A TALE OF TWO TIMES: VOLUME 7: WAR AND PEACE: Chapter 1 — Sisterly Confessions
IF YOU’RE NEW HERE, YOU ARE LATE TO THE SAGA OF A TALE OF TWO TIMES. BUT, NO PROBLEM, THE PREVIOUS VOLUMES ARE AVAILABLE IN EBOOK OR PRINT FORMAT OR SOON WILL BE. (OF COURSE, FOR A PAID SUBSCRIPTION, YOU CAN DIG THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS OUT OF THE SUBSTACK ARCHIVE.)
THE 8TH VOLUME, AN ICY WIND IS IN PROCESS OF PUBLICATION AND THE LAST THREE CHAPTERS OF THE 9TH AND LAST VOLUME, THE WAR WITCH RISES, ARE IN THE EDITOR’S HANDS. SO, YOU CAN DROP OUT OF THE MEDIA MADNESS AND GET LOST IN A TALE OF TWO TIMES UNTIL THE ELECTION IS OVER IN NOVEMBER.
ALSO, HERE’S A SYNOPSIS OF A TALE OF TWO TIMES:
A Tale of Two Times is an adventure story featuring two young women of great agency who face a cosmic challenge, unknown, of course to the world, but known, of course, to the ancient clan of true Goths to which they belong. On one hand, their Clan, the Clan of Thiuderieks, has the only possible solution to this cosmic problem, and the possible solution is invested in the persons of Rhoda Knox and Yohanna Okubo, but, on the other hand, Thiuderieks, the founder of the Clan is the cause of the problem. In the distant past of world history he made a deal with the god, Sunderer, and now, after eight thousand years, on Rhoda's and Yohanna’s watch, the time is up for both sides, the Clan and the Circle of the Foe, to settle accounts. The two young women must apply all of their considerable ability—along with on-the-job romance—to grapple with Sunderer's Circle of gods and humans. The action begins in 1960s Texas and quickly moves to the two centers of the universe in Southern California. The action climaxes high in the Andes and concludes on a beach in Mexico.
And back to Volume 7, Chapter 1 — Sisterly Confessions
*****
~ 1 ~ “Sister, let us dive into this ocean and swim for a while together. We are both armed against sea monsters, and against each other.” Rhoda was speaking to Alice in Old Goth. She had found her on the beach in Santa Barbara just as Alice’s game of volleyball was ending.
Alice, breathing no more deeply than she had before the strenuous game, quietly asked, “Will you tell me, Rhoda, what is the Place called ‘Peril’?”
“So, Alice, you did speak with that Place-god while I was being interviewed by Conrad Shelton about the Greased Lightning.”
“Yes, Rhoda, I did communicate with ‘Peril’. Please, will you answer my question?”
“Yes. Peril is the First Place and the Last Place.”
For a few moments, Alice stared intently at Rhoda. “Yes, sister,” she said, “let us swim far out into these waters.”
That conversation in an unknown language, between the two tall, beautiful, dagger-armed women, had been overheard by a couple who had often seen Alice on the beach. Over the sound of the wind which had come up as Alice and Rhoda waded through the surf and struck out through the waves, the man said, “I wonder if only one of them will come back.”
“I’m not going to wait around to find out, shivering in this wind,” the woman replied. “Let’s go over to Mickie’s and get something to eat and drink.”
~ ~ ~
Enjoying the wind which had thinned out the beach-going crowd, Alice and Rhoda were drying themselves after more than an hour of hide-and-seek in the chilly Pacific.
“Rhoda, no one else has ever been able to keep up with me in the ocean.”
Rhoda shrugged. “We are both comfortable in Peril.” Watching admiringly as Alice dried her hair, she remarked, “The Persona made by Ottilie for you suits you well, Thersa; it brings out the Aphrodite in you, rather than the Artemis or the Diana.”
Alice’s hair-drying stopped abruptly. Looking closely at Rhoda, she asked, “How do you know that it is Ottilie who made it?” Thersa felt then, for the first time, her own kind of soul-searching gaze upon her from another’s eyes. She was reminded of Thiuderieks.
“I am Ottilie’s successor in all things now, Thersa. Turn around and allow me to braid your hair; I have an idea which I think you will like.”
Turning her exposed back to Rhoda, Thersa had placed her life in Rhoda’s hands before she had thought to check herself. Then her new hairdresser’s touch caused her nearly to faint.
“Thersa, I see that your Alice Persona works by means of Ottilie’s hair-comb Device, which has melted into your hair.”
“Yes. My scalp tingles pleasantly when I slide the comb into my hair. The comb vanishes then, and later, when I look for it in my mirror, the comb reappears. I remove it, and in the mirror I see myself again.”
