And Eternity

by Piers Anthony

  "So I believe that the three of us should remain together," Jolie said. "Working to accomplish both your desires, and mine too."

  Yours too?

  "I am highly impressed with Roque Scott, and not just because of the way you girls feel about him. I think he just might qualify to be an Incarnation, and I want to watch him closely with that in mind, so that I can make a full report when the time comes. So my job is compatible with yours: we can watch him, and sometimes be with him, and try to recover your baby, together. Of course we shall have to take some turns."

  Agreed, Orlene thought, relieved. I confess that when you said I could leave this host, I was afraid; I prefer residence in the living state to being a ghost, and I very much like Vita's company.

  You do? I thought you regarded me as an impulsive juvenile.

  I do. You do things I would never unbend enough to do. The way you tore open Roque's robe—but I loved being along for the ride. You lend excitement to my life—I mean, my death.

  And you lend maturity to mine. Vita thought, pleased. When you two came, I thought. What the hell is this, spooks messing up my life even worse than it was, keeping me from the H. But you're better than H! You got me to Roque, and you're teaching me so much, I really think I can be something when I grow up.

  "So I think we are agreed," Jolie said. "We shall work together, until it seems appropriate to separate, and perhaps we shall in time achieve all our desires." The truth was that she, too, rather liked experiencing the living state again. She had never had enough of it, the first time, with Parry.

  We are agreed, Orlene thought.

  Great! Vita added.

  The secretary in Luna's office looked up. "May I help you?"

  "I need to see Senator Kaftan," Jolie said.

  "The Senator is away from the city this week. Do you wish to make an appointment?"

  That wouldn't do; they needed a residence today. Jolie, in her concern with moving them out of the Judge's residence, had not anticipated this.

  Maybe Mom...

  Good notion! "Is Vera here?" The folk at Luna's office were all first names, as was Luna herself, normally.

  "Why yes, you may see her if you wish."

  "I will have to put you back in charge," Jolie murmured.

  They were shown into a back office piled with books and papers and video screens: the research department. There was a woman who looked a lot like Vita, thirty years older.

  "Mom!"

  The woman looked up, startled, and burst into tears. Vita went over and hugged her, crying herself.

  Before long they were comparing brief notes. It seemed that Vera had gotten a notion of the problem in the family, but didn't want to speak of it openly. She did not importune Vita to return home. Vita was at pains to explain that though something had caused her to leave, and that she had had some bad times, she was now much better off and perhaps even had a better life than she might have had.

  "I've been staying with Judge Scott," she concluded. "He has a housekeeper who's nice, but you know he can't keep a juvenile girl in his house forever, it would look wrong, so I have to move out. I've got a friend with me, a ghost, and when I need to do something adult, she takes over. We're going to do some traveling, and we're helping in your research, maybe."

  Vera's look indicated that she had a glimmer of why her daughter had to depart the presence of the Judge, but again she preferred to let it lie. It was obvious that Vita was physically healthy and emotionally sound, and that was an immeasurable reassurance. "You know of my research?"

  "Some, Mom. The final confrontation between Good and Evil, when—"

  "Enough! You are helping in this?"

  "In part. Looking for candidates for—"

  "Don't say it! Satan's minions are everywhere."

  "Satan knows it's coming, Mom. Anyway, I sort of need a place to stay, for a while, until I travel. We thought Luna might know—"

  "Let me ask." She got up and hurried out. In a moment she returned, the look of surprise still on her face. "Luna left word: you are to go to her house immediately. It seems that Judge Scott notified her."

  "The Judge is a great man, Mom."

  "I am not sure I grasp all of what is going on here."

  "I guess you know. Mom, it was Luna who sent the ghost to me, to get me straightened out. She wanted you to feel at ease. The Judge, when he learned about her involvement, decided to help."

  "She is a great woman."

  "I guess that's why she and the Judge understand each other so well."

  "There seems to be a good deal of understanding," Vera remarked somewhat wryly.

