Titans of Chaos

I saw the iceberg-thing in our future stir. It began to orient itself, like a hound catching a scent,from one of us to another. It was coming closer. Death was soon and growing sooner.

Victor said, "Don't answer. Ignore it."

Vanity, her face half-crumbled with unshed tears, threw the cell phone away from her. It clatteredoff the boards and fell into a flower arrangement.

The voice said, "That was just insane inanity, Vanity. What will you do if I choose you?"

I heard Vanity scream, and saw her fall down. The wounds that Victor had stitched up wereleaking again, as if Trismegistus had somehow left something behind in them, something Victorcould not see or sense, waiting for some signal from him to rotate back into three-dimensionalspace.

I could hear her gasping for breath. Hissing. The fate was close, but it did not strike. Trismegistusstill was not killing us. He was talking, taunting. He still wanted something from us. What? Whatdid he want?

It got dimmer. I held my hand in front of my face. It was a blur in a blurry world.

I said, "Victor, I'm scared." My voice was shaking.

I could not see where Victor was standing, or what he was doing, but he said, "Don't show fear.

You and I have to take care of the young ones, Amelia. You and I."

It was the same thing he used to say to me, back when we were much younger. Back when I wasSecunda.

He said, "We're the only ones they can rely on. You and I. Forever."

"What if we don't make it, Victor? What if this is it?"

"Then I shall not have the opportunity to ask for your hand in marriage, Amelia. I would havepreferred to wait till I had something of value to offer you. I have nothing but myself. We havealways been together. We shall always be together."

And then he said, in a voice as calm and unafraid as ever he used, "Amelia, my sweet, my braveAmelia, whether we live or die is unimportant. Don't pay it any mind. Concentrate on the task athand."

There are not many things a man can say to take a girl's mind off the impending prospect ofdeath. But there is at least one.

It made tears come to my eyes, which were already full of tears of pain. For some reason, though,things seemed to get brighter to me. Just a little. Maybe the laws of nature of Olympos had somesoft spot in their heart for tears of love.

That's when I saw them. They were so bright, even a half-blind girl could not miss them. Twomore icebergs in the stream of time. Larger, much larger, than the fate that was choking Quentin.