Squid woke alone in her bed to a bright morning. She sat up as her awareness solidified.
For a good moment and a half, she froze in moderate horror. Had it all been an amazing dream? About her being the most important person in the universe, about finding the most awesome boyfriend ever?
No, it was real. But where was Chaos? The imprint of his host’s body remained beside hers; he had slept here. Well, Laurelai had slept here, but there must have been an hour of daylight when Chaos took over to join Squid on the bed. Chastely, as they were underage, unfortunately.
She had overslept. Chaos had elected not to disturb her when he was there. Not that anything he could do would disturb her as long as they remained a couple.
She got up, washed her tween-shaped body, swept her hair back into a ponytail—she did have real hair now, rather than a body painting of it—donned a decent dress, and considered herself in the mirror. She was distinctly ordinary, even for age twelve, with dull brown hair, gray eyes, and a turned-up nose. Of course, she could change her appearance, since it was not her natural one, but what was the point? Chaos liked her this way. That was all that really counted.
She left her room and went to the dining room. “Morning, sleepyhead!” It was the pet peeve, as dull for a bird as Squid was for a human.
“Morning, birdbrain,” she replied, relieved that at least this one remained on duty. “Where is everyone?”
“Outside enjoying the air, unwinding after the fine mess you got them into.”
“The fine mess I got them out of,” she said, knowing the bird was teasing her. It was the peeve’s custom to routinely insult everyone else.
“Eat your swill.” The peeve waved a wing at the table where a bowl of cereal awaited her.
She obeyed. Then it hit her: “Am I still the—”
“Yes, you are still the protagonist,” the peeve agreed. “I would have thought you’d be tired of it by now.”
“I am! I did my time. It is someone else’s turn. I just want to go find someone to hug and kiss, then sink into oblivion.”
“Lots of luck with that last, as long as you remain the story’s main character.”
“Grumble,” she muttered as she dissolved her teeth, rinsed out her mouth, and reformed them sparklingly clean.
She walked to the wall, gripped the inset ladder, and climbed up toward the upper deck. “Oooo! I can see your legs under that skirt, and your thighs,” the peeve called from below. “And that’s not all.”
“As if you cared, beak-nose,” she called back. “My panties wouldn’t freak you anyway, even if they had adult power.”
Now she stood on the deck. The boat was parked on a hammock, and the ground was actually closer down than the interior. The sail was furled vertically, with only faint wisps of fire around it. It would burst into full flame when spread and blown by wind. Fibot, the Fire Boat, was a marvel, far larger inside than outside, and one of the wonders of Xanth.
“There you are!” Chaos called, reaching up toward her from the ground.
“Here I am,” she agreed gladly, doing a little leap-step into his elevated grasp, her skirt flaring wickedly. “I trust you are seeing more than my legs.” She kicked her feet invitingly.
“Plaid panties,” he agreed as he held her over his head, looking up.
“If you were normal, you’d freak out,” she complained.
“I am not normal, and at eleven you are too young for full panty effect.”
That was the bleep of it. “Twelve.”
“Yesterday you were eleven,” he said as he swung her most of the way down.
“Yesterday was a different novel. We all age a year between books, regardless of the actual time passed,” she explained. “You are now officially thirteen.” Chaos had existed longer than the universe, but he was still learning the nuances of mortal interaction. She was glad to instruct him. “That is, the human body hosting you, Larry, is thirteen. If you use it, you need to honor its limitations.”
He nodded. “I am doing so. And we need to be nineteen and eighteen, to graduate from the dread Adult Conspiracy to Keep Interesting Things from Children.”
“More’s the pity. Now stop teasing me and kiss me. We can at least do that.”
He enfolded her and kissed her. Her feet would have floated off the ground had they not already been off. Oh yes, she loved him.
After a timeless moment they separated somewhat, and he set her all the way on the ground. “You have filled out some,” he said appreciatively.
“Yes, it’s that extra year. A hint of some padding on the hips, bottom and chest, and a little off the waist. Next novel, when I’m a teen, I’ll have more. Maybe some real handfuls.”
“But is it permissible to grope it yet?”
