"Everyone dies.

 "Depressing, but true. Well, almost true. A few of the Higher Evolutionaries can hold back death indefinitely, but, for all intents and purposes, everyone you are ever likely to meet will die, sooner or later.

 "I'm not sure how old I was when I realised this one, stark, sobering fact. Probably not very. Unfortunately, death and I have been close companions for many years - longer than I care to remember. Over the years we've grown closer, she and I. Sometimes we even take the first tentative steps towards a more permanent relationship, cohabitation, if you will. But mostly, we've kept ourselves to ourselves.

 "Until now.

 "You see, I'm dying.

 "I can see that look on your face, the look that tries to says, 'don't be so silly', but really says 'ohmygod, ohmygod, whatdoIsay?' [she's right, of course]. I know I'm dying because they're coming in more frequently now, the nurses. And you've been to visit me every day for a week. I suppose it's because you want me to finish my story before the pain gets so bad that I have to be tranquillised. Well, let me tell you something, they're not going to tranquillise me. I've been in worse situations than this. I've been in more agony than you can imagine, young man. And I've lived.

 "Oh, don't worry, it's not bravado. I know that I'm nearly at the end of the line, but-" [The sentence degenerates into coughs. The woman puts a wrinkled, papery hand to her puckered anus of a mouth. When she withdraws it, I see it is covered in specks of blood.]

 "Excuse me." [She wipes away the bloodspecks, furtively, as though she doesn't want to expose me to the horror of the disease. As though I might contract something from the mere sight of her illness.] "What was I saying. Oh yes.

 "I know it's the end and all that guff. I know I don't stand a chance. But I'm going to finish this blasted story if its The last bloody thing I damn well do." [Again, the chuckles become coughs. Great, retching coughs that expel gouts of blood from her clotted lungs. The nurse rushes to her side, and wipes her clean. The woman waves her away, irritated by her own infirmity and determined to atone for her weakness. She resolutely, and primly, dabs away the phlegmy blood clots from her chin, and continues as though she's merely ahemed politely.]

 "Anyway, where had we got to." [She thinks. She's unaware that she mutters to herself as she retrieves the half-forgotten memories of another life. A dull, rhythmic monotone, perhaps comparable to the low chant of a monk at prayer. Her faded blue eyes reach out for mine.]

 "Oh yes. Everyone dies. Except for the Din'l. Some of them were immortal. Rather foolishly, I assumed some old [a pause] acquaintances were involved. The time looping business and all that. I thought there were only two races in the universe able to do such a thing. I was wrong. The thing is, I couldn't work out why until I realised that time was an alien concept to the Din'l. Time didn't matter an iota to them. It was an irrelevancy. My old friends, on the other hand, were obsessed by time. They lived and breathed the stuff, never aware that their infinite realm was so limited.

 "No, my omnitemporal friends were only pawns in a game played on a higher level. An Eternal level.

 "Of course, if I'd realised that earlier then I could have saved myself a lot of trouble..."

 Of course, it's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the end. In Benny's case, the sudden stop was, fortuitously and unexpectedly, averted by the arrival of an angel.

 The angel looked as any bipedal, non-avian hominid might imagine: angelic. To clarify a cliche, it was a handsome, shining man with sprawling, feathered wings.

 "Hello Bernice," said the angel.

 "Hello Clarence, why are you here?"

 The angel winked at her, knowingly. "God knows."

 "I'm sure He does but that's not much help to me."

 "Sorry, mum's the word."

 Benny sighed, theatrically. "Well, when you've finished playing guardian angel, Clarence, please return me to the lifestyle to which I have become accustomed."

 "Will do." The angel soared through the skies, frustrated archaeology professor clasped in his thickly muscled arms. Gently, he alighted, returning Bernice to Terra Firma.

 "If that's all..." Benny left the sentence open ended.

 "I must be getting predictable in my old age." The angel smiled. "I can't offer much enlightenment, though." He looked expectantly at Bernice.

