General Beking stood solemn for a while before answering. She gaged each of the four and from person to person the feeling she gave them grew onerous....��Two months”.There was no need for General Beking to be explicit. The words thundered in the four’s ears with full comprehension.The deal between every one of them resembled Admiral Hamumni’s and her own deal with the General of the Armies.“His Holiness and Fiend Immortal have promised you a year to study the template; they will not take their. He never even noticed the slight jolt of power, but I did.Thankfully, the end soon followed, and He was still a bit unfocused whenhe began speaking. His first words confirmed that I'd done the rightthing. "M...my dear, it appears that th...things have gotten toocompli...complicated. I'm sorry, but this is the last ti...time. You're aliability now, so ...go clean out your desk and vac...vacate the premisesimmediately." He hadn't noticed yet that his voice was up an octavealready and mousy brown. That way I can at least convince everyone I’ve really spoken to you.”“They not know. What difference it make?”“It does, believe me. They can see it in my attitude, in how I respond. In the timber of my voice and my enthusiasm; in how much detail I regal them with, and which details I obsess over.”A tall, thin creature with long plaited hair stood before him, its eyes twinkling with an otherworldly humor, its finger twitching with nervous anticipation, as if edgy about being judged lacking by an. Jamie was glad someone else was taking this beauty contest as seriously as she was.The next day she was scheduled to get her evening gown fitted and then there was a dress rehearsal for the pageant. Jamie found getting fitted for the waist hugging dress was boring. Her mind wandered of in different directions.'I'm glad Kelly was there, I can't believe I actually wanted to screw Dick. What was I thinking? It might be interesting to see what it's like to be with a man though. Maybe it'll come up.