Part 48 (1/2)
”But you have spent most of the time in the pouch. How can you have the larger picture already?”
All of them looked at her knowingly. Something was up.
”Let me tell her,” Metria said.
”Tell me what?” Cube asked, nettled. Losing her dream was bad enough, without some other complication.
”You put a gourd in the pouch,” Metria said.
Cube remembered. ”So I did. I never had to use it.”
”But we used it.”
”How could you? You were in stasis.”
”Not quite. We were asleep. That's different. We dreamed.”
”But demons don't dream.”
”I have half a soul,” the demoness said. ”Now I can dream. We couldn't leave the pouch, even in our dreams, but we found we could share a dream. So we had a dialogue--a number of dialogues, actually, there in a pleasant dream setting. We compared notes, we argued points, we hashed things out. We got to know each other really well.” She glanced at Karia, then at Drek, and smiled almost tenderly. ”We concluded several things. One is that we like each other and want to remain as a group, even if we separate physically at times. Another is that you are a truly worthy person, and deserve your reward. We helped you get it.”
”But I can't keep my beauty,” Cube said. ”I've already lost it.”
”Was it really beauty you wanted--or the love of a good man?”
Cube stood there, emotionally stunned. ”The man,” she confessed. ”The beauty was just the means to that end.”
”Let me,” Ryver said. He approached Cube, so handsome she was smitten all over again, despite cursing her own foolishness. He took her in his arms, and she yielded, loving his touch for whatever reason. He kissed her, and she felt as if she were floating.
After a timeless time she found herself standing, recovering her speech. ”You didn't have to do that. I know that--”
”I love you,” he said. ”I no longer mind what you look like. Love doesn't turn off like that.”
”But--”
”You're still you. You didn't dump me when I was ugly. Why did you think I would dump you when you lost your beauty?”
Cube fumbled for words. ”Well, men are affected by, everyone knows--a woman's appearance is all that really counts. I have to be beautiful, if--”
”You had to be beautiful to win my love. Because of my male nature. You won it. Now it remains. Our magic talents don't change in Counter Xanth, and neither does the magic of love. And it isn't as if you won't be beautiful again. We'll return to Counter Xanth many times, and stay as long as we want, after we wrap up the Quest.”
Cube began to understand that he meant it. She gazed at the others. ”You--the rest of you--knew?”
”They knew,” Ryver said. ”They told me in the dream that I would never find a better woman than you, and finally I believed. I was just waiting for the beauty to clinch it. I already knew you were the one for me.”
”And you aren't the only one,” Metria said. ”Drek and the centaur are getting together.”
”But--”
”We found affinity in our minds, in the dream dialogue,” Karia said. ”And we found that we can change our forms, in the right section of Counter Xanth, as you saw. With a little management we can both be dragons for a while, or both winged centaurs. We'll be staying there, after the quest is done, to help colonists find their way around a perplexing realm.” She smiled briefly. ”And n.o.body need know my name.”
Cube realized that that solved the problem that had originally brought Karia to the Good Magician, though not in the antic.i.p.ated manner.
”And Tessa and I will move to the Gap building,” Cory said, ”to be there to sidestep colonists to Counter Xanth. We have found our mission in life.”
”We'll be in touch too,” Melody said.
”We can't stay, because we're still children and Mother won't allow it,” Harmony added.
”But we'll be there when we're needed,” Rhythm concluded.
”And so will I,” Metria said. ”I'll pop back and forth to keep the rest of you in touch. This will be a continuing project. We have each found what we truly wanted, though not all of us understood our true desires at the outset. We have all received our rewards.”