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Epilogue

Excerpt from One Over X: Episode Six - For Sages and Lesser Fools

Epilogue

Whatever he desired it did not jibe with his intentions. “There are serious issues,” Master E said.

“I really hate that,” Ela’na responded. “It serves no purpose. Everyone has issues.”

“Not everyone is a Wolfcat.”

“As if you don’t have issues.”

“I wasn’t aware that my issues were a point for discussion.”

“You expect my gratitude?”

“Gratitude would be a start, though it is unnecessary. I have done what was needed.”

Ela’na took the Amulet in her hands and gently tugged on it, snapping the chain of woven orcris hide that had suspended it around her neck. “Here, this is what it was all about anyway.”

“I do not want that thing!” Master E thundered.

“How many lives have been lost in pursuit of this stupid stone?” Ela’na asked.

“It is hardly stupid but more lives have been lost than you will ever know or I wish to consider.”

“Take it! I do not want it anymore.”

Master E shook his head. “You gave it away once and what happened? How many lives did it ruin before it made its way back to you?”

“That was an accident.”

“There are no accidents. I would accept that it was a mistake or even a lapse in judgment. You allowed a human to have access?” Master E scowled.

“I have it now.”

“And now, so shall you keep it. Only a Wolfcat can wield it without self-detriment. Only a true Wolfcat seems capable of resisting its influence.”

“Only a Wolfcat seems capable of giving it away.” Ela’na countered.

Master E laughed. “We respect that in you. Not that you have ever needed its power.”

Ela’na assumed a rather provocative pose, focusing the intensity of her seductive glare directly at Master E. “The goddess respectfully requests an honest answer from the Spectral.”

Master E smiled. “I am only one of several Spectrals with some interest in this matter. However, a Spectral is always honest. Perhaps it is that we are less than forthcoming that clouds so many other issues.”

Ela’na fluttered her eyelashes.

“Each day I thank the nature by which I was created that I am impervious to the impact of the look that you possess.”

“Are you impervious?”

Master E smiled, having been caught in a gross exaggeration of the truth. “I can resist. I am perhaps not impervious. After all I am pretty-much still alive.”

Ela’na smiled. “Then you do find me desirable.”

Master E laughed out loud. “The Wolfcat Goddess has an ego that needs constant sustenance.”

“Whatever ego I have receives so little sustenance from you.”

“I wasn’t aware that I was a worthy suitor for your attentions, goddess.”

“Why is it that whenever you call me ‘goddess’ it sounds like an curse?”

“Far from it. I admire you. I respect you. I always have.”

“You do not desire me in a physical way?”

“It is different for Spectrals. You know that.”

“It has been done.”

Master E flashed a slight smile. “Yes, it is possible.”

“What is wrong then?’

“It is the effort, goddess. Then there are the ramifications. You see the universe through a keyhole. For a Spectral there is no such restriction. Not only is there no keyhole but there is no door, no threshold nor any wall into which the opening was cut. I would need to ignore far too many things to focus the attention that you would desire of me, Ela’na. Further the pleasure of the effort would be largely yours. Granted I could enjoy the instant. Such as it might be it would not be compelling for a Spectral to ever enjoin.”

“I am not worth the effort then?”

Master E lowered his head and shook it. “Damn you for twisting the truth to suit your own ambitions.”

“Ambitions?”

“Take care Wolfcat. Be forewarned that a Spectral is hardly a being to trifle with.”

“Then why subject yourself to the confinement of the human male bodies that you have become.”

“Become?” Master E asked. “Which humans have you decided that was I?”

Ela’na stared into his eyes, seeing a man that her human part had loved so deeply that his rejection of her had robbed her of her breath but never her desire to endure. She had fought back wielding her love’s energy like the blade of a broadsword. “I think that Brent was one.”

Master E laughed aloud long and hard. “Oh there is no fooling the goddess!”

“You were Brent then?”

“I was being facetious. Brent is a human. He has never been anything more than what he is although even as a human he is sensitive to many things that for his own good perhaps should have been concealed.”

“There were others.”

“Ela’na, I have never been anyone else. I simply do not do that sort of thing. That is not to say that other Spectrals refrain from that sort of thing.”

“Andros?’

“Andros hates humans. I doubt that he would ever think of becoming one. I could be wrong but, he is pretty straight up about it. He likes Andy for some reason.”

“Well who then?”

“You do not need to know, goddess. Your suspicion that certain humans in your life were Spectrals in disguise is largely wrong.”

“Largely.”

“Yes there was one, okay.”

“Who is the Other?”

A smile tickled at Master E’s lips. “He is your friend.”

“That is not what I meant. You know all of the Spectrals. I would think that they are all my friends and friends amongst themselves.”

