Chapter 6

Our attention broken from the TV, we both looked at Skuld.

"Will it hurt as much this time? I still have the burns from the last 
thing you did to me..."

Skuld sniffed, loudly and derisively.

"Don't be silly, this won't hurt a bit! Gee, you complain nearly as much 
as Keiichi does..."

Urd didn't look much more believing than I did, but started to look at 
the complex diagram that was on Skulds' computer screen, occasionally 
nodding and muttering to herself.
"OK, I guess that ought to do it. I suppose you expect me to power it, 
don't you?"

Skuld nodded.
"Please, Urd. I'll just draw the diagram..."

I watched curiously as she unhitched her hammer, then leapt backward, 
startled, shading my eyes from the brilliant glare of the light that 
leapt from its end. I moved further away, just in case...

"Uhh, Skuld? Would you mind warning me before unlimbering an 
industrial-strength laser in your bedroom, please?"

She just gave me a brief glance, stuck her tongue out at me quickly, 
and resumed her task of inscribing a circle surrounded by embellishments
and odd-looking writing on the floor, her face twisting into an 
expression of concentration. Behind her, Urd looked from the screen to 
the developing diagram, checking it I suppose. Remembering what happened
the last time the two of them had done this sort of thing, I hoped the 
results wouldn't be quite as drastic. Especially to me.

Finally, they were ready. Skuld gestured, motioning me to step into the 
centre of the inscribed circle, as Urd stretched, slowly, grinning a bit 
as she noticed me gulp at the sight, and winked.

"Don't worry, this won't hurt a bit..."

I scowled.
"That's what my dentist always says, and I never believe him!"

Urd tsked.
"Such little faith. Trust us, we're trained Goddesses!"

I looked at her, and then carefully walked into the circle. As I stood 
there, sweating slightly, I absently wondered how Skuld was going to get 
all this off her bedroom floor. Maybe her hammer comes with an `undo' 
command?

I was distracted from this pointless (if somewhat harmless) musing by 
the lettering inset into the floor starting to glow. Looking up, I saw 
Urd chanting again, and Skuld hunched over her terminal. I resigned 
myself, watching as an impressive light show rose from the edges of the 
inscribed circle, surrounding me in a column of polychromatic fire. It 
didn't hurt at all, which was the first nice surprise I'd had this 
morning, but it felt - odd. Sort of like trying to scratch an itch you 
can't reach, and are not really sure if you even have.

Finally, Urd stopped, and the column of fire slowly cascaded back into 
the floor, dying away. I was almost sorry, it's display had been almost 
mesmerising while I was enfolded in it.

"Well, Skuld, Urd? What's the news?"

Skuld hmmd to herself, rapidly scrolling her monitor as she made some 
notes on her pad.
"I'm - not quite certain yet. I think we'd better have a word with 
Oneesama, then we can tell you."

Urd looked at the screen, then thoughtfully at her youngest sister, then 
nodded slowly to me.

I stretched slightly, feeling my neck straighten after standing still 
for their investigation.
"Is it OK for me to get out now?"

Urd smiled.
"Sure, it's turned off now. Come back into the main room."

We edged our way out past the piled clutter, Skuld still making notes on 
her PDA, occasionally nearly (but not quite) bumping into things, her 
small mecha following her like a cat. At any moment I expected it to rub 
itself against her ankles and purr...

Belldandy was just putting the telephone down when we walked back in.
Seeing that I wasn't tied up, she looked at Urd, a brief question behind 
her eyes for a moment. Urd nodded, looking thoughtful, and Belldandy 
almost frowned for a second, then beckoned me in.

"Well, I see my sisters are happy with your story, and don't think you 
represent any danger to us..."

Urd coughed slightly.
"I wouldn't be so certain about that last statement"

Belldandy turned to look squarely at Urd.

"He is a danger? But... I contacted the system help desk, they can 
detect nothing wrong here, no portents, nothing. Although, they were 
surprised at his appearance, but they said it was nothing to worry 
about, everything else is normal."

