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  Ajki sat back and frowned at him. "Feeling suicidal? No, I think you need to wait, just a bit. Let's see what he's going to do, with Efge out of the way and Axti possibly moderating his stance."

  "You're a player, Uncle Ajki. If an eccentric one. And you've openly allied yourself with father. I don't know that Arlw will talk to you. I might be able to get an appointment."

  "Yeah, but boy, things are getting really poisonous, just now. I want you to watch your back—especially with Fean gone. Damn, I should have thought of that. I'll test out some of that joy juice and get this half of the transformation done. So I don't have to wait to do the reversal."

  "I'll make myself a bit hard to find, how about that?" Ajha grinned at his uncle's exasperated glare. "I can, honest." He shut his shields solid, even high and low, where most people wouldn't look.

  Ajki nodded. "Very good. But you still look like yourself."

  "That's just hair and clothes. Not a problem." He could feel his grin widening. "It feels good. I think I'll just take a little vacation."

  His uncle stuck a finger in his face. "Don't do anything stupid!"

  Chapter Nineteen

  27 Shawaal, 1407

  Paris, Central Region

  Xiat recognized Ajha's Fiend as she stepped out of the Paris transit hub. She poked Izzo. "See the very good looking dark girl? That's . . . " She broke off as the usual batch of pervs spotted the unescorted woman.

  Xiat trotted down closer to assist. She stopped dead as the pack surrounding Fean suddenly fell quiet and backed away. They all turned to the various sign and traffic and light poles and started licking them. Fean strode past them without a second look.

  "Holy One." Izzo breathed. He had his shields shut solidly, and was glancing at a light pole nearby. Sweating.

  Fean spotted Xiat.

  "Good afternoon, Investigator. Or should I say, Subdirector?" Her eyes swept up and down Izzo. "And Acting Director. I was impressed that the two of you actually had the sense to not continue the attack on Nil." The fingers of her left hand twitched.

  "Ajki stopping didn't surprise you?" Izzo abruptly relaxed. He edged away from the light pole.

  "No. He's very much like Ajha, or perhaps that's the other way around. They both fight smart, and don't believe in noble sacrifice or saving face by also getting whupped. In fact they both see possibilities where most people see problems."

  "Oh? I found it odd that he came along, but failed to warn us about that place. And our information on, for instance, the power of the witches there was faulty. Did he do that on purpose?"

  She shook her head. "The data you have is correct. It is your understanding that is faulty. The tiers of witch power are not the equivalent of our Oner ratings. They are simply statements of the level of training they've received. There's no differentiation between weak and powerful, in their tiers."

  "So that Eclipse was an extremely powerful witch, early in her training. One! She's going to be a bit scary, eventually, isn't she?"

  "Indeed. Her mother is Topaz, Lady Rustle's sister. And if you didn't recognize Harry Murchison as one of the old gods, well, Ajki felt no need to point out what ought to have been obvious, if you were competent to step outside the Internal Directorate's ground. Nil would have taken me by surprise, but then I know better than to deliberately pick a fight with one of them."

  Xiat eyed her, then changed the subject. "Is Ajha in town? I'm surprised to see you."

  "Ajha and Ajki both ordered me to find Eldon and ask about those spells your director is victim to. I'm just here to pick up my kids before leaving."

  Xiat frowned a bit. "Can you find him? That easily? And you're taking your kids?"

  "Oh sure. Since he's such a hero, he doesn't have to hide. Do you want to come? Meeting another baby god might enable you to recognize the next one you meet. And since you two both saw the spells being cast that might help the reversal of them."

  Izzo nodded. "Xiat, you go. Half the fight was over before I even turned around."

  Xiat grit her teeth. "Well, it can't be any more disastrous than my first dimensional trip. What do you mean, the next one? What is a baby god?"

  Fean grinned. "The Fallen have gotten inbred enough that they are producing children as powerful as their original gods. Their collective subconscious is warping them into archetypes. Xen is the God of Spies. How about meeting me here in four hours? I'll introduce you to the God of Bestiality. And Heroes."

