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The collage of colors and shapes that I now see is ed in a linear fashion, ram, a pictorial di sphere I have only to focus my attention on a particular event and I a with sequential events, I take myself back in order This is my deliberate choice, not the choice of the creation To the creation, I realize, everything is happening in the sa her as she bleeds froentle and I a She tells me she loves me Then I cry over Seymour, beside his funeral pyre, because Kalika has killed him Yet a few drops of the divine child&039;s blood and he is alive again Then I ahter inthe other, and that in itself is a great ht hter was born, in pain and love The opposites of all life fly before my expanded vision, yet they now seem to be in harmony with one another
Arturo and Joel are besidelight They die, their love kills the Joel byRay by the sa beside Ray&039;s father as he dies from a ferocious blow I have struck to his chest He perishes with the fear that I will hars danger and death
The hologram of my life see at his troops, Lin?coln ordering General Grant to take up the Union&039;s hlands of Scotland, defending it from an evil duke Once more my lover dies, and in the next instant I stand before the Inquisition, conde Arturo to death Arturo, who has meant more to me than practically anyone I have ever known I see his eyes as I curse him, but I do not see his heart, do not know that he has already tricked me I ensure his death but he does not die
Finally I a a bunch of purple grapes and wondering where I a air is hot This is my first visit to Sicily; the previous day I took a sailboat across the straits fro about the land has drawn me to this spot in particular, but as of yet I don&039;t knohat My long blond hair is pulled up under a cap, and I wear gray hose and a short linen tunic I could be a pretty young boy, withsteel knife tucked in my belt The sun is in the sky, but it bothersthis other self
I am her, and it isn&039;t easy for either of us
There is a moment of duality She does not know me
I feel as if I bump heads with a shadow, and yet host It takes me a moment to explain, and the moment almost cracks open into an insane fissure of delusion This Sita does not have a volu saucers and the possibility of mental time travel I ah a wall of internal resistance that threatens to explode both our minds Then I realize it is hopeless, that I cannot force myself on myself I relax, and back off, and then suddenly she is curious about me She knows me even when she doesn&039;t know all ofan empty road is about as weird an experience as I have ever had My younger self calls to me
"Ritorna da me," she says Coht
Sita is startled Who is talking to whoet inside and there I stay
Finally she understands The duality ceases I am Alisa Perne of the twentieth century, in the ninth century, here in Sicily to defeat a monster There is only me but I am now of firm resolve Landulf had better beware
Around the bend of the next hill, I hear cries Dante
Before I had not knoouldaside rapes, I run to an appoint of myself as from the future Perhaps the other Sita is there as much as I Yet I do notice that I am not nearly so fast as I was before This body has not had the last infusions of powerful blood I am just an ordinary vampire--I can&039;t even read minds All that I have, that I didn&039;t have before, are s that have not yet happened They are ainst Landulf
As I co up to a skeleton of a tree by a rope tied to his right arht foot Gathered around hi swords and poking at poor Dante, encouraging hi There is another rope around Dante&039;s neck The , they will cut the other ropes and he will be hung
Dante is not in good shape At a glance I realize he has severe leprosy of his left ar The disease has actually eaten away portions of his bones, and I know he must live in terrible pain He has also been castrated, but by the sweetness in his voice I recognize that he is no ordinary eunuch He is a castrato, perhaps of the Holy Father in Roreatest choirs in the Catho?lic Church Their ical voices in a preadolescent range There are few things the Church will not do, I realized long ago, to petition the angels in heaven Dante cannot be more than twenty years old
"Ciao!" I call as I stride up "Che cosa fai?" What are you doing?
Theso much fun But the dark-haired woman with the cleft palate eyes me suspiciously "Stai zitta!" she calls Shut up "He is a leper He is to be killed"
"Penso di no" I don&039;t think so I slowly draw my knife as I move near "Release hi and the two ive me their attention One is a clu one, appears quick on his feet They eyehih he is not sure yet if I am a boy or a woloss ofhalf upside down, Dante stares at me in wonder, his face a mess of blood and tears Incredibly, he has hope that I will be able to set hiestures with his sword
"Vattene dia," he says Get away "Or it will be you we string from the tree"
"It won&039;t happen," I reply, and in a fast move I step forward and cut the top of the woman&039;s left arm The wound is not serious, it will heal, in ti that I as from her flesh and soaks her peasant clothes The three hardly saw me move Yet I know they will need more persuasion than this to back off Of course I have been here before A part of et that I have Surely I will kill them all, for the sake of poor Dante
The woman screams in pain "She has cut me! Kill her!"
"You foul creature!" the brute shouts as he dashes forward and tries to run e, and tripped hiround, I kneel beside him and pull his head back by the hair My blade rests across his exposed throat, and I speak to the ugly woman and the fair man, who at least has had the wits to wait to see what I can do
"If you leave now," I say "I will let this man live"