“I sensed something of Ottilie in the Alice of the Persona.” Rhoda deftly completed her braiding of Alice’s hair.
“Rhoda! You have braided my hair exactly as Thiuderieks once braided it.”
“Yes; his style was in your Living Memory.” While they were making their way through the beach sand toward Rhoda’s Karmann Ghia, Rhoda said, “I read your Living Memory to determine which hair style would please you best, Thersa, and… Imagine my surprise when I felt Thiuderieks’s hands working in mine! I was nearly overwhelmed!”
“As was I at your touch! The joyfully seductive feel of it is now explained.
“I allowed his actions, Thersa, and I followed them in the way of a good apprentice.” Rhoda chuckled. Speaking again in the English language, she said, “Giselle acted wisely in spiriting you away from my hangar after the interview last year. I hadn’t yet made all of the preparations necessary for grounding our relationship.”
“Rhoda, I’ve wanted to trust you ever since we interviewed Alberto, the newsman. You appeared to have read his Living Memory, and I know members of the Circle can’t read a Living Memory—but I thought the interview might have been staged. Now, Giselle tells me that construction is going well on the Eyrie for my salon, and she‘s convinced that we‘re dealing with the authentic Clan leadership. To be certain of that, she recently went to Chile and visited your grandfather Walter, whom she had known earlier. She discovered that he’s living with Reyna, whom she and I both had known in Ottilie’s time.”
“They’re married now.”
Thersa looked thoughtfully at Rhoda. “Giselle told me that Reyna’s first husband, Max, died in the thwarting of the Circle’s coup in Moscow.”
“Yes; he did die in that event.”
“Rhoda, do you have some things to tell me about our War Thing?”
“Our War Thing?”
Thersa smiled. “Thiuderieks told me that I would hold a position in the last War Thing. I think that War Thing is yours.”
Rhoda released a low whistle of astonishment.
“Rhoda, I sense that you share the War Thing’s authority with a man; poor Ottilie was on her own.”
Rhoda nodded. “Ottilie was a young virgin who desired to be a bride. Then she received the War Thing’s authority. She was bound by our Touchstone to remain a virgin until the Ban of Swords was reinstated, and—foreseeing her own death in the War Thing—she distanced herself from her beloved, Martin Knox, who later became my father.”
“The man whom Ottilie desired has become your father?”
“Yes; that’s the way of it.”
“Where has your mother come from?”
“From out of the blue! Actually she’s from Mexico City. They met in London before the War. It was love at first sight.”
“And, Rhoda, who is the man who shares the Headship with you?”
Rhoda beamed. “He’s Ricardo, my fiancé.” They had arrived at Rhoda’s Karmann Ghia, and Rhoda continued in the parked car, “He’s a Keen Maker, too. We’re made for each other! But we have to refrain from consummating our relationship while the Ban of Swords is lifted, because I was a virgin when I myself lifted the Ban. If you like, Thersa, I can show Ricardo to you as I see him, by bestowing on you a Strand of my Living Memory that’s from the night of our Head Thing.”
“Please do, Rhoda. I’d like it very much. I’ve been told that a Strand of Living Memory may be worth a million words, but Thiuderieks and Ingundis the Fair are the only Makers that I’ve known to read one. They told me about much of my past that they’d learned by reading my Living Memory, and I knew it was all true. But Rhoda, how can I read your Living Memory?”
“Ottilie has advanced the art, so now I can make it possible for you in this way: To my Strand, I’ll attach a Partial Vision based on my psyche, and you’ll be able to recall the Strand as filtered through my own understanding of the experience. Lacking this Partial Vision technique, only an advanced Keen Maker or Word Wise can interpret a raw Strand.”
Rhoda held Thersa’s head in her hands and spoke an Old Goth Makers’ chant, ending with, “Thersa, are you willing?"
Thersa replied in Old Goth, "If you desire it, I do so, as well.” For a long time after that, Thersa sat in the Karmann Ghia’s passenger seat, recalling Rhoda's Living Memory of the event with wonder, amusement, curiosity, and traces of other feelings flashing across her face. She was silent until she exclaimed, “Ottilie! The living Ottilie flashed past you, Rhoda! What is that place you went to, leaving all of your people behind?"
"That was the High Room of the House of Women in the Commons, where Ottilie and I can communicate at the Living Distance. Ottilie entered my personal Plenum in Home Ranch when I inverted into her place in the High Room. Our brief exchange of places allowed Ottilie to speak with my Aunt Judith while being seen by her. Thersa, you knew Judith as Ottilie’s Persona of Miss Wilberforce in Kirchemund. I was able to be Ottilie’s anchor for only a few minutes, because for me, taking her place as a Denizen in the Commons was like diving to the sea floor on a breath of air.”
