======== Present time "No matter how long it takes," Elena repeated, crying again. Corazón Negro touched her face, gently caressing it. "Don't cry, my love." "All these years!" she said, sobbing. "All these years, I've blamed you for all of it!" She lowered her gaze in pain and shame. "And now I remember that it was my choice, too." She raised her eye and met his. "I let you go! Forgive me, mi amor!"(3) (Spanish: my love) Corazón Negro tried to smile. "There's nothing to forgive. That's the way it was meant to be, my love. Wipe away your tears. There shall be no more pain, no more crying; not for me. That sorrow is past." Corazón Negro wiped Elena's tears with his hand. Then, he kissed the patch on her eye. She remained close to him, remembering for the first time in twenty years, the softness of his touch, the passion in his body. Then she sighed and moved away. "What about Lilitu? That's not over, is it?" Corazón Negro shook his head. "The time has come. The truce is over. The stalemate is finished." Elena turned away, crossing her arms on her chest. Even though she knew the answer, she had to ask again, like an itch that needed to be scratched. "Why you?" Corazón Negro came up behind her and took her gently by the shoulders. Elena closed her eye. "Look back in history, my love," he said. "Think about the past, about the wars that have been fought all over the world. The building of the Empires, their destruction, the Crusades, the wars in Asia, the World Wars." Corazón Negro raised his gaze as though he were looking at something in the distance. "The entire world almost fell into the hands of Genghis Khan. Think about the books of my brothers, the Mayas, thrown away by the Spaniards' priests. Aztecs, Incas, entire cultures condemned to oblivion forever." Corazón Negro turned Elena slowly to face him. "One horror after the other, the way it always has been. I can't ignore these things anymore, knowing what I know. When I see millions of people murdered in gas chambers by a crazy Austrian; when I see entire African tribes slaughtered until the rivers around them run red; when I see the hunger of millions in this age of abundance-I cannot remain impassive anymore." As Curi-Rayen listened carefully, he continued his tale of death. "I don't know which horror was the one that removed the mask of lies I used to wear, my love. Maybe it was the millions who died starving in the Ukraine, kept there by their own dictator, or the thousand who died later poisoned by the nuclear cloud spilled by the same rules who kept them trapped there. Maybe it was the monasteries in Nepal, holy places of meditation and grace, which survived for millennia only to be destroyed by unholy, ambitious men, while the leaders in the east danced in their nightclubs. Maybe it was the millions of dead Chinese, Japanese, Jews, Kampucheans, Russians, Poles, Kurds." Corazón Negro closed his eyes. "And behind all the death, all the misery, Lilitu's shape, as always, controlling the leaders just as she wished. Playing inside their minds, making this great planet a graveyard. Her unholy place. Don't you see? If there's such thing as the devil, she's his servant, Lucifer's strongest soldier here on earth." He stopped and watched Curi-Rayen gravely. Then his gaze softened. "But you taught me how much I needed your love, like the flowers needs the rain. I needed your love because through it I was able to forget the wilderness inside me, for a while. I was able to gather my strength. Then I left you and the marvelous and glorious future we had. I retreated from you and gave you the only power I have; time. I gave you time to search for all those answers you wanted. I knew we would both cry, but maybe, maybe in the end, there could be salvation for us." Elena couldn't even blink. He seemed to be carving his words on her soul. "And now, here we are; here you are; united forever to the Wolf, the Eagle, the Bear and the Cougar. Here you are, united forever to me." Saying this, Corazón Negro sighed painfully. "So I came to free you from the influences of my gods, to set you free from my love." He drew with his hand a strange pattern on her forehead. "Remember, Curi-Rayen-I will always love you inside that place between your Dream and your wakefulness; I will always be with you in that time when it is neither day nor night. In there, I will be always yours. Two bodies and two minds, but one heart and one soul, until the end of time." Corazón Negro kissed her softly on the mouth and released her. Then with one last smile, he turned away and walked out of the office, into the courtyard, into the sun. ======== Elena stood immobile for a long moment after he'd kissed her. He was gone. This time Corazón Negro was really gone. He was going off probably to die, like one of the heroes from the past-like the hero that he was-and this time he wasn't coming back. Even in her worst days she hadn't really believed he was dead; she had always had a hope that he'd come back to her. But now... now she wasn't going to see him again. Ever. Unless he survived this huge battle against one of the greatest threats to humankind, mortal and immortal alike, there had ever been. And even if he did survive, what would be the cost? What would he turn into? Or was he already different? Was the Corazón Negro she'd loved for centuries, since 1642, the same man she'd seen today? It didn't matter, did it? What really mattered-and she had to really concentrate to think this through, because her mind was in a fog somehow, and she felt numb, as though she wasn't really there... What really mattered was that he was leaving; and what she was going to do about it. Elena was never the type