From: hutch@ibeam.intel.com (Steve Hutchison)
Date: 4 Jun 93 00:53:51 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [MG] [GATM] [BDAY] Luthor's Exit (Part ii)


What Has Gone Before:  Depressed by the anniversary of his wife's death,
     Luthor, the ShadowMaker, goes to the dragon's inn to find 'Raelf
     the mage and hopefully some answers.  Ollex, who is basically 'Raelf's
     evil twin, decides to help Luthor out by sending him to the Elven
     Paradise...in other words, he kills Luthor.

The mage smiled, a superior, satisfied smirk, and pulled his hand free.
Luthor's body did not fall.  Instead, it lost all color, fading to the
dead white of marble, transformed to stone where it stood.

"What the hell did you do that for," Krupp demanded.

"I needed a statue for the front gate.  Besides, he wanted to know."
He pulled his shrunken staff from behind his ear, and enlarged it to
wand sized.  <<Iconify>>  he said, rapping the statue with the wand.
The statue shrank to the size of a chesspiece, and he stuffed it
carelessly into a pocket.

He turned and started walking towards the door.  Krupp dodged
around (and through) a couple of the Rabble in order to beat him
out to the street.  He suspected... Yep.  There he was, still sitting
in the same table, but he'd been joined by a white-skinned Drow
with an interesting curse and the depressing priest who had been
rude enough to tell him that he was dead.

He was going to say something, but he hadn't figured out just what,
when he felt a hand on his shoulder, pushing him aside.  Ollex sat
down at the table where he had been going to sit.

"So before the little gumshoe unloads his tattletale heart," he began,
but Father Lucas interrupted:

"Look, it's depressing enough that you have to be here, all wound
in and out through time and space in the most undignified sprawl,
but could you please not talk to yourself out loud?"

Ollex gave him a stare down the nose that would have made Lifilis Kloote
feel inferior.  "No.  Live with it, Eeyore."

"Well, how rude.  Really, I don't know why I bother."

Ollex smiled insincerely.  "Neither do we, dear boy.  Now as I was
saying before the cosmic rules lawyer tried to put in his two cents'
worth, and before Krupp here could tell you the ignorant persons'
version:  I just had a conversation with Luthor Anside, who was going
on moping about his wife and kid who died, la-de-da, a little over a
year back.  Since I knew he was not going to believe anything I told
him about their sweet little afterlife, such as it is, I sent him on to
see for himself."

...sage stared, appalled.  Ollex favored him with a cold sort of gaze.
"You really ought to do something about that curse, ...sage, it isn't
wise to let Lolth leave her fingerprints on your eyeballs for so long."

...sage began to speak but before he could say anything, 'Raelf stood
up and interposed himself.  Behind him, ...sage began a series of
gestures, preparing a spell.

"You `sent him ON?'"  'Raelf hissed.  Ollex sighed, bored and irritated
at the same time.  "I told you," he said with mock patience, "He Wanted
To Know That His Wife And Son Were All Happy-happy In Their Cute Little
Elven Paradise.  So I killed him, so he could go there, himself, all
right?  Are you _sure_ we're related, you seem rather dim for someone
who claims to be my forebear."

Lucas sighed wearily.  "Oh, you're both related, all right.  All either
of you does is drone on endlessly, and I might add, in very unoriginal
fashion.  I suppose now you're going to do something tedious to one
another, probably something messy and disgusting.  Well, at least it
won't be just another one of those boring swordfights."  He subsided,
watching them apathetically.  Finally, he grew tired of the silence,
and roused himself enough to speak again.  "Go ahead, we're waiting."

"You know," 'Raelf said, "I don't know which of you is more of a downer."

"Oh, definitely him," Ollex replied.  "I'm much more personable, and
clearly more loveable."

"So what was loveable about killing Luthor?"

"Oh come now, he was just >uirgk!<"  Ollex struggled on the end of
a giant arm - he tried to wriggle around to a counterattack, or to
shift to one of his elemental components, but there was a numbness
in the way, a hard impenetrable slickness that he couldn't get past.

The arm was joined by another, locking his arms against his sides,
and two more that fastened to his legs, holding them in a numbing grip.
'Raelf standing before him reached up into Ollex' hair and pulled the
staff from behind his ear, returning it to wand sized.  He reached in
his own pocket and pulled out a chess-piece sized statue, a figure in
miniature of Luthor Anside.  Ollex' eyes grew wide at the sight.

