MARIUS!
  
  Something, but too faint. For all its intensity simply too faint!
  
  MARIUS!
  
  I was leaning against the window, staring right into the morning light as it grew 
brighter, my eyes watering, the tips of my fingers almost burning on the hot glass.
  
  Answer me, is it Akasha? Are you telling me that it is Akasha, that she is the one, 
that it was she?
  
  But the sun was rising over the mountains. The lethal rays were spilling down into the 
valley, ranging across the valley floor.
  
  I ran out of the house, across the field and towards the hills, my arm up to shield my 
eyes.
  
  And within moments I had reached my hidden underground crypt, pulled back the stone, 
and I went down the crudely dug little stairs. One more turn and then another and I was 
in cold and safe blackness, earth smell, and I lay on the mud floor of the tiny chamber, 
my heart thudding, my limbs trembling. Akasha! That music of yours could wake the dead.
  
  Television set in the chamber, of course, Marius had given them that, and the 
broadcasts right off the satellite. They had seen the video films! I knew it, I knew it 
as certainly as if he had spelled it out to the last detail. He had brought the 
television down into their sanctum, just as he had brought the movies to them years and 
years ago.
  
  And she had been awakened, she had risen. That music of yours could wake the dead. I'd 
done it again.
  
  Oh, if only I could keep my eyes open, could only think, if the sun wasn't rising.
  
  She had been there in San Francisco, she had been that close to us, burning our 
enemies. Alien, utterly foreign, yes.
  
  But not uncivilized, no, not savage. She was not that. She was only just reawakened, my 
goddess, risen like a magnificent butterfly from its cocoon. And what was the world to 
her? How had she come to us? What was the state of her mind? Danger to all of us. No. I 
don't believe it! She had slain our enemies. She had come to us.
  
  But I couldn't fight the drowsiness and heaviness any longer. Pure sensation was 
driving out all wonder and excitement. My body grew limp and helplessly still against the 
earth.
  
  And then I felt a hand suddenly close on mine.
  
  Cold as marble it was, and just about that strong.
  
  My eyes snapped open in the darkness. The hand tightened its grip. A great mass of 
silken hair brushed my face. A cold arm moved across my chest.
  
  Oh, please, my darling, my beautiful one, please! I wanted to say. But my eyes were 
closing! My lips wouldn't move. I was losing consciousness. The sun had risen above.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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