“Rhoda, what event is it that’s Ottilie’s Anchor in the Commons?”
“It’s the stroke of Ellie’s Herder’s poisoned blade, and the working of the poison in Ottilie. Ellie’s Anchor is her dying on Ottilie’s killing blade before Ottilie died from Ellie’s poisoned blade.”
“Did Ellie not pass?”
“Ellie passed at last, in Ottilie’s presence, before the gates of the House of Women. Then Ottilie’s Anchor in the Commons was transformed, becoming Valkei’s placement of her Crown—which you, too, have touched—on Ottilie’s head. Valkei passed then, just after Ellie had passed upon touching the Crown.”
Thersa was amazed by these disclosures. She asked, “How did Ellie come to touch the Crown?”
“It was offered to her by Imogen.”
“My handmaid of old?”
“Yes.”
“I see that the times converge around us, Rhoda. Had Ottilie and Ellie become reconciled?”
“Yes.”
“Ah! Rhoda, I have, on behalf of Frau Liuva Herder, spoken with the police inspector in the Berlin Police Department who had investigated the deaths of Ellie and Ottilie at each other’s hands. I saw their death photographs. What a difference there was in their faces!” Thersa shook her head. “After her death, Ottilie communicated with me through the purse made by her for me; she provided me with the means for my apparent death. And, years later, she provided me with the means for restoring the Table of Elixir. So I’ve known her to be a Denizen of the Commons.”
Thersa turned her eyes from Rhoda. Quietly she said, "I was in the Commons once with Thiuderieks—on our marriage night. As I was running delightedly back to Earth’s Province, passing many Provinces of the Friend’s Thane-gods, I heard wailing and I saw the torment. I ran faster. I hadn’t known until that moment, that such places exist. I’m glad that Ellie, for all of her faults, has escaped them.”
“She didn’t escape them at first. Ellie’s escape came through being sent in the form of a panther-Anima, by the Friend, to seize Ottilie. Instead, Ottilie seized Ellie.” Rhoda smiled. “Thersa, the Friend didn’t know he was complying with Ottilie’s last command as War Queen—for Ellie to follow her.”
Thersa sat very still, staring at Rhoda. Ottilie’s sisters are strange creatures. …Yet, so am I.
"Thersa, while you were running, you passed along the Advancing Front of Earth’s Province to a Place that’s separated by eight-thousand years from the Place where you left Thiuderieks. To locate the Place you left from, I need to know every detail about your marriage night with Thiuderieks.”
Thersa shook her head. Makers! ”Rhoda! That’s very personal!” You ask much. Do I truly trust you, even now?
“I know that, Thersa, but you have to understand that in Thiuderieks's Place it’s been only a few hours since you left him in love’s slumber, and if he’s not properly wakened, he will die in the past where you’ve left him.”
“Does the Friend know that I’m Thiuderieks's bride?”
“I and my gods are sure that he doesn’t know it, nor does he know that there’s a path through the Commons which only you can follow, to Thiuderieks.”
“Rhoda, to what particular Place and time in Earth’s Province does this path lead?”
“Ottilie determined that the Place exists in Tiera del Fuego, within a certain region of a few square miles, and she arranged for my grandfather Walter to establish a Clan outpost on an island that’s at the center of this area. The Friend’s Circle has discovered the Clan’s outpost there, and they’re now watching it.”
“When I searched Tiera del Fuego hundreds of years ago, Rhoda, the Circle was unaware of my presence there.”
“I think you’re right about that, sister, because Ricardo has learned by eavesdropping on the Friend’s Thane-gods, that they consider it most likely that a virgin Keen Maker of the War Thing is the woman who will awaken Thiuderieks and be his consort as he begins his rule over the Clan. So they may suspect me, rather than you, of being the woman who is to wake him.”
“Well, I’m fortunate in the existence of Ricardo to restrain you, Rhoda.”
“Thersa, you’re not so fortunate in the plans that the Circle likely has, to liquidate the Clan’s headship once the Foe has been vested in the Soma. That headship includes Thiuderieks and his consort.”
“And you and Ricardo.”
“Maybe not, because the Circle is uncertain of the Clan Head’s identity. It’s true that, although all Heads have been individuals from Thiuderieks on, the Circle suspects that we are double-headed. But they may be confused by the existence of multiple possibilities among us for a double-headship.”
“Well, in any case, Rhoda, after I wake up Thiuderieks, he and I will have to flee to safety at once.”
“Yes. And, with your help, Ricardo and I have to do the groundwork properly to make the timing just right for your meeting with Thiuderieks and your escape with him.”