“Then you would assume wrong. Ehl does even speak to his son Be’hel. Gawl doesn’t associate with anyone. For his part he can’t as he is trapped in the bowels Anter’x. No other wants to be whatever he or she is. Everyone seems to like Moe although he has seriously challenged the balance at times. Andros is moody and although his opinion is generally considered and even sought because his thoughts are clear and untainted by emotion, he is not well liked. Elom, well she is universally liked.”

“Surely Master E is well liked as well.”

He smiled. “I try.”

“Who is the Other, then?”

Master E drew a deep breath. He had given her tacit permission to ask questions that he would answer as accurately as he could without harming the foundations of the universe. “Wolfcat, the universe is constructed much like an onion. I believe that once upon a time Andy told you or one of your manifestations this.”

“Yes. He also said that the inner most point and the outer most extent were one in the same so that it was folded back onto itself.”

“Considering the limitations of the human mind, that is amazingly accurate.”

“What does that have to do with the Other?”

“The Other is not a Spectral.”

“Not a Spectral? Is he the Creator then?”

Master E shrugged. “He has the abilities and nature of a Spectral, at least every time that I have been with him. Even so I have always felt that he did not belong in our company, a perception that other Spectrals share.”

“You know him and yet do not know who he is?” Ela’na asked.
Master E nodded.

“That doesn’t strike you as strange?” Ela’na asked.

“Look we have traveled in time, been many places and done many things. I have always enjoyed your company, Wolfcat. You are without a doubt the most exciting and novel creature that I have ever known. Your power and insight amazes me. Your beauty stimulates me in ways that I do not care to elaborate. So it is very hard for anything to seem strange to me. Yes, the Other is a case that strikes me as being strange.”

Ela’na turned away and immediately there was a lovely garden that stretched out before her. It was her garden. “We are lovers here, you and I.”

“Come again?” Master E asked for clarification.

“You have not arrived at the point yet. Because of your nature, not being concerned so much with the plight of mortals and near mortals, you have not seen it. This is a home that you built for me. It is a wonderful place. It is a world that you rule as a colony.”

“I would have it no other way. If I am to submit to the hell of temporal existence I would surely be a ruler.”

“I have memories of making love to you, here,” Ela’na admitted. “In this garden.”

“Oh,” Master E demurred. “Was it good for you?”

Ela’na laughed. “You don’t see that in all your ability, that we might be together in this place and make love?”

“What you are showing me exists in the Never aspect. It is as likely as anything else that could occur but hasn’t. It has never been able to come to pass in reality.”

“Still it is possible.”

Master E shrugged. “Of course it is possible as is anything else.”

“Then how do I get to Never?”

“Andy also seeks the way even though I think it a fruitless endeavor. Understand that never is not real by temporal definition. It is a place of unfulfilled potentials that were cast into nothingness with a single decision that led away from the hope as a substitute for salvation.”

Ela’na lowered her head.

“Ela’na, I have always told you how I feel. I have been very candid about such things. I have also expressed the conditions and limitations of my being.”

“You have done all these things,” she admitted.

“I confess now before you and all eternity that I am in love with you. It is just that I may not be able to satisfy what you expect or even deserve. I am not as you are in nature. You might expect more of me because of what I am. I can tell you that a Spectral is not endowed with anything extra in the loving respect as it would be superfluous to the simple elegance of what a Spectral is.”

She kissed him on the forehead. “Send me to never, then.”

“There are things left undone.” Master E protested.

“Find another to do them.”

“There is no return from never.”

“Andy found the way in and also he will find the way out.”

“Andy may be a special case.”

“I am not?”

Master E laughed aloud. “If it is possible then surely you will find the way as well. You are that remarkable.”

“It is my destiny. If I cannot have peace here then I can at least have it there.”

“You are sure?”

Ela’na looked into his eyes. “You are interesting Master E. I mean that in the best possible way. I do not pretend to understand you. I suspect that some of what you are is yet a mystery even to you. You are not a female. Therefore there are some things that you will never know about me or how I feel. I have enjoyed what time we have spent together. I am weary of the struggle, now. I want to be at peace for the rest of my life.”

Master E nodded as he reached out and drew her toward him for an intense and emotional embrace. “You need to know only that I will always love you, Ela’na,” he said as he kissed her on the forehead. “Never forget that ‘I love you’ as it is the key that fits every lock.”

She insisted beyond the affection of that instant and pressed her soft, moist lips to his. He was stunned at first but he did not resist. When she pulled away she said, “Remember: that is what you missed.”

Master E turned away and he conjured the forces that he could and dispatched Ela’na for the moment. Inevitable and irreversible, he turned away from where she had been only a moment before. He wiped a tear from his eye and sighed. “Sometimes it really sucks to be immortal.”
Then he turned back to the world that had been before. It was as a wisp of fog set between the leaves falling from a tree, and those leaves became blank pages as they began to fill a notebook. He was only certain that he existed except for those that were immortal including the other
Spectrals and the rare goddesses that nature had produced.

What more could anyone expect of the quandary? Only what was magical had ever been real.

E

posted by Unknown @ 11:30 AM