Elizabeth Orme
Names: Elizabeth OrmeElizabethex-Meta Ladyex-MetaElizabeth OrebaughmissyLadyLittle Red Riding Britchesthe Ice QueenMost Illustrious Lady Elizabeth OrmeIllustrious Ladythe woman ElizabethJump ElizabethElizababeElizababeballoonerGrand MasterGrand Master metapsychicElizapupikehMadamethe Ship-Spouse's successorGrand Master Elizabeth OrmeGrand Master ElizabethSister RoccaroAll-Seeing One
First appears in Book 1: THE MANY-COLORED LAND, chapter 6 (5)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: THE MANY-COLORED LAND
- Ch 6Elizabeth, a former farspeaker, lost her metapsychic powers after an accident and cannot project even a simple message despite repeated therapy attempts.
- Ch 6Her broken forty-four-year-old body was fully regenerated in a tank to young-adult perfection, but her metafunctions did not return.
- Ch 6She privately decides to give up therapy and never return to the Institute, pretending to accept a vacation while planning to go to Exile.
- Ch 6She worked at the Institute for years as student, counseling farspeaker and redactor, and finally as patient.
- Ch 6She prays to Blessed Diamond Mask to guide her on her way to Exile.
- Ch 14Elizabeth is a former metapsychic whose mind-reading powers are burned out; she wears a farspeaker's ring with a diamond from Blessed Illusio in remembrance.
- Ch 14Elizabeth plans to keep her own persona and chooses balloonist as her vocation by combining basketmaker, charcoalburner, tanner and one more B-trade.
- Ch 14Elizabeth secretly tried a redactive probe on Landry, which was useless, but Landry turned and stared directly at her, alarming her.
- Ch 18The ex-Meta Lady is cautious, acts as the group's amateur psychoanalyst, and keeps to being one of the boys.
- Ch 19Elizabeth is a former metapsychic whose mind-powers are latent after brain damage; she specialized in farspeaking and redaction and trained very young children.
- Ch 19She lost her husband Lawrence and nearly all her brain in a tornado on Denali; her body and memories were restored but her operancy was not.
- Ch 19She plans to travel by a compact red semidirigible hot-air balloon, powered at first by a power source and later by charcoal.
- Ch 19Elizabeth perceives the loss of her metafunctions as worse than deafness, blindness, paralysis and disfigurement combined, and is privately doubtful an Exile world will be less empty.
- Ch 20Has no goal but to drift through the Exile world in a scarlet balloon until she feels the Earth and herself are real again.
- Ch 23Elizabeth is an operant metapsychic from the future whose metafunctions were wiped out by a brain injury and regeneration; they begin returning after arrival in Exile.
- Ch 23Elizabeth believes she was allowed through the one-way time-portal only because her powers were thought permanently lost.
- Ch 23Elizabeth tries to probe Creyn's mind twice; the deep-probe rebounds, and her attempt to examine his torc is met with a polite refusal.
- Ch 23Elizabeth worries that the Tanu rule their subjects unfreely, and she insists on saying goodbye to friends heading north.
- Ch 26Elizabeth says her metafunctions are returning and she intends to escape and try to help the others; she is being sent to Muriah.
- Ch 26Elizabeth pretended to be Claude's lover to be allowed to say goodbye, and kissed him.
- Ch 27Elizabeth is a farspeaker and redactor whose metapsychic farsense has newly recovered; she searches the Pliocene world for other human minds and finds none like hers.
- Ch 27Elizabeth mourns that Earth's future metapsychic races, such as the Lylmik and Krondaku, do not yet exist, so there is no one to answer her.
- Ch 27Elizabeth rescues Stein and Sukey from a psychic conflict, undoing Sukey's botched redaction and starting Stein's healing, though she cannot complete it.
- Ch 28Tries to probe Creyn's mind unnoticed, is rebuffed, and agrees to a truce with him; she resents the Tanu's reproductive enslavement of humans.
- Ch 30A metapsychic time-traveler; Creyn notes humans of the far future are fully operant, and she questions how Tanu plans fit a future without Tanu.
- Ch 32Elizabeth is an untorced operant metapsychic who converses mind-to-mind with Creyn and accuses the Tanu of deliberately manipulating exiles through terror then party warmth.
- Ch 34An operant metapsychic and trained redactor, she farsenses the endangered twins and uses her skill to separate their intertwined minds.
- Ch 34She is nearly overwhelmed by a Firvulag illusion attack at the Watergate but is shielded by the Tanu nurse.
- Ch 36Elizabeth regained her metafunctions after passing through the time-portal and is a masterclass redactor; she is the only human operant without a torc.
- Ch 36Elizabeth helped the mistress of Darask through a hard childbirth, earning the party rest at the palace.
- Ch 38Elizabeth is the first to notice that the Mediterranean is gone.
- Ch 39Elizabeth is an operant farspeaker, taken south to the Tanu capital; Madame had heard her but withdrew, suspecting a Tanu trick.
Book 2: The golden torc
- Ch 1Elizabeth has unfathomable mental powers that make her a prized catch for the Tanu; she wants to meet Lord Gomnol at the feast.
- Ch 1Elizabeth answers the Tanu welcome in Tanu and English, hoping for patience and lasting peace between the two races.
- Ch 2Elizabeth is introduced to the Tanu court as Grand Master Farspeaker and Grand Master Redactor of the Galactic Milieu, and receives a special salute.
- Ch 2Elizabeth is a farsensing and redactive practitioner who is welcomed by the Tanu as a gift from Tana; she warns Thagdal he does not yet see her as she is.
- Ch 2Elizabeth mentally probes the drunken royal court while their inhibitions are down, and offers to share the data with Bryan.
