The Godless Good: A Novel of Grace Book 3 of the Kristen-Seraphim Saga

By G. V. Loewen

Kristen is now herself God, but it doesn't seem to be doing either her or her beloved comrades any good. With Michelle and Kylie still lost in time, Mary and Evelyn struggle to first find them and then restore their lineages. The future must be enlisted to save the past, yet mythic figures from that same past begin to show up and question the character of their souls. Kristen's apparent arch-nemesis leads her on a wild cross-temporal chase through past lives and alternate existences alike, tainted with both bad conscience and suppressed memories. Mike's spirit, now ensconced in the body of his distant ancestor who was also Kristen's lover, is charged with keeping it all together just long enough so that a full half of their indomitable team can meet their startling destinies. "The epic narrative of Kristen-Seraphim boils over as Loewen's heroes attain legendary status in this hammer and tongs tale of multiple deaths and resurrections. Just when you're sure you know who's doing what… But if you've ever had to confront your deepest, darkest secret, you will know the dangers to be faced within Book 3." (From the publisher) Praise for Book 2: "The New Self-Reliance is as much about the recovery process as it is another step in Kristen's evolutionary process. As such, it documents her changed life and ongoing struggles as she faces both outer demons and inner growth potential. On many levels, Book 2 of the Kristen-Seraphim saga is a demanding yet exciting read that expands the characters created in Forgetting the Dreamtime, adding moral, ethical and spiritual conundrums alike into a vivid story that rests on the actions of young adults who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. (Or, is it the right place?) Mature teens, particularly those who have a foundation to begin with from Kristen's first adventure, will find The New Self-Reliance complex, compelling, and hard to put down." - Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Mid-West Book Reviews

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Nov 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9781528970426

G. V. Loewen

Social philosopher G. V. Loewen is the author of almost forty books in ethics, education, aesthetics, health and social theory. His Kristen-Seraphim Saga is meant to communicate some of these ideas more broadly.

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About the Author

Social philosopher G. V. Loewen is the author of over thirty-five books in ethics, aesthetics, religion and social theory, as well as the ten-volume Kristen-Seraphim Saga, in which many of his ideas are communicated for a more general readership.

About the Book

Kristen is now herself God, but it doesn’t seem to be doing either her or her beloved comrades any good. With Michelle and Kylie still lost in time, Mary and Evelyn struggle to first find them and then restore their lineages. The future must be enlisted to save the past, yet mythic figures from that same past begin to show up and question the character of their souls. Kristen’s apparent arch-nemesis leads her on a wild cross-temporal chase through past lives and alternate existences alike, tainted with both bad conscience and suppressed memories. Mike’s spirit, now ensconced in the body of his distant ancestor who was also Kristen’s lover, is charged with keeping it all together just long enough so that a full half of their indomitable team can meet their startling destinies.

The epic narrative of Kristen-Seraphim boils over as Loewen’s heroes attain legendary status in this hammer and tongs tale of multiple deaths and resurrections. Just when you’re sure you know who’s doing what… But if you’ve ever had to confront your deepest, darkest secret, you will know the dangers to be faced within Book 3. (From the publisher)

Praise for Book 2: The New Self-Reliance is as much about the recovery process as it is another step in Kristen’s evolutionary process. As such, it documents her changed life and ongoing struggles as she faces both outer demons and inner growth potential. On many levels, Book 2 of the Kristen-Seraphim saga is a demanding yet exciting read that expands the characters created in Forgetting the Dreamtime, adding moral, ethical and spiritual conundrums alike into a vivid story that rests on the actions of young adults who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. (Or, is it the right place?) Mature teens, particularly those who have a foundation to begin with from Kristen’s first adventure, will find The New Self-Reliance complex, compelling, and hard to put down. – Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Mid-West Book Reviews

Dedication

To all those who have confronted their deepest fears and accepted them as part of who they are, on the way to their overcoming.

Copyright Information ©

G. V. Loewen (2019)

The right of G. V. Loewen to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781528940658 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781528970426 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published (2019)

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd

25 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5LQ

Acknowledgments

To Jennifer Lynn Heller, embodiment of the beautiful truth of godless grace.

Epigraph

Let us not underestimate this: we ourselves, we free spirits, are nothing less than a ‘revaluation of all values’, an incarnate declaration of war and triumph over all the ancient conceptions of ‘true’ and ‘untrue’.

