The bus arrived at a church and, through the bus windows, Aulden gazed up at a blue onion-dome on the roof. Aulden was reluctant to enter the church, but Janice enthusiastically ran to the large doors, calling to him, "Come on! Come on!"

When Aulden entered the narthex, Janice was already standing in the center, gazing at a large tapestry hanging on the wall. A gold thread was woven throughout the tapestry in an intricate symmetrical pattern. Aulden stood beside Janice, and as she gazed at the tapestry she whispered, "It's perfect." Aulden responded, "No, it has a loose thread hanging here." He resisted the urge to pull the thread.

On another wall, he noticed a religious icon, a painting in a circular design with a female figure in the center. This feminine image of maybe some Eastern deity had an angry, feral appearance, and her long black hair was ratty and wild. The most notable thing about her was that she didn't stand still inside the painting. She was animated, alive, and seemed to be trying to claw her way out of the painting.

Aulden stared at the Iconic Figure and said to himself, "She's perfect." The Iconic Figure had a grotesquely enraged face and monstrously pointy teeth, and Aulden felt overwhelmed by a deep stirring of love as he watched her.

He studied the painting. The Iconic Figure didn't talk, but her angry gestures seemed to call on him to release her. He turned again to the tapestry which was passive and subtle, but seemed to also call on him for help: to pull and release the gold thread.

Aulden decided to take action. He reached out to the little Iconic Figure. He discovered that he could reach his hands into the painting and he took hold of the Iconic Figure's waist and lifted her out of the icon.

Aulden placed the Iconic Figure on the floor and she ran immediately to the tapestry and pulled on the end of the gold thread. The stitches popped from the cloth and the intricate design woven through the tapestry disappeared as the string zigzagged its way free. Soon the gold thread was entirely removed, piled unceremoniously on the floor.

Aulden stood and watched, and tried to understand. He said, "Wind?" The Wind responded, "Yes, Aulden?"

"What can we learn here?" Aulden pondered, "Tapestry and icon both ruined; Iconic Figure running free; gold thread in a heap, called 'perfect'; church with an onion dome. I can't make any sense of it." He called out for assistance, "Hello? Is anyone here?"

The Iconic Figure came to Aulden then and stood next to him. She was only about a foot tall, but she reached up to hold Aulden's hand, gripping his index finger. Still, she didn't speak.

He confessed this to Janice, "I feel… I feel so much love for this little Iconic Figure. If I can just understand all this love, maybe I can learn why I get so clingy and needy; maybe I can learn how to have peace inside."

Janice asked, "From her?"

Aulden nodded, "She's perfect." He knelt, again, and said, "Don't worry little Iconic Figure, you'll be safe with us. If you can take us to the person who put you in the icon we can make him stop doing that." She gestured heroically, without speaking, that she would lead them to the person.

They followed her to a side-door, and they entered a hallway. They saw another door at the opposite end of the hall, with a crown motif above it. The Iconic Figure gestured for them to enter but stepped back as if she, herself, was unwilling.

Aulden opened the door and they went inside, leaving the Iconic Figure outside in the hall. This room was dark, but they could see a bed and a dresser. Aulden called out, "Hello?" With no answer, he looked more closely at the furnishings and found several sets of salt and pepper shakers neatly arranged on the dresser. He whispered to Janice, "I think I know how to draw out whoever is here."

Aulden began changing the arrangement of the shaker-sets, and by the time he had them all mixed up a man stepped forward from the darkness. He was dressed in priestly vestments, and he said, "I am Father Nicholi Excelli."

This was who they'd been looking for, and Aulden wanted play it up - to get this guy to talk - so he stepped forward and bowed, and he kissed the large ring that the priest was wearing.

Father Nicholi Excelli asked Aulden, "Would you like me to say a prayer?" Aulden answered, "Yes, I would, Father," again with the motive of just getting this guy to talk.

The priest chanted what really seemed to be mumbo-jumbo, something along the lines of, "Exo-sortum deregulatum habeas rabius corpus Ah-men."

Aulden flattered him by saying, "That was a nice prayer."

Father Excelli replied, "Thank you."

Aulden asked, "What's the most important thing about religion?"

Father Excelli answered, "You must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect."

Aulden took interest and said, "Are you perfect?"

The priest smiled serenely, saying, "I am as perfect as one can be."

Aulden gestured to the dresser and said, "I changed your salt and pepper shakers around."

Father Excelli showed no sign of annoyance. "I see that. I'll attend to it."

Then Aulden got to the point, "Tell me about the Iconic Figure."

Father Excelli pontificated, "She is perfect. She is the perfect expression of you. She drives a hard bargain. She asked to be put in there, you know? She never stays put."

Aulden asked, "Why is she angry?"

"Angry?" Father Excelli noted, "When she is angry she can prophesy."

This intrigued Aulden. "She prophesies?"

Father Excelli began to explain but was distracted, "She is perfect, and in her anger… How can I keep this place straightened up if she's loose?"

Aulden continued, asking, "She messes things up?"

Father Excelli said, "She makes a mess of things. Right when I have everything where it belongs."

Aulden felt as if he was on the right track, and he asked, "What's your job, Father Nicholi Excelli?"

The Father explained, "I am a priest of the Descending Order; the old order; the established order. I have a descending lineage."

Aulden repeated that phrase, "The Descending Order?"

Father Excelli affirmed, "I am a priest of the Descending Order. I wash your feet. You wash mine."

This odd line of talk was tiring to Aulden, but in spite of the fatigue he turned to a new topic: "Tell me about the gold thread in the tapestry."

