And the wooden benches were vilely uncomfortable. But this enquiry was in a new place, lined with rather smelly varnished wood, bleak and box-like and charmless.

My first peevish, jet-lagged thought was, Why can’t they use one of the nice rooms? The great Imperial Palace has parts that go back over a thousand years and some of those old courts and halls are wonderful. Groaning to myself, I put on the required purple bands and cream silk brocade garments and went to take my seat in the closed court. But all my pride and pleasure in this vanished when I saw the summons. I had only the day before returned from America, where I had, almost single-handed, managed to push the right people into sorting out some kind of peace in the former Yugoslavia and Northern Ireland.

It is traditionally in the care of the most junior Magid from Earth and I was at that time just that. The Koryfonic Empire is one of my least favourite charges. Some very old laws required that a Magid should be present-otherwise I am sure they would have done without me, and I could certainly have done without them. About a year ago, I was summoned to the Empire capital, Iforion, to attend a judicial enquiry.

This sign appears everywhere in the Empire, even more frequently than statues of Koryfos the Great. Two facts, however, are certain: one half of this figure eight of worlds is negative magically, or Naywards, and the other half positive, or Ayewards and the Empire of Koryfos, situated across the twist at the centre, has to this day the figure-eight sign of Infinity as its imperial insignia. You may take your pick, depending on whether you are comfortable with worlds infinitely multiplying, or prefer to think the number stable. But it is also said that the Emperor Koryfos the Great caused this multiplicity of worlds somehow by conquering from Ayewards to Naywards. It is said that the number of these worlds is infinite and that more are added daily. This is no accident, since it exactly represents the twofold nature of the many worlds, spread as they are in the manner of a spiral nebula twisted like a Möbius strip to become endless. I may as well start with some of our deep secrets because this account will not be easy to understand without them.Īll over the multiverse, the sign for Infinity or Eternity is a figure eight laid on its side.

Deep secret by diana wynne jones