  A carpet took them to Luna's estate. The two griffins charged up as it came down. Jolie took over. "Griffith! Grissel!" she called. "Smell my soul!"

  They recognized an approved visitor and relaxed. They stopped at the front door, cautiously. "Muir!" she called to the moon moth within. "It's me, Jolie, in human host."

  Muir, too, recognized her, and she entered without challenge. Gee, Vita remarked, impressed.

  They walked through the house, admiring the aura paintings on the walls. Luna could see auras, Jolie explained to the others, and so could judge people in much the manner Orlene could. Perhaps that was not surprising, for Orlene was very like a niece to her.

  There was a note on the kitchen counter. WELCOME, TRIO. FOOD IS AVAILABLE. USE THE EAST ROOM. DRESS IN SOMETHING NICE.

  "Dress in something nice?" Jolie asked, perplexed. "To stay alone until she returns?"

  They checked the East Room. It was a beautiful suite, complete with a closet stocked with several lovely dresses of the appropriate size. There were slipper-shoes which fit Vita's feet perfectly. There would be no problem dressing nicely!

  They made a project of it, taking a good bath, washing the hair and putting a slow curve in it by using a spell-stone designed for that purpose, and donning a dress that was first cousin to an evening gown. Vita had filled out during her time with the Judge and now looked impressive in the low décolletage. I think I've been turned into a princess for a night! she thought admiringly.

  There was the sound of a chime. They tripped down to the front door, uncertain who could be calling, but certain that Muir would allow no intruder.

  Roque Scott stood there. He gazed at them, astonished. "Here?" he asked.

  Jolie turned the body over to Vita. "Oh, Roque!" she breathed. "Don't go away!"

  He stepped up and swept her into his arms. "This is not my house," he said. "I am not obliged to enforce standards here."

  "Shut up and get on to the endearments," she said, lifting her face for a kiss.

  "You are delightfully forward, my juvenile delight."

  "I'm too young to know any better. How come you're here?"

  "I received a message from Luna's office, asking me to check on an item of some value at her house. Naturally I came here after work, knowing that she would not ask such a favor capriciously."

  "We didn't see anything," Vita said. "Of course you didn't, my darling innocent." He stroked her hair.

  She tittered, catching on. "Gee, it's fun to be innocent!"

  Maybe we should depart for a few hours, Jolie thought.

  "No!" Vita said. Roque's hand, having proceeded beyond the length of her tresses and on down her back toward her rear, froze.

  "No?"

  She laughed. "I didn't mean you, Roque! I want you to feel me. I was talking to Jolie. She wants to go away."

  "She did before," he pointed out.

  "With Orlene this time. So I can be all the way alone with you. But I'm afraid I'd screw it up."

  "Well..."

  "Oh, you know what I mean! I want to be good for you, Roque, and on my own I keep getting too wild. I'd get the shakes, for sure, and turn you off, and I sure don't want to do that! So I don't want them to go."

  "In that case, I am certainly amenable to their continued presence. I must confess that I do feel easier knowing that a woman of adult experience is monitoring the proc
eedings, because it allays my concern about taking advantage of one who is young."

  But I'm another man's wife! Jolie protested. "Maybe you better talk to Jolie," Vita said. "Give me one good feel before I put her on."

  His hand resumed its motion downward—at which point Vita gave the body to Jolie. He squeezed her buttock. Jolie clamped her teeth, trying to look neutral.

  "The gamin!" he exclaimed, realizing. He was now able to recognize them separately, by their manners.

  Jolie disengaged. "As we know, she is young," she said. "And full of mischief." She walked to a couch and sat down, crossing her legs demurely at the ankles.

  He took a seat across the room. "Perhaps your reasons for bringing Vita to me were mixed. As you know, I succumbed, and you and I agreed to do the appropriate thing. I think you were aware that I did not truly wish to separate from her, and I think you are not averse to our meeting in a situation like this. Your absence is thus a mere formality or courtesy which need not be invoked at this stage."

