And Eternity (3 page)

“In other words, the mortals are playing roulette again?”

AGREED
,
SORCERESS
.

Jolie sighed. The mortal realm could be a real pain in the buttock on occasion. But that was Gaea’s problem; she might elect to force a prior problem that would wipe out the fly before it could mutate. The mortals would curse their misfortune, not understanding that they were being protected from worse.

“Second item: the present location of the infant Gawain Junior, otherwise known as Gaw-Two, who died ten mortal days ago.”

NOX
.

“What?”

THAT
INFANT
WAS
TAKEN
BY
NOX
,
THE
INCARNATION
OF
NIGHT
.

“Oh, my!” Jolie breathed. She had not anticipated that. Usually babies were left to the Purgatory Playpen, because it took some time for them to achieve independent function. In the Playpen they could mature slowly; elsewhere they did not. “What does Nox want with a baby?”

NOX
DID
NOT
VOUCHSAFE
THAT
INFORMATION
TO
THIS
MACHINE
.

Of course not! Nox allowed few to know her business. She knew all of the secrets of the world, and kept most of them. “Have you any conjecture?”

CONJECTURE:
THAT
BABY
IS
THE
GRANDCHILD
OF A
PERSON
SATAN
LOVES
,
THEREFORE
OF
PROBABLE
INTEREST
TO
HIM
.
NOX
MAY
HAVE
SECURED
THE
BABY
AS A
LEVER
.

“But Nox needs no lever! She can have her will of Satan, or any male Incarnation, anytime she chooses. I know, for I love Satan.”

ADMITTED
. IT IS AN
INSECURE
CONJECTURE
.
THE
MOTIVE
OF
NOX
IS
UNFATHOMABLE
TO A
MERE
MACHINE
.

“Or a mere ghost,” Jolie said. “How may Nox be approached?”

THROUGH
THE
REALM
OF
DREAMS
, IF IT IS
FEASIBLE
AT
ALL
.

That was what she had feared. This simple quest had abruptly become a complicated one! Orlene was going to have real trouble recovering her baby-unless the Incarnation of Night chose to give him up.

She returned to Gaea, who was now back at the Treehouse. “Oops, I forgot to tell you about…”

“I saw her,” Gaea said. “Your new ghost? I did not pry.”

“My new ghost,” Jolie agreed. “She suicided over bereavement for her lost baby. I have known her for years, and want to help her, so I asked her to sleep and resume a more healthy form, knowing that she was completely protected here.”

“There is something you are not telling me,” Gaea said.

“Yes. If I may, I prefer to handle this myself, though it may be complicated.”

“Can it wait a few more hours?”

“Yes. It is better that she sleep until her recovery is complete. And…” Jolie hesitated.

“And there is more you need to ascertain before she wakes,” Gaea said.

“Yes. In fact, I think my husband . . .” She did not finish, as was their convention. Jolie’s husband was the current Incarnation of Evil, and all the other active Incarnations opposed him. Her marriage had been dissolved when she died, and he had later remarried, so she had no legal claim, but they chose to maintain an honorary designation. The truth was that there were private understandings, and Gaea was Satan’s current spouse. This was a technicality, and the marriage had never been formally consummated, but the two were indeed in love, and had been for the better part of twenty years.

Thus Jolie was free to go to Satan, but because she was not evil, she was unable to manifest in his presence or in Hell. Gaea, with the powers of an Incarnation, could go to him, but did not because it would seem to be a conflict of interests. Both loved him, and he loved both, but they were unable separately to fulfill their desires. This was the origin of the unspoken compromise.

“When it is done, ask him, and I will tune out,” Gaea said.

