EPILOGUE

               Smith and Sophie walked along a dune to the east of 

          Phoenix.  The setting sun infused the city with golden haze.  

          The shadows of the tall buildings lengthened until they 

          touched the crest of the dune.

               Smith asked, "Then it was real, not a peyote dream?"

               Sophie said, "I did not eat any of the mushrooms, yet I 

          saw it, too--the crystal rose to meet the sun.  Simon's 

          beyond the moon's sphere now; he's at the heart of a blazing 

          sea of light...."  There were tears in her eyes.  She tried 

          to choke them back, couldn't.  She leaned her head on Smith's 

          arm, let out her anguish, her grief.

               The lengthening shadows covered Smith.  With no warning 

          he toppled from the dune, lifted into the air.  Sophie leaped 

          to help pull him back to earth, then something bright and 

          shining popped from his pocket, skidded up the side of the 

          dune, flew toward Phoenix where it shattered into thousands 

          of lights, now suffused with the deep violet of late 

          evening--a galaxy on the face of the city in a world where no 

          galaxies existed.

               "More magic?" Sophie asked, lost in the mystical 

          presence of the moment.

               Smith said, "It was part of the same crystal of 

          magnetism which he died in, drawn to Father Sun because He is 

          the source of all life and light...magnetism is the earthy 

          portion of light so when the sunlight warmed the magnetic 

          crystal long enough the sympathy was activated and the 

          magnetism was drawn sunward."

               Night fell.  The star-like bits of magnetism mingled 

          with the city lights.  A hot breeze from the interior swept 

          them in eddies from the glass.  They vanished into the 

          blackness of the mountains.

               A voice--a voice which Sophie remembered from some other 

          lifetime...spoke, saying, "You are right, Anselm Smith:  The 

          crystal flew to the sun because of its magnetic virtue...."

               The two whirled:  It was George Two Ways.  He had 

          arrived in total silence, brought here by his magic smoke.  

          The shaman continued, "When Simon crossed to this side of the 

          dual universes I prophesied that if he left Phoenix he would 

          die:  But I didn't foresee when he left his homeworld that 

          his sister would follow him here.  Love is the strongest 

          magic of all, Sophie...love can resurrect the dead:  You must 

          smoke some more of my magic herb; your love by its magnetism 

          will draw you to the center of the sun where you will free 

          Simon Farber...then you will both be able to return to your 

          home...."

               Sophie eagerly snatched the peace pipe away from him.  

          Even as the biting smoke entered Sophie's lungs once more Two 

          Ways laughed, an eerie, hollow laugh, like the wind sighing 

          through broken branches, disappeared in smoke.  But Sophie 

          Rosencruetz did not notice his passing as she found herself 

          in a sea of fluid light dissolved in a solution of ether like 

          some fluorescent acid in boiling water:  the interior of the 

          sun....

               Now she rapidly progressed through layers of impossibly 

          indescribable color, heat, fire, boiling phlogiston and 

          corkscrewing magnetic corpuscles, deeper and deeper, until she saw 

          the magical gem which contained her twin's spirit.  She enclosed 

          it like gentle rain amidst all that violent fury of heat and 

          light, as though she were taking the Dyer into her womb. 

               All at once she broke through the Elemental fury of the 

          Sun like a mother giving birth to a child that was her Brother.

               She was on the shores of the artificial lake, struggling to 

          lift her drowning Brother from the water....She laid him out on 

          the beach, placed her mouth on his in what might have been an 

          incestuous kiss had it not been life-saving mouth-to-mouth 

          resuscitation, bending her head over his chest every couple of 

          minutes to hear if his heart was still beating.  A man walked out 

          of the forest.  Out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed a 

          deer--then it was gone, a shadow and a shadow of shadows.

               A woman followed.  Diana.  She said something Sophie 

          couldn't hear as the wind swayed the branches; then she heard 

          Smith saying, "You finally found him...."

               Just then Farber came to.

               Smith bent over the stricken man, asked, "What did you see?  

          We've destroyed all the samples of AZOT--you're the only one 

          who can tell us if it's worth experimenting with again...."

               Farber looked up with an expression of wide-eyed wonder, 

          like a newborn baby or a fetus staring at the enclosing womb.  

          He saw Diana and shuddered as he remembered the evil 

          Sorceress she had been transmuted into, wondered if their 

          love would survive.

               He was silent a long time, then said one word and one 

          word only:

                                     VITRIOL

                                        #

                                       END




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