The world now laughs, rent are the drapes of fright,

The wedding is at hand of dark and light…

– Friedrich Nietzsche

Chapter 1

Aftershocks

It was the best of crimes. It was the worst of crimes. And now the two remaining Sylvanian sirens had to deal with it. The oval had more or less cleared itself out during Evelyn’s broadsides. But Evelyn and the source of her distractions were no longer present. The people were gradually collecting their wits. Michelle and Kylie ran over to where Sir Bryan Lefley was laying, prostrate on the ground, to where Morgana was still hunched over him, sobbing with ultimate grief, shaking in shock. Kylie grabbed her and held on. Michelle, herself a little regretful at Lefley’s unexpected passing given that they had just made love before the joust, knelt down and kissed his still form on the forehead, uttering a little apology. And in that moment, Lefley’s eyes opened, and he sat up like a shot.

Good lord! he declared unanimously. But Michelle, after recovering from the shock of his reanimation, noted immediately that his voice was not the same, nor were his eyes. She gaped back at Kylie, who was herself staring with astonishment at the effects of Lefley’s Lazarus-like constitution. Then, finally, Morgana shrieked and leaped on him like a wild animal who hadn’t eaten in a week. Lefley was once again knocked back flat on the ground in the festivity.

How have you accomplished this resurrection? a stern voice queried. The question had been directed at Michelle. The girls looked up to see an older, irascible looking fellow in a large felt hat and minister’s frock. I had arrived to perform the last rites. Michelle could only look agape, so Kylie, who had neither knowledge of her partner’s intimacies with the knight in question nor, of course, that his grace had also been resurrected by the four of them reappearing purposefully before Kristen and Mike’s previous visit, and its effects, responded in her usual manner:

Well, it looks like the reports of his death were premature. The minister squinted at her.

Of what house are thee, then? Are thee sisters? he asked, referring to the two young women, clad alike in what they had erroneously imagined would be taken for period costume.

Yes, sisters. We’re, uh, from a convent many leagues from here, down in, er, Cornwall, right, Michi? Michelle raised her eyebrows at her best friend. She’d never heard of either ‘leagues’ or ‘Cornwall’, so she simply nodded.

But I saw you kiss Sir Bryan at the moment he was reanimated. Have you some hidden grace bestowed upon thee by our Lord God Himself? Michelle was dimly aware that they now had accrued to their little knot a burgeoning audience, some of whom had, no doubt, seen her coincidental kiss. But she had also now realized that whoever was now animating Lefley was not the guy she had tousled, friendly-like, with before the match.

But Kylie again interposed:

Uh, it’s no big deal, uh, pastor. We’re travelling around the country seeing if we can make use of ourselves, but you know, it’s uh, God’s good graces that have to coincide with our ministrations. Like, we can’t raise the dead at the click of a finger, huh? The minister, priest, palmer, or whatever the hell he was, nodded with, apparently more relief than understanding. Then Kylie hissed at Michelle: We need to get out of here.

Michelle nudged Morgana in the shoulder and whispered, Please take us back to your place, huh? For her part, Morgana was almost overcome with joy, but also puzzlement, as the voice of her beloved had been altered almost beyond recognition, and his eyes had also changed radically. The hard glint of the blue-gray slate of Lefley was gone. It had been replaced by a compassionate and warm radiance of dark brown, Celtic and ancient. But at least he was alive. Perhaps dying, and coming back transformed part of the soul. The four of them shakily stood up. There was a cheer, and a number of Lefley’s camp had come forward to kneel before him or slap him on the back, depending on their relative station.

But Robert Michael was now finding himself a little adrift. He himself had been killed after killing the person that he now found himself reanimating. Killed at a distance, by some infernal weapon that acted like a tiny bolt from the blue, like his cross-bow, but one that an elfin maiden could perform. It was all he could do to nod and smile at his well-wishers, and take his leave at Morgana’s side. The two ‘sisters’ pushed their way through the growing crowd in front of them. The headless corpse of the guardsman had now been removed from the field of play, thank God. No one seemed to make the obvious association between the two girls who had vanished, and the two that had remained. And now that Lefley was back in the land of the living, the incontrovertible but still extremely odd fact that his apparently victorious foe had also disappeared without a trace was not as troubling. Well, at least for most.

