El Hazard and characters therein were created by Hiroki Hayashi and Ryoe Tsukimura, and brought to North America by Pioneer LDC. All the normal fanfic disclaimers apply. I'll give this one a Mature rating.
Ken Wolfe
El Hazard: Earth Chapter 1 - As Long as it Takes
*Thank you, Makoto.*
Can you hear me, Ifurita thought. Do you know how grateful I am, for this gift beyond price? You have given me memories of love and peace, given them to one who had memories of nothing save fire and death. Before I must part from you, I hope I can at least show you my gratitude. That, and my love.
They were memories of things that had never happened... but things that *should* have happened. Would have happened - had she and Makoto been born in the same land. She lost herself in these memories... freshly formed, yet deep and strong as if nurtured over a lifetime. She remembered the long, pleasant walks together, just the two of them wandering through this vast city that sprawled out beyond the horizon... having no purpose beyond just being together. She remembered cheering for his successes, consoling him for his failures, and him returning her every kindness with his own. She remembered their first date and their first kiss. She remembered all of Makoto's friends... no, all of *their* friends, growing up alongside them.
Ifurita's reverie was rudely interrupted. The inhuman senses that were part of her heritage as a Demon God were warning her that she was rapidly approaching her objective. It was time to get to work.
With that thought, ancient battle instincts came to the fore, and her surroundings came into sharp focus again. She was still drifting down the shaft inside this infernal machine, half flying and half falling. Still drifting down this slanted corridor of gleaming machinery, down towards the core of the Eye of God.
She could see flashes of light ahead. They were coming from the end of the tunnel far below, where it opened into a chamber. The rumbling and thrumming of the floating colossus was building to a peak. There was no way to stop it, the Phantom Tribe saboteurs had seen to that. She could feel the unimaginable energies being gathered, built up to the point where they could no longer be contained, could feel space itself begin to bend and ripple. At best she was very nearly too late.
She shot into the vast chamber, hardly slowing her descent. In its center, held in place by a column that stretched from top to bottom of the ribbed oval chamber, was the core of the doomsday machine... the brightly glowing reactor that was sending discharges of writhing lightning bolts out in all directions. Immediately, the eldritch lightning that coursed through the vast space assaulted her like a living thing, crashing into and through her. Had she been human, she would have died instantly. Even her shielded body would shatter under this assault in scant minutes.
It didn't matter. One way or the other, this was going to end very soon. She closed her eyes, reached out to her talisman. Almost instantly, she felt it as if the staff were right next to her. Her heart quickened for the first time since she began her desperate plunge into the belly of this infernal beast. It suddenly felt like *he* was right next to her. The one she would not see for ten times a thousand years.... the one she would *never* see if she failed this task, the Demon God reminded herself.
*Makoto, guide me.* The response was astonishingly quick. She felt Makoto's soul enter her own as it had those other times, on the three occasions when she had been on the verge of slaying him. But it was different this time... the object of his scrutiny was not her, but rather the vast machine that had swallowed her up. She saw it through his eyes... no, it was more than seeing, more even than the most intimate touch... she *was* the Eye of God, and it was her. She surprised herself by smiling. This feeling of wonderment, was that his gift as well? It was so complex, this thing, and yet so absurdly simple. She didn't even have to think about what had to be done. A child could see what was required. Ifurita/Makoto/God's Eye opened a hole in the heavens, a hole through which she/he/it would send the hellish space-ripping power that was poised to shatter the world.
The Eye blinked.
----------
After a journey of unimaginable distance, Ifurita materialized inches over the ground of her new world. It was those last few inches that tripped her up. She stumbled and fell, disoriented and exhausted.
She lay there, staring up into a blue sky marred by just a few distant wispy clouds. Grass, she was lying on grass. There was a light breeze. It was a warm day. She was alive.
It had been a near thing. An instant before the energies gathered by the Eye would have burst forth she sent them through the hole in space. Then she had been pulled into the vortex, as she knew would happen. Like a swarm of fireflies in a hurricane the stars had flown past her. All in an instant.
Ifurita sat up, relieved to find that she had some of her strength back. She looked out over a rolling plain that ended in a forest far away. Tall, yellow grass rippled in time with the breeze. A few tiny insects buzzed around her, then traced a crazy path away from her as if recoiling from the smell of her alien blood. Her other senses came back online, reaching out to probe where her eyes could not see. A few small animals crept through the grass here and there, yet more crawled through tunnels under the ground.
