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existence here,” he said. “I have recently traveled through these regions, and they impart a definite tranquility. I imagine that you would want to stay here as long as possible, perhaps forever.” His voice did not enter my mind in the same manner as that of Aunt and Uncle but seemed to be swept in by a breeze from the Void, even though the Void had been windless for eons of time.
    “Not that I envy you,” said the stranger. “But you do have comfortable circumstances.”
    “Too comfortable,” said the grinning beast beside him.
    “You forget yourself, Baphomet,” said the stranger. The creature suddenly yelped, as if it had been struck a vicious blow, and then bowed three times to the tall stranger without releasing the sneer on its face.
    “Pardon Baphomet,” said the stranger, his gaze fastened on me. “He makes a good traveling companion.” He paused. “I wonder about this emptiness,” he said. “It would seem not to have any existence independent of our perception of it. An interesting substance. One could think it pleasant or unpleasant, strong or weak, and that would in fact be its reality. The mind is its own place, don’t you agree? Let us take the music, for example. Quite lovely. I congratulate you. I have been listening to it and enjoying it for some time. However, is it not conceivable that to some other mind, to some other sensibility, this same music might sound … let us say, unlovely?”
    “I, for one, do not like the music one bit,” said Baphomet, and the beast quickly bowed again and grinned.
    The stranger turned and stared at the beast, then turned back to me. “But there is a more serious question I wanted to ask you,” he said. “Do you think it is possible for a thing and its opposite both to be true?”
    Despite having been startled by the stranger and his rude companion, I found myself captivated by him, even mesmerized. I decided to answer his question.
    “A thing and its opposite cannot both be true in a rational system of thought,” I replied. “But rational thoughts lead only to rational thoughts, whereas irrational thoughts lead to—”
    “New experiences.”
    “Yes,” I said. “My mind encompasses both the rational and the irrational. But certain things must have logical consistency, and thus rationality.”
    “Exactly,” said the stranger. “For example, mathematics. But logical consistency can be misleading. Even in mathematics, the truth or falsity of some theorems cannot be proven. Curious, wouldn’t you say?”
    “But that is beside the point. Each mathematical theorem is either true or false, whether it can be proven within the limitations of mathematics or not.”
    “Yes, yes,” said the stranger. “I see that we can converse with each other.”
    As we were talking, Baphomet was doing flips and somersaults, all the while watching us with his relentless grin. His master paid no attention to him.
    “Without knowing for sure,” the stranger continued, “I would think that you are more fluent with the rational. It has its appeal. But the irrational permits a greater exercise of … shall we say,
power
. If that is your aim, of course. At the moment, you would seem to have no need to exercise your power.”
    “I prefer to use only the scope and magnitude of power that is required for each situation,” I said. “But I have unlimited power, if necessary.”
    “I would very much enjoy seeing a demonstration of that sometime.” The stranger moved closer. “But the target of power is more interesting than its quantity. In that regard, tell me: Would you say that the end always justifies the means? Or, in attempting to achieve your aims, do you draw the line at some degree of sacrifice and cost, beyond which you would not go?”
    “I cannot consider this question in general terms.”
    “Ah, you do not believe in absolute principles. We will get along even better than I thought. Your response implies that in some situations you would be