Диана Дуэйн - Wizard's Holiday

“I mean, look around you!” the Lone One said. “Does this look like a place where I’ve been particularly successful?”

It actually sounded aggrieved, which could have made Nita burst out laughing had she not had the creeps about this whole situation. “And then,” the Lone Power said, “to add insult to injury, when they realized I was stuck here, they built me this place so I’d have somewhere to stay! They felt sorry for me.”

For just a moment Its eyes held a hint of the kind of balked fury that Nita was used to seeing in the Lone Power. This faded, but what it faded into was a glint of nasty amusement that, though much less intense than the first expression, still looked natural on Its face. “The joke, though, is that the Alaalids missed something when they made their Choice,” It said. “What’s even funnier is that they brought it on themselves. And you noticed it, didn’t you?”

It looked at Nita. “Yeah,” she said after a moment. “I spent some time feeling around for this world’s kernel, its heart. And I can’t find it. It’s been hidden a lot more securely than they usually are…and besides, there’s something else that’s not right about it. Something’s missing.”

“You are smart for a mortal sometimes,” the Lone One said. “It’s a real pity you won’t see things my way: We could do well together.” Nita bristled. “Well, it doesn’t matter. I offered the Alaalids eternal life, as usual. Unfortunately, they were smart enough not to buy into that one.” Esemeli glanced briefly upward in annoyance. “And they realized that since they were physical beings, they were going to need time to move through, as well. So they also didn’t make the mistake of trying to shut entropy out of their world-system entirely. A shame…I’ve had endless fun with the species that’ve tried that approach. Literally endless.” The Lone One smiled. Nita shivered. “But then they tried to do an end run around me, instead. They worked a wizardry on their world’s kernel, the purpose being to freeze or lock down the other, lesser side effects of entropy, besides mere timeflow, everywhere in this whole pocket of space-time. And you can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because one of those lesser side effects, on the macrocosmic level, is change,” the Lone One said. “They didn’t foresee the consequences to themselves. Did I say, ‘You can’t do that’? I meant, you can, but it’s stupid. And after they set that wizardry into their kernel, it was too late for them to do anything about it.

There’s some room for small, personal change…just. But as for the big changes that every species needs to go through every now and then, to avoid stagnating and just dying away—those are all shut away from them. They can’t evolve. And you’ve seen what their world’s become as a result! It hardly even counts as a world anymore. It’s a theme park. They’ve turned it into ‘Nice Land.’”

Kit gave the Lone One a dry look. “You wouldn’t have a lot of time for ‘nice,’ of course. So forgive me if I think your opinion’s a little biased.”

It gave Kit an annoyed look. “All right, so I’m ambivalent,” the Lone One said. “But isn’t ambivalence preferable to pure evil?”

Kit considered that one for a moment. “See? You’re buying it already,” the Lone One said. “I was getting bored with absolute evil, anyway. I find that you can do a lot more damage with ambivalence…and it’s not as easily detectable from a distance, not anywhere near as memorable. Pure evil sticks out the way pure anything sticks out in a world full of mixtures and melanges and shades of gray. Ambivalence can be discounted, or explained away, or mistaken for confusion or a mind not completely made up yet.”

“Sometimes it really is…” Kit said.

“Oh, sure. But how often? The rest of the time, in humans, it’s usually more about the refusal to make a choice. People are eager to excuse it, though. Ambivalence is seen as a sign of maturity, whereas actually taking a stance on one side or another is easy to describe as simplistic…or juvenile.” It smiled that nasty, sarcastic smile again.

Nita looked at It and asked herself, as she had been doing about once every ten seconds during this conversation, how likely the Lone One was to be telling the truth at any given moment. Yet it really did go through some kind of transformation at the end of Dairine’s Ordeal, she thought. Other Powers told us It has the chance to be otherwise now. “I’m getting bored with absolute evil”—could that be the beginning of a change?

Whether it is or not, it’s still important to be careful!

“Let me get this straight,” Nita said, “You’re telling us that in some ways, entropy would have been at the root of that big species-wide change. And when they froze it, or locked it down, they locked you in.”

Esemeli looked at Nita with those ironic golden eyes and smiled. Nita shivered again. “The point is,” It said after a moment, “these people don’t need to be physical anymore. They’ve passed all the tests and dealt with all the issues that rise out of the life that spirit lives when trapped inside matter.” The Lone Power made little whoop-de-do circles in the air with one shapely finger. “In fact, they passed them quite a long time ago. So they’ve long been ready for the next thing… whatever that turns out to mean for them. But they’re as locked in now as I am. Alaalu needs to be made unsafe again. Once that happens, they can move on.”

“To what?”

“How should I know?” the Lone One said, Its tone suddenly shifting enough so that she sounded grumpy. “With what they did to local space-time, I can’t look far enough ahead to see any more.”

“You did see once, though,” Kit said.

“That was before they set their Choice in stone,” It said. “They would have

evolved, and become glorious and wise and powerful and all the rest of it, blah, blah, blah.” It waved one hand in annoyance. “And now, who knows what’ll happen, after they’ve kept themselves from their destiny for so long? But nothing’s going to happen if they don’t take the kiddie gate off this part of space-time and give themselves a chance to fall down stairs like any other species.”

“They’re not going to do that,” Kit said.

“You’re a veritable fount of observation,” the Lone Power said.

Its tone is really starting to annoy me, Kit said silently to Nita. You know what’s weird? It bothers me less when It’s a guy.

Hah. At least It’s just sitting there. Would you rather have It insulting you or trying to blow you up?

Ask me again when we leave. Assuming that we do…

“So what are we supposed to do about all this?” Nita said.

“Unlock the kiddie gate,” said the Lone One. “Find a way to break the wizardry on the kernel. Let them out.

“Which will also let you out.”

It looked demure. “An unavoidable side effect.”

Nita sighed and got up. As she passed him, Ponch rolled over and lay looking at the Lone Power upside down, further increasing the surreal quality of the entire encounter, from Nita’s point of view. “Look,” she said, “before we agree to help you, of all beings, with anything, we need to have some questions answered, even if it upsets you. We’re still not entirely clear about what happened with you a while back, at the end of Dairine’s Ordeal. We know what it looked like, and felt like…”

It tsked at her. “And a wizard is supposed to trust her feelings…”

“Not without taking a look at them occasionally to see how they measure up against reality,” Kit said.

“It looked like you,” Nita said, “were thinking about turning over a new leaf. Giving up being the force behind evil in the worlds.”