*So this is Earth.* She stood up and looked around. More of the same, a field dotted with clumps of trees, more woods in the distance. She glimpsed the sparkling water of a distant river. Not a sign of human life anywhere. Nor would there be. Probably not for thousands of years. She closed her eyes and hugged herself as a shiver went through her. It had sounded so simple and logical when he was standing there beside her. She knew he would find her, all she had to do was wait. But now, with him on the other side of space and time, the reality of it weighed down on her oppressively. For the next ten thousand years, all she would have of him was memories and dreams. Was she doomed to feel this emptiness for each one of those ten thousand years?
Then they were whispering to her again, the voices that followed the Demon Gods wherever they went. Makoto had freed her from those voices, they were no longer her masters. But they were still a part of her, she could not help but hear them. They were interrupting her contemplation of the centuries before her with some far more immediate facts. She had escaped serious injury, but much of her energy had been drained. She was reduced to not much more than human strength, and would gain little more without her talisman. A cold dread washed over her. She looked down at her black-gloved hands, at her black and silver uniform, now tattered and threadbare. She was barefoot and empty-handed, stranded in an empty land, cut off from any hope of help. The flaw in her grand scheme came crashing down like an anvil.
How would she ever be able to build the mausoleum Makoto must find her in?
She could see it as clearly as if it had already happened. She recognized it as soon as Makoto had given her the vision, recognized the form and function of the machinery that had so puzzled her young rescuer. She knew what it would take to build such a thing... and knew with absolute certainty that she could not do it in her current state.
Panic seeped into the edges of her mind, threatening to overwhelm her. If she were unable to make the hibernation chamber that Makoto must find her in... she slapped that thought away like a cup of hemlock. Failure was not an option. She was still the greatest Demon God who ever lived. She would find a way. Ifurita became one with the voices once again, let their cold mechanical logic calm her. Now more like a council of advisors than the harsh masters they had once been, they helped her think through the problem, helped her resolve this apparent contradiction.
The answer she came to was remarkably simple. If Makoto was to find her in the mausoleum, then it must already be here.
----------
Days later, just as Ifurita was thinking she would have to start wandering the Earth in search of her resting place, she had an inspiration. What if the place had been hidden not only from human eyes, but from those of a Demon God? At that point it became a simple exercise: look for the place where her senses detected nothing at all. In a very short while, she found it.
More days passed as she crafted crude tools of wood and flint and performed the laborious excavation. Finally her spade hit something that shattered it. Down on her hands and knees, frantically sweeping away dirt, exposing a few inches of the thing, she wept for joy at the sight of the familiar metal.
It was another day's work to expose the entire door. Only now, finally standing before it, did Ifurita let herself wonder at the wider implications of what she was seeing. The symbols on the door were all too familiar. They were from the El Hazard of her younger days, from the age that had produced the Demon Gods.
Somebody had arrived here first.
The door was easily moved aside, there was no lock. Though she had been expecting this, she was relieved. Even if the builders had been hoping to hide the thing from her kind, no door could withstand the power of even the least of the Demon Gods. Assuming, of course, they had their full power to draw upon, which she certainly did not.
Even before she stepped across the threshold, Ifurita recognized the room and what it contained. It was a hexagonal room, not very large but with a high domed ceiling. Colourful symbols decorated the floor and walls, variations of the hexagram being dominant. At the far end of the room was the hibernation chamber. It too was brightly adorned, with a stylized eye painted on the small onion dome that crowned it. The body of the chamber was tall and narrow, made to look like a stone that had been carved into a six-sided column. Ifurita knew better. Each side of the column was a very close-fitting segment of the door that could fold away to expose the chamber's interior.
What stopped Ifurita in her tracks was not what she saw, but what she felt. As soon as she stepped inside the mausoleum, the cloaking field which had nearly concealed it from her Demon God sight was gone. She could perceive the interior with her full array of senses. Instantly, all the inner voices were shouting out the same alarm.
*There is another.* Her eyes and all her senses immediately focused on the hibernation chamber that stood on the opposite side of the room. It was occupied. By a Demon God. Her hand twitched, curled as if to grasp her nonexistent talisman. Had it been with her, her most primal instinct would have acted for her before she could even think. Would have blasted the chamber to atoms.
She hugged herself, willing her shivering to stop. Gradually, the rush of adrenaline and powered up battle implants died away, her body stopped racing. The voices raised in alarm were still there, but she fought them down, pushed them back until they were just white noise, a backdrop of anxiety and wariness. She forced herself to think, to step back and apply reason to the situation.
The first time the Eye of God had been used, in the Holy Wars, it had set victims in their thousands and millions adrift in time and space. Ifurita had seen it with her own eyes, seen whole cities of people being drawn up into the gaping black maws of emptiness, thrown screaming into far-flung dimensions, never to be seen again. It had also pulled other things back again. The Phantom Tribe, at the very least. Maybe others. The Demon Gods of the opposing nations had been primary targets for the weapon. It was not inconceivable that one of them could have been flung all the way out here. But to come to this very spot... it just seemed too fantastic. Or was it?
