“Terra Two!” he cried.

VII

A God too large to walk in human shoes

Has outgrown every hope of human use.

And heavy skeptics weighted down with doubt

Can never rise to find what God’s about.

Dreamer found it was time to leave but feared to go where the drama was reality in process.

He took the street of monoliths that led beyond the Chair of Glass. He crossed the Azure Plain to the Final Bridge and saw the band of gray that marked the place where materiality infringed upon foreverness.

He paused and looked at the pinnacle of light. Flying from the spire a golden banner commemorated Ansond’s wound and announced that the universe was now at war.

He knew that down the street of monoliths was soon to come the army Terra never could withstand.

The promise THE FINALE spoke was real. Truth would dawn upon the doubt below. The Singer was coming! The Golden Knight would not leave his side till the World Hater had been conquered. He would fight until the Emperor was vanquished and the Vollkons were slaughtered in the aerie empire of fear which they inspired.

At the entrance to the bridge he sat to stare upon the land he loved. He heard the swelling currents from the armories of light. The knights were lost in their own servitude of grace. The cadence of their anthem swelled from monolith to monolith and rang across the Azure Plain:

“The multitudes imprisoned soon shall sing of greater light.

There are no days more splendid than the days before the end.

Whose armies can reach out with fire? The Singer’s knights

Soon march with one great honor to defend.

He is King, He is Lord,

Singer, Prince and Troubadour.”

This scene he loved but could not stay. He closed his eyes and felt the shock of transport. A volley of cold air pierced his soul and he was back on Terra.

He could hear the voice of the World Hater preaching in another cavern.

“Man is the hope of men,” the Hater taught. “Behold hope in the glass. I have taught this great redeeming hope in every land, beyond the Steppes of Varge and Thade. In a hundred cities I have laid the final hope of men where it belongs. Let us wear the chain of Elan and sing across the globe the Anthem of the Glass.”

He paused and Dreamer heard the miners sing The Hymn of Man:

“The gods are dead, and without dread we cheer—

Join hands to reach and cry,

‘We shall not pass!’

We sing in confidence without a fear.

We wear one face, behold a common glass.”

Above him in the upper shafts Dreamer heard a Vollkon scream.

VIII

A humanist in choking sea

Called for help and presently

Received in full intensity

Advice.

“You must swim, if you would be.

Rescue breeds dependency;

Self-reliance makes one free.”

“That’s nice!”

He said,