“There is a balance to all things, my son,” she said in a voice that seemed to come from far away. “What we call a harmful occurrence is sometimes the only act that provides a cure. To lance a boil is painful, but the effect is beneficial. It’s what lets the poison escape the body so that healing can take place. When you lance the boil of human malevolence, that, too, is painful, but it is also a positive act. The real harm would be to act, even when the cause is a good one, but not to feel regret. For that is the mark of a calloused soul, and therein lies the way of destruction. For this reason you should rejoice in your pain; it is the sign of a healthy life.”

I lowered my head and thought of her words, and of the other times I had sought her counsel.

“It may all be as you say, but I wish I could avoid these—these—encounters that seem to lead inevitably to a violent end,” I responded. “I wish it were otherwise.”

Cyriah smiled and then laughed in the clear ringing tones of a small bell.

“We each one of us live inside a realm we selected before we ever arrived on this Earth. And every one of us has made a sacred agreement with the Master Spirit to play our own little part—our part and nobody else’s. Whatever we do with this life and in this life is our destiny. And that destiny can never be changed. That’s why it would be impossible that I could ever live your life, nor could you live the life of anybody else.

“We are fixed in a plane of existence that we alone inhabit. You could no more change who you are and what you do than you could turn yourself into a turtle or a fish. You are here for a specific reason, Kennesaw Tanner, and you must fulfill that reason, whether you want to or not.”

I contemplated the meaning of her words. It’s true, I thought, we all seem to be established in our own immutable orbits. But I’m . . .

It was as though I had spoken my thoughts aloud, for Cyriah smiled and nodded in agreement.