Incarnations of Immortality

by Anthony, Piers

  Norton sighed. "Then I suppose I'd better find out what he wants. Show him in." One day ago he would have scoffed at the notion of meeting the Incarnation of Evil!

  Satan was ushered in. "The Prince of Evil, Father of Lies, my Lord Satan," the butler announced formally without a trace of disrespect. These were the Devil's legitimate titles.

  Norton had been braced for a demon creature with horns and a forked tail. He was disappointed. Satan was a perfectly ordinary-looking middle-aged man in a conservative, dark red business suit. His hair was reddish brown, neatly trimmed and combed. He was clean-shaven. There was no trace of fire in his complexion. His gaze was bland, and he had a faint atmosphere of some masculine fragrance.

  Satan stepped briskly forward and extended his hand. Norton saw no convenient way to avoid it, so he shook hands. Satan's fingers were firm and warm, but by no means hot. There was nothing to indicate any infernal association.

  "Uh, to what do I owe the, uh, honor of this visit?"

  "Oh, this is merely a social call," Satan said with a winning smile. His teeth were white and even. "You are new to this office, so I thought I'd be neighborly and offer any assistance you may require."

  Norton frowned as they sat down. "I am new here, true. Perhaps I misunderstand. I thought you would not be interested in—in helping anyone else."

  Satan laughed. The sound was wholesome and warm. "My dear Chronos—I am an Incarnation, like yourself! Each of us has his duty, and it behooves us to cooperate with one another. We have a common interest in order."

  "I thought—I do not mean to be offensive—that you opposed order." Norton remembered the nefarious reputation of the Prince of Evil, the origin of all mischief.

  Satan made a gesture of bafflement. "Me? Oppose order? By no means! I support order; in fact, I would prefer to have more of it." He smiled again, magnetically. "Perhaps I differ slightly with God as to which one of Us should govern; but apart from that detail. Our designs are similar."

  Against his will and better judgment, Norton found himself warming to this affable entity. "Well, in fairness I have to say that I do not side with you."

  "And why should you, Chronos? No one in his right mind wants to go to Hell! I would go to Heaven Myself, were it feasible."

  Norton had to smile. Satan's humor was infectious. "You don't like Hell? Why do you stay there, then?"

  "Because I have a job to do, sir! Who else would assume My office, if I were to desert My post?"

  Who, indeed! "Is it a necessary office? Why not just let Good predominate?"

  Satan shook his head sadly. "Alas, the human condition does not permit. There is both good and evil in every person, and so there have to be final repositories for those aspects in the Afterlife. Without good and evil, free will would be meaningless and life would be pointless. Each person must choose his fate by how he lives, thereby defining his fundamental nature. Naturally the average person hates and fears the consequence of the evil in himself. If he did not, he would never make progress into good. But the flesh is fallible, and each person is also sorely tempted by the immediate benefits of the exercise of evil. Only in the course of life can his true direction be determined. Every person professes to love good and hate evil, but in his actions his real preference emerges. It is a most interesting study." He shrugged. "But I did not come here to bore you with shop talk, Chronos. How may I help you?"

  "I'm not sure there is any need," Norton said, impressed by Satan's discussion without trusting his motive. "Lachesis has been helping me."

  "Of course she would," Satan agreed readily. "She is absolutely dependent on your service. I am sure she will make you most welcome, in one aspect or another." He made a small gesture with his two hands that might have suggested the Hourglass, but surely did not.

  Norton remained uncomfortable with his visitor. He was sure Satan had an ulterior motive. But there was no point in antagonizing so powerful an entity. So he continued to make conversation, wishing Satan would either get to the point or leave.

  "We must all do the best we can in our offices," Satan continued blithely. His capitals and no capitals could actually be heard; he did not use them for Incarnations as a class, even when he was included in their number. "We are all, in fact, artists, shaping our duties into monuments of accomplishment. I am always pleased when I am successful in extirpating the evil from a soul that would otherwise have been lost. That is, of course, what we do in Hell; we travel the avenues of last resort in dealing with the intransigent cases."

