Nightlord: Shadows (34 page)

“Yes. Of course. That sort of incident may have… ah… acted as a sort of immunization, perhaps. More important to you, I suspect that when the Mother of Flame opened a channel through her servant on that plane, some portion of that power devoted to you must have flowed to you through the opening. I have cautioned others on this matter before. An unrestricted portal between realms is a dangerous thing.

“Still, since you were first a God of Fire to the sea-people, that may be what kept you from being destroyed instantly by her power. That delay probably allowed a faint whiff of your own power to enable you to metabolize what you took from her.

“Now that you have done so, you possess a godlike capability; you can sense the power given by those who are devoted to you—I should imagine it will be very similar to your existing abilities. A wizard or magician can sense magical energies; a nightlord can sense the various types of living energy; a god can detect and use the power provided by devotees. While the first two are relatively simple things, capable of minor tricks in worlds where the magical potential is high, that last one is capable of rewriting pieces of… well, ‘reality,’ at least as you currently understand it.” She gestured toward the pool again.

“The fountain is the power flowing from your followers, whether they are formal members of your religion or not. That is the embodiment of their belief. That pool is the reserve of power they have provided over the years. The other pools you see are the powers of the other gods. While you are here, you can use that power for almost any purpose. You can also reach your power from other worlds, having some portion of it now within you with which to reach this plane.”

She smiled.

“Now you may ask questions.”

“Right,” I said. “Do I have to be a god?”

“
Have
to be? No. Perhaps more important, you are
not
a god. You are merely god-like, as I said, and even that is temporary.”

“Hmm. What am I doing here?”

“This is the realm of the gods. You came here when your soul grew too powerful to be contained in its physical vessel. Now that you exist as… as an energy form, your perceptions are now in alignment with this energy-state, so you perceive and act here.”

“Hold it. My body is still back there?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Can I go back?”

“Certainly,” she agreed. “An avatar can be created, but it is immensely draining. Reaching into a lower-energy plane does that. Normally, one simply operates through oracles or priests. Divine manifestations within one of the lesser worlds are remarkably wasteful.”

“No, I don’t mean that,” I countered. “I want to go back to re-occupy my regular flesh.”

“It cannot hold you. At least, not as you are.”

“We’ll see about that,” I assured her. “Moving on… you mentioned something about being god-like ‘for the moment.’ There have been other references to a time limit. Could you elaborate on that?”

“It is unlikely that you can sustain yourself in this form. You are a physical being transplanted from a low-order universe of matter to a higher-order universe of energy—yes, you think you know something about matter and energy and how they relate. You do, when you are in lower-order planes. The rules vary somewhat between those planes, but most are broadly similar.

“In this, an energy plane, matter cannot exist. You are a relatively simplistic energy-form, at the moment, currently mimicking extraordinarily complex processes that cannot operate on a lower-energy plane.” She paused for a moment, thinking.

“Since you are stuck with metaphors, here… I mean no offense, you understand; the comparison I am about to make is merely illustrative.”

“I understand. Go for it.”

“Very well. You are the monkey that has been taken from the jungle. You wear clothes like a person, use a knife and fork like a person, even sip delicately at the champagne like a person—but you do not understand anything about why these things need to be done, the timing, the combinations, the social conventions, anything. Outside the metaphor, most of this is taking place below your conscious level; your ability to think in metaphors is the only thing that is keeping your energy-pattern from disintegrating under the incomprehensible.”

“Okay,” I said, slowly. “I don’t understand, but I think you’re telling me that I can’t understand—or, at least, that I don’t have time to learn before living on this plane turns me into scattered sparks. Or, time to learn before the ‘monkey’ dies from eating too much human food.”

“That is wrong in many ways, but good enough.”

“That sounds Reasonable, but possibly only because I definitely do not want to stay. So, what do I do to get back to my corporeal form?”

“Since it cannot hold you, you must release a sizable portion of the accumulated power, as well as expend—from your perspective—everything that you currently hold within you. Drain the pool and then bleed to death. That should reduce you to such a low energy level that a matter-based plane can sustain you. It isn’t certain; it is merely logical.”

“Why isn’t it certain?”

“It has never happened before. No other material being has ever been a nascent God of Fire and tried to suck the life out of a Goddess of Fire. There have been other beings that have attempted to reach godhood, even reached this plane of existence. Very few of them have managed to adapt to life as a being of energy, and each of them adapted slowly, rather than catapulting directly here via transfusion.” Her lips quirked in amusement. “Your presence is a rare occasion.”

“Well, I don’t plan to repeat it!” I told her with some force. “Okay, maybe I can go home, or won’t have a choice. While I’m here, though, what happened inside? What’s his name? Father Sky? Why was he trying to flatten my face?”

“You attacked the Mother of Flame,” Reason told me. “Having wounded her, he doubtless feels affronted on her behalf. It may also be a slight case of jealousy; she has boasted of your service in the past.”

“I thought she was attached to the Father of Darkness?”

“She boasted of your service, not of your relationship,” Reason clarified. “Even so, she has had… well, quite a few consorts. She was once only a fire goddess, but has since worked diligently to add the sun, fertility, and healing to her portfolio. She is quite good at both the fire and the sun, fairly skilled with fertility, and has some work yet to do in cementing her abilities with healing.

“I think,” Reason continued, “her main avenue into healing has something to do with sick people noticing that staying warm by the fire helps them feel better.” Reason smiled. “She does still tend to burn things even when she is trying to help them.”

