User:Najawin/Sandbox 3

Newtons Sleep

Plot

Book One: The Rituals of the King

Chapter 0: The Waste Book

As above, so below, War on Earth has begun to mirror the actions of the War in Heaven - the struggle of the holy houses of Christ and their their eternal Adversary shape worldly events. In all things you may read the influence of the divine and of the damned.
A boy sits under a tree, dreaming of the near future, of books and writing, as something falls onto him. Not an apple as it would later come to be told, but some sort of unknown substance. As he examines the unknown substance, his mind flashes forward to the life his life would become, not mere books and writing, but coins, and a king who does not yet exist. He looks upwards and sees a tangle of limbs. Climbing the tree, the boy finds a man as black as night with no face, his head a solid sphere, with branches struck through him. No, not a man. An angel. He touches the angel, examining it, kicking it. The angel clings to him, envelops him, swallows him whole, and the boy once again catches glimpses of his life to be - parliament, coins, infinitesimals, optics. Looking at parts of his life, the boy is repulsed, but as he sees the entirety of his life he asks the angel what is to happen. The angel says that he has but one mission given by his creator, the destruction of the Adversary. The boy offers to help. All he must do is live his life, letting the angel live in his shadow. The angel insists that others would dare not strike him. The boy awakes, with all memory of what was found in the branches gone, left only with his dream of a perfectly ordered book.

Chapter 1: Killer of Sheep

Nathaniel Silver stood in the crowd on a dreary January morning, happening to be in Whitehall during the execution of Charles I. He didn't wish to come into town on that day, but the wound on his head had gotten worse, requiring him to be in the area. It was his duty, so he thought, as one of the soldiers who fought and killed to make this happen to see this through. As the king was theatrically killed, there were cheers and wails, people would claim that there were portents of various types, falling stars, beached whales, the severed head talked for minutes afterwards. In later years Silver would write that the last was certainly false, having not noticed it at the time, along with his other writings on history and philosophy. Finally, after spending some time in contemplation, he returned to his troop. As he went, he carried with him three things as he ever did. The pain in his head, the scraps of paper with his thoughts and musings about life, and a small wooden box.

Silver travels out of London for a few days, though it feels like it stretches on for much longer. At last, in the twilight fog, he meets up with Sir Denzil Lynch and is fondly ushered back to the latter's estates. Sir Denzil informs him of people appearing recently, in dribs and drabs, calling themselves Silverites, followers of his. Silver is surprised, and denies it - he has no followers. But Sir Denzil insists that they call themselves such. The two dine at Lynch's manor, and Silver is introduced to his young daughter, Alice Lynch, Sir Denzil telling her that him and Silver are going to conduct an experiment together on this land. [--Comment about how Silver mentions his secret is Alchemy and Denzil laughs it off? P15--] After dinner the two of them discuss business; Silver thinks that Sir Denzil is underestimating the risk - that even though the fighting is over the two may very well be caught - previous experiments were tried and crushed. Silver brings up the possibility that he preaches blasphemy or sedition on accident, as it's easy to do. Denzil waves it off. He trusts that Silver is a good man on this earth, and so long as Silver is discrete these charges can be made to disappear. Finally, with trepidation, Silver relents, and the two negotiate terms for a settlement on Denzil's land.

As the pair begin to tour the compound granted to Silver the next day, Silver's self proclaimed followers arrives to great them, a group comprised of all different backgrounds, brought together by their interest in his ideas and their shared trauma from war. One of the Silverites in particular catches his eye, a woman named Ann Brownlow who he regards as quite beautiful. Not long after Sir Denzil began to raise walls around the compound, turning the compound into a stockade, as the Silverites built up other necessary structures - Alice Lynch often coming to visit, to watch the group. One night, after a long day of work, the Silverites begin their merriment, stopped only for a few minutes by Nate elaborating on what he thought this commune should be - a place of love, and how in love no bad can come, no sin. He slips away from the party, wishing that Ann would follow, but instead Alice follows him. Upon hearing his disappointment, Alice tells him that she'd like to live in his world of love, and he confesses to her that he almost died in battle, shot in the head. As she falls asleep, he carries her back to the commune, expressing his trepidation at sharing with anyone what he truly experienced on that day. Heaven opening before him, cloaked giants reaching into his self and stitching him whole. As he goes to sleep he glances in the small wooden box he kept for what he was found clutching on that fateful day - a small egg that gave off a strange glow.

