SURANDE
A runner whose body and face are boyish for a girl, yet girlish for a boy,
causes much sorrow and has this oracle proclaimed at the Temple of
Playsatan: “Never be one thing or the other for anybody, for it will be your
ruin.” Withdrawing from men and from women, the androgyne imposes upon
all suitors (of which there are many) a condition which generally deters them:
“I shall be the prize of he or she who shall conquer me in the race. But all
who try and fail should beware, for they will be cast into the glowing well.”
In the same domain at the same time there lives a person whose face and
body are too girlish for a boy and too boyish for a girl; the Council ordains
this individual to adjudicate the races. This person determines to themselves
win the race and win the runner, addressing a prayer to Aunty Agony: “Help,
Aunty, for you have led me to this with your dating column.” Aunty Agony
hears the chaser’s wish and thus, unseen by anyone else, Aunty Agony
teleports to the chaser an iridescent ball and simultaneously wetloads to
the chaser’s procedural memory the method by which the sphere is to be
deployed. The cries of the spectators cheer the chaser, but it is doubtful
whether the chaser or the runner hears this encouragement with greater hope
and pleasure. As the runner picks up the sphere with fascination, the chaser
dashes ahead to cross the finish line and so is defeated at last the runner.