"So you see you've got no choice, then?"  'Raelf smiled.  Ollex was
held in the immobilizing stone grip of a twelve foot tall stone golem,
each of its four arms pinning him in such a way as to prevent his
moving at all.  "I'm not going to permit you to remain as a Reaver's
mockery of myself.  ...sage, please turn up the gain on the blocking
spell, if you would?  He's about to try for a power tap."  'Raelf
put the figurine on the ground and touched it with the wand: <<Restore>>
and it grew into the full-sized image of Luthor, graven in marble.

"This is bloody awful," he said to himself.  "Well, it's pretty
completely ruined.  Why'd you have to scramble it up?"  He thought
for a moment, then smiled to himself.  "Ollex, don't even try to
plane shift out of there,"  and a moan of pain came from his trapped
doppleganger, "Told ya.  Now if you don't quit it, we'll get Lucas
started telling you all about his sex life."  Ollex blanched, or
would have if he weren't purple in the face from the grip that kept
him from speaking.

<<Air to .99>> 'Raelf whispered, and then spoke.  <<Erik.  We need you.>>

The steam from a manhole just outside the inn began coming up in a thick
stream.  A few moments later, a man sized cloud hung there, unaffected by
the whim of the night's breeze.  From its midst, a man in a swirling GREY
cloak stepped as if he had been in there all along.  He was a young human
with long blond hair and eyes like a coming storm.  He entered the inn. As
he walked through the crowd, they parted for him unconsciously.

"You called me?"

"Yeah.  We need you to help with some Shadow working."

"Oh?  What's with the statue of Luthor?" he asked admiring the workmanship.

"It's not a statue."

"I see." Erik's face blanched. "Ah, I really hate to tell you this 'Raelf,
but I have no influence over Earth.  I'm an Air specialist...Earth is
beyond my abilities."

"It's not like that.  I can change him back myself."

"Then what do you need me for?"

"The person who changed Luthor to stone, did a very thorough job of it.
The body retains no magical patterning for reverting it to flesh.  But
there are some physical traces and chemical differences I could use to
map out the organs and stuff.  I'd have to use that as a template for
building him a body out of this mess, and I need some luck making it
work right."

"Ah.  Good.  Pure luck or luck with magic is no problem."

"Great.  I need to start very soon."

"Will he come to once you've changed him back?"

"No, the body will be alive, but his spirit is in the Elven places.
Someone has gone for him though.  If he's willing to return, he'll be
back soon enough."

"I see.  Well, when you're ready."

Their preparations were interrupted by the sound of breaking plates from
the Inn's kitchen followed by a woman's scream.  Moments later, Serene
emerged and ran to Erik's side.  In her hand was a wilted blue rose.

"Serene, what's the matter?" Erik asked putting his arms around her and
blocking her view of the Luthor/statue.

When she calmed down enough to speak, she showed him the rose.  "Luthor's
dead.  He gave me this rose and said that it would die when he did.  LOOK
AT IT!"

Erik held her close and then stepped away from the statue.  Serene's eyes
went wide in horror.

"Serene, don't worry.  'Raelf and I are working on a way to bring him
back to us, right 'Raelf?"

"Yep.  No problem."

"Then we'd better get started."

'Raelf nodded, and went over to the statue.  He went transparent, and
stepped _into_ it, overlapping a bit, then the stone of the statue began
to flicker, then move, the face twisting into a rictus of pain.

"'RAELF'S MAGIC COULD WORK," Erik said with the strange echoing sound of
ShadowMagic.  He twisted the laws of probability with the force of
his will, but whoever had changed Luthor had been an expert.  A cold
sweat broke out on his forehead as he continued to push against the
improbable, knocking it into the realm of the possible.

The statue vanished in a flicker of flame, then appeared again, but the
cold white was washed with color, that gradually became the gold tone
of Luthor's skin.  There was a gasping intake of breath, and 'Raelf's
voice came out:  "He's not here yet.  The body is alive but the insides
aren't quite right, he wouldn't live long.  I'm going to have to do some
rework but I can't until Luthor gets here.  I can keep it alive for a few
more minutes."  He staggered over to Erik and leaned on him for
support.

"What's the matter?"  Erik asked, helping him to sit at a table.

