Baanquer's Point

Only once in all time did the land of Eard cross strands with the evil empire Zerp. Baanquer's Point is the story of that encounter, recorded for all time on the Stone.

Eard is a land of casual but very real and pervasive magic, while Zerp is stridently materialistic, crumbling under its own corporate weight. Eard and Zerp are not planets, and they are probably not parallel universes. They are Real, however, in contrast to Elsewhere that lies between.

The story turns on Nice, the stuff that greases Reality. Zerp's villainy boils away Nice prodigiously while Eard's ubiquitous wizardry soaks it up. This accumulating imbalance of Nice attracts the attention of One, a paternalistic diddler who runs Elsewhere. One, who defines power in his virtual realm but lacks sensation in Real places, projects an imperfect alter ego, Baanquer, into Real to straighten things out. Baanquer's misbegotten but ultimately successful efforts propel the story, climaxing at Baanquer's Point.

Unwittingly consummating Baanquer's plan, Rubb and Sam attempt the first successful Flang ever to restore the balance of Nice. Baanquer finally pulls the plug at precisely the right point in time, Baanquer's Point, setting everything aright and sealing our heroes' doom.

Sam and Rubb do not really understand what's going on and often cloud rather than resolve the situation. Their doom is to be their end; they will be no more.