Aur Child
Chapter 53

Meet in the Hundred Acre Wood.

That’s what the message said. It was written with a finger into a bit of sand that had replaced the doormat of Tieri’s mountain village cottage. She quickly swept the sand with her feet to erase the words. She understood the message, but it was a surprise. Based on what Digambar had told her, she had not expected any further communications from Calliope. Regardless, she had been told by Digambar to wait for an obvious signal, and this was sure to be it. She knew how to get to the Hundred Acre Wood, Calliope’s euphemism for the black hole they played beside so many months ago. The question was, how to enter it.

“Fast enough to make a spiral,” were the instructions Calliope had given her once. That was with a pulsar, however. This time, she would have to attempt it with herself. Standing nearby the heavy blackness of the hole, Tieri had no idea what would happen if she failed to approach it correctly. The pulsars they had tossed towards the event horizon snapped out of existence with a violent pop that didn’t look very comfortable, no matter what senses were dulled.

There was no one to ask. But once inside, she presumed that somehow she might see Calliope again. That was worth the risk. She straightened her spine and began to accelerate at an angle tangential to the central void. The pull of that point on her body versus the force of her forward momentum was awful. She imagined herself being torn into two parts. She reached the dark funnel. Her body began to curve along a decreasing radius. She realized she no longer had control. Downward, faster, she curved. Her eyes pulled to the ends of their optic chords. She could no longer feel her arms. Forces wrenched her stomach. Her head compressed. Her heart twisted. Darkness blazed. Heat flashes. Disorientation. Palpitation. Distortion. Pain. Null.

She heard a sigh.

“I was only half hoping you’d make it through the horizon,” a man’s voice said in descant. “You must respond in descant for me to hear you, Tieri,” the man said again. Tieri now recognized it as Apollo’s.

“Where is Calliope?” Tieri asked, adjusting to descant within those vacant environs. Nothing could be seen nor heard other than that contained within the descant. Neither did she feel anything. The communication occurred merely by strings of words offered to one another among an oppressive nothingness.

“Alas, she is still suspended. But we have made progress. Hence my message to you.”

“And Kjell-Tors? I have not seen him for many days.” Tieri said.

“Hmph. Do you mean your betrothed, Visitor Na?” He laughed without echo into the dead nether. “But he has been returned to Earth in his own body, alive and well, don’t you know?”

“What? How did that happen?”

“Precariously, I confess.” His words came out like the droll mumblings of a machine in low gear. “But our Guest Baddin managed to establish a stable-enough string of transponders to successfully pump himself back into Yellow Reserve and, subsequently, squeeze Kjell-Tors back into his own body. Quite a remarkable feat, if not amusingly desperate. Personally, I would have been more entertained to have the connection drop halfway through and chasten them both with the resultant jumble. But Freyja was incensed, so that was good. Alas, you’ve caught her out again, Tieri.”

These words meant little to Tieri. Indeed, they seemed more for Apollo’s own benefit than hers. And again, the occupants of Yellow Reserve, Guests and stewards alike, seemed to attribute credit to her actions that she felt she did not deserve. She made no reply.

“Another hasty decision in this convoluted drama. But, according to some, a necessary one. Now he’s with your sister.” He paused, evidently for the effect of his own drama, and then, “As soon you shall be.”

“Me?” She pulled back slightly. “Why would you help me?”

Apollo sighed. “It is not so much that I am helping you, Tieri. Let us be clear. I despise you. You are a thief and a troublemaker. You’ve confused my wife with your humanistic prevarications to the point of jeopardizing her existence. You take advantage and act like a selfish child. Even your lump of a body has ultimately harangued me. No, I am not helping you. Rather, I am using you. It just so happens that what is useful to me also has some tangential benefit to you, of which I can only approve, as it may also please Calliope when she returns.”

“She returns?”

“Not to you,” he sniggered. “At least, not the Calliope you’ve known.”

“I don’t follow,” Tieri said.

“Yes, that is the problem with you Tellurians, isn’t it? “If you fail to follow me now, the plan will go bust and you will replace yourself even more miserable than your endless sulking already suggests.”

