Alison interrupts to tell him of her own misgivings about these actresses, too. "Where the hell did you find these flakes, Byron? They don't have SAG cards, no one has ever seen them before, and the pale one smells like she's been sleeping on the street for awhile..." No SAG cards? This gives him pause: if they didn't come out of central casting & he didn't audition them himself, then where did they come from? Well, it's irrelevant after all, they are perfect in their roles, no matter what 'Delirium' smells like, and he's got to start filming soon.

"Get them straightened out, then Alison. I don't have time to find new actresses, so do what you have to do with the studio & SAG. We start shooting next week..." The whole crew is hanging around his studio chattering, when they have work to do. "All right, we're done here," Byron announces, commanding all their attention, "Alison, get the film to the lab, tell them I want it rushed, in two hours. Wait for it there if you have to. Then send one copy of the proofs to the studio, and one set here. I want prints ordered ASAP. Ruben, take Shay's design sketches down to special effects studio, I want this all co-ordinated with them. Shay, Chloe, you did great job with Delirium & Nuala, I want you to two to get together & work on Lucifer & the demons next. Get going, all of you."

"And you, Serena," he says, changing his voice completely, knowing that she is not his to command as the others are, "I need you to stay here..."

For all the very public affairs he's had with the various actresses from his films, he's never shown them any affection in front of his crew. He barely showed them any affection in private either, for he really didn't have any for them. They wanted him because they thought it might get them somewhere, because it got their pictures in the tabloids & their names on the gossip shows. Hollywood has made him cynical, but Serena is nothing to do with Hollywood, the only real thing in his life, he'll show the world how much he loves her & not care what the tabloids make of it. Still, this isn't a sideshow... "Alison, my film isn't getting processed while you're standing here..All of you, get going," he dismisses them, and they finally leave him alone with Serena.

Serena continues to voice her concerns about his actresses after the crew is all gone. "Serena, that's just the movie business...actors are never 'normal', I promise you. These two are just very 'in character', which means they'll do a great job, exactly what I need," he says in reply. "Byron, it just feels wrong to me. Don't you trust me at all?" she asks him. Of course he trusts her, he thinks. But this is his business, his world. "Serena, I know you don't go to movies, you don't know what this is all about....you've never been comfortable with fantasy," he laughs, "For all your powers & abilitity to work magic, you can't come to terms with fiction. I've made dozens of movies with all kinds of strange characters & actors who were, I assure you, completely out of their minds. It's a very strange world I work in, but it isn't dangerous, I promise."

She sighs his name & leans herhead on his shoulder. Byron takes her hand and sways against her, as though in a dance. He doesn't understand what has her so frightened, especially as concerns two bit actresses with small parts in his movie. "Serena, if anything happens, you'll be with me, won't you?" he asks her. She drops his hand & pulls out of his embrace. "Byron, I promised to help you with this movie, to watch over you & it because I'm having bad feelings about it...I mean to do as I promised, but what use am I if you disregard eveything I say?" she says, her eyes close to tears. There is something she's not telling him, he decides, because he's never seen her so worked up over anything.

He knows she won't tell him what she's thinking, what she's afraid of, so he doesn't ask. Instead, he pulls her back into his arms & kisses her again. This, at least, makes sense. He looks her in the eyes, and means to tell her how much he misses their former relationship, how he believes they could have an even greater love now that they are older & have lived apart for so long...but she speaks first, "Byron, this isn't right, rekindling what we left behind...it was hard enough the first time, to part company & go our seperate ways, if we continue like this during this movie...when it's over, it will be even harder to say goodbye..." Say goodbye? It hadn't crossed his mind....

"I don't understand, Serena, why we have to part at all. I went to film school, you trained in your craft, we've both matured & perform our 'jobs', such as they are. Surely there is time in our lives for each other? And it's not like we really ever parted in the first place: we may not have been lovers these many years, but you've always been with me, spiritually," he says, looking her in the eyes. So much has changed, and yet, so little, too. Serena shakes her head and sighs, "I don't have a 'job' Byron, I serve..." Byron winces as she says it, he's heard it so many times, he can finish it for her, "The Goddess, I know, Serena. So did your mother...and she loved your father very much, too, if I remember correctly." Serena looks down at the floor, "I have to go now," she says finally, rushing out of his house. After so long, can she still resent him for not following her path, for not using his 'gift' the way she thought was best? He knows what she wanted, when they were young lovers, she told him often how well they would work together, in service to her Goddess. But Byron is no one's servant. Why can't Serena accept that?

Delirium's 'costume', from Persephone Lee's Sim Hades, is actually a skin of the Delirium character from 'The Sandman' comic book, by Neil Gaiman, DC/Vertigo Comics. Nuala, the fairy, (a recurring character in the Sandman books) comes from Candace's Sim Bazaar, a skin she adapted from the Makin Magic 'nymph' from the Beauty or Beast spell, to be usable as a regular skin.

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