by John Hook
I shrugged. “Really? Maybe the Idiri will be the form of life that emerges. How can you be sure if you leave it to chance?”
“Maybe, but they will be back in their universe. It will take them time to discover ours. Maybe they won't this time.”
“You watched your race die. You’ve no hope. That shapes what you want to do with the sword. Why not let others live? Give them what your people couldn’t have.”
“The universe is corrupted. Any multiverse that could produce the Idiri is corrupted. We should create anew by destroying the old.”
“What you really mean is that it's unfair that your people perished and others will live.”
“It’s unfair that the Idiri will live.”
Rooni changed into the form she could directly communicate in. It would be a mistake to call it humanoid. She did stand on two legs, but they were bowed back and her chest formed a sharp angle, pointing outwards. Her face was cat-like, but her head projected back and was elongated.
“You should destroy the sword. You are beings of great immaturity, all of you. You do not have the wisdom to make these decisions. Destroy the sword and we will go back to fighting the Idiri.”
I looked at Rooni. “Our wisdom is not the issue here. The fact is, by fate or dumb luck or terrible misfortune, we are the ones who control the sword. For better or for worse, that's what everyone is stuck with.”
“You’re irresponsible.”
“Guilty as charged. But you're a cat and I'm going to stop caring what you think.”
I turned to Rox. She was excited. “This is a great opportunity. We could create a universe that is better than this one. We can create a universe where people are happy and don't oppress one another.”
“What hubris.” The Dark Angel hissed. “How would any human—any of us for that matter—know how to create such a thing? We are not gods. Rooni is right about one thing. We cannot make these decisions. The only safe choice is to destroy everything and let the universe re-evolve.”
Rox turned to me. “Quentin, surely you of all people believe we can make something better.”
I thought about it for a minute. “Part of me agrees with you, Rox. But most of me knows the Black Angel is right about one thing. Thinking we can make a better universe is hubris. We aren't gods.”
“Aren't we? Isn't that what the sword makes us?”
“No. The sword makes us flawed humans with a very powerful tool.”
“Rox sighed. “Well, what fun is there in that?”
“We'll get to the fun later.” I winked.
“You've not said what you want to do.” The Black Angel fixed me with her dark gaze.
“Yes, I think I finally know what I do want.”
“Enlighten us.”
“What is the one thing all of us want in common?”
I looked from the Black Angel to Rox to Rooni, but none of them seemed ready to guess.
“It's simple, really. We want to be rid of the Idiri. Beyond that, we have many differing ways we would like the universe remade, but all of us want to be rid of the Idiri.”
“That's it?” The Black Angel studied me.
I shrugged. “Yes. Everything as it was... except for the Idiri and what they wrought.”
Rox looked at me, amusement starting to play on her face. I think she was getting it. “Hell is still Hell?”
“But without the influence of the Idiri.”
“But still Hell,” Rox repeated, not letting me off the hook.
“Yes. I'm not even sure what Hell without the influence of the Idiri will mean.”
“Will this return my people?”
I thought very carefully about my answer to the Black Angel’s question. She had to understand everything. “I'll be honest. We can have a universe without the Idiri, but I don't know if we can undo all of the things they made happen. We will simply have to wait and see.”
“I still don't get it. Why can't we make the universe any way we want?” The Black Angel stepped closer to the sword.
“Because we, none of us, know how to create complete universes from scratch. The sword is a conduit. The dreaming inside me is the power of storytelling. With it, I can shape worlds with my imagination, but like any writer, I run into trouble if I stray too far from what I know. I know the world of Hell. I can do a pretty good job of imagining it without the Idiri. Anything beyond that, there are going to be holes I miss and the whole thing won't hold together.”
“So we return to the universe we knew.”
“Except no Idiri.”
“And everything will be the same.”
“No. The fact that there were no Idiri means some things will be different. We just don't have to worry about getting what is different right. We just get rid of the Idiri and let the rest happen.”
“Then we aren’t gods.”
“Little gods, maybe.”
The Black Angel paused. You could see she was fighting with her instincts.
“I do want to be rid of the Idiri.”
“See. Something we can agree on.”
I looked at Rox. She nodded.
I looked over at Rooni, but she was a cat again and I wasn't getting anything from her.
Finally, I looked at the Black Angel again. She stood straight and gave me a nod.
All three of us stepped up to the sword and grabbed it. We started spinning, although it was impossible to tell if our circle was spinning or the grayness outside the circle was spinning. Rocks and other matter seemed to form out of the fog. I saw planets form and stars burn. I saw histories and alternative histories unfold around me. I closed my eyes to prevent myself from dwelling too long on any of them. I realized that Rox had grabbed my hand and I held on tight. I thought about Hell and what the world might have been like if the Idiri had never shattered the sky.
“What if this land of the dead wasn't Hell, because the demon tribes were never put in charge of the dead? What if it was simply a transition, a new world with the dead cared for by animal guides? I saw an image of Guido grinning. What if it was just another world, one of many we might pass through in our journey?
