Grief and lamentation befell the man, who in a fit of madness called out the dead woman's name over and over between the kisses of desperation. The little taste of death upon his lips brought with it a rather macabre hallucination, where he'd chased the woman through an abandoned city's maze of streets. If it were the fabled City of Dust, then the legend must farce. For all of its inhabitants must surely have a destination beyond the River Lethe.

Athamé was there along its shore, waiting for the ferryman's return... the last of Death's quota for the day. Once a man crosses over, there is no return. Also, it is not wise to avoid boarding Charon's ferry, for there is an abacus where Death keeps count. While it may be appeased from time to time with a surrogate sacrifice, Death is never cheated.

Needless to say, Charon's greedy hand was given no coin. Nor was the lady there to board his ferry upon his return. Unwittingly when she had heeded the call of her lover on the other side, she had invited the retalliatory sting of Death to visit her again until restitution for undoing the dread Spinner's Threads had been pain in full.

Having cheated Death, they both now live on borrowed time. And yet neither seemed aware of this small fact. But soon. Soon there would be a stiff and heavy price to pay. Death never goes away empty handed.

I do not know for how long she had been without breath. Long enough to make her flesh turn a pale blue hue, cool to the touch. And yet not long enough for the rigor mortis to have claimed her limber softness.

I do not know what compelled me to call out to her repeatedly, and like a mad man. Nor to kiss her and expel my breath into her. And yet when she gasped for air very suddenly, it startled me. It is not often that people die and live to tell about it. But I tell you the truth, my Athamé had given up her ghost, only to return again to me a second time.

We had cheated a formidable enemy that day -- Death. And for months afterward I worried whether a far worse curse had come upon us. Perhaps it was cruel and cowardly then of me to send this marked woman to live under Sarce's roof. But I would let him bear the brunt of all manner of plagues, should Nemesis decide to exact vengeance. And I would not deign to warn him either.