"Pardon me for my curiosity, and my ignorance, but just who is this 'Space Goddess'?"

That question was on both their minds, but Irinati beat Pratisha to "the punch" as they and The Traveller returned to The Endless Sunrise to get ready for the hospitality Salya had promised them.

"Salya is a Rytallin Immortal, the ultimate expression of a race forced to carry out an intensive genetic regeneration programme after their world was all but stripped of life", The Traveller explained, in a manner that suggested that such things were hardly extraordinary. "Rytallin are naturally long-lived, but Immortals - in their own language, the 'Bisaj', or 'Most Blessed' - have an affinity for the naturally-occurring currents of cosmic energy underlying all reality, which they tap into and use to bolster their physical forms, and psychic abilities."

"So she's not an actual goddess...?", enquired Pratisha.

"Close enough for some people", replied The Traveller. "Not always a wise course, to set yourself up as a deity, but when you have the power to back up such a claim, the risks diminish. They don't vanish completely, however - such a miscalculation was what brought us together."

The women exchanged wary glances, then Irinati offered up a curious observation. "And you didn't find things a bit... cramped?"

"She was never that tall when she was with me", the adventurer answered. "Long story, that."

"One we'd very much like to hear, I'm sure", remarked Pratisha. They had only known each other for less than a day, but already the Earth-born witch and Irinati were working as a team, outflanking The Traveller like lions, lurking in the grass, harassing a lone wildebeest...

"Well... if you're good, and our host is willing", replied The Traveller, "you may just hear it."

Conceding that the explorer had proved most adept at evading their ambush, and accepting that these were, perhaps, stories Salya might not want shared, the women devoted their attention to getting ready for dinner. Pratisha had several dresses suitable for formal occasions, but Irinati had only come prepared for a brief excursion, a "there and back" of no more than a day's duration. The Traveller, however, came to her rescue in unexpected fashion...

"Habitation level, storage pod seven", he told his newest companion. "You'll find something in there that's sure to fit you - and which will undoubtedly break the ice. Might I suggest the red..."

Setting foot outside The Endless Sunrise, the three adventurers were welcomed by a trail of glowing "footsteps", globules of molten rock lighting up the honey-comb rock underfoot, leading back along the passage towards Salya's chamber. Following that trail, which rapidly faded away behind them, their course took a turn away from the path they had trod before, the passage curving away and down to a smaller, more intimate chamber where Salya was waiting, seated on a pile of cushions at one end of an great oval table, made of polished dark glass.

The "Space Goddess" had dressed to be more approachable, long pink boots under the slit skirt of a fine, pale gown dyed in a multitude of swirling colours, like oil on water, the pattern seeming to shift with her every movement, but there was still some tension in the air - until, as The Traveller had hoped, Salya caught sight of Irinati, and the Rytallin Immortal's face gave birth to a smile of recognition. "Oh, don't you look fabulous...?"

Irinati's outfit was more suited to a retro-style dance club than a formal gathering - thigh-high boots and a short, long-sleeved dress, all crafted from fine scarlet leather, gold eyelets and cord fastening shut the slits in the sleeves from elbow to wrist, the sides of the skirt, and the openings down the sides of the boots, from top to knee. "My favourite outfit", purred Salya, kneeling in front of Irinati, and gently holding the girl by the shoulders as though she was admiring a particularly cherished doll. "Happier times... much happier..."

"You did keep part of the outfit", observed The Traveller, "as we all can see..."

Salya smiled briefly, her hand going up to the golden band holding her hair back from her face; five rings, the single largest ring at the centre, rings of decreasing size to either side. "It seems as though we both chose to invoke the spirit of better days", she replied, wistfully. "For now, let that spirit join us at the dining table."

Salya returned to her seat, placing one of her cushions to her right for Irinati to sit upon, then she invited The Traveller and Pratisha to take their places at the table, at her left. "I trust that what little I can provide will be to your taste", said the Rytallin giantess. "During the time I have spent here, I have trusted my existence solely to the currents of the cosmic - I have had no need of food as you know it..."

Out of the very air appeared floating dishes of silver, gold, and the faintly bluish metal The Traveller recognised as the alloy sometimes referred to as "Rytallium", and on those dishes appeared geometrical arrangements of multi-coloured cubes, spheres and other shapes, all comprised of a single, sponge-like substance. "My people, during our great reconstruction, learned to subsist on simple, easily-produced food-stuffs..."

"Artificial food", sighed Pratisha, bitterly, drawing a reprimanding look from The Traveller.

"Maybe", admitted Salya, "but this is all naturally-occurring nutrients, no synthetic pollutants. At least give it a try - the worst that can happen would be that you are proved right."

