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They sat together, knees touching, their bodies forming a triangle on the soft carpeting. Sandra passed around a flask of jagertee, the spiced inland rum warming them each in turn.
"I don't know if this will work," Sandra said. "But three is good. Three is a strong number."
"You're not about to strip naked and dance to the Moon Goddess, are you?" Liam flashed a grin. "Cos if so, I've a camera I want to fetch first."
"Fuck off. You know numbers have power."
"Sure. So does the moon."
"Jesus. It's like I'm in a battle, and I can't tell what side you're on." She sighed and leaned into him. "If I didn't love you, you'd be in the shit. You know that, right?"
"You've done a good job of reminding me, love." He kissed the top of her head.
Sandra sat up straight again. "I've been wanting to do this for a while. Or hoping we could do this. I'm tired of having secrets, but..." She looked at Liam. "The time wasn't right. You know what I mean."
"Needed our third," Liam said. He shrugged. "Don't know why it works, but it does. And good thing. I need to tell you both things, and I don't think it can wait much longer. I feel it in my water."
"Everything happens," Isaac said. "You can thank Bishop for the timing. Or me. Or both of us. It's kind of hard to say."
"That's it, then," Liam said. "Isaac's going first."
They took each others' hands.
"This is so weird," Sandra said. "This just works. This is like a dream or something. Are you sure you're all real?"
"Ha," Liam said. He looked suddenly uncomfortable.
"You're right," Isaac said. "This works. We're a complete circuit, the three of us. I think I've known that for a while now."
"Right," Sandra said. "It was always there, but it was too big and obvious to see. Goddamn. I feel-"
"Fantastic?" Isaac said.
"Sexy?" Liam said.
"Powerful."
They looked at one another.
"Okay," Sandra said. "Okay. I feel like my hair's going to stand on end. Okay. This is between us. The three of us. Whatever we have. This stays between us. I love you both."
"Aye," Liam said.
"Yes," Isaac said.
They sat, holding hands, feeling something like electricity flowing between them. For that time, in that circle, there was no one else in the world."
"I am so not ready for this." Sandra freed one of her hands and took a long pull from the flask of jagertee. "All right. No secrets between us. Who goes first?"
"I will," Isaac said. "If that's all right."
They both nodded.
"You both know that I couldn't remember much of my time at the College. Whatever explanation I'd accepted at the time, the truth turned out to be about persona crash. The person I'd become at my time in the College was incompatible with the person I would be when I left that plane. Everything that's happened since I left has led me toward this point, and when I reached, um, critical mass, sort of, Bishop activated a routine I'd left in place for myself."
"Wait," Liam said. "So, basically-"
"I called myself back to the College. Yeah."
"And you remembered everything," Sandra said.
"Right."
"So what was it all about, then? What were you learning?"
"The College has a number of different parts to it," Isaac said. "One of them is a sort of crash-course in post-Eschaton operation. Different planes. Timeshift. Dynamic existence, stuff like that. Sort of a user's manual for the new state of things. That's the baseline. From there..." He looked at the square of moonlight on the wall. "This isn't exactly the right way to put it, but the end result is the same. The College is a training ground for magicians."
They stared at him.
"I didn't think you could make magicians," Sandra said. "I didn't think it was something you can teach."
"I don't know what you're thinking when you think 'magician'," Isaac said. "But from what I've seen- and what I know- I think you can, and so does Bishop. I think he thinks we can all be magicians eventually. They're not treating magic like a skill there, or a talent, or an inherent trait, but...it's like an evolutionary step. The word 'magician' encompasses so many things, so many ideas and ways of being, it's almost impossible to define. It's a place we're all going next. The path along the Eight Circuits of Consciousness. If you believe what some of the professors say, it's hard-coded into our own DNA. The world-snake twisted up Inside and Outside, spiraling up from insensate muck, through what we think of as 'us', to...something. Some people, they think the Eschaton was some kind of coded consciousness bomb waiting inside DNA. Just waiting until we reached a collective critical mass."
