“So I’m going to strike a bargain with you. Of course, you have no way to signal agreement in advance. You’ll simply do what I suggest, or not. I’m simply going to tell you. Duat is actually a good place. It’s a place of justice and mercy. It’s also a place without bodies, and I won’t lie to you. I missed my body when I was there. You miss hearing and speaking and seeing and touching and smelling. All the bodily functions are beautiful and precious as soon as you don’t have them. Yet it’s still better there than being a slave to Set.”

“You know that killing me will only cause him to jump to someone else,” said Hermia.

“As long as Set remains unconnected to a human body, then he hasn’t yet lived, and so he can’t die and return to Duat. I spent a couple of months with him in control of my body. I know exactly how boring it can be.”

“Set isn’t in the body of a boring teenage boy,” said Hermia. “He’s in me. He is not bored.”

“So bored,” said Danny. “Every person you’ve taken over, Set, is too much like all the ones before. You’ve committed all the crimes, you’ve achieved vast power and infinite fame and made millions of people miserable. What is there left for you to do in Hermia’s corpse?”

Suddenly Hermia was beside Pat, reaching toward her. Just as abruptly, Danny moved her back to where he wanted her. “You’ve murdered before, Set.”

“But never so efficiently. I really do come out of nowhere now,” said Hermia.

“Hermia, you made your choice,” said Danny. “I can’t save you now. But you can save yourself. Not the way you hope, though it will seem that way for a moment or two. The only way to save yourself now is to save everybody.”

“Oh, you think you have tricks up your sleeve, Danny,” said Hermia. “But I was inside you too long. I know you. You can’t surprise me.”

“You really did help me, Hermia,” said Danny. “Your help outweighs your betrayal, in my mind and heart. I think of you as my teacher and my friend. I’m truly sorry that I’ve lost you. If there’s anything you regret, in our friendship, I forgive you and I ask your forgiveness.”

“Oooh, now you’re scaring me,” said Hermia, chuckling.

Danny said no more words. He simply plunged his inself into Hermia’s body and began to guide Set’s ka into the flesh. Danny could feel Pat grow more alert beside him, and then her ka was with his, leading Set, pushing him.