As the year marches on into the harvest, Nate resolves to learn the art of butchery. All of his followers, save the infirm, were working the fields, and so he insists upon making himself useful and learning to slaughter sheep. Before the year is out, he and Ann marry. Some good news to water down the bitter taste of the poor harvest. Still, Silver holds out hope, they only had to live one winter. On the first of January, the first Silverite was found dead from disease. Within a week three others. Ann died on the tenth.

Nathaniel wallows in his misery, insisting that this is his fault, his denial of sin caused this, God has punished Ann and his followers for his flaws. Alice seeks to comfort him, tells him that she loves him, tries to kiss him. He shoves her away - she's far too young and his wounds are far too raw. That night he decides what he must do. Destroy the egg. But as the hammer arcs downwards it's lurched from his grasp. Three of the robed giants from before appear, angels cloaked in white. They tell him that they're not angels, though he refuses to think it, they're pilots and they wish to bargain. He begs for Ann back, be them Angels or Devils. They insist that this is something they will not do. But the two sides agree that he will learn about the world. Become a natural philosopher. In exchange for, at the end of his life, his soul. The egg is a distillation of their souls, and he may use it for this purpose through his life. The next morning he finds Alice outside his door and apologizes to her, expressing that the book he was working on must be rewritten, and her father will have to delay publication.

Nate redevotes his attention to the commune and to the book he is writing, but he cannot staunch the bleeding of the former. When spring comes, people slowly trickle away, unwilling to work for Sir Denzil to survive - a betrayal of their ideals, and to get away from the commune. It slowly becomes a ghost town. In May, a friend of Silver's from his time as a soldier, Donald Taylor, comes to visit. At first Nate thinks he's there on the orders from Cromwell and mistrusts him, but Don clarifies that he's just carrying messages. He's really here to warn Nate that his book, already published in London, has drawn attention. Some are accusing it of blasphemy, some are frustrated that it doesn't pick a clear ideological stance. He warns Nate to be wary. He also suggests that Nate's current methodology, of observation, is outdated, that the modern day is the day of the experiment. At the suggestion that this commune might be Nate's experiment, Taylor merely winks before leaving.

Mere days later one of Sir Denzil's men came to the commune to warn Nate that Denzil has been arrested for forgery - a brief stop before he flees with Alice to London. Alice insists that she wants to stay with Nate, but he agrees that she needs to leave. As they left, he tells his seven remaining followers to flee, holding a silent mass for himself as he waits for the soldiers to come and pick him up.

Chapter 2: Mistress Behn's Holiday

Aphra Behn, seasick and miserable, languishes on the journey home, to her masters in The Service. Or. No, she dreams. She dreams of this voyage, and of something she's forgotten, a green pillar, with carvings and masonry, floating from the sea. The others in her dream place it to the side, dismiss it, and she wakes up to find the much younger man she was in bed with leaving her alone and disappointed that night. In the light of day she strolls through Paris, bookstalls and cafes and churches, until an old acquaintance of hers, Sir Samuel Morland, notices her and chases after her. Oh. Fuck. No, Aphra dances away, trying to avoid Sam, worrying that he might be her contact with le Pouvoir. Ah, but Morland catches up to her, and steers her to a nearby caffe where they toast his dead wife. The two discussed politics, talk bordering on treason, and how Morland has set his mind on building an engine to travel to the moon before Sam tries to pry out of Aphra her purpose in Paris. She relents slightly, admitting to be here on Service business as he suspected, but tells him no more than that she's delivering a letter.

Aphra treks back to her room to find two whores blocking her path. Surprised, upon confronting them it becomes apparent that the pair is her contact with le Pouvoir. Aphra, placing herself in the mindset of Astraea - her patron and code name, is taken to a carriage and driven blindfolded to meet a man who names himself Monsieur Pantaloon. He takes the letter that is delivered, though expresses his disdain for the English and their failed rebellion, unleashing forces that will in a hundred years turn against the French in turn. Pantaloon and his retainers leave Aphra alone in the room, and she promptly decides to explore it, as any good spy would do, stumbling upon three shapes draped in cloth. Uncovering them she finds a trio of mirrors, and the candles snuff out, but light remains, flickering from the glass itself. The mirrors showed Behn possible futures. Visions of black suns, of Pilots, of armies built to fight an implacable Adversary, and of a nymph reaching out to her. Aphra is rudely awakened from her trance by M. Pantaloon who insists she tell The Service that le Pouvoir has the windows of divination and they'll not be taken or duplicated. But as a response for the letter, he's amenable. He'll deliver the rat to her lodgings.