- Ch 3Elizabeth shields Stein and Sukey's minds from Tanu probing, and communicates with Aiken in the uniquely human mental mode.
- Ch 4Elizabeth is a torcless human operant metapsychic strong in farsensing and redaction, with only a small useless PK factor and no coercive power.
- Ch 4Elizabeth despises Tanu culture, rejects the role of royal consort, and still hopes to escape Muriah and become a Lowlife.
- Ch 4Elizabeth is blocked by a Milieu-imposed superego from harming sentient beings except in the gravest defense of fellow humans.
- Ch 4Elizabeth is to be Brede's initiate, which the King announced and which protects her for a time.
- Ch 9Elizabeth is a masterclass metapsychic from the Galactic Milieu who spent her career training young metas before an accident; she is now in Exile among the Tanu.
- Ch 9Elizabeth recognises the suicide compulsion as an attack, resists it easily, and says the Host's motivations conflict with her metapsychic ethic.
- Ch 9Elizabeth keeps a mental barrier against Brede, saying psychounion would be imprudent because Brede is more formidable than the other exotics.
- Ch 9Elizabeth believes torc-wearers are not truly operant and cannot know the Unity; she calls the Tanu mental synergy primitive and sloppy.
- Ch 12A human masterclass operant whose genes might make Tanu offspring operant without torcs; the Host fears her children would form a disloyal new race.
- Ch 19Elizabeth refuses to be used or to sacrifice herself for any people, insisting operancy does not equal sainthood and that she is an ordinary flawed woman.
- Ch 19Elizabeth taught young children into the Unity in her own time; Brede will be her last student.
- Ch 19Elizabeth agrees to teach Brede because she expects to die anyway, and teaching might serve as her epitaph or justification.
- Ch 19Elizabeth wants her balloon back and plans to tell the King Brede's new judgment, then leave on her own schedule.
- Ch 19Elizabeth says she loved once and suffered loss, and that love costs too much.
- Ch 20Elizabeth is a friend of Madame whose farspeech Madame sensed shortly after Group Green arrived in the Pliocene.
- Ch 21Elizabeth erased the pain of a black-torc child by severing the control interface, but cannot cure it; she agrees to relieve the other afflicted children.
- Ch 21She plans to leave soon because the Host of Nontusvel wants her dead; she is safe only sleeping in Brede's room without doors.
- Ch 21Elizabeth receives a faint mental call from Angélique Guderian about a sabotage of the torcworks, and agrees to relay a request to Aiken Drum.
- Ch 27Elizabeth warns Aiken not to betray his friends, but he rebuffs her and says nothing can stop him.
- Ch 29Elizabeth and Brede weep in the room without doors, foreknowledge having only made things worse.
- Ch 30An operant woman whom the Host rumor Aiken would mate with to engender fully operant humans; she is about ready to leave.
- Ch 31Elizabeth waits on the mountaintop with her scarlet hot-air balloon to fly Stein and Sukey away; she is a Grand Master.
- Ch 33Elizabeth retreats to the room without doors, the only place safe from the hostile farsensors Nodonn coordinates to kill her.
- Ch 33Elizabeth rejects Brede's appeals, refusing to be used as savior, weary and unwilling to wait six million years.
- Ch 38Elizabeth lies in a reverie in a secret room in Redact House and will soon awaken, becoming the world's most important person.
- Ch 41Sheltered in a cocoon of fire, Elizabeth sensed the mind-cries of the dying pass during the Mêlée and watched Brede's mind be taken by an alien mate.
- Ch 41An exotic woman left a message that Elizabeth is now free to make a true choice; the thought echoes in her mind.
Book 3: The nonborn king
- Ch 6Elizabeth decides to settle at Black Crag Lodge, an isolated retreat, to recuperate and meditate on the new role she has freely chosen.
- Ch 6Elizabeth refuses to side with any faction, saying she must remain approachable by all, including Aiken Drum and Celadeyr, and wants to be a magnet rather than a force majeure.
- Ch 6Elizabeth is a Grand Master metapsychic who can farsense, and she says she now has her own methods of defense against the Firvulag and others.
- Ch 6Elizabeth confesses to Amerie her pride, hubris, despair and contempt for lesser minds, seeking comfort that she is not alone.
- Ch 6Elizabeth had saved Lady Estella-Sirone's life in childbirth, which is why the refugees were treated generously at Darask.
- Ch 13A Grand Master farsenser, she is weaker in the Pliocene than in the Milieu and needs Creyn's help to maintain long-distance focus.
- Ch 13She fears that taking Brede's place as guide might repeat Brede's sin of forcing others' destiny, resembling the Metapsychic Rebellion; she rejects the title 'Brede Revenant'.
- Ch 13She was seventeen, an apprentice preceptor on a snowy planet, during the Metapsychic Rebellion.
- Ch 13She considers a deep-redact of Felice a possible way to neutralize her, though it might kill them both.
- Ch 16Elizabeth was a powerful mindhealer in the Milieu and speaks mentally to Felice, offering to heal her freely and without conditions.
- Ch 16Elizabeth is constrained by a superego block never to harm a thinking being.
- Ch 16Elizabeth warns Felice that the approaching metapsychic humans are lying to her and only want to use her.
- Ch 20Elizabeth communicates mentally with Peo, advising him; she sees his dilemma and plans to send the refugees to Nionel.
- Ch 20Elizabeth says Sugoll will welcome the refugees because most of them are men, and tells Peo not to say Nionel is a Howler city.
- Ch 24Elizabeth is an unseen presence who warns Felice that the headset is tampered with and offers to help her.
