Endnote to Volume Three

Volume Three, "All Things Must End," had officially concluded. Though its theme was death, the author had not wanted to write an overly sad story. Having the protagonist understand the true meaning of "death" through the departure of an important character would have been far too clichéd. This volume had 282 chapters, 82 more than expected. The next volume really would wrap up at around 200 chapters, and its theme would be "Knowledge and Wisdom."

The final scene of Volume One had been Shade and the Doctor walking side by side down the street with their backs to a burning building, Shade looking back while the Doctor lowered his head. The final scene of Volume Two had looked from a Steam Epoch street toward a second-floor window; amid the thin mist, Shade gazed into the distance while the Doctor watched him. The final scene of Volume Three had been a rainy morning, with Shade and the Doctor facing away from the camera, holding umbrellas as they looked at a gravestone in the rain.

The adventure in Middlesburg had come to a temporary end, but many stories remained there. The next volume would naturally send Shade somewhere new for another adventure, but its main setting would return to Tobesk City, allowing Shade to participate more deeply in the Process of Civilization amid the nobles, Princess, spies, conspiracies, and politics of wintertime Tobesk.

The stories of the current four-person group had all begun to unfold, and Shade had entered the final ring of the lower fourth circle. The lack of divinity, the final linking of the Words of Sublimation, his relationships with the young ladies, new Rhodes Cards, whether the world would be destroyed, and the secrets of time left behind by the Gray-Robed Sage—these were all matters he had yet to