  "I am the wife or consort of Satan," Jolie replied. "I do not care to be present in the body of a woman who is making love to another man. Orlene may certainly remain, but I prefer to absent myself."

  "I am minded to debate the issue," he said, "if you are willing. If you do not approve my liaison with Vita, you can not excuse yourself merely by being absent in a manner you know will facilitate it."

  "That isn't what I said!" Jolie said, stung. "I did have doubts, but subsequent thought has eased them, and I now feel that the two of you should be allowed your love. My presence or absence shouldn't affect that. But my own—"

  "Yes. You do not wish to engage in the appearance of impropriety. I understand this consideration rather well. But this, too, I question. If I understand it correctly, your marriage to the man who is now the holder of the Office of the Incarnation of Evil dissolved when you died. He subsequently remarried, and you now join his present wife in amorous engagements. Thus the experience of joint involvement is not foreign to you."

  He had it exactly! A thought had been growing beneath Jolie's level of consciousness, and now it surfaced. If she was to study this man as a potential candidate for the Office of an Incarnation, she could hardly do so by deliberately not observing him in moments of his passion. She had to understand him fully. She also needed to know how he approached matters of ethics and questions of propriety. Also, how he related to the underlying questions of Good and Evil. That meant she should remain.

  Still, she had a problem. "It is more than the appearance, Roque. I do not love you and do not wish to be embraced by you, even in surrogate. I would feel extremely awkward about returning to my husband—or, if you will, consort—after—"

  "There is also this to consider: Satan surely has been ultimate with a great many women over the course of his tenure, yet you still love him and wish to join him at every opportunity. Do you hold to a standard you do not expect of him?"

  Ouch! The days of Jolie's sexual innocence had been left behind centuries ago. She no longer believed in a double standard. She knew Parry had had long and extreme affairs with the likes of the demoness Lilah and the damned soul Nefertiti, yet had returned gladly to her when she remanifested. What counted, in the end, was not his dalliances during her absence, but the way he felt about her, and she about him. He had never loved the demoness or the damned soul; he had loved Jolie. Now he loved Gaea—and still loved Jolie. Was she so much less certain of her love for him?

  "I think you have made your case, Roque," she said.

  "I will remain."

  He smiled briefly. "As you wish."

  "But one more thing, before I submerge. How do you feel about Satan?"

  "I suppose that is a fair question, from one who loves him. I am adamantly in the opposite camp, and wish to support the forces of Good in every respect. Yet I see the need for a repository of damned souls, until they can be redeemed, and therefore I concede the need for a supervisor of that repository. As I understand it, Satan is not actually evil, just as Thanatos is not actually dead; he is merely a human person handling an unusual and often unrewarding job. I think you would not love him were that not the case, just as Luna would not love Thanatos."

  A fair answer indeed! "Suppose you ever found yourself in a position to—to negotiate with Satan on some matter. Would you do it?"

  "Of course. I feel that I am already, whenever I decide whether a given person should be punished or rehabilitated or go free. Satan is attempting to evoke the Evil; I am attempting to evoke the Good. It is, in a fashion, a continuing exercise in classification and treatment."

  This man was certainly, to Jolie's way of thinking, a prime prospect! "So you, knowing that one who is close to Satan is with the woman you love, do not feel threatened."

  "Satan never threatened any person whose convictions and practices were good."

  "I think Luna might disagree."

  "Luna is perhaps an exception," he admitted. "She is pivotal. But I think it is not her soul he threatens, only her political power."

  "You impress me, Roque."

  "Jolie, you impress me also. I thought I was dealing with a wayward girl, and then you manifested, and the case became inordinately more interesting. I had no intent to take Vita into my residence, until I became aware that you were in control. Then I realized that rehabilitation of the girl was not only possible, it was already in progress, and I did my best to facilitate your effort. Certainly you have been in no sense a malign influence. My subsequent relation with Vita, though unintended, was thus a direct result of your involvement. For that I must thank you. However wrong it may be technically, I now believe it is right ethically. You have brought light into my life, and I shall always be grateful."

