Too much. Too many feelings, too many minds. I have to move back. Forgive me, Kim. I ask that so much now...but perhaps that's all I have. And maybe I need it now because I have never forgiven myself, even in this moment of peace. I don't have time now. That's for the future.

Evangeline takes her hand back slowly, in the way of someone who is unused to being touched.

The spirits are there, apparently no threat to anyone, themselves. They seem to be preparing some kind of celebration, because even though Sue gives them a small amount of caution, they are truly happy for the coming event.

Sue waits patiently... Kim had some purpose in bringing her here, and both she and Beatrice seem to be addressing that... shape... that just will not form up in her vision.

Beatrice finally gets up, reluctant to leave Vanna's side. She walks over quietly and says to Sue "Vanna...is Euthanatos." She says quietly, not happy to say it totally "She's dying and I guess the spirits are waiting for her....You know more about this than me...."

Evangeline says quietly "It's time for me to go."

Kim's teeth grind like rusty bearings crushed within a delapidated joint. She lowers her head, having seen friends and comrades come to their end before, but perhaps to her credit never used to it.

Evangeline looks at the black-stained Euthantos. "Why are you so taint, sister?"

It's so rude. But I have to ask. We try so hard not to let the Jhor stain us, and this is...beyond what most would consider acceptable. I have to know.

Sue looks over in Vanna's direction with a new comprehension, more a tilt of her head, a raise of the brow, rather then anything echoed in those vacant obsidian eyes. It seems to take her some time to work through the blurred sounds coming from what she sees as a foggy humanoid shape before she asks quiet "Does she... " then begins again, addressing the form she can't quite see "Do you... want this?"

No answer, really, but time is running short. I've been laying down too long, I have to cough. My lungs ache...

Evangeline nods. "It's time. I'm sure you can see that." She touches her bald head. Then she starts coughing, a long, racking fit.

Beatrice looks pained by that cough and doesn't say anything. Instead, she walks over to Kim and asks quietly "Hold me?"

Kim doesn't chance words, unprepared for the ammount of emotion this raises within her like a tidal-wave crashing unfettered against a shoreline. She wordlessly, soundlessly, but with deep warmth reaches out and puts her arms about Beatrice, pulling her close into a gentle embrace.

Beatrice puts a hand out to Vanna and feels some measure of comfort there, waiting.

Evangeline says softly "Why are you all grieving? You don't understand. The Wheel still turns."

The ghosts watch, somewhere between their caution and their fascination and their anticiaption. An older woman reaches to Vanna and says "Soon you will join us. We are ready when your time is here."

Sue shakes her head "I can't see... very well." She drifts a little closer, as if that might help her hear or see Vanna more easily. She casts her empty gaze back at Kim and Beatrice "She's done this before..." before eyeing the spirits again, almost as in warning. To Vanna, finally, she asks "I am... ill... myself. I've seen too much of the shadows, but I can try to make things easier... if you want it." Sue frowns up at the wraith "She will -not- join you, trapped in this twilight. Don't try to hold her here."

They won't try, my poor stained sister. Do you know what Destiny is? And I can see Kim's wings, as I thought earlier. Maybe it was the first timeslip. I can see her in armor, and I can see...so much else, but it's not clear, and they're speaking to me. I have to focus.

Beatrice sniffles a bit, having a hard time containing her emotions and just says softly. "It's just you won't be here anymore.... Loss is like that."

But that's the point. I'm not leaving you. I'm not leaving any of these poor spirits. The Quiet Man will go on, and find Ascension. And...I have come to believe something you will not understand. There is more than one kind of Ascension. But I don't have the time to explain it now and make it comprehensible. Trust me! Please...all I can do is try to comfort the poor confused ones, who think that I am damned...

Evangeline smiles softly. "Vanna will join them. But there will be another life for the oversoul that has given me the gifts. Don't grieve."

Kim says softly "I'm sorry Vanna...I'm...I'm going to miss you. In THIS life, here and now...I cannot help it. I'm going to miss you..."

Evangeline shakes her head. "You have beautiful wings, Kim."

Sue's gaze remains narrowed on the floating apparations... these she sees with crystal clarity as she addresses them "You -will- take her into the light... you will not doom her to wander this realm in torment." Sue's void gaze remains focused on the wraiths until they make some motions of assent or denial.

The light is not theirs to choose or refuse for me. But, God willing, I can maybe make a difference in their personal Ascension. And in my own. The Quiet Man will Ascend, and so, perhaps, in time Vanna will as well. And if I choose this path, maybe what I've learned can take a few of them with me.

