Sandow bitterly dismisses her cries and goes on. He meets Gringrin, mortally wounded. Gringrin begs him to perform the "glitten" rite with him, using the location of the recall tapes as an incentive. Once in the rite, Gringrin confesses that the recall tapes were ruined by Shandon's conflagration, but Ruth is alive in a hospital and can be saved. In the psychedelic trance, Sandow faces Death in the shape of the Valley of Shadows. He sees all the worlds he has made, and realizes that as long as he can create life, casting worlds like "jewels in the darkness", he has a purpose. Gringrin in turn loses his dread of death, and walks happily into the Valley. Waking, Sandow crawls on and reunites with his ship, then returns to Lady Karle's cave with a weapon and vaporizes the rock. They hobble to the ship together.