Father Excelli responded, "You shall be perfect as your Heavenly Father…" Aulden interrupted, and immediately regretted it. Interrupting is such a bad habit of his. He said, "Is it 'shall' or is it 'must' be perfect?" The priest answered, "Either way." Aulden pointed out, "But 'either way' isn't perfect."

Father Excelli explained, "The important thing is to be perfect. Look at me. Am I not?"

Aulden gestured to the Iconic Figure watching from the hallway, "And her?"

Father Excelli said, "She is perfect in her anger, when she prophesies."

Aulden asked, "And the gold thread?"

Father Excelli answered, "Perfect in its refinement."

Aulden pressed, "Are you refined?"

Father Excelli responded, "I am blissful."

At this point, Aulden finally asked one of the four questions, "What do you bring to me?"

Father Excelli answered, "Order out of Chaos. I straighten things up."

Aulden corrected, "Do you mean 'keep them straight'?"

Father Excelli smiled serenely, and said, "It's a full time job."

"Do you feel worried or feel anxiety," Aulden asked him, "When the Iconic Figure gets out of the icon?"

Father Excelli assured him, "No, I just straighten things up, like the salt and pepper shakers."

Aulden needed to think. "How does this relate to my anxiety and my lack of peace - and my stomach ache?" He sat on the floor and rested his chin on his hands. After a few minutes of speculating, Aulden said to the priest, "What if we took the Iconic Figure with us so she wouldn't make a mess here anymore?"

Father Excelli asked, "But what is a church without icons?"

Aulden replied, "So you don't want us to take her?"

Father Excelli said, "She stays with me."

They walked back to the narthex, and as they walked, Aulden reviewed, "She prophesies when she's angry; she's perfect." They returned to the empty icon. Aulden picked the little Iconic Figure up and held her in his arms, saying, "Look, it's just a picture without you in the center. Strange… a mandala."

The Iconic Figure reached out as if it wanted back inside the icon. Aulden asked, "You want to go back in? But sometimes you want to come out." At that moment she finally spoke: "Sometimes I need to come out to mess things up."

Aulden registered some surprise in his face, but grabbed the opportunity to see what he could learn, saying, "Come with me and look at the gold thread!"

He turned to face the thread on the floor. She said to him, "Sometimes it needs to come out." Then she climbed out of his arms and dropped to the floor and did something surprising:

She stuffed a wad of the gold thread into her mouth and began blowing it - like air from her puffed up cheeks - back at the tapestry. She did this very quickly, occasionally shoving more thread into her mouth and continuing to blow the thread back onto the cloth into its original, intricate pattern until the tapestry was restored.

Aulden was puzzled, and said, "I don't understand. Sometimes you need to come out and sometimes you want back in. I want to understand you."

She reached up to him, and he lifted her back into his arms. She asked, "Can I whisper to you?"

"Yes," Aulden responded.

The Iconic Figure then nuzzled close and she bit off a piece of flesh from the back of Aulden's ear. Aulden reacted with surprise, although it somehow didn't hurt. Blood came in a trickle down his neck and onto his shirt, and the Iconic Figure asked, "Can you hear me better now?"

Aulden held a hand to his ear and, startled, said, "Yes. Yes, I can." Suppressing an urge to drop the little creature, he said, "Okay, tell me about yourself."

The Iconic Figure again nuzzled against Aulden's ear. He felt nervous about letting her do that again, but he listened as she whispered, "I want you. I want you."

This expression of desire from the little Iconic Figure was wildly intoxicating to Aulden, as if he was hungry to have her say this, and he begged her, "Prophesy for me."

The Iconic Figure prophesied, "Little do you know. The rain is coming."

Aulden remembered the meeting of the Earth Keepers and their predictions, and he asked, "Will there be a tsunami?"

The Iconic Figure continued, "A tsunami? That's nothing. Passion will grow in you and carry you. Liken it to me. Only be in the center a little while and come out for a time. You like it there, but not too long."

Aulden asked her, "What about when you make a mess?"

The Iconic Figure responded, "Father Excelli cleans it up. He doesn't mind."

His infatuation for the Iconic Figure was like a drug and he could hardly continue to stand, as he said to her, "You're perfect."

The Iconic Figure responded, "Because I know when to be in the center and when to be out."

Aulden asked, her, "Does this tell me something about inner-peace?"

The Iconic Figure replied, "It's balance."

"Why am I so in love with you?" Aulden asked her, "Especially the angry you?"

The Iconic Figure speculated, "Is it because you see yourself? Hmm, no, it's because I'm perfect."

Aulden wasn't satisfied with her answer. "There's something else."

The Iconic Figure asked him, "Do you love the gold thread?"

Aulden noted, "You left the loose end so you can pull it again."

"Always changing," she mused.

Aulden repeated his question, "Why do I love you?" and the Iconic Figure gestured, "Sit with me." He continued to wonder, "Why am I drawn to your inner-conflict?"

The Iconic Figure gave a revealing response: "You are my boy. You want to clean up after me?"

Aulden retorted, "Are you asking?"

The Iconic Figure asked, "Are you Father Excelli?"

At that moment, Father Nicholi Excelli stepped up to them and said, "There, there little thing. Time to go back in the icon." The Iconic Figure didn't struggle or resist. She reached out to the priest and climbed into his arms. When he took her to the icon she leaped into it.

Aulden spoke, whether to the priest or to himself he wasn't sure, "She makes a mess and you clean up."

Father Excelli said, "It's a full time job."