by P. S. Power
Tarsus let his eyes close, just a bit. Squinting as he thought.
“Yes. While I can see this as potentially connected to what’s going on, none of it actually tells us where to find the others, or if they still live. Who has taken them or why, either. Any ideas as to how to find that out?” He looked around, his eyes landing on her last.
Which was silly of him, since she was the one with an actual idea.
“Two of them. First, we could try praying? If we know that God is real, and are good enough to recall that, maybe we can get his attention. The other idea is to simply find out where The Mimic is. I have a slave link to him, which we should be able to follow. If he’s been taken, too. He’s alive, wherever he is. That doesn’t mean that everyone else is, but really, why leave him alive if you’re busy killing others?”
Darla rolled her eyes.
“Because they simply haven’t gotten to him yet? Or they don’t want to anger you, until the others are out of the picture, since you grabbing up an army of Greater Demons is too great of a threat to them? Maybe it’s that they need us to be evil still and, well, Michael told me that was over. That we aren’t needed to be evil any longer. There’s no guarantee that he was being honest with me, when we spoke. I mean, Angel implies that, but I’ve seen Gregor lie, tens of thousands of times. More than that, since he had to hide what he really was.”
Tarsus seemed to agree with her.
“Then, perhaps we should try Keeley’s method. We should, perhaps, seek greater levels of good, before making the attempt? A pure being should have greater effect, if I understand the nature of the energy that sort uses.”
Instead of arguing the point, Keeley simply nodded.
“I’ll do it. The rest of you stay about like you are, in case it comes to a fight or we have to change back, suddenly. I don’t know if I’ll be willing to do that, if I become good enough. This could be a one-way trip. Which is a shame. I haven’t even gotten to have a threesome with Ravi yet.”
She actually felt a bit sad there, but didn’t let that stop her. Too many of her people were at risk for that. Focusing, she picked a new form to take. It was her, the way she currently looked, only with a rather Human level of empathy, compassion and goodness. Then she shifted to that state, and used magic, over the course of twenty minutes, to push her into being a good person. The kind who helped others, simply because it was right.
At the same time, she kept helping Bente to eat. Feeling bad for her the whole time, even as she healed rapidly.
Standing up, she nodded to the rest of them. Her friends and family. Linden wasn’t that well known to her, but he was family as well, she didn't doubt. Within a generation or two, even.
“Let me see here…”
She clasped her hands, like a Christian, since going to church for years had taught her that one. She nearly started to speak in Latin, then just used her own words. She needed to get God’s attention, after all. Seeming too similar to others wouldn’t do that.
“Hey, God. It’s Keeley Thomson, Darla Gibson, Bente, Tarsus and Linden. You know, your Ex-Demon buddies? Anyway, as you know, we have a bit of a problem going on here. If you can share any information on it with us, that would be wonderful. I’m working on this being good thing, so if you have any feedback on that, let me know. I’m not sure I can hold this, to be honest. Thanks.” She wasn’t lying about not being able to hold her current state of being.
She was, for the moment, very close to being a saintly being. She could feel her very being push her away from that state, back toward where she’d come from. Hard enough that it was nearly painful. Turning her back into what she’d always been.
A being of evil, or at the very least one who wasn’t all that good. Not compared to what she was at the moment. Instead of being stuck that way, she felt a slide happen, with her ending up a good bit kinder seeming than she had been a few minutes before, but no where near what she’d managed for a few moments.
It simply wasn’t what she was supposed to be. No one there noticed it happening, except for her. Possibly the man that was there behind the others, standing with them as if part of the group. He was dressed up in overalls, a white t-shirt, and had a broad brimmed straw hat and tan work boots. Like a farmer, except that he was free of dust and dirt. Completely.
The man smiled at her, a single hand coming up to announce his presence. Bente let her eyes go wide, but didn't protest, when she noticed him.
The man sounded older, when he spoke. Like a fellow who was a hard lived fifty or so.
“Miss Thomson. Miss Gibson. How are you all doing?” He looked at Bente closely and shuddered a bit. That wasn’t as it turned out, over her currently singed looks. “Those fools. I told them that you weren’t a threat. All of you. That you, Tarsus, and you Linden, would help the others who needed it. That all we needed to do was to sit back and allow it to happen. They simply couldn’t see how, or why, your kind could become good before doing massive damage. It was a risk, but not that great of one. After all, just as the Humans have their protector, Karen, your folk have a mighty and abiding force to protect your own.”
Darla looked at the man, closely, seeming to recognize him.
“Zack?” That was a great guess, being the same one that Keeley would have gone with.
The Angel chuckled.
“Oh, no. Zachery is meant for other things. The protector of your kind is, and always has been, Tarsus. It was he, a being of transcendent power, who led his own people into the hardest, darkest task that has ever been needed. A thing done to aid the whole of reality survive. When a new great threat to your people arose, he worked to end it. When he couldn’t manage that, he changed and protected you as best he could. Selflessly. That was always part of his nature. It should be obvious, to most of you.”