Aphra is taken back to her lodgings blindfolded, where she finds a man gagged and bound in her bed, other members of The Service slowly creeping up after her to take care of him. Surprised at their presence, she asks who the man is, and learns they consider him one of the most dangerous men in the world before heading to bed. Right before she falls asleep she remembers. She's seen him before, twelve years ago at the Salomon House, the last time she'd encountered [her] (insert here in revision, believe Carola).

Chapter 3: The Family of Eyes

Mistress Piper thought back to the day she was married and her dreams. A dream for a respectable hour and husband, a small house, a nice little garden. Perhaps children in the future. And for a time all of this was fulfilled. They married two years after the return of Charles II, had a nice house, and he had a nice job. But those times were past. Thomas is dying. Everyone is dying. Piper treks to her front door, with great difficulty, herself half starved, and calls out to the guard she hopes is nearby. She begs for food, says that it was promised to them. But the guard says that there's nobody left to bring food, and he himself dares not break quarantine. She begs and begs, but he walks away. As Piper collapses, crying, the door opens and a trio of figures carry her to a chair, giving her food and drink to build up her strength. When she at last opens her eyes she sees that the trio are wearing masks of deformed bone. One of them, who calls herself Cousin Hateman, examines Thomas and Piper, explaining that a thousand people have died in London from the plague today alone. She gives Thomas something to ease his suffering as he dies, but tells Piper there's nothing more they can do for him. They're here for her, the loa need her.

Piper sinks into sleep for some time, attempting to build up her strength, and in her dreams dreamt of a nest of black serpents covering her, the loa, and a rooster, come to protect her. She asks the rooster who it is, and it claims to be her, to be the house, to be the Golden Age of England. It says it too is a loa, but it will protect her from the others, and ride her instead of them. She asks what loa were, not just in her dream, but with her voice, waking herself up. Cousin Hateman and Cousin Amphigorey are nearby and are able to answer - spirits that watch over and protect them, sometimes each side in the arrangement does favors for the other. Mistress Piper asks if they're witches, and the pair insists that they're not, that they worship nothing. Piper heads back into her lethargy to build her strength up once again.

Days pass, and Piper awakes to a cacophony downstairs, which she creeps down to spy on. She hears a conversation about how the Empire had abandoned the group, how the current mission was supposed to be passive, but things had gone wrong with horrible anomalies, and so they need to retreat. Piper looks down further to see a figure, unable to tell if it's a man or woman. The figure asks why they're not using the boy (for the edit. Could be Newton instead. Probably isn't) instead. The answer is that he's too perfect - already aware that there are great powers in play, so has already tried to contact them. As the group argues, the newcomer, Father-Mother Olympia, rushes over to Piper and grabs her, Piper feeling an invisible blade on her neck. With some thought, Piper looks at their shadows on the wall, and, without moving, separates them. Olympia walks her outside and explains that the group wishes to recruit her. Piper is shocked, she doesn't share their faith. Olympia explains that it's not that sort of group - the goal is to bring energy, change, to all places, even to the oldest of worlds. But they're in a war, and they're losing. Piper says she'd be willing to join, even as Olympia expresses that it's a bad idea - as soon as his-her arm has grown back he-she is leaving. Piper goes back inside and works with Amphigorey and Hateman to dedicate herself to the Faction, falling asleep and finding herself with the rooster, herself and her old life, once more. In her dream she kills the rooster and feeds it to the swarming snakes surrounding her, renouncing her old name and old life, as the snakes whisper out to her the new name they know her by, Little Sister Greenaway.

Book Two: At Salomon's House

Chapter 4: Annus Mirabilis

Nathaniel Silver rots in gaol, condemned as guilty, almost as an after thought, in association with Denzil Lynch. As he lies there, day in and day out, his egg taken from him, racking up debt, abandoned, he becomes sicker and sicker, before falling to the floor half dead. When taken to the chirurgeons they discover a metal ball inside his head, lodged there from his time fighting. They take both it and Nate to show to the newly reinstated King Charles II. Charles delights in the novelty and lets him free, along with a small stipend.