I must accompany you to Compton Court. Your opponent, Sir Bryan, has been taken by two others dressed as your saviors here. It is a mystery that both God and the Devil have sowed alike, and in the same place. Robert, knowing nothing of Lefley’s antipathy to religion and the priesthood in particular, could only nod vaguely in his direction again. Did this mean his previous body was no longer extant? He knew one of the sylphs, the shorter one, as the maiden who had helped him win the match. But now, apparently, his victory had not only included killing his opponent, but taking over his body as well! Not that it was a poor trade, but Lefley was a good fifteen years older than he. Still healthy and solid, but not what he was. He grimaced a little in his consternation over this new experience. On the other hand, there had been no doubt that he also had been killed, not by the match, but afterwards, and this shorter sylph had herself chided him for winning in the first place. What could be the meaning of all of this?

Yeah, look, uh, pastor, we don’t know anything about this other stuff. So we’re not going to be able to shed any light on it today, okay? Kylie again.

But these demons were dressed exactly as the two of you. Onlookers told me that the three of them, these two maidens, and Padgett’s third simply vanished into the ether. I must understand this deviltry. It is my parish. My duty.

"Great. Go back to the crowd then, and start your research. All we know is that this guy here, uh, Sir Studley, or whatever, got knocked off his horse, must have blacked out, and now he’s back. No big deal. Yes, my friend, er, my sister helped bring him back, but it was you know, God, who actually did it, not us. We’re just like you, human and mortal, and uninteresting in the extreme." Kylie was already tired of the whole thing. She still couldn’t believe how fucked up their little sortie had gotten, and in short order. And she didn’t even know the half of it. Indeed, of all the people present, it was Morgana herself who had seen the most. Kylie and Michelle once again looked at each other. Holding hands now, they ran on ahead, Morgana and Lefley lagging a little. Her two friends noted that they were no longer holding any part of each other. Morgana looked relieved and yet puzzled, and Lefley was positively out of it.

Okay:

Can we pick up the pace here, guys? Look, you’ve got your beau back, what more do you want? And you, I know who you are. I helped you defeat the previous tenant of the body you’re now in, so wake up, and smell the coffee, huh? This minor barrage fired first at Morgana, who looked like she was ready to start crying another Thames, and then to Robert, who just looked plain stupid. Both of them blinked at her in return.

Finally:

"You are the sylph who handed me my unparalleled victory. But why am I now the one whom I vanquished? How is that possible?" Kylie had once again turned on her heels without deigning to reply. Besides, she didn’t quite know how any of this was possible. Michelle now whispered in her ear as they had gotten within hailing distance of the little castle:

"So, this might make sense: Morgana is actually supposed to be with Robert, because he was already with Kristen in this time period, right? So we did accomplish our mission, it just had some extra stuff to it we didn’t know ahead of time." Hmm.

Okay, so then she’ll just have to get used to the guy who is inside the same body she already knows, and uh, by the way, Michi, I get the feeling that Morgasm back there isn’t the only one who knows it, huh? Michelle blushed.

My job was to distract the guy before the match, get him off his game. So I got him off, she replied with some brightness. Kylie shook her head.

Good thing he’s gone for good, then. Look, we need to hunker down. I assume Mary and Evelyn will be back for us as soon as they can. We should find a set of mirrors in this old place, and head out into the forest where the transponder is and wait for them. I can’t imagine it would be more than a couple of hours.

But what if the pace of time is different in the different periods? Michelle astutely asked in return. Hmmph. One problem at a time. They had now entered the quadrangle. Morgana, who was just coming to the realization that she was now head of the whole place, hailed a servant, and told him to prepare food and drink. Lefley, with Robert’s soul inside of him, stumbled up the long staircase behind the three girls. There didn’t seem to be anything else to do at present. He looked with some wonder at his surroundings, having never been inside Compton Court before. Indeed, since he had been accused of murdering the lady of the house, he would himself have been killed if he’d come near the place. But he knew that, in fact, it was the sorcerer alchemist, Smylie, who had committed the foul deed. How to convince the daughter of this, though, when all evidence had been manufactured to point towards himself?

I crave thy beneficence, fair maiden. You do have the bearing of the demigoddess I knew in the deepest glades. I wish to confer upon you a confidence such that may risk breaking your fragile heart, but that it be the truth of the matter and only the truth. Morgana, now in her great room, and still looking shaken in the extreme, looked down. Michelle stood over beside her and stroked her forearm.

