Titans of Chaos

I was feeling a little light-headed and giggly, until Victor swept that azure beam from his thirdmetallic eye across me and removed the alcohol from my bloodstream. He did not bother to soberup Vanity: She had already had Andromeda establish the Olympian laws of nature we needed.

At first our death was far away in the time-stream, but Quentin poked pins in a little wax doll ofVictor, which did not hurt Victor in the slightest but sent out a signal that Victor was in danger.

His death grew close, curious, hoping for an opportunity to act. This was the curse slaying Lamiahad created.

The warning-fate that Mavors had set up came alive within the time-stream, too. We took care ofit first. Yes, we had debated the wisdom of having Mavors show up to save us each time we werein an auto accident, or fell down a flight of stairs or something, but in the end we decided we hadto take care of ourselves without help.

That left only the death-fate, which closed in more rapidly once the Mavors counterfate was outof the way. Obviously it was more likely that we would die once no protector was around to saveus.

The hard part for me was getting Victor to see the direction the death-fate was in: I took his headin my hands and pulled it up out of three-space, and pointed it in the time direction. His brain didnot record any activity at that moment. I assume he was unable, by his very nature, to see what Isaw. But the blue beam came out of his third eye all proper and normal, and dissolved the hugelump of time-energy.

The hardest part for Quentin was when a voice spoke to him from the cloud. With his handsshaking, he took the champagne bottle and poured himself two glasses. He cut himself with hisathame, his witch's knife, and dropped a drop of blood into one.

"Here is the blood shed by she who has offended me," he said, his voice thick. "Here is my angerand my retribution, which I, Fallen and Archon of the Fallen, Master of the Art, have a right toclaim. I drown you in the deep."

He tossed the wineglass into the sea.

He held up the other glass. "Here are the sins of Lamia against me. The pain and humiliation...

the... tears I cried. The sound of her hateful voice as she called me a child... and molestation...

ach! Here are her sins. Let the sea, let the great sea drink them, and may they forever be gone andbe forgotten, as I forget them. I drown you in the deep."

The second glass twinkled in the gloom as it sailed over the railing and into the snowy sea air.