The
Volsung Variations
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Solely for the sake of amusement, allow me to begin by introducing
yet another character new to the PHANTACEA Mythos. Although he aspires to become and/or replace Daemonicus
as the earthborn King of Demons, he debuts as Magnus Minus, Midget Minotaurus
of Minius. As we discovered in Kore-9,
the Dual Entities' Trans-Time Trigon is currently situated
in his realm, what's also known as Absudyl,
the Subterranean Land of the Mandroids. There it's known as Sub-Trig.
To save time later, allow me to provide something of a build up to
the following excerpt. Magnus Minus is in Sub-Trig listening to a story
being told by one Tom-Tiddly Taddletale. Tom-Tiddly
is a faerie type, with blue skin and golden hair, but he began life
as Tammuz Rhymer of Time-Retarded Dukkha, Sedon's Upper Lip-Tip. Before
he [presumably] got kidnapped (by fairies) and dusted (with faerie dust),
Rhymer was an Inner Earth Summoning Child.
 That might mean he's a supranormal, someone who was in effect born
a mortal devazur. On the surface of it that devazur appears to be Rumour
of Lazareme, which is interesting because the latest incarnation of
Rumour's deviant half-son, Jordan Tethys, is among
those listening to Tom-Tiddly's tale. Rhymer's father, yet another one
there, is the Male Entity, Heliosophos or Helios called Sophos the Wise.
(NOTE: As detailed elsewhere, in his 61st lifetime Helios had blue skin and golden blond
hair. Recall also that, once they go into action, the Elemental Twins,
Aires and Thalassa D'Angelo, have blue skin, albeit with white hair.
Hmm.)
In case you missed Oddity and Curse, Helios is in
his Eleventh Lifetime. He's spent most of that time possessed by devils,
primarily that fellow I always forget to remember,
the one who just happens to thinks he's Daemonicus too. Consequently,
even though he's physically in his late fifties, he hasn't quite aged
to that extent in the intervening thirty years. Having been shot to
shelly hell, as Fish might say, in Odd-14,
he's definitely looked better, though.
Oh, and again in case you missed Kore-9,
Rhymer's (presumed, not confirmed) mother, the Female Entity, who must
have been somehow humanized when he was born, is back to being just the Mnemosyne Machine, the computerized innards of Trans-Time Trigon.
As Magnus Minus now knew, Taddletale was
Sophos the Wise's Summoning Child. At least he thought he knew Rhymer-Rumour
was Hel's son. Why'd they all have so many names? He'd have to ask
them. Write it down to ask them. First and foremost, best not forget
the thought. He had so few.
 "What
are you doing, Minotaurus?" wondered the 17-year old distractedly.
"Making notes."
Judge Warlock [Sedon
St Synne], the dream-sent man whom even Minus realized wasn't
all there, scoffed at that. "On your hand?"
"With your nose?" put in the Legendarian, Jordan Tethys.
"Helps me think."
"Oh, really," the 30-Year Man [Tethys]
snorted derisively. "Besides making an ungodly racket, you're
full of surprises, aren't you?"
"Thinking's important to me."
"Don't doubt that for a minute. Watch out. Oh, oh, too late."
As good as noses were for woodpeckers performing somewhat similar
tasks, Magnus Minus was mostly made of Stopstone, the stuff not so
much of the bottomless pit as its eventual bottom. He had consequently
rendered his chosen writing implement, this extended nose of his,
more akin to a chisel than to anything else.
Overzealously applied, especially by a non-sculptor like this would-be
Daemonicus, chisels could get carried away in terms of their chiselling.
Carried all the way to his wrist in this case. Which was nowhere near
as thick as his hand. The result was akin what often happened with
his beard, -- when the half-life recalled to fabricate one, that is.
[Miracle-]Memory,
inside of Subterranean Trigon, was essentially omnipresent. The floor,
her, formed a mouth, hers, and sucked in the fragments of his former
hand. The Minotaurus was far from embarrassed. On the contrary, he
was delighted with himself.
He had completely forgotten he could write!
Amusement aside, the story Tom-Tiddly's telling has to do with events
that took place between Kore-13 and Kore-14.
Before I start selecting synoptic highlights of it, allow me to introduce
you to a character who hasn't as yet appeared in any of 19/5938 story
sequences. She shouldn't need any introduction but here goes anyhow
...
They all had names of course, real ones as well as code names, but
not one of them was speaking. Nevertheless, some were known to those
on shore, Tammuz Rhymer amongst them. And why were they there, those
on shore, on a drizzling day in this desolate No Man's Land on the
coast of Fearsome Fobbiat?
The answer had to do with a ten year girl,
a witch-spawn by all reports, but one with witch-attributes impossible,
certainly unheard of, for one so young. She also didn't have a name,
not this one. Then again, witches never gave each other formal names.
Wizards might learn them; use them against them in their foul incantations.