She considered briefly. He actually wanted to grope her? There had to be a way! “It’s against the rule, but we may manage to cheat a bit if we’re careful, just as we did when I innocently flashed my panties at you. The Adult Conspiracy has trouble policing every piddling little detail. Pretend you’re sniffing my lustrous hair, while virtuously holding my delicate hand. That’s two things to distract its snooping interest.”
He drew her close again and sniffed her far less than lustrous hair while holding one of her stubby hands in his.
“Meanwhile no attention is being paid to your other hand,” she murmured. “So—*Yipe!!* You got it!”
“I certainly did,” he agreed, laughing. “And a delightful bit it was.”
Bit or butt? She was careful not to say. “Thank you. More anon, when.”
“But if this is a story for a future book, what do the readers think?”
“Readers like a little bit of naughtiness. It perks up the dull text.” She sighed. “But this business of being the protagonist again is unfair. I deserve some time off. For one thing, we could get away with a lot more if the critical eye of the reader were not on us.”
“I could remonstrate with the Demons.” He frowned, and for a moment his aspect changed alarmingly as part of a hint of his monstrous power manifested.
Squid suffered a vision of galaxies blinking out of existence as the War of Demons resumed. “No!” Then, seeing his slightly hurt look, “Please?”
He relented. “For you I would do it, but not if you don’t want it. I want only to please you.”
“And I want to please you, too. It smells like love to me.” She wrinkled her nose. “Not that I really know what that smells like. I wish we could suddenly be over eighteen so we could—never mind, we’re not supposed to even know the options at our age. I’ll just have to find someone else to give the Protagonist Role to.”
“Will anyone else take it?”
“Not if they have a choice. Nobody likes being constantly snooped on. So it’s a problem.”
“Oh, I almost forgot. You told me that today we would visit your family.”
Squid clapped her hand to her forehead. “That’s right! That’s why the boat anchored here overnight, near where my folks live. How I dread it!”
Chaos looked confused. “Perhaps I misunderstood. I thought you wanted to see your family again.”
“Oh, I do. But now I must introduce you to them, and that is what I dread. They are halfway conventional. They will not understand about my dating a Demon. But I have to tell them.”
“I could stay clear and let you visit them alone. That way you could avoid telling them about me.”
“No way, Chaos! I love you. It just may be awkward.”
“Whatever you decide.”
“Let me ponder half a moment.” She was briefly silent. In exactly half a moment she spoke again. “Maybe it would help if you gave them something. A token gift that would distract them slightly.”
“A planet? A nebula? A burgeoning hamper of Dark Matter?”
She laughed. “No, no, nothing like that. Something token, maybe amusing, a mere trinket, maybe useful in some simple way, but typical of you.” She paused again, this time only half an instant. “Maybe a mini ball of chaos.”
“A mini ball?”
“A mini ball. A trifling token. Like a mini spell that has only minimal effect. A cute toy. To amuse them for half a moment.”
“Maybe a mini chaos bomb? One that makes only close things chaotic?”
“Yes! They should like that. Let’s go there now, before I change my foolish female mind.”
“As you wish.”
They stood before the little house that Kandy and Ease used. Squid made a mental note to try to become less impulsive when with Chaos: she kept forgetting he could take things literally, and make them happen before she thought them through. Still, they could walk away.
Squid heard a buzz. There was a bee. No, it was a floating eyeball. She reached out to catch it, somehow knowing it wouldn’t sting her. What was it doing here? She examined it closely.
“Eye of the bee-holder,” Chaos murmured.
“Why is it buzzing around here instead of looking at more important things?” she asked.
“Maybe it’s lost.”
“Well, I can’t help it.” Then she got an idea. “But maybe I know who can.”
The door opened. Kandy stood there, a completely lovely creature with luxuriant midnight hair dropping down to her slender waist: everything that Squid was not. “Squid!” she cried, sweeping the girl into her embrace. So much for walking away. “Whatever brings you here? We thought you were in a dancing troupe aboard the Fire Boat.”
Squid stuffed the eye into a pocket. “I, uh—”
Then Ease was there, too, strong, handsome, smart, with short curly blond hair and a bit of a matching blond beard. Her wonderful parents. “But great to see you, kid,” he said. “We missed you.”
