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And ninety-three million miles away, the sun itself fell into sorrow, inexplicably di by one hundredth of one percent, henceforth and forever

Of course such events have never been seen by hu has never happened in the history of human life on earth

Until now

In the living world, these ih no one would agree as to what they were signs of Global wareddon? The living would co were exceptionally good at arguing, especially when no one knew the answer

In Everlost, however, the effect of auniverse was very sih every soul, cule of pain--yes, pain--deep in every Afterlight’s gut And with that pain ca irreparable had occurred

Awareness

Few things are more powerful than awareness, and it resonated within the sleeping, drea world and Everlost The sudden spark touched every Interlight regardless of how long they had slept, and jarred them all back to pre borne fro ever to be felt by the universe

The Interlights in Milos’s bank vault all sat up, wondering where they were, and how they got there

The Interlights in the arms of the Neon Warriors, who had left the Ala on their oo feet, and asking lots of questions

And in a glass coffin, a girl dressed in glorious green opened her eyes and smiled

"Well, now," she said to herself "Let’s see what I’ve missed and what still needs to be done"

While in a lonely chamber deep beneath the Alaan to play ‘Eve of Destruction’"

PART FOUR

Mary Rising

High Altitude Musical Interlude 3 with Johnnie and Charlie

London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down"

Sing-alongs, Johnnie-O had decided, were invented by the darkest forces of evil as hell’s ulti down"

Johnnie was convinced that whateverfat everworhosts of swiss cheese holes

"my fair lady!"

Andhow many journeys they had ravitational tweak the giant deadspot had given them, each revolution left the toward the equator Eventually they would pass it, and wind up spinning in circles at the south pole

"Take the keys and lock her up, lock her up, lock her up"

With no contact froround since that fateful day Mary attacked the train, they had no way of knoho had won that battle They could only hope that their sacrifice was not for naught

"Take the keys and lock her up"

Forout of the s had provided no solace Deadspots were few and far between, and the sight of the more than a cruel tease from a cold world

"my fair lady!"

Yet even with his Swiss-cheese, cobwebbed, empty head, Johnnie-O still didn’t reach the sa stupor that Charlie had found

"It’s gotta , don’t it, Charlie? The fact that I’ idiot like you?"

Charlie’s ansas just a vacant sh that verse, a shadoept across the bulkhead

"Wait! Did you see that?"

CharlieAt first Johnnie thought that it h their airspace, but as he rose to look out of the , he saw so flash by A colorful flash of feathers, and a powerful beat of wings--and then another, and another

"I think they’re angels, Charlie! The angels came to save us!"

In a el feet setting down on the silver surface of the airship above the tiether they sang, "Off we gointo the wild blue yonder"

CHAPTER 29

The Great Awakening

Mary could see faces looking down on her, although it was all quite distorted due to the bottles, eyeglass lenses, and randoe box she found herself in Her pallbearers had placed her on the ground and now just stared at her Mary pushed on the lid, but it wouldn’t give, so she turned to the pallbearer with the sweetest face

"Excuse me," she said, "but would you be so kind as to undo the latch?"

"Yes, ma’am" He knelt down, fumbled nervously with the latch, then pulled open the lid

As soon as Mary stood up, about half the Afterlights knelt before her respectfully, as if they had been in the habit of doing so The other half just stood about, looking lost, confused, and startled by living-world traffic that barreled past thehts were the children she had gathered, but none of their faces were familiar, and there were only about a hundred When she had been so rudely dragged back to the living world and summarily killed by Milos, there had been close to a thousand