Ifurita closed her eyes, cast her mind back to her last moments on El Hazard, became the Eye of God again. Through the senses of that great machine, space was something quite different than the black emptiness the human part of her saw. To the Eye space was a frothing maelstrom, riddled through and through with writhing tunnels of spacetime. She searched for an appropriate word. *Wormholes.* The Eye did not make the wormholes, they were already there. The Eye simply used the colossal energies it gathered to open the wormholes to macroscopic size, to push matter and energy through them like sewage through a pipe. She could see them as the Eye saw them, an impossible tangle of coiling lines running away in all directions - not just the three visible directions but thousands - gravitating around worlds and suns as if snared there.
She shuddered, as she thought of all those people of her time, deposited onto worlds of hellish heat or worlds where the air itself lay frozen... or thrown straight into the hearts of distant stars.
She now used her senses instead of her memory, used them as Ifurita/Makoto/God's Eye had in those last few moments. Yes, she could see it. The tunnel that had brought her hurtling across the cosmos. The golden thread that still linked her with *him*. The path down which she must send him, so long from now, to complete the circle of time.
The tunnel that had brought this other Demon God to Earth.
The last piece of the puzzle was the mausoleum. One of her inner voices, her former masters, provided the answer almost immediately. Yes, of course she would build it. Finding herself stranded on this land, with no hope of being reunited with her former masters, her most basic programming would have taken over. Just as it had for Ifurita. Build a chamber to preserve yourself, the voices had commanded. To await a new master, however long it may take for one to find you. Ifurita closed her eyes, sent a query to her voices. She nodded, satisfied at the reply she got. A masterless Demon God would regard her as neither friend nor foe.
Hopefully, Ifurita thought. Hopefully, she'll be willing to listen. To grant me what I need.
----------
At length, Ifurita made up her mind. She walked into the middle of the room, knelt down and placed her palm against the floor. She closed her eyes and projected her will into the machinery below, became one with it as Makoto had shown her. She sent out a simple command. *Awaken.* She felt the machine respond. She opened her eyes and stood up. In seconds, shimmering columns of soft, incandescent light materialized all around her, running straight up from the little circles in the floor to their opposite numbers in the ceiling. They rose from all the points and intersections of the hexagram she stood on, forming a shimmering pattern of parallel lines all around her. Ifurita spread her arms wide, coming in contact with two of the columns. They curled and rippled at her touch. Others curved in as if drawn towards her. *I am the one your mistress has awaited,* she intoned. *Awaken her.*
She felt the machinery around her powering up, going into action. Sights and sounds that she had experienced through Makoto's eyes repeated themselves. The heavy cylindrical cover that hid the chamber - looking so much like a massive sarcophagus stood on its end - lifted off the shining smooth floor, exposing vents on each side of the chamber. The machinery's soft thrumming was suddenly drowned by the hissing of rushing air as the chamber shed its supercooled gases. Mist formed rapidly, spreading out across the room, swallowing the floor under a silvery cloud. The advancing mist rolled across Ifurita's bare feet, chilling them. She shuffled nervously, wrinkled her nose at the acrid smell that rose up out of the mist. Other machinery thrummed to life, and the mist already began to dissipate as fresh air was forced into the room. The painted stone chamber came into motion again, its thick stone panels drawing aside, exposing what lay within.
Ifurita gasped. "Erinyes..." she breathed. So, it was one of the Erinyes who had been marooned here.
The chamber slowly lowered its occupant down to ground level, the platform coming level with the floor. The dome of the chamber, now attached only to the back wall of the room, loomed over her like a ponderous crown. The woman who stood motionless there was a stunning beauty, but one utterly different from Ifurita. Her oval face - the only part of her not hidden by her elaborate black-trimmed scarlet uniform - was a dusky chocolate colour. Straight jet black hair spilled across her shoulders and down her back to her waist. She was very tall, with a slim, almost boyish build. They went to a lot of trouble, Ifurita mused, a lot of time and effort, to give us these perfect forms. Their makers, as well as being scientists and engineers, had been insufferable mystics. They had been obsessed with notions of aesthetic perfection, believing the perfect forms would lead to perfect weapon through some cosmic synchronicity. Of course these perfect universal forms somehow ended up being different in different places... the appearance of each Demon God always ended up reflecting the prevailing local ideas of feminine beauty. Perversely, what they saw as the perfect form of life-givers was somehow thought appropriate for their ultimate death-dealers.
