In his own person Kayell"no will never know you, and this pains him." The voice paused, grew more distant as it said, "Pains me."

Trent rose from the desk, took a step back. The laser rifle swung free, came around on me. "Corona?

Are you all right?"

I"m fine,I was going to say to him;who the h.e.l.l are youtalking to?

But something prevented me; and then the world spun around me and went away.

My avatar shuddered, slumped in his chair with his eyes still open. Trent took a step back, bringing the laser rifle up to bear on my avatar"s motionless form.

I let Neil"s eyes close, and sat in the darkness, in the hard, stiff chair, and familiarized myself with the mechanism of the meat.

When I opened his eyes, Trent had moved the desk to the side, and nothing separated the two of us; Trent squatted two and a half meters away from me, back to the huge window, balanced easily on the b.a.l.l.s of his feet; the muzzle of his laser rifle stared me directly in the face. I gathered Neil"s feet under me, pushed him to a standing position; Trent moved with me, glided sideways, keeping the rifle on me, but did not interfere as I pushed the chair Corona sat in backward, put more s.p.a.ce between myself and Trent and Trent"s laser.

If the historical record concerning Trent was correct, the laser probably wasn"t loaded. But history lies a lot; I would not risk Neil"s life on it.

Trent said, "Are you all right?"

I said, "I am the Name Storyteller."

He lifted an eloquent eyebrow. "Ah."

"I wish to tell you a story, Trent the Uncatchable."

"Uh, I"m a little short on time here, actually. Got to see a girl about a rebellion."

I grinned at him, trying it out. Corona"s muscles were unfamiliar to me; like most of my avatars, I rarely use him, rarely" have need. There are few enough places in the Continuing Time I cannot go in my own person.

The immediate vicinity of Trent the Uncatchable, in the year 2076 Gregorian, happens to be one of them.

"It will be said of you, Trent the Uncatchable, in years to come when you are not to be found in the Continuing Time, that you were the living incarnation of G.o.d, of the Creator of all things, of that which sent the Envoy among the Serathin."

I saw Trent start to say something, hesitate. I think what he said then was not what he had started to say.

"They say something like that now, you know. It"s a joke, because the PKF keeps telling people I walked through a wall. I"m really just a thief." He paused, added softly, "A great thief, it"s true."

"In time to come, what is perhaps now a joke will cease to be so.Once there was a thief, and the thief was G.o.d. That is the first line in theExodus Bible, Trent; a thousand years from now, after only the Zaradin Church itself, the Church of His Return will be the largest human religion in the known Continuing Time."

"The what time?"

"May I tell you a story, Trent?"

He backed another two steps away from me, muzzle of the laser never wavering from my face, stood with his back to the door, and withdrew a snake chain from within the bulky clown"s vest. He threw it to me. "Put it on, snake your right wrist to the arm of the chair." I sat down again, did as he instructed, and when I was done he said softly, "Go ahead. You have five minutes."

I did not waste my time. I calmed Corona, quieted the vague, unformed fears my takeover had left within him, and began.

Before I was, to tell this story; before Camber was, to Play it; before the explosion that began the long cycles of the Great Wheel"s existence, the Envoy of Balance ventured forth to match itself against the Chaotic beings called Serathin.

There in the gray maelstrom of s.p.a.celess, timeless Chaos, a tremendous battle raged.

Of that battle"s beginning and middle I can tell you nothing. Time has no meaning in this context, and the language I am constrained to use with you is insufficient: for a period longer than the Great Wheel has existed, or is likely to, the Envoy of Balance and the Serathin remained locked together in combat, a combat in which neither side was able to triumph. But eventually the battle did end, and at its end the Envoy of Balance, known ever after as the Chained One, had been bound upon a shining Wheel.

Perhaps the Serathin had time to admire their handiwork; they were such beings as would have done so, given the chance. And perhaps they did not; what is certain is that the Chained One, bound upon the Wheel, had one weapon left to itself, and used it.

The Great Wheel of Existence exploded.

It was not the Big Bang that began this phase of the Great Wheel"s existence, but a grander and more powerful forerunner. The expanding wave front of its explosion hurled itself outward, overtook the fleeing Serathin, and pa.s.sed them; and when it had pa.s.sed, the Serathin found themselves trapped for all eternityinsidethe Great Wheel they had fashioned as a prison for the Chained One. Far faster than the Serathin could follow its expansion, the Great Wheel of Existence spread outward in an explosion of matter/antimatter-based timelines, expanding into both Time and s.p.a.ce.

On the individual timelines, life arose; life unlike the Chaotic beings called Serathin, unlike the bound Envoy of Balance, but containing elements of both. And the Great Wheel continued its expansion; and civilizations rose, and fell, and rose again. And with the pa.s.sage of time, the Great Wheel expanded more slowly; until there came a moment when the energy that had fueled the Great Wheel"s expansion had been expended. The Great Wheel hung upon a momentary equilibrium, and then began to contract. In the instant of its contraction, the sky throughout all of the Great Wheel"s timelines began at once to blaze white.

The Wheel shrank back in upon itself, to the moment when the s.p.a.ce-time continuum would briefly cease to exist, when the Great Wheel would exist as nothing more than a timeless, s.p.a.celess point of transfinite energy- -and then expand again.

How many times this has happened I cannot tell you.

I do not know.

I opened my eyes to silence.

Trent stood motionless, watching me. The muzzle of his rifle had dropped slightly, now pointed at a spot just over Neil Corona"s solar plexus-Neil didn"t like that at all. A head shot is a chancy thing; a shot to the stomach, with a maser, is not.

Finally Trent said, "Is that it? That"s what you wanted to tell me?"

"Yes."

