He'd only heard rumours about her - but encountering her for the first time, he could see the extent to which her presence was felt. She compelled with some sort of enchantment that he was not quite sure of; he was being inexplicably drawn to her, but he did not understand it. He thought he could handle the magnitude of power that emanated from her, and he wanted to test it, to tease it, to see how far it would bend to his will.

***

"Take a look at this," she said. "Explore it."

He looked at the view she'd presented. He was astounded by the magnificence of the scenery that embraced his sensations with such wild, joyous abandon. He took it all in, absorbed, taking in as much of it as he possibly could. To let it saturate, assail, assault his senses until he was entirely immersed. It was glorious.

He turned to her quickly, a grin on his face, when he noticed her face. It was one of displeasure, as though something musty had descended upon her delicate tongue. She was utterly repulsed. He was bewildered.

***

The first time he'd encountered her, he'd quickly retracted everything he'd ever felt. She'd demanded, she'd asserted, and she utterly relished the control she knew she had. He didn't like it. He wondered...

But soon, he began to see certain aspects of her that had gone unnoticed. The nuances of her behaviour, her language - it stemmed from something more. And even as he figured it out with each encounter, she merely glanced at him once in awhile.

He'd begun to speak, but she'd silence him. After a length of time, he grew tired of it, and stopped his attempts altogether. That silence disgusted her as well, and he rocked to-and-fro, wondering about this enigmatic woman.

***

"Well," he began. "It's beautiful."

"Beautiful?" she spat, throwing a disgusted look at him. "This... this thing. Beautiful. What utter rubbish."

"Well," he started again, tentatively. "Th-"

"Look at that." She extended a sharp, red claw and pointed out a flaw. 'Surely, that hadn't been there before!' his mind whirled. 'It was perfect! Nothing was supposed to have marred it!'

"There."

"There."

"And there."

Slowly but surely, she was turning Paradise into Sheol; Heaven into Hell. What was going on?

***

The crowd opened for her wherever she walked, but she didn't even notice it then. She didn't notice anyone. She was behaving exactly the opposite of what she preached, and everyone except her noticed it. Disgusted with her hypocrisy, they turned away.

He noticed many changes in her. The most apparent was the loss of her magnetic attraction. She didn't draw anymore; she repelled. She repelled so much, that he was shocked at this change. Then he noticed a change in her behaviour, in her stance, in her mannerisms. He wasn't quite sure where it was going, but it was definitely going somewhere.

***

He looked at her, aghast. Why was she turning it into something mean, something horrible, something ugly?

It seemed like she sensed his despair, as she looked from her high pedestal down at him.

"Because it is."

'But it wasn't! It couldn't be! It wasn't the way he saw it, it couldn't!' his mind was in a turmoil. He didn't want it. Not at all.

Her features softened even as they looked at him, even as he realized the final result of her changing. She looked at him, almost as if in sympathy.

"You have to accept it. That's the way it is. And you can't change it."

He looked back. He wanted to say something defiant, to rebuke her, to slam her, to lambast her - but staring straight into her eyes, he merely nodded his head.

She smiled, her job done. Education of the unwise, of the unknowledgeable, of the foolish. Then she walked away from him.

He felt her leaving, but he still fought. He still fought for Paradise. He knew it was out there; he just had to find it. He turned and faced the despondent picture she had painted. He knew it was an illusion. He just had to get rid of it. He had to!

He strained his eyes to just catch a glimpse of beauty, and - wait! Something shimmered in the destruction before him. Hope? A silver lining? He was not sure. He focussed and - yes! He was seeing it!

"What are you doing?"

She was back, a sneer to her face.

"What do you think you are doing?"

He ignored her, and instead lashed all of his concentration on that single speck of beauty he'd found in this place of ugliness.

"I am speaking to you! Do you want to go back to being illusioned? Do you want to return to your filth?"

***

There.

The beauty. The Paradise. It was back.

He turned back to look at her. In Paradise, all he could see was a ghostly shimmer of her self. Then he realized that that's all she'd ever been.

She was the one to be pitied.

She was sneering at him.

"I told you this place was ugly."

He looked at his Paradise, confused. What was she talking about?

"It's ugly! Just look at it! Here! And there! And there!"

Wherever she pointed, all he could experience was beauty. A small burst of fireworks; the melody of an orchestra; the touch of pure velvet.

She was looking at him with an expectant face. "Well?"

"Well," he smiled. "It's beautiful."