The Library at Mount Char

Now, Carolyn and Steve find David, Margaret, and Erwin outside Garrison Oaks. Carolyn tells Steve that he’ll be safe in the Library because anybody who’s a threat to him will trigger the barrier—they tasted the flesh of the deer, Isha and Asha, at a feast held there long ago. Then Carolyn reveals the dogs won’t hurt him either, because they’ve been under her control all along.

Steve goes into Garrison Oaks, and Carolyn joins David, Margaret, and Erwin. She admits that she killed Father and created the barrier. She proposes that she and David join forces, saying she admires him. Then she rips off one of his testicles and runs across the barrier. David follows, able to withstand the effects because of his training. He throws his spear into her leg and drags her toward him, then tries to kill her and nearly succeeds. Erwin appears, however, and shoots David in the face. As David is dying, Carolyn whispers a word that suspends him outside of time.

Soon, Steve and Naga join Carolyn and Erwin, and Carolyn explains how she engineered every detail of what’s happened, including their roles. She left David alive and outside of time so that he’ll be stuck forever with the terror of knowing he’s about to die. She also produced a small shock in the pain center of David’s brain, leaving him in a state she describes as “the theoretical upper limit of suffering” (279). When Margaret learns this, she’s delighted and tells Carolyn that they’re sisters, now that Carolyn is like her.

Margaret knows Carolyn will kill her but asks to be burned in the bull, like David. Carolyn agrees and prepares the fire, but when Erwin realizes what she intends, he aims his gun at her and says he won’t let her do it. Two military helicopters fly overhead with guns, bombs, and missiles. Carolyn gives a command: “Project and defend” (287). A blinding light follows, and shortly afterward, both helicopters nosedive to the ground and explode.

Carolyn burns Margaret and joins Steve in the neighborhood, where the animals and dead ones make way for her and call her Sehlani, the title they used to call Father. When they reach the Library, they find it nearly demolished. Carolyn explains that the small building was just a projection. The front door is a portal to the real Library. Before they go through, Steve asks what the token was. Carolyn picks up a copy of the book Black Beauty, which is vaguely familiar to Steve. He and Naga follow Carolyn, who pulls David’s floating body with them on a string, into the Library.

The Library is an enormous pyramid, about two square miles at the base. In the center, a floating spiral staircase leads to a platform, above which hovers a cloud of lights. That cloud is the universe, the one Steve’s world is in. 

The Library is a separate universe that Father created to protect the millions of books he authored, which contain the knowledge of the universe. Carolyn and Steve climb to the platform, where they find a young woman sleeping. Carolyn recognizes her as Mithraganhi, Nobununga’s sister and, until a few hours ago, the sun. Father made her into the sun using the same word that Carolyn spoke to David.

Mithraganhi wakes, and Carolyn quickly stabs her in the neck, killing her. Steve, horrified, holds Mithraganhi’s hand as she dies. Carolyn explains that anyone loyal to Father is a threat to them. Carolyn hangs David in the sky, within the cloud of lights, to be the new sun. He’ll be a dark sun, producing plenty of heat but no light.

Carolyn tells Steve she owes him a great deal and promises to give him anything he can think of, even invincibility or immortality. Then she tells him all about her life in the Library with Father. Hearing what she endured, Steve has compassion for her. He learns that he’s been resurrected but chooses not to know the details. Steve stays in the Library that night, watching astrophysicists on the news on Earth trying to explain why the sun is black. As he begins to comprehend Carolyn’s true power and state of mind, he becomes afraid. He realizes what he must do.