The deal.

Obey’s private worship room had a statue of the Lady Callista Brandywine, Mistress of Tides, carved in white marble and scantily clad in red robes. The room itself used scarlet as its basic color, and it had the feeling of “softness” with its rugs and couches. In its right-hand corner, as one faced Callista’s image, was a Vine of Joy, old yet still bearing fruit.

Obey laid his staff in the statue’s lap and knelt before it, hoping that Callista herself would make an appearance just as she had three Brusian years ago. She had no power to teleport bodily, but like her father Nicholas she used Daimonae (or spaceships) to teleport her from planet to planet. But thanks to this statue and her internal bond with her acolytes, she could hear a request and answer it if she were able and willing. Such had been her promise.

And yet, Callista didn’t respond to Obey’s present request with an appearance, no more than she’d responded in that way for the last three years.

Obey wept and pounded his fist into the carpet. Surely she was displeased with him somehow – but why? And her silence was at the worst possible time. This White Tribesman named Starbright had defeated his magic so casually that it had not even been a contest – and Obey hated losing contests in magic. Moreover, Obey was a shrewd observer of people; he knew exactly what kind of mind he was up against, a brilliant mind, one whose basic thought patterns were very much like his own. It would take both great cleverness and great power to undo such a one.

Unless Obey found a way to do that quickly, everything he planned would be undone.

“Pity you waste your tears,” said a voice in Adamic from his left: a voice that was silky, smooth, yet weighted with Darkness.

On turning, Obey first thought that the Hooded Man Himself stood before him. But it was not: this imposter’s hooded cloak was black, not charcoal-gray as the Hooded Man’s. The Hooded Man wore a sky-blue shirt, earth-brown pants and dark brown boots as well as a Starblade, plus a gold clasp based on the Ark of the Covenant: the dress of a Prophet from the Circle of Starbards. This man’s clothes were entirely black from head to toe, and there was no symbol at all on them. His vampire-like teeth shone in the dark and he filled the room with his bitterness. Obey felt sick.

“Who are you? What do you want?”

“Some say those are the most basic of all questions,” the man answered with a dark chuckle. “Relax. I’m Edwin Bitterroot, the Shadow Master; and what I want is simple.”

“I’ve heard of you,” Obey replied sharply, sensing that here was a Protector dwelling in his own Shadow and acting like a Dark Inspirer, as Obey was an Inspirer dwelling in his own Shadow and acting like a Dark Protector. Whatever else Chris Alan the Inspirer was, he wasn’t an Inspirer dwelling in his own Shadow, and that made him less of a potential threat to Obey than *this* character was.

“So my reputation goes before me, then? Maybe in time I’ll be more famous even than Starbright.” There was that laugh again: a laugh without a moral center behind it, dark and empty.

“Famous indeed!” Obey retorted as he stood boldly before Edwin, just as he’d done against Chris Alan. “You’re the lunatic who’s trying to swallow the entire Realm in Darkness. You even oppose Blackthorn at times. I want nothing to do with you.”

“Too bad. I want *everything* to do with *you*.”

Edwin opened his right palm and Obey felt his throat tighten as he was levitated toward the madman. Obey struggled to breathe, but what little power Callista had invested in him was no match for this creature.

“Soon this world will be ours again,” said Obey, refusing to bend in will even as he hung there bodily.

Edwin laughed. “You think you can challenge Starbright? The only reason he hasn’t killed you before now is that his own Lord hasn’t allowed it.” Edwin dropped Obey, and he fell gasping for breath. “Just look at you: *pathetic*. You’ll *lose* this contest, Wizard.”

”You think you can do better?” Obey shouted after he’d recovered enough.

“I already have,” Edwin said scornfully. “I could kill you before you even blinked – and Starbright at full power is even faster than I am.” Edwin hated to admit that, and his tone of voice showed it, but Chris Alan had proved it on Ariel Silverstone’s Planet, even before he came under Grandmaster Toa’s tutelage. “You were just thinking, as I recall, that it would take both great cleverness and great power to beat Starbright?”

