The child clapped her little hands. “Yes! Aunt Feline can help with the wedding.”
They looked at Feline.
“Are you a virgin?” Feline asked Merge.
How did that relate? Hapless was confused yet again.
“What’s a virgin?” Myst asked.
“Someone who’s never done more than kissing and hugging a friend,” Feline said.
“Oh,” the child said. She took her illusion balls and went to play by herself, not caring to be bored by any such dull adult discussion.
Now Merge answered Feline’s question. “Yes. I am a virgin.”
“Do you want to marry a virgin?”
Merge was startled. “Why no, actually. I always expected to marry a man of experience. Then there would be no, well, fumbling.” She blushed delicately.
“I love Hapless, but I don’t think I have to marry him,” Feline said. “There are fields yet to play, tomcats to tease, now that I know that my curves aren’t everything. I’ll always be his friend, and yours. Suppose I de-virginate him and turn him over to you to marry?”
“Oh, would you? I would be so grateful.”
“After we conclude the Quest,” Feline said with the trace of a bit of an obscure smile.
“Yes, of course.”
So they had agreed, without consulting Hapless. They had made the decision for him. But he liked the result. He could marry Merge without alienating Feline.
Chapter 17:
Shadows
They went outside to a pleasant illusion meadow. The snapshot showed it to be a weedy barren, but that was fine; they needed flying space.
“First, let’s verify that you aren’t cured of your fear, Faro,” Hapless said. “Give me the Horn, and fly without it.”
The winged centaur gave him the Void Totem. It did not throb with power; it was inert in his hand. He could not command it, only she.
Faro trotted forward, then spread her wings and leaped into the air. And immediately stalled and landed again. “The fear is back,” she said tightly.
Hapless returned the Horn to her. “Try it again.”
She did. This time she sailed up to treetop height, then spiraled higher with no problem. It was definitely the Totem.
When she landed, Hapless raised the Orb. “What is the exact protocol?” he asked Isis.
“First you must orient the five Totems to focus on the Orb. Each must activate briefly. That in turn activates the Orb so that it is ready to function. It’s a safety feature. You never want to activate it carelessly.”
“Totems,” Hapless said.
The five gathered around. He could tell by the power throbbing in the air that the Totems were now activated.
“Next step?”
“Faro must touch the Orb and make her wish, which I will intercept and rephrase. That should do it. But remember, your invocation of the Orb’s power will affect you also.”
“I know.” He glanced at the Orb in his hand. “I just want to be sure there’s no shadow of a doubt.”
“Oops!”
“What?”
“It pulsed. You made a wish.”
“What wish?” he asked, nettled and nervous.
“That there be no shadow of a doubt. I didn’t think of it as a formal wish, so did not intercept it. It slipped though, and I fear the Orb acted. It had been activated, and you were touching it when you spoke.”
They all stood in place, as if afraid to move. How right she had been about never activating it carelessly!
“What did it do?” Zed asked.
“Something relating to shadows. I can’t quite nail it.”
Hapless looked around. Everything seemed normal. “I guess nothing’s wrong,” Hapless said.
“I don’t like this,” Isis said. “Please don’t speak of any desire or preference in the presence of the Orb. It’s not safe.”
“I won’t,” Hapless agreed. “Faro, your turn.”
Faro stepped up and touched the Orb with one finger. “I wish to have no fear of heights.”
There was a pause. “I have processed it,” Isis said. “It should have taken effect.”
Faro handed the Horn back to Hapless. Then she launched into the air. She flew high. “I’m cured!” she called down from well above their heads. “Oh, I’m so pleased!”
The others applauded. “So are we all,” Zed said.
She glided down, landed, and recovered the Horn. Then she took off again. It made no difference. That was evidently what she was verifying. She could now fly with or without the Totem. That simply, it had worked.
But Hapless felt a stronger affiliation with the Orb. He knew this was because of the exercise of its power, but that did not change the feeling. He did want more of it. But there remained one more wish to make.
“Now Quin,” Hapless said. “Phrase your wish carefully before you speak it.”
The dragon with the harpy front end slithered forward to touch the sphere. “I wish I could make a completely human form that I could assume at will, without sacrificing my present forms.”
There was another pause. “I have processed it,” Isis said.
“Change,” Feline suggested.
Quin disappeared. In his place stood a handsome naked man.
“Well, now,” Feline said approvingly.
“Did it work?” the man asked. It was Quin.
“Look in the unbroken wall,” Feline said. “At your reflection.”
Quin walked to the illusion glass wall of the house beside the meadow and stared at himself in its mirror. “It worked,” he repeated. “Glorious! I am all man in this form.”
“You sure are,” Feline said, contemplating his midriff. “And well endowed.”
But Hapless had received another jolt of affinity with the Orb. Already he did not want to give it up. Which meant it was time to do so.
“Perhaps a smudge of illusion would be in order,” Merge suggested, if not blushing red, at least managing pastel pink.
Quin fetched some fogginess from the wall, and applied it to his groin. Now only obscurity was visible there.