- Ch 24Owen urges Felice to ask whether Elizabeth would make her queen and give her her Beloved.
- Ch 27Elizabeth appears in Brede's headdress and costume, presides over the coronation, and gives Aiken the black glass circlet.
- Ch 30Elizabeth is a Grand Master redactor and a Catholic who tries to keep her faith in the Pliocene even when doubting.
- Ch 30Elizabeth is weaker than in the Milieu; she regained metapsychic powers only after passing through the time-gate.
- Ch 30Elizabeth plans to use Creyn and Dionket to operate programmed mental restraints on Felice while she performs the healing catharsis.
- Ch 33Elizabeth is a female mystic who effectively decides Lowlife strategy; Basil calls her the most important person in the world.
- Ch 34Elizabeth, a Grand Master metapsychic, believes she can heal Felice's madness and refuses to harm a rational being or abandon the redaction despite grave danger.
- Ch 34Elizabeth hopes a sane Felice could end wars in the Many-Colored Land and spark a miniature Unity among Tanu, Firvulag and humans.
- Ch 34After Felice vanishes, Elizabeth, drained and despairing, is tempted by the cocoon of fire, a suicidal temptation; Dionket and Creyn persuade her to stay.
- Ch 35Amerie says Elizabeth can teach Felice how to live in her world of the mind.
- Ch 36Elizabeth blames herself for Amerie's death, saying she could have let Felice sink into aphanisis during redaction but believed she could save her.
- Ch 36Elizabeth begs Aiken to abandon the Quest, then retreats to her room without doors when he curses her.
- Ch 36She came in person and redacted Aiken's burned mind back together over nearly a week.
Book 4: The adversary
- Ch 1Elizabeth foresaw by logic that the confrontation between Aiken Drum, Felice and Marc would end this way; she has farsenses far stronger than the three Tanu.
- Ch 1Elizabeth plans to entomb the Duality in the room without doors, leaving herself without its protection, so nobody can revive and use it.
- Ch 5Acting dirigent of Pliocene Earth, she feels incompetent for the job and fears making the same mistakes she made with Felice.
- Ch 5She cannot raise Creyn to operancy, believing he would die; she also cannot save Mary-Dedra's black-torc baby.
- Ch 5She had a real marriage in the Unity with her husband Lawrence, and does not love Creyn romantically.
- Ch 5Elizabeth believes the Duat Mind is doomed and that humans will climb to Unity using it as a stepping-stone; she says she cannot bear this.
- Ch 5Elizabeth was raised or taught by Sister Amerie, who warned that twitting the Holy Spirit is perilous; Elizabeth keeps toying with despair.
- Ch 5Elizabeth holds the title Grand Master and was meeting with the Peace Faction in a mind-meld at the lodge.
- Ch 9Elizabeth is a Grand Master; she learns that Nodonn and Cloud Remillard took the aircraft to Afaliah and that Basil is alive.
- Ch 10A Grand Master redactor who devised a salvage program to rewire Brendan's mind; she wears Brede's colors and is described as cold by Anatoly.
- Ch 10She believes the redactor-coercer configuration is right but too slow because Minanonn is not strong enough; she dares not ask the damaged Aiken for help.
- Ch 10Elizabeth has a challenge set for her by Brede, and Marc's appearance repels her; she hints at a last-resort defence available to Grand Masters.
- Ch 10Elizabeth is trying to cure a black-torc baby through a redaction program, fearing she is bungling it and the child will die.
- Ch 10Elizabeth pleads with Marc to turn his ship around and says she will work to keep the Pliocene side of the time-gate permanently closed.
- Ch 10Elizabeth's program draws heavily on preceptive courses she used teaching children at the Metapsychic Institute on Denali.
- Ch 10Elizabeth is hesitant but ends up seriously considering trusting Marc and accepting his help to heal the baby.
- Ch 12Elizabeth agrees to help route the Alpine expedition because acquiring the aircraft may prevent war, and she refuses to assist aggression.
- Ch 12Elizabeth tells Aiken that all peace-loving people in the Many-Colored Land should be told about the time-gate and given the choice to go.
- Ch 12Elizabeth previously redacted Aiken on the Rio Genii after the battle with Felice; she can only give him a mental framework to rebuild on.
- Ch 12Elizabeth wonders whether Brede saw her as time-gate shepherdess when calling her the most important woman in the world.
- Ch 12Elizabeth goes into the chamber with Minanonn and other coercers guarding her, finds Aiken and touches his cheek; he says she came and all will be well.
- Ch 12Elizabeth interprets the dream: Aiken was a psychopath, incomplete and self-centered, now reborn with an integrated psyche.
- Ch 12Elizabeth says she guided and Dionket and Creyn sustained Aiken's psychic redaction, though most of the work was his own.
- Ch 13Marc claims to be gaining the confidence of the masterclass woman Elizabeth Orme.
- Ch 14Elizabeth is a Grand Master on Black Crag who guards the infant Brendan and is wary of Marc, so she has Anatoly attend the redactive session.
- Ch 15Supposed to watch for Firvulag movements against the expedition but has been entertaining Marc in her chalet, hoping to reconcile him with the group.
- Ch 15Elizabeth, using farsense, surveyed the route and warned that about two hundred ogres and dwarfs from Famorel City are marching to attack the expedition.
- Ch 16Elizabeth is a trained preceptive redactor from the Milieu who treats the dying baby Brendan by rewiring his brain's circuitry, working with Marc over ten days.
- Ch 16Elizabeth was seventeen at the time of the Rebellion and had seen Marc as Satan incarnate; working with him unsettled her view of him.
