Qualia

by Marie Browne

  ‘What happened?’ Parity asked.

  Belial opened his eyes again and for a moment I thought he wouldn’t answer her. Then with a decisive movement he threw the stick into the fire and watched it burn. ‘A man accused of mass murder came before the court. He was a fire starter and had burnt a school to the ground in the middle of a sunny day. He told us his story, he said that he had never intended for anyone to get hurt – a fire that he had started as some petty revenge shouldn’t have spread, he’d set it up badly. He cried for all the children that had been killed and said how sorry he was.’ Belial shrugged. ‘Well, there was a bit of a debate, but in the end the vote on the council was split and the deciding vote came down to me. Well, that very morning I’d been accused by another member of the council of being too harsh – that I wasn’t taking into account how much time these people had already spent paying for their sins. In short I was accused of still enforcing God’s will and not taking this revolution seriously.’

  Belial frowned and picked up another stick. ‘I was tired and heart sore. This was the last man to be offered even a hearing and a chance to leave Hell and even though I had grave doubts about him I decided, what did it matter? He was just one man, so I gave him the thumbs up and out he toddled into the sunshine. I felt pretty good and so relieved that it was all over. We sat in that council room congratulating ourselves on a job well done, drinking fine wine and laughing. We’d only been there an hour when a scribe came in to tell us that there’d been trouble. The man we’d let walk free had killed two children.’ Belial gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut as though to block out that terrible memory. ‘Zephania’s children.’ He whispered.

  ‘Oh, Dad.’ Carly reached over and gave him a hug. ‘It wasn’t your fault.’

  Belial nodded. ‘Yes it was,’ he muttered. ‘I knew his story didn’t feel right. He was a fire starter, he would have been able to control any blaze he started. It wouldn’t have got “out of hand”. Eventually all that were left were stored in the very lower levels. Caina, Antenora, Ptolomea and Giudecca; they held the very oldest prisoners. None of them were really there any more. We released a few but they were so confused and terrified that we decided to leave the others where they were, submerged in ice. The only place left untouched was the Throne Room and that was obviously empty.’

  Belial looked up at us and shrugged. ‘That was it, we all emerged blinking, metaphorically speaking, into the sunlight and waited for God’s wrath to fall upon us, especially me, but it never came. So we built a new city and tried to forget what we’d left behind,’ he said. ‘And believe me it’s never as easy as it sounds.’ He stood up and stretched. ‘I think we all need some sleep.’ He turned and walked away.

  Carly looked at me and winced. ‘Right, like that’s going to be possible now,’ she said.

  I shuffled toward her. ‘I could help you sleep.’ I gave her a deliberate leer.

  ‘Oh, that’s a good idea.’ Carly gave me a huge smile. ‘Go and see if Farr has got any milk, then you can warm it up and I’d like it with a little bit of sugar and cinnamon.’ She smiled and rolled herself into a blanket then, pulling the hood of her jumper over her head, ignored me.

  I got the message.

  Sighing, I tramped back to the fire to sit with Parity, Graham and Farr, where the conversation was stilted and polite. It was going to be a very long night.

  I woke up cold, tired, confused and slightly nauseous. ‘We’re somewhere completely different, aren’t we?’ I said to Carly.

  ‘Yep,’ she said. ‘The barrier’s in the middle of the Acheron. That river spans two worlds, which is probably why it takes so long to cross.’

  I stared out over the cracked and featureless plain. ‘So how many “gaps” are there from here to the Throne Room.’

  Carly thought about it for a moment. ‘There were seven worlds if you counted Limbo, but now there are only four,’ she said.

  ‘What happened to the other three?’ I asked. It was difficult to imagine three whole worlds disappearing overnight.

  ‘They merged. As one collapsed it sort of became part of the more stable world that surrounded it.’ She put one hand inside the other and opened both hands to create one big circle. ‘It’s been a long time since Dante’s seven levels of Hell has been true.’

  As I was considering these odd concepts, Graham appeared and stood with us. He peered out over the empty mud. ‘Beautiful, isn’t it.’ His dry, deep voice sent cold shivers down my spine. Carly gasped, her eyes widening then turned to run. Reaching out a hand he grabbed her arm. ‘Don’t rush off.’ Lucifer turned his head slowly and stared at her. ‘Where do you need to go in such a hurry?’ He began, ever so slowly, to tighten his grip.

