Episode 19

(Salt Lake City, February 7, 1995)

[Author’s Note: We return to Rin and Daryl, right after the events of episodes 15-16. This episode is from Daryl's perspective.]

“The final and most perfect device he crafted was for his Queen, that she may reign by his side until the end of the world. He truly loved her, and it seems she truly loved him as well. At first. She soon tired of him and took other lovers. This was to be expected of a queen. Naturally, Amon killed them as quickly as he discovered them. That was to be expected of a King.”

“The real reason for the Queen’s betrayal is unclear. Most likely, she no longer had use for the man who made her immortal. Perhaps she even had begun to curse him for doing so, telling herself that he had made her an immortal slave.”

“This turn of events was not surprising. In the cycle of human affairs, love inevitably cedes its place to hate. Only death can prevent this. But hate need not lead to action, nor need it emerge all at once. Many a royal couple has loathed one another to a ripe old age. But this queen was not a woman to sit idly by. She did not hate her husband yet, but it only was a matter of time before something moved her beyond disdainful looks and sharp words. For all his power and skill, Amon remained oblivious to this.”

“There is one place in this world so secret and sealed that not even the faintest light can penetrate, and that is a woman’s heart.”

Rin looked at Daryl proudly. “I just made that up.”

“I certainly won’t disagree.”

“Smart boy,” she laughed.

“Predictably, the specific something which moved her to hate involved passion.” Rin gave Daryl a knowing smile. “With a woman, all things do.”

“The Queen adopted a young lover of whom she grew particularly fond. Perhaps he was kept well-hidden, or perhaps the King had grown less watchful. Either way, the affair was not discovered for some time, and by then the Queen had fallen in love with the boy. When the King dispatched him, she truly began to loathe her husband. Nor did she disguise that loathing.”

“Amon could not understand her change of heart. It only had been a lover, and there were countless others to be had. It was his duty to kill the boy, part of the role he had chosen. To him, the Queen’s coldness just was another mood. He did not realize the tectonic shift which had occurred. Her thoughts turned to ridding herself of her King. In this, she was driven not just by revenge, but by disgust.”

“With much desire and little hope, she set out to test her husband’s protections. Surely they were greater than her own, but perhaps there was a flaw. To her surprise, it became clear that they actually were weaker than hers — or very different. She could not fathom why he would make her stronger than himself, but was pleased he had.”

“From there, it was a simple matter of discreetly testing his protections. To this end, she shed any over sign of antagonism and pretended to be contrite. Amon never had ceased to love her and welcomed his Queen back into bed. She was insatiable. He rather liked this new mood and hoped it would last longer than the other.”

“At first he was hesitant to comply with her more extreme wishes, but eventually he was persuaded. After all, she argued, they were immortals. If anyone could have fun without consequence it was them. A few simple tests confirmed that he could not be asphyxiated, and she already had ruled out poisoning. She knew he could feel pain, though she was unsure whether it was limited. Probing this too deeply could make him suspicious, and it wasn’t something of direct use anyway.”

“The key revelation was that he could be bound. Testing this had been easy. One of her innovations in the bedroom was the introduction of rope. She suddenly went into a snit and stormed out while he lay tied to the bed, even threatening to bring the Palace officials. This would have caused considerable embarrassment, and he would have had to kill many useful servants. She did not make good on the threat but was pleased to find him still bound when she returned. It would do.”

“The Queen’s deceptions grew more subtle. One day, she fell into a melancholy, lamenting her former ill-humor and the ingratitude it represented, even though several months had passed since then. Amon just was pleased to have regained her affection and sought to comfort her. Despite his assurances, the Queen sobbed inconsolably and refused to forgive herself for what she had done. Suddenly, she started from the bed in delight.”

“When the King asked what it was, she hushed him with a sly look. When he persisted, she hushed him more firmly with her body. She only would divulge that it was a gift to repay him for all he had done. Wishing to indulge his Queen, Amon did not pry.”

“When his birthday arrived, several months later, she announced with great ceremony that the gift was ready. It was on the outskirts of the Capital, and they should hasten if they were to get there before dark. While a normal monarch would have taken precautions, Amon had no misgivings. A short trip with his wife seemed just the thing to mark his birthday. So she led him to a carefully prepared site outside the town.”

“And killed him?” Daryl offered.

“Way to ruin the mood, doofus,” Rin snapped. “But no, he couldn’t be killed. Have you even been listening?”

She let out a deep sigh of frustration, before resuming the tale. “Then she killed him.”

Daryl gave her a dirty look.