  "Uh, no doubt," Norton agreed uncomfortably. He was aware that Satan was proselytizing; what bothered him was the fact that the arguments seemed to make sense.

  "I understand you lost a loved one," Satan said sympathetically.

  "She's in Heaven now," Norton said. He didn't want to discuss Orlene with Satan, either. He felt that Satan's attention would somehow sully her memory.

  "I trust you are aware you do not have to be alone," Satan remarked. "Here in Purgatory there are many souls, male and female, and all are eager to improve their balance by serving the Incarnations. Allow Me to demonstrate the possibilities."

  "No need," Norton said quickly.

  "No problem, sir. Just let Me summon your downstairs maid—" Satan snapped his fingers, and suddenly the maid was there, dust cloth in hand, her hair bound in a kerchief. She looked startled. "No, no, that outfit will never do," Satan said in the manner of a kindly uncle. Abruptly her clothing changed, and she was garbed in a fetching evening gown. She was considerably more shapely than Norton had realized. "Oh, yes, the hair," Satan said, and the kerchief was replaced by a tiara studded with flashing diamonds. "Maid, would you like to serve your master in a more personal capacity?"

  The girl looked down at her lovely outfit and touched her shining hair. "Anything my master wishes," she agreed.

  "Look, I have no desire for—" Norton protested, though he was privately intrigued by this exploration.

  "Oh, my, I nearly forgot," Satan said. "Of course you don't want the aspect of a stranger, for you are not a promiscuous man these days." And the maid changed form and became the precise likeness of Orlene in her most vibrant health.

  Startled, Norton stared. Orlene had never looked better!

  "We can tailor her personality, too," Satan said. "I like My art to be thorough. She can be, in every material and social respect, the object of your interest."

  "But—but she's not the one I know!" Satan squinted at him. "In what manner have you known her, other than appearance and personality?"

  "I—I just know this one is different!"

  "Does it matter? She will serve you equally well. Perhaps better, for she has Eternity to gain by a successful performance." Disconcerted by the perfect likeness and the plausibility of Satan's argument, Norton could only stammer:

  "But she isn't—the one I—it's just not the same!"

  "Isn't it?" Satan frowned benignly. "It has been said that man does, woman is. Yours is the performance that matters; she needs only to be its object. Try her, Chronos; I'm sure you will be pleased."

  "Try her?"

  "I am sure you would not wish Me to assault your ears or hers with the vernacular description, especially since the same interaction can be described more precisely in polite language. I am, as I mentioned, at heart an artist; I appreciate the qualities of language. I have little sympathy with prudishness per se, but much with beauty. She can assume another form if you prefer. There is no deception here, only an effort to alleviate discomfort."

  "Any form she assumed—I assume would represent damnation for me," Norton said uneasily.

  Again Satan flashed his winning smile. "I see you remain cautious. I assure you that damnation is not so readily come by, my dear associate. You will neither rise to Heaven nor sink to Hell until your term in office is done. As an Incarnation, you are largely immune to changes in your status, and what you do or do not do with any willing woman is irrelevant."

  "But with a soul in Purgatory, a mere
spirit—?"

  "All are tangible to one another and to Incarnations here. This is not Earth, where spirits can not freely go."

  Norton shook his head. "This is not the type of pleasure I care for."

  "Ah, you will get over that soon enough. Ultimately, every living person is dedicated to his own pleasure."

  "You're right," Norton said. "I do remain suspicious of your motive. You are seeking to corrupt me, and I'm not sure I can afford to believe anything you say."

  "Well, I am rightly called the Father of Lies," Satan said equably. "I do take a certain modest pride in the quality of My artifices, and many mortals find them sufficient."

  The scoundrel was proud of it! Norton was disgusted. "Well, if that concludes your business here—"

  "Almost," Satan said, not rising. He made a trifling gesture, and the maid resumed her own form and scurried from the room.

  "So it wasn't just a social visit?"

  "There is one minor favor—"

  "Why should I do you any favor?"