"The templates are wrong for this plane, he's not from Nexus and
I don't have the pattern for his world.  The elf part is easy, elves
are (ow - breathe, dammit) elves have magical metabolism, their spirit
provides the punch that keeps them going, but there's also some human
in here (breathe, c'mon, heart, keep going)..."

He knelt on the ground, pulling the BLACK cloak around him, and began
a regular, slow breathing exercise.  Erik watched for a moment, then
made a silent prayer to Lathander, god of new beginnings.

In the grasp of the stone golem, Ollex tried again to break free of the
prisoning grasp, or at least to get loose of ...sage's magical hold so
he could do something, but just as he started to figure out the key to
the locking spell, he saw Krupp standing on the table looking at him
with a steady, hostile gaze.

"What's with the ugly shades he's wearin'?"  The golem didn't answer.
Krupp gave a second look at the marble statue - yeah, it was 'Raelf
again, but he was working pretty hard to keep his ugly twin from
getting loose.  Krupp decided to help, especially since the waves of
outrage coming off of this Ollex geek were making him kind of hungry.
He locked in the stare, and started to pour it on, and Ollex began
shaking, and making lots of tasty satisfying fear.  Served him right,
cacking Luthor the way he did.

Erik knelt next to Luthor's body.  "'Raelf, can you still hear me?"

"Yeah, man, just busy stayin' alive."

"What's wrong with Luthor having human blood?"

"Mitochondria.  Was his human parent the mother or father?"

"Why does it matter?"

"How much biology do you know?"

"Enough.  I've heard of mitochondria but I don't recall what they do."

"They act like furnaces, provide energy to the cells.  They're always
inherited from the mother, in humans, but in elves, they come from both
parents.  The body doesn't have any working mitochondria.  I'm making
do for now with Fire magic, but that's a makeshift.  I need the pattern
for the mitochondria from his homeworld.  Otherwise we'll have to come
up with a new body when he gets here."

"Would this help?"  Serene held out the blue rose.  Like all roses, it
had thorns, and on one of them, a drop of blood had dried when Luthor
bound the rose to his life-force.

"Let me try it.  Would be lucky if ... yeah."  Luthor's body held out
a hand, and touched the rose.  It vanished in a flicker of colors,
startling Serene.

"Domo arigato, Fog babe.  I think I can fix most of the problem now."

A flickering vortex formed around Luthor's body for a moment, and then
it stopped.  It stood up, and 'Raelf said from inside, "Radical.  Now
all we need is the second virtue, and ... here we go."

-----

Luthor and Rachel sat under a tree watching the dancers and enjoying the
pleasantness of the cool evening.  When the light from the sunset had gone,
the sky was filled with brilliant sheets of light, the Aurora.

"Rachel, where is Joshua?  I thought he would be with you."

"He isn't here.  They sent him back."

"Who are 'they'?"

"The Fates.  They decided that Joshua should have a chance to live a full
life.  They said that he never had a chance to exercise his free will.
So they sent him back."

"Where is he now?"

Rachel moved her hand in a small circle in the air.  A clouded disk formed.
It cleared and showed a one year old boy.  He was sleeping in a playpen
clutching a stuffed dragon and sucking his thumb.

"I've seen those dragons before.  I've seen them in Generica."

"Yes."

"Then Joshua is in Generica?"

"The Fates have decided to allow you the chance to know your son.  Some
day, you two were destined to cross paths." Rachel pulled the hair from
her face and smiled knowingly.

"How can that be? I'm dead." Luthor looked confused by this strange turn of
events.

"True, you are dead, but you have quite a few friends back there.  Even now
they are struggling to bring you back."

"Then I have to leave you again."

"No Luthor.  You don't HAVE to do anything.  The Fates always prepare many
paths for each person to take.  As always, you have a choice.  You can stay
if you wish, or you can go.  The choice is yours."

A light, no brighter than any found in this Paradise, separated from the
Aurora, and with sudden speed, descended beside them.  The figure within
was humanoid, and shone as if made of purest polished silver, reflective
and glowing with a wreath of light.  To the eyes of the Dead it was no
mystery that she was an emissary of Hope.

<<If you will, Luthor, it's time for me to return you to Life.>>

The couple stood.  Luthor looked deep into Rachel's blue-beyond-blue eyes.
"Will you wait for me?"

