"You found him," Jezebel said as Orb coalesced into the kitchen.
"How did you know?" Orb asked, facetiously, looking at the middle-aged woman.
"The whole fish brightened by two magnitudes when you arrived," the succubus said.
"I'm in love."
"What else is new? Can you eat?"
"Of course not!"
"Try, anyway." And the woman set about the poaching of two eggs in the air, not bothering with stove
or pot. Orb found that she could, after all, eat.
The others came in. "When's the wedding?" Lou-Mae inquired.
Orb choked on her egg.
Betsy laughed. "Not this afternoon, then."
"Am I wearing a sign?" Orb demanded. "I just discovered my own feelings, and here all of you-"
"We're teasing," Lou-Mae explained. "You were the only one of the party hunting, and we're so glad it's
over."
"Tell us everything," Betsy said eagerly.
Orb raised her hands in surrender. She told them everything. "And now I must tell my mother," she said
as she concluded.
A spider appeared, growing as it slid down its thread, transforming into Niobe. "She already knows," she
said.
"Oops! I forgot your office! You were watching my thread!"
"Only passingly, dear; it is only one of millions." Niobe smiled. "But a special one."
"Nat's not a demon," Orb said.
Niobe paused, as if something odd had happened. Then she regrouped. "I really came on other business.
You see, your thread is now taking a significant direction, and I think it is time for you to be aware of
this."
"Is this something that is not our business?" Lou-Mae asked. "We can leave."
"No, my dear," Niobe said. "It may be your business." She shimmered, and her grandmotherly form
appeared: a large black woman. "You bet, honey," this figure agreed. Then she changed into a young
and very pretty oriental girl. "Yes, true," she said. "We know of youth and love, too."
Lou-Mae took this in stride, having encountered Fate before, as did the three males, but Betsy's eyes
grew round.
Orb touched her hand. "My mother is an Aspect of Fate," she explained. "There are three Aspects:
Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. They spin the threads of life, measure them, and cut them; they also
partake of the different ages of life. It seems that this is a business visit."
Niobe reappeared. "You see, Orb, you are destined to assume the office of the most powerful of the
Earthly Incarnations-Nature. You may have noticed your powers increasing."
Now it was Orb's turn to be astonished. "An Incarnation-me?"
"Some come to their office almost randomly, as with Death, who kills his predecessor, or Time, who
simply takes the Hourglass. But some are destined for their office because of what they are. Gaea is
ready to retire, and you are the one with the capacity to take her place. Your magic operates through
music; as you approach the office, your power increases. Already you are able to do much of what the
Green Mother does; and soon you will do more."
"But it's the Llano!" Orb protested. "The song is the mechanism; without it I have no special abilities."
"True only to a degree," Niobe said. "The Llano is one of the world's most versatile and potent tools, but
only a few possess the ability to use it. You have shown that ability. You can use it, but you can also go
beyond it, as you perfect your skill, and apply the principles of natural magic more directly. The song is
merely a useful guideline during your learning stage. You are the candidate."
"But I never sought-never imagined-"
"Neither did I, dear. But now it has become plain. You are very near the point of decision; if you choose
not to assume the office, you will have to guide your course accordingly."
"But I'm in love with a mortal man!"
Niobe nodded. "Nor do I for a moment disparage that. I was an Incarnation and I came to love a mortal
man; I left my office in order to marry him, and you were the result. I have never regretted that decision.
But I made it when I was well informed. Now it is necessary for you to be similarly informed, as you
make your decision."
"You mean I can't-can't marry and be an Incarnation?"
"Oh, it is possible for an Incarnation to marry," Niobe said. "But there are considerations. An
Incarnation is frozen at her present level; she never ages, never dies-and can't have children."
"No children," Orb repeated numbly.
"While her mortal spouse does age and die and could sire offspring-with a mortal woman. That is why I
stepped down, dear. I could have married your father and kept my office, but I could never have given
him the attention he deserved, and you would not have come into being. Of course I had already borne a
child; still-"
And Orb had borne a child. But to be denied the ability to bear another, one she could keep and raise as
part of a family-that horrified her. "Are you saying that I must turn down the office?"
"By no means, dear. I am merely trying to impress on you the gravity of your decision. You can marry,
you can become Nature, you can do both, or do neither-but the distinctions between the four situations
are significant. I believe you should discuss these matters with your friends and take all the time you
need to come to your best understanding of the alternatives."