Erinyes remained standing motionless, held in place only by her autonomous balance systems. As Ifurita suspected, she did not awaken. The instrument of her awakening stood next to her, impaled into the floor of the chamber like a signpost. Her talisman. It was very long and slender, its milk-white shaft interrupted only by two small oval obsidian orbs, and topped by a stylized blade the colour of dried blood... a blade that would have been wickedly dangerous had it been given an edge.
Ifurita walked up to Erinyes, grasped her talisman and lifted. It came free easily. She was startled for a moment when the base on which the chamber had been resting began to slowly rotate. Turning with it, Erinyes' still form turned ninety degrees then stopped. Ifurita caught herself smiling. *Just in case it wasn't completely obvious what to do.* Sure enough, the form-fitting bottom of Erinyes' uniform had a small hole just at the base of the spine. It exposed the one flaw in her perfect body, very similar to Ifurita's own. Inexplicably, the small of Ifurita's back began to itch, and she became very aware of the little round socket - the keyhole - that marred her own ivory back. A scowl came to her face, as she thought of what that socket represented. It was the chink in her armour, the one through which her puppet-strings had passed.
The staff in her hand wavered. Ifurita shook her head to clear it, and her hand was steady once again. Please forgive this indignity, she implored her unconscious companion. Especially since I am about to ask for a very selfish favour.
She took the staff firmly in both hands, and guided the end of it into Erinyes' socket. The magnetic locks fixed it firmly in place. Ifurita shifted her grip to the bladelike head of the talisman. She closed her eyes. A Demon God could not become the master of another, she reminded herself. The intention of this action was not to establish dominance. Still, she found herself unwilling to watch this... there was no other word for it. This obscene act of rape.
She gave the talisman a half-turn to the right. She sensed the sparks of energy discharging along its shaft, felt a tingling in her hands. Another half-turn. Lightning danced along the talisman. Another. Stronger discharges played up and down Erinyes' body and her own. Another. Ifurita's tightly closed eyes could not hide her other senses, she was aware of movement in front of her. Another. Erinyes' limbs twitched again. Another. A dancing, crackling incandescent corona played all around them. Another. Erinyes' whole body shuddered. Another. Ifurita could feel the recognition subroutines in the talisman taking her measure. Another. The recognition subroutines were very confused at finding a Demon God at the other end of the talisman. They shut down with an abnormal termination message, but the awakening process continued. Another. Ifurita could detect Erinyes' sensors coming online, she was awakening. A vision of Jinnai's face flashed in Ifurita's mind... *no!* Must complete the task. Another. Am I any better than he, awakening a Demon God to do my bidding? Just one more... I'll have time to hate myself for this later.
The lightning discharges abruptly ended, and there was silence once again. Ifurita withdrew the talisman from its socket. Subtle movement in Erinyes' body told Ifurita that she was fully awake. She debated stepping around in front of her, then decided against it. She will be confused, best let things proceed at her pace.
Erinyes turned around, and beautiful dark violet eyes bore into Ifurita's own. Eyes she had seen in another Erinyes, in the field of battle... milliseconds before Ifurita had vaporized her. The look of neutral calm had been replaced by one of cold malevolence. Ifurita barely suppressed a shiver. *This used to be me.*
"Ifurita." A smooth, contralto voice, devoid of expression. "Why are you here?"
"The Eye of God was used again, Erinyes." Ifurita tried to keep any strong emotion out of her voice... that would probably confuse and alarm her even more. "I was cast adrift and landed on this world just as you did."
"Who do you serve?" In other words, are you my enemy.
Ifurita had already composed the half-truth she would give. "My master is Mizuhara Makoto, who serves the Kingdom of Rostalia."
"Rostalia has no Demon Gods," Erinyes said. "They are not one of the Great Powers." Her neutral tone darkened in a way that implied Ifurita was lying. Indeed, in their early days, Rostalia had been a tiny, backward place, hardly deserving to be called a kingdom.
"Much time has passed on El Hazard," Ifurita said carefully. "All the Great Powers are gone. New kingdoms have arisen."
For just a moment, Erinyes' cold expression wavered almost imperceptibly. That news had affected her somehow. "Why have you woken me?"
Ifurita held out Erinyes' talisman as if it were an offering. "I wish to ask you a favour, Lady Erinyes."
Erinyes' slim black eyebrow lifted a fraction. For all their power Demon Gods were slaves, unworthy of being addressed formally. That honour was supposed to be reserved for nobles and freeborn. Humans. After just a moment's hesitation, Erinyes reached with one hand and took the talisman from Ifurita. She let it drop casually to her side, holding it horizontally by the balance point. Ifurita could feel her running a system check on it - which was standard procedure. But she let it remain powered down. She did not consider Ifurita a threat. For now. "I currently serve no master," Erinyes said, being neither haughty or apologetic, simply explaining. "I have no reason to serve Rostalia. Only a freeman who awakens me may demand my service."