Urd frowned, absently sitting herself.
"It isn't so much that HE is dangerous. It's... look at Skuld's 
figures."

Skuld wordlessly held out her PDA to Belldandy, who looked at it - then 
looked again, carefully. Her eyebrows rose.
"Oh my...!!!"

I coughed, loudly, to attract their attention.
"Ladies? I think I've been very patient so far, I've submitted to all 
your tests, even to Skuld's experiments. Now, would you PLEASE tell me 
what's the matter, instead of discussing it as if I wasn't here!"

Belldandy had the grace to look slightly discomforted at the implied 
rudeness to a guest. Urd just looked at me calmly, and Skuld, when she 
thought the other two couldn't see, made a face at me - that 
`experiment' crack, I guess.
Even so, I had had quite enough. I could feel a deep core of sullen 
anger at what had happened to me and the way I had been treated so far, 
no better than an experimental animal, and I wanted some answers, 
goddesses or no!

Finally Urd spoke. 
"Let me."
For once she was looking serious, which started me 
wondering just how bad this problem they were happily discussing over my 
head was. She looked at me for almost a minute, obviously deciding how 
to go about telling me, then shrugged slightly, giving me a half-grin,

Settling herself comfortably, Urd motioned to me to do likewise. I 
tried, but was simply too edgy to do as she requested.

"Well, let me see... I'll simplify it a bit, try and put it into 
language you can understand, if I can. This would be far easier if your 
world knew about magic or psi, but as they don't..."

She shrugged, an action that had - diverting - side effects, and 
continued.

"Firstly, as we told you earlier, all living beings produce a certain 
amount of energy, naturally. It's this that is the driving force behind 
the use of magic or psi in universes where the energy costs are low 
enough to allow mortals to perceive and use the forces. The amount of 
energy produced varies; intelligent beings produce more than animals, 
and humans differ considerably in how much they produce."

I nodded.
"OK, that seems clear enough. But what does it have to do with my 
situation?"

She frowned.
"Patience, I'm getting to that. It isn't easy, trying to phrase all this 
in non-technical language"

I waved a hand slightly, in apologetic acknowlegement.
"I'm sorry, I know how hard that is. Please, Urd, go on."

She gave me a brief grin, then sobered again.

"OK... well, think of this energy as a river. All mortals have one, and 
the more water that flows the more energy you have to use.
If you have enough, you tend to use it, and become a mage, or psi-
sensitive, or sometimes even both, it tends to depend on the energy 
thresholds of your particular universe. Yours is pretty powerful, 
although I've seen stronger; if you belonged to this universe you'd 
probably have become a mage of some sort".

I looked at her, puzzled.
"But I'm not, so what use is it? What does it do? Do you mean I'm 
suddenly going to get the ability to use magic, or something?"

She shook her head.
"Oh no. Using magic successfully is far more than just having the power. 
You need knowledge, of what to do, and how, and lots of training in how 
to use it. You just have the ability to make good use of that. Or you 
should..."

I looked at her, frowning as I went through her words again.
"Hang on - SHOULD have the ability?"

Urd bit her lip gently.
"Well, that's the problem. And it may also be the reason you are here. 
You remember, we checked your aura and found it was very faint? Well, at 
your basic power-flow level, it should have been clear and bright. But - 
your power is being, well, diverted"

I looked about at the others for a moment. Belldandy was looking 
serious, Skuld was looking rather unhappy about her sisters words, but I 
think it was more the figeting of someone who was certain that they 
could have explained it all FAR better if they'd been given the chance 
rather than any basic disagreement.

"Diverted? You mean its going somewhere? Is someone else using it?"

Urd looked at me sympathetically.
"Relax, no-one else is using your power. It isn't going anywhere, that's 
the point!"

I must have looked even more confused than before, because she took 
sympathy and clarified it without even being prompted.

"Think of it like a dam. The river of power flows, but instead of being 
used up steadily, as is normal, its been dammed, and the power is just 
building up. And, like in a real dam, the amount of water stored up 
allows more powerful magic to be used. It's a technique used by mages 
when they need to build up power for some reason and they want to do it 
all themselves. But in your case, there's a difference..."

