with the onset of a new wave of sleep, and the fire settled into a dull glow, as if Madadevi herself desired rest. Tomorrow was time enough to plan for the future.

At some point in that blessed night, a man lay down beside her. Ishvari awoke to the pleasure of strong fingers running through her hair and wandering over the contours of her face, their tips vibrating with energy. Opening her eyes, she gazed with quiet awareness into the face of her beloved. As Nartaka’s dark eyes met her own, the divine force already stirring within her exploded into full flower.

Tapers threw flickering shadows on the natural walls of the enclosure even as it struck her that the tribals had carried her back to the gnostic hermitage. Decades ago, it was here that this mystifying man had initiated an unhappy High Ta...

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