Under A Velvet Cloak (33 page)

“You forgot?” Kerena inquired wryly as they moved off.

“I did, for the moment. In Timeline One I did not understand your motive.”

“And what is my purpose?”

“To recover and heal your baby at last, and to promote the ghost Orlene to the office of the Incarnation of Good. If you can accomplish that here in Timeline Two, we may yet save this world.”

“You forget that my search into the future shows that I do accomplish that, but the timeline remains doomed.”

“I forgot, again,” Jolie agreed ruefully. “I am suffering a confusion of perspectives, now that my T2 self is active on the scene.”

They went to Purgatory, where Nox picked up the soul of the baby Gaw-Two. She was not challenged; the Angel Gabriel understood her mission. As a ghost, the boy required no feeding or cleaning up. She folded him into her bosom, where he slept in comfort. “Now at last I will save my baby, using his immediate mother to
appeal
to the Incarnations, in the process preparing her for her ultimate destiny.”

“First she will seek you, as Nox,” Jolie said.

“Yes. That is the apparent reason I took the baby.”

And
only
the apparent reason, Jolie now knew. Kerena’s history with the Taint went back fifteen hundred years.

Nox had a mountain estate associated with Purgatory, an incidental property set up a few centuries before to establish her presence and legitimacy. Apart from that she had remained largely aloof from the other Incarnations. She prided herself on being mysterious even to them. Now she was set to interact rather more forcefully.

The ghosts Orlene and Jolie had the semblance of their original living bodies, here, and seemed solid to the mountain and each other. That was part of their challenge.

The mountain was shaped like a giant diamond, and its Afterlife substance was diamond. There were several impediments along the way, but these were mere diversions, to generate the semblance of resistance to intrusion. The real challenge was to Orlene: as she progressed up the steep slope, she was gradually masculinized in the crudest manner. Unused to the form and drives of a man, she attempted to rape her companion Jolie.

“I remember,” Jolie One said, wincing.

Then Nox appeared to them, in the form of a woman made of mist.

“Come to me, man-thing,” she said. She spoke to them in the ineffable mode they perceived, but now Jolie One recognized it as ordinary dialogue. Perspective made a difference.

Orlene-Man did so. She/he embraced the lovely figure and proceeded to try to have sex with it. Then Nox changed her back to female. “Remember,” she said. For that was the lesson: that the genders differed, and a woman should not condemn the passions of a man without understanding them. Orlene, appalled, now understood.

“How can I endure this shame?” Orlene demanded, and fainted.

Jolie Two ran to her, but it was Nox she addressed. “Why do you play with us, Incarnation of Night?”

“You have much to learn,” Nox replied. A significant understatement.

“All she wants is her baby, Gaw~Two. Please return him, now that you have humiliated us.”

Jolie One winced again. She had, understandably, not understood when she played this scene herself. Now she did: the prior Incarnation of
Good and
many of the other Incarnations had had overweening arrogance. Nox meant to see that the next
God
understood humiliation, and would never forget. That, and a little empathy, would
go
far in preventing indifference to human concerns in the future.

“I have her baby,” Nox agreed. “His malady continues in his Afterlife.” How well she knew!

“Give him back to her! We’ll cure him somehow.”

And there was the challenge. Orlene could do what Nox could not, for she could act directly in the ordinary universe, whether living or dead. She was the necessary tool. Nox spelled it out: “Fetch a blank soul from Death, a grain of Hourglass sand from Time, a thread of Life from Fate, a seed of violence from War, a tear from Nature, a curse from Evil, and a blessing from Good. Bring these items to me and I will restore him.” Before they could respond, Nox departed.

It seemed like an impossible requirement, yet Jolie One knew it was necessary, both for the salvation of the baby and for Orlene’s preparation to become the Incarnation of Good. She also knew that Orlene would struggle through, suffering further heartaches, until at last she achieved the fate she had never dreamed of, and had to give up her baby after all. It was a culmination Nox had crafted most carefully.

Now they went to talk with the Incarnation of Evil. Kerena, as Nox, broached him in Hell; she was of course immune to its fire and its reluctance to let any soul go. “Satan.”