“Where is your shadow?” Feline asked. For the sun was out and shining warmly.
They all looked. Quin had no shadow.
“What’s this?” Nya asked, pointing to the ground where Quin had stood before. There was his shadow. By itself.
“And this?” Faro asked. For she had no shadow either. At least not where she stood. Her shadow was where she had been standing before.
None of them had shadows. All their shadows had stayed in place when they moved.
“This is distinctly odd,” Quin said. “Something changed recently.”
“When I spoke of the shadow of a doubt,” Hapless said. “And the Orb reacted.”
“Now we know what happened,” Zed said. “It separated our shadows from our bodies. The shadow of a doubt. That did not show up until we moved, and then it took us a while to notice. The local trees and bushes still have their shadows, because they haven’t moved.”
“Subtle,” Faro said. “But we had better comprehend it, lest there be aspects we don’t like.”
“Have you grown, Hapless?” Faro asked. “You seem taller.”
“I, uh—”
“We are all taller,” Merge said.
“I don’t feel different,” Hapless said.
“The shadows haven’t changed,” Zed said, looking down at his. “Neither position nor their size or shape. But we are changing. I fear this is mischief.”
“We’re changing the way shadows change!” Feline said. “Getting longer as the day progresses.”
“That’s a reversal,” Faro said. “Normally we hold our form, while the shadows change.”
“Now that we are separated from our shadows,” Nya said, “It seems that the truth about the connection is being revealed. Normally the shadows absorb the change. Deprived of them, we are suffering it ourselves. We do need our shadows.”
“But what happens at night?” Zed
asked. “When shadows normally disappear? Will we fade out entirely?”
“Or become infinitely large?” Faro asked.
“I think we’d better get reattached to our shadows,” Feline said. “If the Orb can do this, it can undo it.”
“Uh—” Hapless began.
“Spit it out, man,” Feline said. “There’s a reason why not?”
“Maybe,” he said. “Each time I use the Orb, its power over me increases. Originally it hardly appealed to me. Now I want to use it again. I’m being corrupted by the desire for its power.”
“We were going to win the Orb, get our wishes granted, and quit with the Orb, weren’t we?” Feline asked. “You’re changing your mind?
“Not yet. But each use of it affects me. I can’t be sure which one will tip the balance.”
“This is relevant,” Zed said. “Power is known to corrupt. We have felt empowered by our Totems. Now Hapless is being affected by the Orb. It should be decommissioned as soon as possible.”
“After we fix the shadows,” Feline said.
The others considered for much of a moment, and agreed. “Our wishes have been granted,” Quin said. “It may be that the granting of all six wishes via the use of the Orb would have completed the corruption. As it is, only two, perhaps three wishes have been granted, the third inadvertently. If reversing it counts as another wish, then the corruption would be two thirds complete. This is only conjecture.”
“But persuasive,” Zed agreed. “We had better fix the shadows, then immediately decommission the Orb. That should be our safest course.”
They were agreed. Hapless lifted the Orb. “Isis—”
“I heard,” she replied on speakerphone. “The parameters are not as simple as a straight six-count, but as an approximation it will do.”
“Parameters?” Merge asked.
“Variable boundaries,” Zed said.
“The shadows are probably the less risky course,” Isis said. “Constantly changing your sizes may be awkward, but not as final as getting corrupted.”
“My curves are already getting seriously distorted,” Feline complained. Indeed, she looked stretched out, too tall and thin for her figure.
“I did not achieve a full human form only to have it constantly distorted by the time of day,” Quin said. “I want it to be handsome.”
“Let’s gamble,” Nya said. Her human portion was getting awkwardly elongated, while her serpent portion was compacted. It was not an esthetic effect.
They took a quick vote, and agreed to gamble.
“You may be sorry,” Isis said. “Undoing a prior wish isn’t as easy as making a new one. The phrasing is critical. I hope I get this right.” A keyboard appeared before her, in the sphere, and she typed busily. “There. I think I have it properly couched. Ready?”
“Ready,” Hapless agreed, dry mouthed. “I hereby make that wish.”
There was a jolt. The shadows zipped to rejoin their owners. But the folk had not thought to go stand by their own shadows. Quin, in manform, suddenly had the shadow of a centaur. Feline had the shadow of a harpy/dragon crossbreed. The others seemed to have their own shadows, at least.
Well, Hapless and Merge had exchanged shadows. Hers was big and clumsy, while his was small and refined.
“They will correct themselves,” Isis said. “Just give them time to acclimatize. “Shadows are not the brightest things.” She smiled, indicating a pun, but no one was much amused.
But now Hapless was assaulted by the worst siege yet. He felt the power of the Orb infusing him, taking possession of his spirit. It was trying to make him its own. He fought it, but its power was greater than his.
“Don’t fight it, Hapless,” Isis said. “Flow with it. You are not yet lost.”
“What do you care?” he demanded, nervousness giving him an unkind edge.
“I do care, Hapless. You own the Orb, and I am your servant. I am trying to guide you to your best outcome. Do you know what a riptide is?”
