Epilogue

Epilogue

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe

All mimsy were the borogroves

And the mome raths outgrabe.

I bet you're all wondering what happened next.

By the time we reached the surface of the Tulgey Wood, Trisha and the others had already handled the situation. Every last one of the Mome Raths had surrendered, and they were all willing to give up their lives of evil sorcery and move on to better and brighter things. I think seeing an angry Trisha with a big stick in her hands usually has that effect on people. Also, during our fight with Professor Trellis and the Jabberwock, the Tumtum tree had mostly collapsed, but a lot of its main structure remained miraculously intact. It has since been tended to and is growing back to its normal self.

Lilly was joyfully reunited with her friend Meadow, and Burr with his brother Thorn. Tom was glad to see Aric mostly in one piece, and Trisha chewed me out for not taking care of myself. It was nice to have everything back to normal that way. I restored the Gyres to the remaining de-slithed Toves, and we all returned to Noosta with the generous help of the Bandersnatch. There was a huge week-long celebration in typical Tovish style, but the Mome Raths surprised everyone by magically producing all sorts of cake and party streamers out of thin air. It turns out that the inventors of the ancient magics liked to party. (One of them had with him a curious device called a Phototronic Likeness Replicator, which I borrowed to take some pictures as I visited my friends.)

So, what became of everyone after our quest was over, you ask?

In Noosta, Lilly was introduced to her parents. Apparently they themselves were tribe shamans, but were from a wandering nomadic tribe that was loosely related to the Noosta Toves – which explains her fur markings being similar to those of the Noostians – but her parents had left the baby Lilly with the Noosta shaman to provide for her a better, more stable life, since the Mome Raths and the waking Jabberwock were causing all sorts of havoc and disaster across the land. Now that the danger was past they came back to be reunited with her daughter.

That was a “real tear-jerker,” in Aric's words.

(Graphic 7.1: Lilly in tears of joy with her parents, River, Ashes, Meadow, Aric, Burr and me.)

Lilly introduced every single one of us to her parents, and for her bravery and wisdom Lilly was nominated to be the next togom of Noosta; for the meantime she will continue to work alongside Ashes, her adoptive shaman-mother, and her birth parents are sure to visit Noosta frequently. Now that the Toves are all returning to their homelands and recovering their damaged civilization, she has a lot of work to do and a lot of togoms to work with but she is definitely the right person for the job. She and River are still together, but River's definitely on probation and is making up for past hurts. He seems very repentant, and we've given his extra Gyres back to their original owners. Aric was firm on letting him keep his personal Gyre, that of freezing still water, because “Everyone deserves the chance to start over.”

Burr returned with Thorn to the Aztlav kingdom in the north, where he was given a hero's welcome. All damaged reputations were repaired, and peace settled once more on the broken kingdom. Sadly, Burr's father the king had died during a Mome Rath invasion, but Thorn gave up the throne to Burr because of the great valor and selflessness he had demonstrated in defeating the Jabberwock.

What's more, since royal Aztlav marriage-rites take several months to be finalized and they were still in the planning stages, the ritual marriage between Thorn and Fire was officially canceled. Burr married Fire and the two of them are rebuilding the grandeur of the Tovish nation; in fact, they are starting to re-establish old connections with the otherwise-isolated Borogroves of the land, just like things were in Star and Mountain's days. It's nice that he still gets to work with Lilly in this regard.

(What's even funnier is that Thorn ended up asking Meadow to marry him, so according to complicated Tovish politics, Lilly and Burr are brother- and sister-in-law. Aric couldn't stop laughing when they told him.)

(Graphic 7.2: King Burr and Queen Fire, happily married, with Thorn, Meadow, Aric, Lilly and me at the wedding.)

As for Aric, he returned to New Poliston and was warmly received by his old friends in the city, and the New Poliston Alliance For The Betterment Of Urban Fellows was re-established as an officially recognized organization. (This time around, Aric made arrangements so that if he were to disappear, the group with remain intact.) They ended up finishing the orphanage that Aric had always wanted to build, aside from dozens of other orphanages and schools all over the country, so that nobody would have to grow up on the streets ever again. Aric was even urged to run for mayor, but he declined and decided to simply be the figurehead for the Urban Fellows. He told me that he'd had enough of power and influence for a while.

