Over the Edge

"I've never heard of the man before I picked up his book just today," said Astra. She had sat down on a bale of hay. She kept her eyes focused on the Baroness, carefully watching her expressions like a hunter seeking her quarry.

"All right, then. What do you know of the shape of the world?"

"Well, it's flat. Everyone knows that. It's flat, in the shape of a disc, and the sun and moon orbit it on opposite sides..." She reached out her hand as if to grasp the truth.

The Baroness nodded. "And what's on the other side?"

"No one knows."

"Captain Shirk," said the Baroness, "was an voyager who traveled to every continent in the world. After that, there was only one place left for him to explore. The other side. He sailed over the edge of the world, hoping against hope he would survive."

"Then... that's what we are." Astra just managed not to start shaking. "The other side of the world."

The Baroness nodded. "Just so, just so. Now, how did you get here?"

"I don't know," said Astra. "I remember a great deal of things but it's like a dream, muddled and constantly shifting. Then again... I have heard that the edge of the world is surrounded by mists that afflict the mind with phantoms. And... I remember something about a ship that was lost far away from home. [328]"

"Then that explains it," said the Baroness.

"But wait," said Astra, "didn't Henry say something about one of the Captain's children going back to the surface? [110407] Surely it can't be easy to return. It's like the poet of the Great Empire said--going to the underworld is easy, the hard part is going back."

"Well noticed," said the Baroness. She patted Astra's hand. "As it happens..."

1. "The very merchant ship that Captain Shirk started out on crossed the Edge--that was part of what led him to come here--and now it is engaged in mapping this world."
2. "There are ways to return to the Obverse, but they are, indeed, difficult, though it is possible to send messages across. Of those who tried, Theo was the only one who survived, and no one on the Obverse will believe where he came from."

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