Under A Velvet Cloak (30 page)

“My interest is considerable, and I can be discreet.” It was an offer.

“I am at your disposal.” Accepted. They would meet for future liaisons, unadvertised. Kerena’s early experience with brothel clients was serving her well; she had excellent universal currency, as it were.

“I am new to my position, and seem to have much to learn. I would appreciate a source of private advice.”

“I am not omniscient, but do know a fair amount.”

“I had contact with a woman named Niobe.”

“I am not familiar with that name. But there are so many names I lose track.”

“She exists about fourteen hundred years hence.”

“That would explain it. I do not travel in time.”

She had not anticipated this complication. How could Gabriel know the answer she craved? But she gave it a try. “I do, on occasion, backward and forward. The past is fixed, but the future has many alternates. I call them timelines. I discovered that I needed to examine her future, and tell her of it, then erase her memory of it, so as not to cause her to change that future. What mystifies me is why I had to do that, instead of simply leaving her alone.”

“This woman has significant effect on her timeline?” He was quick to pick up the terminology.

“Extremely.”

“Have you considered that the point of the exercise was less for her than for you?”

“For me? How so?”

“To fix her identity and nature in your mind. Her memory was cleared, but yours remains. You need to be sure not to mistake her, at such time as you contact her again.”

“My memory,” Kerena said, seeing it. “It affects me, not her. Yet I am not sure how.”

“Or perhaps it is my memory that counts, in this case,” Gabriel said. “There may be an occasion when I need to know that her import is critical. I would not know it, except for your travel in time and your report to me.”

“How would you affect her?”

“I do not know, but perhaps I will recognize the occasion when it comes. It is clear that she is an essential link in your ghost’s alignment to the timelines, so as to save this one from destruction. I will not forget.”

Jolie jumped, in her fashion. She knew Gabriel had been aware of her, but not that he had read her full mission. No wonder he caught on so readily. Fortunately he had no objection to her role.

Kerena extended her Seeing, and found confirmation. It was Gabriel’s memory that counted. “This seems to be true. Thus you have after all explained the mystery.”

“I am happy to have done so. It is a pleasure assisting so lovely and circumspect a lady.”

It was a hint she responded to immediately, for the pleasure was mutual. They had another bout of quite rewarding sex.

Then they talked again. “It occurs to me that we could do each other some good, apart from private pleasure,” Kerena said. “I can use advice, as I mentioned, and perhaps I have something to offer in exchange.”

He frowned. “I assumed this liaison was for mutual satisfaction without onus.”

“It was. I have something else in mind. Do you know what a database is?”

“No.”

“It is a mechanical or electrical file of information. For example, I am collecting secrets of all living people and storing them in my database.”

“You are storing all secrets?”

“It is my business,” she reminded him gently.

“There are times when it would be helpful to know secrets, especially when processing in new souls for Heaven. They tend to try to hide things that count against them.”

“That was my thought. I can provide you with a copy of all secrets.”

He laughed. “I would have no way to keep track of them.”

“Let me tell you more about the nature and operation of the database.” She did, eliciting his considerable interest. Then she split apart the facets of her disk. “These two are entangled; whatever is in one, is also in the other. You will have all my secrets, as they are recorded.”

“I would need instruction how to use it.”

“I will give you that, until you are competent.”

He nodded. “And for this you desire-?”

“Your continuing good will and advice, for the next fifteen centuries.” For this was an extremely intelligent and knowledgeable male, in a position of considerable importance. For her purpose, quite possibly better than
God
Himself.

“We would maintain our liaisons for that time?”

“Of course. They would perhaps be the pretext for our meetings.”

“I am completely at your service, in any manner that does not interfere with the performance of my duties.”

“You have a staff of angels, I presume.”

“Yes, and growing as the population of Heaven grows.”

“You therefore have expertise in personnel management.”

“To be sure. But I doubt you need a staff, as you are not managing people or souls.”