to consider her actions in too much depth. There wasn't time, and even if there was she knew she had to make her decision. Now, before he left without an answer from her, while she could still sense his immortal signature, before it was too late. Because she did owe him an accounting-he was right, she owed him that much. In fact, she owed him a lot more than that. Nodding to herself, she left Madre Luz's office. ======== Feeling the immortal buzz in his very bones, Corazón Negro went into the bathroom to wash the blood from his face, then searched through the museum, looking for the Mother Superior. He had already said his goodbyes to Curi-Rayen and wanted to leave while he still had the strength to do so. He knew she was better off without him, and he had let her take out her anger at him and had at least managed to release her from any obligation to him, if she'd felt any such obligation. But he couldn't just walk away without thanking Madre Luz. He finally found her in an animal pen, holding a paper bag and throwing grain at a few hungry chickens. "Madre!" he called out. She smiled at him, which surprised him, a little. "Did you say your goodbyes?" she asked. "I did. Thank you for giving us both the chance to do so," he said, bowing his head in respect. "And now you're leaving?" she asked, still smiling. Puzzled, he assented with his head. "I'll walk you to the gate," she said in a way that brooked no argument-so Corazón Negro didn't argue. She upended the paper bag and all the chickens came running, pecking all around both their feet. Then she crumpled up the paper, slipped it into a pocket and placed her arms in her voluminous sleeves. After they walked past the museum and were within sight of the front gate, the nun asked him, "What did she say, if I may ask?" "She said goodbye," Corazón Negro said sadly. He'd done the right thing leaving her the first time and he'd done the right thing again. He just wished he didn't feel so ... empty. "Did she?" Madre Luz asked him, stealing a sidelong glance at him as they walked side by side. "What do you mean?" he answered her question with a question of his own, not sure what the nun was getting at, but realizing that Curi-Rayen had *not* said goodbye to him. He hadn't really given her the chance. "If you will permit an old woman's observation, Mariaelena told me she always loved you," she said, nodding at a tourist couple who passed them by. "I... that was in the past," he said. "I've only known her six years, and two of those she never even spoke-but I remain convinced that she still loves you," the nun persisted. "You are more special to her than anyone else who has come to see her. Her reaction to your visit proves it." Corazón Negro nodded unhappily. "Perhaps she does love me, Madre. But it doesn't make any difference," he added. The nun stopped in her tracks when they were only a few meters away from the main gate, turning to look at him directly. "Do you know this woman? Do you know what she's like? And do you really believe that if Mariaelena Duran loves you she'll let you go?" He could no longer sense Curi-Rayen. Good. He shook his head. "She has to. It's for the best, believe me." "You mean it's the smart thing to do. But this woman acts with her heart, not her head. She always has, hasn't she?" "Well, yes," he admitted, articulating something he'd always known-and now sensing, feeling something, again... He turned back towards the buildings as the buzz of an Immortal struck him full force. A strong Immortal. An Immortal coming directly towards him. He saw her now, emerging from the museum, Curi-Rayen coming directly towards him, still dressed in her habit, but with a cape draped over her right arm and a long canvas duffel in her left fist. She swept up to both of them. "I had to say goodbye to my sisters," she explained to him breathlessly. "I almost missed you; then I would have had to find you..." Corazón Negro was just beginning to comprehend. But he didn't understand. "Curi-Rayen?" he asked again, just as he had when he'd first seen her. "Madrecita," Elena said. "You have been so kind to me, and so patient. I don't know how to thank you..." For an answer, the nun hugged her tightly, then looked into her face. "God placed you here for a reason, child. You've brought us life. I hope you've gotten whatever you needed from us." "Humility. Obedience. Chastity. And as much love from all of you as I can handle. I needed to learn those again, Madre, and I needed peace. I will pray for all of you." "And you know you will always be in our prayers, Mariaelena. God go with you," she said, making the sign of the cross over Curi-Rayen, and over Corazón Negro himself while she was at it. "Do not hurt her again," she warned him. Corazón Negro finally found his tongue. "I won't," he promised the nun, then asked Curi-Rayen, "Are you sure? You know where I'm going." "I love you," she answered simply, draping her cape over her shoulder and putting her hand in his. "No more goodbyes. Not ever. Whatever the future, we'll face it together this time." He squeezed her hand, feeling his heart being squeezed just as hard with an unnamable joy. He turned to the Mother Superior. "I hope to see you again, Madre." "God willing," Madre Luz said confidently, smiling this time. Corazón Negro nodded, smiling too. He understood that the unknown and dangerous future rolled before them, but for the first time they would face it with a sense of hope; because if the Dream, the Spiral of Time, could learn the value of true love, maybe there was hope for them in the battle to come. Then, Elena Duran and Corazón Negro walked hand in hand out into the world, together again and forever.