“Thank you. Orb,” Jolie said gratefully. She used Gaea’s private mortal name only when especially moved. What she could not say was that by her generosity and understanding, Gaea was also sparing herself pain, for Orlene was her natural daughter. She had been conceived before Orb became the Incarnation, and as an Incarnation she had deliberately neglected to keep track of her child, so that she would not be unduly influenced by purely personal considerations. She had not asked Jolie to do so, but Satan had, and that was what had brought Jolie to the child. Jolie had developed many other associations, as well as her program of observations of candidates for future Offices, so it was by no means obvious that it was Orb’s daughter who had died. If Gaea had any suspicion, as she might when seeing the sleeping woman so like herself in outline, she kept it to herself. Jolie would tell her when the time was right.

But if Gaea had reservations about knowing the identity of her daughter, Satan had none. Orlene was the child of the woman Satan loved, and therefore he had an interest. If advice or action was needed, Satan would not hesitate to provide it. That was an advantage to being unbound by ethical considerations.

“I have appointments four hours hence,” Gaea said. “I will see that you return in time,” Jolie agreed. Then Jolie moved to Gaea and into her, superimposing her ghostly essence on Gaea’s solid one and animating Gaea’s body. She could do this only with the permission of the living person and only with the active cooperation of an Incarnation. She had it. Gaea became a resident soul, and Jolie became alive in her stead.

She walked to the mirror. Her features shifted slightly, so that her semblance became her own instead of that of the host. Her clothing also changed, becoming that of her ancient mortal state: a long peasant skirt and rough blouse, unattractive in themselves, but becoming lovely because of the excellent proportions of her body. Jolie lived again,seventeen years old.

She drew on one of Gaea’s powers of travel: she reached up, grasped the invisible corner of a page of reality, and turned it. Suddenly she was in the following page, which was Hell itself. The body of the host was proof against it: there was nowhere in the cosmos where Gaea could not go if she chose.

She stood before a massive desk, and a somber male figure sat at that desk. “Hello, Ozymandias,” she said.

“Hello, Jolie,” the ancient king replied. “Go to the bower; He will be with you in a moment.”

She nodded. They knew her in Hell, and knew her business; no one here would bother her, and not just because they were aware of whose body she animated. She was Satan’s lover, under his protection; woe betide the demon who molested her! She was also the only good soul they were likely to see here, and as such she was a considerable curiosity.

Jolie had deeply regretted dying young, and had in a fashion died again when Parry (as she had known him in life) was seduced by the demoness Lilah, for Jolie had been rendered unconscious by the presence of evil. But now, protected by Gaea, she was able to enter this dread realm freely, and she saw that it really was not evil in the way she had imagined. Hell was a place of punishment for evil, which was a different matter. The end purpose of Satan’s work was the clarification and purification of imperfect souls, making them fit for Heaven, and in that fundamental sense it was not evil. Thus it was that her former husband, certainly a good man, was able to serve as the Incarnation of Evil, and she was able to love him still.

She walked to the bower. She could have conjured herself there, but she preferred to take her time and see the sights. There were no tortures in this region of Hell, perhaps by design; it was very like a giant hall, with curtains in the likeness of towering flames, and executive demons hurrying to and from the central command post. Ozymandias had been installed by Satan decades or centuries before, she had never inquired about the details, and had fashioned it to resemble an infernal palace. It was actually rather grand.

The bower was a modern apartment, replete with conveniences. Once the door closed, it was impossible for an occupant to distinguish this retreat from one in the mortal realm. Both Jolie and Orb preferred it this way. She entered and sat on the plush bed.

Why was it, she asked herself, that to a man a liaison was always sexual? She would have been glad to come and chat with him about old times and new, requiring nothing more than time in his presence and maybe a kiss or two. But she knew from experience and observation that this was not the way of a man. He would not be good for much dialogue until he had completed intimacy. Well, thanks in part to the power of the Incarnation and in part to experience and in part to the sheer abandon of love, she was able to accommodate him readily enough. Her imperatives might differ from his, but she did enjoy these visits.

He appeared. He seemed to be about twenty-five years old and more handsome than she had known him in life. This was because he had chosen that age when he assumed the Office; he had been only eighteen when she died. He had developed confidence and aplomb in the ensuing centuries, and garnered a great deal of experience. She hated to admit it, but the demoness Lilah had been good for him, fashioning him into a very fine figure of a man in both appearance and action.

