Ashes to Ashes. Seldom since AD can there have been such a transition of eras.
It has been 18 months since England's last Australian humiliation came to a not especially merciful end in Hobart; since Ollie Robinson's cowering shuffle towards square leg epitomised a surrender inevitable from the moment Rory Burns offered up his stumps to the series' first ball.
It would be over-dramatic to claim that in that moment an English Ashes victory felt worlds away. In home conditions, home teams are almost always competitive. But the thought of a green top and some bleakish overheads two summers down the line did not exactly provide much solace against the backdrop of a broken team and an apparently crippled system.
How is it then, that one now sits here at Edgbaston, looking out at a cloudless sky and a brown-baked deck, upon a series whose preface reads more intriguingly than any since 2005?
The answer lies in England's transformation and the names, which hardly need stating, and ideas of two men, though there are other factors worth touching on, too.
In the broader context of a rapidly changing game, there is a sense if not quite of finality, then certainly of something to be savoured, something perhaps soon to be a little more scarce.
This rivalry feels for now insulated by historical significance and commercial viability from many of the forces contributing to Test cricket's much-lamented, though not enough prevented, decline, this series ordained for the foreseeable future to remain the pinnacle for its participants, even if the pinnacle of what, exactly, is less clear.
Only the naive, however, could forecast that immunity lasting forever: the end of the Ashes may not be in sight, but the end of the Ashes as we know them may well be.
To this particular Australia, the notion of climax is more explicit. The year began with triple goals of series wins on historically the nation's two most challenging tours, either side of a World Test Championship Final, the consensus that two out of three would be enough to belatedly elevate a team littered with all-time greats to similar status as a collective. Last weekend's triumph over India means that, despite a series defeat on the subcontinent, the offer remains on the table.
Really, though, through an English lens, this is the story of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum; of 11 wins in 13 Tests; of a mantra built on style before results; but now the fate of that famous little Urn sits at the end of it all.
The miracle lies in how little has changed to change everything. The cast is near-identical to that which flew home from Australia with tails not so much between legs as docked, the root-and-branch review that inevitably followed not delivered until the revolution had begun and, since, largely cast aside.
Cricket's calendar, usually an object of contempt, has by grand fluke contrived to sell the fight, the new England having taken on the rest of the world's top six in turn, with now only the boss level to conquer.
Australian doubts over whether England's batters will be able to come at their boys with the same venom may frame as egotistic denial but are not without substance, the WTC Final confirming that the touring attack is, without question, the best this philosophy will have encountered.
That contest between English bat and Australian ball is the more glamorous half of an equation that is at least equal. Driving for show, wickets for dough, and England's so far faultless record of taking 20 of them in every match under Stokes will be put in mortal danger by the likes of Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne. Should it somehow survive five Tests, the Ashes, surely, will be regained.
And that, for all the claims of sporting altruism, is what the next six weeks are about. Stokes insists his team are on a journey and will not be defined by these Ashes, but history suggests otherwise. Every great side needs its legacy moments, and while wins in India and Australia are almost impossible to come by, Ashes victories anywhere count for heroic magnitude, particularly if they come against rivals this good.
This brave new era still feels in its infancy, but England may never have a better chance to give it due crowning.