"If it takes eternity.  I'll be waiting and watching."

Luthor bowed gracefully to her, "Until that day M'Lady.  May your days be
full of song and your soul full of laughter...I love you Rachel."

"Good bye for now Luthor.  I love you too."

Luthor turned and lept into the arms of the light/being.  As the Elven
Paradise faded from view, he thought he saw Rachel's face fill with fear.
"Luthor!  Beware the Shape-Shifter!" she called after him, and then she
was gone.

-----

The crowd around the Dragons' Inn was mostly gone home, and in the tented
area just outside the entrance, Luthor's body stood, and staggered out
into the open street.

A bright light appeared, directly overhead, and shot down to earth next
to them.  It contained a humanoid, silver and with wings, but the features
weren't visible in the sheath of light that wrapped it.  The wings opened,
and Luthor came out, ghostly but otherwise looking well enough.  The
silver figure moved away to where the Golem held Ollex prisoner.  A flash
of light filled the common square, and the silver figure vanished.

Erik returned his gaze to Luthor's body only to find a flickering vortex
of elemental confusion.

--

Sandy beach.  Warm sunlight.  Tropical island, but the trees have been
torn down, the pleasant cool jungle of tropical plants shredded by a
storm of incredible force.

The wind is blowing, hard.   Luthor is standing on a rock, naked, but the
wind isn't really cold; it reminds him of the times when he was much younger
playing in the sands back home.  On the beach below, a gold-furred catman of
some unknown species is sculpting a statue from the sand.  Luthor looks down.
The statue is himself.  It's not a perfect likeness; some of the scars and
relics of old injuries are gone, and the face has fewer wrinkles.

<<Want anything fixed up?  I can make it any age you like.  I already fixed
a lot of damage from just getting in too many wars, you had scars that would
have been annoying when you got older.  Or I could just make it match your
spirit instead.>>

<<'Raelf?  Didn't you just kill me?  I'm confused...>>

<<Yeah.  I'm afraid I did, but I wasn't really myself, or at least, I
wasn't in complete control of my actions... I'm fighting in a war, and
you got caught in the crossfire.  I'm very sorry.  How much do you want
to know?  If I tell you too much you'll want to get involved, and then
you'll be at risk, and if I don't tell you, there's a better chance you
can escape if we lose.>>

<<I see.  Of course I want to help, but I believe the Shadows will work
more to our advantage if you call on me at the last minute, I'll come
to help if I can.>>

<<Cool.  So what's your decision, dude?  Shall I polish up the rough
edges, make the outside match the inside?>>

<<No, I think I like myself the way I am...or was.  Oh, well maybe you
could fix my right knee.  I banged it up a bit during the storm.>>

<<No sweat, dude, already fixed up, along with the arthritis starting in
the left hip and the weak spot in the lungs where you got stuck by that
arrow.  Oh, before I forget.  Your memories are gonna be spotty about the
time when you were dead, because the body wasn't there.  But you may
get some of it back when you dream.>>

The catman brushed the excess sand off the top and placed the BLACK cloak
around the shoulders of the statue, and placed a blue rose in its hand.

<< All done.  Get in. >>

Luthor felt himself falling into the sand sculpture, and his eyes opened.

--

The vortex spun into two, then coalesced into Luthor-wearing-BLACK-cloak and
Luthor-not-wearing-cloak.  The uncloaked version flickered and 'Raelf stood
in its place.

"Sorry about that business earlier.  I wasn't myself.  Now I need to go
make sure I'll really BE myself."

Luthor just stared after him and nodded numbly.  Erik and Serene helped
him into a table.  Luthor told them all he could about what happened,
which wasn't much considering that he did not remember anything about the
Elven Paradise, somehow, he knew that Rachel and Joshua were alright.
Luthor was at peace.

'Raelf walked over to where the stone statue held the unconscious form of
Ollex, with Krupp watching warily for any signs of movement.

"OK, now where was I.  Oh yes,"  'Raelf said, an edge of fatigue in his
voice.  "I was about to fix old know-it-all here.  Now that the Warrior
has washed the gunk from his mind.  This is going to hurt a LOT.  Maybe
as much as I hurt Luthor when he died.  OK, let him wake up."

The golem nodded silently.   Its hand shifted on the neck, allowing the
blood to flow again, and Ollex stirred.  He moaned pitifully.  'Raelf
gestured to ...sage, who cut back on the blocking-spell.

