The night was cloudless; the streetlamps tinted the world yellow-orange. The moon, three-quarters full, was rising between the branches of the trees lining the street. The air was cool; the muffled sounds of television was dim enough to be ignored. The college kids several houses down were not in, and Tera was glad for that; no hip-hop being shared with the rest of the neighborhood, like it or not. A night for stillness and concentration. A night to try a very new way of doing things.

Tera could scarcely believe she was actually going to do this; she was so unconvinced, she refused to even think about it. She turned herself over to the instructions that had come to her, not thinking of where they had originated. She listened, as she had been doing all evening, to the singing inside. Voices and words and music that changed greatly but never ceased