His smile was a slow, bemused thing. "That"s the whole story, is it?"

"No. If I were to tell you the entire story, so far as I know it, we would grow old together. Does what I have told you seem familiar to you? Does it stir any memory?"

Trent shook his head. The distant smile did not leave him. "I can"t say that it does. Possibly it reminds me of a bad fantasy sensable I once played."

"You have never heard of the Serathin, of the Envoy of Balance?"

"No."

"Of the Chained One?"

He shook his head again, and I knew he was not lying. "No."

"Then you are very fortunate, Trent the Uncatchable. If you are another Envoy, and do not yet know it, then-" I paused,willed him to meet my eyes; concentrated my attention upon the person of Trent the Uncatchable, raised my voice until it echoed against the walls of Marc Packard"s office, and Spoke.

"Listen well, Trent the Uncatchable:We are watching you, and if you are not a fraud, if you are an Envoy such as the one whose Chaining created this universe, then know that among the ten Great G.o.ds you have nine Great Enemies; andn.o.body,, not even the renegade G.o.d of Players, will protect you from the ma.s.sed strength of the Serathin. We will cease the truce, loose our Time Wars upon this continuum once more, and when we are done, you will not only not exist, you willnever have existed."

He shook himself slightly when I was done. A Speaking will do that to you. "All this because I walked through a wall once?"

"Did you?"

Trent said gently, "That would be telling."

"Ah." I took a deep breath, relaxed, and said quietly, "Perhaps I am seeing meaning where there is none.

It"s a problem of mine, you know."

"Is it?"

"You are probably a fraud, Trent. I do often find myself imposing narrative order on unrelated events.

Randomness occurs in the universe; it"s just that it makes for bad storytelling. If you are merely a thief, Trent the Uncatchable, we will never meet again. When I remember this moment, it will be as the memory of a dream. I regret that, for you interest me."

"Neil, you are the strangest man I have ever met."

"I am not Neil Corona. I am Chai"ell November, the Name Storyteller, and I am leaving. Good-bye, Trent the Uncatchable."

I let go of my avatar.

There was not much time left, and I had other business to attend.

It was of course not long after that date in 2076 when my avatar Neil Corona spoke to Trent that Trent the Uncatchable died, and rose again, and then vanished from the Continuing Time, perhaps forever.

- 15 -.

Silence.

Trent"s voice broke it, a rasping unpleasant thing that grated at my ears. "Are you all right?"

Darkness.

I opened my eyes to a glare of light that I could not reconcile with the gentle glowpaint that I knew was in use in Marc"s office. With the opening of my eyes it all flooded in on me, like a sensable with the volume control pumped all the way up. Everything was intolerably bright and loud and the soft linen of my security uniform was made of sandpaper.

I shook my head, winced at the sudden surge of pain. "No. No," I said carefully, voice booming in my ears, "I am not okay." Suddenly Trent snapped into focus, the only clear thing in the world, standing several meters away from me, laser rifle cradled at ready, simply watching without making any motion to help me. I started to struggle to my feet, found my right hand chained to the seat. My head pounded as though it were about to come off; I felt as though I might vomit at any moment.

I sat back down abruptly.

"Would you like a drink?"

My head swam. I leaned forward and put my head between my knees. "Yes. Yes, I would. And I"d like this d.a.m.n snake taken off too."

I don"t even remember how old I was the first time this happened to me. Eight, maybe. Nine. When I was young it happened more often; in the last thirty, forty years, only twice.

Every now and again I kid myself that it"s stopped.

A bulb was pushed into my hand, and without opening my eyes I cycled it open and sucked it back. It was cold and it cleared my head a bit. I was aware of Trent standing immediately to my right; suddenly the snake released my wrist and dropped loose, fell to the floor.

Trent moved back, said, "How often does this happen to you?"

"What makes you think it"s happened before?"

"I took the snake off, Neil. I could have left it on."

Fair enough. "Not often."

"Ever seen a doctor about it?"

Even chuckling hurt. "The first time was fifty years before you were born." I sat up and opened my eyes again. Better this time; the glare had lessened, and I could make out the shapes of most of the objects in Marc"s office.

Trent"s voice was gentle, persistent. "When was the last time you had an episode?"

He seemed genuinely interested, I don"t know why; I made an effort to think back. "Last time? Visiting New York City with Marc. He was negotiating with the Castanaveras telepaths for some work they were going to do for him-I figured it was probably the gravity stress; that trip downside was the longest period either of us had spent in a full gee in a couple decades."

"Do you rememberanything about them?"

I said shortly, "No. Not that there"s much to remember, is there? I just stare at things like a drooling idiot."

"You talked to me."

Trent moved so fast I didn"t even catch it; suddenly he was a meter farther away from me, the rifle coming up so that he looked at me over the sight. I didn"t realize until then how fast I"d come to my feet.

"Iwhat?"

Trent didn"t lower the laser. He said carefully, "You talked to me. Seven, eight minutes."

"What did I say?"

"Strange things, Neil. Have you ever heard of the Chained One? The Envoy of Balance?"

"What?"

"How about the Continuing Time?"

"The what time?"

"I said the same thing. Have you ever heard of the Serathin?"

"No."

"Well." He lowered the rifle just a bit. "That"s what you talked about."

I sat down again, moving slowly, and buried my face in my hands. "I can"t wait until this is all over."

Trent nodded, lowered the laser a bit more. "It"s getting a little weird for me too. Still, it won"t be much longer."

"No?"

"It"s a quarter past midnight, Neil. And I was supposed to see "Selle Altaloma fifteen minutes ago. I"m late. Of course I"m late a lot, everybody knows that. So she probably isn"t surprised."

"It"s midnight?"

"Past. Yes."