- Ch 21Elizabeth believes that once Marc can teleport passengers and gear, he will no longer oppose reopening the time-gate, and wants Aiken and Marc to meet on neutral ground.
- Ch 25Elizabeth tracks the climbers with her farsight, warns them of storms, advises routes, and relays mind-speech between Basil and the King.
- Ch 26Elizabeth is a Grand Master Redactor and Farsensor, treated as de facto dirigent of Pliocene Earth, but insists her role is only informal and advisory.
- Ch 26Elizabeth came to Goriah as Marc's emissary and mediator, proposing a meeting with Aiken, Hagen and Cloud at her chalet on Black Crag.
- Ch 26Elizabeth believes remnants of Tanu and Firvulag persisted on Earth into historic times, mating with humans, and sees myths and anomalous finds as confirming it.
- Ch 26Elizabeth demands solemn promises of peace from Hagen, Cloud and Aiken, verified by redactive probes now and at Black Crag.
- Ch 28Elizabeth is a Grand Master who urges Marc to tell the truth; she fears and is drawn to Marc and believes the Unity is love.
- Ch 28Elizabeth refuses the wine, shocked, and says Amerie must have been out of her mind to send Anatoly; she then leaves the room.
- Ch 28Elizabeth knows how to find Marc if he is not at Black Crag.
- Ch 29Elizabeth, on Black Crag, relays the children's decision to Marc.
- Ch 29Elizabeth confirms Aiken's message is truthful and urges Marc to yield rather than destroy the Many-Colored Land.
- Ch 30She cannot find Marc or the schooner by farsensing, suspecting he uses an absorptive screen, and is fatigued; she makes Creyn promise never to mention his idea.
- Ch 31Elizabeth asked Marc for help: over twenty mothers of black-torc children have come to her chalet, and she proposed a group-metaconcert version of the black-torc redaction.
- Ch 32Elizabeth is a metapsychic who thinks Marc Remillard is unrepentant and responsible for four billion deaths.
- Ch 33Elizabeth refuses to go on Kyllikki, choosing to stay and stand by Aiken at the games and aid him in the war.
- Ch 33Elizabeth is tired of exile and in despair; her mind reveals a cocoon of fire, grief over Marc and Lawrence, and a wish to flee.
- Ch 33She wears a small diamond ring, symbol of her Milieu profession; Lawrence wore its twin.
- Ch 33She will teach Dionket and Creynas educational shortcuts and says Marc's adaptation of Brendan's program lets them modify babies' brains so tores are unneeded.
- Ch 34Elizabeth wears Brede's robes and jeweled respirator mask at the Tourney as a symbol of Brede, but is secretly hiding subconsciously and is blocked against aggressive action.
- Ch 34Elizabeth has farsensing and healing abilities and wants to stay and help Aiken rather than sail on Kyllikki; she would return to the Milieu if the time-gate opened.
- Ch 35Is shown a vision of a lone barred spiral galaxy in intergalactic space, which she says is Creyn's Duat vision, not hers.
- Ch 35Keeps her feelings behind flames and calls it impossible when Marc says Creyn told him she and Aiken both love him.
- Ch 36Elizabeth stood beside Aiken at the power-up, expressionless and with her mind inaccessible.
- Ch 37Sat in the royal box with Marc during the games; she and Marc share a bitter telepathic argument about love and past loves, ending in agreement.
- Ch 38Elizabeth, whose snuff sequence is the children's last defense, yields to Marc; she is later found discussing things with him and chooses not to leave.
Connections
- friend ofKwong Chun-Mei
- member ofDenali Institute of Metapsychology
- friend ofAiken Drum
- member ofGroup Green
- family ofLawrencehusband and wife
- friend ofClaude Majewski
- related toSukey DaviesElizabeth becomes her instructor
- related toCreynmental conversation partners; Creyn is a Tanu guide, Elizabeth is a human metapsychic
- ally ofCreyn
- ally ofSukey Daviesmentor and fellow healer
- ally ofAiken Drum
- friend ofSukey Davies
- related toBredeto become Brede's initiateoffers sanctuary and mutual teaching; Elizabeth remains wary
- enemy ofHost of Nontusvel
- partner ofLawrenceHost promises reunion with Lawrence in death
- ally ofDionket
- friend ofBrede
- friend ofFelice Landryformer friend
- ally ofBrede
- friend ofSister Annamaria Roccaro
- ally ofSister Annamaria Roccaro
- related toDedrapersonal attendant
- related toFelice Landryoffers to heal her mind through telepathic contact
- member ofGalactic Milieuwas a mindhealer there
- ally ofPeopeo Moxmox Burke
- ally ofFelice Landryintervenes to protect and offer help
- ally ofMinanonnwork together on Brendan's redaction
- partner ofCreynCreyn loves her; she regards him as dearest friend only
- friend ofBasil Wimborne
- enemy ofMarc Remillard
- related toAiken Drumindependent of her influence
- related toBrother Anatoly Gorchakovher confessor
- friend ofCreynguardian
- friend ofBrother Anatoly Gorchakov
- related toMarc Remillardworked together on Brendan's cure
- ally ofBasil Wimborne
- ally ofMarc Remillardacts as his emissary
- related toBlack Crag LodgeElizabeth is on Black Crag
- related toLawrenceWore the twin of her diamond ring; apparently her lost partner
- partner ofMarc Remillard
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 6Failed projection therapy
Elizabeth tries repeatedly to project a message but Kwong detects nothing. Elizabeth voices her despair at never regaining metapsychic function.
- Book 1 · Ch 6Elizabeth leaves for Exile
Pretending to consider a vacation, Elizabeth says a final goodbye to Kwong, leaves the Institute in a snowstorm and heads for the egg park, resolved to go to Exile.