 "More, please."

 The angel looked peeved. "Honestly, I don't know why I try to be so enigmatic. Do I have to spell it out for you? Enlightenment. That's it. Bye bye."

 "Clarence-"

 But the angel was already gone, swooping and gliding through the heavens on its way back home.

 "So impatient. Don't worry, I shan't die before I'm finished with this story. Now you've put me off. What was I saying? Oh yes. I wasn't particularly surprised. I knew that if *they* were they then there was a good chance that *they'd* be there as well. [I look puzzled.] Oh for goodness sake, do I have to spell it out for you? I mean, if the dominant power in the Milky Way had an agent on Din-el then it wasn't much of a shock to find that the People had sent their roving ambassador as well. Anyway, Clarence always had a soft spot for me.

 "It confirmed one or two of my suspicions. I'd suspected the People might be involved, somehow, somewhere. I *knew* that the others had their grubby little fingers in it. Call it womanly instinct, if you want. I prefer to think of it as the result of my vast extratemporal experience.

 "So it was true - they were both in it up to their necks. But why? I knew the Totems, the Trin'l, were a powerful weapon. I knew they'd been introduced onto Din-el by the Temporal Magnates. I knew that the enemies of the Lords had turned the weapons on their creators, to convert them. All I didn't know was - why?

 "And then there was Clarence's extremely, ridiculously cryptic clue - 'Enlightenment'. What was that supposed to mean? [By this stage, she's warmed to her story, and the narrative flow is almost uninterrupted by various coughs and splutters. Indeed, one might almost have forgotten she was coming to the end of her time].

 "I never understood, then. Of course, I managed to sort everything out with my usual panache. I saved Din-el, and the Din'l. Not easily, and not alone, but I did it nevertheless. [She pauses to draw a stuttering breath, then continues.] But I still didn't understand.

 "It was years before I discovered the truth. And, as I should have realised, sometimes the truth isn't what you want to hear...

 'A fascinating and radical new translation by acclaimed xenoarchaeologist Professor Berenice [sic] Summerfield ("Down Among the Dead Men"; "So Vast A Pile"; "Twentieth Century Boy"). Discovered in ancient ruins near the Core, the Book of Enlightenment remains one of tantalisingly few artefacts that survived the great cataclysm which destroyed one of our Galaxy's most enigmatic and advanced races. This new interpretation is fully annotated and features previously unpublished interactive images, making it a must for all history students and enthusiasts alike.'

 Extract from pp19-21 published with the kind permission of the estate of Professor Summerfield.

 'In the beginning there was nothing. An empty void with neither shape nor direction nor will. But to all things there must be purpose, and so the void became three forces.

 'The first was a force of Order and Construction which desired perfect and unchallenged harmony and light.

 'The second was a force of Chaos and Destruction which desired ever-changing and unending conflict and darkness.

 'The third was a force in between, which embodied Order and Chaos, and was ruled by neither. This was the most dangerous force, for it survived on the edge of Chaos, torn between the Two and yet conjoining the Two. It was a force without one voice, it spoke with many, but it might be called Compromise. Like the Others, it was Eternal. Unlike the Others, it had no feeling of its own. It, they, were creatures of whim, fickle and capricious, twisting one way then another like branches in the breeze. They were Eternal, and all of Time and Space was theirs.

 'The first force, the Light, created the stars and set them in the void. And it created the planets. It made the lands and the seas, and it saw that they were good. And it taught the Eternals to sing with one voice, an unchanging melody pure and true, and it saw that the melody was good.

 'But the second force, the Dark, hated all that the Light had made, and it swore to unmake them. It introduced complex strings of amino acids into the primeval seas. It caused the stars to swell and die, collapsing into areas of infinite Darkness into which even Light could not discern. The Dark introduced discord into the Eternal choir, and it saw that its work was good.

 'But the Light hated all that the Dark had made. It saw only chaos and evolution in the Dark's work, and it saw they were evil. It taught the Eternals that the Dark was Evil, and, once again, their song became pure.

