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America for no apparent reason. She was definitely up to something!
Parry joined her on the ship, watching her constantly. But she acted quite normally, avoiding the
predatory men and remaining mostly in her cabin, reading.
Then, abruptly. Fate came to her, in the form of a spider. And, while Parry spied from cover. Fate took
Niobe in as an Aspect of herself, leaving a prior Aspect of herself in Niobe's body to complete the
voyage.
Niobe had become an Aspect of Fate!
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Now Parry understood how she was to become Chronos' lover! The Incarnations did indulge each other
in this manner on occasion, because they understood each other far better than any mortal could. Niobe
was now the youngest and by far the prettiest Aspect of Fate, so this duty naturally would fall to her. He
should have realized!
His problem had just been compounded. He knew from his prior observations that Niobe blamed him for
the murder of her husband. Lucifer had done it, but it was indeed Parry's responsibility, for he had
directed Lucifer to nullify Niobe. So Niobe was his sworn enemy, and now she had enormously
increased power.
Again, he had to admire Gabriel's cunning. At every turn, this scheme became more diabolical!
How was he going to do anything about Niobe now? He had to try, lest he forfeit the contest. He could
not touch her physically; even had she not become invulnerable as an Incarnation, the two wiser other
Aspects of Fate that shared her body would have protected her. He needed to get her alone, and that was
impossible.
Except for one occasion. Fate had to go to the Void to fetch the substance for the threads of Life. Clotho,
the youngest, was the spinner of the threads; it was always her task to fetch the substance.
Parry knew what the Void was like! He knew that very few could ever face it, let alone negotiate within
it. Only the Aspect of Clotho could do it, not the other two.
That was where he could approach her alone. That was where he could corrupt her-if he was ever to do
it. Perhaps he would fail, but he had to try.
When the new Clotho made her maiden excursion to the Void, Parry followed her. He knew better than
to enter that region of chaos without some kind of guide, but in this case, Niobe was his guide. He would
stay with her until she emerged, perforce.
She began at the edge of Purgatory, where a road led toward the strange region beyond. Parry had not
realized that chaos could be approached by a road! He followed, invisible and silent; he wanted to be
sure she was alone, without her two companion Aspects, before he addressed her.
The road became a path, and the path wended through a thick forest. She spoke once, as if reflecting on
something she had heard. "The Incarnation of War, and of Nature. I wonder what business they have
here?"
What business indeed! Perhaps Mars sought the raw stuff of violence here, and Gaea the stuff of nature.
So they had made a path. But he was sure that they did not go all the way into chaos.
The forest became so thick and the trees so large that the path was hopelessly squeezed and the light was
almost cut off. Now Parry saw that Niobe was trailing a thread. That was how she intended to find her
way out-by following her thread back! It was a secure device, for no one but her fellow Aspect Atropos
could cut that thread of Life. Not when Fate was paying attention. Lucifer had to fudge the records in
Purgatory to arrange for the death of Niobe-and even then, the ploy had gone wrong, taking out the
wrong person and complicating Parry's challenge. It was dangerous to mess with Fate.
Niobe squeezed through the densest part of the forest, and Parry followed, having less difficulty because
he was able to change his form. He became an invisible bird, flitting through crevices too narrow for his
human form. Had Niobe not been an extremely slender figure overall, she would not have made it. Or
was it that the path somehow accommodated her contours, which were by no means minor, so that she
alone could pass?
Now the forest thinned, but the trees were misshaped and miscolored. Chaos was drawing nigh.
He followed her on through a region of vertigo, a pinwheel path. Then the path become a stream. Niobe
hesitated, then removed her yellow cloak, laid it down, and sat on it, forming a floating craft of it. She
was now in her underwear, and the contours that had been only hinted at before became fully evident.
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What a creature she was! He could have stared at her for a decade, while jealous fumes rose from Lilah.
That gave him a notion of how to corrupt her. He knew that she was to become Chronos' lover-lucky
Chronos!-and that she was presently a widow and conservative about her relationship with any other
man. If he played upon that situation, stressing the sordid interpretation, he might turn her off it before it
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