INDULGENT SPIRIT
Tom Leonard
Words like 'she' and 'her' are intended to represent all genders.
4.THE SACRED CHAPEL
4.1 Rip and Chi return to Katrina
Rip Splint and Chi Kit visited the Rainbows about two Kepler hours after they returned from Torus. Owing to the extreme disparity of time scales, it was already Anno 1670 on Torus. The Sappies were dressed in matching green togas, and wore plain matching friendship bracelets on their left wrists.
Kyle, Drew and Jordan were still in a bad state over Lox, and Rip and Chi tried to console them.
“We returned to Katrina a Kepler second or so after you guys," explained Rip, "and we’ve just been glancing through a Kyuvan news-blog of some one and a half hours ago. It says that Lox was regarded as holy by the Tavars and resident Gentoo and rose to become Planet President, in succession to the first incumbent Dr. Mileza Z4."
Kyle's face was still drenched with tears. "At least our baby grew up to be an influential member of Society. What a horrible shame they pulled that ghastly time trick on us."
Drew was still sobbing uncontrollably on the sofa, but she wiped her face and tried to pull herself together. "Did Lox have any children herself?" she asked.
“Five,” replied Chi, “ and she was the first of a dynasty of rulers. They held power for over 400 Torus years.”
"Did they slaughter all those horrible Walrusian reptiles?" asked Jordan, noisily blowing her nose.
"Not quite," replied Rip. "Shortly before we left Torus, the Walrusians' home base in Drem Valley was stormed by the homo sornicus rebels, led by Pal and Pat Piper, though Pal was maimed by sniper fire while he was raising the victory flag and Pat was bitten to death by hornets soon afterwards. Then, if this news-blog is to be believed, most of the criminal elements among the Walrusians were sent, over the years, to die in the copper and arsenic mines on the Cold Moon."
"Good! I don't feel any compassion for them at all."
"In the meantime," added Chi, "The spiritual leaders of the Tavars and Gentoo encouraged the Atums and freed Sornie slaves to create an all-accepting, Slotskyist society, where all the sentient species were regarded as equal, including the remaining Walrusians."
"Excellent!" reacted Kyle, now a bit more alert. "I'm still confused by the weird time compression, but I guess that the Living Incarnate and her council members haven't had time to properly digest all the socio-political things that have happened on Torus. Is that why they haven't intervened yet?"
"Right first time!" agreed Rip. "When they do intervene they might try to destroy everything that's been achieved there. That's why things need to change on Katrina too."
Drew gave Rip a cautious look and sat down on the fluffy armchair.
"I have some good news too," she stammered. "I am going to have a baby, a Humatum baby, the first of its kind for a century or more."
"Fantastic!" exclaimed Chi. "And Rip and I are the lucky fathers!"
"Sort of," blurted Drew, immediately wanting to swallow her words.
Rip looked puzzled. "What do you mean by that?" he asked.
Drew suddenly felt quite insecure. "Yes, you're a father, and Chi too," she stammered. "Kyle was fooling around with Jordan at the key moment."
Rip gave Kyle a piercing look, and considered the difficult situation for fully ten seconds before responding. "Chi and I are both proud to be parents of your child. Before we left Torus, I petitioned my own husband, the Incarnate for permission to marry all three of you. I do hope you'll all graciously accept."
"You can't possibly be serious!" howled Kyle, and Jordan looked totally bemused.
"Now, now! Forced marriages can lead to bad consequences."
Jordan gritted her teeth. "We'll think about it,"
"This should be lots of fun," replied Rip, with a slightly evil chuckle. "I'm a top whenever I'm away from the Incarnate, of course, and a tough top to boot."
After Rip and Chi left, Drew wondered how much they'd sussed the real truth about her. Then she realized, through her haze of neuroticism, that she'd lived in an acutely strange form of denial for much of her life. The midfolk had missed something of crucial importance after her birth, which if discovered would surely destroy her. So she decided to once again to 'shove her terrible secret to the back of her head', as a moralistic psychodynamic psychotherapist had once advised her to do.
4.2 A Curious Form of Marriage
The next morning, the love triple were furiously debating Rip's offer of marriage when a homely Novogrian herald appeared in their quarters.
"Greetings, much adored cherabim," murmured the colourful herald, through his dirty loose teeth. "I'm here to escort you to the Palace of the Immortals so that you may prepare for your marriage this afternoon in the Sacred Chapel of the Divine Spirit."
"That's much too short notice and we're already married," objected Jordan. "We're an official love triple."
"A mere technicality. We'll shred your documents later. You'll all be some sort of first, second, and third slave wives, as I understand. I'll tell the Cnutian pagelings to bring your things over later, but you should trash all the tatty stuff before they arrive."
"Is there only one husband?" asked Drew, just to make sure.
"Spot on! An insensitive jerk of a human, as I remember. I can detect her mint from across the room."
"But how would I spend my time in the palace?" complained Drew. "I'm perfectly content working here even if it is as boring as fuck."
"I understand that your hypomanic husband-to-be wants to get you more closely involved in politics, something to do with uniting the Atums and stupid Baal-worshippers I suspect."
"I can't believe that she's really going ahead with the marriage," said Kyle, thinking about the tricky conversation of the day before.
"She doesn't have any choice in the matter. His own husband has approved her petition, scatter-brained as it is, and the pontiff's word is final."