A week after his release, his friend Don Taylor arrives, delayed by wrapping up business to do with reinstating the monarchy. Taylor offers to make introductions to the Invisible College, since Nate still wishes to be a scientist. The pair head to a lecture where they watch a man attempt to perform surgery on a dog, ultimately failing and killing it. As they depart, walking through the streets, Nate expresses his distaste with these methods before a man runs up to him, screaming that Nate Silver has been haunting him, and that he must take this back from him. The man shoves the egg into Nate's grasp and runs off. Nate takes this as a sign that he's on the right path, the path of experimentation. The egg encourages this, indeed, encourages Nate to experiment with the egg itself; dissecting it, manipulating its shape, Nate finds that the egg seems to be made of the same material in uniform consistency and is almost uniformly malleable. Nate is given a few introductions from Don as to scholars he knows, and Nate begins to learn more about the subjects from books, consulting the egg when he can and where to go next, growing his contacts and slowly expanding.

Of course, this was all too good to last, and plague comes to London not long after. The egg tells him how best to avoid infection, as all around him people die and the streets empty, giving him cover for his experiments - dissections on corpses, learning physick from his work and from the egg. One day, as he performs one of his surgeries, a young lad comes to watch him, expressing interest. (Maybe put something here about the talisman he has for the plague?) He insists that he'd like to be the assistant of a magician like Nate, and after some persistence, Nate accepts Nick Plainsong's help. Time moves on, a year or two pass, and eventually the plague passes, Nate deciding to end his studies in anatomy and turn elsewhere. The pair are unsure of where to move next, and Nick insists on taking time to reflect in taverns with wine and women. As the pair carouse, they come across a harlot who is surprised to see Nate alive, Alice Lynch.

Chapter 5: The Third Day

Aphra Behn takes her tea with a friend, Carola Morland, who's come to ask Aphra to return to The Service on behalf of her husband. Aphra is deeply reticent, but gives in as Carola seduces her. She's asked to go to a house in Cambridge and report on a gathering of magicians and alchemists. Carola's husband, Sam, finds it to be distracting people from their more important duties, and considers the host, the Magus, to be potentially dangerous. And so Aphra travels to Cambridge with a suitable alibi, though she finds herself haunted by a vision of an otherworldly woman.

A few miles before reaching Cambridge she finds her carriage halted, a man accosting its path as if he was a highwayman. The young man expresses his delight in meeting the spy that they all had heard so much about, and escorts her to Salomon's House. Plainsong, for it is Nick Plainsong, leaves her alone in a room, bound and with a hood over her head. Hours pass, Aphra spends some time asleep, and she wakes to find her hood being removed by the woman from her visions - the nymph she met years ago, as a child. But no, the nymph isn't quite there, she's insubstantial, and fades out even as she arrives. Behn then yells for help, prompting others to come looking for her, Plainsong and two others, a man around Aphra's age, and one wizened and old. The old man, Salomon, rants at her, tries to frighten her, but the younger man, the Magus, expresses his apologies. Plainsong has acted without his knowledge and all are welcome to attend his demonstration here. He unties her and offers to find her lodgings.

Chapter 6: Love in Many Masks

Nate stands on the stage in the house, looking out, thinking about how he'll give his address to his compatriots in person for the first time. As he ventures towards the door to greet the visitors, he's ambushed by a frenchman, an M. Valentine, who offers that the Magus could be so much more if he came to work with Valentine and his benefactors, le Pouvoir. Silver turns him down politely and moves to stand next to Alice as others arrive. The pair see a carriage arrive, an emissary from the Faction of Paradoxes, who have petitioned Salomon for admission. Cousin Hateman is introduced, an emissary from the Eleven Day Empire, bringing with her gifts for her host. She asks permission to raise a shrine in her room for the duration of her stay, and, humored, departs. As she leaves, another guest is introduced, from Trinity College, Cambridge, Jeova Unus Sanctus. Nate turns to his companions and begs their leave, hurrying toward the newcomer.

Nate welcomes Jeova, a frequent correspondent of his who he's meeting for the first time. He considers him to be perhaps the most impressive of anyone here - it's as if he had an egg of his own. Upon the two making their pleasantries they pull away from prying eyes to converse privately, and Jeova pulls out a copy of Nate's first work, The Cycle of Sun and Seed. He remarks that the book is somewhat rushed, not altogether clear, but there are hints of truth in it, and he sees capacity for improvement. Seeing, at last, a kindred soul, Nate reveals to Jeova his greatest secret, the egg, the philosophers stone, how it grants him divine insight. Jeova is firmly dismissive of the idea, the time for miracles is past, the egg is only reflecting Nate's own thoughts back. It's best to throw it away. The two carry on their discussion until Alice arrives, delivering the news of Aphra Behn's imprisonment. After Nate finds Behn lodging, he returns to Jeova, walking in on him and Plainsong in the throws of passion. As he departed, half shocked and half betrayed, he returned to his room, where Alice came to see him. Seeing the state she was in, she insisted that she wouldn't leave him, and she's always loved him, and the two spent the night together.