“Ah, Jolie!” he said, and the manner of the utterance sent a thrill through her, as it always did. He sat beside her, and put his arm around her, and drew her in for a kiss, and her heart went out to him, as it always did.

The man has magic. Orb thought, sharing the feeling. Their pretense remained, outwardly, but the inner truth was that both of them loved this man, and both thrilled to his touch. They forgot their disinterest in the purely sexual aspect, and soon were taken by the joy of the experience, thrilling to his penetration and culmination with much the same verve he expressed. There was indeed joy in sex, when it was right.

“I have only one regret now,” he said as they lay cooling. “We can never have children.”

That reminded her. “I have something to ask you, Parry,” she said. As she spoke she felt Orb fading out, granting her the privacy she had requested. She could speak freely now, and her host would not overhear.

“Anything, my love,” he replied, kissing her hand. “Orlene is dead, and I must help her. She-”

“Orlene?” he demanded, recognizing the name. Then Jolie was weeping. She had held it back, needing first to help the newly dead soul, then to run her errands, then to mask her emotion from her host. Parry held her close, but his body was shaking; he was affected much as she was.

Haltingly, she described the events leading up to Orlene’s suicide, and her determination to help the new ghost. It helped her grief to be able to express it to one she knew understood. For Parry loved Orlene too, because she was his stepdaughter. Jolie had not reported to Gaea, but had reported to Satan, and for no evil purpose.

“So Gaw-Two was taken by Nox,” she concluded. “I must find out how to approach the Incarnation of Night.”

“I have had contact with Nox,” he said. “She alone could have taken me from the demoness at the height of my passion. I dare not approach her, lest she take me from you.” He spoke without the inflection of godhead, preferring to be Parry for this private tryst. “But I can give you some advice. Look for her in the region of chaos, where Clotho goes for new thread, but turn to the side before chaos is complete. If you get lost, call for help; there is one who will answer.”

“But suppose we can’t find Nox?”

“You will find her if she chooses to be found. If she chooses otherwise, you are helpless. But I suspect she will let you approach.”

“The Purgatory Computer conjectured that she means to use the baby as a lever against you.”

“Nox needs no lever against me! I am a major Incarnation, but I exist by the sufferance of Nox, as do we all. She predates us, and can foil our powers whenever she chooses.”

“But she has no power by day! She is only of the night!”

“She can influence us in devious ways. She has chosen not to, but there is night in all of us. She understands us far better than we understand her.”

This was not reassuring. “Can it be coincidence that she took this particular baby?”

“Hardly. She has a purpose, and perhaps she will tell you, if you go to her. She may have taken the baby for that reason: to bring you to her.”

“So maybe we’ll find her, but not be happy when we do,” Jolie concluded.

“That is my fear. But you will have to ask.”

“We will have to ask,” Jolie agreed. “Have you told Orb?”

“No.”

“That is best, for now,” he agreed. “If Nox’s purpose is not malign, and she has no need for malignancy, then it may be better to talk with her first.”

“I hope so. Oh, Parry, I never knew the baby, but I hurt for Orlene! I wish I had been watching when-”

“Only Fate could have known, and I think she was not watching, either.”

Lachesis, the middle Aspect of Fate, was also Orb’s mother, and Orlene’s grandmother. She did her job in the way she saw fit, but certainly she would not carelessly sacrifice her grandchild. If it had become necessary for her to do that, she would have consulted with other Incarnations, seeking some better way through. No, this seemed to be a thing only Nox was involved in.

“I must go,” she said. “Gaea has appointments, and I-”

“You want to follow up on this,” he finished. “Do so, and keep me posted. I hope this is not more than it seems.”

Jolie hoped so, too, but her fear was growing that it was only the beginning. She kissed him again, dressed, and turned the page back to the Tree.

She separated from Gaea, and Gaea woke. “Your affairs are in order?” the Incarnation inquired with a partial smile.