The whole northern
atmosphere was stained with ulfire.

Maskull's mind grew disturbed. "Alppain is rising, Gangnet."

Gangnet smiled wistfully. "It begins to trouble you?"

"It is so solemn--tragical, almost--yet it recalls me to Earth. Life was
no longer important--but this is important."

"Daylight is night to this other daylight. Within half an hour you will
be like a man who has stepped from a dark forest into the open day. Then
you will ask yourself how you could have been blind."

The two men went on watching the blue sunrise. The entire sky in
the north, halfway up to the zenith, was streaked with extraordinary
colours, among which jale and dolm predominated. Just as the principal
character of an ordinary dawn is mystery, the outstanding character of
this dawn was wildness. It did not baffle the understanding, but the
heart. Maskull felt no inarticulate craving to seize and perpetuate the
sunrise, and make it his own. Instead of that, it agitated and tormented
him, like the opening bars of a supernatural symphony.

When he looked back to the south, Branchspell's day had lost its
glare, and he could gaze at the immense white sun without flinching. He
instinctively turned to the north again, as one turns from darkness to
light.

"If those were Crystalman's thoughts that you showed me before, Gangnet,
these must be his feelings. I mean it literally. What I am feeling now,
he must have felt before me."

"He is all feeling, Maskull--don't you understand that?"

Maskull was feeding greedily on the spectacle before him; he did not
reply. His face was set like a rock, but his eyes were dim with the
beginning of tears. The sky blazed deeper and deeper; it was obvious
that Alppain was about to lift itself above the sea. The island had by
this time floated past the mouth of the estuary. On three sides they
were surrounded by water. The haze crept up behind them and shut out all
sight of land. Krag was still sleeping--an ugly, wrinkled monstrosity.

Maskull looked over the side at the flowing water. It had lost its dark
green colour, and was now of a perfect crystal transparency.

"Are we already on the Ocean, Gangnet?"

"Yes."

"Then nothing remains except my death."

"Don't think of death, but life."

"It's growing brighter--at the same time, more sombre, Krag seems to be
fading away...."

"There is Alppain!" said Gangnet, touching his arm.

The deep, glowing disk of the blue sun peeped above the sea.