The sword was gone. I kept my eyes closed, but somehow I knew that the Black Angel was gone. I still held on to Rox's hand and she wrapped herself around me. We were falling. That concerned me just a little, but I wrapped my arms around her and kept my eyes shut.
We woke up in a field, a little disoriented. Then I recognized the field as lying just outside Ohnipoor. Rox and I lay in the grass, looking at each other. When she smiled I felt like nothing would ever be wrong again.
“So this is the new world we created?”
“More like a refurb. Lot of stuff will be the same.”
“I'll say.” Rox winked as she touched my stiffening groin, which only increased the pressure.
“Well, it has been a while.”
“You did have Zara to relieve the pressure.”
“A little too much adventure there.”
Rox ran her hand through my hair. “I thought you liked a little adventure.”
“A little too much psycho in her psychosexual.”
Rox smirked. “Maybe we should go ask Saripha for a room to see if we can get you back on track.”
I swung Rox on top of me.
“What’s wrong with a nice grassy field?”
“Seems hardly proper for someone who just remade the universe.”
“Aw, heck, I'm just like everyone else. Anything to get laid.”
“Well, the color blue is very becoming.” Rox ripped at my shirt, taking a bit of blue skin as well with her nails.
It took us maybe an hour to find our way to Ohnipoor.
When we walked into the jazz bar, Guido sat in his usual booth. Saripha was behind the bar, setting up sweet water and grass tea. Kyo and Blaise sat at one table and Izzy and Anika sat at another. Everyone's faces beamed when they saw us walk in. I stepped up to the bar, made a face at the grass tea and grabbed a sweet water.
I look
ed at Saripha. “It's over?”
“Apparently.”
“How does it work?” I asked.
Saripha laughed. “You're the one who did it.”
“Are you mortal again?”
“Nope.”
“But the Idiri are gone?”
Saripha shrugged. “I think they were never here, but we still remember them. Maybe someday we'll wake up and we'll have forgotten.”
“Does Rockvale exist?” I pressed.
Saripha shook her head with both amusement and sympathy. “Stop overthinking it. You can find out yourself if you’re curious. My impression is that the world is different now, but that doesn't mean that the effects of the previous order were completely erased.”
“Does it make a difference, what we did?”
“Oh, yes.” Saripha raised her glass and I clinked mine against it. “Most certainly.”
Epilogue
Some things changed and some things stayed the same, and I suppose it shouldn't be surprising that it didn't all make sense. As is typical for this place with no communication, it took us months to even discover all the local changes. Izzy and Taka are working on that communication thing, though.
In no particular order, here is a roundup of what has happened. First of all, I'm still blue but I no longer have the dreaming or any great powers. I'm guessing the blue part is the old glamour thing—that's how I think of myself now. I still meditate when I can and I still feel a connection to other living things, but it is more just the insight I gained from once having been really connected to everything. My power was returned to its talisman. That may have been my wish more than the new order of things because this world was remade without the Idiri. The talismans now all resided in Ohnipoor with Guido and Saripha, and Chadikar was an abandoned ancient city once more. Strangely, all of the talismans were accounted for except one, the fire talisman.
So, this is the Hell in which we find ourselves now. There are still demon tribes, but they were never given dominion over humans and live in wild areas. Trouble occurs when demons or humans encroach on each other. There are only three different types that I've seen. The more diminutive green ones, the demons who before were in charge of border towns, often are the most aggressive and atavistic. That's just their nature. They stay mostly to wild lowland areas and we have made it clear that if they attack humans they'll lose a few birth caves. The gray demons are vagabonds traveling in smaller groups, hunting. They are completely disdainful of humans. They will not venture into human areas but will kill or enslave a stray human who wanders into theirs. Finally, there are the purple demons like Azar. That's what I mean about how this world was reformed being strange. It seemed to undo the slaughter of the purple demons, but it didn't resurrect Rockvale or make Saripha mortal again. Some things were reset, some things were changed, and some things just stayed the same. If there was a guiding principle behind how these different things changed or didn't change, I couldn't find it. When I asked Saripha she just shrugged. When I asked Guido, he just stared back and said nothing.
The purple tribes lived in the mountains and it was hard to call them a tribe. They liked the isolation of the mountains, didn't fear the larger, more dangerous species that lived there, and really did regard humans as something unclean to be avoided. They also avoided each other. Mostly they lived solo, like hermits, although occasionally you could find a small group. Except for a very brief but quite intense mating period that lasted a week maybe once a year. It was best to avoid the mountains for that week.
The island of the Dreamers was restored. There was no split in the sky. It was now almost a tropical paradise, largely used as a hermitage for the priesthood. The Dreamers, as apparently they once did, run things from Antanaria. The Magister serves as a figurehead king, but it is the Dreamers who really run things. I don't trust them entirely, as there are stories that, before the Idiri came, they had become corrupt and cruel on their own. However, they understood that we really didn't want to follow their orders and they gave the western territories all the way to the ocean to us. Guido reformed the council of animal people/spirits/Manitors, whatever they are, to help guide decisions for our territories. I've tried to ask Guido about their origins and how they ended up in Hell. I thought maybe this had once been a native people's afterlife since that is where I usually heard stories of animal people from, but I guess it's no surprise that I've never gotten an answer.
