Three Novel Nymphs, page 17
“So that’s why you are doing it,” Nydia said.
“Yes. The people here are far from perfect, but they don’t deserve explosive extinction.”
“It seems we owe you much,” Ecstasy said.
“I do what I feel is right, even if it is not appreciated. I always have.”
“So do I,” a woman said, appearing before them, having no apparent trouble with the water. Her voluminous hair was bright red, her eyes lambent blue. She was remarkably well formed, her scant outfit barely concealing the details. Nydia had never seen her before.
“Lilith!” Rob said. “I thought you’d departed for Mundania or worse.”
“I’m through with Mundania. The folk there don’t believe in demons anymore, or even in magic. They are hopelessly blind to the mythical reality, thinking it is just stories. Xanth is much better.”
Nydia wrestled down her surprise. “I thought you were a creature of mythology. Why are you meeting with us?”
“I am a creature of mythology. The ancient Sumerians and later Babylonians were well familiar with me, especially their menfolk.” She quirked a quarter smile. “So are the denizens of Xanth. Universal currency, you know.” She glanced at Woe Betide. “You recognize me, don’t you, Woe?”
“Yes. I’ve seen you around, over the centuries. You’re like Metria,” Woe said. “Maybe as bad.”
“I am a demoness, yes, as is she and your third component, slightly crazy Mentia. I like men, the way Metria and Mentia do, and can have a fair amount of fun with them. But I am not into pointless mischief the way your alter ego is. I am seriously trying to save Xanth from destruction.”
“That’s what I’m doing,” Rob said.
“Indeed, and I applaud you for it, you phenomenal reptile.” She eyed his figurine up and down. “Your humanoid format is certainly handsome.”
There was a warning rumble in the ground. Nydia was alarmed. An earthquake was building!
“Oh, don’t be concerned, Earth Element,” Lilith said. “I’m just window shopping, not buying.” She returned her attention to Nydia. “What you are doing is admirable. But this Quest needs more help than you can provide.”
“Help?” Nydia asked, uncertain about this.
The demoness gave her a straight look, for half a moment showing her age of millennia. “For example, you will soon need to enter the Void. That is easy enough to do. The challenge is exiting it. I can pop safely in and out, and take you with me. That is the help you need at the moment. There may be other occasions in the future.”
It was indeed needed help! Nydia feared the Void for exactly that reason. Still, she did not completely trust this. The template had bits about this nefarious demoness. “But why?”
“You are on a larger Quest than you know. It’s not just to quell inconvenient perturbations in the Elements, who in this regard are effects rather than causes. It is to save Xanth itself from destruction.”
Lilith was impressing Nydia despite her caution, but she still did not have confidence in the demoness. “Why?” she asked again. “If Xanth explodes, you can pop off to Mundania, even if they don’t believe in you there, or anywhere else you choose. You can make it with any man you choose, in any locale. What do you care about the welfare of Xanth?”
“I don’t have any particular concern for Xanth. It’s that it’s not right to let it be pointlessly destroyed, or to let evil win without even a fight. Your Quest seems to be the most promising avenue to prevent that termination from happening.”
Nydia was further impressed, however reluctantly. She looked at Woe. “You know this demoness. Can she be trusted?”
The child smiled. “Oh, sure. She does naughty things with men, with the details fogged out for me, and she makes kings and queens mad sometimes by telling them the facts their yes-men won’t, but she never betrayed anyone. Metria was curious and checked her out. She’s a foreign demoness, one of the oldest, who takes herself seriously. That means she’s honest. The bad stories about her are mostly false, spread by folk who don’t much like being faced with inconvenient truths. You can trust her, but you may not like her.”
That seemed like an excellent recommendation to Nydia. “You think she should join this Quest?”
“Sure.”
It was time for an Act of Leadership. Nydia turned to face the members of the Quest. “Lilith says she can help us, and I believe her. But she is in most respects a stranger to us. I feel we should learn more about her before inviting her to join the Quest. How do the rest of you feel?”
“I had a fair history before I joined,” Nerine said, “though I didn’t know it. Yes, it is safer to learn hers first.”
Nydia got a notion. “Noletta, check how we are a day hence, with her and without her.”
Noletta focused. “Without her we seem to be sort of aimless. With her we’ve got Void in figurine form.”
Nydia glanced at Ecstasy. “Your perspective?”
“It’s always better to act on information rather than ignorance.”
“Vinia?”
“The paths around her are mostly green.”
“Elements?”
The four of them nodded. The two males were looking openly at the demoness’s flexing midsection; the two females squinted, preferring to shut it out.
“Moonroe?”
He, too, was looking. “Get her story.”
“Rob?”
He wasn’t looking, surely aware of Eartha beside him. “I know much of it already, from observation. I’d like to have her take on it.”
“Anthem?”
There was a positive chord.
Nydia smiled. “Tell us your story, please, Lilith. We have two telepaths in our number, so you can think it if you prefer, and they will make the scene.”
