Incarnations of Immortality

by Anthony, Piers

  "Tell me how I may foil Satan's plot and save the world from his dominance."

  "That is simple," she said. "Precipitate the holocaust."

  Mym's jaw dropped. "What?"

  "Gotterdammerung. Ragnarok. Day of Doom. World War Three. The final confrontation between Good and Evil. Whatever it is termed in your mythology."

  "But that would destroy mankind!"

  "Yes."

  "I ask you how to save the world, and you tell me to destroy it!" he exclaimed incredulously.

  "You asked me how to save the world from Satan. I have told you how."

  Mym shook his head, disgusted. "I should have known that a demoness would not give me any answer I could use!"

  "I gave you truth," she said. "I can explain."

  "Don't bother!" he said, turning away.

  "But you agreed to take me as your concubine if I proved my loyalty!" she cried. "I have proved it! Are you not a man of honor?"

  He whirled on her. "You had to know that that is no answer at all! It would only swamp the Afterlife with all the remaining souls of the mortals, in a few savage minutes. To give an answer you know is useless is no signal of loyalty!"

  "But it is a good answer!" she protested. "Why won't you hear my explanation?"

  "Then give your explanation," Mym said through his teeth. She had betrayed him, but the terms of his agreement required that much of him, that he hear her rationale.

  She spoke. Gradually the sense of it penetrated.

  "Lila, I apologize," he said. "Now that I understand it, I see that it is a good answer."

  "Take me now, Mym," she said. "Because when Satan learns what I have done, he will abolish me."

  True, again. She had shown him how to save the world, but she could not save herself. She had given up her existence for the sake of a few hours of acceptance by him.

  He took her in his arms. "Now that it is too late, Lila, I regret that I mistrusted you. You shall have my thanks and my passion, while you exist."

  "That is all I desire," she said, meeting him with a fierce kiss.

  The day before the last civilian governments on Earth were to fall, Mym emerged from the Castle of War. He summoned his lesser Incarnations, and the five of them mounted. "To the Doomsday Clock!" Mym cried.

  At that Conquest, Slaughter, Famine, and Pestilence looked askance. But their steeds knew the way, for the Clock was one of the artifacts of Mars. It was the timepiece that marked the incipience of the Final War that would destroy mankind on Earth.

  They drew up before it. The Doomsday Clock stood on its mounting, fifty meters tall, and its huge hands were set at three minutes to midnight. This, in the metaphor of eternity, indicated the proximity of that War; it was not far off.

  Mym dismounted and drew the Red Sword. "Let there be War," he said.

  Power radiated from the Sword. It bathed all the world-and all about the globe the tensions that led to conflict and violence intensified. Nations that had considered war now declared it; armies that had been in position to do battle now began it; individuals who had been bluffing each other down now called their bluffs and entered combat.

  For this was the ultimate power of the Red Sword. It could not pacify violence, it could only enhance it. But what it enhanced, no other power could deplete; only the cessation of its own activity could abate the terrible malice of its nature. When allowed to radiate freely, it would amplify the warlike passions of man until they erupted in the greatest conflagration ever to occur-Doomsday.

  The four subsidiary Incarnations stood taller and more imposing as the effect of the Red Sword was felt. Their colors brightened, and their steeds paced eagerly. Conquest's white cape commenced a secondary radiation;

  Slaughter's red became the texture of flowing blood; Famine turned so black that he was no more than a dark blot; and Pestilence's entire body became a brown mass of vermin. They were approaching the moment of their greatest fulfillment.

  Mym's Cloak of War, too, was intensifying, the golden hue suffusing the region. Even his horse, Werre, was assuming a preternatural glow of strength.

  The hands of the Doomsday Clock were traveling toward midnight at a visible rate. The two minutes became ninety seconds, then sixty.

  Satan appeared. "What are you doing, Mars?" the Lord of Evil demanded.

  "I am finishing what you started, Satan," Mym replied evenly. "You fomented unrest during my absence; I am bringing it to climax."

  "But you will bring on the holocaust!"