She was called something, though. Certainly Queen Godda, God-Devil
of the High Court of Teamhair, Tara, called her a name. It was, perhaps
appropriately, 'Witchie'.
Welcome the future Wilderwitch to Heliodyssey.
Welcome to VolVar a number of her fellow member's of 1980's
Damnation Brigade.
I'll leave you to match which ones by the little trickster's
statement to Gilda (Mama Goldie) nee O'Ryan Dre'Ath at the beginning
of VolVar-1. As for the
ones Hush lists
who apparently aren't around for the 1980 serials, some were SOS-Sausages whereas others were SOS-Suicides or SOS-Socks,
both or all three. I'm pretty sure all of them were also listed as SOS-Saints in the synopsis to Kore-14.
"We had a Raven
Fetishim with a big old Yankee Indian Human Being inside it. And John
Sundown had a much bigger, and probably much older, cut-anything hunting
knife on him.
"We had four Trinondevs, Elite Warriors
of Weir; a White Witch I've personally known since before she was
even born; the aforementioned anarchist of a Hellion; and an irate
Illuminatus, -- each and every one of whom had eye-staves." For
once Gilda did not interrupt her, so Hush, Jolene Callion, Joli Blon,
Pandora Mannering, kept listing away.
"We had a Water Elemental armed with a
Thanatoid of Lathakra's Talisman, one who gets naked before she gets
truly dangerous; a Keres Hellhound hungry for
faerie-food, -- feeorin for food's what I mean; a red-headed, Rubenesque
Korant Corn Queen whose pet it was." The seventeen years' perpetual
seven year old was not done yet. Not by a long shot.
"A Lightray Lancelot with a contrary
surname; a moonbeam matter-slinger I think
of as a lunartic, a Loon-Arctic, since she gives cold shots an entirely
new meaning; and a wildman who proved himself
a regular gentleman if only because he was careful not to rip anyone's
head off. Those that had heads I mean!"
Mama Gilda opened her mouth to question this last but the little
witch did not give her the chance. "We had
Electric Atreides, -- Snap-Zap, the Boltwhip Babe. Had
Mister-Mesmer Attraction-Hent from the Force-Firm of Hither Thither
& Hold. Your own Magus Maxius and four
feeorin half-breeds capable of much more than just doing Max's bidding.
"An Untouchable Diver who doesn't need
seal skin to look good. Or elsewhere, damn near anywhere it seems.
Remote Viewing isn't the word I'd use to describe how he sees thanks
to those Gorgon goggles of his; Far Sight is. It's telescopy through
the Grey.
"Oh yes, and as also aforementioned,
we had a philosophizing Ringleader/Ringkeeper with Brainrock circlets
filled with bodiless devils. What do you think happened? Had a good
old chin-wag, -- that was all." It was not that Hush was lying
or even stretching the truth as such. It was just that she was telling
the hole truth.
Which is what tricksters often did.
Needles to say, which Hush probably does say at some point during 'The Volsung Variations',
the action begins now!
As always, good reading!
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VolVar-1 ends with the
following ...
Rising into the sky from beyond the headland yonder came a draconic
sight, a butterfly-winged semi-serpent full of eye-like feathers,
a sort of slither-slender peacock, -- only bodily this peacock was
female-shaped; human female-shaped, a young one too. No more than
twelve, I understand.
Then, just as quickly gone as much as her was one of the supranormals,
the one Witchie named Cheyenne Raven. In his place, up towards the
heavens, flew a raven, a real one, a crow-creature, one most of the
supras had seen before.
"Dishwater and dirt-rags!" cried one of the invaders,
no doubt noting the Fetishim's presumably foreboding reappearance.
This was the one in the frogsuit and wearing the Gorgon Goggles. "Deep-dreck
doo-doo's what we're in for now."
"About fucking time," trumpeted the Domdaniel-Deviant suddenly
glowing even more brilliantly than earlier.
That was when the peacock-creature, all Hell too, broke out. Correct
that: all Hell didn't so much break out as came out, -- of her, the
feathered serpent.
Then it came at them!
Want
action? Needless to say, action you've got! My problem is whether I
should summarize any of it. Got an opinion? Come back to me, via email,
and venture it ==>
Then there's Mara Macha, Nightmare herself,
whose hands are seemingly composed of crow-creatures.
One guess as to whose makes up one of
them!
Shaman Manitoulin once assigned a Raven Fetishim to look after John Sundown.
Unfortunately, for some,
it was a killer!
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For now, how about I note that the title doesn't just refer to a chapter-long battle on a Twilight beach between Socks of [Supra] Saints and
a whole bunch of hell-spawned fairies including the Mighty Milkman,
whose boots are made for stomping, Plenty Pedals, bundles of Bumble
Bums and truly nasty piece of work called Old Nuke, aka Night's Mare.