  Carly winced as his long slim fingers dug into her flesh. ‘I need to talk to my f-father.’ Trying to maintain her composure she had caught her lower lip between her teeth. A drop of blood welled up to run along that crease.

  ‘Hey!’ I seized Lucifer’s wrist and twisted, trying to get him to let Carly go.

  Lucifer didn’t move. He looked at my hand then shook it off without any effort at all. Grabbing the front of my jacket he picked me up and, with only a slight grunt of effort, threw me away. With a slight smile he watched me struggle to my feet. ‘Ah, Joe, my best and finest creation.’ He took a step toward me, towing Carly behind him. I noticed there were five small spots of blood where his nails had pierced her skin.

  Carly grunted and clamped her lips shut, her face twisted with pain.

  ‘I’m no creation of yours.’ Deciding that poorly conceived heroics would be Carly’s only hope, I drew my knife and stepped toward him. ‘Let her go.’

  Lucifer stared at me for a moment then, with a final vindictive squeeze, he pushed her arm away. Bringing his hand to his mouth he gently licked his index finger. ‘Tainted,’ he said, pursing his lips in disgust. ‘Half-angel, half-something else – a mongrel.’ He smiled as Carly seized the opportunity to run. ‘That one ought to be put down.’ He paused. ‘Or at least spayed – it really wouldn’t be a good idea to breed it.’

  ‘Sorry?’ I thought for a moment. ‘But didn’t you spend a fair amount of time on Earth creating those “mongrels” and half-breeds?’

  Lucifer smiled. ‘Yes, I did. But a greater power told me that what I was doing was wrong and we have to bow down to those greater than us, don’t we, Joe?’

  ‘So I’m told,’ I muttered.

  Lucifer threw his head back and laughed. ‘Oh for pity’s sake, say it like you mean it or don’t say it at all.’ Ignoring the knife he put his arm round my shoulder. ‘What did he offer you, Joe?’ He beamed down at me. ‘Metatron makes all sorts of promises. Did he tell you that you could make up for what you did?’

  Before I could answer he glanced over his shoulder and frowned as Carly headed back towards us with Parity in tow. ‘She is becoming an irritant,’ he said. ‘She’s far too fragile and needy – brings out the worst in my host.’ He gritted his teeth. ‘He wants to look after her, but her brother’s always there, always in the way. He feels as if he’s fighting for her favour.’ Lucifer looked down at me. ‘Maybe I could stick around longer if I broke the bond, but if I kill her, he’ll just put her back together again … Hm.’ He tapped one finger on his lip. ‘What to do … what to do.’

  Without giving me a chance to answer, he twisted around and grabbed hold of Parity. Ignoring Carly’s pummelling fists he pulled the shocked seer into a close embrace.

  Parity, eyes wide, screamed. With both hands on his chest she pushed and twisted.

  Ignoring her struggles he shoved her to the floor then, dropping to his knees, he splayed his long fingers, placing one hand on her forehead and the other on her heart. Light exploded outward in a blinding blue and white aura. It sparkled and hovered for a moment, then compressed inward to settle in bright globes around Lucifer’s hands. He smiled into Parity’s terrified eyes. ‘Goodbye, Pinocchio,’ he whispered as he forced the light into her body.

 
Parity screamed as she convulsed. Twitching and shaking on her back in the dirt, her heels raised a cloud of pale dust as they drummed and skittered, her arms flailed and her body arched until only her head and feet touched the earth.

  ‘Damn.’ Lucifer winced then slumped as Carly rushed over to help the convulsing seer. Farr beat her to it.

  ‘Get out of the way!’ Farr screamed. His own blue glow seemed a pale and feeble thing after the light show that Lucifer had just produced. Parity lay on the ground, her clawed hands sunk, knuckle deep, into the earth. She relaxed as his light flowed toward her, but like oil and water, she seemed to repel the advance of the healing glow. It shifted around her form, a billow of blue smoke that eventually dissipated into nothing.