Chapter 7: Mumbo Jumbo

Littler Sister Greenaway stepped outside of the Magus's door, keeping an ear to the spirits of the building as she did so. She passes by the room of Jeova and Plainsong, staying to the shadows as she moved to the room of Cousin Hateman. She enters to greet the whole of her cell, reporting to them on what had happened that day. They express their concern for the next day, powers swirling over the horizon. Greenaway hands them the biodata dolly she's constructed from Nate's bodily fluids and trimmings. The group plans to summon a wall of loa surrounding Nate to lock out any outside interference. Mother Sphinx proclaims that the Great Houses are on their way in the next day or two, and the cell gets to work.

Chapter 8: Ghosts of Fleas

Nate awoke to find himself alone and, disappointed, went to meet his spy. He once more apologized to her for Plainsong's willfulness and allowed her the run of the house before departing. As he walked through the rest of the mansion he came upon Plainsong and insisted that she was owed an apology, which Plainsong agreed to, before meeting Alice as she departed for London for the week. The pair said their goodbyes, Nate wishing he could leave with her, and Alice said she loved him as she leaves.

Nate takes a nap before the ceremony and is woken by servants, walking out onto the stage, seeing the crowd, Jeova, the Faction of Paradoxes, all of them assembled to hear him talk. As Salomon introduces him he begins his speech, greeting them all, how they're all here to listen to the Magus. But he insists that he is not the Magus. He is Nathaniel Silver, a soldier who has stumbled his way into a few connections. No, this conference is the Magus, and he insists that it's important they all work together to share knowledge across the globe, as the Invisible College does, as the Royal Society does, but on a much larger scale, open to all. And he insists, in the spirit of open inquiry, to share with them his secret, his philosopher's stone. He asked the angels to join him, the stone swells, and Christs's pilots answered.

He drops to his knees as the room panics, thanking them for appearing, as one of them reaches out and tries to burn him away. As he nears death, one of the members of the Faction rushes over and stabs the angel, before being shrugged off into the egg and absorbed, vanishing. The angels tell Nate that he broke their bargain and his life is forfeit, but the remaining members of the Faction arrive, insisting that it's not theirs to take. His life has been bound to the loa, and the actions of the pilots declared war on Faction Paradox. The two sides began a duel as Nate collapsed, the egg deflating down to normal size. Nate attempts to retrieve his stone, but finds that Nick Plainsong snatches it just out of his grasp and darts off. Salomon Bendo enters the scene with a horde of Servicemen, no longer pretending to be a hunched over old man, ordering the detaining of everyone involved for questioning, most especially Silver. Unwilling to put himself through this, Nate slips out of the window.

Chapter 9: Ich Dien

Aphra Behn wakes up to the aftermath of the lecture, to scholars panicked and scattered about the house. Rumors fly, of spirits and windows to heaven, of Silver lighting fire to the premises. People are being detained for questioning, and Salomon enters, ordering her arrested, just to keep her out of the way. Salomon's servants inform her that he is one of the Five Masters of the Service, and this entire situation was a setup. As Behn is removed to secure premises, her captor is incapacitated, Aphra's patron, her true patron, appears, a nymph who she swore herself to long ago. Larissa. Larissa insists that she must follow after Nate, capture him, and brings her outside. Behn spies him as he dashes in between the shadows and chases after him, pinning him down. Larissa appears again, observing him. Yes. Nathaniel Silver is the anomaly. She pulls out a needle, ready to excise him, but stops, realizing that while he is the anomaly, it isn't there with him. The discussion is cut short as the service comes upon them, and Behn manages to distract them as he escapes, returning to Salomon House where she learns that in her absence Faction Paradox has vanished as well.

Chapter 10: Behemoth and Leviathan

Little Sister Greenaway fell and fell. She fell untethered to concepts like distance or time. She fell untethered to any reference point at all. She fell, losing her memories of anything but of falling. Oh, but no, she sees at last, angels falling with her. And the thought of angels brings her back to the present, to Faction Paradox, to Nate. She can't catch the angels, but she traces back their origin and falls down to there, to a home built of old memories. Inside she finds an angel, or the flea faced creature who called itself one, who falls upon her, attacking her. She fights it off, and the two call a truce, after it insists that it, personally, didn't wish to kill Nate.