  "I, too, am glad it happened," Jolie said. And she wondered: could Luna have known this too? That Judge Scott was a worthy prospect to be an Incarnation, and that Jolie would discover this by the time she shepherded Vita through her problem? It seemed likely, now.

  She returned the body to Vita, who promptly jumped up and flung herself across to Roque. "What were you trying to do, pinching Jolie like that?" she demanded, plumping into his lap.

  "By your mischief," he said. "What is this delight you have in being impertinently handled?"

  "I hated it when my johns did it," she confessed. "I hated everything about them. But I did catch on to what men like. Now I've got a man I like, I want to be sure I'm giving him a good time." She drew up her knees so that her dress fell away, and guided his hand to her inner thigh.

  "I trust you realize that this is shameless exploitation."

  But his hand did slide along her skin caressingly.

  "You can do better than that," she said. "Come on, what are panties for, anyway?"

  "For dirty old men's delight," he said. "Still, I would not want to spoil your pretty outfit."

  "I'll take it off!" she said eagerly, and began scrambling to do just that.

  All that effort we made, dressing her—gone! Orlene thought with resignation.

  "But this sheer enthusiasm on your part continues to amaze me. How did you come by it?"

  "I guess I just so much wanted to be wanted," she said. "Not just used and thrown away, but loved and needed forever. Maybe when I get older I'll really like just to talk with you, the way Jolie and Orlene do, but right now I just want you so hot for me you can't think of anything else." She was bare, now, in record time.

  "Perhaps we should retire to a more appropriate place," he suggested.

  "Like a bed. This way!" She bounded off again and hauled him along after her.

  Soon he joined her there, unclothed. He kissed her and held her and squeezed her in intimate places, exactly as she demanded. I wish I had thought of this sort of thing when alive, Orlene thought.

  Jolie had to agree. Vita's passion was not feigned; her body was humming with desire, and it affected all of them. She recalled the saying that a man gave love for sex, while a woman gave sex for love. This was certainly true h
ere, but each aspect was so intense and pervasive that the dividing line ceased to have meaning. The two were giving passion for passion, reveling in it, delighting in its grandeur and its naughtiness.

  So it was that Jolie was along for the ride, as Orlene had been before, and the revels of the couple became her own. She knew that next time she merged with Gaea and went to see their man, she was going to give him a show and an experience he hadn't had in years. There was much to be said for exuberance.

  The next morning Thanatos appeared. "I understand you are ready to resume your quest," he said.

  Vita screeched in terror and leaped out of bed. She was, as was her wont after sex, naked; Jolie had left her alone.

  That's Thanatos, Jolie explained. He brought us to you. We have nothing to fear from him.

  "Oh." Vita hastily turned the body over to Orlene, who as hastily wrapped a sheet about herself. They had been lying abed late, after the strenuous activity of the early part of the evening, and he bad come upon them unawares. That, of course, was often the way of Death.

  "I, yes," Orlene said. "Thanks in part to you, I am no longer in danger of descending to Hell. But when Jolie talked with you before, you told her it was impossible, or nearly."

  "The quest must continue, regardless. From me you need a blank soul?"

  "So I understand. To transfer—"

  "Come with me."

  Orlene hesitated, remembering how Thanatos had come for her when she died and she had fled him. Have no fear, Jolie thought. He is a good man, as well as a good Incarnation.

  "May I dress first?"

  "Dress," he agreed.

  She paused, but he did not retreat or disappear. Just go ahead and do it, Jolie urged. He doesn't even realize there could be a problem, after all the naked souls he's seen.

  Orlene went to the closet, snatched down a decent dress, and grabbed for the rest of what she needed. She carried them into the bathroom and got herself in order as quickly as she could. Thanatos waited impassively, seeming not to move at all.