  ‘No, no, no!’ Farr cried as he tried again and again to force life into his sister’s body. ‘What have you done to her?’ he screamed at Graham who stepped back, both hands raised to ward off the furious necromancer. ‘I can’t get at her. She’s not there any more.’

  Eventually beaten, Farr sat on his heels and rubbed a hand through his hair. Carly wandered up behind him and put an arm around his shoulders. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she said.

  Silence fell, broken only by Graham’s heavy breathing and Farr’s occasional sobs. We stood staring at the broken body on the ground. Keril and Belial arrived, both with the same look of baffled incomprehension.

  Una dropped to her knees beside the body and, lifting the seer’s hand, began to pat and stroke the limp fingers. Parity groaned, sending Una scuttling crab-like to hide behind Keril’s tail. Every person standing around must have jumped a good six inches into the air. ‘What’s going on?’ she asked. ‘Oh I ache all over.’ She rubbed her hand down her arm with a look of pain. ‘I never hurt – I can’t hurt.’ She looked over at Farr with a look of wonder. ‘What did you do?’

  ‘Nothing.’ Farr, torn between relief and tears, looked down at his hands. ‘He did it.’ He nodded toward Graham.

  ‘Not me.’ Graham held up his hands again.

  ‘No.’ Parity sat up, wincing as she moved each limb. ‘Lucifer.’

  Graham nodded.

  ‘You two really are completely different, aren’t you?’ She held a hand out for Graham to help her to her feet. He nodded and grasped it like a drowning man being offered escape from a swamp. ‘Wow!’ Parity rubbed her neck and gritted her teeth. ‘I think every muscle in my body just got zapped.’

  ‘He’s stopped me helping you.’ Farr looked down at his hands; the blue light was fading, lighting up the ground around the miserable man. ‘He’s put some sort of shield around you and now I can’t feed you any more.’ Again tears began to roll down his cheeks. ‘I’m so sorry, Parry,’ he said. ‘I honestly don’t know how long you can last without me propping you up.’

  ‘Well, as long as I don’t do anything stupid, a fair while I should think.’ Parity released Graham’s hand and began to laugh as she staggered over to hug her brother. ‘Of course you can’t heal me, you silly arse.’ She kicked him gently on the foot. ‘You can only influence the dead.’ She stretched and winced again. ‘I’m not dead.’ She giggled. ‘I’m alive – I’m real! I feel so different.’ She laughed and span in a circle, her bright pink hair swirling above her head making her look like a happy Muppet. As suddenly as she started, she stopped and held herself very still, breathing heavily through her nose as she held onto her head with both hands. ‘I’m in a great deal of pain.’ She sank back toward the floor.

  ‘Why would he do that?’ Keril asked. ‘Why would he do something useful – something nice?’

  ‘He hasn’t.’ Belial lifted one of Parity’s eyelids and peered at the rolling eyeball that glared back at him then he pressed two fingers to the jumping vein in her throat. ‘Graham worries about Parity,’ he said. ‘And every time she’s near him, Graham gets all flustered and emotional.’ Belial smiled at the groaning oracle. ‘If there’s one thing Lucifer doesn’t have, it’s empathy, love or any extreme form of emotion. So every time he experiences that he gets confused and Graham can take over. He’s hoping that if Parity is human and Farr doesn’t have to watch over her like a mother hen any more, he may stop the wild swings of emotion and get a better foothold in Graham’s body.’

  ‘Hey!’ Farr exploded. ‘I had my responsibilities.’

  Belial nodded and shrugged. ‘Well, now you don’t.’ He turned toward Parity and Graham. ‘I strongly suggest that you two keep this relationship of yours very innocent and new.’ He put his face close to Graham’s. ‘If this becomes familiar or commonplace, we’ll have Lucifer back well before we actually want him and dancing naked covered in purple paint won’t make him go away.’ He raised his eyebrows at a blushing Parity. ‘Do you understand? We need to keep him at bay until we get to the Throne Room.’

  Graham and Parity nodded in unison before smiling at each other.

  ‘I can’t believe I’m saying this.’ Belial muttered to Keril as they walked away. ‘I’m supposed to represent the carnal desires, the lust, sex and pleasure. All of the kinks and games that man wishes he could indulge in and here I am telling them to keep it clean.’ Belial dragged a hand over his face. ‘I feel like Mary bloody Whitehouse.’