"We don't know anything about this!" Lou-Mae protested. "We would not presume to-"
The grandmotherly Aspect, Atropos, reappeared. "You going to marry your man while he's on H,
child?"
"No!" Lou-Mae said, her lip trembling. "But-"
Atropos pointed at Orb. "As Nature, she can take him off H, permanently. That's why this is your
business."
Lou-Mae looked at the drummer. "Oh, Danny-Boy!" she exclaimed. "If she could do that-"
The pretty oriental girl, Clotho, appeared. "And you," she said, looking at Jezebel. "As Nature, she could
abate your curse permanently and give you control over your form by day and night." The succubus
reeled as if struck. "I would sell my soul, if I had one, for that!"
Niobe, the Lachesis Aspect, returned. "And you, dear," she said to Betsy, "could have ideal weather at
your farm, permanently, if she chose it-as well as a man free of addiction."
"But I have not been able to do these things!" Orb said.
"Anything I do is only temporary."
"The fact that you can do them even on a temporary basis is indicative," Niobe said. "As Nature, your
powers would be enormously increased. You could restore sight to the blind, mortality to those cursed
with immortality, and youth to an old tree. Anything within the scope of your office and that is a great
deal indeed. It is no minor position you contemplate."
Orb sat back, her thoughts whirling. Such power!
"Consider well, my child," Niobe said. Then she became the spider, and the spider climbed up the thread
and disappeared.
"I guess it is our business!" Lou-Mae said. "All those dreams, for all of us! We thought the Llano, but
it's you who can do it."
"I've got to think!" Orb exclaimed, tormented. "It's so easy to misuse power, and I know so little about
it! I never realized when I sought the Llano-!" She sang the travel theme, and in a moment was on the
far, deserted island where she had encountered the traveling sponge.
But in another moment Natasha was there. She flung herself into his embrace. "Oh, Nat, suddenly it's so
complicated!" she exclaimed. "I thought the world was mine, when I loved you, but now-"
"I sensed your disquiet," he said. "That's why I came."
"I am to be an Incarnation, like my mother-if I choose. But then I could not have a family and would not
age."
"Would not age?" he asked, hardly displeased. "You would always be as you are now?"
Orb had to flush. He was of course a man, much concerned with a woman's form. "But I could not have
another baby," she reminded him.
He frowned. "Could you perhaps have the baby, then assume the office?"
"No!" Orb cried in sudden anguish, remembering how she had to give away Orlene. "I want a real
family! I want to devote myself to my baby, to raise it to maturity, as my mother raised me!"
"Of course," he said, chastened.
"But oh, there is so much good I might do, if I assume the office!"
"I will love you as a mortal or as an Incarnation," Nat said. "I can not make this choice for you. But I
wonder-"
"Yes? You have a notion?"
"It seems to me that you already can do a great deal. Perhaps you can accomplish much of the good you
wish, without giving up your mortality."
Orb thought about that. "I suppose I could try. But you know, the Llano gives you similar powers. I
wonder-"
"I am not destined for the office of Nature!" he exclaimed, laughing. "I have quested for the Llano since
childhood and rehearsed every fragment of it I have found, over and over. I have done all I can with it;
progress is always slower than before. I am at my limit. But you-you hear a theme once, and it works for
you as well as it ever has for me! Your potential is much greater than mine. I would be jealous, if you
weren't so beautiful." Then he sobered. "Or are you saying that you have outgrown me already? I would
not try to hold you, if-"
"Oh, no, Nat, no!" she cried, kissing him.
"Then you might try the things you wish to, and that will give you a clearer notion of your choices. I will
abide your decision, whatever it may be."
"You are most kind, Nat," she said. "I will try."
She returned to Jonah. "My powers have been increasing," she announced. "Now I know what they are
leading toward. I was not able to do some things before, but maybe now I can. Are you willing to
experiment?"
The drummer stepped forward. "You know what I want," he said. "If you want to try, I sure do."
Lou-Mae glanced sidelong at him. "You are talking about H?" she inquired archly, and the others
laughed.
Jonah swam to ground, and they debarked. The experiment had to be conducted outside of Jonah, to
ensure that it was not the big fish's magic operating.
Orb tried the Song of Evening, that she had just learned. The sound of it had confirmed her burgeoning
love for Natasha; could it abate the dread addiction, for the sake of love? She willed the craving for H to
be banished from her subject, the drummer.