"Wait," Sandra said. "That doesn't make any sense. How can something inside us have caused the Eschaton? I know we changed, but so did everything out there." She waved vaguely at the window.
"It's complicated," Isaac said. "And no one's saying anything for sure- not that they ever do- but it's got something to do with time and space not being what we think they are. I don't know. Most of this is still beyond me."
"Well, you're still a leap ahead of me," Liam said. "So we're all magicians. Right, then. Good to know."
Sandra nudged him with a knee. "Stop it."
"Sorry, love." Liam looked back at Isaac. "What else?"
"Well..." Isaac frowned. "A lot of it's hard to put into words."
"Try us," Sandra said.
"I think time is sort of...all happening at once."
Liam cocked his head. "Wot?"
"I'm sorry," Sandra said. "You lost me too."
"Oh, come on," Isaac said. "Liam, you were the one giving me a metaphysics lecture a few weeks ago. Remember?"
"I remember," Liam said. "This is one of those student-become-the-master things, right? You've gone beyond me, mate. I mean, I know time's gone funny, but I was still thinking it sort of went from past to future, even if the path wasn't quite straight. You're saying that's not how it works?"
"That's the way we perceive it- or used to- but...well, I don't know what time is, but the way things are going, our way of seeing it is going to change. I don't know if we'll lose the Point A to Point B thing entirely, or just integrate it, but things are changing. If I believe Bishop, and I almost do...I've already done things I haven't done yet."
Liam threw up his hands. "Right. I give up. I'll just trust you on this for now, and you can fill me in when everything starts happening at the same time. Fucking hell."
Sandra put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you all right?"
"Yeh." Liam sighed. "I don't like what I don't understand, and I feel like I should understand this, what with everything. I didn't expect to be out of my depth so soon. I mean, Sandra, for fuck's sake, I'm-"
She put a finger to his lips. "I know. But that doesn't make you omnipotent. It's okay that you don't understand everything."
Liam grunted. "Eh. It'd take all the mystery out of life anyway. Isaac, this is to be continued, right?"
"Sure."
"Good. I want more of this later. Pound it into my brain."
"Something else you should know," Isaac said.
"Mm?"
"I can't prove it, and I can't explain exactly why, but I think the Professor and what's-his-name from the Family. Alexander? I think they're maybe planning to fuck us over. I don't know."
"Yeah," Sandra said. "I've been feeling that. I should pay Devi another visit, if her bodyguards won't make too much trouble."
"Think the Professor will sell us out?" Liam said.
"Maybe," Isaac said. "I don't know. Maybe he has no choice. I'll bet Alexander can bring a lot of pressure."
"Why would he bother?" Sandra said. "Why not just ask him to step aside and let whatever happens happen?"
"Maybe that's what the deal was." Isaac looked unsure. "Or I could be all the way wrong. I don't know. Think we should pay the Professor a call?"
"Not really," Liam said. "Let the bastard come to us. He's been stalling on this business with us and the Family. If it's really over, he'll want us back on his leash, and come dangle the carrot again. Fuck-useless prick."
Sandra patted him on the head. "Are we up past our bedtime?"
Liam looked deadpan at her. "You're lucky I won't hit you."
"Why not? Because I'm a gurl?"
"No. Because you would beat the everloving shit out of me, love."
"Good boy."
"Thank you. Pass us the booze, please?"
Sandra handed over the flask. Liam took a long pull, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Right, then. Anyone for a walk? Maybe a lie-in? Room service?"
"Liam..."
"I mean," Liam said. "We could come back, do this later. I mean..." He made a face. "We could do."
"No," Sandra said.
"No," Isaac said.
"Fuck."
No one said anything. Liam sighed and swigged again from the flask by his side. "Not ready for this," he said. "Not, not, not ready."
Sandra squeezed his hand. "It'll be all right. This is us."
"I know. I know. I think..." He shook his head. "Hell with it. Isaac, look at me."
Isaac turned to face him.
Liam took his goggles off.
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"Quit this world, quit the next world, quit quitting!" -Sufi proverb.
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Take Me Back to the Garden of Love - 14
