God Encompasses (short story)

 was the eighth and final story in the anthology Furthest Tales of the City. It was written by Philip Purser-Hallard.

Summary
The end has come for the City of the Saved. A wave of all consuming unknowableness is consuming the City and nothing, not even the last stand of the combined might of all of humanity's armed forces, could stop it. Standing before it is Compassion, the last human descendant. Does she have a plan to succeed? Obviously...

Characters

 * Compassion
 * The Anonymity

Continuity

 * Compassion was mother to a breed of timeships for the Great Houses, (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon, The Book of the War) who are considered human by City standards, but for reasons known only to Compassion were excluded from resurrection in the City. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...)
 * All the individuals listed as being re-resurrected at the end of this story have previously appeared in stories involving the City of the Saved:
 * Civitata and the Universal Machine. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved..., A Hundred Words from a Civil War)
 * Asirite and Mound Isop-3. (PROSE: Weighty Questions)
 * Merla Gupta and Bribori Zadig. (PROSE: Sleeping Giants)
 * Nanette and Tata. (PROSE: Driving Home for Atonatiuh)
 * Boston Xialanthi and Sten. (PROSE: The Smallest Spark)
 * Nanna Ahmed and Katie Emory. (PROSE: The Places Above, Between and Below)
 * Dame Emma Mansfield and James. (PROSE: We Only Live Twice (But the City Is Not Enough))
 * Countless Sherlock Holmeses with their attendant Watsons, Mycrofts, and Moriartys. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved..., The Baker Street Dozen, et al)
 * Arthur Conan Doyle. (PROSE: Eliminating the Impossible, The Adventure of the Piltdown Prelate, The Baker Street Dozen)
 * Akroates. (PROSE: Akroates, Apocalypse Day, More Tales of the City linking material)
 * Lewis Greaves. (PROSE: The Long-Distance Somnambulist)
 * Hal Benson. (PROSE: Double Trouble at the Parasites on the Proletariat Club)
 * Lena Dmitri. (PROSE: Eternity is Just for Starters)
 * Claude Lapin. (PROSE: Born Among Briars)
 * Many Richard IIIs. (PROSE: The Mystery of the Rose)
 * Isabelle Gebhart and Matt Scala. (PROSE: The Isis Method)
 * Brianna ap t'Erapi. (PROSE: Lost Ships and Lost Lands)
 * Terrence Moody and Helen of Troy. (PROSE: Happily Ever After Is a High-Risk Strategy)
 * Sophia Maitland. (PROSE: Highbury)
 * Inigo Faber and Socrates. (PROSE: The Socratic Problem)
 * Philip K. Dick. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved..., A Hundred Words from a Civil War, About a Girl)
 * Jane Dick and Kurt Cobain. (PROSE: About a Girl)
 * Lazarus. (PROSE: Bruises)
 * Parallaxia div Procyon, Akhenaten, Tonton Macoute, Remix Jack, Jane Halidom and two Rex Halidoms, Pope Beatrix II, Yeshua bar-Abbas. (PROSE: A Hundred Words from a Civil War)
 * Melicia Clutterbuck, Lucius Cassius Ignotus, Urbanus Ignotus, Laura Tobin, Krisztina-Judit Németh, Mesh Cos, Godfathers Avatar and Lo, Godmother Jezebel, Cousins Edward and Rahman, and Keth Marrane. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved..., A Hundred Words from a Civil War)
 * Gnas Gortine, Selene Walmric, Professor Vril, Kyme Janute, Dedalus, Ludmilla, Claudius Caesar, Allisheer St Marx, and Cousin Porsena. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...)
 * Grandfather Halfling, Godparent Pinocchio, Amanda Legend Lefcourt, Het Linc, former Citizen Verrifant, Vlad Tepes, William Shakespeare. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
 * Adolf Hitler. (PROSE: Warlords of Utopia Prologue)