(Graphic 7.3: Aric and the New Poliston Urban Fellows, with Tom and Trisha and me.)

I asked him if he wanted to start going by Gerard again, but he said that all his friends already called him Aric, and he had lived the best parts of his life when going by that name. So Aric he remains.

Tom decided to move back to New Poliston where he had grown up, to stay next to Aric and be part of all the good changes that were taking place. With Trisha's help and more than a little political expertise, they rooted out all the remaining Mome Raths who wouldn't surrender and convinced them to give up their evil ways. Those who didn't readily surrender were subjected to the Bandersnatch. They quickly changed their minds. Doctor Virchuk, Chairlady Semmerfish, Senior Archivist Reming and the other Mome-Raths-turned-good ended up building a museum full of their ancient artifacts (those that weren't sent to King Burr for safekeeping, that is; remember, Aztlav also boasts one of the greatest treasuries in the Wabe) and a detailed explanation of their former exploits, to get everything out in the light. A lot of people still don't like them, but everybody's convinced that it's better to have their secrets brought out into the open instead of hiding them in the dark.

We ended up deciding to burn the Manxor Slithe and anything related to it. That book and its knowledge were far too dangerous to leave sitting around.

Speaking of Trisha, she was promoted to Captain of the Dunberg Police, but quickly renounced the position when offered the opportunity to be the Military Liaison between the humans and the Toves, just to make sure both races were on the same page. There is still a bit of mistrust and prejudice between Toves and humans, but everyone's doing their best to educate and be tolerant, so the two nations are quickly becoming good friends.

Mr. Eugene Gribley eventually became president of the Dunberg Library Book Club, whose numbers surged dramatically after relations with the Toves opened up, including Slick Johnny and the Jubjub bird. (Right now they're reading up on all the history records that the Toves have kept up until now. That's a lot of history to review, but Mr. Gribley is up for the task, as is the Jubjub.)

(Graphic 7.4: A candid photo of Mr. Gribley, Pete, Sophie, Blanche, the Jubjub and others translating Tovish documents in the Dunberg Library. Blanche is yelling angrily at me for taking the picture.)

As for me? What did Hector Blithe do after coming home from the Tulgey Wood?

It might surprise you to know that I gave up my position as Head Librarian of the Dunberg City Library. Sophie took my place while Pete and Blanche (who had fended for themselves while Dunberg was under Mome Rath control) continued to work there and aid in the extremely demanding work of translating Tovish history books into modern Humish. Luckily, librarians and scholars have come from all over the country to help with the enormous task, both Toves and humans alike.

But I still haven't answered the question.

I have left Dunberg and I now travel all over the land as the General Manager of All Things Bookish (that's the unofficial title that Aric bestowed upon me.) I actually am the manager of the Central Library in New Poliston, and it's my job to make sure that all the libraries in New Hume are correctly regulated and managed. I enjoy it, but fortunately it doesn't take too much of my time. I spend my days visiting old friends and making new ones, interviewing travelers and togoms and compiling their records into stories to be read and enjoyed for generations to come. And yes, I did find a special little lady who shares my love for All Things Bookish, but that's a story for another day, I think.

(Graphic 7.5: Me and the new Mrs. Blithe!)

As unbelievable as it seems, everything came together perfectly after the Jabberwock was slain. It has been several years since then, and there is peace and prosperity and progress with no end in sight. One day I visited Trisha in her office, and she mentioned that she thought it was ridiculous and too good to be true that essentially everyone's problems were solved overnight.

“Have you ever heard of the term deus ex machina?” I asked her.

“No,” she responded.

“It's complicated,” I said with a smile. “You wouldn't understand.”

There is one more thing I would like to mention before finishing.

Immediately after returning home and helping clean up the library, I sat down and began to write out every experience I had with Lilly, Aric, Burr and the others, making sure I filled in the holes where I hadn't recorded things in my travel journal. I wrote a book about our adventures, and when I was satisfied that it was as true-to-life as I could make it, I brought it before Lilly, Aric and Burr. They highly approved of it (Burr having learned how to read), but I still needed a title for our story.

After much deliberation, we decided on the Tovish word Brillig. It means “a journey worth taking.”