To that, because she'll be back, let me just
add that most of the faerie fighters come out of Praxitheia (Queen Bee)
Faerie Flight and she, all of not quite 12-year old she, is a daughter
of Ophiomedea (Medea now Annulis but always Ararat), whom we last
saw, in Kore-13, escaping
to the Hidden Headworld through a gateway reserved for pregnant witches.
Huh? What? Who? Missed Manoeuvres and/or its continuations, Oddity and Curse? Even for non-fans of fight sequences,
learning of her background is as good a reason as any to read VolVar-2.
(HINT: As noted in the synopsis to VolVar-1,
her father is one
of those in Sub-Trig. hearing Tom-Tiddly tell his story.)
Oh yes, lest I forget, even if you have, there is a whole other
set of variations currently being serialized out here on
the Web. Ophiomedea appears there, too. So does one of her
sisters, the dead one (Mountain Games) not the still alive one (Chelonian Basilisk from Mole-7).
Solar flares were going off in fair folks' faces. Ouphs [faerie-like
elves] were dodging icicle-spears then living lightning. Did I mention
the Selkies? No? Well, with all the mayhem going on around them they
lost their sea-dogged determination to hold onto the talisman-less
devils and scampered into the sea. Which meant Ringleader-Ringkeeper
was back in business.
"Wondered when you were going to get to you, Tom-Tiddly."
"Wonder no longer, Jordan."
"Almost, Rhymer," said Magnus Minus.
"Come again?"
"Almost rhymed I meant.
As always, good reading!
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Fights are as much fun to write as they are to read. Other than to
note it's almost non-stop, I'm not going to synopsize the fight sequences
in VolVar-3. Instead, I'll
simply provide one of its highlights. [Check out the featured
story in the Summer 2006 edition of 'pHpubs' for something that happened
shortly before this happens.]
"Holy shit," gasped Dervish Furie [Jervis Murray], pointing
out to sea.
"Holy whaledreck, more like," the Untouchable Diver [Yehudi
Cohen] corrected him.
"Things're never fair in fairyland," remarked Hush [Mannering]
dropping an Anthean Agate at her feet then stepping on it. She did
not go anywhere; though; was not surprised either. "Figured it
was too late," the little trickster said to nobody, just in case
Nobody happened to be listening.
"Tell me that's an illusion," muttered
Homer, the Blind Skullian, returned to the beach and into the breach.
No one was quite sure why Max sent him back since the supranormal
also known as Sense Seer had no offensive capabilities; none that
anyone knew about at least. Given the sheer enormity of what they
were all gaping at though, he may not have needed Max-sight to behold
it.
"Sorry,"
observed Morgianna drily. Still dry as well. "Devils are prone to demon-strations.
Let's just hope Crap's only showing off because that'd be one whale
of a fish out of water if she tosses Leviathan at us."
[NOTE: Morg, code-named the White Witch, was
born Nauroz but called Somata. Hush
Mannering, Young Life (the little
trickster quoted above, who's a perpetual
7-year old), thinks she, as Pandora Mannering, gave birth to her 17
years earlier, just prior to this.
(The link preserves a description of Pandora and Morg's father, Augustus Nauroz {arguably aka Aug the Dog, Young Death and Hush's Gush} being devolved
by Tralalorn,
presumably (though mistakenly) at the insistence of Rhea Sangati always Ararat,
the Korant Sisterhood's High Priestess or Miracle Maenad,
at the time.]
"A Utopian with a sense of humour," marvelled Cybele [St
Synne]. "Will wonders never cease?"
"That's one wonder I wish would cease," contributed Cohen.
Krepusyl of Crepuscule was generally not referred to as Crap, like
the White Witch had just called her, but one of her most common monikers
was Moon-Face. Quite rightfully too, as was very obvious to everyone
on shore.
It was still daylight, such as daylight ever got in Twilight at least,
but the Moon was already out. Was full too. Had the sun's hair, three
eyes, a mouth, nose, neck, shoulders, and the rest of a body as well.
The Queen of Shades was standing out
there in Fobbiat, up to her waist in ocean and holding Island Leviathan,
undiminished, in her arms like a lap dog. Atop the beast, visible
only as specks, were Magus Maxius, Mycroft Mouthpiece, Chairman Jubal
and those others Chair had not Max-sent back to the beach.
"Guess I spoke too soon," retracted Mara Macha. "Can
you say surrender?"
Even Socks of
[Supra] Saints should know better than to try to take on a Master Deva
in her own protectorate. Then again, most of the Outer Earth born socks have never wittingly come across a Master Deva before.
As for what else either happens or is revealed in VolVar-3,
allow me to insert a gold-mining box here and go from there. It doesn't
come from Volvar. It comes from that whole other
set of variations currently being serialized out here on
the Web.
It,
the scheme to rebirth the three Great Goddesses, was termed the Panharmonium Project.
