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In the year EK 3413, the following files were secretly obtained froid Rupert Venables and, at the Emperor’s personal request, deposited in the new archive at Iforion

I may as well start with some of our deep secrets because this account will not be easy to understand without them

All over the ht laid on its side This is no accident, since it exactly represents the twofold nature of the many worlds, spread as they are in the manner of a spiral nebula twisted like a Mobius strip to become endless It is said that the number of these worlds is infinite and that more are added daily But it is also said that the Emperor Koryfos the Great caused thisfrom Ayewards to Naywards

Youon whether you are co, or prefer to think the number stable I have never decided

Two facts, however, are certain: one half of this figure eight of worlds is negative ically, or Naywards, and the other half positive, or Ayewards; and the Empire of Koryfos, situated across the twist at the centre, has to this day the figure-eight sign of Infinity as its inia

This sign appears everywhere in the Empire, even more frequently than statues of Koryfos the Great I have reason to know this rather well About a year ago, I was summoned to the Empire capital, Iforion, to attend a judicial enquiry Soid should be present – otherwise I am sure they would have done without me, and I could certainly have done without thees It is traditionally in the care of the id from Earth and I was at that time just that I was tired too I had only the day before returned froed to push the right people into sorting out sooslavia and Northern Ireland But all my pride and pleasure in this vanished when I saw the su to myself, I put on the required purple bands and creaarments and went to take my seat in the closed court

My first peevish, jet-lagged thought was, Why can’t they use one of the nice rooo back over a thousand years and some of those old courts and halls are wonderful But this enquiry was in a new place, lined with rather smelly varnished wood, bleak and box-like and charmless And the wooden benches were vilely unconia – carved in relief and painted too bright a gold – dug intowooden chair provided for the Eaze to the inevitable statue of Koryfos the Great, loo in the corner That was new too, and picked out in over-bright gilt, but there is this to be said for Koryfos: he had a personality Though the statues are always the same and always idealised, you could neverbut the likeness of a real person He carried his head on one side, a bit like Alexander the Great of Earth, and wore a vague, cautious s to do things my way anyway” You could see he was as obstinate as sin

I re why the Ened for a bare twenty years over twoplaces, but they persist in regarding his tie – e had to stand up for the entrance of the present Emperor A very different person, small, plain and dour You do wonder how it is that Emperors always marry the most beautiful women in several worlds and yet produce someone like Tilance at him and think that this was a short man eak eyes and a chip on his shoulder Tilasses This embarrassed me as I stood up I was the only other person in the court in spectacles – as if I were setting up to be the Eid is the equal of any ruler, but in this particular court of enquiry I was a mere onlooker, there by law to certify simply whether or not the accused had broken the law as stated I was not even supposed to speak until after a verdict had been reached

This, aal facts, was tediously made known to me in the preliminaries after we all sat down and the prisoner was marched in and ster of twenty-one or so, called Timotheo He did not look like a law-breaker I a, with some perplexity, that Tial reasons, his real naed hts of Koryfos the Great He stood to the Eion, it seeions in plenty, over a thousand godlets and goddities, but the worship of these was a purely personal thing As an example of how personal, I recalled that Tio, adopted the worship of a peculiarly unlovable goddess who inhabited a bush planted on the grave of a dead worshipper and who iularly joyless code of loomy look But no one else at court had felt the need to adopt the Emperor’s faith It was Koryfos who united everyone

Here I was jerked to alertness The E e Stripped of the law-talk it was appalling, even for the Empire The so-called Timotheo was the Emperor’s eldest son The decree he was said to have broken stated that no child of the Eh Ladies or Lesser Consorts, was to knoho his or her parents were The penalty for discovering who they as death And death for anyone who helped an Imperial child find out

The Emperor then asked Timotheo if he had broken this decree

Timotheo had evidently known noas shocked and angry as I felt I could have applauded when he answered drily, “Sire, if I hadn’t broken it before, I would have broken it when you read out e just now”

“But have you broken the decree?” the Emperor reiterated

“Yes,” said Timotheo

Catch-22, I thought I was furious What a charade!