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rest of it. Are you sure you’re not part of it?”
    â€œI am merely part of the setting.”
    Then a second bulb flashed. The answer would be part of the setting.
    â€œI saw that flash,” Ann said.
    â€œYou’re not the Challenge, you’re the solution,” Astrid said. “You’re here for a reason.”
    Ann shrugged. “Perhaps.”
    â€œThose gates are obviously self-willed. That means they are machines. Robots. And you make robots. You must have made the gates.”
    â€œPossibly.”
    â€œAnd you can control them. You can let me through.”
    â€œWhy should I do that?”
    â€œBecause I have figured it out, and you are a nice person, the kind I would like to be, and I am asking.”
    Ann laughed. “There is something about your phrasing that appeals to me. Select a gate.”
    â€œNo, please, you select one. I want the one you choose for me.”
    Ann nodded. “You know, you’re smarter than the average basilisk, and a good deal nicer. Take the Mitigate.”
    â€œThank you.” Astrid set down the translator and went to the Mitigate. This time it did not slam on her snoot. She entered the castle.
    A woman met her inside. “Welcome, Astrid. I am Wira, the Good Magician’s daughter-in-law. He will see you now.”
    Just like that, Astrid was in the Magician’s cramped study. He was there, poring over a huge tome. “Basilisk, I can change your form but not your nature. I can make your form human, but you will still be a deadly creature whose very nearness is death to most others. Are you sure this is what you want?”
    Astrid was not at all sure, but neither did she want to return to her natural haunts. So she nodded. She wanted the change.
    â€œThere is another thing. Has it occurred to you to wonder why I am bothering with you, considering that you are a deadly animal most folk seek to exterminate?”
    That had not occurred to her, but now that he mentioned it, she did wonder.
    â€œIt is because you are no ordinary animal. You have a soul.”
    That had never even attempted to occur to her. How was this possible? Everyone knew that only human beings or those deviously related to them had souls. She was sure she had absolutely no human lineage.
    â€œA night mare was transporting a lost soul to the dream realm when she got distracted by an idea for a truly horrendous bad dream and dropped it. It rolled into a hole and landed on you, were you were sleeping in your burrow. That put it beyond her recovery and she had to move on, chastened. Souls are immeasurably precious, at least to those who have them. Thereafter you were a souled creature, though you did not know it. That is why you became dissatisfied with your normal life. That is why you finally concluded that you would rather be human than lizard. You already had the essence of humanity. Your soul would not let you rest in peace.”
    Astrid gazed at him with hooded eyes so as not to hurt him. What he said explained so much! She was indeed too gentle to be a good basilisk. “But souls don’t accept just anybody,” she protested. “That soul should have bounced off me and waited for a better host. I’m a basilisk!”
    â€œYou are correct. Souls can be quite choosy. But evidently this one saw in you the potential for it to achieve its full flowering, so it accepted you. It may even have sought you out.”
    â€œSought a basilisk?”
    â€œA dubious business, to be sure. Let’s hope it didn’t make a mistake.”
    â€œI will try to live up to its expectation,” she said humbly.
    â€œSo I must facilitate your conversion to humanity,” the Good Magician concluded. “Now you know why.”
    She did indeed. What a revelation!
    â€œMareAnn will give you a potion,” he said. “You will still owe me a Service.”
    She nodded again, accepting the terms.
    â€œThis way,” Wira said, leading