Under A Velvet Cloak (35 page)

“How is it than you can, then?” Jolie asked.

“Because there are no other Erebuses there. The presence of a homegrown self prevents another from entering. Nox can’t cross, for example.”

“But I did,” Jolie said.

“There was no Jolie there, as you crossed before your self in this second timeline existed.”

“But I remained to see myself come into existence, and to become a ghost again. In fact I facilitated it by holding to the alignment.”

“Yes. That was what I overlooked. It seems that a ghost doesn’t count, at least not as much. You crossed to where you did not exist, then remained, and the presence of the new Jolie was not enough to drive you out. It might have prevented you from crossing to your own time, but your inertia held you here. So I did not suspect until later, and then I thought you were a local ghost. I was a fool.”

Was that an invitation for them to gloat? Neither trusted it. “So we have learned of a partial exception,” Kerena said. “Evidently Nox in T1 knew, though.”

“She put it by me,” he agreed. “All our trysts, and she never let on.”

“You trysted with her too?” Kerena asked, not wholly pleased.

“Of course. Consider your alignment: how could I have done otherwise, without fudging the lines?”

“And you were trysting with all the other Noxes. That’s why you came to me so rarely.”

“Correct. That has been the one advantage of being the only male Erebus on this trunk.”

“But now that we are down to so few branches, there are only me and the Nox of T1. That’s why you have come more often recently.”

“Exactly,” he said, not at all embarrassed.

Kerena had had enough. “What is your deal?”

“First we must establish the parameters. Nox can not save any timeline but the first; all others are doomed. I can not eliminate that one, because of the active opposition of that one’s Nox. So we are at impasse. I need your cooperation to eliminate T1.”

Kerena smiled, emulating his mouth-only expression. “I am the Nox of doomed T2. I can’t help you there.”

“But you are very like the Nox of T1, by no particular coincidence. In fact you are almost identical. What persuades you will persuade her.”

“I am in no mood to be persuaded to doom the final timeline.”

He looked at her, springing his trap. “But if you had the chance to save T2, and perhaps others? As you may, with my cooperation.”

Kerena felt a shiver of excitement. “How?”

“We make a double or nothing deal. Both timelines, or neither.”

Kerena worked it out. “You would make this deal in order to get at T1 and make your victory complete, abolishing the last live branch of the central Tree. I would make the deal in order to save T2 and whatever other timelines remain.”

“If T2 is saved, it would in turn act to save T3,” he said. “By sending its ghost Jolie there to its past to make it align, and so on for T4, T5, and on. The process would be unstoppable, and the entire original foliage would recover.”

“All or nothing,” Jolie said. “These are fair stakes.”

“How would the issue be settled?” Kerena asked suspiciously.

“A contest between the two of us. The winner takes the timeline.”

“Between you and Nox1,” Kerena said.

“Actually, no. Nox1 will not compete. She needs to remain in place to enforce compliance. You, who are otherwise
doomed,
will compete.”

“Why would she honor that?”

“Because you would. She trusts you.”

Kerena’s head was spinning. “Why would
you
trust her?”

“We are both masters of deceit, but we can’t deceive each other. We are the two Aspects of Night. The winner will in effect incorporate the other, preventing any further resistance. It will be a fair contest, and the decision will be honored.”

“But if I contest with you and win, what does it matter whether I merge with you, making you part of me? I am bound to this timeline.”

“Not if you win. You will assume my power of crossing, being twice what you were. You will then cross and merge with your other selves. There will be a single Nox governing the whole. Your victory will be complete.”

“As will yours, if you win.”

“Exactly.”

“I am interested,” Kerena said. “But I doubt it is a decision I can make alone, or my sister self in T1 can make. When the new Incarnation of
Good
was chosen, all the other Incarnations and a mortal woman participated. They would have to be consulted again.”

“And Ghost Jolie will return to T1 and make the case,” he said. “As she did when proposing Orlene to be God.”

“I hardly feel qualified,” Jolie said.

“You will cross back and consult with Nox1, who will convene the Incarnations. I will be there, but of course they will not trust me. You are the one who has been on this scene, here in T2. You will make the case.”

Jolie saw it. “They may not agree.”

Erebus shrugged. “Then the impasse remains, and T1 will be the only survivor.”

“Shouldn’t the Incarnations of T2 have some say?” Kerena asked.

