And the instant Seven thought of Monarch, he remembered the Codicils. This he realized was a universe in which the Codicils didn’t exist and were never discovered; in which they remained psychologically invisible to man. But what about Christianity? Seven wondered, even as he struggled against the growing closeness of the air. What about Christianity?

Suddenly, brightly, in his mind’s eye Seven saw Window speaking as Christ as he had done in George’s kitchen earlier, and then speaking for Monarch. And as he saw this inner vision, Seven cried out. For Window … was himself Window and yet a personification of the people of George’s time. Christianity as it had been known was deadended. The twentieth-century world still wasn’t big enough to accept miracles as fact; and so Christ became a delusion. And man had to take the steps that would lead him beyond what he was—to become … Monarch. Man had to find the Codicils.

Seven felt more helpless and forlorn than he ever remembered being. How could one soul, even a Seven, discover such a vital message—when he didn’t even know what the Codicils said exactly, or how to find them? And if he didn’t, did it mean that this terrible world would be the future of George’s Earth? The sense of responsibility felt crushing, yet Seven told himself that he’d accept it—if he had to; if there was no other way, if….

“I’ll find the Codicils,” he shouted; and as he did, he gasped in astonishment. He’d felt the air get closer, but now it had collected tightly around him so that it formed a circle filled, it seemed, with new magnetic darkness. And before he could understand what was happening, he began to fall once more through the tunneling dimensions from which he’d only shortly emerged.

Space turned into time, time into space. Seven’s thoughts suddenly had incredible mass—and then seemed to disappear altogether. In between, he told himself that he didn’t care what happened; he’d find the Codicils. Only once, when his thoughts appeared clearly, did he wonder nostalgically where George’s world was now; and the attic room where his body still lay neatly on the twentieth-century couch.

Did George’s world even exist?

Was it there, to return to?

Chapter Fifteen

Cyprus Introduces Seven to Framework Two, and George the First Visits the Museum of Time

“Of course George’s world exists,” Cyprus said. As he heard Cyprus’ words, Seven felt as if he were being pulled (by the hair of his head) out through the other end of the mysterious chute in which he’d found himself. Once again, times and places came together and made sense, just as his thoughts once more came in clear sentences.

“You just haven’t learned the grammar of energy yet,” Cyprus said. Seven heard her, but he couldn’t yet sense her presence.