The Volsung Variations

1. The Volsung Variations: "Trigon Now; Twilight Then"

Solely for the sake of amusement, allow me to begin by introducing yet another character new to the PHANTACEA Mythos. Although he aspires to become and/or replace Daemonicus as the earthborn King of Demons, he debuts as Magnus Minus, Midget Minotaurus of Minius. As we discovered in Kore-9, the Dual Entities' Trans-Time Trigon is currently situated in his realm, what's also known as Absudyl, the Subterranean Land of the Mandroids. There it's known as Sub-Trig.

To save time later, allow me to provide something of a build up to the following excerpt. Magnus Minus is in Sub-Trig listening to a story being told by one Tom-Tiddly Taddletale. Tom-Tiddly is a faerie type, with blue skin and golden hair, but he began life as Tammuz Rhymer of Time-Retarded Dukkha, Sedon's Upper Lip-Tip. Before he [presumably] got kidnapped (by fairies) and dusted (with faerie dust), Rhymer was an Inner Earth Summoning Child.

That might mean he's a supranormal, someone who was in effect born a mortal devazur. On the surface of it that devazur appears to be Rumour of Lazareme, which is interesting because the latest incarnation of Rumour's deviant half-son, Jordan Tethys, is among those listening to Tom-Tiddly's tale. Rhymer's father, yet another one there, is the Male Entity, Heliosophos or Helios called Sophos the Wise.

(NOTE: As detailed elsewhere, in his 61st lifetime Helios had blue skin and golden blond hair. Recall also that, once they go into action, the Elemental Twins, Aires and Thalassa D'Angelo, have blue skin, albeit with white hair. Hmm.)

In case you missed Oddity and Curse, Helios is in his Eleventh Lifetime. He's spent most of that time possessed by devils, primarily that fellow I always forget to remember, the one who just happens to thinks he's Daemonicus too. Consequently, even though he's physically in his late fifties, he hasn't quite aged to that extent in the intervening thirty years. Having been shot to shelly hell, as Fish might say, in Odd-14, he's definitely looked better, though.

Oh, and again in case you missed Kore-9, Rhymer's (presumed, not confirmed) mother, the Female Entity, who must have been somehow humanized when he was born, is back to being just the Mnemosyne Machine, the computerized innards of Trans-Time Trigon.

As Magnus Minus now knew, Taddletale was Sophos the Wise's Summoning Child. At least he thought he knew Rhymer-Rumour was Hel's son. Why'd they all have so many names? He'd have to ask them. Write it down to ask them. First and foremost, best not forget the thought. He had so few.

"What are you doing, Minotaurus?" wondered the 17-year old distractedly.

"Making notes."

Judge Warlock [Sedon St Synne], the dream-sent man whom even Minus realized wasn't all there, scoffed at that. "On your hand?"

"With your nose?" put in the Legendarian, Jordan Tethys.

"Helps me think."

"Oh, really," the 30-Year Man [Tethys] snorted derisively. "Besides making an ungodly racket, you're full of surprises, aren't you?"

"Thinking's important to me."

"Don't doubt that for a minute. Watch out. Oh, oh, too late."

As good as noses were for woodpeckers performing somewhat similar tasks, Magnus Minus was mostly made of Stopstone, the stuff not so much of the bottomless pit as its eventual bottom. He had consequently rendered his chosen writing implement, this extended nose of his, more akin to a chisel than to anything else.

Overzealously applied, especially by a non-sculptor like this would-be Daemonicus, chisels could get carried away in terms of their chiselling. Carried all the way to his wrist in this case. Which was nowhere near as thick as his hand. The result was akin what often happened with his beard, -- when the half-life recalled to fabricate one, that is.

[Machine-]Memory, inside of Subterranean Trigon, was essentially omnipresent. The floor, her, formed a mouth, hers, and sucked in the fragments of his former hand. The Minotaurus was far from embarrassed. On the contrary, he was delighted with himself.

He had completely forgotten he could write!

Amusement aside, the story Tom-Tiddly's telling has to do with events that took place between Kore-13 and Kore-14. Before I start selecting synoptic highlights of it, allow me to introduce you to a character who hasn't as yet appeared in any of 19/5938 story sequences. She shouldn't need any introduction but here goes anyhow ...

They all had names of course, real ones as well as code names, but not one of them was speaking. Nevertheless, some were known to those on shore, Tammuz Rhymer amongst them. And why were they there, those on shore, on a drizzling day in this desolate No Man's Land on the coast of Fearsome Fobbiat?