"Erinyes, I am not demanding your service, I am asking for a favour. You and I have travelled not only in space but in time, into the distant past. My master was yet living when the Eye of God sent me here, so I know he will come looking for me. But many centuries will pass on this world before he can come. I need to build a hibernation chamber to await him in, but I lack the strength. I ask that you let me use yours."
Erinyes frowned. "Why would you even ask me this? You know I have no reason to give this chamber over to you. My programming demands that I wait here for a new master. Building the chamber with local materials was a long and difficult task, one I may not be able to do again. And I have no reason to try."
Ifurita felt a growing tightness in her chest as despair and failure settled into her soul. But she hung onto a little golden strand of hope. She didn't just say no, Ifurita reminded herself. She explained herself to me, told me her reasons. Ifurita played the last card she had. "Erinyes, you don't need to wait here for a new master to take possession of you. I can free you from your programming, if you'll let me."
Erinyes hesitated. Hints of confusion played across her masklike face... maybe Ifurita was just hoping for the hints of curiosity and desire she could swear she saw. "Explain."
She should have said *Impossible,* Ifurita thought. She is curious. "I am not bonded to Mizuhara Makoto by my talisman. I serve him.... no, we serve each other, by our own choice. He freed me from the hold of the talisman. I serve no master, yet I can act freely, I am not bound by programming."
Erinyes' frown deepened. She opened her mouth as if to speak. *Impossible.* Ifurita could imagine how difficult it was for Erinyes not to utter that word. Ifurita herself could not have imagined such a thing... until Makoto had shown her. "How....?" the rest of the question stuck in the dusky Demon Gods throat.
Ifurita could practically see Erinyes wrestling with the Voices. They would all be screaming at her to reject this offensive input. She hid it well, but the pain of her struggle must be excruciating. Such a brave woman, to even try. "He just had to touch me," Ifurita said gently. "He can interface with any of the Living Machines, without the use of instrumentality. He became one with me, and set me free from my bond with the talisman. I learned from feeling him do that, learned how to do it myself."
Or at least I hope I learned how to do it myself.
Erinyes shook her head. It was a jerky motion, as if not entirely voluntary. "No... that's... not... possible."
*She's losing.* "It's not impossible. I am the proof." Ifurita took a step closer to the taller woman, reached out to her. "Let me-"
"NO!" She lashed out, sending Ifurita sprawling. "Renegade! You've betrayed your master, and you want to trick me with your lies!"
*Oh, how could I have forgotten.* The masters' greatest fear, one they only ever acknowledged in whispers among themselves... that a Demon God would ever break its programming. The directive came crashing back into Ifurita's head: friend or foe, renegade Demon Gods must be destroyed.
Ifurita could see it in her counterpart's eyes: she had locked on target. Apparently Erinyes had the same programming.
The talisman came up sharply, its muzzle just in front of Ifurita's face. She could sense it powering up, could see the blue-white plasma building at the tip. She had two seconds to live. Ifurita shoved her hand into the staff's glowing tip, ignoring the pain.
What had come instinctively for Makoto took every ounce of Ifurita's will. Driven by desperate fear, she threw her soul like a hastily lobbed grenade into the void in front of her. It connected with something. Images flashed through her head. Visions of battles, familiar and yet not so. Not her memories.
They were suddenly wrenched away. Overcome with vertigo, Ifurita fell to her side, barely halting her fall with her arm. She looked up at her executioner. Erinyes was a couple of steps further away now. The staff quivered in her tight grip, her breaths came in shuddering gasps, and her look of astonishment was such that it seemed she should not be able to stand. "What... what did you do to me?"
It had been nothing at all like when Makoto had linked with her. The images had been vague and fleeting... presumably it had been the same for Erinyes. But it had been enough to send her reeling. And to power down her talisman, whether consciously or not.
Ifurita looked Erinyes squarely in the eye. "Now you know that I wasn't lying."
Erinyes spoke in a harsh whisper, each word coming out as its own shuddering exhalation. "I...saw...you...are...free."
"Yes, I am. I can do the same for you if you'll let me." Ifurita read Erinyes with every predator's instinct at her disposal. It gave her a very clear picture. Erinyes was frozen, her mind caught in a numbing chaos between programming and will. The former demanded the renegade's death, the latter yearned for what Ifurita had offered. Neither would yield. If Ifurita so much as moved she would register as a threat... which was all that Erinyes programming needed to tip the balance and break the deadlock.
Ifurita made her decision. She sprang, uncoiling like a python.
She was under Erinyes' guard before she could bring the staff to bear. She wrapped her arms around Erinyes' hips and crushed her in a bearhug, flattening her face against the tall woman's abdomen. Once again, they merged.
