Redival is an old woman now, having spent much of her life in Phars. She hasn't seen her sister for years, and her son has already ridden away to Glome... but she receives a letter from Orual.

The following free-form poem is a fragment from the writings of Orual, Queen of Glome and sister to Psyche, Bride to the gods.

I cannot mend the past. I am forced to live in the present and I can only pray that the future will be more lenient.

A look at the individual suffering of two sisters: the beautiful and the ugly, the radiant goddess and the despiser of the gods.

One princess walks a road of bitter regret and fury, cursing the gods for their cruel indifference to her fate. The other walks a path of suffering, strengthened by a faith in her consort, whose ion for his beloved will soon call her back from exile.