“Yes, I’m sure,” said Kapetria. “The Parents told us they cannot see through the dome.”

The shadow of their purpose had fallen over them. They had continued to eat, to feast, to drink the delicious cold beer that was brewed in Atalantaya, and they had been slightly drunk when the moon was at its highest. And all of them, look at them, the mammalian humans, how innocent they are, thought Derek, all of them all around us in these mighty towers and in the old Mud City and the old Wooden City, dining together, happy together with no thought of what it meant, that bright star in the sky!

“Oh, I wish,” he’d said. “I so wish we had another purpose.”

No one had answered, but Kapetria had been smiling at him in her loving way.

And now he was in a country called France on a continent called Europe again, and they were all together and he wondered did they still have the power—? You must lock arms! You must stand together, with arms locked….And what about Dertu? Bright new Dertu? And they were still talking about how it had happened, the slice of the ax, the fallen arm, the fingers crawling….

Finally Kapetria said, “I want Derek to sleep, to be restored. He’s hollow eyed and weak from his ordeals.”

She rose from the table and took Derek by the hand. “You come into the bedroom and sleep now,” she said. “The rest of you, wait here for me. You wait as well, Dertu. You remain here.”

He welcomed it, the quiet of the bedroom. Such a pretty house, but the French windows everywhere made him anxious; the black night pressing on the glass made him anxious. The sound of wind moving in the black trees made him anxious. He wanted to walk outside, see the stars, see the stars he hadn’t seen in all those long years in that basement tomb under Budapest, but he was too sleepy, and when Kapetria helped him to remove his boots and lie down, he plumped the pillow under his head and fell asleep.

How many hours passed?

When he awoke, it was from a happy dream but the dream was gone, like a gossamer scarf of bright colors ripped away from him. Like a flag blowing in the wind.

A woman was standing in the room, a woman with golden hair. He couldn’t see her face because the light of the hallway was behind her. Then Kapetria switched on the light and he saw that the woman looked just like her.