The answer had to do with a ten year girl, a witch-spawn by all reports, but one with witch-attributes impossible, certainly unheard of, for one so young. She also didn't have a name, not this one. Then again, witches never gave each other formal names. Wizards might learn them; use them against them in their foul incantations.

She was called something, though. Certainly Queen Godda, God-Devil of the High Court of Teamhair, Tara, called her a name. It was, perhaps appropriately, 'Witchie'.

Welcome the future Wilderwitch to Heliodyssey. Welcome to VolVar a number of her fellow member's of 1980's Damnation Brigade.

I'll leave you to match which ones by the little trickster's statement to Gilda (Mama Goldie) nee O'Ryan Dre'Ath at the beginning of VolVar-1. As for the ones Hush lists who apparently aren't around for the 1980 serials, some were SOS-Sausages whereas others were SOS-Suicides or SOS-Socks, both or all three. I'm pretty sure all of them were also listed as SOS-Saints in the synopsis to Kore-14.

"We had a Raven Fetishim with a big old Yankee Indian Human Being inside it. And John Sundown had a much bigger, and probably much older, cut-anything hunting knife on him.

"We had four Trinondevs, Elite Warriors of Weir; a White Witch I've personally known since before she was even born; the aforementioned anarchist of a Hellion; and an irate Illuminatus, -- each and every one of whom had eye-staves." For once Gilda did not interrupt her, so Hush, Jolene Callion, Joli Blon, Pandora Mannering, kept listing away.

"We had a Water Elemental armed with a Thanatoid of Lathakra's Talisman, one who gets naked before she gets truly dangerous; a Keres Hellhound hungry for faerie-food, -- feeorin for food's what I mean; a red-headed, Rubenesque Korant Corn Queen whose pet it was." The seventeen years' perpetual seven year old was not done yet. Not by a long shot.

"A Lightray Lancelot with a contrary surname; a moonbeam matter-slinger I think of as a lunartic, a Loon-Arctic, since she gives cold shots an entirely new meaning; and a wildman who proved himself a regular gentleman if only because he was careful not to rip anyone's head off. Those that had heads I mean!"

Mama Gilda opened her mouth to question this last but the little witch did not give her the chance. "We had Electric Atreides, -- Snap-Zap, the Boltwhip Babe. Had Mister-Mesmer Attraction-Hent from the Force-Firm of Hither Thither & Hold. Your own Magus Maxius and four feeorin half-breeds capable of much more than just doing Max's bidding.

"An Untouchable Diver who doesn't need seal skin to look good. Or elsewhere, damn near anywhere it seems. Remote Viewing isn't the word I'd use to describe how he sees thanks to those Gorgon goggles of his; Far Sight is. It's telescopy through the Grey.

"Oh yes, and as also aforementioned, we had a philosophizing Ringleader/Ringkeeper with Brainrock circlets filled with bodiless devils. What do you think happened? Had a good old chin-wag, -- that was all." It was not that Hush was lying or even stretching the truth as such. It was just that she was telling the hole truth.

Which is what tricksters often did.

Needles to say, which Hush probably does say at some point during 'The Volsung Variations', the action begins now!

As always, good reading!

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2. The Volsung Variations: "Faerie Fight"

VolVar-1 ends with the following ...

Rising into the sky from beyond the headland yonder came a draconic sight, a butterfly-winged semi-serpent full of eye-like feathers, a sort of slither-slender peacock, -- only bodily this peacock was female-shaped; human female-shaped, a young one too. No more than twelve, I understand.

Then, just as quickly gone as much as her was one of the supranormals, the one Witchie named Cheyenne Raven. In his place, up towards the heavens, flew a raven, a real one, a crow-creature, one most of the supras had seen before.

"Dishwater and dirt-rags!" cried one of the invaders, no doubt noting the Fetishim's presumably foreboding reappearance. This was the one in the frogsuit and wearing the Gorgon Goggles. "Deep-dreck doo-doo's what we're in for now."

"About fucking time," trumpeted the Domdaniel-Deviant suddenly glowing even more brilliantly than earlier.

That was when the peacock-creature, all Hell too, broke out. Correct that: all Hell didn't so much break out as came out, -- of her, the feathered serpent.

Then it came at them!

Want action? Needless to say, action you've got! My problem is whether I should summarize any of it. Got an opinion? Come back to me, via email, and venture it ==>

For now, how about I note that the title doesn't just refer to a chapter-long battle on a Twilight beach between Socks of [Supra] Saints and a whole bunch of hell-spawned fairies including the Mighty Milkman, whose boots are made for stomping, Plenty Pedals, bundles of Bumble Bums and truly nasty piece of work called Old Nuke, aka Night's Mare.

