The Nymph's Reply

But could youth last and love still breed, Had joys no date nor age no need, Then these delights my mind might move To live with thee and be thy love

It was, of course, meant to be a rebuke to Marlowe, as if all the pleasures offered by the shepherd were as nothing in the face of time, and the inevitablitiy of one's own mortality.

"Don't you see yet Stacy? the voice in her head spoke again "These joys have no date. What I offer you is eternal. Eternal youth, beauty, power, love. You need only trust in me, and all you desire will be in your grasp."

"What about a family? Children...?"

"All in due time, my love. We will have an eternitiy for such matters."

Stacy could resist no longer. "I...I will go with you." she said in a voice barely above a whisper."

The air seemed to bend around Stacy, caused by some unknown force. A moment later she found herself standing in the Statue of Liberty's observation deck, in the statue's crown. Seeing herself reflected in the glass, she realized that the changes Minestus had promised had taken effect. She was as she had seen herself in the water's reflection earlier, just as she desired to be physically, and was dressed in the elegant black dress and hat. But was she really magical?

She gazed up at the statue's torch. The Eternal Flame.... Stacy then turned her attention to the plexiglass windows of the observation deck. With nothing but a thought and a cold glare, she shattered the glass. Again, with nothing but her own will and newfound power, she floated off the floor, out the broken window, and up towards the torch. She hovered for a moment, looking down at silent waters, the empty city below. Am I really doing this? With a wave of her hand, the torch casing cracked and fell away, revealing at its center a crystal that glowed with a vibrant red-orange power. She could feel its power coursing through her as she took it in her hands. There was a flash of white light, and Stacy vanished.

1. Stacy awakens in an elegant, though foreboding castle. Is it Minestus'?
2. Stacy awakens in her bed at home. Was it all a dream?
3. Stacy awakens outside a cave with two entrances. She hears the voice of Minestus: "This was the site of my greatest defeat, when my mortal body was destroyed, casting me into the ether. You must use the Eternal Flame to restore me."

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