The room was fairly spartan; it had a wardrobe, a cot, a weapons rack, a wash basin and a small bookshelf with five books. There was a single silver s...ord that hung on the wall over her bed."Get well, Cynthia, we have much to teach each other someday." I remembered to thank the novice before I left.Not how I wanted to be introduced, but it could have been me bleeding to death. So I had no room to complain. On my way back out I stopped in the main room in the temple, knelt and prayed. I prayed. Get to it.” Velvel stuck his snout in the air and trotted out the room with the command of a determined schoolmaster. If he had hands, he would have closed the door.We were at that awkward moment where it isn’t clear who should speak first and of course, hating the silence, I spoke up with my foot still in my mouth. “I gotta work on that dog’s manners.”“He’s doing better than you. At least he didn’t lie to me.”“I’m sorry, really I am. I was going to tell you! I was just waiting until the right. How could I not love Eve? She came from Adam, was a part of him! How could she not love me? She loved who and what Adam loved and vice versa. When I seduced three or four more angels and didn’t turn them over to him, he banished me from Hell forever, along with all of my incubi and succubi.“The truth was that I didn’t care about his eternal war against Jehovah or vice versa anymore. I just wanted to love Adam and Eve ... and others, and bring about a world full of wanton debauchery, of love,. . was ready ... and even determined to kill them both and drop their bodies overboard. Bicker! Bicker! Bicker!What stopped me was my aversion to blood ... anyones blood. Hers ... his ... mine ... the next-door neighbor ... the man on the street. Blood. I did not handle the red flag of puberty well.It started out well.We left Tolaga Bay rested, refreshed and in harmony ... mostly. I was jealous of my prerogatives. I had spent three days cleaning, tinkering and fixing all the little things that.