  "Yes, this will be the moment of my greatest glory," Mym agreed.

  The Clock had moved to thirty seconds. "Wait!" Satan cried. "Are you sure you want to do this. Mars?"

  Mym lowered the Sword, and the Clock halted at twenty-four seconds to midnight. "You have a consideration, Satan?"

  "I merely wish to point out that, once the final earthly reckoning occurs, you will have no further job, because all the mortals will be dead. Is this what you want?"

  "Why, I believe it will do," Mym said. "Why should I limp along piecemeal, when I can accomplish my purpose in one glorious burst? All mortal cares abated in a single effort!"

  Now the other Incarnations appeared. Thanatos rode up on his pale steed Mortis, the woman Luna behind him. Chronos coasted in obliquely, holding his Hourglass, facing away, oddly. No, not oddly; this was his departure, by his backward's reckoning; he would reverse his perception to phase in to mortal time. Fate, in the form of a giant spider, descended a thread from nowhere. And Gaea coalesced from a cloud of vapor. All knew that this was the showdown.

  "But you have always tried to preserve the lives of the mortals," Satan reminded him. "To ease the suffering brought about by war."

  "That was before I realized the extent of my power," Mym replied. "Now I prefer to exercise it in full measure." He raised the Sword again.

  Satan glanced about at the other Incarnations. "You tolerate this?" he asked. "You, who have always sought what was good for mankind?"

  "Each Incarnation is supreme in his own bailiwick," Gaea said. "Our preferences do not matter; this is Mars' show."

  Satan shrugged. "Well, certainly if none of you are interested in doing what is good, it ill behooves Me to do it for you. I will receive more souls in one batch than ever before."

  "And God will receive even more," Mym said. "Since the balance of this world is currently positive-as it will not be after your folk assume political power among the mortals." The hands of the Clock resumed their motion toward midnight.

  "You would destroy the world-merely to deny Me a few souls?" Satan asked. "That is very shortsighted."

  "Well, the whole matter of war is shortsighted," Mym agreed. The sweep-hand passed fifteen seconds.

  "Wait!" Satan cried desperately.

  The hand paused. "I wish you wouldn't keep interrupting me with inconsequentials," Mym said. "I'm sure we all want to get this matter expeditiously completed."

  "If the world ends now," Satan said, "God will win, for the balance will be in his favor at the Final Reckoning."

  "Fancy that," Mym agreed. "Since I have no interest in your victory, this does seem to be the appropriate time to make my play. Then I can retire from this office and go to Heaven to join my love who is there. Now, if you have no other observations-"

  Small flames crackled about Satan's body. He knew that Mym had found the key to victory. The Lord of Evil could not afford to have the world end in holocaust while the overall balance of living souls was in God's favor, however marginally. "How did you learn of this?"

  "Does it matter?" Mym asked. "All that should concern us is that it is true. Now, of course, if you should happen to choose to give up your plans for dictatorships and martial law on Earth-"

  "Lila!" Satan exclaimed. "That demoness betrayed Me!"

  Lila appeared. "I no longer serve you, Satan," she said.

  Satan stared at her, considering. Then he seemed to come to a private conclusion. "There is something that may interest you. Mars," he said. "You mentio
ned joining a certain party in Heaven. Did you know that your companion in Hell did not go to Heaven?"

  "She didn't?" Mym asked, dismayed. "But I know her balance was good! The hearings-"

  "She is good-but she declined to go," Satan said.

  "For some reason she wished to return to mortality, though it would seem that she had little to gain and everything to risk by that."

  "But she's already dead!" Mym protested. "She couldn't-"

  "She could-with the help of one of your kind," Satan said, glancing meaningfully at Gaea.

  "This much is true," Gaea said. "The woman wanted to be with you, Mars, so at the hearing she petitioned for a body among the mortals. There are some few soul-dead bodies, so I made one available to her. I did not realize that Satan had an involvement in this. I think she had in mind a surprise for you."

  "I-I never dreamed-" Mym said, amazed.

  "And here she is," Satan said, gesturing.