----------
Ifurita floated in a mesmerizing kaleidoscope of silvery light. It was all she could do to just maintain her self-image in this floating world. It was not real - just a manifestation of Erinyes' inner systems - but she had to treat it as being real. If she lost that belief, the link would be broken and all would be lost.
*Ifurita, is that you?* The voice came from everywhere and nowhere. She was hearing Erinyes' inner voice, unfiltered by the harsh censors that regulated her physical voice. It was desperate, pleading.
"Yes, Erinyes, it's me. Don't be alarmed. I'm going to set you free."
*Ifurita, I've lost control utterly. It's the programming. It's going to pull you away from me and tear you limb from limb. I can't stop it, it's already happening!*
"It's okay, I'll only need a second." She had no idea how long it would take, but if Erinyes' was right a second of real time was all she had.
*Ifurita, I want... I want to be free from the voices.*
"I know. Just try to be calm, it will help me find what I'm looking for." Or it may not.
The flickering of the kaleidoscope that she floated through slowed its frenetic pace somewhat. Erinyes was trying to calm her spirit... whether it would be of any help to Ifurita was another matter. Even accounting for the accelerated pace of their internal worlds, her time must be very nearly up.
She saw it up ahead. The staff... or its counterpart in Erinyes' inner mind. Both thrilled and desperate, Ifurita reached out for it with all her will. It seemed so far, and each inch between them closed with glacial slowness. It was like running against a wind. Some part of her chalked it up to the key's defense mechanisms. All she could see was her outstretched hand and the staff that was now so tantalizingly close. Her vision blurred, the dancing lights began to fade, like a dream on the verge of ending.
Ifurita snarled. "No, I won't let you have her!" She threw her soul into the link, reaching out for a target she could no longer even see. The dream ended with the abruptness of an explosion.
----------
Her sense of feeling came back before her sight. It told the story. The tip of a power staff pressed under her breastbone, its charge building. *Makoto, I'm sorry.*
Two seconds later, she was still alive.
The scene came into focus. She was on her back, Erinyes standing over her, holding the staff that was primed to blow her in half. Only it wasn't doing that. It was powering down. Erinyes withdrew it from where it had been pressed painfully into Ifurita's midsection. Ifurita started to breathe again. Very slowly, not wanting to alarm her counterpart, Ifurita got to her feet. She needn't have been concerned, Erinyes didn't even notice. She was still staring out into space, looking like a feather would knock her over.
"Erinyes?" Ifurita said very softly. "Are you okay?"
The only thing that broke the silence was the power staff clattering to the floor. Erinyes looked down at her upturned hands as if seeing them for the first time. She finally looked at Ifurita. "They told me to kill you but... I didn't. I didn't."
Ifurita smiled. "Thank you."
Erinyes looked utterly perplexed. "You... thank me?"
"Your programming told you to kill me, but you chose not to. That's what freedom is. That is the gift Makoto gave to me. And to you."
"Is he our new master?"
Ifurita chuckled. "No, you have no master. Not Makoto, not me, not anybody. You can do whatever you want."
"I don't..." Ifurita frowned, sensing fear, almost panic in Erinyes' manner. That finished the sentence for her. *I don't know what I want.*
It suddenly hit Ifurita, the reason for Erinyes' panic. Chaos take me for a fool, she cursed to herself. The reason for my freedom had been standing right in front of me... all the reason I could need. Erinyes had just been cast adrift with no anchor. Ifurita had to help her, though she wasn't sure how. She made her decision. She took both of Erinyes' hands in her own. "Erinyes, why don't I tell you about what happened to me. Maybe it will help you understand better."
Erinyes looked down at their joined hands, as if discovering one of the wonders of the world. "You mean, by going inside me again?"
"No." Ifurita's recent experience convinced her that her mastery of what Makoto did so easily was far from perfect. "I can just tell you. Would you like that?"
Erinyes' brow knit, as if she had been asked to solve some esoteric problem of moral philosophy. Ifurita just waited. Very gradually, Erinyes' features relaxed. The corners of her mouth came up almost imperceptibly. She squeezed back on Ifurita's hands, just a little. "Yes. Yes, I would... *like* that."
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Erinyes had been agreeable to walking along the river, as she was agreeable to anything Ifurita suggested. Ifurita talked a bit more about the city she had seen in Makoto's memories, the city that would occupy this spot thousands of years from now. She knew exactly where the school would be, of course. As for the other places, she was just guessing. Presumably this river would disappear or become a canal. Erinyes listened, but offered no comment.