 'However, the Dark was not so easily defeated. It introduced individuality into the single voice of the choir, and soon the Light's perfect harmony was unmade.

 'And there was a war in the void. The Light fought the Dark. Theme against Counter theme. Harmony against Discord. Order against Chaos. Obedience against Free Will. Thesis against Antithesis.

 'But the Eternals grew tired of the two great forces, and banished them both beyond the veil of Time where they forever remain, presences that can watch and manipulate, but can never show their hands. And still their fight goes on, one set against the other in unending conflict. Both bound to obey the rules of the Game. All of time is their chessboard, all life their players. All, but the Eternals who banished them and hold their great power in check. The Eternals also play the Game, but they play amongst themselves and rarely deign to involve Ephemerals in their infinite lives.

 'However, sometimes the Eternals do interfere. Some find amusement in the manipulation of planets and galaxies. They take the forms of Gods, and compel us to bow to their infinite wills. For their pleasure, they take those races who believe themselves omnipotent and set them in deadly hate, one against the other. We fight their wars for them. We sacrifice ourselves in our millions to entertain them for a moment. Our great causes are their idle fancies. As flies to wanton boys are we to the Gods - they kill us for their sport.'

 Extract Ends.

 "'The Gods are just, and of our pleasant vices make instruments to plague us.'" It is the first time I have spoken. She looks at me, curiously.

 "Quite. [There is a long pause. I have clearly disturbed her. After what seems like an age, she begins again] Quite. It wasn't until I was given the Book of Enlightenment [I start in surprise]. You're shocked? You shouldn't be. I have friends in very high places. They thought the Book would be safer with me, in our little corner of the universe, than it would be outside. They also thought it might make a good cautionary tale. After all, we all have our own personal Gods.

 "Anyway, it wasn't until afterwards that I realised the Eternals, or whatever they are, were ultimately responsible for, well, for everything really. Thinking about it, I don't suppose it could have been anyone else. After all, the Trin'l conforms perfectly to the Eternal myth - two forces, point and counterpoint, and the compromise between them. The Eternals merely manifested their own beliefs. The two Totems - the two greater forces, and the third Totem representing the compromise between, conjoining the others.

 "But why?" I am so curious I blurt out the question without thinking. She is thrown by the question She's more used to me being silent, an observer, reading her books and listening to her talk. I've only ever asked two questions before. I feel as though I've used up my third, and final wish.

 She sighs. "Because. Because they were obsessed with themselves? Possibly because they were genuinely attempting to recreate the conditions in place at the beginning of the universe - trying to create a new universe, a bottle universe? Perhaps just because they could. Who knows? When you walk in infinity, any new experience is a blessing. Maybe they were so desperate for something *different* that they wanted to jump start their own universe - a universe where they'd be as mortal as you and I. [She frowns] That'd tie in with the Curseds' search for release. Or maybe I'm just clutching at straws. To tell the truth, I don't really care any more. All that matters is that the Eternals had manipulated the entire course of our galaxy's history to a single end. They'd engineered wars and played with reality, and their interference was focused on one, solitary planet. Not the Worldsphere, not Gallifrey, certainly not Earth. Din-el.

 "Everything that was happening to Din-el was happening because a race of immortal layabouts were bored of their omnipotence. Strange, in retrospect I don't feel anything. I'm not really angry. Numb, I suppose. The logistics of it are baffling. [She shrugs]. Anyway, where was I?

 "Oh yes, that's right. Din-el was cut off from the rest of our universe by the time loop. The ancient Trin'l weapon was transforming the planet, sending reality running wild. Cause and effect were caught in an ourobouros. The essential forces of nature were being restructured all around me. I remember I was standing on a clifftop at the beginning.

 I frown, confused. "The beginning of what?"

 She looks at me as though I'm being particularly obtuse. "At the beginning of the universe of course."

 To be continued...