Titans of Chaos

"Leader," I said, "I am not sure what to do. There are monads controlling the matter in his body,but they have been put out of synchronization. I can fix one at a time, but there are millions ofthem. It would take me years even to affect part of them. And he also needs mass, and I am notsure where to get that from. He can't eat anymore. I don't think I can do this. I don't reallyunderstand what he's done to himself. Everything is all backwards. The matter is moving theconsciousness, as if they are two separate substances. Everything has an internal nature, butnothing has an entelechy or an innate purpose. This isn't my paradigm-"

I suppose I sounded more nervous than I should have, because Phobetor shouted over the storm,his mouth fanged with flame, "Steady on, Blondie. If I can do you, you can do him."

I shouted back, "I don't know what to do. What do I do, Leader?"

Boy, I just really loved saying that to someone else.

I was not the only one who loved saying it. Vanity was nearly in tears, asking Quentin what to do.

She was screaming over the storm noise, "We're trapped here! My ship can't move! Whose chaosis this? Don't you guys rule this stuff?"

You guys. Huhn. File that one away to think about later.

The ship was now being tossed and slammed from side to side so violently that Quentin could notremain upright on deck. Phobetor had his arm around Quentin, and was walking across the tiltingdeck, supporting him, one snake-patterned wing held high to ward off falling pellets of ice, mud,and acid. Phobetor's hooves clung to the deck as if it were solid and calm, no matter at whatcrazy angle it jumped. With the flaming, lightning-lashed clouds behind him, and his long manestreaming, the antler-crowned demon-prince seemed, with every step, to grow larger and moresolid.

As Phobetor supported Quentin past my position, Quentin's mild voice appeared inside my earagain, bypassing all the furious noise outside, "Where is the repair-creature made of blood? Theone you gave life to? Is it in me, or does Victor still carry it?"

I understood his idea. The blood creature could carry out an operation on its own. If it could makerepairs, I could concentrate on making more blood-creatures. They could even make each other,self-reproducing machines. I could fix the millions of damaged cells if I had millions of littlehelpers.