A dish floated over to the Earth-woman, and everyone was watching as she took a ball of Salya's nutrient cocktail, and placed it in her mouth. After a couple of seconds, she started to chew, and her expression betrayed a grudging acceptance of Salya's wisdom. "Not bad", she eventually admitted. "I'm sorry if I seem overly picky, but I'm more sensitive to the natural world than most."

"Then coming here won't have been easy for you", observed the giantess, softly. "This whole place - it defies all you hold sacred..."

"You should have said", The Traveller intervened, looking to his friend. "You didn't have to come - you could have waited, back in Dominion, or anywhere..."

"...and you know full well where that would've been", murmured Pratisha. "You've known for a while, just as I have."

"At least you have enough trust in our friend Shen'at'whe to accompany him here", said Salya, trying to raise the tone of proceedings. "Trust well earned, I imagine."

"Indeed", Pratisha replied. "I wouldn't have missed out on all this for anything. The places I've been, the things I've seen..."

"As an Immortal, I've seen plenty myself", said Salya, "sometimes too much. It was something like that The Traveller rescued me from - he has told you...?"

"It was, he felt, your story to tell", replied Irinati.

"Ah - of course", the giant Immortal said with a smile, directed at the girl, then The Traveller. "You haven't changed. Such chivalry in unchivalrous times."

The Traveller nodded graciously, then Salya began her story. "Before my time with Shen'at'whe - 'He Who Travels', in the ancient Rytallin - I was selfish, egotistical and reckless. I sought to rule, to be worshipped, and when I saw the chance to realise all my desires at once, I became a monster. My subjects eventually turned on me, I was driven into the shadows - and there, I found myself compelled to join forces with not exactly the best of company.

"My ally and I sought to establish a new shared kingdom", she continued, after drawing a sighing breath, "but the Order Of Things would not allow it. Our conquest was resisted, and ultimately defeated, in part by our enemies, but equally by our own arrogance and... the unexpected."

Salya paused, and trembled almost imperceptibly, but when their eyes next met, she knew The Traveller had seen it. "I was very nearly lost", she resumed, "expending much of my power just to stay alive, almost losing my link to the cosmic - but The Traveller found me, risking his own life to save me. He had no idea who he was rescuing, and at the time, neither did I..."

The Traveller stepped in, to give Salya time to settle her thoughts. "I could have found out who my passenger was in no time at all", he told his companions, "but that was a journey that couldn't be hurried, each step as important as the last. As I followed the clues that emerged, so we both learned the truth - together."

Salya looked up from her lap, and everyone could see her smile. "I, too, loved every moment of the whole experience", she declared. "The Ripklin Expanse, the illithids..."

"Met them", piped up Pratisha. "Nasty things - all those tentacles!"

The "Space Goddess" immediately became more lively, more engaged as she asked "Do they still blame him for the death of that elder brain?"

"Not any more", the Earth-woman replied. "We found out it was the drow - a league of assassin."

"Ah, good", said Salya. "Good to see the scales of justice set right. Any other great adventures...?"

"We had some trouble with someone you might know", answered Pratisha. "Balor of Progron?"

"Oh, I'll never forget that madman", sighed the Immortal, glancing in The Traveller's direction. "What was it you called him? 'The Multiverse’s most complete sadist'?"

"Word for word", Pratisha responded. "And he had those... what did you call them?"

"Beta Universe assault mechanoids", said The Traveller, under his breath.

"More than one?", gasped Salya. "That one he unleashed at the Vector Helix was bad enough - if I hadn't found out how to tap into the cosmic flow again, that would definitely have ended badly."

"We were lucky, too", Pratisha explained. "They were vulnerable to magic. Apparently, it doesn't exist in the Beta Universe."

"Oh we had our share of luck too", assured Salya. "Good and bad - but it always worked out in our favour. Like that time with those machine things who created that null-vortex-thing...?"

"The Daleks", replied The Traveller, who had been trying to sit back and let the conversation flow, but was now being inexorably drawn in.

"Well, we wouldn't have gotten out of that if it hadn't been for that friend of yours", the "Space Goddess" recalled. "The one they were really after - the fellow with the blue box, who never told me his name."

"He never does", chuckled The Traveller. "Haven't run into him again since - but I'm sure I will. Some time."

And then the mood changed. "But then, there comes a time for the fun to end", Salya told her guests. "I regained my memory, and realised there was nothing more The Traveller could do for me. I had to return to my people, to seek the help only they could give me..."

The Rytallin giantess took a deep breath, sat up straight, and looked directly at The Traveller. "I no longer possess the knowledge you seek", she declared. "The secrets of The Lost Gods - I purged all that from my being when my fellow Bisaj found me, passing it all on to one of my brother Rytallin..."