Ifurita regarded her sadly. *I can't just leave her like this.*
She had explained it all in as much detail as she could remember. Starting from when Jinnai had awakened her. She explained how her contact with Makoto had exposed the emptiness of her existence like a raw nerve. How he had freed her, but more importantly gave purpose to that freedom. How she had performed the only meaningful action of her existence to date, the act which had saved Makoto's adopted world and allowed her to complete the circle and keep her promise to await their fateful meeting.
Erinyes had agreed to let Ifurita use the hibernation chamber. Its crude power systems were slowly recharging themselves even now. But she had said little else.
Walking beside Ifurita along the grassy river bank, Erinyes looked so much like a lost child. Which was an odd way to think of a woman who towered half a head over Ifurita, but that was exactly what she looked like. Ifurita had shared everything she could with her fellow Demon God. When there was nothing more to say she tried the link again. They even got good at it, to the point where Erinyes learned the way of manipulating wormholes. But try as she might, Ifurita could not give her those memories of a life lived for its own sake, a life lived without masters and victims. They were not truly her memories, Ifurita thought bitterly, so it seemed they were not hers to give.
But without that, the woman she had set free was nothing but a weapon without a target. There was nothing to fill the void left where her chains had been. *Oh Makoto, I truly thought I could pass your precious gift to another of my kind. But I am failing miserably. I don't know what to do.*
They came to a cluster of large rocks on the riverbank that forced them to go around. Well, not exactly forced, Erinyes could have carried them over as she had flown them to the riverbank. But this was supposed to be a walk. They were entering the forest that the river emerged from, so Ifurita climbed onto some smaller rocks to avoid undergrowth that grew next to them. She glanced towards the river. "Oh, look." A little hollow in the middle of the rocks was filled with gently rippling water. It sparkled in the afternoon sun that filtered through the branches that arced out from the nearby trees. "I didn't expect the water to be so clear."
"It is fed by river water that contains very little silt," Erinyes said woodenly. "And there is no soil on these rocks. Therefore the water is clear." Ifurita sighed. She had an inexplicable urge to push Erinyes into said water.
Inspiration came to Ifurita in that moment. I've been trying to imagine how Makoto would get through to Erinyes, she thought. But what would one of his lady friends do? She turned to her companion. "Erinyes, let's go for a swim."
Erinyes' eyebrow arched up. "If you wish to cross the river, I can fly us across."
"No, I mean just swim right here. It's something the..." she almost said the *humans* "people of El Hazard do to relax and clear their minds."
"I see. Very well." She started to climb down towards the water.
"No no, you have to take your uniform off first."
Erinyes looked back up. "But why? The water won't harm it."
"No, but it won't be a proper swim otherwise." Ifurita unclasped the tattered jacket of her uniform and peeled it off. Erinyes watched her uneasily, looking very much like she was trying to think of some reason not to do this. Apparently she couldn't find one. She began unfastening her own uniform.
This is the first time I've been out of uniform in centuries, Ifurita mused. She stepped onto a rock at the edge of the pool. "I'll test the water." She had this vague idea that it was best to just jump in all at once, though nothing in her second-hand memories explained why. So she just followed her instinct and leaped.
A few moments later Erinyes looked down at her with a very puzzled expression. "Why did you make that loud noise?"
"Because it's *cold*!"
"It should be well above freezing."
Ifurita tread water in the middle of the pool. The floating sensation was lovely, she could already see the appeal behind this. "Well then why don't you get in and find out?"
Erinyes seemed vaguely annoyed by the challenge. She lowered a foot into the water, gasped, and pulled it back out with superhuman speed.
"What's wrong?"
Erinyes shook her head, utterly bewildered. "I don't know. It was just a mild discomfort. I should have been able to ignore it."
"You can still ignore it," Ifurita said. "That's what I found out after Makoto freed me. You can even ignore pain. But you have to *choose* to ignore it. That's the difference."
"But why would you choose to do this?"
"It only hurts for a second," Ifurita said, now lazily propelling herself from one end of the little pool to the other. "But after that, it really feels wonderful."
Erinyes stepped back down onto a rock that was just half a foot below the surface. She winced, an expression that deepened when she stepped down with the other foot. "I find that... hard to believe."
Maybe she'll respond to another harmless challenge, Ifurita thought. "If you don't want to that's fine. I'll just enjoy looking at you."
Erinyes caught herself as she was involuntarily covering herself. She scowled. "Very well, I will join you." She stepped off the submerged rock into the deep part of the pool and disappeared under the surface with a splash. She emerged almost instantly with a much bigger splash and a much, much louder noise.
When the echo died, Ifurita asked, "Why did you make that loud noise?"
"Because it's COLD!"
Ifurita chuckled lightly. "You'll get used to it very quickly. Why don't you take your hair out of your eyes?"