  Keril howled with laughter and clapped Belial on the shoulder. ‘Must be a bit of a change of pace for you, old friend,’ he said. ‘Ah well, it’s as good as a rest so they say. You keep this up and they’ll change your name again.’ He paused for effect. ‘So how do you feel about “Ghandi”?’ He walked away still laughing loudly and completely missed Belial giving him a single finger. Grumbling, Belial stuck his hands in his pockets and began shouting for everyone to get a move on.

  I held my hand out to Farr. He looked at it but didn’t move from the ground. ‘All this time, I’ve kept her alive.’ He stared over at Parity who was smiling at her own pain and occasionally erupting into giggles. He eventually grasped my hand and staggered to his feet. ‘It’s taken a huge amount of power. I’ve had to concentrate, every minute of every day, to keep her mobile and in one piece. To stop the decay, the atrophy – the smell.’ He rolled his shoulders. ‘So what do I do with all this energy now?’ He held out a slightly shaking hand; the blue light dripped from his fingers to scatter harmlessly across the floor. Snaking tendrils burrowed into tiny cracks in the earth and pulled forth the husks of insects that grew flesh and skittered in every direction. As he watched them, expressionless, the ground buckled and a small skeleton of some unidentifiable rodent dragged itself from the dry dirt.

  It was as though time had reversed. As we watched, the little skeleton attracted flies, which turned into maggots that leaped out of the re-emerging muscle and tissue then became eggs, which disappeared into more flies. Eventually, the little creature – it looked somewhat like a field mouse but had small white ears and a longer nose – opened button black eyes and looked around. It frightened itself with a sneeze then scurried off over the dirt to disappear into another hole.

  ‘It won’t last long,’ Keril whispered. ‘As soon as this energy is used up it will die again.’ He hung his head as Belial shouted again for us all to move.

  After 400 years, to suddenly find yourself free of any obligation must be a fairly scary place to be. I tried to think of something supportive to say but drew a blank. This was one trauma he was going to have to work through himself.

  ‘Come on.’ I put a guiding hand between Farr’s shoulders and gave him a gentle push. ‘Just don’t animate anything huge and scary, OK?’

  Farr nodded and, with his hands tucked firmly into his pockets, he trudged along lost in his thoughts.

  ‘So how far is this city, Belial?’ Keril called after we’d walked for a fair while.

  ‘Not long.’ Belial looked around ‘We’re already in the hunting grounds.’

  We followed his gaze. There wasn’t really much change in the landscape here than at the waterfall – maybe a few more rocks, but there was still no sign of any life at all.

  Belial laughed at our confused
expression. ‘Each rock marks the entrance to a largas burrow, so we’re probably in among the hunting population right now.’

  ‘I’m confused.’ Graham looked around. ‘Are they invisible? Because even with the best camouflage you couldn’t hide out here.’

  Belial laughed. ‘No, only the Fae can become invisible.’

  ‘Largas?’ Keril asked.

  Belial nodded. ‘They look like large foxes from the front but have the back end of a big rabbit. Odd things – make great eating and they are superb diggers. A family group of about 20 dig out huge round holes. Anyone out hunting gets a meal and a dry place to sleep. They leave the rocks on top of empty burrows to warn other hunters that that room is already taken.’

  ‘Fairies can turn invisible?’ Now that just seemed too farfetched for even me to swallow.

  Belial shrugged, ‘Well, sort of – they can phase out. Half in their world and sort of half in the next, so they’re here but not.’ He frowned at his own explanation.

  ‘So they could be here now?’ I imagined a whole race of beings like Melusine could be a lot of trouble.

  Belial laughed. ‘Skittish, aren’t we?’ He shook his head. ‘No, they can only get into Hell through the Fae Gate in the Throne Room.’

  ‘But Melusine was coming here with us …’ I let the question trail away and wondered how she was doing.

  ‘Melusine is different.’ Belial scratched his chin. ‘She’s not human, or Fae or even angel – she’s unique. Her mother is full fairy – a water fairy – which is why Mel can change into that mermaid type form that you saw on the boat, but her father was a direct descendant of the original beings that we kicked out of here.’