Squid realized she had better get on with introductions before too much could go wrong. “Uh, I came to have you meet my boyfriend, who—”
“Boyfriend!” Kandy exclaimed, taken aback. “Squid, you’re way too young to get into that kind of relationship. You’re a child!”
Just so. If dating was left up to parents, their children would be in their forties before they started, if then. That was just part of the awkwardness.
“Come in and we’ll get to know each other,” Ease said, always the easygoing one. That was his talent: to make things seem easy, even when they weren’t.
In most of another moment they were inside, seated facing each other. “Uh,” Squid repeated, casting about for the right words when she suspected there were none. “His name is Chaos, and he’s—” She broke off to take a nervous breath, then plowed on. “A Demon.”
Kandy was still on her original track. “Squid, you’re only twelve years old! Way too young to have a—” She broke off. “A . . . What?”
“A demon,” Ease said.
“Demon, dear,” Kandy murmured. “Capital D. But this is impossible!”
“They do mix with mortals on occasion, sometimes quite compatibly,” he said. “I remember a demoness who—” Kandy’s glare had cut him off at the knees, so he changed the subject. “Squid, big or little D, does he know your nature?”
Squid was glad to follow this diversion. “Yes, he knows that I am an alien cuttlefish emulating a human girl, a tourist who got trapped in a future Xanth when it ended. That Fornax and Astrid Basilisk rescued me and four other children and brought them here to this reality track of Xanth, and arranged local adoptions for us, for which we are forever grateful. They saved our lives! He doesn’t mind.”
“She even changed for me,” Chaos said. “She became the cuttlefish, with its marvelous mimicking ability, and swam in a lake. She’s not human at all. But neither am I. Regardless, it’s her mind that interests me.”
“Her mind?” Ease asked. “No boy is interested in a girl’s mind, even if she is said to be the most important person in the universe.”
But now Kandy was reorienting. She eyed Chaos in the way only a protective mother could, and that was a warning even a Demon dared not ignore. “Let me introduce myself further,” she said with deadly deceptive calm. “Then I will expect similar candor in return.”
Squid knew this was mischief. Chaos needed to avoid this poisonous exchange. Squid opened her mouth.
“Of course,” Chaos agreed.
Bleep.
“I was a rather ordinary breathtakingly lovely young woman who wanted more than the ordinary,” Kandy said. “I was nicknamed I Kandy, and I thought the I stood for Irrelevant. I didn’t realize at first that it was actually Eye Candy, no respect intended. I was tired of being constantly eyed by boys who wanted only one thing, which was not my mind. So I made a wish at a wishing well, explaining that I was bored stiff and wanted Adventure, Excitement, and Romance. My wish was granted, but not quite the way I intended. I had misspelled ‘bored’ in my mind, and got changed into a stiff board.”
“And a great board she was,” Ease added. He reached toward Kandy and took hold of her ankle. Suddenly, she was a big wooden board, which he wielded like a club. Then he brought it to his face and kissed it, and abruptly Kandy was back and completing the kiss. They clearly understood each other and were hardly bored.
“So we did not have the usual kind of relationship, at first,” Kandy concluded. “But we worked it out. So we understand unusual associations. Then we made a home for Squid, a remarkable girl in her own right.” Her eyes came to resemble the mouths of Mundane machine guns as they focused on Chaos. “How did you come to make Squid’s acquaintance, and what are your intentions toward her?”
Squid opened her mouth again to try desperately to head this off, as the Demon’s own candor could permanently alienate her folks. But Chaos was already answering.
“In my time, the universe was without form and void, and darkness covered the firmament. Then other Demons came on the scene and introduced concepts like light and gravity and electromotive force. I was appalled, so I confronted them. But they had been too long entrenched, so I could not immediately destroy them. So we arranged a compromise: a dialogue between representatives of our powers. Three spot contests, and the winner of the majority would govern. If I won, the universe would end. Their selected representative was Squid. We talked and she showed me that without the other Demons and their artifacts I was just a space without definition. That I actually needed them to have any apparent reality myself. I was also curious about this mysterious concept of Love, as nothing of that nature exists in the void. I asked her to explain it to me.”