Listen, Morgana, Kylie and I are friends of Mary and Evelyn. We came here together to save you from Smylie. We are from the future so we have knowledge of future events. But we completed our task too fully. Robert Michael defeated Lefley, your lover, right? We thought it was an error, but now we think that you are actually supposed to be with Robert here, I mean, Robert’s now inside Lefley’s body, right, Robert? she raised her voice across the intervening space.

You dark-caped sprites have destroyed my life, not saved it! My father, my mentor, my confidante, and my lover all dead? And you replace all of these with the person who completed my tragedy, the very one who killed my own mother! I will have the both of you destroyed in turn, then. If I cannot have all four, the two of you will suffer for them. She made to attain the entrance from which she was presumably going to call for aid, but Kylie simply stepped in front of her, and knocked her down. Now she was on top of Morgana, her face peering into the poor girl’s startled but still furious visage.

"Look, girl, I’m getting tired of all this loyalty, chivalry, piety and associated nonsense. You are Kristen, or at least, you’re going to be her. Robert loves her already. He’s going to be the person we know as Michael in our own time. They’re both back there right now, in love and together. That’s the way it’s meant to be, and we didn’t come all the way back to your time to see it fucked over. Smiley was trying to kill you so that our Kristen would never have existed. Why? Because she has been the leading light against the movement of evil he is just a tiny part of – oh yeah, sweetie, that’s right! This is big. And your foolish sensibilities regarding your parents and some dumb servant isn’t going to get in the way of our efforts, see?" This little sermon made Morgana wail a little, but she calmed down as Kylie had pressed her face up against hers. Robert was about to reach down to separate them when Michelle got into his face.

Robbie, you great hunk of manhood. We’re serious. The only question Morgana needs to be sure about now is that you didn’t kill her mom. I’m assuming you didn’t, right, honey? Robert was now distracted mightily by the voicing of a question he was hoping would never come up.

He started back, away from the three young women, and spluttered out:

Nay, ’twas not I! I swear it on all that is holy. It was the evil sorcerer Dr. Smylie. He constructed it to mimic how I myself might have acted, and thus painted my portrait as a murdering… Kylie cut him off.

So there you have it, take it or leave it, Missy. Either way, you and Robert are going to have to work it out. Why not start with a good thorough fuck? That ought to distract you both for a while, and get you interested in each other. Morgana flushed up, but said nothing. Robert was embarrassed in the extreme. Good. Michelle, now:

Kylie, baby. If the others have to come into town looking for us…

Yeah, I get it. Evelyn’s gonna come in firing. Let’s go. The two ‘sisters’ got up, and with one final look of both warning and consolation to the two persons who actually belonged not only in this time but also together in it, they rushed out of the keep and into the meadows.

***

Evie, please, I need you to teach me how to use this. Mary had revealed an object she had secreted in her knapsack, and was now holding it out for her partner’s inspection. Evelyn actually gasped.

"Hah! Mary, you bad little girl. You little thief! When did you purloin that little beauty? When I wasn’t looking, you scamp. Well, I love bad little girls like you, sweetheart." Mary grinned sheepishly back at her friend.

I just took the smallest and lightest one I could find. It already has bullets in it.

Cartridges, my dear. The bullet is what hits the target. And that, for your information, is exactly what that bundle of joy is, a .22 target pistol. You’ll have to hit your mark with it, otherwise it isn’t even going to slow him down.

So, like, it would be better to be closer then?

Right up close and personal. Mary nodded to her friend. They started off. Noting the place of the transponder, and the fact that it appeared to have been unaltered in whatever duration the two of them had passed along, they made for Compton Court. It was a hike of about two hours through the winding forest path during which they encountered no one and nothing. So far so good, thought Mary. But all told it must have already been five hours or so in their subjective sense of experience. How much time had passed back here? And even if no more had passed than what they themselves had experienced, still, a lot can happen in five hours. Mary couldn’t but voice these musings. Evelyn nodded at each turn, her face set.

We left them at the height of the chaos. They should have been able to escape the scene unnoticed. And if only five hours has passed for them as well, in this time period, well, I guess I’m a little disappointed that we haven’t encountered them already, you know, like right by the transponder spot where we arrived. Mary realized that Evelyn had put the finger on the vague apprehension she had also been feeling. The fact that their two friends were not out here at that spot, had not been seen along the main path through the forest, nor had been hiding nearby, and jumped out to greet them was indeed somewhat disturbing. A hundred things could have happened to delay them, but of all of these, how many would be benign?