“What help do you need from me?”
“We need your help in finding the First Histories.”
Suspicion flickered in Thersa’s eyes. “What good will the First Histories be, Rhoda?”
“Thersa, the journal of the First Histories contains the exact Design of the Soma inscribed by Thiuderieks. It also contains the equally important narrative of your tryst with Thiuderieks, inscribed by Ingundis the Fair. The narrative includes the Meander of the way you and Thiuderieks took through the Commons, and the Meander of your return alone."
“How do you know about that?”
“From studying the journals of Ingundis the Maker. My sisters had directed me to study them, to learn those Secrets of Ingundis the Fair which have been revealed so far. From her journals I’ve also learned that Ingundis the Fair determined the nature of the Meanders of your wedding night tryst with Thiuderieks. But we still need to know the details of your tryst, in order to show you the path that will reunite you with Thiuderieks."
Thersa stared silently at Rhoda.
"Thersa, Ingundis the Fair attached her narrative to Thiuderieks’s inscription of the Soma’s Design, and we must know the Design in order to anticipate Sunderer’s manner of misusing the Soma.”
”I do not have the First Histories, Rhoda.”
“I didn’t expect that you would have it, because Ricardo and I possess the First Arm of the Device in which the First Histories are hidden. What we need from you is your help in finding the Second Arm.”
“What is the First Arm?”
“It’s the scroll clamp for the Preamble to the First Histories.”
Smiling, Thersa said, “Ingundis the Fair told me that the Circle wouldn’t know the things that you’ve just told me. I don’t know the identity of the Second Arm, but Ingundis told me to tell the Keen Maker whom I would come to trust, that the Second Arm belongs to me, and that its identity will come to light at the right moment.”
“Thersa, what do you still own from the days of Ingundis the Fair?”
“From those days I own my dagger and its sheath, and the two Devices given to me by Thiuderieks. The Devices are the pendant that you’ve examined, and the Table of Elixir.”
“There’s also your body.”
Thersa nodded. Ingundis inscribed my marriage tattoo on my body, where it’s always concealed by my dagger’s sheath.
Rhoda at last started her Karmann Ghia’s engine. Driving away from the beach, she said, “If Ingundis counsels patience until the time is ripe, then we should wait until we know. I suspect that will be, as usual, at the last minute.”
Alice agreed. You are wise, my sister, but I must be certain of the other half of your wisdom: I must test Ricardo.
~ 2 ~ “You’ve met Alice now, Ricardo, but you haven’t met Thersa yet.”
Alice was walking with Ricardo and Rhoda toward the nature trail of the nearly-completed Eyrie. The Eyrie’s two trails were the last items on Alice’s itinerary for an inspection to be completed before the Eyrie’s final construction stage would begin.
Whereas the long trail was meant for serious hiking, the short nature trail’s loop was meant to be used in lieu of a garden by guests of the salon who desired a little fresh air, exercise and privacy. Benches along the nature trail were tucked into hidden small recesses at some distance from each other, for quiet private conversations.
The others who had accompanied Alice on her tour of the Eyrie were Giselle, Flavia (Isabel’s mother), Leo, Antonia, Victor (now the Eyrie’s staff ecologist) and Bridget, along with several of Leo’s staff. Leo and Giselle had, after numerous detailed discussions with Alice, generated a list of minor alterations in the plans for the final construction phase, and a list of important decor arrangements to be finalized, before the Eyrie would be completed to Alice’s satisfaction.
After the Eyrie building’s inspection, the group had gathered on the patio behind it from which the two trails were accessed. The serving staff had received a sign from Giselle to roll out drinks and food bars, around which most of the inspection party had quickly gathered. Because the two trails remained to be inspected, Alice had said, “It’s getting dark, so tomorrow, Victor, please give me a complete tour of the long trail. Leo, tonight I'll camp out in my new apartment, as that’s the best way for me to see how I want it to be finished. Giselle and Flavia are prepared to do the same in their apartments.”
Alice had gone to Rhoda and Ricardo immediately upon seeing them arrive at the party. She had asked, “Please, will you accompany me on a short walk on the nature trail? Ricardo, Rhoda has told me a lot about you, and I’m wondering how much of it is true.”
Flavia had overheard these words as Alice had passed by her with Rhoda and Ricardo. For Flavia, the inspection tour was her first on-the-job experience at the Eyrie, where Giselle had introduced her to the permanent staff as Alice’s co-hostess for the salon. Flavia was secretly pleased that Isabel had not appeared for this event. After hearing Alice’s first words to Ricardo and Rhoda, she had been unable to hear more, so she had missed Alice saying, “You’ve met Alice now, Ricardo, but you haven’t met Thersa yet.” If Flavia had overheard this, she would have been greatly interested, because she had learned from Oscar that the Countess Thersa of Greystone Castle had died.