There had to be precisely that number of them, though. Plus, it
went without saying, they had to be female. All of them also had
to be born simultaneously, albeit on either side of the Cathonic
Dome and, according to higher-ups in the Superior Sisterhood of
Flowery Anthea, not necessarily out of the same womb.
Mary Magdalene nee Ryne Mandam's Thea was born at the same
time, to the minute, that Gloriel D'Angelo and Aranyani Nightingale,
also a Ryne, were on the Outer Earth. That should make her a potential
Trigregos Sister. Did too. Or three. But there were many another
possibility, the Trigon Triplets most notoriously. And who were they? The 1909 ones? No matter.
They failed the Totem Pool test. |
Here's the queer, as a certain
little devil child who doesn't appear in VolVar tends to say:
Meanwhile, in a side room, John Sundown was propped up on his elbows
while Goatish Amal-Althea [Pusan Wanderlust], probed him for previously
undetected injuries. Illuminatus, Melina Sarpedon, was watching him
more so than her. Although her interest was more professional than
prurient, there was no denying she had a telltale glimmer of curiosity
in her eyes.
"What's the matter, Miss Marble?" he asked her, using a
derisive term the Diver had come up with the night before when they
were trying to agree on code names for themselves. "I disgust
you?"
"Far from it, Johnny," Mel admitted. "I was just wondering
who you might be?"
"You mean which devil's come back as me?"
"Don't think anyone has," ventured Amal-Althea. "Think
what we have here's a case of what you see's what you'd get."
"You're saying I'm no supra."
"No deviant either, sunbeam," elaborated the devil-possessed
crone who, for reasons altogether obscure to him, once referred to
her shell as this Cundrie of an Aegis. "Other than the fact he's
a particularly nasty Fetishim for a guardian fay-angel, we're talking
Human Being through and through's my diagnosis."
"Yet ..." hesitated Melina.
"Yet what?" he demanded.
"Yet nothing," provided the elderly feeorin healer, whose
devic self, like all devils were should they put their minds to it,
was psychic. "The Master of Weir's personal pride and joy [Illuminatus,
Melina Sarpedon] simply can't accept you're an ordinary man."
"Why not?"
"Because many of us suspect you've fathered a Great Goddess!"
Her name? Shahiyeda, Shah for short!
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Funny title. I'll venture 'Head' refers to Sedon's Head. I'll
further bet 'Balance' refers to Harmonia, the Unity of Balance,
who's been gone for some 400-plus years. I'm pretty sure the rest of
it, bangers and beans, refers to the breakfast the Socks of (Supra) Saints get cooked, probably by the Mighty Milkman, post Battle Beach. Could
be wrong about that, though. It has been most of a decade since I wrote Volvar and the first time since then that I've re-read
it.
This is the last chapter in 'Fred in Fairyland', the first
of Volvar's three subsections. Remarkably, I've thus far managed
to synopsize its preceding instalments without once mentioning Fred
(Valfreja Volsung -- soon to be code named Cousin Contamination). Might
it be about time I corrected that oversight? Sounds like a plan. Actually,
now that I've had a few months to consider it, and you've had the same
few months to read VolVar-4,
there isn't much point, is there? Besides, I already have, over on the overview page.
Let's do a gold-mining
box instead.
Sed-Speak
as Pre-Babel Babble:
<<"Then you can understand this too?">>
tried Angelo Zeross [the first Ringleader, aka Ringkeeper].
"Of course I do, though I can't identify the language,"
said Sense Seer [the SOS-codename
for Homer, the blind Skullian]. "What was it, -- Arabic?"
 "Turkish,"
said Zeross, not even worrying what tongue he was using anymore.
"What's the deal here?"
"You're the top notch intellect in this crowd, Angie,"
criticized Cybele St Synne [one of 1909's Trigon Triplets]. "Where'd Bible come from? Bibliography?"
"Byblos, -- the oldest still-inhabited city in the world."
"Actually that's Corona, over on Ap Isle," said St
Synne. "But you're close. We're no babbling brooks,"
she hinted again, giving him a second chance.
"Babel," Zeross finally realized. "This Hidden
Continent's pre-Tower of Babel, pre-Great Flood. Like it or
not, we're all speaking the Universal Language!"
"Would go bit further than that, Rings," elucidated
Suryad [one of the Trinondevs of Weir with the Socks of Supra Saints]. "What we do is understand universally."
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There's stacks of this sort of revelatory material
in VolVar-4. One of my
personal favourites pertains to what else Homer Skullian can do. Ever
heard of telephotography before? If not, you will here. You'll also
discover why Magus Max sent him to Battle Beach.
"You've that telly no one wants to talk about," Angelo
said to Homer. "You've telepathy. You're seriously psychic, aren't
you?"
"Wouldn't surprise me if he's telegenic too," mock-drooled
Cybele [St Synne]. Even though she hadn't seen an Outer Earth movie
since her pre-1920 childhood beyond Cathonia, she always admired men
she fancied would look good on the silver screen.
