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And to lint of awareness came to his eyes He opened his mouth to speak to me, but no words came Terror filled his childish face, and insubstantial tears welled in his eyes, to trickle down his translucent face It horrified me and drove from me all the hatred and dislike I’d harbored for hin "Go back Go back to your life"

His gazefrom a dream Then, with a soundless sob, he turned and tried to push past e The spirit behind y oldout his last days on the streets of Old Thares "Loose," I told hined the charher and waved it, e "Loose!" I shouted at them "Go back" At an the journey back I fought o the other way Like a fish battling its way upstreah them until I reached the other side

I cae, to the saber that anchored it to that place I looked up at Tree Woaze with equani, I knew that she aiting for e Once my feet touched her world, I would be in her power She would be rid of me And that piece of me that she had stolen,steadily toward his dooed slope, unmindful of what he left behind Epiny had coht him, but he moved inexorably on Somehow that made it more terrible, not less My other self moved forward to meet him His hands were already cupped, ready to receive Spink’s essence

Epiny stepped between theht her bond She used it to hold herself in place, between Spink and the being who threatened hie in this place She was a flickering flahost she tried to protect I saw my other self snatch at her, and then turn in surprise to his h her I understood Epiny had known the "keep fast" charic did not hold her here; only her attachment to Spink My cousin seee Instead, she shrieked "Nevare! Please, be yourself! Help us!" at that other creature ore ain snatched at her burnedhere for Spink orI had betrayed her

I reached for the earlier connection I’d felt withinside hie under Tree Woe I despised what she had made of that part of me He was her creature, a traitor towithin his power to protect it, with no thought of what it would cost me

But I was not her creature And in soe way, the two parts of e to help them If I did so, Tree Woman could eject me from this world, and then deal with my friends with no interference

I focused allon that other part of h h his eyes, tasted the sweetness that still lingered in his rope toward Spink My tongue licked his lips My fingers felt the coolness that was evanescent Epiny as his hands batted through her vaporous form I could share his awareness but I could not control hi to push hiht like colliding shadows, darkening and led to turn him back, the reality of her cries too harsh and loud in the ethereal place My other self beckoned imperiously to Spink, and he wavered forward another step, h Epiny She screamed then, a sound of despair such as I’d never heard before

I do not know if the sound th, or if it unnerved that other h to break his focus For a moment my awareness of hinized that, he committed a fatal mistake His hands moved to protect his weakness from me His hands covered his waxed and braided scalp-lock

He fought rab the ridiculous tail of hair, but he closed the hands into fists Frustrated, I pounded at his head with the hands, but could not deal hiers to open Spink had drifted past us now,toward a tree stump Epiny floated after him She fluttered her hands at his face, but could not halt him His eyes seemed sorrowful, as if he sensed her, but the expression on his face didn’t change Sudden inspiration struck me My other self controlled the hands, but he had done nothing to guard his voice from me I made him speak