  Xiat didn't know much about children. Had avoided learning. She had seen Pajamas as if in ultra slow strobe, a brief static flash once or twice a year. She guessed Fean's twins at four years of age. A boy and a girl. Wavy pale blonde hair matched with their mother's big brown eyes. There were subtle not-Oner angles to their round young faces. They eyed her silently from the back seat of Fean’s vehicle, which looked like a poshed up ute.

  Fean ignored them as they zigged through several corridors and a decontamination station designed to minimize the spread of pests from region to region. Hitchhiking insects were a constant problem.

  Xiat eyed the kids, and then Fean. "Did their father, err, do any genetic changes?"

  "Hard to tell. Eldon doesn't think about it like a normal person. I think it's because most of the Fallen witches only have sex when they want a child. He just assumes that this is what any woman wants, who has sex with him.” She grinned. “I’m not sure he knows any normal women. Newt and Eft—Newf and Efnw, officially—ranked as Withiones and Eft as a priest on the standard tests, but the One rejects half-Fallen boys because they have the Fallen Mage gene and won't ever mesh well. Frankly, that's a relief to me."

  Xiat nodded. The priest gene, and she believed the Fallen wizard gene, were both curtailed by the hormonal influences on the late maturing male brain. Castration was the obvious answer, and not one she'd have wanted for a son of hers. Now, boys with the potential had to volunteer. Up until a few years ago, the One had simply taken them.

  "The Fallen, of course, have regeneration spells, even so, they developed some suppression and delay spells that apparently work as well as castration. The last couple of generations are doing that, and doing well, power-wise. Yet another reason to not attack them." The dark girl snickered. "I'm getting as bad as Ajha. Lecturing."

  "There's a spell? Boys could have the power without . . . "

  "Yep."

  “So . . . do you see Eldon often?”

  “Oh One no! But while we were running around NeoHelios, Nighthawk opened gates in and out of various worlds—she can’t steer like Q. Very handy, not having to drive across a continent with mountains, rivers and no roads. Anyhow, we ran into the, umm Black Island Gang, again. They’ve got a permanent gate of their own, that Nighthawk could see, and thought it was part of the maze, so a safe place to gate to, then gate back to a different part of NeoHelios. We were almost as surprised to land in their front yard as they were to have us arrive.”

  Fean grinned. “But Ajha’s almost as paranoid as Ra’d, so we had shields up and no harm done, except for a few scorch marks on the lawn.”

  Xiat managed to not say out loud that the Helios Rescue Mission sounded a bit . . . wild.

  “Anyhow, Eldon said he really didn’t want a gate to NeoHelios on his front lawn, so Nighthawk collapsed it and opened another that did go to the maze, and as far as I know, it’s still open. On account of Director Ajki hoping to recruit as many of them as possible. Or even one.”

  Fean's Third Philosopher badge was sufficient to get them through the bureaucracy and out the Gate to Embassy. Fean drove off on a diagonal road that devolved into a dirt track that ended at an odd patch of another world, through a gate that didn’t have the usual rock arch. Then another gate, drove through . . . and turned to drive through to what was apparently a corridor . . .

  “Right, you called this . . . “

  "The maze. It's a huge tangle of gates and corridors through Empty Worlds. People get lost in here, exploring for the fun of it." Fean turned again, and drove into a patc
h of well-kept lawn, and turned toward a large tile-roofed stucco building a hundred meters away.

  Xiat looked around in dismay. They appeared to have arrived at a school playground.

  Fean parked and got out.

  "One, look at the size of you lot!" Fean looked cheerful; she must have been expecting the herd of children galloping down a slight hill to surround them. "I mean, I know about fast bubbles and so forth, but this is ridiculous. You three are only eight. I'm sure of it."

  The three older boys had hair in red, black, and ultra pale blond. The oldest girls echoed the color scheme. The younger batch—redhead, brunette and three shades of blonde. The gaggle of younger children, six at a quick head count, ranged from toddler to the crawlers out on the porch and looking like they were thinking about heading down the steps. Fean's own pair peeked shyly out from behind her legs.

  "Xiat, if you're interested in Oner and Fallen crosses, Rior is the father of Roddie, the tall blond boy and the three oldest girls, Pike, Kamikaze and Joust. And the mother of one of the crawlers who are about to fall down the steps."