To that, because she'll be back, let me just add that most of the faerie fighters come out of Praxitheia (Queen Bee) Faerie Flight and she, all of not quite 12-year old she, is a daughter of Ophiomedea (Medea now Annulis but always Ararat), whom we last saw, in Kore-13, escaping to the Hidden Headworld through a gateway reserved for pregnant witches.

Huh? What? Who? Missed Manoeuvres and/or its continuations, Oddity and Curse? Even for non-fans of fight sequences, learning of her background is as good a reason as any to read VolVar-2. (HINT: As noted in the synopsis to VolVar-1, her father is one of those in Sub-Trig. hearing Tom-Tiddly tell his story.)

Oh yes, lest I forget, even if you have, there is a whole other set of variations currently being serialized out here on the Web. Ophiomedea appears there, too. So does one of her sisters, the dead one (Mountain Games) not the still alive one (Chelonian Basilisk from Mole-7).

Solar flares were going off in fair folks' faces. Ouphs [faerie-like elves] were dodging icicle-spears then living lightning. Did I mention the Selkies? No? Well, with all the mayhem going on around them they lost their sea-dogged determination to hold onto the talisman-less devils and scampered into the sea. Which meant Ringleader-Ringkeeper was back in business.

"Wondered when you were going to get to you, Tom-Tiddly."

"Wonder no longer, Jordan."

"Almost, Rhymer," said Magnus Minus.

"Come again?"

"Almost rhymed I meant.

As always, good reading!

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3. The Volsung Variations: "Sea, Sickness, and Sundown"

Fights are as much fun to write as they are to read. Other than to note it's almost non-stop, I'm not going to synopsize the fight sequences in VolVar-3. Instead, I'll simply provide one of its highlights. [Check out the featured story in the Summer 2006 edition of 'pHpubs' for something that happened shortly before this happens.]

"Holy shit," gasped Dervish Furie [Jervis Murray], pointing out to sea.

"Holy whaledreck, more like," the Untouchable Diver [Yehudi Cohen] corrected him.

"Things're never fair in fairyland," remarked Hush [Mannering] dropping an Anthean Agate at her feet then stepping on it. She did not go anywhere; though; was not surprised either. "Figured it was too late," the little trickster said to nobody, just in case Nobody happened to be listening.

"Tell me that's an illusion," muttered Homer, the Blind Skullian, returned to the beach and into the breach.

No one was quite sure why Max sent him back since the supranormal also known as Sense Seer had no offensive capabilities; none that anyone knew about at least. Given the sheer enormity of what they were all gaping at though, he may not have needed Max-sight to behold it.

"Sorry," observed Morgianna drily. Still dry as well. "Devils are prone to demon-strations. Let's just hope Crap's only showing off because that'd be one whale of a fish out of water if she tosses Leviathan at us."

[NOTE: Morg, code-named the White Witch, was born Nauroz but called Somata. Hush Mannering, Young Life (the little trickster quoted above, who's a perpetual 7-year old), thinks she, as Pandora Mannering, gave birth to her 17 years earlier, just prior to this. (The link preserves a description of Pandora and Morg's father, Augustus Nauroz {arguably aka Aug the Dog, Young Death and Hush's Gush}being devolved by Tralalorn, presumably (though mistakenly) at the insistence of Rhea Sangati always Ararat, the Korant Sisterhood's High Priestess or Miracle Maenad, at the time.]

"A Utopian with a sense of humour," marvelled Cybele [St Synne]. "Will wonders never cease?"

"That's one wonder I wish would cease," contributed Cohen.

Krepusyl of Crepuscule was generally not referred to as Crap, like the White Witch had just called her, but one of her most common monikers was Moon-Face. Quite rightfully too, as was very obvious to everyone on shore.

It was still daylight, such as daylight ever got in Twilight at least, but the Moon was already out. Was full too. Had the sun's hair, three eyes, a mouth, nose, neck, shoulders, and the rest of a body as well.

The Queen of Shades was standing out there in Fobbiat, up to her waist in ocean and holding Island Leviathan, undiminished, in her arms like a lap dog. Atop the beast, visible only as specks, were Magus Maxius, Mycroft Mouthpiece, Chairman Jubal and those others Chair had not Max-sent back to the beach.

"Guess I spoke too soon," retracted Mara Macha. "Can you say surrender?"

