The Seventh Direction

PART THREE: Stalking Violet. Episode 93

["D/A" narrates —A.A.]

                                                                13

                                                      Time will tell

"Tell," Aces commanded. "Firstly, the first time."

"Well, love, it was quite a long little-experience." I glanced at Jay. He looked at his watch, and, noticing The Count, instantly switched back to his good old self. I said, "You've never worn a watch, Master J'." Aces lifted her cheap sunglasses, squinted, trying to get a better look.

"Doesn't matter, anyway," he said, "We are in No Time here and now."

"What about Wyl," I said, "is he in No Time too? Can he wait? I'm not sure I can tell our 'little-experience story' in short order."

"He's fine, for now. And, love, though they are differently time-oriented, his and your realm are both contained within the one and same probability—which is more than a probability now—where Time for both of you, for the time-being, is on hold. You have already told Aces some little about the lightning-gridwork communication-system seen high above those monster black mountains—that seldom seen gridwork? Why not begin there?"

So I did. How it all began at Wood's End. Then me being inside Doe, of the Deer People, there on the plateau, hidden in the trees at the edge of Wyl's camp. Then the lightning-gridwork thing, and what not more, and other stuff, and The Aftermath, and neither Lady El nor Master J' said anything the entire time. Which kind of surprised me. Of course, Aces hit me with a whole bunch of questions—some didn't get answered. Some got waylaid. Tangents. That sort of thing. Aces ended it by saying, "That is what I want to feel. And I loved The Aftermath part." Then: "Now, your second, different sexual/spiritual experience?"

I looked at El. Straight-faced. Once again, she nodded the go-ahead.

"Well, the second time happened at Wyl's camp. All of it. I was a much stronger element in the Dream then, the dream much more a reality than a dream, the sexual/spiritual experience much more physical. So physical, Aces—so sexual it would've been downright lustful, depraved, brazen, licentious—" I took my sunglasses off, looked around ('anyone got a more barefaced, shameless word?'). No offers. I put my shades back on. "Immoral in the least, if that damned succubus had had her way. And so there I was, standing in the fire—me, standing in the fire!—on fire. In more ways than one!" I paused. Maybe I shouldn't have.

"You were," El said. "And it was raining and you were wet." Aces gasped, at El's balls for having said that, I suspect. But at least the being-on-fire-thing was left adrift. Which left me adrift—remembering that succubus-thing!  And I remember at the time, but after the fact, thinking that Lady El—

"Tell," Aces said, "Tell." I looked at Jay, then at El. They both nodded openly.

"That succubus thing— ('if I use the f-word, will Aces change it for the better?') El and Jay both shrugged openly. I turned to Aces— "Do you know what a succubus is?" Aces scowled. She knew.

"That succubus thing had me believing, Aces. Big time. That succubus thing: it sounded just like Lady El . . . and there in my mind's-eye, I really thought it was Lady El! Mm-hmm. But there was no love in her eyes, just this fiery consuming lust. Of course, Lady El could have easily played the role of succubus; but after a while I figured out it wasn't her! She'd just help set it up!" My eyes stayed on Aces. "El and Jay can be playful, they can be sister and brother at times. But I know when it comes down to the serious stuff they don't screw around. No. So I believed at the time—absolutely, I believed—one hundred percent, that my Wyl was in big, big trouble, and that the only way I could save him was for me to feel all the love I had for him, and get physical with him, and—" I stopped (on the proverbial dime) and looked round at everybody. I still wasn't sure.