, it is time,’ said the voice.
Miranda and Pug sensed joy in the sorcerer as he rose up on mystic energies, flying into the void much as Miranda and Pug had in Elvandar.
‘Look!’ said Miranda, and below they could see his body lying upon the ground. ‘Has he died?’
‘Not really,’ said Pug, ‘but his soul is moving elsewhere. That is what we must follow.’
Through years and across vast distances, they flew in close pursuit, chasing the very essence of Macros the Black.
Again time had no meaning as they moved across the vast gulf between stars, only to return to Midkemia at last, to be confronted again with a new vista, as they descended from the skies to a point high above the vast peaks of the Ratn’gari Mountains.
‘We’ve been here before!’ said Miranda.
‘No,’ said Pug. ‘I mean, yes, we’ve been here, but not yet.’
‘Look, there’s the Celestial City you created.’
‘No,’ answered Pug. ‘This is the real thing.’