The twilight came, and the beauty of the nocturnal vision. Clouds became orange. She remembered
Nat's comment about the facility with which she picked up the new themes. She had not considered this
before, but it was true that she had always learned music at a rate others could not match. Certainly the
parts of the Llano worked for her as they had for him, and she had not rehearsed them.
The drummer screamed.
Startled, Orb cut short her song.
"No, go on!" he gasped. "It's working!"
She resumed the song. Now she saw that the drummer was gyrating in an unnatural way, as if opposing
forces were drawing at him. He screamed again, but this time she did not pause. It seemed that a
temporary nullification of the craving was painless, but that a complete cure was another matter.
From him something came. It looked like a ghostly snake, its head rocking back and forth as if seeking
something to strike at. But the melody hauled it forth, drawing it on out of the body. It was the H
addiction, struggling all the way, inflicting the punishment of its withdrawal. It glared balefully around,
remaining hooked in by its tail, like a moray eel.
Then the theme became too much for it, and it let go and puffed into smoke. The drummer fell to the
ground.
Lou-Mae ran to him, cradling his head in her arms, as Orb's song ended. "Is it-?"
"It's gone!" he panted. "It was hell letting go, but it's gone!"
"We can't be sure of that," Orb warned him. "Only time will tell-time away from Jonah."
"I tell you, I know" he said. "H has let go!"
"I hope so," Lou-Mae said. "Why don't you and I stay out here, and if you can go the day and night
without H..."
He brightened. "Yes! No more unicorns!"
"Shut your mouth!" But she was smiling.
Orb and the others retreated to the big fish. "If it really is so-" she began.
"You can do me next!" the guitarist and the organist said together. "And me," Jezebel said.
"Meanwhile, I believe I'll rest," Orb said. She went to her room and lay down. But she found she could
not truly relax; she was too excited.
"Nat, where are you?" she whispered.
He coalesced beside her bed. "Did you speak my name?"
She sat up and wrapped her arms around his waist. "How did you hear me?"
"Once I knew that I loved you, I invoked that aspect of the Llano that attunes to your speaking my name.
It is akin to Jonah's relaying of talking to the object of the discussion. Thus I heard you immediately."
"You know about Jonah? How is that?"
"He is one of the special creatures of this world. I discovered his nature on one of the bypaths of my
search for the Llano. But he would not help me on my quest; he knew that I was not destined to
complete it."
"But he's helping me!" Orb said.
"Because you have the potential I lack."
"Or because I danced the tanana for him."
Nat pursed his lips. "Yes, I had forgotten you know that dance! Some time you must dance it with me!
But beware; it-"
"Drives men mad with desire," she concluded, laughing. "I will save it for some suitable occasion." One
of the things she liked about Nat was his conduct; he never tried to take advantage of her, either by the
straying of his hands or by suggestion. She knew he desired her, but he was too disciplined to allow it to
show aggressively. He reminded her of Mym in that respect; that seemed to make Mym's endorsement
more significant.
"I should not remain here," he said, confirming her assessment. "I thought I was tired, but I can't rest,"
she said. "Is there somewhere we can go?"
"There is all the world. Perhaps you should visit your friends."
"I'd like that," she agreed. "But it gets so complicated, expanding to the size of the globe, then orienting
on the tiny mote that is my destination. I don't know where all my friends are and wouldn't want to
intrude uninvited."
"But you don't need to expand, or to intrude," he said. "The Llano provides many ways to locate folk
and to travel."
"It does? All I know is the expansion and the tear-sheet settings that occurred when I misused it."
"I'm sorry, I thought you knew, and traveled as you did from preference. I will show you the other
mechanisms."
"Oh, will you?" Orb clapped her hands in little-girl style, thrilled. "For example, the theme I just used to
hear you speak my name. You must think of the person to whom you wish to attune, then sing this
melody." He sang a brief, strange, evocative tune. "Thereafter you will hear if that person speaks your
name or even thinks of you with more than passing interest. Then-"
"Wait, let me master that first!" Orb exclaimed. "Let me see-on whom shall I orient? I know-my Gypsy
friend Tinka!" She focused on the lovely blind girl and sang the melody. She felt the peculiar action of it
reaching out, attuning, linking the two of them in a passive bond.
Nat shook his head. "You never cease to amaze me! It took me a year to perfect that application!"
"Does it work for nonhuman folk, too?"
"It works for anyone who cares for you. The bond is already there; the Llano merely activates it."
"Then I could attune to Jonah, so that I could always return to him without having to search."
"Indeed-if he cares for you. I'm sure he does, or he would not be serving you now."