"Hey," boasted the blind man in an all-too-familiar, to
the Zerosses, cocksure Summoning Child manner. "You don't know
the quarter-qualifier of it, Red. Fact is, I'm telephotographic. Want
to see?" He opened his sightless eyes.
For the next half hour, while they waited for Immanuel Dark's bangers
and beans, all those in the Eventide dining hall, -- fays, deviants,
and even those humans there now who had not been there then --, watched
in stunned amazement, not to mention some amusement, as Homer beamed
forth an on-the-spot documentary of the battle on the beach across
Fearsome Fobbiat from Island Leviathan.
Goes without saying that Mouthpiece vocalized the sound!
So, if I was to remind you that Mouthpiece is Mycroft ("Mikey")
Skullian, a deaf-mute, you'd no doubt figure out what, thanks to brother
Max (Maxwell Dre'Ath, aka Magus Maxius, the seventh son of a seventh
son), the other two Skullians,
Jubal and Gregory, can do. No? Well, Jubal's a leg-crippled paraplegic
whose codename is Chairman while Greg's a gentle giant simpleton whose
codename is Rage Mage. Does that help?
Even if it doesn't, suffice it to say that VolVar-4 howsoever satisfactorily concludes the Fear Dark, Dana & Dinah born Maxwell and, as a separate subsection, the Family Dre'Ath storyline
begun in Kore-3. As for
what's to come, here's a hefty preview, one that I don't doubt I'll
be referring back to as Volvar progresses.
The speakers are the White Witch (Morgianna born Nauroz but called Somata), Black Skull Face (Golgotha Nauroz, the Trinondev clone of Morg's grandfather, Ubris Nauroz) and
the Grey Lady herself (Krepusyl Evenstar), who was last
noted synoptically interacting rather curiously with a colossal
whale (Fish's pal, and evident
birthplace, Island Leviathan).
"You've proof of that, -- the Trigregos Sisters have finally
been reborn?"
"As always you misunderstand me, Morgianna," Krepusyl all
but laughed. It was in a kind of resignation not exultation, interpreted
Golgotha again, -- though, as he would be the first to admit, he was
no expert on empathy. "If it were them don't you think I'd be
gleaming, not steaming."
"Who is it then?"
"Harmony!"
"Datong Harmonia, the Unity of Balance, -- your eldest sister
in Lazareme, the one Abe Chaos killed centuries ago?"
"Can you now appreciate why I must have Tsishah?
Harmony can and will order me about, which is something Father, Chaos,
Star-Face, Blacksun, even the Moloch Himself would never do."
"You'd be bound to obey a deviant?"
"Yes. Because, young as she is, she's my elder. Of those of
my family [the Lazaremist tribe] still around, only Father and Grandfather are older than her
and Chaos."
"Then that means ..."
"Not necessarily. We won't know until she's on the apex of seven,
will we?"
"Who are the other two?"
"One goes by the name of Shahiyeda, the
same as one of Young Life's many aliases. Her people, Iraches in self-imposed
exile on the Cattail Peninsula, think she's the female of the Nergalids,
though, the one your Illuminaries named Vetala. I think she's actually
Demeter to Tsishah's Devaura and some other woman's three year old
girl's Sapiendev, or vice versa verse visa."
"One born simultaneously, on the same date and at the same time,
as mine and Sorciere's babies," understood Morgianna. "I'll
find her for you. Just let me get done my business on Ap Isle and
let the others go with me."
"I think not. You see, I'm seriously thinking
about killing her. And, if I kill Harmony's incarnation, I may as
well go whole hog and kill all your deviant buddies at the same time.
They are mostly Mithras Spawn after all. Headworld's still got plenty
too plentiful of their ill-tempered ilk about and the last thing it
needs is a bundle more back again for another go-round."
"You do that, Dark Sedon will cathonitize you on the spot. Master
Devas need all the worshippers they can get and Almighty He's never
been one to allow his descendants to cull those they don't like, no
matter what tribe they're from."
"If I may, my ladies," dared the clone. Krepusyl gave him
another of her icy glares but didn't elf-strike him. As for his mistress,
Morgianna encouraged him to speak his mind.
"We are at an impasse, Black Skull."
"Warriors of Weir are born and bred to
kill devas. Ordinarily, therefore, assassination of mortals is beyond
our mandate. The devil would be appalled were that not the case, wouldn't
she?" It was a rhetorical question. He was not expecting, nor
was it deserving, a response.
"However, if the mortal in, um, our hypothetical situation might
prove to be an immortal, -- more, if the mortal might be a devil returned
from the grave --, well then she is already dead, is she not?"
Morgianna looked to the Grey Lady, who simply nodded concordance.
"So," she summarized for both their benefit, "If I
understand you correctly, Skull, you're only returning a Master Deva
to the grave she rightfully belongs in. You're actually assassinating
no one."