Obey started. “You can read minds, then?”

“Not as well as Starbright,” said Edwin affably enough, “but just as with you, it takes him more energy to draw upon his ability to foresee consequences than I need. He needs to get really oppositional before his famous ‘depend on it’ brand of certainty kicks in. That weakness can be used against him.” Edwin chuckled darkly again. “Get him carnal-minded enough, there or anywhere else in his psyche, and his own Lord will refuse to help him. But you’re *way* too weak to push him that far – as you are, anyway. So if you really want to beat him and win your Lady’s love, then you *need* my help.”

“I don’t need help from strangers; my Lady will aid me!” Obey grabbed his staff and held it high, trapping Edwin in a field of gravity. Edwin smiled.

“Very impressive for a mortal, but you don’t know who you’re dealing with. The amount of power I’ll use now is only a tenth of my true power.” As Edwin’s eyes glowed green, a green energy field filled the gravity field and worked its way destroying every graviton until it reached Obey and began to decay his hand.

“*Ahhh!* What is *this* that removes my flesh and my power?”

“An application of the Laws of Thermodynamics, my friend. Everything created is subject to decay, the last stage of that decay being heat. Gravity’s made up of a particular frequency, like all else; I just corrupted it.” Edwin released the green field’s grip on Obey, leaving him shuddering for a moment.

“That was a mild touch,” Edwin reminded Obey. “And as Starbright reminded me a while ago,” he added ruefully, “his Power theoretically has no limits at all. Only the Need of the Hour and Covenant Law restrain him at any given time. Either you take that into account and exploit it, or else give up now.”

Obey had some formidable gifts of his own, however. As an acolyte of the Chalice of the Maids cult, he had Callista’s symbiont within him, which gave him (among other things) a powerful healing factor that connected directly with Callista’s own, a factor almost as strong as a Lightchild’s Gift of Life.

“At what price does your help come?” Obey demanded as he restored his hand.

“My, my, you’re clever; now you’re starting to talk like the Doer that Starbright keeps as a pet.” Edwin’s laughter was wilder now. “I want the location of the Babylon Matrix.”

“No, never! My Lady entrusted the location to me. It must be kept secret.”

“Callista never was the brightest bulb in the Elemental light display,” Edwin said dryly. “Why entrust such a secret to a mere mortal?”

“Perhaps, Shadow Master, she did so to test beings like *you* for her own glory.”

“Better and better! *Now* you’re talking the way Starbright does about his Lord,” Edwin laughed. “*Him* I can believe, because I know *both* of them all too well; but why should I believe *you*?”

“You’d be slitting your own throat if you used the Matrix,” Obey replied forcefully, ignoring Edwin’s question. “The Matrix came into this Realm with the birth of my Lady’s son Babel. Ever she searches for him but cannot find him; only the Matrix remains.” Obey’s speech took on the tone of a litany. “If its location were revealed and if it were wielded, the Shadow War would be hastened and the Lord of the Realms would cut our time shorter by at least a few hundred years. The Lady Callista knows this, and so should you.”

“Has she also told you that Chris Alan Starbright, Nicholas’ Bane, is destined to be the very spearhead against Darkness and Shadow in that war?” Now it was Edwin who was speaking as if in a litany, and it was chilling. “Time is *not* on our side, Wizard. The longer Starbright lives, the more dangerous he gets; the Lord allows him to do more and more in His name as he becomes more and more like Him. He’s not even thirty Standard Years old; can you imagine what he might do at three hundred? Five hundred? A thousand, when he’s ready for apotheosis?” Edwin allowed himself a small shudder out of grudging respect – and a fear he refused to admit. “But take away the spearhead, and the Lord’s spear is useless. I’m counting on the Lord *not* to intervene directly in the Shadow War; He’s put all his confidence in Starbright’s ability to grow strong enough to wage it. We ought to use that decision, the sooner the better.”