Even Socks of [Supra] Saints should know better than to try to take on a Master Deva in her own protectorate. Then again, most of the Outer Earth born socks have never wittingly come across a Master Deva before.

As for what else either happens or is revealed in VolVar-3, allow me to insert a gold-mining box here and go from there. It doesn't come from Volvar. It comes from that whole other set of variations currently being serialized out here on the Web.

Here's the queer, as a certain little devil child who doesn't appear in VolVar tends to say:

Meanwhile, in a side room, John Sundown was propped up on his elbows while Goatish Amal-Althea [Pusan Wanderlust], probed him for previously undetected injuries. Illuminatus, Melina Sarpedon, was watching him more so than her. Although her interest was more professional than prurient, there was no denying she had a telltale glimmer of curiosity in her eyes.

"What's the matter, Miss Marble?" he asked her, using a derisive term the Diver had come up with the night before when they were trying to agree on code names for themselves. "I disgust you?"

"Far from it, Johnny," Mel admitted. "I was just wondering who you might be?"

"You mean which devil's come back as me?"

"Don't think anyone has," ventured Amal-Althea. "Think what we have here's a case of what you see's what you'd get."

"You're saying I'm no supra."

"No deviant either, sunbeam," elaborated the devil-possessed crone who, for reasons altogether obscure to him, once referred to her shell as this Cundrie of an Aegis. "Other than the fact he's a particularly nasty Fetishim for a guardian fay-angel, we're talking Human Being through and through's my diagnosis."

"Yet ..." hesitated Melina.

"Yet what?" he demanded.

"Yet nothing," provided the elderly feeorin healer, whose devic self, like all devils were should they put their minds to it, was psychic. "The Master of Weir's personal pride and joy [Illuminatus, Melina Sarpedon] simply can't accept you're an ordinary man."

"Why not?"

"Because many of us suspect you've fathered a Great Goddess!"

Her name? Shahiyeda, Shah for short!

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4. The Volsung Variations: "Head-Bangers and Balance Beans"

Funny title. I'll venture 'Head' refers to Sedon's Head. I'll further bet 'Balance' refers to Harmonia, the Unity of Balance, who's been gone for some 400-plus years. I'm pretty sure the rest of it, bangers and beans, refers to the breakfast the Socks of (Supra) Saints get cooked, probably by the Mighty Milkman, post Battle Beach. Could be wrong about that, though. It has been most of a decade since I wrote Volvar and the first time since then that I've re-read it.

This is the last chapter in 'Fred in Fairyland', the first of Volvar's three subsections. Remarkably, I've thus far managed to synopsize its preceding instalments without once mentioning Fred (Valfreja Volsung -- soon to be code named Cousin Contamination). Might it be about time I corrected that oversight? Sounds like a plan. Actually, now that I've had a few months to consider it, and you've had the same few months to read VolVar-4, there isn't much point, is there? Besides, I already have, over on the overview page.

Let's do a gold-mining box instead.

There's stacks of this sort of revelatory material in VolVar-4. One of my personal favourites pertains to what else Homer Skullian can do. Ever heard of telephotography before? If not, you will here. You'll also discover why Magus Max sent him to Battle Beach.

"You've that telly no one wants to talk about," Angelo said to Homer. "You've telepathy. You're seriously psychic, aren't you?"

"Wouldn't surprise me if he's telegenic too," mock-drooled Cybele [St Synne]. Even though she hadn't seen an Outer Earth movie since her pre-1920 childhood beyond Cathonia, she always admired men she fancied would look good on the silver screen.

"Hey," boasted the blind man in an all-too-familiar, to the Zerosses, cocksure Summoning Child manner. "You don't know the quarter-qualifier of it, Red. Fact is, I'm telephotographic. Want to see?" He opened his sightless eyes.

For the next half hour, while they waited for Immanuel Dark's bangers and beans, all those in the Eventide dining hall, -- fays, deviants, and even those humans there now who had not been there then --, watched in stunned amazement, not to mention some amusement, as Homer beamed forth an on-the-spot documentary of the battle on the beach across Fearsome Fobbiat from Island Leviathan.

Goes without saying that Mouthpiece vocalized the sound!

So, if I was to remind you that Mouthpiece is Mycroft ("Mikey") Skullian, a deaf-mute, you'd no doubt figure out what, thanks to brother Max (Maxwell Dre'Ath, aka Magus Maxius, the seventh son of a seventh son), the other two Skullians, Jubal and Gregory, can do. No? Well, Jubal's a leg-crippled paraplegic whose codename is Chairman while Greg's a gentle giant simpleton whose codename is Rage Mage. Does that help?