Alice strode silently up the trail, followed by Rhoda and Ricardo, until they came to the bench at the highest point of the short trail’s loop. In its private nook, the bench was set against a sheer cliff from which the trail zig-zagged back down to the Eyrie. Standing with their backs to the bench, the three of them looked down at the Eyrie, now bathed in both the waning sunlight and the waxing moonlight. The murmur of voices floated up to them from the patio.
Alice turned around to face the two others. Ricardo said, “And I wonder, Alice, how much of what I've heard about you is true.”
“Well, Ricardo, you and I can, with Rhoda’s leave, satisfy our curiosity simultaneously.”
“I grant you both my leave to do so.” Rhoda looked questioningly at Alice, who at once turned her back to Ricardo.
In Old Goth, Alice said, “Ricardo Chavez, holder of Clan headship, please find and then remove my Persona Device.”
Ricardo hesitated, looking down over Thersa’s shoulder.
“Don’t be shy, honey. Do as Alice requests.” Rhoda nodded at him encouragingly.
Ricardo looked up at Rhoda for a moment. Then he squared his shoulders and set his hands on Alice’s beautifully-formed bare shoulders. His hands moved smoothly down over her lightly-clothed breasts and on, then back up to her neck, where he combed his fingers through her hair, raising it high up off her neck. Upon releasing her hair, he quickly pulled the hair comb Device from it as the hair began falling down over her back.
Ricardo remained standing behind Thersa, who suddenly appeared to Rhoda in moonlit naked splendor. Rhoda at once pulled a robe from her purse and hid Thersa’s body from neck to ankles within its softness. Thersa smiled serenely at her and said, “Thank you, dear. Will you please introduce us properly, now that Ricardo has passed my test?”
Thersa’s sudden nakedness had startled Rhoda, as had her own swift response in covering it with a robe. Although she had been most startled by the provocatively caressing sweep of Ricardo’s hands over Thersa’s body, Rhoda understood now that Thersa’s clothing was an Arm of the Device on the Branch of Meaning, and Ricardo’a caress had overcome its concealing role. Oh, Ricardo. What a sharp Keen Maker you’ve become! The thrilling thought completely overcame her stirring of jealousy. I did give my permission.
Ricardo had understood, from the moment of Alice’s request, what was necessary for him to do in order to remove the Persona. He had hesitated for Rhoda’s sake.
“Sit with me here on this bench.” Thersa was still speaking in Old Goth. “There are some things which I must tell to both of you.” She sat at one end of the bench, wrapped in the robe given to her by Rhoda. Rhoda promptly sat in the bench’s middle next to Thersa, who smiled at her and tightened the robe a little. Tucking one leg under the bench, Thersa stretched out before her the leg bearing her sheathed dagger. Rhoda assumed a similar posture, and Ricardo sat on the vacant end of the bench next to Rhoda, draping his arm around her shoulders. He saw the moonlight glinting off the women’s daggers. How formidable they are, these women I’ve fallen in with!
Thersa turned to Rhoda and wordlessly took her hand. After a moment she shook her head and laughed. “Truly, Rhoda, I am feeling giddy! I searched for a thousand years to find Thiuderieks at last, and l have waited and wandered through eight thousand years more to have him again. Well, Rhoda, you know my story, but I, who am living it, feel giddy because I have never before felt that I might truly come so near to the story’s ending.” Thersa drew a deep breath, and her face’s expression grew sober.
“From time to time a guiding Vision comes to me, of a kind which Thiuderieks told me is a Partial Vision. The first one confirmed my instructions from Ingundis the Fair regarding things that I must do after parting with Thiuderieks. Now and then since then—in one century or another—my guiding Vision knocks at the door of my heart and I enter into it, coming to understand things which have happened. From it I have learned also about things which are going to happen, and things which I ought to do. My Vision came to me most recently after Ottilie’s War Thing, when I had become nearly certain that the days were approaching for my attempt to wake Thiuderieks from his slumber. In the Vision I saw myself approaching Bauda—Marge Hemming—to offer her the opportunity for rejuvenation.”
“Thersa,” said Rhoda, “I’ve seen Lady Beverly Whittaker in Ottilie’s Living Memory, and she appeared to be about thirty years old. So it must have been after her rejuvenation that I met Marge Hemming, because she seemed to be my own age.”