“I will have, not a staff, but copies of myself, perhaps in great number. I am not entirely sure how to organize them.”

“Copies of yourself?”

Kerena split into four selves. “In this manner,” the one with the coin said, while three went to kiss and stroke Gabriel. They were perfectly coordinated. This led to another sexual episode that clearly amazed and delighted him. Kerena was intrigued herself; this had been a spur of the moment notion, and she liked it.

Once that was done, Gabriel gave her basic rules of organization and dispersal, so that she could make most efficient use of her selves. He did indeed have expertise, and she appreciated it. It would enable her to fetch in secrets efficiently, and record them without confusion.

She gave him the other half of the database. Later this was to become known as the marvelous and amazingly informed Purgatory Computer. The secret of its origin was kept throughout.

And the fate of the sweet pretty girl Niobe was secure. Kerena was especially glad of that, and not merely because it meant the likely salvation of this universe.

Nox split into several thousand selves and went out to fathom all the key secrets of the population. She organized the selves according to the advice Gabriel gave, and developed a technique of recording data in the database so that one secret was entered every second, day and night. Even so, the job took thirty years full time, before they caught up to every living person. Then they were able to relax, merely keeping up with the new secrets that incoming people had, while focusing on the secrets of Nature and the other Incarnations. That promised to keep them busy for further decades. Everything was open to Night, though Kerena tried to see that other Incarnations did not realize what she was up to. Her power lay in knowing what they did not.

Meanwhile she maintained relations with several males, including Morely in the warren, Kermit in the future, and Gabriel. Morely she loved, Kermit was cute and sweet, and Gabriel was lustily appreciative. She let Molly take over the body sometimes, as the men liked the variety. Molly especially liked Kermit, and did her best to make him happy. Morely was good for intellectual discussion, between bouts, and Gabriel had tremendous practical expertise to share. Overall, her social life was satisfactory. Except that she missed the afreet: the supremely masculine anonymous lover who had come to her only twice, and thrilled her like no other. She loved Morely, and had loved Sir Gawain, and she liked the others, but somehow the demon lover was supreme in her sexual fancy. Molly didn’t like him, and Jolie didn’t trust him, but since when did liking or trusting matter when it came to pure lust? He was the one she dreamed of. If only he would come to her more often.

Every so often some trivial detail caused the timelines to diverge, and Jolie put her back on track. Once, curious, Kerena checked the alternate future, and verified that it led surprisingly quickly to the destruction of the world by the collision of a meteor. How an unfortunate spoken word caused that to happen was beyond them to comprehend, but it was so.

Morely, who continued his astronomical studies, offered the most likely explanation: “The divergence is not merely of actions or people, or even of worlds, but of universes as we are slowly coming to understand them. Each is its own separate reality. In some universes things are different from ours. In some there are devastating collisions. This is one of those alternates.”

Neither Kerena nor Molly could quite grasp that concept, but Jolie, who had seen more of alternate universes, almost did. It wasn’t cause and effect so much as shifting to the wrong cosmos. At any rate, it confirmed the need to keep the timelines aligned. Disaster otherwise lurked.

Kerena had two overriding imperatives: to achieve vengeance against the Incarnations who had refused to help her, and to cure her son Gawain, of whatever generation, of the psychic malady she had inadvertently given him. Unfortunately she found she was unable to act on either objective directly; as Nox she fathomed and kept all secrets, but she could not
do
anything about them herself. The powers of her office came with limitations. She had to act through others, thus protecting knowledge of her hand in events. She wasn’t a ghost, yet her impact was ghostlike. That complicated her projects.

She tackled vengeance first. She examined countless futures, employing selves that were no longer needed to fathom secrets, and located one that would accomplish the most with the least continuing effort on her part. Then she summoned the Demoness Lilah.

“No one summons me,” Lilah protested as she materialized. “I come simply because I am curious what’s on your half-mortal mind.”

“I have located a nexus where you can betray another important man and have enormous impact on subsequent worldly affairs.”