Even if it doesn't, suffice it to say that VolVar-4 howsoever satisfactorily concludes the Fear Dark, Dana & Dinah born Maxwell and, as a separate subsection, the Family Dre'Ath storyline begun in Kore-3. As for what's to come, here's a hefty preview, one that I don't doubt I'll be referring back to as Volvar progresses.

The speakers are the White Witch (Morgianna born Nauroz but called Somata), Black Skull Face (Golgotha Nauroz, the Trinondev clone of Morg's grandfather, Ubris Nauroz) and the Grey Lady herself (Krepusyl Evenstar), who was last noted synoptically interacting rather curiously with a colossal whale (Fish's pal, and evident birthplace, Island Leviathan).

"You've proof of that, -- the Trigregos Sisters have finally been reborn?"

"As always you misunderstand me, Morgianna," Krepusyl all but laughed. It was in a kind of resignation not exultation, interpreted Golgotha again, -- though, as he would be the first to admit, he was no expert on empathy. "If it were them don't you think I'd be gleaming, not steaming."

"Who is it then?"

"Harmony!"

"Datong Harmonia, the Unity of Balance, -- your eldest sister in Lazareme, the one Abe Chaos killed centuries ago?"

"Can you now appreciate why I must have Tsishah? Harmony can and will order me about, which is something Father, Chaos, Star-Face, Blacksun, even the Moloch Himself would never do."

"You'd be bound to obey a deviant?"

"Yes. Because, young as she is, she's my elder. Of those of my family [the Lazaremist tribe] still around, only Father and Grandfather are older than her and Chaos."

"Then that means ..."

"Not necessarily. We won't know until she's on the apex of seven, will we?"

"Who are the other two?"

"One goes by the name of Shahiyeda, the same as one of Young Life's many aliases. Her people, Iraches in self-imposed exile on the Cattail Peninsula, think she's the female of the Nergalids, though, the one your Illuminaries named Vetala. I think she's actually Demeter to Tsishah's Devaura and some other woman's three year old girl's Sapiendev, or vice versa verse visa."

"One born simultaneously, on the same date and at the same time, as mine and Sorciere's babies," understood Morgianna. "I'll find her for you. Just let me get done my business on Ap Isle and let the others go with me."

"I think not. You see, I'm seriously thinking about killing her. And, if I kill Harmony's incarnation, I may as well go whole hog and kill all your deviant buddies at the same time. They are mostly Mithras Spawn after all. Headworld's still got plenty too plentiful of their ill-tempered ilk about and the last thing it needs is a bundle more back again for another go-round."

"You do that, Dark Sedon will cathonitize you on the spot. Master Devas need all the worshippers they can get and Almighty He's never been one to allow his descendants to cull those they don't like, no matter what tribe they're from."

"If I may, my ladies," dared the clone. Krepusyl gave him another of her icy glares but didn't elf-strike him. As for his mistress, Morgianna encouraged him to speak his mind.

"We are at an impasse, Black Skull."

"Warriors of Weir are born and bred to kill devas. Ordinarily, therefore, assassination of mortals is beyond our mandate. The devil would be appalled were that not the case, wouldn't she?" It was a rhetorical question. He was not expecting, nor was it deserving, a response.

"However, if the mortal in, um, our hypothetical situation might prove to be an immortal, -- more, if the mortal might be a devil returned from the grave --, well then she is already dead, is she not?"

Morgianna looked to the Grey Lady, who simply nodded concordance. "So," she summarized for both their benefit, "If I understand you correctly, Skull, you're only returning a Master Deva to the grave she rightfully belongs in. You're actually assassinating no one."

"Quite the contrary, milady. With all due respect, I'm proudly performing a Trinondev's sworn duty. There's no 'only' when it comes to one's honour."

"Your call, Creeps-Devil," said Morgianna, allowing Krepusyl the last word. "I'll ask it again, -- who is she?"

"Who do you think, war witch?"

Put in the form of a cheat sheet:

So, what else happens in VolVar-4? For one, Fred cures herself, unwittingly at the cost of infecting others. So she unselfishly uncures herself (if 'uncures' is a word) by disinfecting those others and re-infecting herself. For two, Megaera Zeross becomes Meg-Aura, a living eye-stave, and tries to take out Krepusyl in her own protectorate. Despite her threat, noted above, it is a very good thing for not just Meg that Master Devas who've never been ill-starred don't kill.

