Sheba was far too cunning to attack while the party remained so alert. Aside from the recurrent rumble of her bellowing and an occasional slosh in the distance, she did little to trouble the odd company. Karfhud was able to map more of the swamp than he had hoped, and Theseus had plenty of time to consider their earlier conversation. The Thrasson's true reason for wanting the amphora was to learn more about his past. Regardless of his promise to Poseidon, the memories in the jar were his, and by rights he should have them. Even if he were to happen upon the exit at that very moment, he doubted he would leave without the amphora's treasure.

See how gently the rot steals into the soul? How smoothly the wish unfulfilled becomes the right withheld? Show me the heart that is pure, and I will show you the heart that is stone. We all have our Karfhuds, our unquenchable thirsts, our secret treasons; we all have our reasonable excuses and our tempering cases, but that cannot change what we have done. We have all struck our bargains. Pretending that we had no choice does not make us tragic or noble or virtuous-it only makes us weak.

"Deeper."

Karfhud had stopped in the confluence of five channels, and he was carefully peering down each one and marking it with his own blood.

Theseus scanned the area. The silvery waters still rose only to Karfhud's waist, the channels ahead remained as placid and smooth as a mirror, and the tangled roots of bog-trees continued to flank the passages. He saw no signs at all that the swamp was deepening.

"Not the swamp – you." Karfhud selected one of the side passages, seemingly at random, and started forward again. "Look deeper."

Theseus frowned, reluctant to trust Karfhud, yet uncertain of how the tanar'ri's simple advice could be dangerous. "Why are you helping me?"

"Did I not swear to aid you in any way I can?"

"You can do that by finding the amphora."

"What do you suppose I am doing now?" Karfhud turned down a side passage the Thrasson had not even noticed. The fog was growing thicker. "But finding the amphora will do you no good if you do not know what you are looking for."

Theseus followed the fiend into the narrowing channel, then glanced over his shoulder to make certain his other companions also made the turn. Jayk rounded the comer less than three paces behind him, a shadowy head and shoulders plowing along the surface of the silvery water. A moment later came Silverwind's much larger silhouette, his fog-blurred torso looming almost as high above the channel as Karfhud. Tessali was a hazy blotch on the bariaur's back.

"Close up the line some more," Theseus ordered. "I can hardly see you back there."

He turned forward again, only to discover that Karfhud had nearly vanished into the mists ahead. The Thrasson sloshed ahead, the fingers of his makeshift foot digging deep into the canal's silky bottom.

When he caught the fiend, he said, "I'm looking for my memories. What else could it be?"

"Only you can determine the answer to that."

"Why don't you help me?" Theseus's voice was more bitter than challenging. "You can read minds."

"Even I cannot read what is not there. You have forgotten what it is you seek." Karfhud raised his muzzle, as though sniffing the air, then motioned the Thrasson closer. "Let me see your sword. I have something that will keep Sheba's fur from stealing it out of your hands."

Remembering how the tanar'ri had used his own blood to clean the monster's black sap off the blade earlier, Theseus waded to Karfhud's side. He did not yield the weapon, however, but simply raised it high enough so the fiend could swab the steel.

Karfhud clucked at the Thrasson's suspicions, but made no other complaint. He switched his map to his free hand, then ran his slashed wrist up and down the flat of the blade, smearing a thick coat of black, acrid-smelling blood over both sides.

"Dip the blade into the water now and then to slow the drying," the fiend advised. "But even so, it will not last long. Tell me if it begins to crust before Sheba attacks."

"Then she is close?"

Karfhud stared past Silverwind into the thickening mists. "She has never been far. But she has grown quiet."

Theseus cocked his brow, for the fiend was right. The monster had not bellowed, or even made any splashing sounds, since they had entered this narrow passage. He started to mention this, but Karfhud abruptly turned away and started down the passage, no longer bothering to trace its course on his parchment. Clearly, he expected Sheba's attack soon.

Karfhud lowered his hand and quietly waved Theseus up. "But perhaps I can be of some help to you, Thrasson. Knowing what the others seek may help you discover what you must find."

Theseus waded to the fiend's side. "I am listening." It was a half-truth; he was much more intent on searching the fog ahead, but he saw the wisdom in carrying on as they had been. A sudden silence would alert the monster to their vigilance, and he was anxious to have the battle done before the company grew even more weary than it was now. "Still, I fail to see how an exit can serve one person and not another."

"The Plurality." Karfhud answered. "Is it not a law of the multiverse that there are a thousand meanings for every fact?"

"No!" The answer came from the rear of the line, where Silverwind had apparently been paying more attention than Theseus realized. "That is not the way I imagined it, not at all! What you're talking about would be chaos-"

"Precisely. Chaos!" Karfhud stopped and turned around, rolling up his new map as he spoke. "That is the way of the multiverse! No one is right, and everyone is right."

Tessali groaned. "A Xaositect." The elf peered over Silverwind's shoulder at Theseus, then added, "I should have known better than to trust you to pick a guide."

"Keep your watch!" Theseus pointed his sword at the elf. "This is no time to get into an argument about-"

Karfhud's talons pinched the Thrasson's shoulder. "Did you not ask for my help, Theseus?"

"Yes, but…"

"Then listen – and learn." Karfhud slipped past Jayk and went to Silverwind, who stood his ground and looked the fiend squarely in the eye. "Are you not the imaginer of the mazes?"

The bariaur nodded. "I am the imaginer of all things."

The haze had thickened to the point where the Thrasson could barely make out their two looming shapes. The bog trees flanking the channel were little more than dark, hulking shadows, and it was no longer possible to tell the surface of the water from the fog floating upon it. Karfhud's arm snaked back to stuff his map into his satchel, and Theseus thought he understood why the fiend had picked that moment to start a debate with Silverwind.

Sheba was coming up from the rear.

Karfhud continued to speak with the bariaur. "You made the mazes, and yet you cannot find a way out?"

Silverwind shook his head. "No. I am as lost as you."

Theseus slipped by Jayk, gently nudging her and fluttering his fingers in the semblance of a spellcasting. She grabbed his arm and refused to let him pass. He scowled, then pried his arm loose and waved his fingers again. The tiefling bit her lip, but reluctantly nodded and plunged her hands into the water to retrieve the necessary ingredients. The Thrasson continued toward the others.

Karfhud was continuing to debate Silverwind, as though the differences in their particular creeds were more important than any monster stalking the party. "You are the imaginer of the mazes, yet you are lost in them," the fiend was saying. "So, your search for an exit is really a search for the inner truth of your own being, is it not?"

Silverwind's eyes lit up. "Why-why, yes it is!" The bariaur suddenly looked half a century younger, but it did not escape Theseus's notice that a pair of the old fellow's pods had stopped throbbing and grown quite firm, like melons about to burst. "I have been looking at this all wrong – I'm not trapped in the mazes at all!"