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/>"This wounded eye, this tarnished eye," he continued, "gave the, as it were, between the doainst my will "

"Where did they take you? What did they do?"

"Oh, if I only knew that they were Heavenly beings," he declared in a low passionate voice "If I only knew that Memnoch the Devil and those who came after him had shown me truths! It would all be a different matter and I could somehow save my soul!"

"But you don't know They never convinced you," I pushed

"How can I accept a world full of injustice, along with their august designs?"

He shook his head again and looked off and then down, as though searching for some spot for his focus, and then back to me as he went on

"I can't entirely accept what I learned from Memnoch and those who came afterwards I've never told anyone of h the others, the Blood Drinkers who love me -- you know, my lusty troop of beloveds, I call the happened, they sense it only too well I don't even knohich of my bodies was the true one -- the body that lay on the floor of the chapel of St Elizabeth's, or the body that roa trafficker in knowledge and illusions The story of my last adventure, my secret unknown adventure, the adventure I haven't confided to anyone, weighs on my soul as if to make my spiritual breath die out "

"Can you tell me now of this adventure?" I asked

It took a great sense of power in hiht, to look so readily abject, to show me such affliction

"No," he said "I haven't the strength for the telling of that story yet, that's the plain truth "

He shrugged and shook his head and then continued:

"I need e for that confession, and right nowwith you You have a story to tell, yes, or we have a story to live together Right now reedy heart is fastened to you "

I was overcome I cried like a silent baby I blew my nose and tried to remain calm Blood on the handkerchief Body of Blood Mind of Blood Flash of his eyes on me Violet

"I should take ood fortune," I said, "and not question it, but I can't resist What's kept you fro into your flat, for doing what I did to Stirling? I have to know "

"Why do you have to know?" he asked, laughing softly "Why is it so very important to know?"