“I’ve noticed that in her priestesses. They have to practice to keep from torching things.”

“They would not need to be skilled if the Mother of Flame was a better life goddess,” Reason assured me, possibly with a faint sniff. “The energies she lends all have the mark of fire upon them.”

“That explains a lot.”

“I can give you Reasons for that.”

“Thanks,” I said. “You get to make awful puns, but I don’t?”

“I am the goddess.”

“Typical. Okay, you mentioned something about me having been a worshipper, and maybe not being one, and so on?”

“Gods cannot worship other gods. It does nothing. It is similar to pulling up on your shoelaces in order to rise into the air. While you are here, you cannot take the energies of a matter-plane and direct them to my energy-plane.”

“Got it. So, if I’m a god—however temporarily—I’m not one of your worshippers, even though I think Reason is darn important.”

She dimpled in a smile. Reason has dimples? That’s like saying Logic has pretty eyes. Which, come to think of it…

“There is more to it, but that is the fundamental point, yes,” she agreed.

“And when Father Sky, with his lightning-axe—that, I presume, splits the sky—tries to disembowel me later…?”

“He has gone to request the Mother of Flame’s presence. If she chooses to attend, the gods will listen to you both and vote on what to do.”

“How much trouble am I in?”

“Since you intend to depart shortly, I should not think you need worry about it.”

“Oh?”

“You were a lower being when you attacked the Mother of Flame. She cannot complain about that; it would make her look weak. However, now that you have come here and shown yourself to be one of us, you are protected by the covenant: No god may attack another. Any who does will be destroyed by all the others.”

“Will that do me any good when I go back down?”

“Possibly. I will try to make them see Reason.”

“I have utter faith in your persuasive abilities.”

“That will help.”

“Then I’ll try to get back.” I took her hand, kissed it. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for me.”

She smiled and kissed my forehead.

“Everything happens for a Reason,” she said. I rolled my eyes and she chuckled.

I walked into my pool and stood there for a moment, watching Reason head into the temple.

Okay, problem: I existed as an energy-state being. My net energy content was too high to be contained in a matter-based container, such as my usual body. Possible solutions? First, reduce the energy content of my present form. Second, increase the energy capacity of my physical body.

Great. A simple set of solutions.

Now, how do I
do
that?

Well, when in doubt, take a swing at it and see what happens. I sure as hell wasn’t staying here until someone decided to throw me out of heaven. I heard what happened to the last guy.

I looked into the surface of the pool and used it like a scrying mirror. Yep, there I was, lying on an altar in my shrine in Mochara. It was full of people—men, women, even children—all praying. I could feel it.

Right. So. Since I don’t know what I want to do, I’m going to have to rely on metaphors and visualization again. That’s going to be power-intensive, but that’s a
good
thing in this case. The more I know about what I want to do, the less power it takes, because I can apply it more precisely. In extreme cases of confusion, it’s even possible to Wish Really Hard and back it with tons of power to get your wish… and this might be such a case. At least it should help with disposing of accumulated energy.

Time to find out.

Focus on my body. It’s empty. Of course, it’s night and I’m dead. It doesn’t need to be doing anything tedious, such as breathing, so I don’t know if it’s still in any condition for me to wear it again.

Let’s try it on for size.

I extended a toe into the vision in the water and tried to slide it into my body. It worked, so I kept going. I got into it in much the same way I might get into a tight-fitting shoe, then I stuck; I had the equivalent of half of one of my feet crammed into what should have been a full set of clothes. My body was, indeed, much too small to hold me.

All right. Good to know. That’s my starting point.

I waved a hand in a circle, starting the water in my pool to spinning. It spun faster and faster, forming a whirlpool; through that opening, I viewed my flesh. I pushed the power down into the flesh, changing it. The flesh itself was still flesh, but, from a spiritual perspective, I wanted that skinsuit altered, tailored.

From the outside, it should still look the same. On the inside, though, I wanted more room. If I’m currently a self-propagating energy-state being, as I expect, my fleshy nervous system needs to be able to contain a self-propagating energy-state being. So it needs to be, using an electrical model metaphor, capable of handling much greater voltage and amperage—it needs to be the equivalent of a spiritual superconductor.

That assumes, of course, that my fleshy nervous system has anything to do with it. Crap, damn, and bugger!

Okay, well, it’s still a good metaphor. So is the tailoring metaphor. If there are other channels in my flesh—some sort of magical or spiritual conduits—those need to be the equivalent of superconductors and could doubtless stand some improvement along those lines. I might not know what they are, where they are, or even what they’re usually for, but I don’t need to know what kind of stitching is in a seam when I pull on a set of pants. I can feel these sorts of things as I try on my skinsuit and instantly know they need a bit more room in the crotch.

The water that was power swirled about me, funneled downward, and did as I commanded.

Now, while that lets the skinsuit out in various places
, I thought,
I
could stand to go on a diet, like trying to fit into skinny jeans, just, in this case, fitting into a tight skinsuit. Hopefully an elastic skinsuit.

I exerted myself, thinking of the power I had absorbed by lying in the pool, drinking from the fountain, and, for all I knew, even existing on this plane. Let’s use some of that power. Keep the patterns that make me unique, but diminish in size. Lower the energy content. Go from an industrial blast furnace to a single candle in the darkness. Shrink it all down, just enough to fit…