They have a name for one like me. Heretic.

Evangeline's gaze wanders back to Sue. "I choose what I do, sister. There is no torment. The Quiet Man goes on. There will be rebirth as well."

Kim gasps softly at Vanna, shimmering tears flowing down pale cheeks. She raises her hand to her forehead, then lowers it to her abdomen, then touches her left shoulder before touching her right "In nomine padre, et tus filli, et tus spirii, Amen."

Thank you for your blessing, sister. Thank you.

Sue shakes her head, then once again "I've wandered the realm of the dead... more that the brief passage we all take. If you linger in this realm you will know no rest. Nothing here does. You mustn't trap yourself in Tartarus when you are meant for Elysia..."

Evangeline looks right into Sue's eyes. No magick ripples the air, but there is one word: "Trust." And the figure of a man appears behind her, silent, his hand on her shoulder. It's not one of the dead, not this form. It seems to be part of Evangeline as well.

The older woman says to Sue "The spirit wanders where it will, child." She is a kindly old woman. "Some of us have work to complete and we wait to finish it. When this one is done, she too will pass."

Beatrice sits there and finally ripples her Spirit senses on to look at what is transpiring.

No time. I can't breathe. Please. If you are going to ease it, let it be now. Otherwise I could choke for hours, and I want to be clear. Please, sister. Give me the peace I need.

Evangeline starts coughing again, and this time is having a very hard time keeping her breath. She should be on oxygen if she's to survive. But then, that doesn't seem to be something very likely anyway.

Sue's eyes are utterly devoid of anything, twinned mirrors of abyss as she shudders, seeing the man more clearly then Vanna herself. There is a truth there... even within the twisted perception of her madness she senses it, but mere words are not enough to convince her. Yet. However, arguing is getting nowhere, and perhaps too disturbing to one who has already made her choice. Not for her is it to contradict that. The nagging doubts and insinious whispers still plague her, but quietly she makes her offer again "Your passage can be eased... at any time, if you choose."

Evangeline nods slowly, unable to speak. The clear implication is 'now.'

The spirits of the dead surrounding step back respectfully, glancing at each other. Without words passed, the only one left within touching range of the dying woman is the kindly old lady.

Kim looks to Beatrice, feeling the ripples of Spirit, and pulls her Dimensional goggles from under her duster. HEr eyes are too tearfilled to put on the oddly menacing apparats, however, with its sinister black iron curves and the wierd anglarity of the ten little black iron needles that are on swivels as they line the area which should be the 'lenses'. She stills her voice completely, not wanting to wimper as she lets tears splash onto unforgiving ionic cloth, not even leaving the stain of their passage. A soft soul in hard garments.

Sue glances back to Kim and Beatrice, then imperceptibly shakes her head, turning her gaze to the Man both a part and apart from Vanna "You will have to guide me. I cannot see her well." As she speaks, she takes a small figure from the make-shift sash, unsteadily reaching out towards Vanna with the humanoid doll as she stumbles to a kneel, trying not to fall across the dying woman, but still unable to see her clearly yet.

The quiet man next to Vanna watches Sue intently, his eyes as compassionate as the woman he seems to guard. Then he nods, still wordless. Sue feels herself caught, though he doesn't move, and guided to kneel by the bedside.

Yes. Please hurry, sister. I'm not afraid of death. I'm not afraid of pain. But this hurts Kim and Beatrice, and you as well. Let there be an end.

Evangeline closes her eyes and murmurs something that can barely be understood over the catch of the liquid that fills her throat and lungs. "Gate, gate, pragate, parasamgate, bodhi svaha..." Another round of coughing begins and this time she seems powerless to stop it.

Kim says softly, reluctantly "I....can guide you Sue." rising, leaving her cold iron goggles behind where she previously was. Her fingers tremble for a moment and hen they still as Kim takes a deep breath tentatively reaching for Sue's wrist from where she stands now, next to the woman.

A breath of wind from somewhere blows through the room, caressing each cheek of each woman's face in a soft touch. It's a clear use of Forces from the bed, as Vanna says the goodbye she has no breath to speak.

Sue brushes the tiny doll across Vanna's brow, holding it before Vanna's lips to receive the rasping breath of her coughing. She glances at Kim, then nods, murmuring "I need her chakras..." She gleans several small bones from her sash, murmuring "The brow, the throat, the heart, the belly..." she starts to murmur them in order, waiting for Kim's guidance.

Evangeline helps you position them, but she's shaking now as her body strives for what it can't get.

