The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov Page A

triad.
    It had been Tritt who had turned the .scale. Tritt remembered that proudly. He had seen Odeen talking to a Hard One and he had approached. Without a shake in his voice, he had interrupted and said, "We need an Emotional."
    The Hard One turned to look at him. Tritt had never been so close to a Hard One. He was all of a piece. Every part of him had to turn when one part did. He had some projections that could move by themselves, but they never changed in shape. They never flowed and were irregular and unlovely. They didn't like to be touched.
    The Hard One said, "Is this so, Odeen?" He did not talk to Tritt.
    Odeen flattened. He flattened close to the ground; more flattened than Tritt had ever seen. He said, "My right-ling is over-zealous. My right-ling is—is—" He stuttered and puffed and could not speak.
    Tritt could speak. He said, "We cannot melt without one."
    Tritt knew that Odeen was embarrassed into speech-lessness but he didn't care. It was time.
    "Well, left-dear," said the Hard One to Odeen, "do you feel the same way about it?" Hard Ones spoke as the Soft Ones did, but more harshly and with fewer overtones. They were hard to listen to. Tritt found them hard, anyway, though Odeen seemed used to it
    "Yes," said Odeen, finally.
    The Hard One turned at last to Tritt. "Remind me, young-right. How long have you and Odeen been together?"
    "Long enough," said Tritt, "to deserve an Emotional." He kept his shape firmly at angles. He did not allow himself to be frightened. This was too important. He said, "And my name is Tritt."
    The Hard One seemed amused. "Yes, the choice was good. You and Odeen go well together, but it makes the choice of an Emotional difficult. We have almost made up our minds. Or at least I have long since made up my mind, but the others must be convinced. Be patient, Tritt."
    "I am tired of patience."
    "I know, but be patient, anyway." He was amused again.
    When he was quite gone, Odeen uplifted himself and thinned out angrily. He said, "How could you do that, Tritt? Do you know who he was?"
    "He was a Hard One."
    "He was Losten. He is my special teacher. I don't want him angry with me."
    "Why should he be angry? I was polite."
    "Well, never mind." Odeen was settling into normal shape. That meant he wasn't angry any more. (That relieved Tritt though he tried not to show it.) "It's very embarrassing to have my dumb-right come up and speak out to my Hard One."
    "Why didn't you do it, then?"
    "There's such a thing as the right time."

"But never's the right time to you."
    But then they rubbed surfaces and stopped arguing and it wasn't long after that that Dua came.
    It was Losten that brought her. Tritt didn't know that; he didn't look at the Hard One. Only at Dua. But Odeen told him afterward that it was Losten that brought her.
    "You see?" said Tritt. "It was I who talked to him. That is why he brought her."
    "No," said Odeen. "It was time. He would have brought her even if neither of us had talked to him."
    Tritt didn't believe him. He was quite sure that it was entirely because of himself that Dua was with them.
    Surely, there was never anyone like Dua in the world. Tritt had seen many Emotionals. They were all attractive. He would have accepted any one of them for proper melting. Once he saw Dua, he realized that none of the others would have suited. Only Dua. Only Dua.
    And Dua knew exactly what to do. Exactly. No one had ever shown her how, she told them afterward. No one had ever talked to her about it. Even other Emotionals hadn't, for she avoided them.
    Yet when all three were together, each knew what to do.
    Dua thinned. She thinned more than Tritt had ever seen a person thin. She thinned more than Tritt would ever have thought possible. She became a kind of colored smoke that filled the room and dazzled him. He moved without knowing he was moving. He immersed himself in the air that was Dua.
    There was no sensation of penetration, none at all. Tritt felt no resistance, no friction.