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"What do you think you're doing?" she denantly as she could "I'm sorry, Miss Mary," he said, "but no one's allowed to come in here"

"But haven't you heard? Your boss and I have a partnership, which means I have no secrets from him, and he has none from me Now could you please open the door and let uard looked uncertain, like this ht be a trick question "I'm sorry, but without a direct order from the Death Boss--"

"Just a few days into our partnership, and our agreeerated huff "I'll have to take this up with Mr Capone What's your naan as mild aardness now turned into sheer terror "Why do you need to knowhih to Mr Capone"

"Butbut we're not allowed to let anyone in without a direct order " His voice had becolare and he caved, not only letting her in, but opening the door, with a bow, and closing it behind her

She wasn't quite sure what she was expecting to see, but Mary, who had seen just about everything was rarely caught off guard This was one of those times

Beneath the crystal dome that once housed a vast variety of plant life, were children--hundreds of them, all asleep and curled up in fetal positions They were dead, yet not dead They weren't quite Afterlights, for they didn't have any afterglow

"What is this place ?" she said, not even realizing she said it aloud

"We call it the incubator"

She spun to see Jackin' Jill co up slowly behind her "I knew you'd find your way in here eventually" Jill looked out over the sleeping children, all lined up in neat little rows "These are all kids who didn't ht"

Mary found herself stunned into silence These children were Afterlights still in transition They were Interlights

"It takes nineworld into Everlost," said Jill "I thought you'd know that"

"Of course I know that," Mary was finally able to say, "but I've never seenI mean, I've never actually found any in this state"

"Is that so?" said Jackin' Jill with a wry grin "Well, I find theht children, and Mary followed "I find thesy wound up with so many loyal subjects?"

Mary found her quick-sy didn't need soul traps to catch Afterlights--he got them even before they were born into Everlost Mary knelt to one of the silent children, a boy no older than ten, in a state of perfect peace There was a nuround next to him A date In fact, each of them had dates written beside them "The dates each of them died?" asked Mary "How could they be," asked Jill, "when all the dates are in the future?"

Mary glanced at several of the dates, but they meant little to her She didn't keep track of ti world

"Those are the dates that each of them will ripen," Jill said, and Mary realized that was her crude way of saying that these were the dates the children would awaken in Everlost

"How is it that you can find so many, when I've never found one before they've woken up?"

"Maybe you don't knohere to look"

Mary gave her a cold glare "If you're going to toy withmore to talk about" Then she turned her back on Jill and wove through the evenly spaced grid of hibernating children

"It's the a devastating is about to happen So like a fatal accident "

Mary turned to Jill, glancing at the blue-gemmed pendant she wore around her neck It looked like cheap costuive her the benefit of the doubt Certainly accidents, and unti world, but through all levels of creation It was possible that an object could resonate with such events--but how could Jill know specifically which accidents would result in a child falling short of the light, and into Everlost?

When the truth struck Mary, it struck deeply, as only the truth could

"You stop theasp "You knohen and where the accidents will happen--then you wait for them to cross, and you stand in their way!" She looked at the kids on the floor, now caught in an invisible cocoon of transition "These children weren't couided them here!"

She only had to look at Jackin' Jill to knoas true

Now things truly began to heave and buckle within Mary's soul--a shifting of purpose and design that went down to the core of her being Finally Mary said:

"What a wonderful thing you've done here!"

Jill, who never see, was startled by that

"Wonderful?" said Jill "I wouldn't call it wonderful, but it does sy"

As Mary looked over at the sleeping Interlights, waiting to be born into eternity, she realized that this was only a beginning, and what seeo, now seeiant bucket