"A difference? How? Because I'm not a mage?" 

Urd shook her head.
"No, it's not that. It's the amount. You see, a mage will rarely collect 
a huge store of power, since he always has uses for it. So the `dam' 
effect is used only for short times, and the power built up is never too 
large"

I blinked again. I was still not getting her point on this.
"But... you said, my power wasn't that high. So what's the difference 
between my stored power and one of your mages here?"

Urd looked at me directly.
"Because yours has been building up for, as long as we can determine, 25 
years..!!"

I facefaulted.
"25 YEARS!! You mean, whoever did this to me has been planning it for 
that long!?"

"They must have been. Which tends to suggest an immortal at work, normal 
humans tend not to have the patience to wait for those sort of times. 
And you now have more stored power than I ever heard of."

I put my face in my hands and sighed deeply.
"Wonderful, I have the biggest power reservoir in the world, without the
faintest idea of how to do anything with it, how to handle it, or even 
how to get rid of the damn thing!!"

Urd reached over and patted my hand gently.

"Well, it isn't too bad yet. You've been like this for a long time, and 
it hasn't caused you a problem, has it? But anyway, it isn't so much the 
power build up you have thats worrying us..."

I looked at her thoughtfully.

"You mean, who did it, why, and why am I here now with it, don't you? 
That's why you said I could be a danger to you?"

She nodded.
"It isn't your fault, but - you're a loaded gun, now. Or more like a 
loaded cannon. And we have no idea who you are pointing at..."

I really wished I'd stayed in bed this morning.

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Interlude

Across from the temple, a figure lurked in a darkened alleyway. A dirty 
trenchcoat and hat made him anonymous, but something about the heavyset 
size, and the soft snuffling wheeze of breath that plumed into thick fog 
in the bitter air indicated both power and menace.

Leaning against the wall, the figure scratched itself, a hoarse 
sandpapery sound, then turned with a quickness belying its side as it 
heard a quiet voice behind it.

"Well, have you seen anything?"

The words came from a much smaller, slimmer figure. Clad in a cloak 
which had certainly seen better days, judging from the condition of it, 
the voice was obviously female, although she seemed to breath her words 
with a strange rasp, as though she suffered from a voice impediment of 
some sort.

The larger figure seemed to cringe slightly, indicating that maybe the 
unprepossessing appearance of the newcomer was deceptive. His reply was 
delivered in a deep voice, a hushed whisper from someone who was really 
not used to such a delicacy of speech.

"Nothing, Lady. The man arrived, as predicted, and they took him inside, 
since then no-one has left."

She nodded, her hood keeping her face secret.
"And Belldandy's pet?"

The man nodded.
"He left on his own, earlier."

There was a glimmer of teeth inside the concealing hood as the woman 
smiled.
"Good, then the players are in place. My father will be pleased."

The man nodded, redundantly, the woman wasn't taking any notice of him, 
she was speaking in the manner of one who never concerned themselves if 
the people around them were listening to her. Bearing in mind who she 
was, the watcher considered this fairly reasonable.

The lady chuckled to herself, a sibilant sound made sinister by the 
peculiar rasp in her voice, and reached into her robe, pulling out a 
small device.

"Here. If anything changes from now on, call us at once."

The lurker nodded, taking it carefully from the woman's outstretched 
hand, his warty, greenish skin contrasting with the slim delicate 
paleness of hers.

She turned, walking away into the alley, her figure twisting and 
shimmering as she faded into insubstantiality, then invisibility, in a 
manner that made the watcher's eyes ache. As she did so, the orange glow 
of the streetlight opposite revealed the left side of her face for an 
instant, and he shivered slightly. Even for him, the sight of long-dead, 
rotting flesh on someone still walking was... uncomfortable...

Sighing, he shuffled into a warmer, more comfortable position, making 
sure he couldn't be seen from the temple, as resumed watching. After 
all, it wasn't as if he'd been in a position to refuse her job offer...

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(to be continued)