“I am interested, of course. It has been some time since Samson, and I miss the action. What do you demand for this information?”

“I have no demand. You owe me for your demon substance; this will expiate that debt.”

“There’s got to be a catch. Why should you show me a delightful situation and call it expiation?”

“Because it serves my purpose.”

“Still-”

“I want you to
go
to work for the Incarnation of Evil.”

“To serve Lucifer? I don’t want to be locked in Hell.”

“As an assistant and mistress. He has just had a housecleaning, as it were, and is in need of new personnel he can trust.”

“But he can’t trust me.”

“Need he know that?”

Lilah considered. “If you don’t tell, I won’t.”

Kerena smiled. “Go fascinate him, bitch.”

Lilah vanished. Kerena followed her career over the course of the next six centuries. She served Lucifer loyally as a thoroughly sexual creature, until he sent her to corrupt a mortal cleric named Parry in the year 1242, which she did most effectively.

“Parry!” Jolie exclaimed. “My love!”

“You’ve been dead 34 years,” Kerena reminded her.

“He’s still my love, in this world as well as my own. I hate seeing that slutty creature mess him up.” Yet of course it was necessary to maintain the alignment. She had to watch while Lilah used her chaos-enhanced body and powers to tempt him to distraction. This was almost as painful as watching her own brief life and love and death, and she tried to tune out of it. This was not her story, but Kerena’s.

Parry fought valiantly, trying to deny the impact of her super-seductive body and manner, but Lilah nailed him: “Every lie you tell, brings you closer to Hell.” It was inevitable that he succumb; she had too much expertise and sex appeal. A man was helpless before a woman’s apt appeal to his gonads.

But that was hardly the whole of the story. After corrupting Parry, Lilah fell in love with him, to her chagrin, and finally betrayed Lucifer and helped Parry take over as the Incarnation of Evil, now called Satan. Thereafter she served Satan loyally, in her fashion.

Kerena smiled grimly. One Incarnation down. Not just any one, but the one who would be treated despicably by the other Incarnations, and swear vengeance against them, exactly as Kerena had. And Parry could act more directly than she could to accomplish his purpose.

Initially he tried to be forthright, as she learned from Gabriel at a subsequent tryst. He went to talk with the Angel about replacing
God.
They finally made a deal: if Satan could corrupt a particular mortal person, or that person’s child or grandchild, Satan would win. Otherwise he would give up his campaign to take power.

“Agreed,” Parry said at last. “Tell me the name.”

“Niobe Kaftan.” Who would not come into existence until five centuries later. Gabriel, prompted by Nox, had delivered, in the process outsmarting the father of lies.

“Thank you, Angel,” Kerena told him.

“Well, it does give me five centuries of relative peace.”

“As if this realm can ever be truly peaceful.”

“I suspect-this is a secret-that God finally got tired of the constant bickering that passes for human social relations, and tuned out in disgust.”

“I can’t blame Him,” she said, surprised to discover that it was true. She was long since disgusted with the cheap selfishness that passed for the average person’s secrets.

The five centuries passed quickly enough, punctuated by a few memorable events. Kerena still collected the secrets of mortals and filed them in the database, which both Gabriel and Parry found useful when assessing the merit of souls entering Heaven or Hell. She still formed multiple selves at need, and contracted them when the need passed. Each self was individual, but generally aware of the others; they shared a common consciousness. There was no confusion when they formed, and no regret when they merged; they were all her, and she was all of them.

In the course of that time, the girl grew into the role, and became all that Nox could be. She left Jolie’s comprehension far behind; the ghost was now like a gnat riding the shoulder of a giant. But she retained the one thing Kerena lacked: awareness of the alignment of timelines.

The afreet came every year or so, always a delight, but she couldn’t wheedle any real information from him. Neither did she tell him of Jolie despite his efforts to get her to reveal her secret. He clearly suspected something but couldn’t prove it. Meanwhile the sex was phenomenal.