“They’re irrelevant,” Erebus said. “They have no way to alleviate their doom. Only those of T1 count for this.”

That seemed to be true, unkind as it was. But now Jolie remembered something. “There is a thing Nox1 wants from you, Erebus.”

“She can tell me that herself, next time I visit her.”

“No, because Nox2 must implement it.”

“A message from my other self?” Kerena asked, surprised.

“In a manner. She has cured Gaw Two-that is, her baby in that timeline-and wants an Office for him. Only you can enable her to generate that Office.”

“She wants her son to be an Incarnation, as of old,” Erebus said. “It is true that she can’t generate that from copulation with a mere mortal. Why does she think I would cooperate in that, since it would only complicate my elimination of the resulting chain of new timelines?”

“Not just for the sake of the sex,” Jolie said. “As a condition of the contest.”

Erebus visibly took stock. “She knew it would come to this when she sent you?”

“She saw you coming,” Jolie agreed. “In more than one sense.”

“And she knew it would at last come to this,” Kerena said, seeing it. “As I would have known, had I kept the timeline aligned.”

“It won’t make any difference, if I win,” Erebus said. “That Incarnation will be doomed along with the others.”

“It will make a difference to me if I win,” Kerena said.

He considered. “What Incarnation?”

“Dreams,” Kerena answered.

Jolie saw the nicety of it. Kerena had dreamed for centuries of saving her tainted baby. Now he could become the Incarnation of Dreams.

“The contest can occur only if the Incarnations of Tl agree,” Erebus said.

“And if I agree,” Kerena said. “This is my separate price.” She agreed completely with her other’s self’s notion.

“Let’s have another bout of sex before I decide.”

Kerena reined in her burgeoning desire. “Decide before the sex, because it will generate the Office.”

“No. You don’t get the Office unless you agree to the contest. I finally learned how to stifle the generative aspect of the interaction.”

“Free sex now, Office sex for the contest.”

“A sexual contest!” he agreed, delighted.

“We shall have to work out the details.”

“Between clasps,” he agreed.

“Go make the case,” Kerena told Jolie. “Return with their answer. Assuming you can return, with a Jolie now here at T2.”

“She can,” Erebus said. “As a ghost with an established bridge.”

The two Incarnations of Night and Darkness came eagerly together as Jolie crossed back to Tl. She envied them their phenomenal sexual interest and ability. They were indeed well matched.

There was only a kind of flicker as the timelines changed. Then she was with Nox1, who was having sex with Erebus. Had she made it across?”

“Yes, this is T1,” Nox told her. “This is an alternate self of Erebus, aligning the timelines.”

“And I know all that my other self knows,” Erebus said, without pausing in his effort.

“But I
do
not,” Nox said, not abating her own effort. “So in a moment you will acquaint me with it, as I
do
not trust my brother.”

Which was perhaps an incidental irony: Nox was enthusiastically indulging in sex with a man she couldn’t afford to trust. The mistress of secrets could not directly fathom the major one required.

They concluded their bout, with Jolie participating by sharing Kerena’s sensations. Then Erebus faded out.

Jolie acquainted Kerena with the situation. “So Erebus proffers a contest between himself and Nox2 to decide the issue. Nox2 has agreed, provided he enable her to generate the Office of the Incarnation of Dreams for Gaw Two to assume. But the final decision must be made by the informed Incarnations of Tl.”

“Of course,” Kerena I agreed. “We’ll convene them now.”

“You can convene them on your whim?”

“Nox’s whims have force.”

The floor became a soft, firm white quilt. No, it was cloud stuff, except that it was solid enough to stand on, slightly spongy. Nox sat on a glittering dark stone throne, shrouded by the starry Cloak of Night. Arranged in a circle before her were several other thrones of different hues, iridescent in the soft sunlight from above. On each throne an Incarnation sat: Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature, Evil, and Good, each appropriately garbed. Jolie knew them all, but had never before seen them all together in their official splendor.

The Angel Gabriel stood beside God’s throne, and assorted lesser Incarnations and assistants stood by the thrones of the others. This was truly a complete gathering.