For three, occasionally blue-skinned Thalassa D'Angelo (Sea Goddess) hears she might actually be Thalassa Thanatos, a fourth generational devil. For four, we learn that Praxitheia (Faerie Flight) is Medea Annulis's daughter by Sedon St Synne, Cybele's father. And, oh yes, for five, we learn the identity of the Harmonia-deviant, as if we hadn't guessed that already. (Or knew it if you read long deleted chapters such as 'The Faerie Garden', 'The Trigregos Gambit' and 'The Crimson Corona' when they were serialized howsoever many years ago now.)

Finally, as for 'Fred in Fairyland', well, we can't leave her dying anew, can we? Actually, I could. But I didn't. Recall 'Coueranna's Curse' and who ultimately ended with her (Kore-Concord), as opposed to it (the curse of holding Kore in a prison pod secreted between-space, as Laodice Atreides did at Castle Nightmare, or, worse, being possessed by Kore)? Put it this way, Cybele St Synne doesn't get an option anymore.

Let's leave the last word to our 4-chapter narrator, Tom-Tiddly Taddletale, the faerie-type with blue skin and sun-blond hair who covers an Inner Earth Summoning Child, Tammuz Rhymer of Dukkha (Sedon's Upper Lip-Tip on a map of the Headworld):

"I've come to know these supras. They won't last long; especially won't last long before they're at each other's throats."

"Spoken almost as if you were the Time-Tumbler, Tammuz." saluted History [Heliosophos, the Male Entity]. "Want a beer?"

"Thanks for the offer, dad."

"Don't get too familiar, kid. I find my parents there's a strong likelihood you'll never be."

"Put that way, maybe I'll have two."

As always, good reading!

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5. The Volsung Variations: "In the Company of Chaos"

Great title. I should copyright it.

The company part of it starts in the Totem Pool (aka Cleo's Bath and the Wishing Hell, Head-side of the Tholos Tomb for Pygmies, wherein Tanith von Blut jumps, evidently attempting to commit suicide yet again) and ends in the Dinq, Doinq, Danq Cavern Tavern. Are we soon to be done with Chaos yet again? Pending additional re-reading, I'll say nay to that.

Truth told we aren't done with Tanith, yet again, either. That's in part because VolVar-5 begins 'Queen of Heaven', the novel's second subsection. And guess who likes the notion of being a queen of heaven? As for the rest of it, let's call it foreboding and leave it at that.

The star cluster stapled all over it [the roof of the cavern containing the Totem Pool] detached itself, sprinkled downwards, began taking shape, -- her shape. As it landed, on its feet, a human being, albeit one still gleaming from myriad sparkle-stars scattered all over her naked body, it was very apparent that Tanith von Blut had finally realized her Summoning Heritage.

If Aegis was a man in silver armour she was armour in the shape of a silver woman.

"Hey, Jess. We having fun yet?" she grinned happily.

"I swear you've more lives than a cat, Silverhair."

"Coming from someone who rose from the Dead, I suppose I should take that as a compliment. Cat would be nice, though."

"Come again?"

"Wonder if there's a cat constellation."

What there is no wondering about is why she'll soon be acquiring an SOS-codename besides Silverhair. That codename? Cousin Constellation!

There was a cat constellation. It was called Lynx. But that was not the psychopomp star-creature she conjured out of the Totem Pool to ride eastward through the Grey.

Instead, after Akbar whispered in her ear that Tanith/Astroarche was known as Libera in Rome and Maat in Egypt, she played around a bit; got a tad creative, -- for creativity was one of her attributes; she was, like Strife, an Ethereal.

Astroarche = 'Queen of the Heavens' Abe Chaos had already informed her [Tanith Silverhair] that both Tanith and Astroarche were names her evident template, Pyrame Silverstar, took when she was the Queen of Cretan Phaistos during the Mad Goddesses' 500-year long, Middle Sea matriarchate between circa 2000 and 2500 Years of the Dome.

Maat had a cat's face, so she gave herself one. Maat's symbol was a feather, so she tied her silver hair in an upside-down ponytail such that its end looked like a feather coming out of her bun. And then, since Libera, Libra, -- the eponymous Mother Goddess of Ancient Libya --, was a constellation in her own right, she decided to ride to the cavern-tavern not in Metet, Maat's Morning Boat of the Sun, but upon Libra's Scales of Justice adjusted accordingly.

She stood on one platform, had Akbar, Young Death, and Aegis Mandam stand on the other one, then raised a Stopstone sail off a mast between them. The other three congratulated her on her cleverness. Was nothing like sailing through the ether, they figured.