  A woman appeared. Her appearance was not that of Ligeia, but she approached Mym as if she knew him. He put out his hand and touched her, and knew immediately that it was her soul. Now the body began to assume some of the traits of her former one, as her personality animated it. She was young and comely, and her love for him was manifest.

  "But it seems she did not realize that you had made a deal with the demoness," Satan said.

  Ligeia gazed at Mym with hurt questioning.

  Satan, with uncanny insight, had brought about the confrontation Mym least desired. To have his lost love abruptly returned to him-after he had made the pact with the demoness! What was he to do now?

  "But of course your choice is clear," Satan said. "You did not know that your true love was returning to you. Therefore any arrangement you made with the demoness is null and void. I will take her off your hands." He raised one arm, pointing a finger at Lila.

  "No," Mym said.

  Satan arched an eyebrow. "No? You intercede for this soulless slut? That does not become you. Mars."

  "I accepted her help," Mym said with difficulty. "I agreed to accept her as my concubine. I can not go back on my word."

  "And so you reject your true love, who gave up her place in Heaven itself only to be with you?" Satan made a gesture of dismissal. "You would not do that. Mars."

  "What are you bargaining for?" Mym demanded.

  "All I ask is that you allow the world lo stand, Mars. As you can see, if it is destroyed now, your re-mortal girlfriend will have made her gesture for nothing. She will be returned forthwith to Heaven, and you will be left with the demoness. For I do not believe that you will be bound for Heaven after you have treated the mortal realm so."

  The notion of losing Ligeia a second time, after her phenomenal sacrifice to be with him, appalled Mym But if he backed off now, Satan would have his way with Earth.

  "And you have no need to be concerned about this bit of nothing," Satan said. "I will eliminate her memory of you and put her to another assignment. That will leave your situation clear."

  It was still a sort of betrayal of the creature who had helped him, Mym realized. He had given his word.

  "I want nothing from you but your agreement to abate your plot against the mortal realm," Mym said. "Otherwise I will destroy it. What happens with the women is incidental."

  Satan shrugged. "You have My agreement," he said. "You have won this showdown. Mars."

  Mym almost gaped. Victory-just like that?

  "And I will take care of this minor business for you, as a gesture of amity," Satan said. He turned again to Lila.

  Ligeia moved suddenly to throw her arms about the demoness. "Leave her alone!" she cried.

  "Do not be concerned," Satan told her. "This is for your own good. Mars needs no concubine when he has you."

  "You understand nothing about the ways of princes," Ligeia said. "Mym gave his word. She did her part."

  Satan looked at Mym. "Does this make any sense to you, Mars? Why should the woman you love want competition from a demoness?"

  Why, indeed! Mym did not know what to think. He looked at the other Incarnations, but all of them were mute. It seemed that he had a decision to make.

  There was something about this that he didn't understand. It was as if this were far more important than just a decision about a demoness whose presence had become an embarrassment. But what was the significance? He had won, hadn't he? Why should he concern himself over such a trifle as the existence of a demoness whom all parties knew had never expected to survive beyond this point?

  A trifle? Why, then, was Satan taking the matter so seriously?

  Pay attention even to trifles. So said Five Rings.

  He focused his whole attention on that question-and, slowly, it came to him.

  "You shall not have Lila," Mym said firmly.

  The demoness turned her head to look at him, surprised. Ligeia remained holding her.

  "Because your friend has a soft heart?" Satan asked. "That will not change the nature of a demoness! Believe me, you will be better off without the spawn of Hell in your household."

  The Father of Lies could hardly have spoken more direct truth! Therefore Mym rejected it.

  Mym turned to the Clock. He raised the Sword. The seconds resumed their tickoff.

  "This is crazy!" Satan protested. "You risk the whole world for this damned bit of ether?"

  The sweep-hand passed ten seconds to midnight. Now the hint of the wailing of the world could be heard, as the anguish of the dread finale approached. Missiles rose from their silos, ready for launching. Monstrous destructive spells were being chanted.