What was there to do except finish it? “I couldn’t answer with any authority,” Squid said, suppressing her despair of ever getting parental understanding, let alone approval. A twelve-year-old pseudo-girl dating a capital D Demon? Talking of love? She was hardly supposed to know the meaning of the word. “I was too young to comprehend the secrets of the Adult Conspiracy, and I wasn’t even human. So I kissed him.”
“It was some kiss,” Chaos admitted. “After that I was her captive. It was as if without her I was nothing physically, and without her love, I am nothing emotionally.”
Ease looked thoughtful. “You spared the universe because you liked Squid?”
“Yes.”
Ease spoke to Squid. “And everything might end if you break up with Chaos?”
That was the literal truth, but could she say it? “Uh . . .”
Ease spoke to Kandy. “Is that a good enough reason for you to accept him as her boyfriend?”
She considered dubiously. “Uh . . .”
She was pondering letting the universe end, rather than allow her daughter such a relationship? “Mother, I love him! I know you don’t think I’m old enough, but I know how I feel. That was a two-way kiss.”
Then both parents laughed. “We’re teasing you, dear,” Kandy said. “Of course you can date him if that’s what you really want.”
They were accepting it? This suddenly seemed too easy. “Even though, well—”
“We knew, dear,” Ease said.
Squid was shocked. “You knew?!” She actually managed both punctuation marks.
“The peeve told us,” Kandy said.
“The peeve! I should have known that ill bird couldn’t keep its beak shut!”
“At ease, girl,” Kandy said. “All five families have been regularly briefed by the peeve. It was a condition of allowing the children to serve for an extended time on the Fire Boat.”
Squid was appalled. “You mean the bird has been ratting on us all along?”
“You’re children,” Kandy said. “We care about you. But we know your judgment isn’t always perfect. So we try to stay informed.”
“We trust Grania,” Ease said. “We know she won’t let you stray too far. But we didn’t adopt you only to pass you on to someone else. We prefer to know.”
It did seem to make sense. What would have been the point of adopting the children from the future if they didn’t try to take care of them? Squid realized she had no real grounds for complaint.
“It also serves as a relevant example for Chaos,” Ease said. “A practical demonstration of what family unity is all about.”
“So you’ll know when your turn comes,” Kandy concluded.
Squid had not thought of it that way—her turn to have children, to become a family. When she was grown and adult. She was awed. But of course a cuttlefish and a Demon could never—
Chaos touched her hand, and she felt a tiny ripple of his immense power.
A cuttlefish and a Demon could. If they wanted to.
But that was a matter for another day, far away from now. Time to change the subject. “Um, Chaos, the bomb,” she murmured.
He picked right up on it. “I have a small gift for you,” he said to the parents. “A token of my appreciation for your courtesy.”
“Oh, no gift is necessary,” Ease said.
“Especially not a bomb,” Kandy agreed.
“Not really a bomb. It’s just something cute you might like,” Squid said quickly. “He—it’s as if he has a talent, to make these little things. He can show you one, so you know how to use it, if you ever need to. But maybe better to demonstrate it outside.”
They went outside. Squid looked around and spied a small termite mound that was under siege by an ant army. “Maybe that scene,” she told Chaos.
“Those creatures have developed some bad blood,” Ease said. “It’s termite territory, but the ants are expanding their domain. Now it has come to war.”
Chaos nodded. He walked to the mound, and the others followed. In two thirds of a moment they all stood around the mound, just outside the ant platoons. The siege was well advanced, but by no means concluded. The termites were ranged along the upper battlements, about one foot above the ants, armed with miniature spears. On the next deck up their archers were aiming their bows. The ants had filled in one section of the moat and were charging across, pulling a wheeled battering ram, holding their shields over their bodies to fend off the arrows.
But the defenders were ready. As the ram neared the wall, they tilted a relatively huge vat of boiling oil, ready to dump it on the attackers.
Then the ants did something odd. They brought out captive female termites, and put them on a stage in full view of the mound.
