Whiteness.

  Everywhere I looked, it was white. White light around me that disappeared in the distance. There was no sky.

  When I looked to my left, I saw Kate. She stood perfectly still, eyes staring in front of her.

  I realized we were both naked.

  She turned to look at me. "Are you staring at my tits?" she said.

  "I'm trying not to," I said, "but they are out there."

  She looked down. "You should talk," she said.

  We were both silent for a minute. Then she said, "Do you think we're dead?"

  I said: "I'm seriously considering it."

  There was another minute of silence.

  She said, "What's wrong with this picture?"

  “Well,” I said, "I think we should be in a tunnel, with light at the end. Also, I thought this was supposed to be an individual thing, rather than a shared experience.”

  As she was digesting this, a small dark sphere appeared in front of us and began to grow. It swelled till it was slightly topped our heads and then stopped expanding. The darkness blew away like mist, and in front of us stood a woman.

  She was dressed in a flowing white robe. There was purple embroidery on the wrists, and at the bottom of the dress. She wore no jewelry that I could see, and her hair was a light brown, pulled into a single braid.

  She bent her head to us in what was almost a bow.

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  “What the hell is this?” said Kate.

  "Excellent diplomatic skills," I said.

  "My kind of diplomacy starts at the business end of my C-7."

  The woman spoke to us in an unfamiliar language. It was melodious and scattered with fricatives. I shook my head at her. She frowned and spoke again. The tone and cadence seemed different.

  "I'm sorry," I said, "I don't understand you."

  She tried again in what I was sure was a third language. Again, I shook my head.

  "Parlez-vous fran?ais?" I asked. She in turn shook her head. "Hablan espa?ol?" Another shake.

  She tapped a finger on her chin and then raised her hand. She made a slight twirling motion. Before us appeared an image of the burning building. Smoke began to curl around the windows, and I could see myself standing inside the building, Kate beside me. The front of the building crumbled, and flames exploded above and below our floor. The building collapsed entirely.

  "Well, I guess that answers your ‘Are we dead?’ question,” I said.

  The point of view changed. We were looking at the street where a cluster of children were being hugged and comforted by adults. I was sure they were the parents.

  "It was worth it." said Kate.

  Another image. This time the location was completely unfamiliar. Trees twisted toward the sky, the leaves curiously alien, thin and jagged. The bark on the trees was a bluish purple. At their bases lay the bodies of both adults and children. Prowling among the corpses were blocky figures bearing spears and swords. The image zoomed in towards one of the killers. I saw coarse features, a pair of tusks, a bald head, and green skin. The face turned, and amber eyes stared at us.

  "What the hell is that?" said Kate.

  "That,” I said, “is an orc.”

  We stood in silence. Then the woman gestured again, and the images faded. She moved her hand in a sweeping motion, and we saw a room in which two bodies lay on adjoining beds: one male and one female. The man was bulky with clearly defined muscles and wore a simple olive-green shift. On a stand next to the bed was an axe and a shield. Across the room lay the female. She was in a white robe like that of the woman in front of us. Her skin was a dark mocha that was almost umber, and her hair was long and silvered It was held close to her forehead with a simple band.

  The woman in the robe in front of us gestured to us and then pointed at the two figures. Then the image disappeared.

  Kate turned her head and looked at me, raising her eyebrows. "Is she saying what I think she's saying?"

  “Yup,” I said. “I think this is a job interview.”

  We looked at each other again. Then Kate shrugged her shoulders. "Hell,” she said, “I’m in."

  We turned back to the woman in front of us and both nodded our heads.

  Darkness.