Kim guides Sue's hand, whispering softly to Vanna "Goodbye my friend..." in return to the breath of wind. Brow...throat... heart...belly...her hand sure and careful upon Sue's wrist, murmuring "There" at each point. The quiet man leans forward, observing the work, and then nods.

I have to concentrate. I have to Will this to be. I have to help. But with the scar on the Quiet Man's spirit, I can't end it myself. I can't move. I can't help more than that. I look at the old woman, and she's watching. She gives me a slow nod, unseen by anyone else. Yes. She'll be there. She'll be my midwife.

Beatrice sits there, watching, her face lost in something. With that, even though she's tried not to previously, she starts shedding silent tears as she watches.

Sue places a bone over each one... perhaps with more preparation, a paste would serve better, but there is just not the time, or so she feels. She whispers a prayer, in Hindi, for each, imploring Kali to guide Vanna back to Her, to protect her on this journey. Her voice wavers over the words, but finally it is finished. After a quiet moment, she leans close to where she believes Vanna's ear and whispers softly, for her alone.

Sue whispers "Would that I had known you in this life... but perhaps I will in the next..."

Sue straightens after that, sitting for a moment with her hands pressed together, head bowed. Slowly she parts them, spreading them over Vanna's form as she calls her Will into focus, channelling her power towards granting a gentle, peaceful exit from this life and entrance into the next.

Evangeline stops struggling for breath. She closes her eyes, and the expression on her face is almost radiant in its way. There is nothing beautiful in her ravaged visage, but the spirit.....and then it happens. The heart stops, the body ceases to fight the myriad illnesses that had worked their way in, and everything goes still. For a split second.

There is no pain
        There is no pain
              There is no breath
                      There is no pain
                            There is only death

It all stops in its own time. I can feel it happening one organ at a time, even though I can't sense Life even now. Blessings to my tainted sister...because now the struggling of the body has ceased

and
I
am
free

There is no pain
        There is only....
                There is only.......

Bea watches as the whole thing passes. She feels the magick first, and then watches Vanna die. She is totally silent for a long moment, finally putting her hands over her heart and looking down with a very quiet "Momma?"

He is free. I can't see, but I know...I feel so sleepy. I can't see. I think I'm dreaming. They told me I would...but I don't remember who they are. If only I could sleep...but I can't.

There's something I have to do.

Something...

The Quiet Man touches Evangeline, and something rises up from her, coaslesces. A mist, a vapor that all of you see, without your usual needs for ways to work your Will. You are being given a gift, and you can clearly see Vanna rise up from her shell. Once more beautiful, she is still hazy as though something comes between her and you. Then the Quiet Man turns to Sue and says with simple certainty *You have freed me to ride the wheel once more. You have freed her from the pain of the body. You have given her a second chance. We are grateful. And perhaps you will see me again.* He looks at each of you in turn, and then you hear the sound of a great wind. When it passes, he is gone. The only sound is the distinct echo of a newborn baby crying, somewhere in the world.

Goodbye.

Kim watches, intuitively knowing what she is seeing as Vanna stills like the wind before the storm. She then raises he reyes to see the spirit world without any crutches for the first time in her life, waching Vanna rise, watching as the wind sweeps her a way...and finally simply murmuring "Thank you" for what, it may not be known.

Beatrice starts to cry again, trying to focus her abilities on the Spirit world and not quite able to see clearly, for the tears in her eyes. She whispers "Bye Vanna...I'll miss you."

The hazy cover over Vanna is carefully pulled away by the old woman, baring her face to the afterworld. She looks at her hands, turning them over and over. Then she smiles at Sue. The older woman wraps her arms around the newly departed, and they just..vanish.

The Quiet Man is gone. He will one day Ascend. And I...I will *trans*cend. I am reborn into death. And though I hear the dark voice, as I was warned...

I am no less than I was.

Kim moves over to Beatrice, quietly gathering the other woman close to her in a warm embrace. "We all will miss you Vanna.." she whispers "In this life." her voice broken by her tears

Sue's eyes, tearless and empty before, seem to well with something long absent, tears starting down her cheeks unhindered, as she dare not blink, dare not miss a moment of what she perceives, a small hope starting to rekindle. Her tears have nothing of sadness or remorse to them, though. What she has witnessed is not a loss, but an unlooked for affirmation, perhaps a more profound one then she could have found in any other circumstance as she witnesses the parting of psyche and soul, each to their separate paths.

And in the end there is only
only the Will
In the end there is only
the drive to be More
and in the end
there is no end...

(Log from 10/25/99, interpolating desc of Beatrice's Avatar written by Beatrice.)