“Gladly. Make yourselves comfortable. I will edit it down substantially, but there’s a fair amount.” She glanced at Woe. “Suitably edited for a child.”
“Oh, blip!” Woe swore. “I hoped you’d forget that part. I hate the spot fog.”
“It’s dull anyway, as the Good for One Thing nymphs know.”
The nymphs nodded. They had been trying to get beyond the One Thing ever since escaping the Retreat.
“The story of the Beginning starts really dull, but in due course it gets into the interesting parts. Bear with it; it is necessary background.”
They resigned themselves to the dullness.
Then the history started.
In the beginning was the fabric of nothingness. The universe was without form and void, a monstrous blankness. Then there was a blip, with the emptiness erupting into quantum flux, tearing apart into positive and negative energy that explosively repelled one another. A picture formed of two rapidly expanding clouds, illuminated by the aspect of energy called light.
In time, the positive radiation got twisted at the edges and curled into specks called atoms, which possessed some of each form of energy, positive protons and negative electrons, clumped together to form matter. The same happened with the negative radiation, only with the pro-tons being con-tons in nuclei orbited by positrons. Thus came to be two complementary universes, exactly even in energy and matter, with gravity dominating one and magic the other. When examined too closely, the marvelous probabilities of each collapsed into dullness. So it was best simply to take things on ignorant faith.
The Mundane universe came to be governed by several underlying forces like the strong and weak nuclear forces, the electromagnetic force, and gravity, while the mythic universe was governed by magic, similarly applied. Each universe was peripherally aware of the other, though they could not touch directly without mutual destruction. Together they amounted to nothing, so for the sake of continued existence they had to remain apart, only eyeing each other wistfully, like a man and a woman who could love from afar but never embrace.
The Mundane universe came to manifest the marvels of technology like paperclips, television, and the outernet. Now there was a box with talking pictures on its face and vehicles that generated much pollution and some motion. The mythic universe formed the demons, both capped and uncapped, the former infinitely more powerful than the latter. The Mundanes worked with science, the mythics with magic, the positive and negative aspects of the same phenomenon.
“That accounts for our present situation,” Lilith concluded. “We are creatures of the mythic universe. The spirits formed from vast clouds of magic dust, the powerful ones becoming Demons, like Xanth, the left-over bits becoming incidental demons like me or Metria. Other bits became ghosts.”
The presentation paused. “Are you still with me?” Lilith inquired.
“Barely,” Ecstasy answered. “It’s like foul-tasting medicine, awful but necessary.” The others nodded agreement.
“Good. The worst is over.”
The picture resumed, this time showing Lilith as a blob of animated vapor. She formed an eyeball, looked about, and spied the Proprietor fashioning the Garden in his own private realm, a minor section of the larger reality. Curious, she watched as he laid out all manner of plants and trees, set up hills and vales, and coursed a river through it. Then he made the animals, including the first man, Adam. And looked about. Something was missing. He spied Lilith. That was it! The man needed a companion, a woman, so he wouldn’t get bored.
So he hired Lilith, who was satisfied to have something to do. She entered the Garden, took the form of a female of Adam’s species, becoming a lovely humanoid woman, and took over the practical instruction of the man, who really knew nothing. She became his wife, running his life as women were to do with men ever after. Until she proved to be too good at it, producing dozens of children who ran all over the Garden, throwing fruits about, peeing on flowers, stepping on bugs, messing it up. The din of their laughter, crying, and games gave the Proprietor a headache. But her real problem was when she saw the nebulous mischief coming from afar, and tried to warn Adam of it. That was not what she was supposed to be there for, but she persisted. Then the Proprietor, who regarded such information as manifestations of Hell, expelled her from the Garden, eliminated the bothersome children, took a rib from Adam, and fashioned it into a more obedient woman. Lilith was out.
Until she took up with Cain and generated many more offspring, the children of Nod. When Cain died of old age, as mortals did, she moved on to one of the cultures that had formed in the interim, the Sumerians. They were in need of temple mistresses, so she took that position, disappearing into comfortable anonymity, generating no children; she could turn that aspect off at will, and actually the Proprietor had a point about their nuisance value. The demoness was very popular with the visitors; in fact, she converted multitudes to that sect. One of the other sects did not like the competition, so tried to make this sort of activity into a sin. That hardly slowed the action, but did generate quite a number of sinners and copious guilt. Why not? It was a convenient way to discipline errant folk.
But her covert activity in Sumeria was intellectual. Lilith studied with the clerics, who were vulnerable to her persuasion just as other men were, and learned their most secret lore. Their knowledge was never written, in part because writing did not then exist, but it was potent. They did not share it with the laity, but in time, she became a cleric and acquired it. Thus she learned of the source of the mischief she had been wary of before. But still she was unable to do anything about it. That was extremely frustrating. But one day, she swore she would find a way.
Eventually, the cultures warred and changed, and she found herself out of a job again. So she went to Xanth, pleasing any men she encountered. They thought she was good for Only One Thing, and she was outstandingly good at that, and protected her anonymity by encouraging them to see her that way. But she remained aware of the threat, which was slowly coming closer. She had to let someone know. Someone who might be able to do something about it. Kings and queens were out; their main interest was in maintaining their power. Magicians and sorceresses were out because their magic could not address it.