Orb sang the theme again, focusing on the big fish. She felt the reaching, and the body of Jonah
shuddered. He was aware!
"Oh, this is fun!" Orb exclaimed. "I'd better attune to Lou-Mae, so I will know if they need me." She did
so.
Nat shook his head. "Three attunations in hardly as many minutes. One at a time is all I can manage!"
"Oh, I didn't mean to embarrass you! I didn't realize-"
"You did not embarrass me, you please me more than ever. I see how much greater your potential is than
mine; I never before encountered such a woman. But perhaps you will tire of me."
She turned and kissed him. "I doubt it, Nat. I do not sing better than you; it is merely the magic that is in
my nature, no virtue in me. You have done what you have done the hard way, and I respect that."
She continued attuning, reveling in this wonderful new power he had shown her. Then she paused,
startled.
"Someone's thinking of me!"
"Focus on it; you should be able to recognize the person."
Orb concentrated. "It-it's Tinka! She wants to see me!"
"Then I must show you the quick-travel theme," Nat said. "Maintain your focus on her and sing this
melody." He sang another, similarly evocative.
Orb held her focus, and sang-and it was as if a page were turning, not tearing, but simply moving aside
to reveal the new location. This was the true application of the mechanism she had misused before! She
had used the Song of Morning, which was marvelous for its purpose, but ill-suited for travel. Now she
had the correct application.
The new page was Tinka's home. The blind girl stood there, gazing out the window though she could not
see the view. Here it was dawn, the rays of the sun struggling to crest the high outline of the mountain
range.
"Hello," Orb said in Calo, the Gypsy language.
Tinka turned as if unsurprised. She was fuller in the body than she had been, quite buxom. "I wanted to
show you my baby." Her baby! Orb had forgotten. She had perhaps enabled the girl to become fertile; of
course she should meet the baby!
Tinka showed her to the crib. There was a healthy baby boy, sleeping. Orb realized that the woman's
increase in bosom was because she was nursing. "If you could tell me what he looks like-" Tinka said
wistfully. "He's beautiful!" Orb exclaimed. But she felt a siege of her heart, abruptly reminded of her
own baby, Orlene. To have been able to keep her, to raise her..."I never really missed my sight, until..."
Orb banished her own discomfort. "You must have it!" she exclaimed. She took Tinka's hands and sang
the Song of Morning, willing the Gypsy to see what she was seeing.
The room grew dark. Then the dawn came, with its lovely colors and effects. Tinka shivered as the
magic coursed through her. The morning clouds brightened, becoming gray and white and red and
orange, their edges blazing. The beams of the sun spread out in a semicircular splay, illuminating the
sky, then dropping down to touch the land, warming it.
Tinka made an exclamation of wonder. She was seeing it! Orb held on to her and kept on singing. The
plants sprouted, and grew, and budded, and flowered. Beauty surrounded them. Then the song ended.
Tinka was breathing hard. "I saw the dawn!" she whispered.
"What do you see now?"
"It is dark again. But for a while-"
"You have the magic," Orb said. "Sing with me." She held on to Tinka's hands and began the Song of
Morning again. Tinka joined her, for she did have the magic and could pick up any melody immediately.
The strength of the pulse going through them doubled, the magic reaching out and in, permeating their
bodies. The sunrise manifested with greater intensity, and the flowers seemed real.
As the song ended. Orb let go of her friend and reached down to pluck one flower. She brought it up
before Tinka's face. "What do you see?"
Tinka blinked. Her eyes focused. "All pretty, with petals-" she said, reaching for it. "Fuzzy-"
"Sing again!" Orb said. She took hold of the girl's wrist below the flower and sang the Song of Morning
a third time. Tinka joined her, and the magic intensified even more than before.
When it was done, the flower in Tinka's hand had grown into a bouquet, and her eyes were fixed on it.
"Now it is clear," she said.
"Look at your son," Orb said.
They turned to the crib and looked down. "He is beautiful!" Tinka said. Then she began to cry.
Orb held her, knowing that she had found another aspect of her developing power. Nature controlled
vision; nature could remove it or restore it. The Llano was only a tool; Orb's will and Tinka's readiness
had shaped it.
Then the baby awoke and began to fuss. Tinka picked him up.
"I will return often, until I am sure you can see always," Orb said. "Call me when you want me." Then
she thought the new travel theme and turned the page to her room in Jonah.
