It was the shadows of light that began to break through my eyelids;than all my sences,one after the other, came around.The sea breeze washed in and stirred to awakeness all the fragnances of the night:the burned wax,the flower-scented sheets,her hair,the union of the wood with the sweat of our passion.

People call this a House of Intolerance,but for me its my shelter;she is my shelter,now already woken fidgeting the hair on my chest(why do they do that...).Necessity-who breaks gods and men alike-has made me literary and, in the language of the poets,a weary warrior;all I want to do entering this harbour is to strip the armour of my burdons and rest...in her arms:a still moment in the vortex of vain,secular,pusillanimus life...(as he would have said).

But Ilaeira knows I want be here for long and that our "still moments of eternity" are sand sliping through her ambitious hands!And she tries to rob me of more each time...not the money!no,not that!The mockery of the rest of the girls was enough proof for me that she wasn't acccepting visitors any more!But we never talked about it;it was rather a silent understanding.Even so,our affair(and it was no secret)was talked of as an exception to the rule of our surrounding life...

She tries to creep in more each time;to gain the glory of being told things nobody else had the priviledge of knowing;to earn the title of confidence!Yet, I was dark and cloudy which drew her even closer,but Ilaeira was a smart woman,versed in the philosophy of the poets of old and the lovers of wisdom.For she began a story as such,as her gaze became remote and sullen and her voice deep:

"You know...it is a story of old that says that the Fire that created the World,desires from time to time to manifest itself
like all the rest of creation;so it follows the same process and from invisible and ineffable assumes the form of men and enters the domain of matter.That explains the uniqueness of some people who walked and walk our earth,for they are nothing more than vessels of the Everliving Fire and I also reckon that this is the truth lying in splendour behind the stories of the poets on the lusts of Zeus that urged him to walk among mortals.For one story out of all holds this truth supreme,that teaches us not to ask too much out of the Divine,for its harmful to our nature...thats why my love"-and her tone chocked on a sob,becoming even more tender to my heart-"I want fall into the fault of Semeli being greedy of a reality that is already genorous to me!For you too,I have noticed, carry more than a spark-as the dwellers of the Stoa preach-but that Divine Flame,that which,alas,cannot be seen in its true form...but I am only mortal and weak..."

I would have laughed at another woman,but before her,in the intimacy of the bed that spares no secrets,my brow broke.Because I knew what she was talking about;she was speaking memories of an earlier youth...I drew a breath on reaching the conclusion that she cannot but deserve a piece of me.As if seeing through my intentions,she kept no patience,but encouraged proceeded to her main objective-sure I was now about to tell her;my own story and the Demons that paved my path:

"so tell me!tell me Agis,if not the secret in your souls vault,tell me the simpler things:what do you love the most?what do you hate the most?and what is it you crave for above all the rest?for I deem the answers to these define each man's identity separating him from all the rest"

Turning my eyes from the ceiling,which was conversing with my thoughts,I looked at her firmly ,but smiling.

"So"I said"the most noteworthy events that shape a male take place in the age of awakeness;the age when the hair of his manhood starts encircling his body like bacchic ivy"...And thus I began to unlock the heavy doors of the Vault.