  "Well, it is a very small one, and I am prepared to pay rather well."

  Payment for a favor! He had been through that with Gawain! "What can you offer another Incarnation, aside from temptation to mischief?"

  Satan studied him, and now his eyes had the same disturbing intensity Norton had noted in the eyes of Fate. "I understand you like to travel, Chronos."

  "Yes. I suppose that was the main reason I took this office, so I could travel in time. Once I learn to do it precisely, I'll—" He broke off, not wanting to say too much to the Prince of Evil.

  "To see your woman again in life," Satan finished smoothly.

  So he couldn't hide this from Satan! Did that mean it was an evil notion? Chilling thought! "What is this favor?"

  "Merely to conduct one of My minions on a brief tour."

  "Why can't he travel himself? I hardly know my way around Purgatory yet."

  "A tour in time. Only you can arrange that."

  That was right—he was now the Master of Time. He did not want to do any business with Satan, but he was curious. "To where in time?"

  "Just a few years, for a few minutes. He won't do any harm; he'll just talk with a man."

  "Just talk? To threaten him?"

  Satan shook his head. "My dear Chronos, I do not threaten people! That is counterproductive. This is actually, though I blush to confess it, a good deed."

  "A good deed—by the Prince of Evil? How can you expect me to believe that?"

  "You can verify it for yourself. There is no secret here; all is open. This man stands to lose the chance of his lifetime. My minion will merely put him on the right track."

  The chance of a lifetime—that was what Gawain had told Norton himself, when broaching the matter of the office of Time. But what chance would Satan offer anyone? "Why should you do a good turn for any mortal?"

  "As I mentioned, sir, I do believe in order. My office can not function without order. This mortal man's good fortune will contribute to a lifetime of order in that aspect of reality."

  Norton shook his head. "You will have to do better than that, Satan! You must have a dozen other ways to promote order on Earth, without traveling in time to help any one person. Why do a favor for a mortal?"

  "Well, Chronos, you are in a position to verify it directly. I will give you the coordinates so you can go there alone and see that this man will suffer no ill, only good, as a result of My minion's intercession. Only when you are completely satisfied on that score need you actually conduct My minion there. That is fair enough, isn't it?"

  Grudgingly, Norton nodded. "But I don't know how to travel precisely in time yet. I mean, to a particular point in human events. Lachesis took me on one trip, but we had her threads for guidance."

  "I will be glad to assist you in this," Satan said. "I have only the friendliest possible intent. You have merely to select on the calendar the specific date and hour and to will your Hourglass blue, with a preset stop at that spot. That is a fine supernatural instrument; it will obey you implicitly. Once there in time, you must negotiate the geographical distance."

  "By walking? That will limit my effectiveness."

  "Chronos, you are the Incarnation of Time. That means you have a certain practical control of space, too, for time and space are linked. You can travel anywhere on Earth you wish and to the colonized planets, too."

  Norton shook his head. "I don't see how, unless you mean by using conventional transport facilities."

  "I am here to show you how. Simply take the Hourglass—"

  "No. I don't want to travel with you."

  Satan took no offense. "No need, My dear associate. I will explain the technique to you so you can practice yourself. First I must clarify the underlying theory."

  "That would be appreciated," Norton said grudgingly. He wanted to be away from Satan, but he did need this information.

  "Motion, like evil, is everywhere," Satan said in a somewhat didactic manner. "The Earth spins about her axis with a surface velocity of close to a thousand miles an hour at the equator, which translates to about sixteen miles per minute or a quarter mile per second. That might seem to be a fairly formidable velocity."

  "Faster than I can run," Norton agreed. "I am aware that this rotation causes day and night. But what—"

  "Yet it is dwarfed by other aspects of motion. The Earth also revolves around the sun at a velocity of approximately eighteen and a half miles per second."

  "Causing the seasons and the year," Norton said. "But how does this relate—?"