Will further say Akbar (who was once Old Joe but who's now very much a young Joe properly named Kronokronos Akbarartha) finally admits he was Michael D'Angelo from 1895 (when Azrael Sangati, a Blood Beast Prime and self-made vampire put the bite on him) until 19/5920's Simultaneous Summonings, after which he emerged from a cocoon as Magister Joseph Mandam.

He doesn't deny he was Barsine Mandam's father (by Olympias Sangati always Ararat). But he does deny he was Jesus Mandam's father (by Mary Magdalene born Ryne become Mrs Magister Mandam). He thinks, as it turns out probably quite correctly, Jesse's father was none other than the legendary 30-Year Man, our old pal Jordan Tethys.

Perhaps not at all coincidentally, the recurring deviant (whom you'll recall was among those listening to Tom-Tiddly recounting all that happened on Battle Beach a few days previously in Sub-Trig) is already drinking in the DDD. After he joins them, he admits he was Magister Mandam from 1895 until 19/5920's Simultaneous Summonings. While that doesn't necessarily mean he was Jesse's father, he confirms he might have been his grandfather.

"Yet you were Old Joe's father?" [Aegis-Jesus put to the Legendarian.]

"Now that I can say with some certainty. 5866 was a good year for us. Had the loveliest set of twins a man and wife could desire. And, almost thirty years later, I was able to make the male of the two well again."

"By coming back inside him."

"In a manner of speaking," nodded the Tail-Teller. "Whereupon, for the next quarter century or so, we shared a wonderful life, one of my better ones in fact."

"Which brings us back to the Summoning."

"Quite. Which was when, -- after my demise, I might add --, my old travelling buddy here came out of his chrysalis wearing my likeness, that is to say Old Joe's likeness, and took our place."

"You found this out after you came back in this body, the one you're in now?"

"Actually I found this out immediately after my demise."

"Now I got you," silver-snapped Mandam. "The disease you saved Old Joe, your son, from in 1895, by coming back inside him, was the terminal stages of transformation into a vampire. You weren't so lucky in 1920. By after your demise you mean after you became a vamp. And a bunch of you became vamps during the Summoning."

"Bright boy," grinned Tethys.

What else? Well, someone tries to call Tanith Silverstar (as in Pyrame Silverstar) instead of Silverhair. She prefers Silverhair. Someone calls Jess Silverspoon, as per what he was figuratively born with in his mouth. Although he is wearing the head-to-toe silvery Aegis of Athena, hence Aegis-Jesus, he doesn't think it's funny.

Young Joe acknowledges that he himself was born, albeit as Akbarartha, sometime near the beginning of the Dome's 59th Century. He further acknowledges that might make him a faerie fart. He and Unholy Abaddon (the chapter-titular Chaos) get drunk in the DDD (the Dinq, Doinq, Danq Cavern Tavern).

It's hardly the first time they've got drunk together. Indeed, they both seem to have the capacity to drink dry an entire lake (so long as it's filled with beer). Tethys isn't far behind them, though of course he has a 30-beer maximum. Young Death and Tanith abstain. Both leave, he in his usual gruesome fashion. She just wants to be alone. Turns out alone isn't an option.

Tanith declined to join them; went upstairs to her room, such as it was. Not that that mattered overly much. She'd had enough for one day, -- one day, one night, and another day on top of that she felt, though Lord knew how long she had been up.

Baghdad, Africa, Sedon's Head, Sedon's Peak, Silverhair becoming Silverstar, the voyage through Shadowland and now the Dinq. Which was also the last thing she needed right now. Dinq with a 'k' that is.

As she was undressing, she heard it. Him. Outside her window. Not that she had a window as such. Not in the bowels of this cavern of a tavern. Where was he? Between-space? Had to be. What was he doing? Serenading her? Had to be that too. Strummed a lovely sounding lyre or lute and had a nice singing voice to boot. Too bad he couldn't rhyme worth star-shine.

Twang!

Jesse still fancies Tanith Silverhair. He probably always will. Somewhat significantly, Jordy leaves his sketchpad behind when he too retires for the night. Jesse flips through it and, bearing in mind what Tethys apparently can do with this quill of his, somehow twigs as to what may be really happening:

Finding eyelids open long enough to peruse the rest of the notebook, Jesse was not surprised to find various renditions of the man he now thought of as his former father, -- this fay-fellow, this Kronokronos Akbar.

