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not you, it’s me.” Cliché, but absolutely true in this case.
    Later, alone, she talked with Aliena. “What am I to do? The fault is mine, but I can’t unlove Quincy.”
    â€œI am in a similar situation,” Aliena replied. “Brom taught me to love him. Then I had to leave him. I had to give him to another woman, and was glad when he accepted her. I still love him, but I know I can never be with him in that manner again. I need to move on, emotionally, yet am unable. This is painful.”
    â€œOh, yes!” then Lida thought of another aspect. “How did you come to love Brom, given that it doesn’t come naturally to your kind?”
    â€œHe was nice and kind to me. He helped me learn human ways—the things my handlers had not. He cared for me. He loved me, even after he learned my nature. I had to respond.”
    â€œIf he had known your nature from the outset, would he still have loved you?”
    â€œI fear he would not. He thought I was human.”
    â€œWhereas I knew Gloaming was inhuman from the outset.”
    â€œYour path is more difficult than mine.”
    That did not help. “When was the breakthrough, for you? I mean, when did you know you loved him?”
    â€œThat was in two stages. The first was when he took me to the sea. We are sea creatures; we miss it. I dived in. I was so thrilled I sang.”
    â€œSang? Not in the ordinary sense?”
    â€œNot,” Aliena agreed. “This is different. You might call it ululation.”
    â€œThat’s howling!”
    â€œThat is wolf singing. We do it by a single high sustained note. It is the way we express joy. We do it when we truly make love, though it is not limited to that.”
    â€œGloaming has never done that with me.”
    â€œHe would if you loved him.”
    And there it was again. The ball was in her court. “Maybe I should take him to the sea.”
    â€œNot until you love him.”
    Lida sighed. “It is said a man gives love for sex, and that a woman gives sex for love. I have been giving sex without love.”
    â€œAnd he is unable to give love for that.”
    Lida was about to tear up again, this time in frustration. She fended it off with another question. “You said your love came in two stages. What was the second?”
    â€œWhen he learned my nature, and still loved me. Then it was real.”
    â€œI’ve got to get over this!” Lida lamented.
    â€œYou do.”
    â€œYet I can’t give Quincy up, in my heart.”
    â€œThere is a thing I had to tell myself, to enable me to let Brom go despite loving him.”
    â€œOh?”
    â€œIf I had two children, and lost one, would I not still love the other?”
    â€œWell yes, of course! But this isn’t that.”
    â€œIt is that love is not exclusive. I still love Brom, but I am also glad that he is with Star. She does for him what I can no longer do. And I am free to move on and find a new love, without ending my love of Brom.”
    â€œYou’re saying I should continue loving Quincy, but also love Gloaming?”
    â€œYes. And allow Quincy to do the same with respect to you.”
    Lida nodded. “The path is clear. But this is something my mind is more ready to accept than my heart.”
    â€œYes. It is hard for me also.”
    Later she talked with Gloaming again. “I talked with Aliena. I now have a better notion of the problem. The fault is with me.”
    â€œI find no fault in you.”
    She kissed him. “You’re sweet. I—I think the time will come when I can love you. Meanwhile I’ll give you as much as I can.”
    â€œLida, there is no need.”
    â€œYes there is.” She kissed him again, and bore him back onto the bed, where she had savage sex with him. She knew he liked it, even if it wasn’t love.
    The day of the first presentation came. Lida played, and Gloaming sat in the filled audience, watching her. The