When it becomes too great, I will seek as easy a death as I can manage."

"You hurt, and you will die?"

"Yes. I am not like you. But I thank you for the great comfort you have given me."

She looked at him intently. "You are not joking, are you?"

"The King of Laughter does not joke." This was hardly a precise translation of his role in his own Mode, but it was what she best related to.

"If you were going back, would you take me with you?"

"If I could return, I would want to do that. But only if I knew that it was right, and that you wished to. Marriage to Hiahtar is no easy matter.''

"Even though I am only fourteen?"

Darius was startled. "I thought you were older! Unless our years differ."

"I don't think they do. Everything you have told me sug -- gests that your world is the same as mine, except for the way

you live. So does it matter?"

"In my reality it does not. Every person does what he chooses, if he can do it well enough. If you truly un -- derstood the requirements of the marriage, it would be

honored."

"Like having sex with you?"

"No, marriage is not necessary for that. It is a more im -- portant commitment."

"Because of the mergence of life forces?"

"Yes." She shook her head. "You know I don't believe you."

"Yes. I think you would believe only if you could be in my reality. What you have done for me has been most gen -- erous, since you can gain nothing in return."

"Do you really live in a castle with many servants, and do magic?"

"My servants usually do the magic for me. My ability is joy, not conjuring."

"Tell me again what you do." "Colene, I will not be doing it any more, because -- "

"Tell me!" He did not understand her intensity. "I bring joy to the multitudes. I make them laugh."

"Then you are a comedian."

"No. I do not tell funny stories or do funny things. I infuse joy directly, so that they can laugh at what merits

it."

"That's what I don't understand! How can you -- I mean, that's not the way it works!"

"How does it work here?"

"Each person's pleasure and pain come from inside him. If he sees or hears something funny, he laughs and feels good. If he sees something bad, he is unhappy. If something hurts his body, he feels pain, but the pain is from his nervous system, not the other thing. If he loves or hates, the emotion is all in himself. He can't receive it like an electric current from anyone else."

"Physically that is true for us too. But emotionally we can transfer it. It is my post to transfer joy to others."

"But if you can do that, that doesn't mean you lose it yourself!''

"Indeed it does! It is my emotional substance being shared."