Jehan frowns. "I would--at first" he says. "They began as part of me, and I felt them to be so. But as I developed them, they became independent of my will, as if they had wills of their own. They acted and talked without my conscious design. I could still feel and understand all they felt, but I wasn't telling them to feel or do anything. All they did, they did spontaneously."

He looks at Bahorel. "Who's to say they couldn't break free entirely, and do things without my knowledge or volition? Perhaps they would still be part of me then, as we're all part of the Infinite. But the relation between god and human is quite different to that between a puppet and a puppet master, isn't it?"

Jehan is now too excited to rein himself in, if he even wanted to. "Artists are like the Maker, after all, pouring heart and soul into their creation, and finding it good. Am I a god to the lovers and heroes I write of? I create their worlds, their hearts, and let them run free in my fancy. Why not be a god? Not as the Infinite, of course, but as Zeus, or as Gaia, or Apollo."

Jehan smiles, staring wide-eyed at the ceiling, for a long moment, before the present discussion takes hold of him again. He adds, making a face, "If Hugo is our god, I'm glad indeed we broke free of him. As we must have. I will not believe he invented Milliways."