  Satan turned to the other Incarnations. "Can't you see, Mars is crazy!" he cried. "All this, for a creature who is beyond damnation!"

  But no one responded. The others had yielded the decision to Mars. Five seconds, four, three. The wailing swelled into the final keening.

  Satan vanished. He had defaulted.

  The sweep-hand stopped at one second to midnight.

  Lila stared at Mym. "But why?" she asked. "You did not owe me this! You know my nature and you do not love me. You had already fulfilled your bargain."

  Mym lowered the Sword. The hands of the Doomsday Clock resumed their motion-in the other direction. They retreated slowly from midnight, then accelerated as the forces that had incited violence faded. They passed thirty seconds and kept moving.

  "I did what I realized I had to do," Mym said.

  "My memory has changed," Chronos remarked. "Satan has been defeated. Soon I will forget that alternate reality I knew before; I did not live through it, now."

  "But you had your victory!" Lila persisted. "And I was-am-now a liability to you."

  "No," Ligeia told her. "As a princess, I know that a prince needs concubines, and it is better to have them known and subservient. He will use you when I am indisposed. And you made it possible for him to find me and for him to find the way to face Satan down. We would not let you be abolished for that. Quite apart from the fact that the word of a prince is inviolate, not to be sullied or compromised, no matter what the cost."

  "But to risk the whole world in war-merely because you interceded-"

  "No," Mym said.

  Now Ligeia was surprised. "No?"

  "I love you, Li," Mym said. "And I owe Lila. But I did not do this for either of you, or to sustain my word."

  "But that does not make sense, then!" Ligeia protested.

  "I'm not sure whether I can explain," Mym said. "The key I perceived is from the book Five Rings. It has taught me the Way of Strategy. It advises me that, if I am trying to follow the Way and allow myself to diverge even a little, then this will later become a greater divergence, and I will lose the Way. I feel this is most especially true when dealing with the Incarnation of Evil himself. I must not diverge even the most trifling amount from the Way, lest I lose all. But it is hard to make that plain to those who have not been studying that book."

  "I believe I understand," Luna said. "This matter is larger than any single perso
n or any single episode. Satan is an insidious corruptor who never rests and he is most dangerous in seeming defeat, as all of us know. It is his specialty to proffer a large reward for a very small compromise, for his resources are infinite. But he who accepts the first compromise has made a precedent, and it then becomes easier to accept the next, and the next, until at last Satan has after all won. Only by refusing any compromise at all, no matter how grotesquely uneven the stakes seem to be, can a person be proof against the insidious devices of the Master of Evil. Mars has refused that first compromise, and thus shown Satan that he is not to be corrupted. This, more than the threat of the holocaust, is the true measure of his victory."

  Mym met Luna's gaze, nodding. She did understand! And now he understood how it was that she could be at the center of this titanic struggle between Good and Evil. When the time came for the critical decision to be made, Luna would be there, and would understand, and would have the courage to do what had to be done.

  Nature - Being a Green Mother (1987)

  Chapter 1 - SONG OF THE MORNING.

  She was just a child, but in the dream she was a woman, beautiful, in a bridal gown, walking down a long aisle on the arm of a man she couldn't quite see.

  But the dream was split-screen, and the other part showed the great globe of the world. That was her, too, in the strange way the dream had of making it seem real. But the world was mostly dead; no human beings remained on it.

  Somehow she knew that these were two aspects of her future, and that one of them would come to pass. Marriage, or destruction. But which one? Why? It wasn't frightening, just mysterious.

  Then music swelled. It was a lovely, mysterious melody. She woke, afraid it would fade away along with the rest of the dream, but it remained, coming from outside.

  She scrambled out of bed, leaving her sister Luna sleeping. Well, Luna wasn't exactly her sister, but it was complicated to fathom, so that was good enough. Let her sleep for the moment; this shouldn't take long.

  She shoved her toes into her slippers and scurried across the floor in her nightie. Lured by the melody, she scrambled down the stairs, along the hall, and reached the door. She put both hands up on the solid knob and turned it, and after a brief struggle got the door open.