The creature proclaims itself a pilot, a creature from humanity's future, and is distressed to learn that Faction Paradox has noticed their meddling. The pair exchange information, and they come to the understanding that Nate Silver exists when he shouldn't, that war powers have tampered with his biodata but he himself is nothing special, nothing unusual. And as they talked, Greenaway came to a decision. The pilot was unable to leave, not having a corporeal form, but she named him the patron saint of pilots, Erasmus, and they made a pact, him riding her body as a loa.

The pair of them leave the conceptual space together, Greenaway finding herself stranded in a snowbank where the rest of her cell pick her up not long after. Days pass as she heals, unable to speak or move, her comrades initiating her into their ranks as a Cousin. At long last when she's able to form words she shares with her family the most important fact of what her and Erasmus has realized. "It's from the Homeworld!"

Book Three: The Golden Age

Chapter 11: The Juggler

An aging architect, perhaps near the year of 80, surveyed one of his worksites, analyzing the progress of his laborers as one of them died on the site, sanctifying it, priming it. In the commotion a younger man, around 40, walks onto the site, claiming to be an old friend of the architect. And so, the workmen bring the intruder, Nate Silver, to meet the master architect, Nicholas Plainsong. The pair venture into London, the ageless Silver having expressed to Plainsong that this will be the day that he dies. As they trek, Nate asks Silver about the events long past, at Salomon's House, asking for clarity before death. Why the egg was stolen. Nick admits when asked, that yes, it was at Jeova's asking - Jeova was jealous that the gift went to another when he could do far more with it. But Nick has since found other patrons, unconcerned with Nate, and more concerned with his priming of the churches he builds. Soon there will be a purchase of time, and these churches are key.

The two enter a brothel, an old favorite of Plainsong's, where Plainsong is instantly beset by the attentions of the various purveyors of wares. Nate finds himself largely uninterested, intrigued only by a woman in the corner who refused to join in with the rest and instead read off the French tarot. As he sat in front of Mademoiselle Machine, he asked her if she had a card that represented herself, as she had earlier flipped The Magician in recognition of him. She turns over the Ace of Swords, and the two head up to her room to fuck. In the aftermath, Nate opens up the window to the room, and petals from outside begin to stream in, slowly at first, but faster and faster, enveloping in completely, drowning out everything else.

And then time ran in reverse.

The pair fucked backwards, they went downstairs and Nate departed. Nate and Plainsong met up, walked back to the job site, and separated. Forty years of life, in reverse, back through France, through Salomon's House, through his time in London, through his time in the commune. All the way back to the battlefield, to the night where he died.

But time went back no further.

No, now Nate was strapped to a table, the Pilots standing over him, removing his physical self, extracting his soul from his flesh. And as the Pilots looked on they saw his soul was stitched together with another, an extra forty years of life added onto his - when he should have died on this day so long ago. But aside from that, nothing at all bizarre appears. And as the pilots express their confusion, as they try to understand this, the trap is sprung. A rush of darkness, of black ink, escapes from where the modification is made, devouring the Pilots, as Nate dies at last.

Chapter 12: The Public Burning

Gabriel Suarez died and was reborn on the fourth of January, 1643. Under questioning from the inquisition neither he nor his wife were sure how this had happened, except for prayer, and due to a lack of evidence he was deemed innocent. However, to prevent him being used as a tool for further wickedness, they removed his tongue.

Aphra Behn is in Tyburn on as they are hanging Edward Coleman. As he dies for his Catholic beliefs, Behn begins to muse idly about how easily she could take his place. Her political views are well enough known to her friends, and they're radical enough to place her in a similar predicament. At last she walks away, the twin silences of sympathy and her own complicity accompanying her as she treks to the House of the Infernal. As she comes to the brothel, she asks to see someone by the name of the Jesuitess, and is led to an almost carnival attraction. The proprietor tells of a creature who has the cunning and malignance of a Jesuit, but appears as a woman, all while having different internal organs from a human. Finally, the Jesuitess is shown, a pathetic, drugged woman who is unable to form a coherent thought, let alone talk. As the other guests depart, disappointed, Behn approaches the proprietor and makes an offer, she wishes to purchase the girl.

Chapter 13: Voodoo Honey

The nameless youth fell into the ice-filled river and drowned. On the way back to her house, to be buried, she came to, spends the next week coughing up water, unable to speak. When she found her voice she was unable to recognize her surroundings, her family. Her family, convinced she had become possessed, sold her to a carnival. There she toured Europe and became famous, speaking in a dozen languages oracular pronouncements, never aging. Imitations cropped up in her wake until people were unable to discern the original. Finally, one day, she fell silent, though her body still refused to die, just as it was the day she emerged from the river.