“I didn’t know termites had ladies,” Squid said. “Or ants either. Not like that. I thought they had single queens who laid all their eggs, and the others were just, well, locked into childhood girls.”
“You’re thinking of dreary Mundania,” Ease said. “This is Xanth.”
Oh! Of course. Xanth was more advanced, and far less dull.
The lady termites, evidently trained under duress for this purpose, gyrated on the stage. The termites manning the battlement paused to stare. Then the ladies faced away, bent over, and flipped up their skirts to flash their panties.
Termites had skirts and panties? Oh, right: this was Xanth. The lady ants probably had them too. How else were the brute males to be kept under control?
The workers tilting the oil vat froze in place. They had freaked out. Meanwhile the ram rolled ever closer to the wall. The ant legions massed, ready to march double-time into the gap the moment it was smashed open.
“Time for the bomb,” Chaos murmured. He held one hand over the mound and dropped something invisible. There was an invisible flash. Squid knew that such a description would be nonsensical anywhere but Xanth.
The termite troops guarding the rampart started running around aimlessly. The bows and arrows fell to the bricks. The ant legions puffed into legends, charging in all directions at once, forward, backwards, and into the moat. The ram bleated and overturned, its mission unaccomplished. Some of the ant soldiers began making out with the termite lovelies, who seemed happy to accommodate them. The regal termite queen came to the rooftop, her jeweled crown flashing in the sunlight, but then she aimlessly wandered back inside. The ants ignored her. Nothing made much sense anymore. The defense had collapsed, but so had the offense. The siege had dissolved into confusion, and little was being accomplished at a great rate.
In fact, it was, well, chaos. Fortunately, its effect was limited, and did not reach as far as the watching human figures.
“That is impressive,” Ease said. “But I didn’t see the bomb, just its effects.”
“It is unseeable,” Chaos explained. “Because it is an effect. Organization has no chance when chaos rules.” Then he gave Ease and Kandy three bombs, which were parked invisibly beside their souls, that they could invoke at any time with a thought and a gesture. If they were ever under military siege by ants or trolls, they would find good use for them. “These are larger, and their range will extend out about fifty feet,” he explained. “They also will not affect you, as they belong to you. So if you ever have trouble with robbers, dragons, nicklepedes, or panty-flashing nymphs, you will be able keep your sense and walk away.”
Ease nodded, though Squid suspected that he might prefer to handle the nymphs by himself. All men were foolish in such respects. “This is a useful gift. We thank you, Chaos.”
“We do indeed,” Kandy agreed. If Ease did not use a bomb on the nymphs, she might use it for him. Then she stepped up and kissed Chaos on the cheek. He stood there, frozen in place. He had freaked out!
“Wake,” Squid said, snapping her fingers.
Chaos woke. “What happened?”
“Mom kissed your cheek, and made you freak. Bleep, I’m jealous of her adult power. Maybe when I’m grown, I’ll be able to do it too.”
“But I never saw her panties.”
“A really pretty girl can do it without flashing,” Squid said. “Mom’s the prettiest.”
“Even as a board,” he agreed faintly.
“You just saved yourself a spanking,” Kandy murmured, flashing her board form for barely a quarter of an instant. There was something suggestive about it that did not seem to smack of punishment. More Adult Conspiracy stuff? Bleep, that was annoying!
Then they bid their partings and moved on. The worst chore had been accomplished. The Parents had been Told. Not that it had been necessary, as it turned out.
“Um,” Chaos said as they walked through field and glade, holding hands.
“Um?”
“Fornax wants to borrow back the host body, though it is not yet nightfall. She has a message.”
The Demoness Fornax, the patron of antimatter, who associated with this host’s female aspect, just as Chaos associated with the male aspect. She was also the children’s aunt figure, and the adoptive mother of one of them. She was not to be denied.
“Fornax is not one to waste time or attention,” Squid said, concerned. “We’d better let her in, even if it’s not yet night. It must be important.”
“Agreed.”
The host had both male and female forms. The male was Larry, whom Chaos had taken over, while the female was Laurelai, with whom the Demoness associated when she chose. They were able to communicate slightly with each other, but only enough to indicate the desire to communicate further.