When the threat tried to rip Xanth apart, Ouroborus slithered in and circled the land and held it together, though that deprived him of his freedom of motion. She admired that act of sacrifice on his part. But still the threat was unknown to anyone who might be able to do anything about it. Only the Good Magician had any inkling, and his ways were barely scrutable. What could she do?
“And so I come to you,” Lilith concluded. “To help you accomplish the necessary, if you will accept my help.”
Nydia glanced around at the others. “Welcome to the Quest,” she said. “But there is a condition: you must not interfere with any of the existing relationships. No flirting with any of our men. No One Thing here. If you want a man for yourself, he must come from outside this group.”
“Done,” the demoness agreed. “Seduction is my tool to manage men and punish women who try to interfere with me, not my passion. I can turn it off.” And, remarkably, her radiating sexuality faded, and she became just an incidental person. She looked the same as ever, but somehow it was neutral.
Nydia was relieved that it was working out, not least because she did want help getting in and out of the Void. But there was one more thing. “You spoke of the great threat to Xanth that we may be about to address. Exactly what is that, and why hasn’t anyone else except Rob picked up on it?”
Lilith took a breath that was just air, not enhancing her bosom. “Just a bit more background. I had time to study details in Sumeria, and learned interesting and alarming things. The universes not only formed atoms, they developed elements, not the same as the Elements you know, but unique accumulations of matter. These in turn clumped together in combinations to form objects, which collected to form planets, stars, and galaxies. We are in a galaxy the Mundanes call the Milky Way. Another is called Andromeda. The two galaxies are orbiting each other, gradually coming closer together. Eventually they will crash, forming one giant black hole, wiping out everything in both of them. We don’t want that, and neither does the spirit of the other galaxy, the Demoness Andromeda. Her solution seems to be to destroy us so there will be nothing for her to crash into. That may work well for her, not so much for us. She has been investigating, looking for a way to obliterate us. Over the eons, she has tried different things. None have worked. The last was to blow us apart, planet by planet, but Rob stopped that by clamping Xanth together. He locked that mechanism in place so she has been unable to do it to other planets, to her frustration. Now she is trying to stir the Elements into wiping out the folk here, including Rob, so that they can’t stop the explosion. That explosion will trigger other explosions, in a process called nuclear fission that will rapidly blow up everything. That’s why they have been so agitated. It will only get worse unless we stop not only this ploy, but Andromeda herself.”
Nydia froze in horror. “But—”
“Exactly. Andromeda is a Demoness. Specifically of the force of Flux, or Change. The foreign galaxy is only her residence. The Sumerians knew. We as ordinary folk cannot hope to oppose her directly. That’s why the Good Magician arranged to set up a Quest run by soulless nymphs no one would suspect of tackling any ordinary task, let alone foiling a Demoness.”
Nydia gazed at the others, aghast. “But—”
“Exactly,” Lilith repeated. “We have, as the Mundanes say, our work cut out for us.”
“And—and if we fail—”
“Our entire galaxy is gone.”
“Let’s consider,” Nydia said. “My template indicates that the ratio of a Demon to a demon is about that of a galaxy to a grain of sand.”
“Correct.”
“So we are a few grains of sand going up against a galaxy.”
Lilith smiled grimly. “I see that you do appreciate the odds.”
“We shall have to strategize.” She looked around. “Any ideas?”
Eartha glanced at Rob. “You surely suspected this, as I did. Have you thought about it?”
“Yes. It occurs to me that there could be something in the Void. I never had the nerve to enter the Void, but with Lilith’s help we may be able to look there. Even if it is only an idea of how to proceed, it might help.”
“I already have an idea,” Eartha said. “Another place to look is Galaxy Andromeda itself. We should perhaps travel there, quietly.”
“Travel there!” Nydia exclaimed. “It was all we could do to make it to the moon and back. How could we ever get to a foreign galaxy?”
“There is a mortal with the talent of making holes, including between planets. He might make us a hole from here to Andromeda.”
“Santo,” Lilith said. “With a Magician-level talent. I know of him. He intrigues me.”
“He is gay,” Eartha said.
“That’s why he intrigues me. As a challenge.” For the better part of a moment, her allure returned, causing male eyes to swivel.
“That in turn intrigues me,” Eartha said. “You think you could seduce a man who has no interest in women?”
“I believe I mentioned the challenge.”
A look circulated. This could get interesting.
“What could we do in Andromeda Galaxy,” Noletta asked, “other than walk into the web of the enemy?”
Moonroe laughed. “Excellent question! But since the alternative is for us all to be destroyed, it may be worth considering.”
A silence hovered near. Nydia intercepted it before it could get established. “Perhaps the Void has something that would serve.”
“Lilith could help one person enter and depart the Void,” Ecstasy said. “But the whole Quest?”
“I could move a number of people,” the demoness said. “One at a time.”