We still get a flow of the dead that land near border towns. As Saripha has told us, we know there are different such afterlives among the multiverses. I try not to think too much about that because it makes my head hurt. I do wonder if people in all those other places are as locked into the identity they had in their previous life or if that’s just a feature of Hell.
We also have no idea how the former living get sorted to different afterlives. I don't think about it very much. However, the influx of new people here was now slower. Guido, in a rare moment of sharing, had suggested that what I had referred to as “Bowling Pin Jesus” when I first crossed over was a sorting sensor created by the Idiri to provide people who had a greater potential for trauma. Apparently, there was a bug in it when it grabbed me.
There were, of course, no Shirks, nor were there escorts. In fact, no one quite remembered how they worked, including Rox. The original “Citizens” that I encountered when I first got here all moved into Ohnipoor with Saripha and Guido. We did rebuild Rockvale, and, in fact, a new arrival wandered in while we were building. I think we had originally intended to return to New Rockvale ourselves, but by the time we had finished we were really settled in at Ohnipoor and were tired of being unsettled. Many of the former Rockvale diaspora living in Zaccora and Haven did return.
We set up a very crude form of government. Every locality was free to run itself with the caveat that the council could interfere if cruelty or corruption settled in. Aggression between neighbors was also a reason for the council to step in. The rules that triggered intervention weren't really clear and we generally hoped there wouldn’t be a test case, which was probably too optimistic in the long run. Roland was made a kind of Minister of Defense, although there was no reason to maintain a standing army. However, just because we had gotten rid of the Idiri didn't mean there would be no other threats.
Izzy and Taka set up an engineering lab in Ohnipoor They also set up a metallurgy smelter at the Mountain using raw material from the nearby mine. It was still slow work, but Taka wasn't trying to create a new industrial revolution. Taka and Izzy's top priority was solving the communication problem. We weren't there yet, but they were working it hard and I had no doubt they would crack it.
Taka actually made me a wooden typewriter. It was intricately carved and he had even created some metal springs for it. He created ink out of ground minerals and tree sap and set up the keys to rest in a tray on that ink. I could probably get about five pages before the tray had to be inked again.
At first, Blaise had helped Taka and Izzy with the lab, but as time wore on, both Blaise and Kyo got restless. Kyo had been a wanderer before she settled with us and she was beginning to feel a little too tied down. One day, Kyo and Blaise took what they needed on their backs and headed off to see where their feet could take them.
As for the rest of the Citizens that were with Saripha when I first arrived, Paul made himself mayor of New Rockvale and no one seemed to mind. He was good in that role, as he had been in the old Rockvale, and assumed the function of the escort for new arrivals minus the sexual angle. Sidney and Zeon opened a bar and grill. Sidney had picked up a keen interest in glamour foods and become quite good at it. Zeon tended the bar and seemed to occasionally add tattoos to his glamour.
I decided that maybe I had enough adventure for a while, at least the external, life-threatening kind, so I decided to return to writing. Taka promised to help me figure out a printing press and bindery when he had time. I told him there was no hurry as it would be a while before I had anything to publish.
Rox
, on the other hand, having been largely under the sway of other beings for most of her time in Hell, was feeling free and wanted some kind of adventure. Her solution was a detective agency. At first I thought she was pulling my leg, but she was serious. She figured among the mixtures of people and demons that bad things would happen and people might want someone to get to the bottom of it. She liked puzzles. Thus was born the tongue-in-cheek-named Damned Investigations. We set up an office and even “hired” Anita as gal Friday/office manager. I had encountered Anita early on and had helped rescue her husband Philip from that first pain tower. She was no longer withdrawn and hopeless and sometimes Philip walked her in to the office.
Rox would take the investigations. Izzy, Anika and I would provide field support and I would end up writing up the investigations. We set up the office next to the jazz bar in Ohnipoor. I had wanted to write up our cases in first person narration from Rox's perspective, but she wouldn't let me. She claimed I wouldn't capture the sophistication of her mind. I could be her Watson and narrate the stories as her assistant. She smiled when she said this, of course, and as often happened when she smiled, one thing led to another.
The door to Damned Investigations opened. I looked up from my typewriter. Rox sat, as she often did, with her feet up on the desk, lost in thought. The man who entered wore the rough tunic of someone who worked the land, probably in one of the outer villages in the foothills. He seemed uncomfortable and contrite, like he really didn't want to be here but something was compelling him. He closed the door and turned to Anita. Anita looked up and it seemed to put him at ease a little bit.
“Good morning. Are you looking for something?” Anita asked.
“I've heard you can help me.”
“Ah.” Anita nodded. “Not me. Them.” Anita pointed at Rox, myself and Izzy, who was also hanging out with us.
That didn't seem to increase the man's ease. He seemed especially apprehensive of Rox.
“Have a seat.” I motioned.
He sat down very tentatively. The chair was directly in front of Rox.