Nat was gone, but she thought his name, and he appeared. "Oh, Nat, I went to her and I saw her baby
and I cured her blindness!" Orb exclaimed. "I used a power of Nature!"
"I am glad for you."
"I really should rest now."
"Yes, you should."
"Let's go somewhere."
"Anywhere you wish."
Orb considered. "I-I wish I could see my baby. Orlene. Not to interfere. Just-" She shrugged. "But I don't
know how to tune in on someone who doesn't think of me."
"It can be done," he said. "This variant of the theme." He sang again, and it was similar to the attuning
melody, but distinct.
Orb thought of Orlene and sang the variant. She felt the magic questing out in a search pattern,
traversing the world at its own rate. Theft it fastened on its object, and the connection had been invoked.
"But can I really go to her?" Orb asked uncertainly.
"Exactly as you just did."
"But I don't want to disturb her life. I just want to see." Nat smiled. "If you use the expansion-travel
theme, but do not coalesce completely, you will be invisible and inaudible, like a ghost. In fact, that is
how ghosts do it, but they are capable of no more, generally. This way." He sang and faded out. Orb
tried it. Instead of expanding, she simply lost mass, until she stood with too little substance to be visible.
Now that she was in this state, she was able to perceive Nat, similarly diffuse. "Oh, there are so many
things to learn!" she exclaimed. Her voice was a mere shadow.
"But you learn them so readily," he said. He was not whispering, but she knew that only she could hear
him. They were on a slightly different plane of existence.
"Come with me to see my daughter," she invited him.
"As you wish." Orb moved into the page-turning theme, orienting on Orlene, and in a moment was
there. Nat stood beside her.
The little girl was in nursery school, waiting her turn on a swing. She was about three years old, wearing
a smudged dress and comfortable little shoes. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail, its buckwheat-honey
hue matching Orb's hair exactly. She was well fed and seemed contented.
Then the child raised her hand. Orb saw the serpent-ring on one finger. Evidently the ring was
squeezing, telling her something. She looked at Orb, her eyes unfocused.
"She knows I'm here!" Orb exclaimed. "The ring told her!" Hastily she turned the page, back to Jonah.
Nat reappeared beside her. "That is a good protective charm your daughter has," he remarked.
"I can't visit her again," Orb said, upset. "If she knows I'm there, then I'm interfering in her life."
"But she is your child."
"Not any more. I must let her have her own life. I can see she is well cared for; Tinka gave her to a good
family. No, I must leave her alone."
Then Orb turned to Nat, put her head into his shoulder, and cried. She could be the Green Mother, but
she could not be a mother to her child.
The tour of the Livin' Sludge continued, and its success continued. The magic enchanted audiences of
every type.
But the group knew that their association was coming to a conclusion, because Orb had found the Llano
and would in due course be assuming the office for which she was destined.
The abatement of the drummer's addiction held; he was free of H. Orb did the others similarly. Their
quest was finished, and they made plans for marriage and regular employment in the future. She sang to
Jonah, enabling him to swim in water again; his curse, too, was done. He continued to serve the group,
but it was understood that, after the tour, he would go his own way. She sang for Jezebel, making
permanent the state that Jonah had enabled on a temporary basis, and giving her the power to control her
form by day or night. The guitarist knew that she would never age naturally-but now she could age
unnaturally, as desired. After he died of old age, she would go her way, but would never need to indulge
men indiscriminately.
Orb visited the old water oak. The hamadryad recognized her, but would not approach. Then Orb sang a
song of renewal to the tree, and the deadwood revivified and the leaves brightened. She had contributed
perhaps a century to its life and strengthened the hamadryad accordingly. Then the dryad came down
and touched Orb's hand fleetingly in gratitude. It was enough.
Orb spent much time with Natasha, and her devotion to him became broader and deeper and more
intense. He was everything she had wanted in a man, without realizing it until encountering him. He was
always there when she needed him, but he never made demands. They visited far places and sang
together, and the very heavens seemed to brighten and assume new significance. It had been a long time
since she had loved a man, and she was glad that the interim was over.
Meanwhile, her powers of magic grew. She could make the weather change with little more than the
thought of a given melody; a more involved effort had caused the pattern of the climate in the
neighborhood of Betsy's farm to become regular, so that there were neither droughts nor floods to
destroy the crops. But once she had done favors for her friends, she became dissatisfied; there was too
much grief and hunger and misery in the world. The problem of drug addiction was not limited to the
Livin' Sludge, and the problem of physical impairment not limited to Tinka's blindness. How could she
deal with these things on a spot basis, while neglecting their far worse aspects on the global basis?