We know that Morgana is the only relevant person left in this time period. I wonder if there’s anything we can do for her now? Or whether it was the fate of Kristen’s original form to live out her life alone, Mary mused aloud.

I have to admit I’m having second thoughts about driving Robert’s soul out. But what else could we have done? We needed that body back in our own time for Mike. And Robert’s spirit is inside of him in our day anyways.

Plus we found out that he and Morgana weren’t with each other, and had never even met.

Right. So where does that leave us now? We find Michelle and Kylie, and go back, sure. Is that it then? I don’t know about you, Mary, but for a while, I’ve been feeling more alive and even happy than I’ve ever felt in my life. Not that going forward with you and the others wouldn’t be fun, but I wonder about the idea that this fight has given us all a wider and deeper purpose.

I’ve felt the same way. Evelyn, this might not be the best time, out here in a forest half a millennium ago, but I need to say it: I’m falling in love with you. Evelyn stopped in her tracks, and gazed at the waif besides her. Waif, sure but tough as nails too. She’d have no problem loving her. But could she herself learn to love, after not being loved in the first place? This would be something new for the both of them. She hugged her little friend close, now.

Whispering in her ears, she vowed:

I want that too, Miss Mary. I wonder if I’m worthy of you. You’ve seen me in action. I enjoy a good fight, but I also enjoy the fight itself, you know, the violence of it. I’m drawn to it, and I wonder if I’m a moth after all.

Or like Icarus. Mary was trying to get across the problem of necessary self-love and overcoming, aspiration and transcendence that so often led, in human history as well as individual lives, to a fatal fall. Evelyn nodded. Well, St. Athelstan’s was a good school, even if she hadn’t always been paying attention.

If you can stomach me, girl, I’m yours. Walking out here with you, towards whatever might await us – hell, we might have to kill the whole damn village off, I don’t care – my sense of being your protector has just grown. That could be the beginning of real love, couldn’t it?

I guess I surprised you back at my house, huh? After we gutted those fake cops. I should have told you sooner that it wasn’t me being drunk that made me want you in that way.

Oh, sweet Mary. When we woke up together I knew then you were into me. Well, I’m flattered, believe me. You’re such a good girl, so adorable. Look at me, rough-hewn, I’d say.

You’re rough only around the edges, Evie. Besides, we were meant to be together. Look at our names. Eve and Mary. That’s what womanhood is and has been. We can celebrate it together, and then maybe through that love move beyond it.

There’s nothing I’d like more, was Evelyn’s response. It had an odd air of finality about it. By this time, the two nascent lovers had begun to reach the transitional landscape between the big trees of the deep forest and the glades of its scrubland, leading into meadows. Evelyn had the big evolver out in front of her now. But she gestured to Mary to keep a lower profile. Mary didn’t think her target pistol would be of much use at any distance, especially since she had never even held a gun in her life, so she kept it in her pack. But she had placed on her nose a pair of glasses from Kristen’s purse. And what she saw through them made her yelp. Evelyn stopped once again and looked hard at her.

Uh, Evie, there’s a zone boundary right in front of us, maybe twenty yards. It intersects with the edge of the forest, and goes down to the beginning of the farmed fields next to the castle.

Is the keep itself in it?

Uh-uh. But why is there one here, in this time, at all? Evelyn shook her head. This was new. Perhaps not entirely unexpected, but even so. Could their enemies work also across time, then, as well as space? And what did it mean for Michelle and Kylie? What about the village itself?

It’s still too far away for me to see it clearly. But there is a way around this one, it’s pretty small. Back into the forest, and out right up beside the moated edge of the castle place.

I wonder if that’s been left open deliberately. Let’s take it, though, just to be on the safe side. The two of them skirted the meadows, and found themselves pushing through some annoying undergrowth. This slowed them down considerably, and it was another half an hour or more before they emerged beside the moat. Not much of a barrier, as it had been allowed to drain itself almost dry during the summer. They waded through it, getting their shins a trifle damp in the process. Coming up to the inferior wall of the tiny fortress, they hugged its edge until they could access the entrance to the quadrangle. Looking at each other, they then simply walked right in.

