Дэн Симмонс - Orphans of the Helix

The Rise of Endymion ends with tragedy, torture, death, and separation, followed—not miraculously but inevitably—by great enlightenment and the reunion of Raul and Aenea. The Pax has murdered her—thus unwittingly bringing about their own downfall through Aenea’s Shared Moment, wherein every human being on every world glimpses the truth behind the Pax, the Church, the cruciform, and the parasitic TechnoCore—but during her “absent five years” while Raul was traveling, she had come ahead in time with the help of the Shrike to spend one year, eleven months, one week, and six hours with Raul on Old Earth. Earth has been emptied, cleansed, renewed, and returned to its proper place in the solar system by the Lions and Tigers and Bears.

Martin Silenus, the poet and constant character through all the books, dies shortly after Raul and Aenea are wed. Some of the poet’s final words were to the Consul’s ship, which has also come through a thousand years and four fat books—"See you in hell, Ship.”

As The Rise of Endymion ends, the still-mysterious Shrike stands vigil over Martin Silenus’s grave on Old Earth; thanks to Aenea’s sacrifice, humanity has been freed to “learn the language of the dead” by tapping into the empathic fabric underlying the universe—and also by now being able to freecast, that is, personally teleport anywhere; and Raul and Aenea fly off on their ancient hawking mat to celebrate their honeymoon on the empty, virginal Old Earth—”… our new playground, our ancient world… our new world… our first and future and finest world.”

— Dan Simmons