Some Last Words And Closing Comments

Mirkheim.

Benoni Strang:

"'There will be other days.'" (XX, p. 276)

Lady Sandra:

"'...it does give me hope that Broderick agrees we can't hold a constitutional convention till we have a firm peace. Then I fear we must. My guess at the moment is that Hermes will nominally still be a duchy, but in practice a republic.

"'It may be for the best. Who knows?'" (XXI, p.284)

Athena Falkayn, earlier:

"'[Strang]'s said, through the throne, there'll be a Grand Assembly to draft a new constitution - as our present constitution provides for, you know - as soon as suitable procedures for the election of delegates can be set up.'" (XVI, p. 224)

(That Assembly would have been conducted under orbiting Baburite guns. The post-liberation convention will not.)

"'[Family]'re what life is all about, right?' said Falkayn, and drank." (XXI, p. 283)

Of these quotations, Falkayn's is the last that we hear him say; Strang's is the last that he says. Chapter XXI also has sayings of van Rijn, Adzel and Chee Lan but we have quoted them before.

Turning the page, we are re-immersed in future history. Hloch summarizes the plot of Mirkheim and introduces his two concluding stories, the first written for the Avalonian periodical, Morgana, by Judith Dalmady/Lundgren "...in her high old age." (p. 294). In Judith's story, an omniscient narrator reflects on the colonization of Avalon before introducing Nat Falkayn who rarely sees Ythrians in his early years because, when such beings visit Chartertown, they usually have business with his grandfather, David, or his father, Nicholas. We recognize the names and also realize that a generation and a half have passed.