So it was that as the tour came to an end, she arrived at her decision. She was going to take the office of
Nature.
She told her friends aboard Jonah. They congratulated her, unsurprised. "You can still drop in on us,
when you have time," Lou-Mae said, giving her a hug. "We'll always be your friends."
"But have you told Natasha?" Jezebel asked.
"He said he could accept whatever I decided."
"Men do say that, but they don't always mean it. Better tell him soon."
"I will tell him now," Orb said. She turned the page and was beside Nat, where he waited for her on a
tiny tropical island.
He smiled at her. "You have decided."
"I have decided. I will give up the family and will assume the office of Nature. I will be the Green
Mother."
"Then I will have something to ask you, and something to tell you," he said gravely.
"Ask me now, and tell me now," she invited him.
He smiled. "These are not minor matters. Assume your office; then I will say what I must say."
"But you said you could accept my decision!" she said, alarmed.
"And so I can and will. But I think you must make your decision on me after you make it on the other
matter."
"If you don't want me to be Nature-"
"Please, I must not discuss that now. There is a thing I may tell you only when you have the office."
Troubled, she gazed at him. "Suddenly I don't understand you, Natasha!"
"I may say no more at this time," he said apologetically.
"Then I will say more," she said. "I love you and want to marry you. If you can not accept marriage to
an Incarnation-"
"I think we shall have the proof of that soon enough."
"If only you would tell me what is bothering you, before I-before it is too late to change my mind!" He
simply shrugged. Nettled, she turned the page to a far place, the snowy top of the mountain she had
visited when her travels had been uncontrolled. There she spread her arms and opened her desire; she
would be Gaea.
She felt herself expanding, not physically but psychically. Her awareness came to encompass all the
world, every living thing in it, and every unliving thing. She permeated the globe, partaking of its nature
everywhere. She became its nature.
Now the hunger in Africa was not a concept to her; it was part of her. The cold weather near the poles
and the hot weather near the equator were aspects of her being. All the happiness of the world was hers,
and all the suffering.
Now she knew why the prior Gaea had been ready to let the office go. It was such an enormous burden
of responsibility! Suddenly the power she had acquired seemed inadequate to the job she had to do. How
could one person oversee all the activities of the world? She was overwhelmed.
She felt herself tugged. She went where summoned and came to her residence in Purgatory. It most
resembled a giant tree, but its appearance was malleable; it could be whatever she wanted. The prior
Gaea had left it for her.
A young man was by the entrance. "I represent your staff," he said. "I am a lesser Incarnation; we
thought it best that I handle the transition, until you are comfortable in the office. The staff consists of
souls trained to serve you; they will continue to serve, or will retire in favor of replacements you may
choose."
"Who are you?" she asked, surprised. "You look familiar."
"I should; I have just interacted with you. I am Eros."
"Eros! The-?"
"Incarnation of Love," he agreed.
Orb decided to set aside the implications for the moment. "You know how this office is run?"
"I know how it has been run. All decisions are yours, but we will help in whatever way you require.
Perhaps you will want to interview the other lesser Incarnations who work with you, such as Phobos,
Deimos, Hope-"
"In due course," Orb said. "I have one matter to settle before I get into it. Can you keep things on an
even course for now?"
"If you direct, Gaea."
"Do so. I will return shortly." Orb knew she should get on into the mastery of her office, for it was
important, but she simply couldn't wait to settle with Natasha.
She turned the page back to the isle. He was there. "I am Gaea," she said. "Now talk to me."
"Now there must be truth between us," he said.
"There has not been before?" she asked archly.
"There has not. I will explain. You must withhold your answer until you have heard the explanation."
"I will withhold my answer," she agreed.
"Gaea, I am asking you to marry me."
Orb relaxed. She had grown afraid he had changed his mind! But, heeding his caution, she did not
answer.
"Now I must tell you that our relationship has been based on a lie. I am not the man I have represented
to you. The testing of the prophecy is now upon us."
"The prophecy?" she asked blankly.
"That you might marry Evil."
"But-"
"Spell my name backwards."
Orb pieced it out. "Natasha. AHSATAN."
"And punctuate it. Ah, Satan. That is the realization of the truth. I am an Incarnation, as you are now.
The Incarnation of Evil."
Appalled, Orb stared at him. Her worst horror was facing her-in the aspect of the man she loved.

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