Cousin Greenaway finds herself more and more a courier for Nate's letters in the next eight years, traveling with him to Paris, yes. But even as le Pouvoir made ever increasing demands on him scholars in England still wished to converse, and she would carry his most secret correspondence for him. On her routine trips across the Channel her mind drifts occasionally to the timeships of the Great Houses. Hateman had tried to explain them to her, as had Erasmus, and neither had made much sense. But then, neither did her relationship with Erasmus. Eight years on, and still she hasn't shared her loa with the other members of her cell. Has she betrayed the Faction?

Greenaway lands in London and departs to the Faction shrine. Over the next three days she surveils a building her cell has highlighted - the site of an Incursion. A Homeworlder without a ship who had stumbled into the nets cast by the loa. The group infiltrates the building where the Homeworlder is being kept, trapped by Londoners. They enter the room to find the Jesuitess catatonic, freeing her from her stupor by destroying the totem of a loa that caused confusion.

The Jesuitess identifies them as House Paradox, and demands that she be freed or she'll destroy them all. Hateman asks for more information about her plans and situation first, but in doing so manages to give more information to their hostage. The hostage laughs at their attempt to bluff - she's unaffiliated, but reiterates her previous threat. As this is happening a crowd gathers outside, demanding the Jesuitess be brought out. Erasmus whirs to life inside Greenaway, telling her that there's a chance to get the Egg back, a path to reclaim it. It's close. As the Faction looks out at the amassed crowd they decide that the only way to escape with their prize is to kill those assembled. But Greenaway has another idea.

Chapter 14: Doctor Bendo – Cures All

Proctor Harrow was a sodomite, a viper in the nest of the settlement of New Beulah. When he failed to die after the first hanging, the Puritans took it as a sign from God to hang him again and again. Eventually Harrow escaped, running away into the forrest, this tale only finding its way back into civilization through the tales of a French trapper who sold his account to le Pouvoir before he died.

Aphra Behn enters Dr. Bendo's wagon, bringing back with her the rejection of her prior offer - the Jesuitess was not for sale. As she waits for her superior in the service, a strange Egg speaks to her, urges her to take it. It insists that it should be taken back to its rightful owner. Aphra dismisses the idea as Alexander Bendo enters. Bendo informs Behn that Faction Paradox has recently re-emerged, his sources suggesting that they plan to make off with the Jesuitess. He tells her that he plans on making use of the chaos the crowd causes to steal the Jesuitess away and sends Behn off.

As Aphra returns to her bedroom she takes out the package she was able to purchase in the Jesuitess' stead - the shift she was wearing when they found her. As she examines it she hears a knocking at her door. She finds an old woman who gives her name as Mother Sphinx, and says that she needs to be here - someone will be raising a daughter here. As they talk, Sphinx suggests to Aphra that she be invited in and given tea, an Aphra finds herself obliging. Aphra also finds herself bringing Sphinx the shift, which Sphinx examines, finding inside it a needle which concerns her - a device that "raises daughters". The night went on and Aphra forgot about Sphinx as they settled into the background of their mind. After some hours Aphra heard a window break - the Jesuitess had arrived to reclaim her property.

Chapter 15: Raising a Daughter

There were less reliable stories too. Suarez, Harrow, the nameless youth, all were documented by reliable witnesses, but there were others that came through whispered rumors. Silver's study, maintained for him by le Pouvoir overflowed with documents, thirty six winters ago a wave of resurrections had washed over the earth. He finds that he isn't unique after all.

In the harsh morning light the Faction had fled, chased away by the Service; the Jesuitess is sitting in the building where she was kept, the building standing, though damaged by flame. Upon finding her, the Servicemen took the Jesuitess, well, Cousin Greenaway, back to Dr. Bendo's laboratory.

At first as Aphra Behn encountered the intruder she objected and tried to fight her off. Failing in this task, she instead opted to converse with the Jesuitess as the latter donned her shift. She found the Jesuitess strangely interesting, and the Jesuitess found something strangely missing from her attire - the needle Behn had found before. She notices it on the kitchen table and leaps for it, missing it as Behn grabs it first. Behn asks her to stay just a little longer, but Alex Bendo arrives as well, he wasn't fooled by the Faction's deception. As Bendo tries to interrogate the Jesuitess, the latter springs towards the needle, prompting Bendo to shoot her. The Jesuitess seizes the needle. It flares with light. It's lodged into Dr Bendo. Both combatants fall apart, the Jesuitess drowning in her own blood, Dr. Bendo dying from a blazing wound. Bendo turns into ash and the needle falls to the ground, the Jesuitess struggling to grasp it once more.

