Better.’ Her smile is here but it is now sloping into that smile I see in her that accompanied the first silent dusk eons ago, signaling an unknown ...nd unknowable darkness that I want to beat back from her and us in the worst way. ‘But that doesn’t mean fucking requires talking – as though the sensations themselves don’t do their own talking – you know I’m not saying that…?’ She furrows her brow, back from the abyss, back to work again. ‘Of course. I think I know exactly what you mean, Jill.. Gabriela picks up my big lock of hair and shows it to my face. There it is, it's not a lie, she's shaving me for the first time in my life, worse than a bitch, worse than a sheep. I have a terrible desire to cry. Gabriela is disfiguring me, her will is taking away from me a part of my beauty for which I am admired: my hair, my hair, my hair, I sob, shaking with my tears. I can't take it anymore, I know what's coming, I lean my forehead, my face against her chest and instinctively I take one of. He does have a lot of expertise in Green Hell life forms after all and how to use them.”“What are you talking about? I don’t know Dr. Erine and I want you to leave my cabin.” Martha remembered that she was a telepath. All her life she had suppressed her psionic ability, foremost because of the PSI laws and because her abilities weren’t that strong, to begin with. But ever since she had been exposed to the conditions of the Hidden Forests of her home planet, her abilities had increased.. Anyhow, the Priestess was satisfied that her task with Jason Schmidt was complete. Within a month they would have to go their separate ways, but throughout his life he would always carry her in his heart. Jason understood what lay ahead. He picked July 4 for the date that he and Cecilia would report to the Temple…an appropriate day to begin the transition back to being US citizens instead of guests of the Danubian Republic. Cecilia had expected that the ceremony would be a big deal, in the same.