"I know", said The Traveller. "I spoke to Dessarren Bisaj Katlor before I came here. And I also know you left your people's care before you were fully healed..."

"...which brings us to this place, and this time", continued Salya. "I sought sanctuary here, to learn anew to master the cosmic, the friction of the spatial streams providing all the energy needed to maintain my hide-away while I meditated. I had, with good reason, expected to be left in peace - but clearly, I was mistaken."

The dishes rose from the table, and flew out of sight, their contents barely touched - dinner was clearly over, and it was time to talk business. "What", demanded Salya, "do you expect of me?"

"Imagination, intuition, a sprinkling of the incredible", answered The Traveller, grinning. "All the things that make you wonderful."

"Wonderful...", murmured Salya. "You called me that when I left... but don't you dare try to play on my emotions. You know all too well that I am fire..."

"And that fire is what the universe needs - to burn away a great cancer at its heart", responded The Traveller, rising to his feet. "A cancer put there with the knowledge of the very beings who almost consumed you!"

"And that cancer is this 'Pandemonicum' I have heard about", said Salya, sullenly. "Isolated, I may be, but I am far from cut off. I have my sources - but from them, I hear nothing that suggests I can play a meaningful part in the conflict to come. Do you know something I, and my agents, do not?"

"I was told to seek you out", The Traveller told her. "Well, not directly, but there could be no other answer to the riddle that was told to me. One of three secrets, entrusted to me by a being blessed with exceptional insight. 'The worshipped one who fell, and rose again - that which she knows not is armour against the plague of demons, not what she knew.'"

"Cryptic", observed Salya. "A sceptic would laugh that off - but you and I know better. Signs and portents are there to be heeded, or you only have yourself to blame."

"And do you think I was right in my interpretation?", The Traveller asked her.

"When have you ever been wrong?", she replied, smiling sweetly.

"Not... too often", the adventurer responded. "The 'that which she knows not' part - I have no idea what that means. Yet."

"Something to do with how I managed to survive such close contact with something so totally in defiance of the natural order?", suggested the Rytallin Immortal. "Maybe... maybe that has somehow vaccinated me against the power of The Lost Gods...?"

"Could be", said The Traveller. "If I find out, I'll let you know - but for now, you might want to keep your head down. No point in throwing yourself at the enemy before you're ready."

Salya rose, and leaned on her edge of the table as she stared into The Traveller's eyes. "You presume too much, I think", she growled. "Maybe it'll be me who calls you..."

"Well, that was certainly more civilised than I expected", chirped Irinati as the adventurers boarded The Endless Sunrise. "I didn't get to taste Salya's food, but the conversation more than made up for it. It sounds as though you've all had such fascinating voyages..."

The Traveller and Pratisha breathed sighs of relief as the over-excited girl hurried away to see what else Salya's old wardrobe held for her. "She's enthusiastic, I'll give her that", said The Traveller. "It won't take her long to learn how lucky she was on her first-ever trip."...

Pratisha nodded half-heartedly, but her mind was on something else. "Three secrets", said the Earth-woman. "The old man, in the heart of that machine - I always wondered what he said to you."

The Traveller let out a weary sigh, and nodded slowly. "And you want to know the other two?"

"Secrets should be kept, if one has been asked to do so", answered Pratisha. "But... if it will help at all, you can share them with me."

"There is one I cannot bear even to remember", continued the adventurer. "Please, don't ask me about it again. The third... well, there's no harm left to be done in the telling. Fulcrum said 'when she who hears the heartbeat of the Earth asks about what I have told you, the time has come for her to return to that Earth's embrace, and she will know this to be true'..."

Pratisha hand's went up to her face, cupped over her mouth and nose, and the slightest of muffled sobbing sounds escaped from between her fingers as her eyes closed, for a moment. Not a single coherent word left her lips as her hands fell away, but she gave the slightest of nods - a gesture they'd exchanged countless times before, but on this occasion it had more meaning, more significance, than a million words: it said "I understand.".

Silently, The Traveller stepped inside the Central Core, and began the process of plotting a course to Pratisha's world, her one Earth out of millions of alternates and parallels. His heart ached as he fed the necessary information into the navigation system, but he had more reasons to feel pain than saying farewell to a much-trusted, if not loved friend, and travelling companion...

From the very moment he revealed the first of Fulcrum's secrets, The Traveller had been plagued by a memory that had been forced to the surface - the memory of that final revelation the adventurer had chosen not to share, and could never bring himself to utter: "When all hope is lost, she who is the centre of all you know will ride fire into the heart of the darkness - and she will not return."

Two prophesies had come true in one evening, and The Traveller was, for the first time in his long, long life, genuinely terrified - terrified that the little man, Fulcrum, would be prove to be right three times out of three...

...to be concluded...