Tieri knew not what to say in response to this, so she remained silent. Apollo continued.

“As for the one who wishes to help you, that would be Digambar. You’ve colluded, albeit speculatively, I know. But as of right now, you must not attempt to make any further contact with her. Admittedly, this is mostly her scheme. But under a Guest’s direction, and with the support of the Council Chair, I am able to fulfill my part, which is a simple one. I have two tasks. First, between the time when Freyja is being installed to Digambar’s Aur boule and Calliope is restored to function here at Yellow Reserve, I will look the other way when Digambar permits you to be exoported to her body, instead of herself. Second, after you have transported Digambar’s Aur boule from Yellow Reserve to Cave Quay and engaged it with Óttar, I will again look the other way when you hide in the third passenger cabin and, to prevent Freyja from noticing, I will override the occupancy sensors. You see? My role is simple.”

Tieri nodded. “And my role is to pretend to be Digambar and keep an eye on Freyja in Óttar?” she said.

“No, your role is to accept Digambar’s irreplaceable gift of her one and only body, disengage Digambar’s Aur boule from Óttar when your friends aboard the Odyssey are in sight, and arrange a suitable party of Tellurians for the negotiations Digambar has proposed. And,” he added, “Digambar asks, if at all possible, for a message to be delivered to a friend of hers in Gjoa.”

“But what will become of Freyja?”

“She will remain inside Digambar’s Aur boule, hopefully, for a very long time.”

Tieri shook her head.

“Pathetic,” Apollo mumbled just loud enough for Tieri to hear him. “What part of that plan causes you to sulk?” he asked.

“I just …” Tieri tried to answer, but Apollo interrupted her before she could continue.

“Digambar has trained you how to handle the Aur boule, yes?”

“She has, yes,” Tieri said.

“And she’s also taught you every detail of the ship. You know how to manually override just about anything that moves in it, yes?”

“Yes, just about.”

“And you understand the hopes she has of replaceing new peace between ourselves and the Tellurians? She’s spent countless hours explaining her intentions for diplomacy with your kind to you, I’ve been told.”

“I understand that.”

“And you’ve whined ceaselessly about leaving Yellow Reserve, yes?”

“I want to leave, yes.”

“Well then, do you dare replace fault in a scheme crafted by the most technically experienced Guest at Yellow Reserve and analyzed meticulously by an artificial intelligence entity millions of times smarter than you?”

“No, it’s not that,” she said.

“Do you question the wishes of Guest Dharmavaram, she who has gifted you her body, sacrificed her Aur boule to contain Freyja, and has been chosen by Bren Husk as his successor to represent Yellow Reserve in negotiations?”

“Oh, no, I don’t,” she whimpered.

Apollo huffed in disgust. “You may think I care about your emotions because it is my responsibility to do so with the Guests of Yellow Reserve, but as to you I have no such obligations. Honestly, I couldn’t care less how you feel. I would just as easily dump you into some mindless backstage of the endoworld to circumvent your conniving schemes in future, but to be rid of you entirely suits me even better. Digambar pressed that point upon me. Yet that is not why I have agreed to Digambar’s plan. On this I will be frank, to have my wife back and Freyja gone is my core motivation. Our majordomo has gone too far, and her schemes have led to my own misery. Fortunately for me, Bren Husk shares these sentiments. Therefore, I have agreed to meet you today only to confirm your part, and nothing more.”

“But …” Tieri finally found the words she had been searching for, “how can Digambar do such a thing …give me her body?”

“Personally, I replace no objective rationale to explain what you ask, but then again, neither do I care. Will you do what you are asked? Yes, or no?”

Tieri gasped for something to say.

“Tieri-Na, I grow weary of your deliberations. Yes, or no?”

“Yes, but will you tell Digambar I said thank you? Please? she said in a plea that might only register with those capable of understanding human emotion.

“Very well,” he said, and then, she knew not how she could sense it, but she was sure she was alone.

“How do I get out of here?” she called out in a panic.

“Pathetic,” came a patronizing murmur.

And then, instantly, she found herself returned to the village green of that flowery, alpine valley prison.