"Quite the contrary, milady. With all due respect, I'm proudly
performing a Trinondev's sworn duty. There's no 'only' when it comes
to one's honour."
"Your call, Creeps-Devil," said Morgianna, allowing Krepusyl
the last word. "I'll ask it again, -- who is she?"
"Who do you think, war witch?"
Put in the form of a cheat sheet:
(1)
Just to confirm the suggestion made above,
the titular 'Balance' does refer to Harmonia, the Unity
of Balance, whom Abe Chaos disposed of circa Year of the Dome
5500. The Grey Lady, Krepusyl Evenstar, is afraid Harmonia has
been reborn;
(2) Because Harmonia is her elder, Krepusyl
is further afraid she'll have to obey a deviant. However, if Morg's
daughter, Tsishah Twilight, age 3, turns out to be a reborn Trigregos
Sister then the reborn Harmonia will have to obey her;
(3) Krepusyl, who's no more often called
Creeps-Devil than she is Crap (except
by a Summoning Aged, devil-despising Utopian of Weir, obviously), claims Tsishah is hers by right of Teind (tithe or tribute), presumably since Morg and her Socks of Supra Saints have reclaimed Dana Maxwell (Sarah-61, according
to my notes);
(4) Potential Trigregos Sisters have to be dipped in the Totem Pool (aka
Cleo's Bath and the Wishing Hell), Head-side
of the Tholos Tomb for Pygmies,
on their 7th birthdays; whomever they have been reborn as will
therefore be revealed, which is how Krepusyl knows Harmonia has
been reborn;
(5) Sorciere's
Shahiyeda is one of Tsishah's potentially fellow Trigregos; (Hush
Mannering was using the name Shahiyeda when Solace Sunrise and
John Sundown first encountered her at the age of 13. As partially
per here,
it's become Hush's job to test potential Trigregos Sisters in the Totem Pool.)
(6) The
third triplet is as yet unknown. (Her identity, to the best of
my recollection, won't be revealed in either of the Variations currently being serialized.) And four years is a long time to
wait to find out if they (the 2 Shahs and the unknown girl or,
for that matter, VamVar's
Thea along with Gloriel and Aran) are Great Goddesses.
(7) Consequently Krepusyl is faced with
a difficult choice: kill the Harmonia-deviant, whom only a reincarnated
Great Goddess could overrule, and risk being ill-starred (cathonitized)
by Dark Sedon as a murderer or let the deviant live and risk becoming
subservient to her;
(8) Morg offers to
locate the third triplet (whom, I might as well tell you, howsoever
briefly appeared in 'The Moloch Manoeuvres', albeit as a boy and calling someone, other than his actual mother, mommy) and give her to Krepusyl in place of Tsishah. At the same
time, as a far easier option, Golgotha offers to kill the Harmonia-deviant.
(9) All Morg or Golgotha ask for in return
is Krepusyl to let them and the Supra Saints cross over to Apple
Isle in order to secure the release of Morg's great-grandmother, Kyprian Somata.
[RECALL: Cruel Plathon, the multi-horned
Bull of Mithras, has been holding Master Kyprian in the Tholos Tomb for the Unknown Devil (Marutia-Strife)
since events described near the middle of 'Helioddity';
more specifically, since a chapter entitled 'Helios
In Extremis'.] |
So, what else happens in VolVar-4? For one, Fred cures herself, unwittingly at the cost of infecting others. So she unselfishly
uncures herself (if 'uncures' is a word) by disinfecting those
others and re-infecting herself. For two, Megaera
Zeross becomes Meg-Aura,
a living eye-stave,
and tries to take out Krepusyl in her own protectorate. Despite her threat, noted above, it is a very good thing
for not just Meg that Master Devas who've never been ill-starred don't
kill.
For three, occasionally blue-skinned
Thalassa D'Angelo (Sea Goddess) hears she might actually be Thalassa Thanatos, a fourth generational devil. For four, we learn that Praxitheia
(Faerie Flight) is Medea Annulis's daughter
by Sedon St Synne, Cybele's father. And, oh yes, for five, we learn the identity of
the Harmonia-deviant, as if we hadn't guessed
that already. (Or knew it if you read long
deleted chapters such as 'The
Faerie Garden', 'The
Trigregos Gambit' and 'The
Crimson Corona' when they were serialized howsoever many years ago
now.)
Finally, as for 'Fred in Fairyland',
well, we can't leave her dying anew, can we?
Actually, I could. But I didn't. Recall 'Coueranna's Curse' and who
ultimately ended with her (Kore-Concord),
as opposed to it (the curse of holding Kore in a prison
pod secreted between-space, as Laodice Atreides did at Castle Nightmare, or, worse, being
possessed by Kore)? Put it this way, Cybele St Synne doesn't
get an option anymore.