“In fact, Rhoda, you met her on the evening of her rejuvenation crisis. I was there, as Alice.” Thersa looked at Ricardo, who nodded. “I was surprised to see her as Captain Hemming. Realizing that it was almost too late, I visited her on the very next day and completed her treatment before her mind and body could unravel. Now, although she wants to resume the Elixir treatment, she cannot. In any case, there will be an end to the Elixir when I wake Thiuderieks—if his awakening is to be.”
Ricardo asked, “Where did you obtain the rejuvenating Elixir, Thersa?”
“From the purse given to me by Ottilie. The purse was small Blood Gold from her for having wounded me on the occasion of my attempt to kill her in defense of the Table of Elixir.”
After a quick look at Ricardo, Rhoda asked Thersa, “Do you know why it is that you had to rejuvenate Marge Hemming?”
“My Vision did not reveal to me the reason, Rhoda, and my sense is that it is your puzzle to solve. I can tell you, however, that there were, in fact, two phials of the rejuvenating Elixir in my purse, and I learned that the second phial was to be given to Mortimer Kane, for him to offer to a woman. When I presented the phial to him I said, tongue-in-cheek, that it was for a ‘suitable playmate’ for him. ‘Think of it as your reward for completion of the Keep,’ I said. He said something about rejuvenating Liuva Herder, so I was surprised by his choice of Esmeralda Montgomery, who was outside the Circle. She has become his playmate.”
“And that was through a chain of actions that I, unwisely, had set in motion,” Rhoda confessed. She told Thersa about her attempt to psychologically seduce Fr. Aden Haldane in order for Yohanna to read him for Shade influences. She explained that the attempt had led to a meeting between Mortimer Kane and two women—Bridget Lamb and Esmeralda Montgomery—both of whom had become involved in affairs in the Son’s House, where the Preamble to the First Histories was hidden.
Thersa questioned Rhoda closely about Esmeralda, and about the whole complex affair at the Son’s House. She showed special interest in Bridget’s flight from the Circle’s influence into Yohanna’s influence. Then she said, “Rhoda, I know the Friend’s methods well enough to sense his influence in the matter of Esmeralda. His Powers—if not he himself—may well have been cultivating Esmeralda Montgomery. As you have said, you were unwise in acting in this matter before you and Ricardo had received the Clan’s headship.”
Rhoda nodded and closed her eyes. Opening them, she asked, “Was I under the Friend’s influence when we met at Mickie’s? Was it because you sensed his influence that you slipped away from my company at the hangar?”
“Yes. Only now, however, do I see that it was my sense of the Friends’s remote influence which caused me to flee. And my later inability to see through your Miss Wilberforce Persona tells me that you are under his influence no longer, Rhoda.”
“Thersa,” Ricardo asked, “do you sense that, on the other hand, our guardian Powers have gained some influence in the Circle? Bridget Lamb, who had been drawn into the Circle of the Friend, has now been, in essence, recruited into the Clan.”
“That may well be. And now that I have told the two of you what I have to say, I must return to my guests. Rhoda, please assist me in regaining my Alice Persona.”
Ricardo turned away and walked a few paces from the two women while Thersa, with Rhoda’s assistance and her mirror, quickly became Alice. Then Alice and Rhoda went to Ricardo, and Alice took his arm. Leaning close, she said softly into his ear, “Thank you, Ricardo Chavez. Is everything that I have, yours?”
“Nothing tangible or visible, I think.”
Rhoda wondered what was happening between them, hidden from her by Ricardo’s turned head. When she sensed a stirring in the War Path, she dismissed the little outbreak of jealousy, for she had declared the War Path to be in Ricardo’s keeping. …and I’ve told him that I like surprises.
Alice walked between Rhoda and Ricardo, holding their hands, on their way down the trail toward the Eyrie. As they grew near the patio she halted them. “Rhoda, you are now my guiding Vision,” she said. After releasing Ricardo’s hand, she gently squeezed Rhoda’s hand before releasing it.
Leo had been watching for their return. Seeing them appear in the light at the edge of the patio, he whispered to Antonia, “They’ve transacted some serious Goth business.” Antonia saw immediately that there was a significant decrease in the tension which she had observed in the three of them before their walk. And a wave of gaiety was beginning to animate the group on the patio. Bridget, sensing the change at once, took Victor’s hand and said, “Let’s dance!”
“There’s no music, Bridget.”
“If we begin to dance, I betcha the music will follow.”
~ ~ ~
Ricardo steered his Sarxx Roadster onto Old Turkey Road, leaving the Eyrie behind them, while Rhoda studied his profile. “Well, my clever Maker,” she said to him, “I’m certainly glad that Thiuderieks is waiting for Thersa. I saw the pleasure she took in your touch.”
“Rhoda, I was as gentlemanly as I could possibly be under the circumstances.”
