Read Online And Eternity by Piers Anthony - Free Book Online

were natural.
    “May I speak in confidence?”
    Now Luna realized that this was no casual matter. “You know I cannot commit to that in any matter that affects my objective. Does this?”
    Her objective was to thwart the efforts of Satan to take over either the mortal or immortal realms, and it was generally known that there was a major crisis coming in perhaps four years, where her action would be critical. Satan had been trying desperately to nullify that situation before it occurred, and all the Incarnations had battled him to preserve it. Jolie, as the consort of Satan, therefore had to be treated cautiously; she understood that. Her relations with Luna and the Incarnations were positive, but she was technically an agent of the enemy. Thus it was necessary that Luna qualify any offer to help; she wouldn’t help Satan win against God.
    “I don’t think it does,” Jolie said. “Not directly. But if nothing is done, it could bring mischief to both sides.”
    “Will you trust my discretion, if you tell me without my prior commitment to confidence?”
    “Yes.” For Luna cared about Gaea as much as any mortal could, having been raised with her in Ireland before the one became the companion of an Incarnation and the other became an Incarnation herself.
    “Then tell me as much as you need to, as quickly as you can.” This was Luna’s first indication that she had pressing other business, but of course she did.
    “I watched over Orb’s daughter Orlene,” Jolie said. “She was doing well, raised by an adoptive mortal family. She married a ghost and had a child by her lover, in the ghost’s name; this is a legitimate device among mortals today, though technically sinful.”
    “Of course,” Luna agreed. “I remember that Orb had a child but could not marry the father; I am glad to learn that that child did well.”
    “Not well enough,” Jolie said, plunging on. “During my inattention her baby was afflicted with a fatal malady. After he died, she suicided, determined to join him. But she was good and bound for Heaven, while he was in balance and went to Purgatory, where Nox took him. I helped Orlene’s spirit go to seek Nox, but Nox turned her into a man who tried to rape me and then had relations with Nox herself. Now Orlene is burdened with evil and will not struggle to stay out of Hell. I cannot tell Gaea, and dare not let the soul go lest it be lost. I am convinced that Orlene is not evil but was overwhelmed by the mischief of the Incarnation of Night. I need some way to keep her here, as a ghost, until she realizes this and will resume her quest for her baby. Then she may be all right, and I can tell Gaea without bringing her more grief than is warranted.’’
    Luna nodded. She possessed the lawmaker’s ability to grasp complex matters quickly. “This is not Satan’s doing?”
    “It is not his doing. It was his bidding that sent me to Orlene when she was a child. He, when he and I were married, as mortals, we had no child, and-” Then Jolie was crying, caught off guard by the tragedy. Orlene had been much like a daughter to her, as she watched her in the way that Gaea would not. She cursed herself again for relaxing at what turned out to be a critical time.
    “It occurs to me that our interests may coincide,” Luna said gently. “I am organizing for the issue to come, what may be the final showdown between Good and Evil of this sequence. I have need of a soul to animate a mortal who is in a similar state to Orlene’s, for different but sufficient reason. A soul that animates a mortal host cannot descend to Hell until it leaves that host. Would Orlene be willing to animate that host until the host recovers?”
    “No. It is my will that holds her here, not hers.”
    “Then would you be willing to keep Orlene in that host, and animate the host yourself, until you can persuade Orlene to do it? This action would have a devious but significant effect in the war between Good and Evil, so you would be