  Xiat boggled. "So the sex change spell is completely functional, and reversible."

  "Oh yes."

  Xiat focused on the woman walking out the door. Tall, medium tan skin, hair brown with sunstreaks of blonde all through it. And as she got closer, she could see that her eyes were blue. She had a faint glow, a bit less than what a Oner would allow to show in public.

  "Betelgeuse, this is Xiat, she's a cop from my world, and she needs to talk to you and Eldon about some Fallen spells that have been used on some of her people."

  One of Fean's twins reached out and tagged a child about his own size. Who tagged him back and the whole quickly turned into a giggling hide and seek and tag around and around . . .

  Betelgeuse laughed. "Careful! We may send you home with more than you arrived with." The witch was good looking, happy, confident and secure. Xiat wasn't sure about ages, the Fallen aged slowly, like a Withione, but this woman seemed genuinely young, possibly twenty.

  Fean extricated herself from the children. "Looks like the honest life is suiting you well. Is Eldon still making movies?"

  "Off and on. He's working with the government too, c'mon up to the porch, we can watch the tag match from there. Some children need to be thinking about whether they actually have done their homework that is due tomorrow. I just dinged Eldon to let him know he had company."

  "So he doesn't show up with three blondes?"

  "Nah, he's actually kind of stuck on one girl. It's cute, watching him try to figure out how to court a nice girl."

  "No, really?"

  "Yep. If you can stay long enough, we'll introduce you to her."

  Fean looked back at the mob of children. "Aren't three of them his? And my two, of course. I guess if that isn't enough warning, nothing would be. Anyhow, the reason I'm here is my stupid politicians, and one bureaucrat in particular, got obnoxious in the middle of Harry's Tavern. 'I will kill the next person to walk through the door,' he says, to prove the One's superiority over the Fallen."

  "At Harry's?" The deep male voice preceded Eldon out the door. Tall, broad shouldered, strong boned face, deep olive complexion. Glowing like a priest. Xiat closed up all her shields. Tight.

  He grinned. "Can I hope Xen walked in?"

  "Nil."

  Eldon's mouth dropped open. After a long moment, he cleared his throat. "Did he kill him, or merely turn him into a goat?"

  Xiat eyed the man. Criminal and hero. His eyes held self doubt, caution and determination. And went deep, deep down. "I see you don't have to ask which side won. Goat. Nine of his twelve guards, also. He undid two of them so they could drive the cars away. But only the goat spells, none of the other spells. Do you know what the other spells might be, there's one that's magically null. I can't think how it could be safely handled. Oh, and a trap on the whole thing, that throws just the goat transform spell."

  "The trap is new. Must have been too many of us managing to escape. I hope you realize that your best bet is to apologize, and ask humbly for the hole in the Chain spell? Otherwise, you'll need to do a brute force snap. Deflowering a virgin is my personal favorite. I wonder how that would work with the trap spell. Could be . . . interesting."

  Xiat hesitated, uncertain how to respond to such an outrageous concept.

  Fean shook her head. "I need to come visit more often. I keep forgetting what a horrible pervert you are."

  "Hey, every virgin has to start somewhere. They might as well start with the best."

  Betelgeuse snagged a kid's toy and threw it at him.

  Xiat cleared her throat. "Well, in any case, my own boss was there, and this Nil, when he realize that Efge was the man who'd ordered Nighthawk kidnapped . . ."

  "Oh, shit."

  "He threw a second spell, which another guy tried to deflect. Male-to-female sex change. Now they're both turning."

  Eldon winced. "I just might be feeling a tiny bit of compassion. I'm not sure, because it's a very unfamiliar sensation."

  "And Ajha thought you had something to reverse it."

  "Oh sure, no problem. I'll load you up with goodies. The trap and the Chain spell are the bad ones. The goat spell, because it's working against the genes which are backing up the physiological memory, is easy. Just unravel it and the body will restore itself." He pulled out an intricate dance of mental power. "This is the goat spell, in isolation. These two spots are the weakest."

