"It's still pretty dull," Electra said.

"Oh, I don't think so. You don't have a chance of getting the foal back. So Cheiron will just have to demolish the mountain. That's interesting."

"Well, we'll see," Electra said shortly.

"Meanwhile, what about your own situation?" the demoness asked.

Electra didn't want to answer but still hoped that if she played along the demoness would go away. "What about it? Dolph will choose, and that will be that."

"But everyone knows he will choose Nada Naga. What happens to you then?"

"I die," Electra said.

"You do?" Gloha asked, dismayed. Evidently she had not been aware of that aspect.

"I have to marry the prince who woke me from my discounted thousand year sleep, or die," Electra said. "I knew that when I got into it. Since he won't marry me, that's it."

"I'm so sorry!" Gloha said. "I thought I was not well off, with no male of my crossbreed, but your case is worse!"

Electra really did not want to talk about it, but didn't want to let the demoness know that. "Maybe so."

"How will you feel, when you see him marry the naga princess?" Metria asked persistently.

"Glad for her. She's my friend and a wonderful person."

"But she doesn't love him. Don't you mortals put great store by love?"

"Yes. But she can take a love potion."

"How will you die?" "Must we have this conversation?" Gloha demanded, distraught.

Electra appreciated her support, but knew it would only make the demoness worse. "I don't know," she said, answering both of them. Actually she did know how she would die, but did not like to talk about it.

"I can show you wonderful ways to die," Metria said. "Suffocation, stroke, rupture of—"

"I suspect I shall just expire in a maidenly manner," Electra said. "It will be most dull."

"No, wait, I remember!" the demoness exclaimed. "There was a story—when you went to Mundania, didn't you age rapidly? So probably that's how it will be. You will get older all of a sudden, and become mature, and then a hag, and then a bag of bones, all in a few minutes."

Electra gritted her teeth, fearing that it would be exactly like that. She was actually around nine hundred years old; only the magic of the enchantment kept her as young as she should be. Once that enchantment was broken, she would revert to her proper age, which was about eight hundred and fifty years dead. But she refused to give the demoness the satisfaction of seeing her faint with horror, no matter what. "You may be right," she said.

"We've go! to get Dolph to marry you!" Gloha said.

"No!" Electra protested. "It has to be his choice."

"I could surround you and give you Nada's aspect," Metria said. "You could marry him, and he wouldn't know the difference until it was too late."