Am I grateful?

He-Thing asked himself,

for my life?

Did he not have

fistfuls of regrets?

Was there not so much more

he had planned to do?

Oh, Great Father of Fathers,

He-Thing prayed.

Please protect me

do not

take me into your heart yet.

But was he grateful?

I am grateful,

He-Thing prayed.

And a peacefulness

washed over him.

But he knew it was false.

Shortly after Danide left,

two men arrived

to wheel He-Thing

to the operation chamber.

They weaved through the halls

expertly,

wordlessly,

and deposited him

in a wide room

with a circular hole

in the ceiling,

through which

the morning sun

poured brilliant light.

“Hello, lord,”

said the surgeon,

a handsome man

with receding gray hair

crowning his stone face.

“There is wonderful light

this morning.”

Standing above He-Thing,

gleaming

in the morning light,

was the surgeon’s

science-claw,

a marvel of modern technology,

prodigious

in its sharpness,

with chrome hydraulics,

and a shining green power gem

inlaid in its heart.

It was an incredible tool,

capable of miraculous feats,

so He-Thing had heard,

but the thought of being

beneath its blade

filled him with fear.

“I am ready when you are,”

he told the surgeon.

As they made their last preparations,

He-Thing’s eyes roamed

around the room,

and met the gaze

of Nurse Geuraine

from behind her

spectacles and veil.

She raised her eyebrows,

maybe she was smiling,

but it was...

hard to tell.

He closed his eyes.

He was so tired.

The pain was so great.

Then she was standing over him,

the sunlight a halo

around her head.

“Breathe in the cloth,” she said.

She pressed something soft

over his nose and mouth.

He-Thing took a deep breath.

The world became wavy.

He thought again of what

the Indigo Goddess had said —

she had promised

he would cause

the suffering of others

in his quest;

not just his own.

Euphoria began to

stream through his blood.

He was not going to die.

This was almost over

and he would soon return

to his mission.

If the Indigo Goddess

existed

then what was the All-or-Nothing?

Were lies

all he possessed?

End of Book Two