I make myself comfortable while he turns a handle, and a bucket descends into the well on a chain. It's beautiful here. Jasmine and honeysuckle load the air with fragrance. A flock of white-eyes chatter in a shrub, twittering and jumping from branch to branch, and a chameleon rocks on a twig overhanging the doorway. It's peaceful and happy and I sigh and wish I could stay here forever. When the bucket finally reaches the top again, filled with gleaming water, Francis leans over and pulls a fern from the clumps growing around the well. He dips it in the water and lays it next to me. "What do you see?" "It's a fern.

" "What more do you see?" "Um, a fern that hasn't fully opened yet. With drops of water on it." He picks it up and runs his finger up the stem. "Can you see that it forms a spiral? It is straight at the bottom, but near the top it coils in on itself in ever-diminishing circles. This is the form of the Fiery Spiral, the source of all that is," he says, tracing the pattern of the spiral with a wrinkled finger. "It flows at the centre of everything, a river of light, of growth and wholeness. And our worlds are like the droplets on the stem" --he points to the glistening orbs of water-- "Celestia, Earth and so many more. The task of all living creatures no matter which world they inhabit, is to grow, to blossom, to bear fruit and to move on to the next world.

And each world brings us closer to the centre of the Spiral." "The gods must move onward too? Surely they own Celestia and Earth and . wherever they live? Aren't they perfect?" He laughs. "Perfect, no. Only the One is perfect. The rest of us are on a journey to perfection. We must all travel onward, perpetually onward until we reach the One." He taps the head of the fern again, and his fingernails are waxy against the soft, green leaves.

"And what happens when we reach the centre?" "We don't know until we get there." I shake my head, trying to let the words filter through my brain. "That is why Earth is in trouble. The gods of Celestia are at war. They have stopped looking ahead to the Spiral. Instead they have turned inward, creating new worlds to focus on so they don't have to see what keeps them trapped. Their bickering has become more important than the journey to the Spiral." "So all the trouble on Earth is caused by the gods fighting here on Celestia? That seems a bit harsh.

Can't you sort them out? You're in charge, right?" "It is more complicated than you think. As the owner of the necklace you have a central role to play in resolving this conflict. You have to find the next portal. You must travel across Celestia, to the top of the mountains you see on the horizon. Another portal lies there." He dips a bowl into the bucket and puts it down on the flagstones for Isi. "Isi will go with you." He pats her head as she starts to drink.

"She is Theia's dog. She's able to transcend time and worlds because her heart is pure. She lived on Earth with each of your ancestors, she lived with you at Greenhaven, and she is here now to help you make your journey.".