So it would have to be done. “Kiss me and go,” Squid said. “Maybe she won’t need to stay long.” She had nothing against Fornax, nothing at all, but when it came to Love and Kissing, she preferred Chaos.
He kissed her, and it was delightful as always. Then his body shifted in her embrace and became smartly female. Even at age thirteen, Laurelai was lovely with her glistening blue-black hair and eyes. She would be devastating when she matured.
“What is it?” Squid asked her friend.
Laurelai looked surprised. “I don’t know.”
“But you asked for the body back.”
“Fornax asked. But she’s not telling me why. Just that we need to prepare quickly—immediately—for a trip to another reality of a month or more. We have to clear it with Nia and go.”
“Another reality! For a month! But Chaos and I wanted to have some time to—you know.”
Laurelai nodded understandingly. “I do know. You want to get in some serious flirting and maybe sneak some naughty feels past the Conspiracy.” The two girls understood each other pretty well, and Laurelai was capable of some pretty racy behavior herself. She was surely a trial to the Conspiracy. “But Fornax says that will have to wait. This is urgent.”
They wasted no further time in dialogue. They were already hurrying toward the Fire Boat. They reached it and clambered aboard, over the rail around the deck, carelessly flashing panties at the sky as they did. A cloud locked in place, until the following cloud bumped into it and snapped it back alert. That had to be Laurelai’s relatively mature exposure, not Squid’s juvenile effort.
The pet peeve was there, of course; it knew when anyone came or went.
They went straight to Grania’s cabin and knocked. Nia opened the door. She was a beautiful adult woman with dark brown hair, gray eyes, and a slender torso. She looked twenty-three, but was actually sixty-three thanks to a confrontation with a pool of youth elixir. She seemed to have no trouble living with her apparent youth. If she ever swung over the deck rail in a skirt, the entire welkin would freeze. “Yes?”
Then Squid remembered the eye she had put in a pocket. She took it out. “I found this, I think it’s lost. Can you help it? You know about flying eyes.” Because Nia’s talent was to form a pair of phantom eyes that could go anywhere and look at anything, relaying the images, so that it was hard to keep any secrets from her.
Nia took it. “Why yes. This is an Eye of the Bee-Holder.”
“That’s what Chaos said. I thought he was joking.”
“You’re right. This one is lost. I will scout out its hive and see about returning it. Meanwhile it will be safe with me.” Her phantom eyes formed and peered at the eyeball. It promptly flew up to join them, evidently finding them compatible.
Nia’s natural eyes focused again on Squid. “You didn’t come here about that. What is really on your mind, dear?”
“Fornax says we have to travel across the realities,” Squid said breathlessly. “We don’t know why, but it must be important. For a month or more. Can you spare us?”
“What Fornax wants, Fornax gets,” Nia said, sounding her real age. She evinced no surprise at seeing Laurelai by day. Grania effectively ran the Fire Boat, and did not misuse her authority. “We’ll be doing a routine dance tour; Fornax or Chaos will be able to locate us when you return. We’ll save your cabin. We’ll miss you, but we can cope.” She glanced at Squid. “The boys are busy elsewhere at the moment. But perhaps you should bid farewell to the girls.”
“Win! Myst!” Squid agreed. They were her closest siblings and friends, though they were not related by blood, quite apart from Squid’s own difference. Win’s talent was to have the wind always at her back, and it had been enhanced so that now she blew at the fire sail of the boat so that it could rapidly travel anywhere. Myst’s talent was to become a cloud of mist, and re-form as a ten-year-old girl, so no cords could hold her, and no prison, unless she got sealed up in a corked bottle. She was wary of bottles.
Squid left Laurelai to fill in what few details there were, and ran to find them. But Myst was already coming to find her. The peeve would have told her that something was up. She was in the form of a pudgy red-haired scamp. They hugged.
“Laurelai and I have to go away for a while,” Squid said. “We don’t know where or why, but Fornax says it’s urgent.”
“Some folk get all the adventures,” Myst complained with a smile. But there was a tear in her eye. She didn’t like losing Squid even for a day. “At least you’re going together. You can maybe sneak in some hand holding along the way.” She, too, knew that Squid’s romantic aspirations went way beyond interdigitation.
