He thought of other oracles he thought of K'un, the Chinese hexagram of peace, the dragon split down the middle he thought of Odin, the unknowable, the Norse rune of destiny, the blank glazed tablet he thought of the shell of the sea urchin, dried and stinking in the hands of the lady at the beach who saw fortunes in it he thought of his ancestors in their dirty gathered around the fire with the skull of a bear buried in its embers cracking portents he thought of the water he stared into with his face on its surface its depths sinking from his reflection the mysterious darkening stillness only his image as the superficial feature he thought of becoming his thoughts he saw a woman come up to the water from out of the forest brown like the earth warm with the sun vital and blooming of the senses of the body he saw a woman approach the water and reach out a woman's leg agitate the water with her foot caress he saw his reflection shattered into a thousand watery facets