The others nodded, meaning the Keeley was the one who wouldn’t have had the opportunity to see things like that. It didn’t take much to understand why that was.
“Meaning that I’m the great threat? That’s a shame. I mean, look how good and sweet I am. Seriously. Look quick, before it finishes fading.” She pretended to pose for a moment, showing off her goodness.
Mike laughed and then moved in to give her a hug. That was a first, according to what she recalled of him now.
“Truly, you’ve done wonders, Miss Thomson. A forced thing, using magic and power, but you are, in this moment, a very good person, for one of your type. Perhaps the new template for your kind of person? The rest of you should study up on what she’s done that way. Not now. We need to go and save the rest of your people, if we can. They still live, of course. Killing them would be difficult for my people. Not impossible, but it would taint whoever did it beyond saving.”
That got a round of nods.
Tarsus took a breath and then closed his eyes.
“Why are they taking our people? Merely because we might be a threat? They didn’t do that before, when we truly were.”
The Arch Angel shook his head then.
“No, my brother, that is not the reason. They fear what the lack of your kind will mean to the world. Your turn at the wheel of evil is done, and something new must come. They, the others of my kind, some of them, think that without powerful beings like you standing between the other races and what might be, there will come unto the land a true darkness. One that the likes of my kind are not ready to face.” He shrugged then. “Which is true. We’re not ready. We might not be in time. That doesn’t matter. He told us that this is what must happen. Our fear is not reason to deny His word.”
Keeley sighed then.
“So, we need to find these people and…” Even being good, for the moment, she nearly said they should kill them all. That wasn’t really the best plan. Not as a starting gambit. “We need to find them and talk to them. Help them realized that going against His word really isn’t the best plan. I’m sure they’ll listen to reason.” She wasn’t at all, but at least Mike nodded at the idea.
“We can wait for you to
heal first, Bente. Then we should go and see to our friends.”
Keeley just kept working, making certain that Bente had the food she needed to keep healing at the speed she was. It was impressively fast, actually.
Rolling her eyes, Keeley snorted.
“Bente, can I do this for you? I don’t want to give offense, but I have some new tricks.” She waited, the still rather skeletally faced Wise One nodding after a moment. Then Keeley looked at the others there. Standing around.
“I’m going to change her shape. With no added powers, just into what she was before, for healing. Do you all agree to that? We need a vote.”
Tarsus looked puzzled, as did Linden. Darla just nodded.
“Right. That is one of the new rules. To keep armies of unstoppable beings being created. At least three of us have to agree that the change is useful and allowable. Not needed, just not harmful. Two of three makes it inside the rules. I agree.”
Even if it wasn’t needed, Bente raised her right hand, a soft bun of some kind in it.
Tarsus nodded, as did Linden.
The older being spoke first.
“There we go then. All are agreed. Heal away, granddaughter.”
She did. It took twenty seconds and no food at all. The work was even good at the end. Bente was simply herself again. If naked. If that bothered her, she didn’t let on about it. Even Michael didn't look away. No one cared enough to stare either, so there was that.
Keeley brought her hands together then.
“We need to find some clothing and then we can go?”
It didn't take long, since Bente had trunks filled with things that would fit her, no more than twenty feet away.
Chapter thirteen
It was interesting, when Keeley stopped to think about what was going on for half a moment. She could, with a bit of focus, find The Mimic well enough at a distance. Really, she could locate him to the exact spot he was resting on, which, when she placed the idea in her mind, she understood as not being on the Earth. Not exactly. Only, clearly, he was, at the same time.
No, The Mimic was in a place that was very close to her reality, but just outside of it. One that would be reachable by the inroads, but hard to find, if you weren’t used to the idea of multiple realities. That probably wasn’t the rationale, of course. The beings involved were, in the main, simply using the places they were most comfortable with.
When she had it tagged firmly in her mind, she waved at the others.
“I know where to go. It’s roughly in Tibet, near a complex there. One that’s one world over from our own. I can open up a portal to it?” Zack and Troy had both suggested that they not use portals between realities, but it wasn’t any harder than doing so in the one she was in, from place to place.
That hadn’t been their point, of course. They both seemed to be big on the idea that worlds were best kept separated. Not all the time. They weren’t against visits or even trade. They just didn't want millions of people moving from one place to another, bringing in all their strange customs and technologies. As if that would muddy the purity of the greater reality or something. It wouldn’t, of course.
Doing that kind of thing created more differences, which made the sum of all reality even larger. Not that it wasn’t so big already that no one would ever know that it had grown at all. Adding a few billion realities to an infinitely large system wasn’t even a drop in the bucket.
Meaning she wasn’t worried that way.
Tarsus gave a single slow nod. A thing that was a mere dip of the head, then waited for her to do the work needed. The others just stood there, acting unimpressed when, ten seconds later, she had a window in space hanging there. A disk that showed a cold and snowy spot on the other side. A set of carved stone steps going upward. They weren’t broad, but were ample enough for the people going.
She waved at the thing, and Darla sniffed.
