He Who Shapes by Roger Zelazny

table," she acknowledged, running
    her fingertips over the plates and the junctures. "I associated it
    with you that night."
    ".   .   . And you stuffed me into it just now," he commented.
    "You're a strong-willed woman."
    The armor vanished and he was wearing his graybrown suit
    and looseknit bloodclot necktie and a professional expression.
    "Behold the real me," he smiled faintly. "Now, to the sunset.
    I'm going to use all the colors. Watch!"
    They seated themselves on the green park bench which had
    appeared behind them, and Render pointed in the direction he
    had decided upon as east.
    Slowly, the sun worked through its morning attitudes. For
    the first time in this particular world it shone down like a god,
    and reflected off the lake, and broke the clouds, and set the
    landscape to smouldering beneath the mist that arose from the
    moist wood.
    Watching,   watching   intently,   staring directly into the
    ascending bonfire, Eileen did not move for a long while, nor
    speak. Render could sense her fascination.
    She was staring at the source of all light; it reflected back
    from the gleaming coin on her brow, like a single drop of blood.
    Render said, "That is the sun, and those are clouds," and he
    clapped his hands and the clouds covered the sun and there
    was a soft rumble overhead, "and that is thunder," he finished.
    The rain fell then, shattering the lake and tickling their
    faces, making sharp striking sounds on the leaves, then soft
    tapping sounds, dripping down from the branches overhead,
    soaking their garments and plastering their hair, running down
    their necks and falling into their eyes, turning patches of brown
    earth to mud.
    A splash of lightning covered the sky, and a second later
    there was another peal of thunder.
    ". . . And this is a summer storm," he lectured. "You see how
    the rain affects the foliage, and ourselves. What you just saw in
    the sky before the thunderclap was lightning."
    ". . . Too much," she said. "Let up on it for a moment,
    please."
    The rain stopped instantly and the sun broke through the
    clouds.
    "I have the damnedest desire for a cigarette," she said, "but I
    left mine in another world."
    As she said it one appeared, already lighted, between her
    fingers.
    "It's going to taste rather flat," said Render strangely.
    He watched her for a moment, then:
    "I didn't give you that cigarette," he noted. "You picked it
    from my mind."
    The smoke laddered and spiraled upward, was swept away.
    ". . . Which means that, for the second time today, I have
    underestimated the pull of that vacuum in your mindin the
    place where sight ought to be. You are assimilating these new
    impressions very rapidly. You're even going to the extent of
    groping after new ones. Be careful. Try to contain that
    impulse."
    "It's like a hunger," she said.
    "Perhaps we had best conclude this session now."
    Their clothing was dry again. A bird began to sing.
    "No, wait! Please! I'll be careful. I want to see more things."
    "There is always the next visit," said Render. "But I suppose
    we can manage one more. Is there something you want very
    badly to see?"
    "Yes. Winter. Snow."
    "Okay," smiled the Shaper, "then wrap yourself in that
    furpiece..."
    The afternoon slipped by rapidly after the departure of his
    patient. Render was in a good mood. He felt emptied and filled
    again. He had come through the first trial without suffering any
    repercussions. He decided that he was going to succeed. His
    satisfaction was greater than his fear. It was with a sense of
    exhilaration that he returned to working on his speech.
    ". . . And what is the power to hurt?" he inquired of the
    microphone.
    "We live by pleasure and we live by pain," he answered
    himself. "Either can frustrate and either can encourage. But
    while pleasure and pain are rooted in biology, they are
    conditioned by society: thus are values to be derived. Because
    of the enormous masses of humanity, hectically changing
    positions in space every day