“We’ll return as soon as we can,” Squid said. They hugged again.
Win appeared, similarly notified, and they hugged as the breeze blew past Squid. Win looked just as nondescript as Myst or Squid, but was crucial to the operation of the boat. There was another tear or two.
Then Squid went to her own room and efficiently packed whatever she might need. Where were they going?
The boat sailed to a new location, which was just a glade in a forest, as Nia followed Fornax’s relayed instructions and Win blew the sail just right. Then Squid and Laurelai left the boat and stood in the small clearing as the craft departed, watching the fiery flickering of the sail. They were alone together.
Now Fornax appeared in her own assumed form, a stately older woman. “Take my hands,” she said. “We have a distance to go.”
She still was not explaining what this was all about?
Squid took her right hand, and Laurelai her left hand. The three of them stood in place. There was no sensation of motion. The sun started moving across the sky, gaining velocity. Then it set, and night closed in. Then came dawn, and day, and night, faster and faster. They were crossing the boundaries of alternate realities, and each was a second or so ahead of its neighbor, so it seemed like time travel. They could have gone backward as readily by crossing to the lagging realities. This was only an aspect of Fornax’s Demonly power.
So this was to be an excursion into a virtual future Xanth. Squid understood, because she had come from a future fifty years ahead of the one she lived in now, just like the other siblings. Were they returning there?
But Laurelai was confused. She was special in her own right, but had not been rescued from the future. “What is happening? Are we living faster?”
“No,” Squid answered. “We’re moving across realities. Each is a bit different in time. It’s like drawing pictures on a pad of paper, each slightly different, so when you flip the pages it looks like motion.”
“Weird.”
Now the changes were so rapid that the days and nights were mere flickers. It seemed that they were not going just next door, as it were.
Then Squad realized something else. They were talking naturally, having no trouble despite the shifting of reality frames. The Demoness must have set up a bubble of personal reality that insulated them, like a diving sphere that kept the air in so folk could breathe. Not that Squid needed to; she could breathe the water.
Okay. “Fornax, now we can talk without being snooped on, because nobody else could be crossing realities at our pace. So what is really happening?”
“We are going to handle a murder mystery,” the Demoness replied.
“A murder mystery?” Laurelai exclaimed. “We’re not detectives!”
“True.”
Squid knew Fornax better than Laurelai did. She phrased her question carefully. “Please give us some necessary details on this case. In some future world there has been a murder. What are we expected to do about it, giving that we have no expertise in crime?”
“First we must cover up the murders, so that no one else knows they have even occurred. Then we shall solve them, identifying the perpetrator. Finally, we will establish justice.”
“Why not let the regular authorities handle it?” Squid asked. “The local town mare, maybe, supervising from city hall.” A number of towns had mares, lady horses that efficiently saw to the routine operations. Some mares were quite well known, at least in political circles.
“Or an investigator sent by the king or queen,” Laurelai said. “A professional. Maybe even someone with relevant magic.”
“Because there may be Demon involvement.”
There was a heavy silence. Naturally, regular folk could not handle a Demon.
After a significant while, the sheer weight of the silence caused it to sink to the ground and dissolve. “And how are trifling folk like us expected to handle a Demon?” Squid asked. “Surely that is a matter for other Demons. We have some Demon friends, but that’s neither here nor there.”
“Because you are already involved,” Fornax answered. “Only you are in a position to accomplish the three aspects of the case.”
“Cover-up, Solution, Justice,” Laurelai said. “But we’re not even from the reality frame where the murders occur. Apart from that, this is a distinctly odd way of handling it. How can a murder be solved if no one even knows it has happened?”
“That is the only way it can be solved,” Fornax said.
“Maybe the problem is that our feeble mortal minds just aren’t up to Demon caliber,” Squid said. “How does this make any sense at all?”
“Because you are the victims.”
They were traversing alternate realities. Suddenly, their own reality crashed down upon them. They were both doomed to die? And they were heading right for that fate?
Squid exchanged a tortured glance with Laurelai. What had they gotten into?
