Part 38 (1/2)
”I shall have to try it.”
”There is nothing like a loving kiss,” Justin said. ”Fornax kissed you, but that was calculation rather than love, so it lacked full impact.”
”Then what of the sights of the body? You did not wish me to see those.”
”That is different. A woman uses those to bemuse a man, or even freak him out. It's a weapon. Fornax was trying to dazzle you with a female bosom, and then with panties. You would have been helpless.”
”Doesn't love make you helpless?”
Justin paused. ”You have a point. But there is a distinction between s.e.x appeal and love. Fornax does not love you; she merely wishes to dazzle you long enough to win the game.”
”Kisses are love. Body sights are dazzle.”
This remained difficult. ”Not necessarily. Fornax's kisses aren't love. They are a deceit. But if she can make you love her, then she can win.”
”But she can show me the body at any time. Why did she not do so?”
”Well, she did, at the end. But we managed to prevent her from stripping all the way down. Otherwise-” Then Justin suffered a realization. ”Panty magic! It shouldn't exist here!”
”Magic does not exist beyond the Demon Xanth's domain,” Earth agreed. ”Except in very limited degree. Each Demon has its own special force, substance, or quality.”
”So Jaylin's panties would not have freaked us out,” Justin said. ”Fornax must know that. So she pretended, but stopped short of full revelation. She can't completely dazzle you; she has to make you desire her.”
”I did desire her, when I touched her.”
”Yes, I felt it too.” Then Justin suffered another realization. In Xanth, a bulb would have flashed, but here it was just a bright thought. ”Desire! That's her emotion. When we touched, she felt some of your hope, and thought she might win you, and you felt some of her desire.”
”That is a viable emotion?”
”Yes, desire is an emotion. Now we know her weakness. She desires! She is no longer just trying to gain status; she wants the thrill of victory.”
”In what manner does this knowledge improve our situation?”
”We now know more than she thinks we do. When she tries another bluff, threatening to show panties, we can call it, or we can pretend to be freaked out, so that she will think she is winning, when she is not.”
”Suppose she kisses me again, and shares her desire? Will I not then be in her power?”
”Not if you only pretend to be overcome by that desire. I think she wants to subvert you, so that when a member of our rescue party comes to lead you out, you will decline to go. Make her believe that you have been successfully subverted, and then go when the rescue comes. That will turn her ploy against her and give us victory.”
”You reason like a Demon,” Earth said approvingly. ”But the contact with her mortal body was pleasant, and now that I have seen how love is made up mostly of kisses, I will enjoy more of those with her.”
”Just make sure that it doesn't become real,” Justin said. ”You must seem to love or desire her, even to freak out, without actually doing so. On that hinges victory-or defeat.”
”Victory,” Demon Earth agreed, feeling strong hope.
But Justin had a private, nagging doubt. Desire could be treacherous, as could any emotion. Fornax's next approach, as she learned to handle emotion, might be considerably more formidable.
Breanna led the way down the pa.s.sage, with Che closely following. ”I'm afraid there will be some trick,” she said internally to Demoness Venus. ”This has been too easy so far.”
”I never knew what love was, before,” Venus said dreamily.
They came to a well-lighted cross-hall. ”We will check this way,” Che said.
”Watch your tail, horsehead,” she told him as she took the darker pa.s.sage. ”There are still seven guards out there somewhere.”
”We'll pulverize them,” he said gruffly. That was angry Demon Mars talking. She hoped Mars was as tough as he talked.
”He is,” Venus said. ”He controls the electromagnetic force.”
”That's right-each of you a.s.sociate with a force, don't you. Sort of the way we mortals each have a magic talent. What's yours?”
”The weak nuclear force. It's not really weak; that's just in comparison to the strong force. It operates between elementary particles. I don't use it much.”
”I never knew that Demons had forces,” Breanna said. ”I mean, before this mission.”
”We Demons operate the universe,” Venus said. ”We are everywhere, taking local form where convenient. Without us, nothing would exist.” She paused. ”In fact, nothing does exist.”
”No, hold on there half a moment! How can we be here talking about it, if nothing exists?”
”It is in how you look at it. The universe is without form and void, but we have made an imperfection that stirs up an equation of particles and antiparticles balancing each other, and energy and anti-energy. All together it amounts to nothing, but as long as the elements are apart, the universe seems to exist. We Demons are the aspects of the equation.”
Breanna struggled with that. ”My head feels like solid wood at the moment. An unsolved equation makes the universe exist?”
”Consider the equation 6 + 5 = 12 - 1. What happens when you solve it?”
”That's 11 = 11. If you put both numbers on the same side, you get 1111 = 0, or 0 = 0. Nothing.”
”Precisely. When you solve it you are left with nothing. But if you don't solve it, you have several real numbers. We Demons are those numbers.”
Breanna concentrated, and almost saw it. ”You know, my talent is seeing in darkness, but this is something else. I guess I need a little more. What are those numbers in practical terms?”
”If you take a person made of matter, and put him together with his antimatter opposite, they will neutralize each other and be nothing.”
”I thought it would be total conversion to energy.”
”No. Total conversion to nothing, as with the solved equation. Implosion, leaving no trace. That is why we can't afford to let Fornax join us. She is on the other side. It will be the end of us. The universe as we know it exists only as long as these elements are kept apart.”
”But wouldn't that destroy Fornax too?”
”Yes.”
”Then why is she so eager to take over?”
”It would be very high status to destroy the universe.”
And Demons cared only about status. ”For sure.”
The pa.s.sage came to a closed-off stairway, completely dark. Breanna used her key to open it, and stepped cautiously down. She had no trouble seeing her way, but was wary of it for other reasons. She moved as quietly as she could, alert for guards, but there did not seem to be any in this area. Where were they?