More and more, though, he found snatch-sketches of someone who looked like Tanith, albeit the Ice Queen and not the Pretty Pussy version of her. Peculiarly, sometimes these drawings did not have a head under all that silver hair as much as a pyramid. Some other times, it being a pyramid, the same silver hair-loft had a couple of different faces on each of the sides visible.

'Fucking Hell!' Tethys had come here not just looking for Akbar and Barsine, his half-sister, who wasn't even half his sister as now seemed manifest. He'd come in quest of Tanith too.

Mandam rushed up the stone stairway and made his way down the dark corridor toward her room. Fatalistically, he did not expect to find her there. He was right. She was not there. Very nearly fatally, though, someone else was, -- a sharp-toothed vampire with approaching Tanith-like silver hair!

"Hi, guy. My name's Janna Somata, much better known these days as Fangfingers. Mind if I have a bite?"

Recollect Second Fangs (Janna Fangfingers)? Of course you do. Her story was amongst those detailed years ago in 'PREGAME-Gambit' #s 2, 3 & 4. So why has she popped by the Dinq? Could it be she wants to get drunk too, albeit on Jesse's blood? We'll see soon.

I somehow doubt it, though.

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The 'Crow Creature' collage, above, is an image map. A click on the individual graphics making it up will bring you back here for curiosity-satiation purposes:

1. Text reads "Raven's Head"; there's a list of lynx that'll take you to more on Raven's Head here; return to image map
2. Jim McPherson's photo of the Guerrero Aguila (Eagle Knight or Warrior), taken at the Museo de Templo Mayor in Mexico City, 2005; return to image map
3. Text reads "PHANTACEA"; return to image map
4. The shot of the warrior with the green bird's head helmet falling or else just hanging downwards and the shot of the robed 'Raphael, the Avenging Angel' type are part of the same Carlos Orosco Romero painting spotted in Guadalaja; it's something of a serendipitous sighting when one considers what John Sundown and Raphael D'Angelo combined to accomplish on Charan's Ark the morning of January 14, 1938; photo by Jim McPherson, 2005; return to image map
5. Text reads "Blind Sundown"; the main entry on this enduring character is here; return to image map
6. Postcard of the same Eagle Knight's head and helmet, bought at the Museo de Templo Mayor in Mexico City, 2005; return to image map
7. A scene spotted painted on a subway wall inside Mexico City's Metro; photo by Jim McPherson, 2005; also something of a serendipitous sighting; see blow-up and accompanying text here; return to image map
8. Text reads "Raven Fetishim"; there's a list of lynx that'll take you to more on Manitoulin's Raven Fetishim here; return to image map
9. Shot of a transformer mask spotted at YVR, the Vancouver International Airport; see blow-up and accompanying text here; this photo by Jim McPherson, 2007; return to image map
10. Blow-up of another Eagle or Raven Knight, this one a statue spotted in a meridian along Mexico City's Paseo de la Reforma; photo by Jim McPherson, 2005; it reminds me of the aquiline ace-in-the-hole Sorciere becomes when, as per here and here, she ingests faerie food; a variation of the same shot is here; return to image map

Notes on the graphics going into the 4-part collage and image map above:

1. "Ophiomedea as a Cockatrice" correlates to Max Ernst's "Mythological Woman", ca 1940; I scanned it in from "Max Ernst" (Edited by David Larkin, Ballantine Books, 1975); back to image map
2. "Nita D'Angelo as Night Wailing" correlates to "Night", by Edward Burne-Jones, 1870; I scanned it in from "The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones & Watts - Symbolism in Britain 1860 -1910" (Edited by Andrew Wilton and Robert Upstone, Tate Gallery Publishing Limited, 1997); although the book is a Tate Gallery publication, I saw the painting as part of an exhibition at London's Royal Academy of the Arts in late 2003; there it was part of the Andrew Lloyd Webber collection; back to image map
3. "Medea's Lamiae as Psychopomp Wyrms" correlates to a cut-out from an image of Cronus, Kronos or Father Time that I took off the Web a number of years ago while searching for likenesses of Thrygragos Varuna Mithras; the wyrms pulling Time's chariot are irresistibly akin to Medea's lazy lamiae, Neath and Lathe; back to image map
4. "Mama Rhea as Norma Screaming" correlates to an image I scanned under the entry for "Banshee" in the lavishly and often brilliantly illustrated book entitled "Encyclopedia of Things that Never Were" (Michael Page, Robert Ingpen, Penguin Studio, 1998); the illustration is by copyrighted by Robert Ingpen, 1985; back to image map
5. I took the image of a nacreous sky that makes up the background for this collage from the Web; back to image map