A man approached and bowed, saying his back was bothering him. Sighing, Thanatos closed his eyes and rested his hands on the man's back. He could feel the area that wasn't right, and he adjusted it in his mind. The man smiled, bowing over and over again. "Thank you, Thanatos."

He was about to drop dead when Cassandra finally took him into her house. Everyone had been cured. "You did a good job, Thaddy I can see you're improving. But tell me," she said, gripping his shoulder, "what is it you do in my side yard every day?"

Thanatos blushed. "I'm just...experimenting." He didn't want to explain about Life-Song. She was special, for him alone.

Cassandra leaned down and squinted at him. "You're getting pretty good at working with the Substance. Making trees hop, for example. But be careful."

Thanatos was surprised she knew what he was doing. "What is the Substance?"

"It's all around us. Everywhere. That's what holds life, Thaddy."

425.

She handed him a bowl of olives, which he wolfed down. "You can make it do things, I know. But you need to stop, okay? Leave it alone. What you need to get good at is fixing people. Concentrate on that. Playing with the Substance will just make you want more. And you can't do everything, you know."

"Why not?" Thanatos asked, confused. "I think I can can do everything with Life-Song...I mean, the Substance. I'm still learning, though." do everything with Life-Song...I mean, the Substance. I'm still learning, though."

"Not everything," she repeated. "Some things are of-limits. And for good reason." Her eyes turned hard. "There is something called the Final Magic, Thaddy. Lets you do unnatural things. Create life, control people, steer the planet. If anyone says they can give it to you, run away." She waved a finger in his face. "It is not meant to be in our world. It's a remnant of a time long before ours. The Golden Ones had that power. Now only a few of them are left, and they are ghosts."

She leaned toward him and whispered, "I know what's happening, Thaddy. It has to stop. Now. I've been having dreams. Not good ones either. Every night I see them--the three of them--and I'm battling them."

"Three who?" He leaned forward, interested.

"The Fates," his grandmother said. "The dream's about a prophecy, and they won't tell me what it is. I fight them each night to find it out, even though when I'm awake it's the last thing I want to know. Of course, in reality I couldn't lift a finger against those three. But in my dreams, I wrestle them, force the information out of them. And last night I finally got it."

Thanatos waited for her to continue, until he was about to burst. "What did they say?"

"I won't tell you the prophecy," she said, her voice flat. "It was the secret of how to get the Final Magic. It's not right, Thaddy. I'm going 426.

to take it with me to my grave. And it involved you." She looked at him sternly. "You are the one who could learn it someday. But don't. don't. Mark my words." Mark my words."

"But why would you have those dreams--why would the Fates tell you--if it's such a bad thing?" he asked.

His grandmother turned on him fiercely. "Because you've gotten too close with the Substance. It's never known a person before as a friend. I think it loves you. It wants you to have the Final Magic so you can know its deepest secrets." She clucked her tongue. "It doesn't see yet how that could never, ever work. The Substance has been giving me these dreams, Thaddy, because of you. Now, call it off."

Thanatos squirmed with delight. Life-Song wanted him to have the Final Magic, to know everything? She loved him. Who needed anyone else?

A breeze wafted in and blew a small piece of paper out of Cassandra's pocket. It spun in the air and dropped onto the floor. Thanatos picked it up and read, It's hidden in the smallest-- "What's hidden?" he asked, looking up sharply. "The Final Magic? Is it hidden in something small?"

Cassandra ripped the paper from his hand, her face white. "That is not not the prophecy. It's just a note I jotted. Now go to bed." the prophecy. It's just a note I jotted. Now go to bed."

She stormed away, leaving Thanatos with a dreamy smile.

427.

428.

AFTERWORD.

COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER (CCD), or the case of the missing honeybees, is not fictional, unfortunately. Millions of bees have vanished from all around the world in the past few years. Between 80 and 90 percent of the U.S. commercial beehives are empty, with similar findings throughout Europe, South America, and parts of the Far East.

Honeybees have met with tough times in the past, fighting diseases and losing their habitat. But now bees are simply flying away and vanishing without a trace. No bodies are lying on the ground, like with past bee problems. They are just up and leaving.

Nobody knows why this is happening, but if the situation does not change, it may cause serious ecological problems. A third of U.S. crops, such as apples, pears, cherries, melons, strawberries, and nearly a hundred fruits, vegetables, and nuts around the world are dependent on honeybee pollination. Bees are an important part of our food chain. What would life be like without them? Would other species die off as a result? What would a trip to the grocery store be like? Luckily, so far, we haven't had to find out.

Of course, there has been much research and guesswork as to 429.

what is going on. Assuming that Substance leaking out of Upper Earth isn't the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder, scientists are pointing fingers in several directions. Mites carrying viruses may be a part of the problem. Others think the bees are affected by pesticides on the plants or by genetically modified crops. In fact, bees are often fed high-fructose corn syrup in the winter months. Beyond the implications of giving them a substance we know is unhealthy, and which may pass through into their honey, the high-fructose corn syrup itself is often made with genetically modified corn. Some beekeepers have even been found using sodium cyanide, illegally, in their apiaries, to get rid of pests.

Stress on the hives may be a part of the puzzle. Bees get trucked from city to city in the United States. Tons are shipped into California each November to pollinate the almond tree groves. Some hives get moved ten times a year, from apples to oranges to peaches, which is not easy on them. Droughts affect them as well.

Some people even wonder if the world's extensive cell phone network is causing the bees to get "lost," the radiation from the phone towers interfering with the bees' navigation systems. Reportedly, studies show that putting cell phones on hives keeps bees away. But how much this has to do with the problem is unknown.

It's possible that Colony Collapse Disorder is caused by a mix of all of the above problems together. Maybe our honeybees are giving up on us and moving to greener pastures that only they know about.

Of interest, the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium recommended that beekeepers feed their bees an antibiotic, Fumagillin, for fungal infections, in case it might have something to do with their disappearance.

Reportedly, organic bee farms, which do not put chemicals, cyanide, or pesticides in their hives, or give their bees antibiotics or high-fructose corn syrup, have not been touched by Colony Collapse 430.

Disorder. They are also required to have plenty of forage area that has no pesticides or genetically modified crops. Just something to think about.

Maybe the Substance is stronger on organic farms. That's the answer I tend to go with.

--Kaza