Let's leave the last word to our 4-chapter narrator,
Tom-Tiddly Taddletale, the faerie-type with
blue skin and sun-blond hair who covers an Inner Earth Summoning Child,
Tammuz Rhymer of Dukkha (Sedon's Upper Lip-Tip on a map of the Headworld):
"I've come to know these supras. They won't last long; especially
won't last long before they're at each other's throats."
"Spoken almost as if you were the Time-Tumbler, Tammuz."
saluted History [Heliosophos, the Male Entity].
"Want a beer?"
"Thanks for the offer, dad."
"Don't get too familiar, kid. I find my parents there's a strong
likelihood you'll never be."
"Put that way, maybe I'll have two."
As always, good reading!
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Great title. I should copyright it.
The company part of it starts in the Totem Pool (aka Cleo's Bath and the Wishing Hell,
Head-side of the Tholos Tomb
for Pygmies, wherein Tanith von
Blut jumps, evidently attempting to commit suicide yet again) and
ends in the Dinq, Doinq, Danq Cavern Tavern. Are we soon to be done
with Chaos yet again? Pending additional re-reading,
I'll say nay to
that.
Truth told we aren't done with Tanith, yet again, either. That's in
part because VolVar-5 begins 'Queen of Heaven', the novel's
second subsection. And guess who likes the notion of being a queen of
heaven? As for the rest of it, let's call it
foreboding and leave it at that.
The star cluster stapled all over it [the roof of the cavern containing
the Totem Pool]
detached itself, sprinkled downwards, began taking shape, -- her shape.
As it landed, on its feet, a human being, albeit one still gleaming
from myriad sparkle-stars scattered all over her naked body, it was
very apparent that Tanith von Blut had finally realized her Summoning
Heritage.
If Aegis was a man in silver armour she was armour in the shape of
a silver woman.
"Hey, Jess. We having fun yet?" she grinned happily.
"I swear you've more lives than a cat, Silverhair."
"Coming from someone who rose from the Dead, I suppose I should take that as a compliment. Cat would
be nice, though."
"Come again?"
"Wonder if there's a cat constellation."
What there is no wondering about is why she'll soon be acquiring an
SOS-codename besides
Silverhair. That codename? Cousin Constellation!
There was a cat constellation. It was called Lynx. But that was not
the psychopomp star-creature she conjured out of the Totem Pool to
ride eastward through the Grey.
Instead, after Akbar whispered in her ear that Tanith/Astroarche
was known as Libera in Rome and Maat in Egypt, she played around a
bit; got a tad creative, -- for creativity was one of her attributes;
she was, like Strife, an Ethereal.
Astroarche = 'Queen of the Heavens'
Abe Chaos had already informed her [Tanith Silverhair]
that both Tanith and Astroarche were names her evident template, Pyrame Silverstar,
took when she was the Queen of Cretan Phaistos during the Mad Goddesses' 500-year long, Middle Sea matriarchate
between circa 2000 and 2500 Years of the Dome. |
![[SHOT OF MAAT, EGYPTIAN GODDESS OF JUSTICE, PEACE OR BALANCE, REMINISCENT OF TANITH SILVERHAIR AND HARMONIA/NIHILA, THE UNITY OF BALANCE, TAKEN BY JIM McPHERSON IN THE ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM, TORONTO CANADA, APRIL 2000]](graphicimages/tanmaat1.jpg) Maat
had a cat's face, so she gave herself one. Maat's symbol was a feather,
so she tied her silver hair in an upside-down ponytail such that its
end looked like a feather coming out of her bun. And then, since Libera,
Libra, -- the eponymous Mother Goddess of Ancient Libya --, was a
constellation in her own right, she decided to ride to the cavern-tavern
not in Metet, Maat's Morning Boat of the Sun, but upon Libra's Scales
of Justice adjusted accordingly.
She stood on one platform, had Akbar, Young Death, and Aegis Mandam
stand on the other one, then raised a Stopstone sail off a mast between
them. The other three congratulated her on her cleverness. Was nothing
like sailing through the ether, they figured.
Will further say Akbar (who was once Old
Joe but who's now very much a young Joe properly named Kronokronos Akbarartha)
finally admits he was Michael D'Angelo from 1895 (when Azrael Sangati,
a Blood Beast Prime and self-made vampire put the bite on him) until
19/5920's Simultaneous Summonings, after which he emerged from a cocoon
as Magister Joseph Mandam.
He doesn't deny he was Barsine Mandam's father
(by Olympias Sangati always Ararat).
But he does deny he was Jesus Mandam's father (by Mary Magdalene born Ryne become
Mrs Magister Mandam). He thinks, as it turns out probably quite correctly,
Jesse's father was none other than the legendary 30-Year Man, our old
pal Jordan Tethys.
