Maia And Sandra

Mirkheim, II.

Sandra Tamarin will be the viewpoint character in this chapter and the first thing that she will do will be to wake up. However, the chapter does not start with that. Instead, the omniscient narrator takes us on an interesting journey at the speed of light.

From below the eastern horizon, the Hermetian sun, Maia, gilds steeples and towers in Starfall. When the sun rises above Daybreak Bay, its light travels over the Palomino River, along Olympic Avenue to Pilgrim Hill, among trees, gardens and buildings and past Old Keep, New Keep and Signal Station. One beam, passing above an upper balcony of New Keep, goes through the French windows and onto Sandra's bed, waking her in the first sentence of the second paragraph.

Now we are in her point of view and the first thing that we learn is that her husband, Peter Asmundsen, who had proposed to her on p. 7, died more than four years ago. Events move fast towards a future historical climax but, although it is dawn in Starfall, it is midnight in Lancaster.