“Neat trick.” She didn't ask how it was done, as if it were a secret or something. Keeley, still feeling good enough, if not truly pure of spirit, smiled.
“Zack and Troy showed me how to do it. It took a few days to really get down. You should ask him about it, Darla.” She stopped, knowing that her words could sound smug or snotty. They didn’t, at the moment, but that wouldn’t stop them from seeming that way, if one were so inclined. “I mean that. He’ll just help you learn, if you ask about it. I didn't even have to trade for the information. Though we should all get in on things like that. I mean, clearly I need to step up my information game. Bente, you’ll help me with fashion and makeup, right? Then…” She looked at Linden. The Glutton. “Well, I also still tend to under eat…” She doubted that was his top talent, but the man laughed.
“I can show you how to fix that, if you wish?” The offer seemed genuine.
So she nodded.
“Thanks. We’ll have to set up appointments for everything. Right now, let’s walk? The place we want is about a three hundred meters up those gray steps.” She looked around, to see that Michael was still with them. She hadn’t even forgotten him or anything. “Mike, can you use this kind of thing?”
Keeley waved at her own work, wondering if celestial energy was going to pass through it. Instead of agreeing or telling her no, the Angel just smiled and walked through it. The move was fluid and seamless, since the two places were, for the moment, one.
From the other side, half a world and a full reality away, he nodded.
“I can, it turns out. Fancy that. We should go up?” He turned and pointed, a bit dramatically. It didn't really fit the wholesome farmer vibe he had going, but it worked with the Angel part of things pretty well. He certainly demanded attention.
Interestingly, it was Bente who went next, simply picking her way across the threshold that floated in the air. She flowed into place, being totally healed now, as she was. Instead of her normal, rather pristine style of dress, she was in heavy canvas trousers, sturdy boots and a heavy canvas tunic which looked a bit military. Except that no one in the world forced their soldiers to wear something that heavy on the modern battle field.
It was clear that a certain Wise One was planning on getting a little payback for having her face half melted off. Keeley understood why she might feel like that. It would be hard to be kind to a group of people who’d harmed you that way. Even if they’d known she would survive, it wasn’t exactly what anyone would expect from Angels. Not modern ones, anyway. The old testament Angels were a lot more ready to throw down than the later ones.
Tarsus went next, followed by the thin, rather African looking Linden and then, looking over her shoulder, a perky Darla. She wasn’t smiling at the moment, then, none of them were. After all, the idea of fighting Angels, beings that most of them hadn’t been aware of as a real threat until recently, was daunting. On the good side, Bente had managed well against the ones that had come for her. In a strange way that was due to the ethereal beings not really fighting.
That factor was clear when Keeley went over the memories the other Wise One had provided her. The blue and white creatures seemed to be made of light. It had done damage to them when Bente had landed a blow with hand or foot, regardless of that fact. Including burns to her own flesh at the point of contact, even if that was under clothing at the moment. The weapons she’d tried to use, a sturdy, but non-magically imbued spear, had done nothing. It hadn’t even felt resistance when it penetrated the light beings’ bodies totally.
It didn’t take a lot to understand that the interaction between the nature of Bente and the Angels was a significant thing, then. Something that was past the realm of the physical, no doubt. Keeley had a guess as to what was going on, of course. The Angels were good and as such, produced and existed in a realm of ethereal energy. Bente, even if she was a better being by nature than Keeley was, still produced rougher energy. Drinking it in from the world of the material around her and then sending it out through every portion of her being. The two kinds of energy didn’t seem to be that compatible.
She climbed then, the ancient steps of stone slightly slippery in places. Mainly from compacted snow that had been swept off in the main, but also stepped on regularly. The nooks and crannies of the rocks were filled and packed down in places. Showing that someone, a person with a physical body, cared for the things regularly. Which was helpful, in the moment. It meant that they could just walk into place, instead of trying to fly. Not that she couldn’t do that, of course. All of them could.
At least she thought that Mike might be able to manage that. He was, after all, not one of the fallen. He didn't have a physical body or anything, given that. Gregor did. So did Fram, whatever his real name was. They couldn’t have passed themselves off as Greater Demons if they hadn’t had that going on. Michael couldn’t have tricked her that way, she didn't think. Not that it had ever mattered in the slightest. His trick of being unremembered, a thing which had been total for her, had pretty much ensured that for him.
Not that it was, strictly speaking, a trick.
They were different types of beings, with incompatible metabolisms. Her people, if they were running high in material energy, would tend to not be able to form recollections of Angelic energies. They simply wouldn’t stick in their heads. That clearly didn’t seem to go the other way around and she could recall talking to Gregor. Then, he had a physical body and wasn’t putting out even a fraction of the energy that Mike and his pals seemed to. Not the same kind, either.
Fram just seemed like a Demon and always had. Whatever he’d done to trick them had worked on everyone, as far as she knew. He was actually affable enough for a Greater Demon and was nice as a Wise One, but he’d still talked about killing people, eating them and having massive orgies all the time. He’d even taken slaves. A thing that she doubted Angels were allowed to do, in the normal course of things.