“I know, honey; it’s a great comfort to me.”
“Even more revealing to me was Thersa’s account of Marge Hemming’s and Esmeralda Montgomery’s rejuvenations.”
Foregoing a slap to his hand, Rhoda asked, “In what way, dear?”
“I sensed Ottilie’s presence near me, almost like she was whispering in my ear, at the moment of Alice’s request that I reveal her as Thersa. And Ottilie communicated to me an insight into the method that I could use for removing the Alice Persona.”
“How are you so certain that it was Ottilie?”
“Rhoda, she was the same woman who appeared as Ottilie on the night of our Head Thing.”
“Well, Ricardo, it’s the presence of Ingundis the Fair that I sensed tonight. It happened when Thersa was talking about her Partial Vision. I felt a certainty that Ingundis the Fair had fabricated the Vision, and that it’s Ingundis the Fair who’s been guiding Thersa through the ages by means of it. I know her presence through the House of Women, but my sisters have never spoken to me about this Partial Vision.”
“That must be because it’s a very deep Secret of hers. From the House of Men, I’ve learned that the Houses are now aligned with our Advancing Front. And, Rhoda, I think Ottilie and Ingundis the Fair have cooperated in revealing the same Secret to each of us.”
“You’re right. My sisters in the House of Women have told me about the alignment. But what’s the Secret that we’ve leaned from the Houses through Thersa?”
“I think the Secret we’ve learned tonight is the truth about the Elixir.”
" ‘We’ have learned? You’d better spell it out, honey. I still have more than one idea about it.”
After making the turn off Old Turkey Road at the T, Ricardo flashed a grin at her. “Sweetheart, I’m saying that, because of taking the Elixir, all of the human members of the Circle—the Shades—are analogous to the Denizen members of our Houses of Men and Women.”
Rhoda froze. She stared at him. “…You mean they’ve all died and they don’t know it!”
“I’m sure of it. They’re Denizens who are so perfectly embedded in the Advancing Front of Earth’s Province, that we see them as the living human beings that they believe themselves to be.”
“So, the Shades really think they’re human beings, but actually, …they’re only remembering what it’s like to be human."
“Yes. But, Rhoda, what’s the power that keeps them embedded in the Advancing Front, in that condition of self-deception?"
"Honey, that kind of power can only be the power that’s intended to be used for the operation of the Soma. Sunderer deeded that power to Thiuderieks when they made their Pact for the Soma’s fabrication. We know that the Elixir was meant for transforming four humans (‘a carriage of four’, from the Preamble) into assistants who would operate the Soma for Sunderer. But the Soma hasn’t yet been fabricated."
"Yes! Rhoda, I think we’re seeing the War Thing's first move to outflank Sunderer. Thiuderieks must have offered Sunderer a new Elixir for a new use, in compensation for Sunderer having to wait so much longer than had been anticipated for the Soma’s fabrication. The new Elixir would be given to Sunderer’s chief agents, providing the god with the advantage of having a cadre of extremely long-lived agents in Earth's Province, who would keep an eye on the Clan. Thiuderieks had intended for the original Elixir to be given to the four assistants in operating the Soma, who would be Clan Makers from Earth’s Province embedded in the Advancing Front of the Netherworld. The new Elixir offered to Sunderer would function in reverse of the original Elixir, and to accomplish the reversal, Thiuderieks would make use of the power that was intended for the Soma before the Soma itself existed."
"Wow! So Bauda was the first of four humans who took the Elixir, pledging their service to Sunderer, and who instantly died and were embedded as Denizens in the Advancing Front of Earth's Province. Sunderer must have personally silenced their Heart Roots, but the Heart Roots would have been kept in place by the power—directed by Thiuderieks and his assistants—which was intended for the Soma. When they became Shades, those people must have been unaware of the profound change in their existence. And in the beginning, Thiuderieks, Ingundis the Fair and Thorismund must have cooperated closely with Sunderer and Cleaver."
"That’s what I think, Rhoda. And Sunderer was unaware of the fact that, once the Clan was using that power to keep the Shades embedded in the Advancing Front of Earth’s Province, the War Thing had the advantage of being able to shape the Niche of the Soma before its actual use as the Battleground. The Denizens of our Houses are continuing to control this embedding power that they’re also using to shape the Niche. But I wonder how they do it.”
"They could be making use of Thiuderieks’s Garth! Because it’s in the shape of a ring around the Netherworld, it might be functioning like a giant lens that focuses the Soma's power on all of the ‘human’ members of the Circle. We’ll know for sure when we get the actual Design in the First Histories.”