I think things are past knocking now, huh? Mary queried more or less rhetorically. Evelyn nodded as she strode inside. Ignoring a servant’s exclamation, she moved to ascend the staircase. Mary was at her heels. That was easy. Maybe too easy. The heavy door to the great room was closed. Evelyn gave it a push but it didn’t budge. Mary joined her but the portal was clearly bolted on the inside. The servant had reappeared with two others, and they were now looming up behind them in the open arcade of the hall. Evelyn turned and gestured at them with her gun:

Get this open. We’re here to see Morgana.

Thou canst not enter. The Lady and her consort are holding parliament within. Sir Bryan will have you executed for such an intrusion upon their intimacies now that they are betrothed. Evelyn and Mary looked at each other in bewilderment.

Does the spatial zone have a temporal effect if it is set back in time? Mary wondered. Evelyn didn’t bother to respond.

We’re not here for either of them anyway, we need to know where our two friends are. They’re dressed like us, and are the same age.

We have never seen the likes of you before, wood sprites. Indeed, the only reason we have not come closer and thrown you back out in the plain air is that we are not sure you are really there at all. The servant’s colleagues nodded, all looking puzzled and perhaps a little nervous as well.

I’ve got a much better reason in my hands why you should not only stay away from us, but do what we tell you to, and now, was Evelyn’s reply.

Mary now added:

Did Sir Bryan joust with Robert Michael Padgett recently?

The head servant nodded, surprised.

Indeed. The outcome was as expected. No loss to this house, of course, as the departed almost certainly was Lady Morgana’s mother’s murderer. Both Evelyn and Mary gasped. This was news too. There evidently had been some alterations even in their brief absence.

Listen, Evie, we probably missed them coming in, they would not have known about the zone boundary, and likely just walked right through it. They’re in the forest somewhere but it’s not quite the same forest we just came through. Everything has been shifted a little. Lefley’s alive and married to his lover.

"But was it our appearance that altered things, or was it them coming through the altered zone that was already here before we got back?"

Or was it? Both events could have been effected by one another, a simultaneous causation. Shit. Evelyn’s strong points had already been identified, Mary was thinking, and mulling spatio-temporal fluctuations and the implications thereof such probably wasn’t among them. Meanwhile, the three servants continued to stand guard, if at some distance. Mary now wondered if she could shoot the lock out with her small caliber weapon. They needed to know if those inside had seen their friends after the joust had concluded. It was no big deal that Lefley was back. In fact, it rather assuaged Evelyn’s conscience that Morgana at least had him left, moron that he was. Before, there had been no one at all.

Parliament may be in session, but its upstanding member is about to be interrupted, declared Mary, pulling out her pistol. Evelyn observed her with some pride as she stepped away from the door, all the while still covering the servants. She now had plenty of ammunition. Perhaps she should just start busting off. Dispose of the staffers, and attract the attention of the lovers. But part of her stalled. Evelyn realized in a trice, as Mary lined up the archaic locking mechanism in her very green sights, that it was because of her little friend’s declaration of her love for her that made her pause, that made her think twice before exerting violence, even in this irrelevant and past world. Love had a civilizing effect on her. Even so, if there would be any action against Mary, all the more now, Evelyn would protect her with her life. She tightened up her pistol grip, and released the safety. No one back here would even know what that little click meant, she chuckled grimly to herself. Then Mary squeezed her own trigger, wincing as she did so. That made Evelyn smile aloud, as it were. The shot drilled itself into the mechanism, and there was a sharp, metallic pop. Then again, and again. ’Mary might actually be enjoying this,’ Evelyn thought, and her at first cautious smile got broader. The door seemed to hang somewhat more loosely than before. Mary stopped firing, and gave it a shove. No go. Not yet. The two young women regarded this first assay with a combined frown. Then, sensing Evelyn’s next move, Mary uttered in an undertone,

Not yet, sweet Evie. Give them a chance, huh? Evelyn resisted the temptation to scowl at her new lover.

Okay, boys, it’s either push the door in or push up flowers. Your choice. The three servants looked perplexed. Evidently, the language barrier was in its own way just as confusing as the zone barriers could be. Mary rolled her eyes a little. Evelyn, in deference to her, then took a position opposite the huge door, and leveled her much larger weapon at the lock. Its bullet tore right through, and the force of its impact actually opened the door as well. She nodded at Mary, who then said, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ to herself.

