Phillipe's Prologue: Paris Excavation

A young Psion resists the will of the Phoenix

Phillipe came to learn that the Paris excavation had been undertaken in search of a precious artifact which Trevize consistently referred to as "the third guide." Eventually Trevize revealed that he knew of Phillipe's psionic abilities and confided that he himself possessed similar gifts. He invited Phillipe to commune with him and share minds. While joined with Trevize in psychic concert, Phillipe felt his consciousness expand, his senses reaching beyond somatic limits and through the very stone and clay beneath his feet. In his mind's eye he beheld a luminescent prism buried in the earth.

Perceiving the ancient prize within grasp, Phillipe suddenly sensed something else: a dominating will and an iron determination countenancing hideous cruelties. Phillipe recoiled from the mind of Trevize, whose welcoming smile and affable manner seemed but an affectation to conceal a gathering darkness of spirit. Insensible to Phillipe's distress, Trevize held out his hand in friendship and offered him a position within an organization known as the Order of the Golden Phoenix, a secret society dedicated to the psychic awakening of the human race and the Utopian dream of a new race of humans evolved beyond the mental limitations of mere homo sapiens. Trevize hailed the coming Dawn of the Phoenix, the dawn of a new millennium that would witness the spiritual awakening of the human race.

Phillipe rebuffed these entreaties and Trevize responded by seizing him in shackles and dragging him off to the Phoenix Technical Academy in Frisia. According to Trevize, Phillipe had two choices: he could relent and submit to the Golden Phoenix or have his awakened mind stripped from him and given to a more worthy soul. Phillipe chose the latter option, but he could not know the torments that awaited him on the examination table under the scalpel of the mad Doctor Vento Parmezzius.