“And the alternative is?”

“Think about it. Your ‘Mistress’ got King Marcus murdered and now is nowhere in sight, and sooner or later Starbright will figure out what happened. When he does, he’ll finish you just in time for supper.”

Obey nodded grimly at Edwin’s dark logic; he was beginning to appreciate just what caliber of foe Chris Alan was. If even this Shadow Master, by his own admission, couldn’t match the Lightchild’s potential strength for strength…

“So what can you do for me?”

“Give you power, the power to do things you wouldn’t believe: the Fire of Chaos itself.” Edwin’s eyes shone red now.

“Like the Fire of Nicholas,” Obey told himself aloud. “And you say this will be enough?”

“Not of itself…” Edwin almost added a scornful “fool”, but he caught himself just in time. Obey was on the brink of buying Edwin’s bill of goods; an insult could turn the balance against Edwin in this parley.

“Not of itself,” Edwin went on, “but if we corrupt Starbright himself, it *will* be. Remember, the one real weakness of a Lightchild, even this one, is his character. The farther he gets away from his Lord’s will, the less able he is to use his Lord’s Gifts. Get a Lightchild to turn away *willfully* from the Lord’s purposes and the Lord withdraws His Gifts entirely. Starbright’s spirituality is unique, much as I hate to admit it – for he was *born* with it – but not even *he’s* incorruptible.”

“And corrupting the Lord’s purposes is what the Chalice of the Maids is all about.” Obey nodded darkly. “So my Lady has taught me – and all of her acolytes.”

“Yes. Too bad Starbright’s own wife isn’t an acolyte herself. She’d make a first-rate one with her curves, passion and sense of style.” Edwin laughed again, and there was a dark eroticism now in that laughter. “There’s nothing like taking a Protector for grinding romance into the muck. I’d be willing to spend *major* coinage for a night with Autumn Harvest Selene as an acolyte. I’d be willing to pay *double* if you, or some strong young man under your sway, seduced her into the Chalice cult.”

“You have interesting ideas, Shadow Master. I will give you that much.”

“Why not? I’m a genius.” Edwin laughed manically. “Well, they’re just ideas. I’d pay *triple* if you could do what not even Nicholas Blackthorn could do: make Starbright himself an acolyte.”

“And I would pay *quadruple* for you to cease your laughter. The Chalice is *not* a tool to be wielded for an outsider’s purposes.”

“Fair enough.” Edwin was willing to play the generous trader for a moment. “So then: what do you decide?”

Obey hesitated. Callista had entrusted him with much indeed. Yet as far as he knew how, he’d been faithful to her, and she’d not been faithful in return. Perhaps that came from the very nature of her scheme, revolving as it did around promoting all kinds of infidelity.

Perhaps what she needed was to have her hand forced. That’s what pagan gods and goddesses usually required, when they got into one whimsical mood or another.

“Fine, Shadow Master, you win,” said Obey at last. “The Babylon Matrix is located in the star system belonging to the Centurions. It was placed at the very center of their sun Romulus. But you’ll never reach it; that star is heavily guarded and the temperatures at its core are very high.” Obey growled a bit as he remembered another obstacle. “Besides, you’re wanted by them for many crimes.”

Edwin remained silent as if pondering and then smiled. “You let *me* worry about retrieving the Matrix from the Centurions; *you* deal with Starbright – and his top-heavy wife, if possible. Oh, and if you want to force your Lady’s hand,” said Edwin before he spat a black liquid on the top of Obey’s staff, “*that* ought to help.” With that rude challenge to Callista’s authority and power, he vanished.

“Yes, now surely my Lady will come.” Obey rejoiced as he dreamed of putting Chris Alan to shame.

*************

Edwin had teleported only a short distance and was walking through the city smiling and laughing to himself. “Fool! When the time is right, I’ll cut you off from all your power and you’ll die at the hands of Starbright.” Edwin threw back his head in a fit of mad laughter, enjoying the double-cross he had planned.

*************