The moment he did, Pat seemed to grow, to explode until her presence with him was almost overwhelming. It was not that she was greater or larger or brighter or louder—words that meant nothing here—but that she was vastly present to him. When he had held on to her, her ka seemed elusive and faint; now, set free of him, she was so powerfully focused on him that she seemed to fill half the space around him. By the intensity of her devotion to him, she made him greater than he had been.

And this was not just some illusion. The other nearby kas sensed it too, and turned to him. Not a physical turning, but a focusing of their attention, and he grew and glowed brighter and became warmer and saw farther and understood more because of the brightness of their attention. But brightest of all, Pat.

Something like amusement from This One.

No. Pat was not the brightest of them all. She was only the brightest of those close by who were not This One. This One’s attention to him was like the ocean compared with the single raindrop of Pat’s attention. And the perception of all the others was like flecks of mist compared to her.

That is love, said This One.

Pat loves me, I knew that, but why do you love me? And these others, whom I do not know, how can they love me?

Because they saw you let go of Pat and set her free. They saw that you did it because you trusted my promise that you would know her even if you no longer held her. For those two things they love you, and because of their love you are larger than you were. And Pat is larger because she willingly died for you. For that love they are in awe of her.

We don’t want to be dead, said Danny, and he understood that Pat was explaining the same thing in her own way at the same time.

There are many here who did not wish to be dead. But here they are, content for the time being, content to be with me.

Are you God? asked Danny.

A being who makes others obey him against their will? Never. A creator out of nothingness? It cannot be. The absolute ruler of heaven and earth? No such, or if there is, I do not know it.

Then who are you?

Is that what you came here for? To know me?

I don’t know. I came here to find out what I need to know in order to keep Set from overmastering two worlds and ruling with cruelty for ten thousand, a hundred thousand years. Forever.

In this place you will never learn how to force another to bend to your will against his own inclination. Have you learned nothing of power?