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generally has played by those rules, particularly in the past couple thousand years or so. But when He created your Earth, there was a backwash from all that released energy. As it surged from here toward your universe, an equal suction of sorts was created that resulted in the creation of another world—indeed, another whole universe on the other side of here. The force of it was such that it was totally complete—but it wasn't the universe 24 THE RIVER OF DANCING GODS He was interested in. Realizing, though, that it was there. He turned it over to associates who were around. Angels, you might call 'em, although that's far too simple a term..
     
    Ruddygore paused to Stuff his face with gobs of meat and cheese, washed everything down with most of a pitcher of wine, then continued. "The other universe was, of course, a mess, since it was more or less a backwash of yours. Much natural law held, but not enough to make any real sense out of it. It was chaos. How it was in reality is totally beyond imagination, I assure you, but it was an environment more alien than any other planet in your universe. It was madness beyond imagining, and it was obvious to those—angels—in charge that it must be stabilized, must have rules like those in the universe you know. But these were, after all, angels, not the Creator, and they could only shape what the Creator had wrought, not really change it. The Page 20 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods result was a set of Laws, absolute Laws, governing how my universe and my world would operate. These Laws incorporate the basic physical laws needed for such a place to exist at all, but only the Creator can think of everything. Thus, the Laws of my world are, shall we say, soft. The simple ones, particularly on the local level, are subject to change..
     
    "Huh?" the woman responded. "You mean, nine out often times that you drop a rock it goes down the way it should— but one in ten times it might go up? Or just stay there, suspended in midair?.
     
    "Ah, something like that," the sorcerer replied. "Basically, that rock will drop every single time—unless someone with the knowledge and the will applies them to that specific rock.
     
    It won't do otherwise on its own, I assure you..
     
    assure you..
     
    "This—place we're goin'," Joe put in. "It's got people and stuff?.
     
    Ruddygore chuckled. "Yes, Joe, it's got 'people and stuff.' It didn't at the start, but the angels implored the Creator, once they'd gotten it set up, and He shifted a small group from your world over to mine. From that first tribe come the populations of today. And in the millennia that have passed since then, they've developed into different races, different cultures, just as on your Earth. Not quite as diverse, but diverse enough, and this despite the fact that there are far fewer languages there than on your Earth. It's not as important as you might think, 25 JACK L. CHALKER that different language business. In your world almost all those peoples to the south of your own country, and many in your country, speak Spanish, I believe—yet there are many cultural differences among those peoples, and many countries that are quite different from one another. Geography and isolation do as much to make people diverse as language..
     
    "You know a lot about our world," the woman noted. "Do your people visit us?.
     
    "Oh, my, no!" Ruddygore laughed. "If they did, they'd soon be corrupted beyond belief. In fact, very few can cross the Sea of Dreams, and none as of now can do it until and unless / will it. You see, this is my ferry, and it's the only one.
     
    Oh, others can see the Sea and others can try the crossing, but it is tricky and dangerous. Impossible to cross, in fact, unless you know exactly how to do it. Fail and you will merge with the Sea, returning to the mind of the Creator—and you, yourself, will cease to exist. This is more than death. Your very soul is swallowed and merged back into the primal