- Book 1 · Ch 14Choosing vocations
Over lunch Elizabeth and Aiken read the list of Pliocene vocations; Aiken chooses to be a Jack-of-all-trades Scottish Connecticut Yankee, and Elizabeth chooses balloonist.
- Book 1 · Ch 14Orientation lecture in the Petit Salon
Group Green meets for the first time and Counselor Mishima presents a holographic tour of Pliocene geography and explains the weapons ban and available information on earlier travelers.
- Book 1 · Ch 14Elizabeth probes Landry
Elizabeth tries a redactive probe on Landry, who stares directly back at her, leaving Elizabeth uneasy.
- Book 1 · Ch 19Last night terrace talk
After the last supper, Group Green's members discuss metapsychic powers, Pliocene coal and plans, Felice's unhappiness, and Aiken's Connecticut Yankee costume as a storm gathers over Lyon.
- Book 1 · Ch 19Elizabeth and Bryan confide
Elizabeth explains her latent state and the tornado that killed Lawrence; Bryan describes his plan to search for Mercy. The downpour begins and they go inside.
- Book 1 · Ch 20Group Green enters the time-gate
At five hundred hours Mishima leads the eight travelers through the garden to the Guderian cottage cellar. Bryan, Stein, Richard and Felice are translated first.
- Book 1 · Ch 20Second group translated into Exile
Aiken gets the device's diagram, then he, Claude, Annamaria and Elizabeth are translated. They arrive in a bright green-and-blue place and are helped out of the gate.
- Book 1 · Ch 23Elizabeth meets Creyn
Dazed after the portal passage, Elizabeth is taken to Castle Gateway, where Creyn treats her. They converse mentally, and she probes him, which fails. He declines to answer some questions and announces she will go to Muriah.
- Book 1 · Ch 23Tully brings news of her companions
Tully tells Elizabeth her companions are safe, some going south and others north by caravan that evening. She asks to say goodbye to those going north and notices his dark necklet.
- Book 1 · Ch 26Caravan prepares to depart
Waldemar briefs prisoners on the journey to Finiah, chalikos are saddled with ankle chains, and Elizabeth bids Claude farewell before the portcullis is raised.
- Book 1 · Ch 27Elizabeth searches for other minds
Riding east, Elizabeth probes with her recovered farsense, finding Tanu, torced minds and unknown anomalies, but no free human metapsychics, and withdraws in grief.
- Book 1 · Ch 27Sukey's botched redaction of Stein
Sukey, urged by Aiken, tried to heal Stein and was caught in his rage. Elizabeth intervened, freed Sukey, calmed Stein and began healing him.
- Book 1 · Ch 27Elizabeth begins teaching Sukey
Creyn asks Elizabeth to instruct Sukey on her new power; Elizabeth enters her mind and learns her background and hollow-Earth belief.
- Book 1 · Ch 28Truce between Elizabeth and Creyn
Elizabeth tries to probe Creyn's mind, is rebuffed with the puffin parable, and agrees to a truce.
- Book 1 · Ch 30Arrival at Roniah
Creyn's caravan with the captive time-travelers reaches the illuminated city past midnight, enters through the gate, and is greeted by Tanu nobles in the marble quarter.
- Book 1 · Ch 32Shooting Cameron's Sluice
The party boards the Mojo and rides the Rhône through violent rapids; most passengers are asleep or calmed, while Bryan stays awake and Highjohn offers him a job.
- Book 1 · Ch 34Prisoners lodged at Darask
The travelers stop at the Riverside Palace, where Kennedy locks the prisoners in a tower chamber, and Elizabeth is summoned to help Creyn with the dangerous birth.
- Book 1 · Ch 34Birth of the twins
Elizabeth separates the antagonistic minds of Estella-Sirone's twins. A Tanu girl and a shape-changing Firvulag boy are born, and the nurse hands the boy to waiting Firvulag at the Watergate.
- Book 1 · Ch 34Firvulag illusion attack
At the Watergate, Elizabeth probes the Firvulag illusion and receives a mental attack that makes her imagine her hands burning; the Tanu nurse steadies her and warns of Firvulag illusions.
- Book 1 · Ch 36Stein's final healing
Guided by Sukey and Elizabeth, Stein relives the harvester accident that killed his mother and his father's anguished words, then accepts them and is freed of guilt, fear and anger.
- Book 1 · Ch 38Descent of the Dreadful Slide
The riverboat goes over the continental brink at the end of the Rhône and plunges into the empty Mediterranean basin, ending after four hours in a great bitter lake. The torc-wearers refuse Creyn's offer of oblivion.
- Book 2 · Ch 1Welcome at the Tanu palace
The boat arrives at the King's palace in Muriah, where Lady Eadone greets the time-travelers and Elizabeth replies in Tanu and English before the escort erupts in celebration.
- Book 2 · Ch 1Highjohn's reward
Creyn gives Highjohn a mental reward; Bryan and Elizabeth find him convulsing in ecstasy, and Bryan closes the door before they follow the others inside.
- Book 2 · Ch 2Time-travelers appear at the feast
The five time-travelers meet in new Tanu finery, joined by Aiken, who hints at coming mischief and shows he is working around his metafunction curb before the court procession.
- Book 2 · Ch 2Presentation to the High Table
The honorees are presented; Elizabeth is hailed with Slonshal. Thagdal and Nontusvel welcome them, Nontusvel promises Bryan he will see Mercy, and Ogmol is named as his assistant.
- Book 2 · Ch 2Thagdal explains Tanu breeding and torcs
Over the supper Thagdal and Nontusvel explain his sovereignty by fertility, the eugenic program with human help, and how honorary golden torcs were granted to key human arrivals.
