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Pantheon
members—but surely she had been around for some of it. Knife, too.
Weren’t they among the oldest reincarnating people on Uos? They
remembered
. And here they were trapped together in a van,
talking like normal people. Not like historic celebrities, quiet
though they were.
    Wait
. Chet frowned, trying to
remember. What had Journey said about the Shadow Dancers messing
up? And Fenimore had just said something similar, hadn’t he?
Perhaps that was how the Raptus had ended up in the hands of
ambitious royal cousins, which had caused Knife and Fenimore to be
dispatched by their prince.
    Along the same lines, why did the Shadow
Dancers need it back? “Did Aiena give the Raptus to her affiliates
because she wanted them to have this mind-control power, too? Did
one of them try to steal it?”
    Knife said, "Just the opposite. Aiena was
swamped while dealing with Foex’s things—let alone the Magicians’
things—after their deaths. She had too much to do before dealing
with something so piddly that just impacts humanity. She realized
that not just any human should be put in charge, so she gave it to
her Shadow Dancers for safe keeping, and she took an extra step,
too. You see, the Magicians had explicitly locked the Raptus by
linking it to six of their own kind. It was the ultimate security
measure. Magicians, of course, reincarnated like Flame.”
    “They reincarnated
before
the
existence of Flame,” Fenimore said.
    Knife frowned at him, apparently perturbed at
being interrupted. “Yes, yes. I cannot fault your classical
education, Fen. In any case, Aiena decided it would be prudent to
lock the Raptus for safety’s sake. Being that she is Pelin’s foster
mother and that Flame were the only reincarnating god affiliates
left on the planet, she asked the Council of Six to stand in as
guardians. We’re even the right number.”
    “We took on the responsibility knowing full
well what might happen if we did not. We weren’t happy about it,
though.” Journey lay down on her back and tucked her arms behind
her head. Chet was vividly reminded she wore nothing but a fuchsia
bra and satin panties. Oh, Pantheon, those tits were magnificent
lying down, too... Chet wished she’d put on clothes, but they were
still wet and would be for a while.
    “Well, this sort of charge isn’t our
specialty, is it? Not even mine.”
    Chet frowned. “So why are
we
bound
to it now? The four of us?”
    Journey sat up. The movement didn’t help, and
Chet tried to look elsewhere, failing miserably. Her breasts were
too full and exciting, wrapped in those fuchsia shells. “We don’t
know. It’s a problem.”
    “Has it ever done anything like this before?
In your experience.”
    Both Flame shook their heads. Their eyes were
round, expressions equally disturbed.
    “The Raptus wants masters, I think. It wanted
masters three-hundred years ago, and it doesn’t seem to have
noticed the time gap,” Fenimore said. “My understanding is the
Raptus can still be partially used, locked as it is, but not
fully.”
    Journey frowned. “Yet this seems very odd,
what with you two being unaffiliated. I cannot believe that the
makers of this object would wish to endow it upon random,
unaffiliated people.”
    Chet nearly groaned at this attitude. Of
course
, unaffiliated people were so
random
, the
un-chosen and all. He turned to Fenimore. “Were the, um, royal
cousins you were pursuing god affiliates?”
    “Of
course
they were,” Fenimore
sighed, making the same lemon-eating face.
    Chet smiled at him. Fenimore
understood
. He was unaffiliated, too—just another guy.
Just a guy from the 73rd century with an incredible will and sinewy
musculature, but hey, Chet had to take them as he found them.
    The rain grew more intense overhead.
Lightning flashed and thunder boomed at the same time, incredibly
loud. The inside of the van had grown even darker, Chet realized.
No one could possibly see anything if they looked in the covered,
steaming windows