“Nox,” he agreed. “I though your taste ran more to angels.” He was of course teasing her about her affair with the Angel Gabriel, and implying that she had come to him for sexual purpose.

That was an incidental challenge. “My taste is eclectic,” she said, coalescing into her lovely physical body. “What
do
you
do
for relief when Gaea is absent?” She was teasing him in turn about his affair with the Incarnation of Nature.

Lilah appeared, behind him, in luscious dishabille. “What do you think, mistress of secrets?”

“What, haven’t you betrayed him yet?”

“Not quite yet,” the demoness agreed. The two came together and hugged. They were not friends, quite, but knew that their continuing association had benefits. Lilah was also the mistress of the Incarnation of War; she got around.

“Hey!” Satan protested, as if jealous. “Just whom did you come to seduce?” ”

“You, of course,” Kerena said, leaving Lilah and moving into him. “I bring Jolie.” Jolie had been his first love, and the two retained feelings for each other.

He was of course more than willing. But he demurred. “You don’t do much for nothing, vampire vixen. What will it cost me?”

“Merely a dialogue about a deal.”

“A dialogue,” he agreed. “Not a deal.”

“Not yet,” she agreed. She turned the body over to Jolie.

Then they went at it. Satan was good at sex, having had much experience with Lilah, and Jolie had learned much in the course of her associations with Nature and Night. But the dominant passion was love. Satan was professionally the master of hate, but one of his secrets was love: a secret he knew Nox would keep.

In due course the two were satisfied. Jolie returned the body to Kerena, and Satan was ready for the dialogue. “You drive a hard bargain, you nocturnal temptation. What is your concern?”

“I want my baby.” She drew Gaw-Two from her bosom, where he had slept without substance.

Satan smiled. “I think I might have guessed.”

“You want to achieve power, in accordance with your deal with Gabriel, by corrupting Niobe’s granddaughter Orlene. She is your last chance, and little time remains.”

“She is not corruptible. Your angel lover outmaneuvered me on that deal.”

“That is my hope. But I must be sure. There is one way she might be corrupted: via her ill baby. She died to follow him, and means to save him. In the course of that effort she will come to you, begging a curse. Here is the deal I proffer: you may use Orlene’s baby to corrupt her, if you can, and thus achieve dominance in this realm. If you can not corrupt her, then you will support my candidate for the replacement of the Incarnation of Good.”

Satan considered. “This is interesting. You will provide me my last chance for victory. If I flub it, I will promote your victory.”

“Yes. As you know, I do not act directly, but only through intermediaries. I want you to be mine for this occasion.”

“This may be a first: Satan as an agent for good. I am not sure I could stomach that.”

“You forget I know all secrets. Yours is that you are at heart a good man.”

“Damn your information!” he swore, and a ball of fire flew out of his mouth.

“You’re so cute when you’re mad.”

“Negative passion is much the same as positive. Abate it as yourself while I ponder.”

“What, me?” she asked innocently.

“You do wish me to take your deal seriously?”

She moved into him, retaining possession of the body. “Can Nature do this?” she inquired as her hands stroked him with very special expertise.

“Hoo! Not yet, I think.” He reacted as he had to, and they were soon in the throes of an explosive mutual climax. It was all gaming; both of them wanted it, and both knew it. He as the male had the option of professing desire, and she as the female the option of professing avoidance. Such pretexts were no more than ornaments on a foregone commitment.

Thereafter they talked again. “Who is your nominee?”

“The same one you Tempt: Orlene.”

“Hool” he repeated. “Fate’s granddaughter, Nature’s daughter, War’s daughter, Time’s lover, Death’s lover’s great niece-”

“And your lover’s daughter,” Kerena concluded. “Who among all of you will turn her down-if you nominate her?”

“But she is a good woman! How can I, in evil conscience, support her?”

“She is a bastard, an adulteress, a rapist, and a suicide. What more need she be, to fit your profile?”

Satan nodded. “You make a formidable case, Nox. I would love to see such ludicrous definitions of evil overthrown. I will make that deal.”

Kerena was relieved. She had thought he would agree, but not been quite sure. This was not the same timeline as Jolie’s, and was no longer in alignment. “Shall we shake hands on it?”