The Rainbows were escorted into the Sacred Chapel of the Creator Spirit that afternoon by seven simply dressed Sisters of the Transfiguration. All three brides were wearing golden tiaras and silk dresses.
While there was no traditional altar, a fluorescent pink rectangular prism close to the back wall of the chapel was emitting a low humming sound which could have contained a complicated coded message from another universe.
Drew was unable to see beyond the shadows and felt disorientated, as if suspended in space. However, the holy sisters encouraged her to stand in front of the fluorescent green pulpit, with Kyle and Jordan a yard or to so behind her, to her left and right.
An unusually slender, purple-skinned Zazin wearing a bronze mitre drifted in, holding four silver beakers, one in each of her enormous hands. She passed the beakers around, and proposed a toast to her primeval ancestors, the Zazimids. Drew took a sip of the frothy drink. It tasted suspiciously psychedelic.
The pink prism began to hum more loudly, and a voice inside Drew's head said, "I am Ophelia. You and your son will both live to be leaders of Atums, humans and Zazins existing in perfect harmony. Please let your ears hear everything they seem to hear."
Then Rip Splint floated in like a ghost, dressed in finery befitting a First Lady. He gave Drew a jovial smile.
The slender minister sprinkled Rip and Drew with holy water. "We are here today to celebrate the marriage of the Incarnate's First Lady Rip Splint to her first, second, and third wives," she announced. "May Ophelia bless their Humatum chlldren, and all who descend from them, up to, including, and not excluding the thirteenth generation."
The pulpit began the hum, and a voice said, "I, Ophelia, bless Drew, her son, and her son's dutiful fathers. Her son will be born a high functioning Humatum and he will be called Joe of the Many Colours. Seven tribes of Humatums will descend from him. Some will wither, but others will thrive."
Then a voice inside Drew's head said, "I am the real Ophelia and Pontiff Sunny Z1 is not my Incarnate. She wants to mistreat and exploit the Humatums. You should encourage Rip to destroy her."
When the bridegroom and his brides exchanged marriage vows, Kyle and Jordan said "Yes, we do" and seemed to shimmer like Knubian poltergeists as they shrunk into the floor.
When Drew left the mystical chapel, she wondered what had been real and what hadn't. Then Rip gave her a bear hug, and she returned to her apparent reality.
4.3 The Wedding Feast
During the wedding feast in the drawing room of the Palace of the Immortals, the Living Incarnate appointed Drew to the new position of Atum Consul to the Grand Council, and Kyle and Jordan to be deputy consuls. The Rainbows thereby became the effective political leaders of the vast Atum community on Katrina.
Then Pontiff Sunny Z1 clarified a key legal issue. The brides were still an official Atum love triple, but now serving both each other and their husband the First Lady. "It may get a touch tiring," joked Sunny, "and I may even take a peep."
Three heralds approached the top table and presented the brides with emerald-encrusted Swords of Leadership. Drew felt honoured beyond words, while Kyle and Jordan feigned indifference.
“You will be given all relevant intelligence from our data bank,” promised the pontiff, “and I will, on occasion, invite you to the chapel to blend mind waves with me and our much beloved Ophelia.”
“I have a question,” said Jordan. “I understand that the Grand Council is now planning to teleport five thousand Atum babies to Planet Riemann in the Kappa solar system. Did the blessed Ophelia come up with that idea, or did she simply approve of what you suggested?”
“Of course she suggested it,” replied the bishop, with a semblance of a smile, “after probing my thoughts, of course, which are part of her thoughts.”
Kyle was irritated by that. “You speak in riddles, but please advise me. Does Ophelia approve of the way the Tavars, the Atum and the former homo sornicus slaves created an all-accepting Slotskyist society on Torus?”
“Those insidious human rebels should have been torn apart by sea-harpies! However, Ophelia has decided to tolerate the developments on Torus, for the moment at least.”
Kyle raised her prickly eyebrows and scratched her human-esque nose. “I see," she replied, "and would Ophelia tolerate a similarly all-accepting society on Riemann?”
The Living Incarnate frowned, thought for several seconds, and answered, “Our divine creator thinks that we should use our experience on Torus to try to update our species in ever more superior ways. We’re therefore planning to also send five thousand mixed species babies to Riemann, who’re either half Atum and half human or half Atum and half mixed-race Sornicus-Walrusian. Ophelia regards this as an interesting experiment, but feels free to curtail it should the species misbehave or fail to evolve to her satisfaction."
"Please don't compress time on Riemann too," begged Drew. "If you do then all of these babies will grow up and die within seven Kepler minutes. You should spare a thought for their parents."
The pontiff smiled. “Ophelia and I will address that issue when the time comes, darling."
The triple marriage was consummated, in formal terms, in the bridal suite late than evening. Rip brought along his buddy Chi Kit to help out, and Kim Catworthy came in with the extra pillows and two long bolsters.
Drew was pleased to see Chi again. She thought that it would be good to 'split-joint' him, a time-honoured Atum custom.
Afterwards, Kyle ran up to Rip and begged for more. Drew chuckled at Kyle's body language, and gave Chi a loving, sensitive, kiss.
"Could you possibly drop by my chamber tomorrow, my precious one?" requested Drew. "I need help searching this damned palace for a Kalman-Bucy time machine. I'd reward you in bed later."
"Maybe I could tag along too?" offered Kim Catworthy. "The Astrom-Aoki tracker under my tail should prove to be of invaluable assistance."
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