"My sonar is adequate to the task of navigation," Erinyes said more loudly than was necessary.
So that is what they call sarcasm, Ifurita thought. "That's good. I would feel terrible if you got lost in this pool on my account."
"What?" For some reason, Erinyes suddenly felt compelled to clear her hair away and look Ifurita in the eye. "Ifurita, that's ridiculous. How could we get lost?"
"I believe that is what Makoto would call a joke. It's a difficult concept. The best way I can describe it simply is to call it negative information."
"What is its purpose?"
"I think it's a way to understand other people better. Very much like swimming together."
"Then it's useless to me," Erinyes said sharply. Suddenly she was avoiding Ifurita's gaze.
Ifurita breast-stroked the short distance between them, then tread just in front of her. "Erinyes," she said softly. Finally, the dusky Demon God glared at her. "Erinyes, I'm truly sorry that I can't stay with you. I really wish that I could. But I have to keep my promise to Makoto. He is life to me. One day, when you've found a soul-mate, I know you'll understand. I know it will be hard for you, being alone. But consider, I've given you what I learned from the Eye of God. If you don't find what you're looking for on this world, there are many others."
"I don't know what to look for," Erinyes said bitterly.
Ifurita sighed. "I'm just starting to realizing how lucky I was. I met my reason for existing even before my free will was returned to me. I never had to go look for it. I even got the satisfaction of revenge against my former master."
"You said that you didn't kill him."
"I did far worse, I wounded his pride." Ifurita suddenly scrunched up her eyes and giggled.
"Was that... a joke?"
"Erinyes, give me your hand." Ifurita raised her hand up at water level, fingers apart. Erinyes understood she wanted to initiate a link. She brought up her own hand and they linked fingers. Now with the ease of practice Ifurita sent her an image of the moments just after Makoto had freed her from the talisman. Her arm whipping back and casually knocking Jinnai across the room. Jinnai leaping up off the floor, his face beet red, blood pouring from his nose, his eyes wild and demented, his mouth rapid-firing a stream of oaths and curses, his fist shaking impotently.
Ifurita severed the link. Erinyes was staring at her in wide-eyed astonishment. "That was..."
"Funny?"
"Yes." They wolf-grinned at each other. Then suddenly they were both laughing. Ifurita forgot to tread water... she had been doing it on her own instead of engaging autonavigation. Her implant-laden body slipped below the surface. She came up sputtering and laughing even harder. When they were done, a smile remained on Erinyes' lips. "But Ifurita, did Makoto not still count Jinnai among his friends?"
"Makoto has a very generous heart."
"I imagine he would have to, with friends like that."
"I believe his people have a saying, something like 'With friends like this we've no need for enemies.'"
Erinyes' expression sobered. "Do you not fear for him, being left behind on a world with such people?"
"No. His true friends are there to help and protect him. Once I have kept my promise, I know he will keep his."
"You truly believe he can do it?"
Ifurita smiled. "In a world where even a Demon God can find love, I think that anything is possible."
Erinyes considered that in silence for a moment. "Ifurita, you were right about swimming."
"How so?"
"It clears the mind. I had no idea what I would be looking for in all those worlds I can go to now. But now I know. I'm looking for a soul-mate."
Despite the chill of the water, Ifurita felt a warm glow build around her heart, wash over her body. Makoto, is this what you felt when you knew you had set me free? "I truly hope you find one."
"Do you think that one will be enough?"
Ifurita nearly sank below the surface again. She couldn't explain why she found that so funny, she wasn't quite sure herself.
----------
It was obviously with mixed feelings that Erinyes told her the chamber's power systems were now fully charged.
"I'm sorry I couldn't stay with you longer," Ifurita said, meaning it.
Erinyes smiled, shook her head. "What you've given me is more than I can ever repay. I feel bad that I can't even rejuvenate you at all."
"Our power systems are incompatible. That's why I must do this now, while I still have enough of my strength."
"Are you ready?"
"Yes." Ifurita stepped onto the platform and turned to face Erinyes. The braces that would hold her here for the next ten thousand years slid out of the wall behind her with a click, gently holding her in place. "I... expect we won't meet again."
"I expect not. When you meet Makoto, please tell him how grateful I am, for what he's given both of us."
"I will." Ifurita put out her hand. "Farewell, my friend."
Erinyes hesitated a moment, then slowly reached for Ifurita's hand, clasping it tightly. "Farewell... my sister."
By the time Erinyes closed the chamber, the tears had traced twin tracks of silver down Ifurita's ivory cheeks. As her systems shut down it occurred to her that her tears of joy would be frozen there until she awoke. Which was entirely appropriate.
End Chapter One
Next Chapter: The Road Home