- Book 2 · Ch 2Thagdal explains Tanu history of torcs
Thagdal tells the human guests how Gomnol discovered human latency and invented the assay device, silver and gray torcs, which let the Tanu dominate the Firvulag.
- Book 2 · Ch 2Toast to Elizabeth and fellowship
Thagdal declares Elizabeth a gift of Tana and announces her training under Brede; the court toasts fellowship, then feasting and dancing begin.
- Book 2 · Ch 3Mayvar takes Aiken to kin
After Aiken displays his growing mind, the assembly grants him a test. Mayvar takes him to kin and leaves with Aiken and Stein; Thagdal departs.
- Book 2 · Ch 4Siblings press the Queen to kill Elizabeth
In the garden, Culluket, Imidol and Riganone persuade Nontusvel that Elizabeth threatens the dynasty through Gomnol's breeding scheme and cannot be allowed to flee. They agree she must die.
- Book 2 · Ch 9Suicide compulsion on the headland
The Host of Nontusvel bombards Elizabeth with suicide compulsion at the cliff edge; she shows she is aware of it and shuts them out, and they withdraw.
- Book 2 · Ch 9Entering the room without doors
Brede leads Elizabeth into her mentally silent sanctuary, where Elizabeth feels relief from mental noise.
- Book 2 · Ch 9Brede tells the story of the exiles
Brede recounts the origins of Tanu and Firvulag on Duat, the Ships, the Golden Age and wars, and how her prescience led her to carry the exiles to this galaxy.
- Book 2 · Ch 12Dispute over Gomnol's plan for Elizabeth
The Host demands Elizabeth's death, fearing hybrid operants; Gomnol and Eadone defend the plan. Aiken Drum's possible challenge is raised, and the Queen proposes demanding a ruling from Brede.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Brede asks Elizabeth to teach her the Unity
Brede abandons the genetrix idea, proposes Elizabeth teach her mental Unity techniques. Elizabeth refuses, then agrees because the teacher shares the ordeal and she expects to die.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Hyperspatial ordeal and Brede's awakening
Across the galaxy in hyperspace, Brede endures agony guided by Elizabeth, glimpses a bright presence, and is drawn back. She becomes operant, removes her torc and experiences first Union with Elizabeth.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Elizabeth leaves to see the King
Elizabeth, angered by Brede's attempt to resume probing the pattern, resolves to tell the King her new judgment and retrieve her balloon. Brede promises the balloon and to deal with the Host of Nontusvel.
- Book 2 · Ch 21Elizabeth relieves black-torc child and receives call
Elizabeth eases a dying child, refuses to stay long-term, and then hears Angélique's telepathic call about sabotage of the torcworks, with Brede's help.
- Book 2 · Ch 23The King's failure and the doomsday survey
After Thagdal fails again with a love-gift girl, Nontusvel comforts him. He reveals Brede's taboo on Elizabeth and Bryan's survey predicting Tanu downfall. He vows to stop a human-hybrid coalition and destroy the reports.
- Book 2 · Ch 31Balloon escape of Stein and Sukey
Creyn brings Stein and Sukey to Elizabeth's balloon on the mountaintop and reveals Felice, whom Elizabeth is invited to save. The balloon then rises over Muriah and drifts southwest toward Gibraltar.
- Book 2 · Ch 33Elizabeth rejects Brede
Elizabeth withdraws into the room without doors and refuses Brede's pleas until Brede's calls fade.
- Book 2 · Ch 38Brede instructs the humans
Brede leads Basil, Burke and Amerie to Elizabeth's room, assigns their tasks, tells them to stay until dawn, and vanishes.
- Book 2 · Ch 41Elizabeth wakes after the Mêlée
Elizabeth emerges from her fire cocoon, learns of the exotic woman's message, sees the flooded ruin of Muriah, and prepares to meet the survivors.
- Book 2 · Ch 41Survivors arrive at Hidden Springs Canyon
Months later, in June, Elizabeth's party arrives at the village, and the residents excitedly prepare to greet her.
- Book 3 · Ch 6Inspection of Black Crag Lodge
Elizabeth and friends lunch at the chalet; Elizabeth approves it as her retreat, with Creyn staying. Basil, Burke and Amerie say farewell and leave for Hidden Springs.
- Book 3 · Ch 6Elizabeth reveals Felice is alive
Elizabeth tells Amerie that Felice survived and describes her torture by Culluket, her psychosis and her calls to him.
- Book 3 · Ch 6Elizabeth's confession
Amerie hears Elizabeth's confession of pride, hubris and despair, and absolves her.
- Book 3 · Ch 13Elizabeth and Creyn argue Brede's legacy
Elizabeth voices her fear that replacing Brede repeats the sin of forcing destiny, drawing parallels to the Metapsychic Rebellion; Creyn answers with felix culpa.
- Book 3 · Ch 13Night farsearch locates Felice
Elizabeth and Creyn farsearch, finding Burke and Sharn, then spot Felice over Mount Mulhacén calling Culluket. They discover a multiple human-mode transmission from the Devils, who promise to come in fifteen days.
- Book 3 · Ch 13Elizabeth identifies the Devils
Elizabeth realizes the Devils are the operant humans in Florida she traced faintly on arrival; they plan to track them the next night.
- Book 3 · Ch 16Elizabeth offers healing
Elizabeth contacts Felice mentally, warns her that the approaching humans are liars, and offers to heal her. Felice wavers, then flies off crying Culluket's name.