  It was one of the most complex spell webs she'd ever seen. Layers and parallel changes and cascades of effects. She pulled herself back from contemplation the details, and looked where he indicated.

  "Yeah, I see what to do. That'll knock the foundations out of the whole, but things won't revert in proper order, will they?"

  "Nope. It'll look even uglier than putting it on, it'll take more time, and it'll hurt like hell."

  Fean frowned. "What if I applied that closing part of the pony and cat spells you taught me?"

  "It would speed up the return to normal, organize it a bit, but you'll need to take out the personalized part of it. Now, the Chain spell . . . there will be a phrase, some mental twist, that makes a hole in the loop, so it can be safely handled. Without the phrase, you're back to brute force. Were either of you actually there, when he hit them?"

  Xiat nodded. "Oh yeah, he threw one at me. I think I impressed him, managing to duck it."

  He grinned and pulled a chair around to face her. Rugged to the point of almost being ugly, with his shields at about half, he was bright enough to take her breath away. He cupped her head in his hands. Warm, tingling. She swallowed. I will not drool.

  "Think back and remember. Show me."

  She remembered the director looking at the old man and throwing his spell. The old man's fingers twitched, and a net so fine it was nearly a fog whipped back at the director.

  :: That part is the goat spell. It goes in first, because almost no one shields against something like that. It disrupts the ability to concentrate, so all the other spells have less resistance to overcome.

  :: Fear, horror, self-hatred, a reversal of morality . . . huh, that explains a few things. Obedience, vulnerability to manipulation, impatience, impulsiveness, addiction. And anchoring the end of the web, the Chain.

  :: Slow down, look at it, see the tiny trail of darkness . . . Tall? Something like that.

  :: Now the next one, well there's three in the air and one just striking, but you weren't looking at it. Ah, look at that one. Is it the same thing? Goat, a tangle, Chain. Look at the Chain . . . Essence? No that's not right.

  :: All right, here's the one headed straight for you. Down and roll, your mind blank. Ha! You didn't even try to block it. I'll bet it couldn't track you. ::

  The warm hands left her face. "That'll teach him to be so shocking to a poor little Oner Agent. You've got a good memory. Treat the Chain like a puzzle to solve. The key is something like tall or essence or essential. Just keep slugging along,
tossing words and phrases at it. Or virgins. That trap spell was tiny, it'll probably evaporate quickly. It rebooted the goat spell, and that should be settled into maintenance and not be bootable within a couple days. Maybe give it a week to be sure."

  They stayed for the rather chaotic dinner that was inevitable when the kids outnumbered the adults, eighteen to six. Their hired cook and nanny joined them both to eat and to attempt to establish order. The kids were actually pretty well behaved. Nice kids, not a mean nasty one here. Fean's two fit right in, with possibly better table manners, but not by much. Then the kids headed for the TV room, and quiet settled again.

  "C'mon, let's check the potions I've got on hand. I know I've got a female-to-male potion. I really didn't like being female, and halted it in mid change which was worse. Don't let your boss do that."

  In mid change? Xiat tried to not think about what that might entail.

  "No kidding. Think my face with boobs and hips. Ugg. Lee."

  Fean snickered. "Was that when you had black hair, too? I thought the Joy Juice would speed everything up. Get it all over with inside of a week."

  "Yep. Drink enough and it'll happen overnight. Wait a day to make sure it's done, then take this potion right here, wait a day to let it get started, then start hitting the joy juice. Anyone desperate enough for two of those hangovers in a row is a truly desperate man."

  He browsed through a collection of wine splits, a few with obvious additions, milky and pinkish. "The joy juice will cancel the addiction spell. This'll take out the fear and this for the panic. The rest can be force broken, or probably just wear off in a year or two." He found a bag and set the three splits in it, then added a whole bottle of wine. He bent over and kissed Fean. Drew back a bit. "You be careful, fooling with Nil's spells. He grew up in a poisonous backstabbing society that makes yours look like an over-civilized kid's tea party. Since he walked away from it, he's had eight hundred years to add subtlety and details to his work." He circled a finger of his left hand and held out a dull silver circle. "Let's practice with the chain spell a bit."