"e over, Kaer. I want you to touch me and tell me if it feels good. Maybe we both discover somethionight."

  "Where should I start?"

  Gertrude smiled and closed her eyes, her breath ing quid soft against his cheek.

  "You start anywhere you like, Kaer," she whispered. "I'm yours tonight."

  Kaer slid his hand lower, trag the warmth between her legs with his fingers, feeling the wethere as she grew more aroused.

  She let out a quiet moan, her fiangling in his hair.

  Gertrude squirmed under his touch, moaning loudly as her body arched into his hand. Her hips rose off the surface, seeking more tact as he explored her thhly.

  Finally, uo resist any longer, Kaer pushed Gertrude's panties aside.

  "Now I will repce my fingers."

  "Oh, Kaer, I've wahis for so long."

  Kaer arude had special sex, mystical and loaded with symbols.

  They both came i ecstasy, filled with images of the unknown, of the future, and of the past.

  They felt the whole world, and everything around them was ging.

  It was as if the universe itself was turning upside down.

  Everything was happening in a split sed.

  They were moving through time, experieng both youth and age simultaneously. Their minds traveled to a distant pe that was entirely different, ohat did, and ohey would never visit.

  Kaer arude were seeing things that didn't make sense or couldn't be expined.

  The colors were melting together, and the shapes were being blurred.

  It was a beautiful melody; it was ing from a distant world.

  It was a song of love and joy.

  The walls were turning into a giant mouth, and the floor became a giant tongue.

  Kaer arude were lying naked, side by side, looking at each other.

  "Did you like it, Kaer? Have you experienced something like this before?"

  "No, it was a unique experience."

  "At a certain moment, in any given pce, a beginning must occur. It must arise within the heart and mind of an individual, within someone who dares to decre, 'I have feelings for you, I appreciate you,' and feels the resolute obligation to a that emotiht then and there. You uand that's the reason you will tinue searg for me. Kaer, I am anticipating your arrival. I feel great as I gaze into your eyes to see life," says Gertrude, kissing Kaer.

  A long time ago, the voraoon howled like a wounded beast, its razor cws rending the velvety bess of the night asunder. Gertrude, the garrote of Ranallonda Isnd, was ed in the squalid embrace of a deserted tavern room drowned in whispers and shadows.

  Early memories fertrude were of a flickering dle in whose light the fme danced like a malevolent sprite while her mother whispered of a childlike god, grotesque and to be feared by vilgers. They called it the Devourer of Dreams, and her mother would point into the star-filled skies and whisper, "One day, you'll find yourself bound to its whims." As years passed, Gertrude's fasation with the Devrew, as did her mother's warnings, always hinting at the o keep the darkness in check.

  Eventually, wanderlust ate away at Gertrude's insides, f her to leave her vilge for the nameless expahe warbled song of the Devourer became a known hum, leadio Ranallonda Isnd.

  When she finally reached the isnd, she found that it was a cesspool ied with pirates, where sin and decay had decided to stay permaly. Here, she discovered her husband, the elusive Rupert. His smile was a thief's temptation. Together, they navigated the treacherous waters of Ranallonda, ughing through nights of pilge.

  One night, the east wind carried rumors of Rupert's affair with a fire-breathing siren, an embodiment of the Devourer herself. She fronted Rupert, and in the flickering light of the torches, their love dissolved like quid. Their final duel became a dance of bloody silhouettes. Ultimately, Rupert sank into the depths, as the sea swallowed their love whole.

  She bound her sorrow to the isnd, being immortal, a bearer of the Devourer's shadow. She learo master the whispered art of succumbing to the madhat coursed through her veins like a harbinger of doom. As she fell into the abyss, Ranallonda became aension of her own.

  As the witg hour approached, whispers of her presence wove into the tavern, summoning the ned and the doomed. Anyone who heard of Gertrude would bee entranced by the haunting melody of her grief—a haunting cello solo eg through the darkness of Ranallonda.

  Gertrude was well aware of what the pirates sought: drink, gambling, and the pany of women. Thus, she provided them all. Gertrude traveled through Taldom and its neighb realms. Upoering the tavern, the pirates' boisterous ughter and carefree demeanor permeated the atmosphere, while Gertrude observed her surroundings with posure. Standing tall and anding, her fident steps and the astute sparkle in her eyes were unmistakable. She was dressed in regal attire, embellished with opulent fabrid jewels. A band ed pirates, guzzling their rum, followed in her wake. The tavern's womeiced by her promises of affluend influence, gathered around her eagerly.

  "If you wish to be the wealthiest and most esteemed dies, apany me," Gertrude decred to the women who frequehe taverns.

  It was the Devourer who had told Gertrude that Kaer was to e. And though she had quaked with terror at what she did know of him, she hailed his ing.

  Gertrude had made her choice: she would faithfully serve Kaer. Gertrude had sat for all her days at the table of the querors; now she desired light, as much light as might be.