Daedalus sat on the low bench opposite, his knees drawn up comfortably. Over Pasiphae's head was the great dolphin fresco that dominated the Queen's apartment, testament to Her aspect as Thetis, Goddess of the Sea.

The columns and borders of the apartment were all figured with the bright blue and white spirals of the breaking sea. In this undersea world, the reddish undertones of Pasiphae's hair gleamed like fire-coals in the light that filtered down the light-well from the bright afternoon outside.

"Daedalus," she said impatiently, "you can't just wander in and ask me to instruct you in the nature of the Goddess."

"Why not?" Daedalus asked.

"Because it isn't as simple as all that," Pasiphae said. "You don't understand what is involved."

"That is why I came," Daedalus said. "If I understood I wouldn't need instruction, now would I?"

"That is always your problem, my love," Pasiphae said fondly. "Since I have known you, you have always gone from one thing to another. As soon as you understand something you abandon it and go to something else."

"That is perfectly natural," Daedalus said, puzzled. "Why should I be interested in what I already know? It is what-is-not-known that is interesting."

"Everyone else learns a skill and then practices it," Pasiphae said. "But not you."

"That would be a death-in-life for one like me, my beloved. Ugh!" He grimaced. "Imagine doing the same thing day after day after day."

"But Daedalus, with you it's just one thing after another, and now you want to know the Goddess."

"Is it so bad to want to know Her true nature?"

Pasiphae sighed. "Of course not. It is the highest aspiration. But it is not the kind of knowing that you are accustomed to. It is full of dangers, particularly for a man like you."

"Like me, how?"

"A man so locked in his own mind."

Daedalus frowned slightly. "My mind is my great skill," he said. "Kheftiu has benefitted much from my mind."

"No one denies that." Pasiphae smiled. "But knowing the Goddess is not done with the mind."

"Then teach me how to know Her."

Pasiphae shook her head, and the heavy wave of auburn hair settled about her shoulders.

"You are being stubborn, my dove," Daedalus said.

"It is you who are stubborn, as usual."

"But you are the Goddess," Daedalus said, reasonably. "Who better to instruct me than the Goddess Herself? Why would you withhold this from me? I don't understand you. As Goddess it should be your desire to have my adoration. As Queen it should be your duty to instruct me. "

"I know my desires and I know my duties," Pasiphae snapped.

"I know your desires as well," Daedalus said mischievously. "Frankly, I am less interested in your duties."

In spite of herself, Pasiphae smiled affectionately. "You are so -- innocent, Daedalus. Sometimes I think you are truly of another world. I cannot even hear your thoughts as I hear those of others."

"I have known you in love," Daedalus said. "Surely that is a beginning."

"You have known me only as a woman," Pasiphae said.

"You were the Goddess to me," Daedalus said quietly.

"Oh, Daedalus, you are truly a sweet man. Thank you for that. But you have no idea what you are asking, to know me as Goddess."

"That is exactly why I am asking."

"And will you know me as Nymph, Maiden and Crone? Will you know me as Hecate as well as Aphrodite?"

Daedalus was silent for a moment.

"That frightens you, does it not?" Pasiphae asked.

"Yes. That frightens me."

"If you ask to know the Goddess, you must be willing to know Her in all Her aspects," Pasiphae said softly. "What if it means the destruction of that mind you are so proud of? What then, my sweet dove?"

Daedalus shook his head. "I don't know," he answered honestly. "It was Aphrodite who drove my mother Iphinoe and her sisters mad. But the sisters were restored to sanity, and my mother died."

"That was another time," Pasiphae said. "Now it is you, and your manhood, and your mind. Do you have such courage you are willing to risk everything?"

"Probably not," Daedalus said.

Pasiphae burst into laughter. "Daedalus, I love you so much! It would never occur to you to boast of your courage."

"Of course not," Daedalus said, surprised. "Now, about the instruction."

"And what if I tell you that you must know Her through the heart, and that your fine mind will be useless?"

"That will be difficult. But I can learn."

"Daedalus, I must say something that, because of our loving past, I would rather not."

"Say, then," Daedalus said.

"You have lived so much in your mind, which I love, that I fear your heart is imprisoned. It may be painful to open to Her."

Daedalus raised his eyes to meet hers. He looked levelly at her for a moment before he spoke. "Then it will be painful," he said, almost in a whisper. "I want to know Her."

As their eyes joined in the moment of silence that followed, the love they had known, the respect of each for the other, flowed without sound between them.

At last Pasiphae shook her head again. "I cannot believe I love you so much I will assent to this," she said. "You risk more than you know, dear man."

"Risk is no stranger to me," Daedalus said.

"Risks of the mind you know," Pasiphae said. "But risks of the heart are more serious."

"Perhaps. I cannot know unless I risk."

Pasiphae sighed. "Daedalus, I do not know myself what will happen. Do you understand that I, the woman you have loved, cannot protect you if you approach me as the Goddess?"

"Yes."

"And do you understand that you will have to give up the Way of the Mind and approach Her through the Way of the Heart?"

"Yes."

After a moment, the Queen of the Kheftiu sighed again. "I would hate to lose you, my beloved companion," she said. "But I have never known you to hesitate in this mad quest to understand everything."

"That is not my way," Daedalus agreed.

"All right," Pasiphae said. "All right. But the responsibility is yours."

"Agreed. How do we start?"

Pasiphae shook her head, glancing sidelong at Daedalus from beneath the veil of reddish-brown. She smiled slightly, flirting with him.

"I don't know," she said finally. She crossed the room and kissed the man tenderly on the lips. "But I'll think of something. Now go."

Daedalus paused at the doorway to the Queen's apartment and turned back tentatively.

"We could perhaps begin with Aphrodite?" he said hopefully.

Pasiphae laughed, and Daedalus shrugged. "I thought we might, though."

When he had gone Pasiphae laughed and laughed until the laughter mingled unnoticed with her tears.