The servants had been shocked by the force of the larger revolver, and stepped no closer. The two girls slipped into the great room, and shut the heavy hoarding behind them. Mary continued to cover it from close in, but not close enough so that if the door was rushed, its arc would have bowled her over. Evelyn pushed her way into the boudoir. There was an exclamation of astonishment and anger that emanated from within.

Get ye out of here, mistral! Can you not observe the flame of our love taketh human form? Evelyn stepped back as Lefley’s bounded out of the room in a rage. Mary could not yet see Morgana.

Your belle, if you please, caveman. I’m in a hurry here, was Evelyn’s stony riposte. Lefley’s likely didn’t know he was in mortal danger, as Mary saw Evelyn level her weapon again. She was aiming at the lintel above the door, but his head just happened to be right in the way. Yet before he could utter further protest, Morgana, clad in a diaphanous sheen of robes, emerged looking refreshed and content. She did not exclaim when she observed the two other women. Interesting.

My liege, these two fairy maidens rescued me from the one you also feared, the sorcerer Smylie. They are our allies from another world, and another time, I do believe. Lefley was struck dumb for the moment.

"Yeah, but why is he alive?" Evelyn gestured to the fellow, still towering almost a bit too close to where she had taken up position.

Would you rob me of my last bastion of love and community too, then? was Morgana’s plaintiff.

At that, Mary spoke up:

No, my friend, of course not. We are delighted to see him, but we must know how it occurred. We must trace all traces of the magician to their source before we leave, and we must find our two friends.

They have only just left here, not but an hour ago. Morgana looked at her mate for confirmation, and he nodded briskly. An hour!

How did we miss them? That fucking zone alteration must have taken them somewhere else. There was more to this story than the two antique lovers were letting on thus far.

Mary pushed along:

So, Sir Bryan, you lost that match to Robert Michael. You were killed. What is your memory of the event? The man stared at her.

"If you need know, I am Robert Michael Padgett. Your friends stated that I should be wedded to the Lady Morgana. That it was our shared destiny. She loves my form, and I am loyal to her in lieu of Kristen." Holy. Okay, this was different too. Not a bad thing. Not bad at all, but…

"We have returned to rescue our friends. We are very sorry to have forced this alteration of uh, form upon you, but it was necessary so that Kristen herself could regain her love in the future, your heir, Michael Hunt, now inside your previous body." At this, both Morgana and Lefley gasped aloud.

Do you mean to say that my body is now with the demigoddess yet without my spirit? That she now loveth my body but not my soul? Robert protested.

Sorry, buddy. It is what it is. You have to understand that Morgana here is also inside Kristen as her inner self, you know, like a kind of conscience, said Mary.

Yeah, and apparently, a somewhat annoying one, too, Evelyn added. Morgana raised her eyebrows in some slight disdain.

The two of you have wreaked havoc in our world. How should we find you, then? You are not entirely welcome in this house, even if you have saved the form of the man I love, it is not he, himself. How am I to learn to love again, then?

"How does anybody? Listen, that Smiley guy was going to murder you. We’ve already told you that. So we’ve saved your life, Lefley’s body is now inhabited by a far better man than was he himself, plus we’ve got our Michael back thanks to Robert’s body in our own time and your successor, Kristen, can love again as well, so just get on with it." At this, Morgana looked over at Lefley. Well, they had been just about make love, and this new fellow was gentle, warm and compassionate. Lefley had been none of those things. Her face softened. Robert immediately noticed.

My Lady Morgana, I espy the seeds of the demigoddess within yourself, even now. I do pledge my life to you, and I would ask for your hand if I dared. Morgana dropped her jaw a little.

Time for us to uh, exeunt, as they say, Mary passed this over to Evelyn, who nodded. But perhaps there was one more thing they could ask:

Uh, hey, can you send your minions out to look for our friends. After all, fair’s fair, huh? It’s a big forest, and there’s been an alteration in space out there that we think they’ve gotten lost in. I mean, there’s some kind of magical space that might change people’s directions around and get them lost, capiche? Evelyn wasn’t communicating, evidently. The two natives stared at her with more or less incomprehension. Presently, Robert nodded, having had more of that kind of experience than his bride-to-be. Oh, just don’t go yourselves, huh? We don’t want to have to start this whole nonsense over again.

With this caveat, the two friends left the way they came, ignoring the servants who were