"Cut the crap," 'Raelf said pleasantly.  "No malingering."

Ollex opened his eyes.  "So do I really have to do this?"

"You do it or I will do it to you."

"Right.  Give feedback then."  Ollex began to thrash in the statue's grip
and flickering with washes of elemental flux, and with each flicker, some
_thing_ fell to the ground between them: a pair of black sunglasses, with
three inch nails facing inwards.   A scream came from somewhere around them.
Flicker: a black book with black pages filled with letters scribbled in with
an ink made of starless night.  A moan of agony, followed by a rasping cough.
Flicker: A single earring stud, holding a diamond that absorbed the light
that shone on it.  A whimper like a dying puppy.

"There's one more.  Go for it.  Remember, no gain."

Flicker: a blackened, forked tongue, ripped out by the roots, venom dripping
from the ends.  An inarticulate gurgle.  'Raelf pulled his focus from its
place behind his ear, and snapped it to full staff-size.  He whispered a
phrase in a tonal language:  "Fighting the Reaver's Child."

A bell tolled: Ding-ding, dong, dong.   Ding-ding, dong, dong.

"Tui.  Lake upon Lake.  Joyous.  After ridding himself of his mistakes
a man has joy."

He smiled, and water washed around the blackened icons, and they changed
under the stream emanating from the staff.  The glasses became shiny, a
silver reflective surface, the nails melted away.  The book changed, the
writing washed out, the pages unmarked again; a white chalky dust washed
off and the pages were sheets of some crystalline substance, holding in
them images of other places.  The earring dissolved completely, like a
lump of particularly old sugar.  Finally, the tongue, black blood and
venom washing off it, reverting to a more human shape.

"Part one, all done."  He nodded to the golem, which released its burden.

The person who had called himself "Ollex" shuddered on the ground for a
second, before standing.  He nodded to 'Raelf, and changed, becoming a
double of the Golem, and then vanished.  The Golem collapsed in on itself,
and 'Raelf was standing there.  He knelt, and picked up the sunglasses,
the book, and the severed tongue, and placed the latter in his own mouth
where it attached itself to the truncated stump within.  He grinned wryly.

"Part Two," 'Raelf said to his restored self.  Again, bells tolled.

Ding-ding, dong, ding-ding; dong, dong, dong.

"Hsu.  Waiting, taking nourishment."

"I knew that already."

"Just get going.  You've got a lot of Porter to drink."

"Fer shure.  See ya earlier, Krupp."  He vanished.

[ADMIN: this links into the GATM thread]

EPILOGUE: 
	Krupp looked over at Luthor, who was alive and depressed, then dead
and a statue, then a statue and a spirit, and was now alive and not depressed.
The he looked at 'Raelf, who was Ollex and a golem for a while. 
Thinking about it made his head hurt.  A six inch tall imp, appeared in 
pop of air on his shoulder.
	"So, how was your day, boss?"
	"Confusing.  I'd say I need a drink, but I don't think it'll help.
Mages make my head hurt."
	"Could be worse, boss."
	"I can't imagine how."
	"Could be gods."
	Krupp grinned.  "Good thing we don't have to worry about those."

	
ELSEWHERE:
	Two figures sat at table.  Between them lay an infinate board.
	"Your move," said Destiny, eyeing the board in from him.  
	Death smiled, a smile few see, and never more than once.  She 
pulled the top card from the deck.  
	"The Nemesis, damn your luck." cursed Destiny.  He watched as Death 
moved forward the Red Queen, putting his Battleship in jepordy.  Destiny 
sighed, and rolled a handful of dice.  
	"Bingo!"  He laid his cards face down.  "The Discordian Society 
takes control of the Cattle Mutilators."  He leaned back in his chair,
and smirked.  "And that means I get a free spin."  
	Destiny reached into a bag of tiles.  "Gotcha, this time.
F-A-R-A-W-A-Y.  And that's on a double word score...."
-- 

CREDITS:

Steve Hutchison (hutch@ibeam.intel.com)

Love and Peace and Planting Vineyards,
	The Dreamer

Rick Jones		
albert@bcm.tmc.edu	 "In his house at R'lyeh, dead Barney waits dreaming!"
Systems Support Center		-talk.bizarre
Voice: 713-798-7352