« Are you sure I don’t have time to hook up with Fairchild? »
« We’ve got to get to the crèche for the final ceremony. »
« I can’t believe how much of a wet blanket you are lately. There’s something wrong, isn’t there? Don’t lie to me, Davy, not now. »
« I can’t explain. » Davy stops, meets my eyes; I see frustration, desperation, but not deceit. « It’s not obvious, though. It’s science stuff. Ask Cüinn. »
« Do you think I’m going to get a clear explanation from Cüinn? He’s more like a parody of a mad scientist. He’s right as often as not, but the way he comes up with theories – it’s not the scientific method. It’s crazy intuition. »
« We try to understand science, we really do. Cüinn is the best we can manage. But inside the pleroma is a world of dreams, and outside is a world we can shape through alchemy. Humans have a term that mocks people they think have lost touch with reality – ‘magical thinking.’ Well, magical thinking is what we do. Your science isn’t any good at making sense out of the nul-universe. We’d have to come up with a whole bunch of different natural laws. But why should we, when we can sorta feel how it works? We could piss around for centuries trying to systematize it, but not get anything done. »
« Getting something done isn’t science, it’s engineering, » I reply. « Your engineers are actually pretty good. Science is knowledge for the sake of knowledge. »
« Yeah, so it’s a waste of time. The only things worth doing are ones which advance your destiny. »
« The truth is that I’m a crappy scientist. My papers on the nau’gsh are groundbreaking because nobody else was working in that field, and nobody guessed that the Cu’endhari would turn out to be sentient. In a few decades, my research will be completely obsolete, done in by real scientists who measure things meticulously, millimeter by millimeter. »
« You were never meant to be a scientist, Tara. You were meant to be Matriarch. A Matriarch needs to see the horizon, to measure by the parsec, not by the millimeter. »
« I still love science, though. There’s something pure about it. »
In the lobby of Atlas, we run into three emanations I’ve never seen before. Davy introduces them as Gwion, Lakeland and Durant. Lakeland is exquisite, so handsome, but without that touch of the feminine that would make him beautiful. He’s the perfect masculine ideal, like a statue of Apollo, but it’s far more than that. He has an aura which makes it difficult to look away from him. The only thing I can compare it with is Dermot’s beauty spot, but it isn’t like that at all. Lakeland is like the way the sun looks reflected on the water.
« It almost worked, » says Davy. « I wanted you to experience that sense of warmth and purpose we get from being in your presence. Driscoll said I was too ambitious. In the end, I couldn’t do it with only one emanation. It only works in the presence of Durant. »
Durant has thoughtful eyes, soft, rounded features, and his short, severe hair gives him an austere, monastic appearance. I’d barely noticed him despite his lean, strong body. Just like when I first saw them – Lakeland’s charisma and sharpness of intellect are set into relief by Durant’s depth and contemplation.
« Where should I offload the cargo? » asks Gwion. Gwion is another one that fades into the background – very curious. Ash is usually trying to get my attention with flashy emanations like Fairchild, Wynne and Zadornin. Not that subtlety isn’t a nice change. Durant’s subtlety is nice. But Gwion…it isn’t so much subtlety. He seems generic: rugged, strong, with dark hair and full sideburns, Joe Hero from some third-rate action comic. I don’t feel much of anything about him.
« What cargo? » asks Davy.
« Six cases of recreational drugs and a case of Magic Cock ointment, » Gwion replies with a completely straight face.
« That’s a lost weekend waiting to happen, » I murmur.
« I dunno about that Magic Cock stuff, » says Davy. « Do you think it’s wise to use it without a prescription? »
« Are you forgetting that I’m the genius behind RR-2 Labs? » I say haughtily. « I have a vast experience in testing exactly this sort of product. »
« The city of Erotica is perfect for a romantic getaway, » Lakeland suggests.
Davy looks alarmed, like he wants to say something. But Anthony arrives on the hilift. « Lakeland, Durant and Gwion – at last! I need a biological sample from you. »
« If you need them to pee in a jar, maybe use Daniel’s bathroom, » says Davy.
« A strand of hair will do. Merrick suggested a spermo-gnostic working, but one of us would have to remain outside to trigger pollination, and I need to collect from everyone. »
I’m surprised to see that Daniel’s apartment is empty. As it turns out, everyone is at the cenote – and the cave has grown substantially bigger. The emanations have gathered in formation, the reverse of the pattern of swirling energy on the ceiling, reflecting the mandala in the temple.
« Mickey! » says Anthony. « You’re the penultimate one. »
Mickey is here? Then I realize that literally everyone is at the cenote. « Nobody is emanated? Is that a good idea? »
« We need to complete the mandala, » says Malachi. « Don’t worry – the trees won’t be unprotected for long. »
Whirljack and Blackjack have merged into their unified form and are standing on a hoverdisc floating above the center of the pool. Jack indicates that I should join him, and the group parts to let me through. « All right, » he says. « Let’s do this. »
Anthony takes a pocket watch from his vest. He pulls out a strand of his own hair, twisting it into a thread with the others. He places the hair in the watch case, which he tosses into the cenote. The minute the timepiece hits the water, the last spark rises, flying upwards into the central mandala.
“Anthony del Eden’d, Grand Chronometer of the Skarsian Matriarchy. 102nd to emanate, 72 in the color scale, resonates to 359. 1.780 meters tall, cock size 16.69 cm when erect, apparent age 24. Watchmaker. Totem is Pinus longaeva, the Great Basin bristlecone pine, fixed star is La Superba. Esoteric symbol is the Minchiate trump Il Tempo, Time. Dessert is nau’gsh chocoflan. Function is combinatory gravity, proto-conscious tendency is fruition, designated Time. Blazon is dark plum, within a bordure copper, a cog, copper.”
There’s a moment of absolute stillness, and then the blue-green light flares, bright as daylight. For a moment, it fills my vision, and all I can do is stare into it. When I look down, I see the light reflected in the eyes of the men surrounding me.
Jack raises the sangraal, now filled with aqua vitae crafted by Granville. « Drink, » he says, « in the sacred order that begins with Stephen and ends with Patrick. Drink, and let the circles spin together, let the spokes move as one. »
The cup passes from man to man. It isn’t a simple progression, as the order, determined by the rate of their sparks’ resonance, doesn’t match with the ordering of the colors in the circle. As each one drinks, the mandala grows brighter. Finally, the radiance in the room is blinding; it seems that there are no emanations, no trees, no physical sense of place, no sparks, only a sense of power, energy, unified focus. This is Ash, this is what he wanted to become.
I can feel him as a warmth on my limbs, and I reach my arms blindly towards the source of his dark light. Then I feel their eyes again, the kindest eyes I’ve ever known. The emanations are back, each one raising a copy of the grail in a toast to my honor.
The light from above solidifies, and the mothman is forming, descending from the blue-green aura surrounding the mandala until he superimposes over Jack’s body. There are flashes which seem like the whispering of leaves, seem like the entire space is alive, living and morphing in response to us, to the perceptions of all 100 emanations in the circle looking at us. It’s like floating in emotion, a feeling that is alien, inexplicable, but with rivulets of molten human feeling. Ash is eager. He is afraid. He is offering himself to me.
I step forward, clasping Jack’s hands. For a moment, there is sharing, understanding, mutual trust, a perfect dream.
For a moment. « Uh oh, » Davy says.