- Book 3 · Ch 20Elizabeth directs Peo to take refugees to Nionel
Peo reports about 1000 desperate refugees. Elizabeth tells him to postpone returning to Hidden Springs and lead them north and west by river to Nionel, where Sugoll will welcome them.
- Book 3 · Ch 24Attempt to docilize Felice exposed
Owen deceives Felice with promises of healing and queenship, and Elaby and Cloud demonstrate the rigged equipment. Elizabeth's voice warns Felice not to use the headset, exposing the trap.
- Book 3 · Ch 27Coronation of Aiken Drum
Before 6000 Tanu, Firvulag guests and 15,000 humans, Elizabeth presents Aiken with a black glass crown; he names his High Table and is acclaimed King.
- Book 3 · Ch 30Felice agrees to be healed
After Elizabeth shows Felice her brain, opens her own mind to prove her sincerity, and explains the plan using the room without doors, Felice agrees to stay and undergo redaction.
- Book 3 · Ch 30Felice attacks Elizabeth's mind
Felice's mind-grip lunges at Elizabeth, who blocks it with an adamant barrier; Felice claims she did not mean it.
- Book 3 · Ch 33Strategy talk in Burke's wigwam
Burke, Basil and Denny meet Kalipin and inspect the stun-guns, discuss Firvulag raids, Aiken Drum's weapons, hiding aircraft in the Vale of Hyenas, and a possible search for weapons at Roniah, deferring to Elizabeth.
- Book 3 · Ch 34Final descent into Felice's mind
Elizabeth, aided by Dionket and Creyn, spends six hours redacting Felice's madness while the psychic discharge devastates Black Crag's surroundings.
- Book 3 · Ch 34Felice awakens sane
Felice wakes sane, rejects being like Elizabeth, chooses herself, thanks Elizabeth and vanishes, leaving Elizabeth drained and tempted by death until the Tanu healers comfort her.
- Book 3 · Ch 36Elizabeth warns Aiken that Felice is loose
Elizabeth farspeaks Aiken that Felice escaped and killed Amerie, urging him to abort the Quest and hide Culluket. Aiken refuses, curses her, and proceeds after scans suggest Felice is far from Mulhacén.
- Book 3 · Ch 36Aiken recovers
Elizabeth's redaction restores Aiken. He learns the casualties, thanks Minanonn, and returns to cheering followers.
- Book 4 · Ch 1Aftermath of the gigantomachy
After the great psychocreative blast, Elizabeth and the Tanu descend to the ruined battlefield. Dionket and Creyn go to save Aiken and organize rescue.
- Book 4 · Ch 1Elizabeth entombs the Duality
Elizabeth finds the fused minds of Felice and Culluket under the rockfall and, with Minanonn's help, plans to seal them in the room without doors before healing Aiken.
- Book 4 · Ch 5Marc's third apparition
Elizabeth and Creyn probe a silhouette of Marc on the balcony; Elizabeth pleads for peace and mediation, but it fades unanswered.
- Book 4 · Ch 5Creyn's plea refused
Elizabeth weeps over her inadequacy; Creyn offers love and she refuses, explaining she cannot make him operant. He consoles her and they discuss stars and Tanu belief.
- Book 4 · Ch 5Elizabeth and Creyn discuss the doomed Duat Mind
Elizabeth tells Creyn that Brede saw the tore as dooming the Duat Mind and that humans may rise to Unity using it as a stepping-stone. Creyn counsels trust; Elizabeth admits despair.
- Book 4 · Ch 5Friar Anatoly bursts into the conference
Brother Anatoly evades the retainers and barges into the salon. Minanonn freezes everyone, and Anatoly announces that Amerie Roccaro sent him as Elizabeth's spiritual adviser. Elizabeth lets him go, and he leaves.
- Book 4 · Ch 9Basil's mind-call to Elizabeth
Basil tells Elizabeth of the Children's alliance with Aiken and their plan to open the time-gate. He asks her to tell Peo about the open gate, then waits for her advice.
- Book 4 · Ch 10Anatoly's prayer and exit
Anatoly argues with Mary-Dedra over the experiment, is rebuked by Elizabeth, then, bolstered by Minanonn's mental touch, recites a prayer and leaves with Dedra to the spring.
- Book 4 · Ch 10Redaction of Brendan's mind
Elizabeth and Minanonn spend eight hours rewiring the baby's brain; briefly he functions operantly without his tore, but Minanonn is exhausted and they must rest three days.
- Book 4 · Ch 10Marc Remillard appears
Marc Remillard hovers outside the nursery window after a hyperspatial jump, offers a greeting, which Elizabeth refuses, and says Brendan's problem interests him.
- Book 4 · Ch 10Marc confronts Elizabeth
Marc, projected across a d-jump, argues with Elizabeth over the time-gate and his children. She begs him to let them go and turn back.
- Book 4 · Ch 10Marc offers to help heal the baby
Marc examines Elizabeth's redaction program, says it can cure the baby but is too slow, and proposes joint work after solving his stasis problem. Elizabeth tentatively accepts.
- Book 4 · Ch 12Aiken and Elizabeth confer by farspeech
Aiken outlines the expedition to Monte Rosa and the time-gate plans, then breaks down, confessing his hallucinations and metapsychic collapse; Elizabeth agrees to come secretly to a cave to help him.
- Book 4 · Ch 12Flight to Quicksilver Cave
Minanonn carries Elizabeth, Dionket and Creyn south before a storm, passing the caravan camp and discussing Duat, the Milieu and the time-gate before reaching Quicksilver Cave.
- Book 4 · Ch 12The chimaera shadow
In the cave the party sees a monstrous three-headed shadow engaged in a frenzied sexual display ending in a flash of light; Elizabeth recognizes it as a chimaera and rushes in.