Orlene, the Incarnation of Good, spoke first. “Nox, the mother of all our Offices, mistress of secrets, became aware of a secret that concerns us: there are many alternate timelines, each a reality similar in some degree to our own. But most of the others have been destroyed. I asked the ghost Jolie to undertake a special mission: to align the adjacent timeline with ours. In this manner we hoped to save it from the doom that otherwise threatened, and perhaps initiate a chain reaction that would save many others. Unfortunately the situation is worse that we supposed, and that timeline, too, is doomed. Nox will explain.”

Nox nodded. “I defer to Jolie, who was on the scene. Jolie, tell them of Erebus and his offer. Be complete; time is suspended.” She nodded toward Chronos, whose shining Hourglass glowed.

Suddenly Jolie was the cynosure. For a moment she quailed, then rallied. She described her excursion to T2, her long association with Kerena, the manner Kerena had influenced the placements of all the other Incarnations, the discovery of Erebus, and his concluding offer. “It seems that this is Timeline One, the original, that Erebus can’t destroy directly without our acquiescence,” she concluded. “We must decide whether to accept his offer, in the hope of recovering the other timelines, at the risk of our own.”

Orlene glanced at Nox’s throne. “Erebus. We grant you no vote here, but has the case been fairly presented?”

Erebus appeared, beside the throne of Night. “Aye.” He faded. Jolie was surprised; he had said he would be present, but she had for the moment forgotten. He really could, as he claimed, hide even from Incarnations.

Orlene glanced around, then spoke. “We will have a chain of votes, until we reach consensus. Do we accept Erebus’s offer? Thanatos.”

Death spoke. “This risks not the mere death of individuals, whose souls are preserved, but our reality itself. That is too much. Nay.”

“Chronos.”

“This is not a manipulation of time, but the possible destruction of time itself. Nay.”

“Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos.”

Niobe, the central aspect of Fate, spoke. “This risks Fate itself, destroying the entire tapestry. We are agreed: nay.”

“Mars.”

“There can be no War if there is no cosmos. Nay.”

“Gaea.”

Orb spoke. “Nature prefers to leave nothing to pure chance. Nay.”

“Satan.”

“Hell is a better risk than nonexistence. Nay.”

“God,” Orlene said, calling on her own office. “Heaven, too, is better than nonexistence. Nay.” She looked at Kerena. “Nox.” The Incarnation of Night had not participated directly in the vote for the new
God,
but was this time.

Kerena spoke. “Aye.” She glanced at Jolie. “Speak to my case.”

Again, Jolie was caught by surprise. The vote was seven to one against accepting the offer, and she was supposed to argue for the one? How could she even attempt it?

The eight Incarnations gazed silently at her. They seemed neither concerned nor impatient.

Then it came together. Jolie asked a question of her own: “Are we to be safe and selfish?”

Satan shook his head. “Trust my ancient beloved to find the key. What point safety, if we are heedless of the welfare of others? This is not the kind of evil I advocate; there is no justice in it, no redemption. I reverse: Aye.”

“I am shamed,” Gaea said. “I would not doom my alternate selves for my own benefit. Aye.”

“I, too, am shamed,” Orlene said. “I gave up my life for my child. Will I not risk it for the universe as we now know it, the Tree? Aye.”

The Death figure spoke. “I once asked Orlene to consider how seriously she viewed her mission. She refused to take the selfish route, and thereby gained her objective that she thought lost. How can I do otherwise? Aye.”

“One timeline risked,” Chronos said. “A myriad to be gained, though I will not see them. Aye.”

“We of Fate, too, reconsider,” Niobe said. “I owe my position, ultimately, to Nox. We prefer to join her. Aye.”

“And there will be war,” Mars said. “Between the two Aspects of the Incarnation of Night. Given fair rules of engagement, Aye.”

“We accept the offer,” Orlene said without other comment. “Now we will negotiate for the rules of engagement.”

The rules of engagement were weird. Someone, probably Satan with Lilah’s advice, had invented a new competition to fit the need, simple but tricky. Erebus and Nox met in a dream, in free-fall, floating in a misty environment, naked. The surrounding fog alternated at irregular intervals averaging three minutes between blue and pink. Blue was Erebus’s color, favoring him, the male; pink favored female Nox. The object was to have the sex required to fertilize her with the Incarnation of Dreams in a chosen environment. If it occurred in blue fog, Erebus won; in pink fog, Nox won. They had merely to keep their eyes out for the color, and seek the act in the right one.