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what entertainment the video system had to offer. At nine o'clock the doorbell intoned a solemn chime.

Aubretia opened the door and found herself face to face with Aquilegia. There was no instant shock of recognition. She was initially aware of an albino face and dark subdued clothing, and it seemed to her that the face was familiar. It was a face that had impressed itself on her memory at some remote instant in time past.

"Aubry," breathed the visitor. "Remember me?"

Aubretia stared for a few moments, her mind quite blank but racing wildly through patterns of recollection and association to no avail. Recognition was concealed behind an elusive dark barrier in the unexplored depths of her consciousness.

"I'm Aquilegia," said the albino woman urgently. "I must come in."

Aubretia stood aside, closing the door behind the intruder. "Lock it, please."

She locked the door, not understanding why, but fascinated by the pale waxen skin and the pink eyes of the other woman.

Aquilegia removed her drab gray cloak. The short white skirt she wore beneath was creased and dirty. The white lacquer that had covered her breasts had cracked and peeled here and there. Her hair was longer and more tangled than taste permitted. She looked like a hunted woman.

"Who did you say you are?" Aubretia asked.

Aquilegia's eyes became morose and melancholy. "Then you don't recognize me, Aubry. That's what I was afraid of. They did a good job on you, didn't they?"

Aubretia sat down, motioning her visitor to an adjacent chair. "Should I know you?" she enquired.

Aquilegia smiled ruefully. "We were lovers once, only a few months ago."

"But that's impossible."