  "But our sun, too, is moving, for our Milky Way Galaxy is rotating, and so the sun is carried around that galactic axis at the rate of about a hundred and fifty miles per second. Just as Earth's motion about the sun is about seventy-five times as rapid as the motion of a spot on Earth's surface about Earth's own axis, the velocity of galactic rotation is about eight times as great as that. Yet even this is relatively insignificant. The known universe is expanding, so all matter is in motion with respect to Galactic Rest. In that sense, we are traveling at approximately half the speed of light, or ninety thousand miles per second. Impressive, isn't it?"

  "Yes," Norton agreed. "But I still fail to see the relevance to my situation."

  "Peace, comrade; I am coming to that. The point is that, though you and I appear to be at rest at the moment, we are in fact subject to numerous and potent vectors of motion. It is a complex scheme we exist in! And since motion is a function of time as well as of space—"

  "Hey!" Norton interrupted. "If I move in time without moving in space, I'll drift right off the face of the Earth! If I travel into the past a single hour, the Earth, as part of the moving galaxy in the expanding universe, will have moved ninety thousand miles every second, or—"

  "Half a light-hour, or three hundred and twenty-four million miles, or the distance from Earth to Jupiter," Satan finished heartily. "Yes, indeed, Chronos, you would be lost in a moment, literally."

  "But since I live backward, I should be totally out of phase! Because I'm going back to a time when Earth was far elsewhere from where it is now, but I'm the only one going back there, not the Earth itself! And when I jump to another time—"

  "Relax, Chronos," Satan said. "Your very existence is safeguarded by the formidable magic of the Hourglass. It counters all the motions of the universe and maintains you in exactly the same location with respect to Earth's surface, regardless of how you use it. Without that protection, it is true, you would perish the instant you traveled in time, for you would in effect be flung deep into the core of the planet or out into the vacuum of space. That Hourglass remains with you and protects you from all mischief, its ambience forming your cloak." He smiled engagingly. "It even protects you from My mischief."

  "Can that be true?" Norton asked, dazed.

  "Naturally anything I tell you is suspect. But I seldom concern Myself with trivial or obvious lies; they are neither artistic nor productive, and so are not worth My effort. Ask your serpent rin
g. That is not one of My demons."

  So Satan knew about Sning! "Does the Hourglass really protect me from evil?" Norton asked the little snake.

  Squeeze.

  He liked the Hourglass better! "And it can help move me in space as well as in time?"

  Squeeze.

  "Indubitably, Chronos," Satan said smoothly. "All you have to do is use it to void certain aspects of the motion alignment-spell. Then you will move—or rather, fail to move, while the universe moves past you. With a little practice, you will be able to travel anywhere on Earth at the rate of many miles per second. But do try it cautiously; the Hourglass can protect you from any exterior malaise, but only to a limited extent from your own folly."

  "Folly?"

  "When you void part of its magic, you reduce its power to protect you. You could indeed get lost."

  Excellent warning! Norton had already experienced one careless jaunt into the distant past. Couple that with a voiding of its protection—could he have gotten himself eaten by a dinosaur? No, for he had never been solid, outside his allotted term of office. But inside his term, there might have been more trouble. Yes, he would have to be very careful, and Satan's warning was extremely well taken. Still, he did need to learn how to use the powers of the Hourglass. "How do I nullify any of it?"

  "Simply set the sand on yellow, then nudge it toward blue or red—red is best—so you're differing from normal time only slightly. Actually, I believe you can do it on your own backward time, but it is better to orient on Earth-normal when you're learning, so as to minimize the effect. That way you are dealing only with Earth's present motions, rather than with the added complication of Earth's past or future motions."

  "Uh, yes," Norton agreed, laboring to grasp this. If Earth was presently flinging outward from the universal center at half the speed of light, and he voided the protective spell while moving forward in time, he could multiply the effect and jump in space at several times the speed of light. He did not want to risk that! "Why yellow?"

  "That is the nullification mode. You wouldn't want it to happen while you were in another mode; you might travel in space by accident, disastrously. So you must make a very conscious effort, which is another protection for you. But you can get the other modes once you are in yellow."