Form: Short story
Year: 1980
Publication history:
- ???? : Crónicas de Majipur (pb) , Ultramar (Spain) (in Spanish)
- 1982 : Majipoor Chronicles (tpb) , Priam, 314 pp., 359-7
- 1982 : Majipoor Chronicles (hc) , Science Fiction Book Club, 277 pp., 6475
- 1982 : Majipoor Chronicles (hc) , Gollancz (UK), 314 pp., 03153-0
- 1982 : Asimov's February 1982 (m) , , 178 pp.
- 1982 : Chroniques de Majipoor (hc) , Laffont (France), 331 pp., ISBN 2221009797 (in French)
- 1982 : Majipoor Chronicles (hc) , Arbor House, 314 pp., 358-9
- 1983 : Crónicas de Majipur (hc) , Acervo (Spain), ISBN 8470023616 (in Spanish)
- 1983 : Majipoor Chronicles (pb) , Pan, 317 pp., 281178
- 1983 : Majipoor Chronicles (pb) , Bantam, 281 pp., ISBN 0-553-22928-1
- 1984 : Majipoor Chronicles (pb) , Bantam, 281 pp.
- 1988 : Majipoor Chronicles (pb) , Pan, 317 pp.
- 1989 : Majipoor Chronicles (pb) , Bantam, 281 pp., 14428-6
- 1992 : Majipoor Chronicles (pb) , Pan, 317 pp.
- 1995 : El Laberinto de Majipur (pb) , Ultramar (Spain), ISBN 8473864883 (in Spanish)
- 1995 : Majipoor Chronicles (pb) , Pan, ISBN 0330281178
- 1995 : Das Seelenregister (pb) , Lübbe (Germany), 476 pp., ISBN 3404241991 (in German)
- 1996 : Majipoor Chronicles (pb) , Harper & Row, 400 pp., ISBN 0061054852
- 1998 : Het Labyrint van Majipoor (tpb) , Luitingh-Sijthoff (Netherlands), 560 pp., ISBN 90-245-1428-2 (in Dutch)
- 1999 : Majipoor Chronicles (hc) , Science Fiction Book Club, 277 pp.
- 1999 : Valentine of Majipoor (hc) , Science Fiction Book Club, 806 pp., 02048
- 2000 : Majipoor Chronicles (pb) , Voyager (UK), 400 pp., ISBN 0006483798
- 2000 : Majipoor Chronicles (ol) , Fictionwise
- 2002 : Chroniques de Majipoor (pb) , LGF (France), 445 pp., ISBN 2253041203 (in French)
This story is Chapter 4 of Majipoor Chronicles.
One of the strangest incidents in the 14,000 year history of humans on Majipoor involves the Pontifex named Arioc, who, upon the death of the Lady of the Isle of Sleep, declares that he is a woman and will be her successor. Calintane, a young man in the bureaucracy who witnessed the happenings, shares what really went on.