Perhaps not at all coincidentally, the recurring deviant (whom you'll
recall was among those listening
to Tom-Tiddly recounting all that happened on Battle Beach a few days
previously in Sub-Trig) is already drinking in the DDD. After he joins
them, he admits he was Magister Mandam from 1895 until 19/5920's Simultaneous
Summonings. While that doesn't necessarily
mean he was Jesse's father, he confirms he might have been his grandfather.
"Yet you were Old Joe's father?" [Aegis-Jesus
put to the Legendarian.]
"Now that I can say with some certainty. 5866 was a good year
for us. Had the loveliest set of twins a man and wife could desire.
And, almost thirty years later, I was able to make the male of the
two well again."
"By coming back inside him."
"In a manner of speaking," nodded the Tail-Teller. "Whereupon,
for the next quarter century or so, we shared a wonderful life, one
of my better ones in fact."
"Which brings us back to the Summoning."
"Quite. Which was when, -- after my demise, I might add --,
my old travelling buddy here came out of his chrysalis wearing my
likeness, that is to say Old Joe's likeness, and took our place."
"You found this out after you came back in this body, the one
you're in now?"
"Actually I found this out immediately after my demise."
"Now I got you," silver-snapped
Mandam. "The disease you saved Old Joe, your son, from in 1895,
by coming back inside him, was the terminal stages of transformation
into a vampire. You weren't so lucky in 1920. By after your demise
you mean after you became a vamp. And a bunch of you became vamps
during the Summoning."
"Bright boy," grinned Tethys.
What else? Well, someone tries to call Tanith
Silverstar (as in Pyrame Silverstar)
instead of Silverhair. She prefers Silverhair. Someone calls Jess Silverspoon,
as per what he was figuratively born with in his mouth. Although he
is wearing the head-to-toe silvery Aegis of Athena,
hence Aegis-Jesus, he doesn't think it's
funny.
Young Joe acknowledges that he himself was born, albeit as Akbarartha,
sometime near the beginning of the Dome's 59th Century. He further acknowledges
that might make him a faerie fart. He and Unholy Abaddon (the
chapter-titular Chaos) get drunk
in the DDD (the Dinq, Doinq, Danq Cavern Tavern).
It's hardly the first time they've got drunk together. Indeed, they
both seem to have the capacity to drink dry an entire lake (so long
as it's filled with beer). Tethys isn't far behind them, though of course
he has a 30-beer maximum. Young Death and Tanith abstain. Both leave,
he in his usual gruesome fashion. She just wants to be alone. Turns out alone isn't
an option.
Tanith declined to join them; went upstairs to her room, such as
it was. Not that that mattered overly much. She'd had enough for one
day, -- one day, one night, and another day on top of that she felt,
though Lord knew how long she had been up.
Baghdad, Africa, Sedon's Head, Sedon's Peak, Silverhair becoming
Silverstar, the voyage through Shadowland and now the Dinq. Which
was also the last thing she needed right now. Dinq with a 'k' that
is.
As she was undressing, she heard it. Him.
Outside her window. Not that she had a window as such. Not in the
bowels of this cavern of a tavern. Where was he? Between-space? Had
to be. What was he doing? Serenading her? Had to be that too. Strummed
a lovely sounding lyre or lute and had a nice singing voice to boot.
Too bad he couldn't rhyme worth star-shine.
Twang!
Jesse still fancies Tanith Silverhair. He probably always will.
Somewhat significantly, Jordy leaves his sketchpad behind when he too
retires for the night. Jesse flips through it and, bearing in mind what
Tethys apparently can do with this quill of his, somehow twigs as to
what may be really happening:
Finding eyelids open long enough to peruse the rest of the notebook,
Jesse was not surprised to find various renditions of the man he now
thought of as his former father, -- this fay-fellow, this Kronokronos
Akbar.
More and more, though, he found snatch-sketches of someone who looked
like Tanith, albeit the Ice Queen and not the Pretty Pussy version of her. Peculiarly, sometimes these drawings did not have
a head under all that silver hair as much as a pyramid.
Some other times, it being a pyramid, the same silver hair-loft had
a couple of different faces on each of the sides visible.
'Fucking Hell!' Tethys had come here not just looking for Akbar and
Barsine, his half-sister,
who wasn't even half his sister as now seemed manifest. He'd come
in quest of Tanith too.
Mandam rushed up the stone stairway and made
his way down the dark corridor toward her room. Fatalistically, he
did not expect to find her there. He was right. She was not there.
Very nearly fatally, though, someone else was, -- a sharp-toothed
vampire with approaching Tanith-like silver hair!
"Hi, guy. My name's Janna Somata, much better known these days
as Fangfingers. Mind if I have a bite?"
Recollect Second Fangs (Janna Fangfingers)?
Of course you do. Her story was amongst those detailed years ago in 'PREGAME-Gambit' #s 2, 3 & 4.
So why has she popped by the Dinq? Could it be she wants to get drunk
too, albeit on Jesse's blood? We'll see soon.
I somehow doubt it,
though.
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