“No.”
“It’s a shallow water current that occurs when the tide is going out. If you get caught in one, there are two ways to handle it. One is to swim as strongly as you can toward the shore, hoping to overcome it and not get washed out to sea. The other is to flow with it, letting it carry you, saving your energy. Then you can ease out of it, into regular water, and swim shoreward from there. That’s the smarter course.”
It sounded like good advice, but he didn’t trust it, or her. “Are you trying to get your way, and become queen of the Orb?”
“That, too. But the Orb is yours; I can bask in its power only by influencing you. If you stay with it, you will be king. I will be your queen. I am part of the package, Hapless; you will need me to exercise its power smoothly. You are simply not competent.”
He knew that was true. “What of Merge!”
“Do you suppose she would ever agree to your complete corruption by the Orb? Unless you exercise your magic power to change her mind and corrupt her too. You can do that. You can do almost anything.”
“No!”
“You still have those endearing civilian attitudes. But face it, Hapless: You are caught in the riptide. Are you going to handle it smartly or stupidly?”
What choice did he have? “Show me how to handle it smartly. But if you betray me, when I have power I will make you regret it.”
“And you could do that. I would much rather work with you than oppose you. Here is your course of the moment: study the shadows.”
“We just fixed the shadows!”
“You fixed the literal shadows. Now it is time to address the figurative ones. Look at your associates standing around you. Do you see their historical shadows?”
“Their whats?”
“Let me come out and help you, Hapless; it will make it easier.”
“Come out,” he agreed.
She formed before him, her royal robe just loose enough in front to provide a tantalizing glimpse of the rounded contours within. “Thank you.” She kissed him on the cheek. He liked it far more than he cared to admit. “Consider Nya, the naga/dragon crossbreed with the bosom that is returning to its natural attractive shape.”
He considered Nya, as she was standing directly before them. She seemed frozen in place. They all were. “Yes.”
“Her physical shadow is adjusting its contours. But focus on her historical shadow.”
“I don’t see it.”
“Use your snapshot technique, and modify it when you get a glimmer.
He tried, and did begin to get a glimmer. There were shadows extending both before and after the Naga. “What are they?”
“The one behind is her past. Follow it closely and you can see her associates before she joined you, right back to her original family.”
He saw them, all standing still along the extended shadow. Right back to the meeting of her parents at a love spring. “Wow!”
“Love spring encounters do tend to be graphic,” Isis agreed. “A love spring doesn’t care about social events; it simply forces instant breeding. There’s not much real love in it, truth be told, just overwhelming passion.”
“So I see,” he said, impressed. He was a virgin, and had not seen action like this before. It was mesmerizing. He had had no idea that this was the way it was done. He really did need Feline’s advice. Or Isis’s.
“I will tryst with you in a love spring, if you wish.”
Temptation flared, but he fought it down. “What about the other shadow? The one going forward?”
“Follow it.”
He traced it carefully forward. Nya in due course married Quin, and they had a fine time as a dragon pair. Then one day they blundered into a dragon net set up by goblins, and both were suddenly captive, then killed, cooked, and eaten. “No!” he cried in anguish.
“It does not need to be,” Isis said. “You can warn them, so that they can avoid the dragon net.”
“I’ll do that!”
“But that will count as a wish,
a foretelling of the future, and will commit you more firmly to the Orb.”
“Oh. Still, to help a friend—”
“Understand this, Hapless. Every creature comes to an end eventually. You can’t prevent all passages, or even any one, given enough time. You can expend yourself, corrupt yourself, and in the end it will make very little difference. Every case will be severely tempting, but you will be better off ignoring them all.”
“Bleep you!”
She smiled. “I merely advise you of reality. You may do what you choose to do. Try watching your own future shadow.”
“I can do that?”
“Not far, because your looking will cause your future to change, and the original future will dissipate, to be replaced by a new one, which will in turn also dissipate. But you can see ahead a day or so at a time, and this can enable you to follow the course to become King of Xanth. There is no power like the ability to see the future and to change it at will. You will be king.”
“But I don’t want to be king.”
“Think of all the good you could do as king. You could seriously benefit all your friends. And consider this: I will be your queen. Look at a typical night.”
He looked, and his shadow, guided by her, showed the two of them in the throes of such passion that the air was shimmering and nearby candles were melting into puddles. “Hoo!”
“Every night, Hapless,” she said. “All night, if you wish. Daytime too, if you wish. I have had thousands of years experience being a good wife; I do know how to do it. I also know of herbs and spells to make a man endlessly potent. There is no effective limit to your potential pleasure.”
He was tempted again. To help his friends, and to be with her …
She was of course aware of his desire. She pursued her advantage. “But if the pleasures of Power are not enough, consider those of Knowledge.”
“Knowledge?”
“You can know all things. Never again will you be considered ignorant. The mysteries of existence can be yours to fathom.”
“Mysteries?”
“Did you ever wonder why the universe, including Xanth, Mundania, Fornax, and all else, even exists? Why there is something rather than nothing? For it must have started with nothing.”
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