Passages

Before the Adrian mob can seize Timmy, Fletcher steps forward and confesses that he destroyed the town hall. He calls on the people of Maris to end the tyranny that has oppressed them and to follow the command of the Unseen One. Emboldened by his words, the Marusians discover that they outnumber the Adrians in town and drive them away. Fletcher frees Timmy while the sheriff rushes to summon military help from Adria.

Hundreds gather at an old field that once held an altar to the Unseen One. Some fear that their small uprising will end as soon as the Adrian army arrives, and Fletcher refuses to seek help from distant Sarum. Instead, he promises that their help will come from the Unseen One. When the people demand proof, Alice asks Timmy for his Swiss Army knife and gives Fletcher a sheet of paper. Neither the knife, larger blades, nor even a sword can pierce it. Alice explains that the Marusians are as weak as paper, but the Unseen One can make them stronger than the weapons raised against them. If they lose faith, however, they will scatter like scraps in the wind.

Fletcher releases everyone who doubts rather than forcing them to remain, and nearly half the crowd leaves. Then, following another instruction from Alice, he brings out a barrel of water. Only those who drink from a shared cup are chosen to fight; those who scoop up the water with their hands must go home. The already small force shrinks to just three hundred people. Soon a messenger reports that thousands of Adrian soldiers have camped near Exilor.

Timmy is sure Fletcher's followers are headed for slaughter. Alice reminds him that they do not know how to return home and must trust the Unseen One who brought them to Maris. Even Fletcher admits that his human heart feels fear, though he does not doubt. Alice sends him and Timmy to inspect the enemy camp that night so they can see what the Adrians are made of.

Hidden among the tents, Fletcher and Timmy overhear Adrian soldiers discussing terrifying dreams. The men believe the Marusians' God will crush their army, and some are already preparing to desert. Fletcher returns encouraged and devises an unusual attack. His followers collect every torch, lantern, horn, bell, and other noisemaker they can find, then surround the field near the Adrian camp before dawn.

From a nearby hill, Alice and Timmy watch Fletcher give the signal. Lights suddenly blaze along the ridge while the three hundred Marusians make a tremendous uproar and charge in the name of the Unseen One. Already frightened by their dreams, the Adrians mistake the noise and lights for a vast army. They drop their weapons and flee without fighting. Fletcher's men pursue them, and Fletcher even captures an Adrian general. The victory is won within minutes.

As the victors return to Trevain, the people try to crown Fletcher king. He refuses, insisting that the triumph belongs to the Unseen One alone. When he directs their gratitude toward Alice, they hail her as a prophetess and ask her to tell them what to do next. But the mysterious power has left her, and both of her eyes are brown again. Some accuse her of being a fraud, yet Alice feels no desire for honor. She grieves only the loss of the extraordinary closeness she had felt to the Unseen One.

Alice soon understands that if the Unseen One is God in Maris, He is also the God she can know and serve in her own world. Timmy, meanwhile, admits that the journey has forced him to examine everything he has grown up believing. He no longer wants merely to inherit his father's faith; he wants to learn the truth for himself.

During the victory fireworks, smoke drifts through the woods around Fletcher's cabin. Alice and Timmy walk into it and suddenly hear a camp counselor calling them to supper. They have returned to their own world, apparently on the same evening they left. Certain that no one will believe them, they promise to keep Maris a secret.

In the present, Alice explains that she has spent the past twenty years as a missionary. Now she has been diagnosed with cancer that cannot be treated, and she has returned to settle a few matters - including honoring Timmy by finally telling Tom what happened. Tom cannot say that he believes her, but he tells her that Timmy became a Christian at camp and made his faith real for the first time there.

After Alice leaves, Tom opens Timmy's old journal. The entries confirm that Timmy met Alice and explored the woods with her. Then Tom finds Timmy's account of a Bible lesson about Gideon and a single startling word: Maris. The biblical story resembles Alice's account closely enough that the children might merely have invented their adventure - but it might mean something more. Left alone with the journal, Tom can only wonder.