“And Rhoda, what Thersa has just now told us implies that the Soma’s power was centered on Bauda (our Marge), rejuvenating her by driving her and her Living Memory completely out of the Netherworld’s Province.”
“Thersa’s guiding Vision had instructed her to give Marge the rejuvenating Elixir, and we know that Vision comes from Ingundis the Fair and Ottilie, in the Houses.”
“Right. And what the rejuvenating Elixir really did was to make Marge a visible point on which our own Denizens focused the Soma's power with the intensity required to eject her back into Earth's Province.”
"Ricardo, I think something else happened when Thersa completed Marge's rejuvenation. I think that surge of the Soma's power was refocused through Thersa in Earth's Province, into the future of the War Thing’s Advancing Front—its very Edge of Meaning—to mark the Place where she can be reunited with Thiuderieks, if we can get her there. I foresee that their reunion will stake out our high ground on the Battleground."
“That brief focus of the Soma's power on Marge has left clues in the Commons, where the Commons mingles with our Advancing Front. With those clues and with information from the First Histories, we’d able to help Thersa find her way precisely to our 'sleeping’ Thiuderieks."
"Honey, I'll be meeting with Thersa soon, and I’ll explain to her what we've just worked out. Then she’ll understand that those clues created by a surge of the power meant for the Soma are hers to follow. And I’m sure she’ll also be able then to recall and to provide to me the identity of the second Arm of the Device in which is hidden the First Histories.”
The roadster swerved suddenly. Rhoda had squeezed Ricardo's hand on the steering wheel. "Honey,” she said, “we’ll behold the form that the Battleground will take for us only when Thersa is actually following the path through the Commons to Thiuderieks's Place."
"And we have the whole adventure of the Soma’s completion to come, before that happens. "
"Oh, Ricardo! How much time together do we really have?"
~ 3 ~ In his finest Maker’s tunic and apron, Ricardo entered the Inner Sanctum of his Workshop and placed his hands on the ancient Calling Stone for the Heart Shield—the very stone discovered by Ingundis the Fair and Thorismund, and transported by them to Thiuderieks’s hold.
“My son Ricardo, why have you not beckoned me directly in the War Thing?”
I would speak with you person-to-person, Heart Shield, concerning a matter which is, strictly speaking, outside the Niche of the Pact between Thiuderieks and the Friend.
“I am willing, my son, but there are many things of this nature which my office does not allow me to speak to humans or to other gods—matters which are, strictly speaking, within the norm of justice which is my office.”
Ricardo sensed that the Heart Shield was communicating an openness to the very inquiry that he wished to make. But because he was certain that the norm of the Heart Shield’s office regarding person-to-person transactions was originally inclusive only of those between humans, he would be blunt: Heart, when Sunderer answered Thersa's question by telling her, person-to-person, that he is God, were you not faced with a matter of judging and sealing a spoken transaction which is, strictly speaking, outside the norm of your office, while being, at the same time, a transaction of which you were obliged to render justice?
“That is indeed so, Ricardo.”
Was it your judgement, in this circumstance, to award to Thersa, a stake in the Heart Weight of Sunderer?
“Yes, Ricardo; that is what I have done, for the situation was both inside and outside the norm of my office. And our Creator has allowed that award to stand.”
Then, in that act, the norm of your office was implicitly enlarged to include transactions between humans and gods?
“Yes. My office has become so enlarged.”
Is it true that, as a consequence, your responsibility for this new class of transactions—transactions between humans and gods—among transactions regulated by the Ethical Force, has led to the further evolution of the office of Makers?
“Again, you are correct, Ricardo. The Clan of Thiuderieks has its roots in that event. You are the first among gods and humans to understand this.”
Now, Heart Shield, I must tell you that I have come into possession of the stake of Sunderer’s Heart Weight which you had awarded to Thersa. Is this not a matter of personal concern to you?
“It is a matter of personal concern to me.”
It is logical that you have become a member of the War Thing, because it is not only a matter of transactional justice for a human—Thersa—but it is also a matter of transactional justice for a god—Sunderer. Insofar as the transaction is between gods, it is a matter of justice for those gods themselves to determine, but you and Sunderer have not yet come to an agreement regarding the details of the settlement awarding Thersa a stake in Sunderer's Heart Weight.
“Yes, it is a continuing conversation concerning his transactions with humanity, which I am carrying on with Sunderer through events of the War Thing as if I am doing it in person.”
Is the ethical norm by which you counsel us regarding our War Thing act, the same ethical norm by which you make person-to-person transactions with other gods?
“Yes, Ricardo. Such is the norm by which I evaluate all of your War Thing decisions.”
Thank you, Heart Shield. Now I have a personal question of a different nature, if you will entertain it.
“After I hear it, I may answer it.”
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