Green now, and he added the exhalations of a sultrysea. Blue, and the coolness of evening.

He stretched his mind then, producing all the colors atonce. They came in great swirling plumes.

Then he tore them apart and forced a form uponthem.

An incandescent rainbow arced across the black sky.

He fought for browns and grays below him. Selfluminescent, they appeared—in shimmering, shiftingpatches.

Somewhere, a sense of awe. There was no trace ofhysteria though, so he continued with the Shaping.

He managed a horizon, and the blackness drainedaway beyond it. The sky grew faintly blue, and he ventured a herd of dark clouds. There was resistance to hisefforts at creating distance and depth, so he reinforcedthe tableau with a very faint sound of surf. A transference from an auditory concept of distance came slowlythen, as he pushed the clouds about. Quickly, he threwup a high forest to offset a rising wave of acrophobia.

The panic vanished.

Render focused his attention on tall trees—oaks andpines, poplars and sycamores. He hurled them about likespears, in ragged arrays of greens and browns and yellows, unrolled a thick mat of morning-moist grass,dropped a series of gray boulders and greenish logs atirregular intervals, and tangled and twined the branchesoverhead, casting a uniform shade throughout the glen- The effect was staggering. It seemed as if the entireworld was shaken with a sob, then silent.

Through the stillness he felt her presence. He had decided it would be best to lay the groundwork quickly, toset up a tangible headquarters, to prepare a field foroperations. He could backtrack later, be could repair andamend the results of the trauma in the sessions yet tocome; but this much, at least, was necessary for a beginning.

With a start, he realized that the silence was not awithdrawal. Eileen had made herself immanent in thetrees and the grass, the stones and the bushes; she waspersonalizing their forms, relating them to tactile sensations, sounds, temperatures, aromas.

With a soft breeze, he stirred the branches of the trees.Just beyond the bounds of seeing he worked out thesplashing sounds of a brook.

There was a feeling of joy. He shared it.

She was bearing it extremely well, so he decided toextend the scope of the exercise. He let his mind wanderamong the trees, experiencing a momentary doubling ofvision, during which time he saw an enormous hand riding in an aluminum carriage toward a circle of white.

He was beside the brook now and he was seeking her,carefully, He drifted with the water. He had not yet taken on aform. The splashes became a gurgling as he pushed thebrook through shallow places and over rocks. At his insistence, the waters became more articulate.

"Where are you?" asked the brook.

Here! Herel Here!

... and here! replied the trees, the bushes, the stones,the grass.

"Choose one," said the brook, as it widened, roundeda mass of rock, then bent its way down a slope, headingtoward a blue pool.

/ cannot, was the answer from the wind.

"You must." The brook widened and poured intothe pool, swirled about the surface, then stilled itself andreflected branches and dark clouds. "Nowl"

Very well, echoed the wood, in a moment.

The mist rose above the lake and drifted to the bankof the pool.

"Now," tinkled the mist.

Here. then . ..

She had chosen a small willow. It swayed in the wind; it trailed its branches in the water.

"Eileen Shallot," he said, "regard the lake."The breezes shifted; the willow bent.

It was not difficult for him to recall her face, her body.The tree spun as though rootless. Eileen stood in themidst of a quiet explosion of leaves; she stared, frightened, into the deep blue mirror of Render's mind, thelake, She covered her face with her hands, but it could notstop the seeing.

"Behold yourself," said Render.

She lowered her hands and peered downward. Thenshe turned in every direction, slowly; she studied herself.Finally:

"I feel I am quite lovely," she said. "Do I feel so because you want me to, or is it true?"

She looked all about as she spoke, seeking the Shaper.

"It is true," said Render, from everywhere.

"Thank you."

There was a swirl of white and she was wearing abelted garment of damask. The light in the distancebrightened almost imperceptibly. A faint touch of pinkbegan at the base of the lowest cloudbank.

"What is happening there?" she asked, facing that direction.

"I am going to show you a sunrise," said Render, "andI shall probably botch it a bit—but then, it's my firstprofessional sunrise under these circumstances."

"Where are you?" she asked.

"Everywhere," he replied.

"Please take on a form so that I can see you."

"All right."

"Your natural form."

He willed that he be beside her on the bank, and hewas.

Startled by a metallic flash, he looked downward. Theworld receded for an instant, then grew stable once again.He laughed, and the laugh froze as he thought of something.

He was wearing the suit of armor which had stoodbeside their table in the Partridge and Scalpel on thenight they met.

She reached out and touched it.

"The suit of armor by our table," she acknowledged,running her fingertips over the plates and the junctures."I associated it with you that night.""... And you stuffed me into it just now," he commented. "You're a strong-willed woman."

The armor vanished and he was wearing his graybrown suit and looseknit bloodclot necktie and a professional expression.

"Behold the real me," he smiled faintly. "Now, to thesunset. I'm going to use all the colors. Watchi"

They seated themselves on the green park bench whichhad appeared behind them, and Render pointed in thedirection he had decided upon as east.

Slowly, the sun worked through its morning attitudes.For the first time in this particular world it shone downlike a god, and reflected off the lake, and broke theclouds, and set the landscape to smouldering beneath themist that arose from the moist wood.

Watching, watching intently, staring directly into theascending bonfire, Eileen did not move for a long while,nor speak. Render could sense her fascination.

She was staring at the source of all light; it reflectedback from the gleaming coin on her brow, like a singledrop of blood.

Render said, "That is the sun, and those are clouds,"and he clapped his hands and the clouds covered the sunand there was a soft rumble overhead, "and that isthunder," he finished.

The rain fell then, shattering the lake and tickling theirfaces, making sharp striking sounds on the leaves, thensoft tapping sounds, dripping down from the branchesoverhead, soaking their garments and plastering theirhair. running down their necks and falling into their eyes,turning patches of brown earth to mud.

A splash of lightning covered the sky, and a secondlater there was another peal of thunder.

"... And this is a summer storm," he lectured. "Yousee how the rain affects the foliage and ourselves. Whatyou just saw in the sky before the thunderclap was lightning."

... Too much," she said. "Let up on it for a moment,please."

The ram stopped instantly and the sun broke throughthe clouds.

"I have the damndest desire for a cigarette," she said,"but I left mine in another world."As she said it one appeared, already lighted, betweenher fingers.

"It's going to taste rather flat," said Render strangely.

He watched her for a moment, then:

"I didn't give you that cigarette," he noted. "Youpicked it from my mind."

The smoke laddered and spiraled upward, was sweptaway.

"... Which means that, for the second time today, Ihave underestimated the pull of that vacuum in yourmind—in the place where sight ought to be. You areassimilating these new impressions very rapidly. You'reeven going to the extent of groping after new ones. Becareful. Try to contain that impulse."