"I owned a bar in Manhattan," Ishiah explains, easily slipping into the routine of explaining his past life to an island resident; he's been more forthcoming these days about the details of his life than ever before. Part of that, he knows, is because people have been equally as generous with the details on their end, telling him far more in one fell swoop than most patrons at the Ninth Circle did over any number of visits. And if there's anything that Ishiah believes in, possibly more even than the idea of relative privacy, it's the notion of fairness, of giving what one receives in turn. Those intimate details are certainly no small gift.

"A bar where anyone who promised to do no harm to others could drink at will. I would offer them protection. Perhaps more interestingly, I was not human prior to arriving here. I was what is called a peri."