Aphra passes out, dreaming of a daughter she never had, or might have had.

When Aphra awakes, she finds an old woman standing over her who she takes to be a nun. Her memory of the recent past has vanished, and Mother Sphinx helps suggest a plausible story of what might have happened - a burglar entered and left when Aphra put up a fight. Sphinx asks Aphra if she knows a Doctor Bendo, and Aphra does, it's an alias for Johnny Wilmot. Sphinx thanks her, and leaves.

Greenaway is in the middle of escaping as the paradox washes over her. Erasmus tells her that it comes from something being physically inserted or excised from the Spiral Politic - a daughter event. Greenaway grabs the Egg from where it's ensconced in the laboratory and leaves, heads back to the rest of her cell. As her cousins head to bed for the night, Sphinx comes over and asks about the loa riding her. Greenaway says his name is Erasmus.

Le Pouvoir has brought to Silver a bill for services rendered. They wish to see the future. They wish to conquer the future. Nate doesn't think it's possible, but he's willing to try. As he strolls around Paris, he encounters Alice, back from London, crying and shaking. She hands him a box, telling him that an agent of Faction Paradox came to her and that it's to be a gesture of good will. Inside is the Egg.

Chapter 16: Astraea, at the Dawn of Time

Eff frolicks in the woods outside her house. She was playing her flute when she heard a loud splash in a nearby pool of water. Rushing to the edge she finds a figure struggling, whom she pulls out, a nymph in skintight armor. Eff begins to nurse the nymph back to health, attempting to communicate with her, but receives no response. Eff, dejected, returns home to find her father hosting visitors who she does her best to avoid. In the night she returns to the nymph with supplies, staying with her until morning. In the morning the nymph speaks.

The nymph explains to Eff that she followed Eff here - her paths had been cut off and she had to find a new one. So she's followed Eff's life, to her quiet place, to here. As Eff hears this story, as she hears her name from the nymph, she decides on a new one. Aphra. She's to be called Aphra. The nymph tells Aphra that she's hunting something - the worst creature to ever live, and she needs Aphra's life to be her path. Aphra agrees to help. Aphra pledges her life to the nymph, to be her servant, if she'll just stay with Aphra for one night longer.

But first Aphra must return home. And when she does, she finds one of her father's guests has covered for her the night before. He insists now that she owes him a favor. He hands her a letter to pass to another one of her father's friends discretely, and says that if she does it properly there might be more work coming her way in time, nobody would ever think her the type to engage in subterfuge. Aphra steals away again that night to meet the nymph once more. And that night she dreams.

She dreams of a house in the mountains, a house with caverns below it filled with machines and ships and strange rites. Her cousin who told her he had a name when he didn't exist - Lord Yellow Dog of the Thirty-One Cuts. And her own name echoing through the house. "Larissa, Larissa, Larissa."

Aphra wakes. The nymph wakes. Despite Aphra's begging, the nymph leaves, walking towards the lake and vanishing. Aphra returns home, disappointed, but optimistic that her life can have meaning.

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Sir Denzil Lynch - And old knight who offers to let Silver live on his land and grants him and his "followers" protection.

Alice Lynch - Daughter of Denzil Lynch.

Silverites - a group of people that considered themselves the followers of Silver. + called Church of Christ the Sublime

Donald Taylor - Friend of Nate's, works for the espionage service.

Sir Samuel Morland - wikinfo. Cromwell's chief spy, Charles' master of mechanicks, tutor, postmaster, constantly changes loyalties, visiting engineer to Versailles.

le Pouvoir - Intelligence service? Run by M. Pantaloon. Wishes to convert to a set of ideas so they can survive and migrate. Has windows into the future.

Cousin Suppression - Constantly reads The Homeworld Chronicles. Amphigorey thinks that Suppression was a propaganda author for the Homeworld until the guilt became too great and he ran off.

Cousin Amphigory

Cousin Hateman

Mother Sphinx (Newtons Sleep)

Faction Cat

Thomas Piper

Nicholas Plainsong / Nicholas Hawksmoor

Dr Salomon Bendo

Galen (Newtons Sleep)

Erasmus (Newtons Sleep)

Mademoiselle Machine

Father Raban

Syrinx