- Book 4 · Ch 12Elizabeth finds Aiken
Elizabeth, guarded by Minanonn and coercers, enters the subsidiary chamber and finds Aiken Drum weakened, his suit in rags but his body normal.
- Book 4 · Ch 12Aiken's dream of rebirth
Aiken dreams of dragon, hag and eagle ordeals, defeats and kisses Stein Oleson, and sees the chimaera as his reflection; Elizabeth explains he is reborn with an integrated psyche and resolves to be a true King.
- Book 4 · Ch 14Marc visits Black Crag
Marc arrives to intensify Brendan's redaction. Elizabeth has Anatoly fetch him clothes and attend. Marc mind-reads Anatoly, then they discuss Marc's failure and loneliness.
- Book 4 · Ch 15Firvulag force marches
Elizabeth reports about 200 Firvulag from Famorel City marching to attack the camp, expected in six days.
- Book 4 · Ch 16Brendan's redaction completed
Over a night, Elizabeth and Marc finalize Brendan's brain redaction. Elizabeth cannot handle the boost, Marc seizes control, forces her subordinate, and completes it. Brendan becomes operant and healed.
- Book 4 · Ch 16Elizabeth confides in Anatoly
Anatoly gives Elizabeth breakfast and laced coffee; she discusses Marc's surprising skill and mercy and asks what he wants.
- Book 4 · Ch 21Aiken and Elizabeth confer
Aiken and Elizabeth discuss Marc's teleportation, a meeting to settle matters, and the Monte Rosa assault. Elizabeth shows him Stein, Sukey and baby Thor, and Aiken promises not to interfere.
- Book 4 · Ch 26Elizabeth and Minanonn arrive at the Castle of Glass
Flying through storms, they land at Goriah and Aiken greets them; Elizabeth reveals she has come on Marc's behalf and that Marc d-jumped Basil Wimborne from Monte Rosa.
- Book 4 · Ch 26Tour of the Guderian Project laboratories
Aiken shows Elizabeth the heavily secured labs and the Guderian device, explaining its progress and the deception about Tony's wife Rowane.
- Book 4 · Ch 26Elizabeth conveys Marc's proposal
Elizabeth tells Hagen and Cloud that the Milieu would accept them after atonement, then relays Marc's invitation to meet at Black Crag, with a hint about their genetic heritage.
- Book 4 · Ch 26Council agrees to meet Marc
After Hagen explains the CE rig's limits, Aiken, Hagen and Cloud agree to go to Black Crag to hear Marc, under Elizabeth's demand for oaths and redactive probing.
- Book 4 · Ch 28Marc reveals the Mental Man truth
Marc tells Hagen and Cloud they are the parents of Mental Man and the last source of his immortal strain; he proposes they lead the project on a conquered planet.
- Book 4 · Ch 28Anatoly confronts Marc and Elizabeth
Anatoly offers the mulled wine, which Elizabeth refuses before leaving. He tells Marc that coercing or maiming the children would damn him, and Marc admits he is weighing it.
- Book 4 · Ch 29Marc scouts Goal
Marc d-jumps to Goal with three tons of rock, observes the saurischian humanoids for two days, then returns to Kyllikki and receives his children's refusal.
- Book 4 · Ch 30Creyn reveals his idea to Elizabeth
Creyn shared his idea for Marc's new work; Elizabeth, horrified, made him promise never to speak of it, then prepared to meet the petitioning mothers.
- Book 4 · Ch 31Marc contacted by Elizabeth
While fishing from Kyllikki, Marc is farspoken by Elizabeth, who asks help for the black-torc children. He also notices Aiken's flight to Fennoscandia before a catfish hits his line.
- Book 4 · Ch 32Marc delivers the redactive program
Marc teleports to Black Crag, gives Elizabeth the adapted redactive program excluding her from the metaconcert, warns he will oppose the gate, offers her another world, and departs after she refuses.
- Book 4 · Ch 33Plan to flee to the Blessed Isles
Minanonn reveals the King's news of Marc's escape and possible Firvulag alliance, and proposes evacuating the babies and Peaceful Folk on the captured Kyllikki to the Blessed Isles.
- Book 4 · Ch 33Elizabeth refuses and flees
Elizabeth declines to leave, reveals her despair, and runs into the night; Minanonn and Dionket decide not to follow.
- Book 4 · Ch 34Opening of the Grand Tourney
The royals and nobles ride in procession to the Field of Gold; Aiken and Sharn jointly open the sky, and the new Song and the Singing Stone are presented.
- Book 4 · Ch 34Aiken makes Elizabeth remove the mask
Aiken refuses to let Elizabeth help while hiding behind Brede's mask, insists on his terms, and tries to send her to Kyllikki; she removes the mask but still resists leaving.
- Book 4 · Ch 35Elizabeth dances at the Ground-Star Ball
Aiken persuades Elizabeth to open her mind and she sees a galaxy vision. She then finds herself dancing with Marc, who confronts her about loving him, before Aiken holds her again as the music ends.
- Book 4 · Ch 37Aiken takes Elizabeth away
Aiken arrives with advisors and removes Elizabeth for a ride, warning Marc to be gone when he returns.
- Book 4 · Ch 38The Adversary breaches Castle Gateway
Marc, empowered in the CE rig, shatters the dome and shields, captures his paralyzed children, takes Elizabeth's surrender and sends four people through the time-gate to the Milieu.
- Book 4 · Ch 38Marc and Elizabeth reach the Duat Galaxy
After a final jump, Marc and Elizabeth emerge in the Duat Galaxy, where crystalline creatures and Song greet them.