“The hell we will! We’ll fuck on it.”

“Oh, my,” she said, with feigned reluctance. “So soon again. Such language. How can I ever endure the shame?”

Lilah burst out laughing, holding her ribs and floating. And of course they went at it again. She would have to visit Satan more often; he was a good sport.

Jolie Two took Orlene to animate a teenaged prostitute on spelled H, one of the worst of addictive drugs. This was to help Luna, who needed to save this girl for reasons relating to the welfare of the timeline, and to give Orlene a temporary living body to occupy. Thereafter the two ghosts were based in the girl name Vita, helping her escape her addiction and profession while still pursuing Orlene’s mission.

Death was no easy mark He took them to a newborn baby in a Dumpster doomed to die soon of exposure, and gave Orlene in Vita’s body the power to take its soul for her purpose. Since the baby was doomed anyway, the soul was available.

And Orlene balked. She couldn’t hasten the death of the innocent, helpless baby. “I can’t!” she cried in anguish.

Death fixed her with his eyeless gaze. “I ask you to consider just how serious you are about your quest for your own baby,” he said. “If you
do
not care to
do
what is necessary-”

“Oh, Thanatos, I would give my own soul! But I cannot sacrifice this innocent one to my purpose.”

Instead she took the baby to a hospital and left it for care and adoption. She had saved the baby, to Fate’s momentary annoyance as she hastily recrafted its Thread of Life. Orlene thought she had thrown away her chance, on her first test of resolve. But Death, satisfied about the quality of her conscience, agreed to obtain another clean soul for her. “I would not yield a soul to a person who did not properly appreciate its value.”

So she had passed after all, because of the quality of her character, as Jolie One had known she would.

She tackled Time, Fate, War, and Nature, and these were no easier, for different reasons. Time had been her lover before assuming the Hourglass, and wanted her to return to him, even in this different body. But he lived backward, she forward, so it was not possible. An Aspect of Fate was her grandmother, but Fate was in a process of transition that complicated it. War was her natural father, but arranged to show her rather directly the nature and stress of his business. Gaea was her natural mother, but required an ugly service of her. They were all participating in her savage impromptu education.

And Satan tempted her cruelly, providing her a painful tour of Hell and offering to recover her baby for her if she cooperated with his designs. He wasn’t bluffing; one of his secrets was that he always honored his deals to the letter, however deceptive that letter might be. Again she struggled, but again declined. Then she did Satan a service in return for his curse, hoping somehow to win her baby the hard way.

But with God she failed, because He did not meet with her or respond to her prayer. She could not get the Blessing.

The Incarnations voted to declare the Office of the Incarnation of
Good
vacated. But they could not agree on a person to take over the Office. That was when Satan, honoring his deal with Nox and his private preference, nominated Orlene, to her amazement. And Orlene became
God.
Unable to take Gaw Two with her, she allowed Nox to keep him, with the hard-won items obtained from the other Incarnations. Including God’s Blessing, which she herself was now equipped to give. The dread Taint would be cured at last.

God,
soon thereafter, sent Jolie to try to save Timeline Two. They had at last reached the present time.

“But there is a difference,” the afreet said, appearing in Nox’s abode. “Timeline One will survive. Timeline Two is
doomed.
The differences appear small at the moment, but they will steadily grow until the inevitable happens.”

Kerena and Jolie knew it was true. They had run the full course, but the one change had nullified it.

“And you have come to bargain,” Kerena said evenly to him. “What is your case?”

“First I must reveal my identity. I suspect you knew I was no simple demon.”

“We did,” Kerena agreed. “Who are you?”

“I am the Incarnation of Darkness.”

They stared at him, not understanding.

“I see I must clarify,” he said. “I am Erebus.”

“Erebus!” Kerena exclaimed. “Nox’s ancient brother!” Lilah had mentioned him, but the distractions of becoming the Incarnation of Night had put that in the background.

“The same. You are the Incarnation of Night. I am the Incarnation of Darkness. They are not identical. Rather, they are the two salient Aspects of the situation. Just as the Fate has three Aspects, we have two. Male and female.”