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. I'm terribly sorry for your loss, said the god. That was a long time ago, but thank you. 79 They both sipped their wine and studied the moonlit groundsuntil at last the High Lord of Stumbles and Confusion returned his eyesto the woman across from him and spoke. I imagine that you would like to know why I am here. The Duchess nodded. Two reasons, really, he said. The first is that I am in search ofa gift for High Lord Accutron.And I would like you to be responsiblefor acquiring it. Anything in particular? Yes, something quite specific, and I wish you to acquire itprecisely as I will now describe, so listen carefully. The Duchess indicated that she understood, and was ready, andthen Entropotripocles told her all the details of what she would need todo.It took quite a while. A contest, eh? asked the woman, when at last the god hadfinished. Alright.A strange request but certainly one that I canaccomplish.What's in it for me? My continued affection.I ask you to do this as a favor for me.Perhaps I will give you something in return, something that at somepoint you will find valuable.But that remains to be seen. In her younger years she would have negotiated fervently.But asshe had aged she had come to understand the advantages of winning thefavor of those with power.Her efforts on this night, in fact, were no lessvigorous than they had ever been, but her tactics were substantially moresubtle.80 Very well, said the Duchess. It is a small thing to ask of me.Iwill gladly do a High Lord this favor. Excellent Duchess.Thank you. And the second matter? You said, I believe, that you had tworeasons for coming to see me. Yes.Well as I mentioned before, Duchess, you are a verycomely woman, much deserving of attention.Deserving, in fact, of morethorough, and satisfying, attention than any mortal man can offer you.And I was hoping that you might allow me the pleasure of sharing yourbed tonight.Of course, feel free to decline.I would not force mycompany upon any woman who did not wish it. Though somewhat startled by the directness of this proposition,the Duchess found herself rather strongly aware of the god's unmitigatedmaleness, and she found that she wished his company very much.TheDuchess had no special resistance to lust, after all, and a long habit ofsatiating her appetites precisely as she wished.It did not occur to herthat her acquiescence on this occasion might be anything but anotherinstance of the same.Regardless, she did not regret the choice, at least not at first.Shehad never had such a lover before, nor would she ever again.But as thetwo reached the height of their passion, Entropotripocles again indulgedin an Adoration Feedback.This time, the god released all of his divinityinto the woman.When the woman awoke in the morning, she was still quiveringfrom the sex.Then she remembered the Adoration Feedback.It hadbeen bad enough when he had her permission.This time, though, the81 god had imposed it upon her against her will, and the woman's angerregarding that fact far outweighed the pleasure she had taken from thegod.She screamed curses at him, but he was long gone.For his part, the god, from the comfort of the Villa, watched thewoman rage, and he felt no guilt about what he had done.He had waitedalmost 7 decades for the Duchess to become strong enough to handlethe full scope of his divinity and retain her autonomy.Her resistance tohis power had been required.Her consent had not.The god had tied her to the land for just this purpose, after all.He had needed to be certain that regardless of how long it took her tobecome strong enough to survive a full force Adoration Feedback, herbody would still be young enough to bear a child.And, indeed, it was.In fact, it probably had hundreds of childbearing years left in it.Entropotripocles would need no more than 6 or 7 of them.82 Verse ThreeLuciano Religetti buried his father in the commoners' graveyardjust north of Hamptingtonshire City, and walked back through townthinking about nothing.As he passed the square where the farmers cameto sell their goods, he noticed an official crier, and a small crowdgathered around the man, listening.Luciano stopped to hear what wasgoing on. Your noble ruler the Duchess wishes to announce acompetition, open to gentry and serf, man, woman and child alike, saidthe crier. All who wish to enter may do so. Luciano could not recall there ever being such a thing before. Entrants will sculpt a figure of a mythical beast any mythicalbeast that he or she chooses. A sculpting contest? Luciano lamented the fact that he madecarvings instead of sculptures.But he kept listening anyways, because itjust so happened that the carving he had been working on for weeks the one that he had almost completed was of a Dragon.And aDragon, he thought, surely qualified as a mythical beast.Luciano hadnever seen a real Dragon, at any rate, and he was fairly certain that theydid not actually exist. An award of 4 ounces of the purest gold will be given to the onewho enters the best work. 83 Hearing this, Luciano decided he might just try to enter hiscarving after all.Luciano made his way back towards his quarters on the groundsof the estate, thinking about the contest, and the fortunate coincidencethat he had a mythical beast already in the works, and he wondered if hehad any chance to win.He thought they might just tell him that's not asculpture, that's a carving, and send him away.But he figured it wasworth a shot anyways.When Luciano reached the door to his quarters, he called out tohis father, to tell him about this news about the contest.Then heremembered that his father was gone, and would not ever be home again.At that moment, the young man understood death for the first time, andhe fell to his knees beside his father's bed, and he sobbed into his father'srough blanket, and he knew true despair, for he was alone.84 Verse FourLuciano Religetti began his job as a groundskeeper the next day.The groundskeeper foreman, upon seeing how little the young man knewabout the work, partnered him with an older, and experienced, mannamed Gurry.Gurry had known Campaggo.He had worked with the elderReligetti on occasion and had heard the old man talk proudly about hisson
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