“Well, nobody knows what happened. Whatever she did seems to have worked, because Amon disappeared. The Queen returned to announce that the immortal King had perished, offering certain incontrovertible proofs. Most likely, he was imprisoned in a special cell designed to precisely navigate the contours of his device’s power. With no way to escape, perhaps he remains imprisoned to this day.”

“Where?”

“Well, gee, Daryl, let me phone him and find out. Ring, ring. What’s that, you’d LOVE to trade places with some annoying moron? What a coincidence, I’ve got just the thing.” She cleared her throat. “He’s probably somewhere deep beneath the earth, ensconced with his sorrow. Whether he is ignorant of the Queen’s betrayal or loves her despite it, he alone knows.”

Rin paused melodramatically.

“What about the Queen?” Daryl asked, shattering the pall cast by the story.

“The kingdom perished long ago, as kingdoms tend to do. The Queen lived on, of course. Rumor has it that, unable to abide other immortals, she sought to destroy the Proteges. In any event, they seem to have scattered. Perhaps she hunts them still.”

“Presumably, I’ll run into her eventually. If the story is any indication, she’ll be the most difficult to deal with. Although if she does still want to destroy the Proteges, maybe I should wait and let her do my job for me.” There was a long silence before anyone spoke.

“Sounds like a fairy tale,” Daryl commented.

Rin fixed him with an icy stare. “It’s not a fucking fairy tale. The devices exist, and those same gods — or the ones who replaced them — created me to remedy that.”

After a few seconds of tactful silence, Daryl ventured a question. “What are the devices?”

“I told you,” Rin snapped. Sensing her annoyance at his flippant attitude, Daryl adopted a more serious tone.

“No really, what are they physically?”

A flash of suspicion crossed Rin’s face, and Daryl wondered whether she thought he was mocking her. He had expressed skepticism and realized how his question must now seem to her.

“I’m not humoring you. I really am curious,” he promised.

Rin’s obvious annoyance had not abated. “If it’s just a fairy tale, why should I bother?”

Daryl groaned. “Would you respect somebody who just accepts everything you say? It takes time.”

“You don’t have much of that,” Rin grinned. “Maybe a lot less than you think.”

“Well, I suppose it’s no less plausible than an indestructible woman,” he considered. “I can believe it.”

“Don’t do me any favors,” Rin sneered.

“I’m sorry. It’s just a lot to take in.”

It was some time before Rin’s eyes calmed. They always had a back and forth, but she appeared particularly sensitive this time. Daryl decided it somehow was important to her, and he had to tread carefully. Most important, it probably meant he should pay close attention.

“Okay,” Rin finally relented. “But you’d better keep your tongue or I’ll take it from you. Then I’ll have another souvenir to carry around. Smellier and less permanent, but a lot more satisfying.”

With that, she drew an object from her pocket and placed it on her palm. It was a metallic sphere, the size of a large marble, with a strangely etched surface. To Daryl’s eye, there was no discernible pattern to the carvings.

“Are you going to take it or not?” she barked impatiently, threatening to withdraw her hand.

Daryl was reluctant. “Is it safe?” He couldn’t believe he actually took the story seriously.

Rin gave him a withering look. “To a coward, nothing is safe.”

This smarted, and Daryl took the marble.

Rin laughed. “You’re an easily-goaded fool, allowing the air from another’s mouth to guide your actions. If you lack self-control, best to stab out your ears, lest you weaken in the face of real peril.”

Daryl was too absorbed in the sphere to register the diatribe. It felt solid, yet weighed next to nothing. The thing reminded him of an eggshell or ping pong ball. What would happen if he dropped it? Wasn’t it supposed to fall at the same speed, regardless of weight? He was tempted to do so and see what happened, but dared not. It seemed fragile, and probably would shatter on impact. Come to think of it, how had it survived in Rin’s pocket? That surely had been … bumpy. But if what she said was true, it already had survived a very long and bumpy journey before then. He wondered how long.

Rin paused her torrent of criticism to laugh at his confusion.

“It’s quite indestructible, I promise. Go ahead and squeeze it.”

Daryl hesitated and looked to her for confirmation. She nodded, and he squeezed the ball. It was firm. Of course, so was a ping pong ball. For all he knew, it was a ping pong ball which Rin had embossed for his benefit. If so, he had to admit she had talent. It was beautiful.

“Oh for crying out … Give it to me,” Rin demanded impatiently, snatching it out of his hand. She placed the ball on the ground, then picked up a nearby brick and smashed it.

Daryl cringed, though he wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t a person. Why did he care if somebody crushed a ping pong ball? Rin picked the sphere back up, and showed it to him. There wasn’t the slightest scratch.

Of course, Daryl realized that this could be slight of hand. She had been in possession of the ball the whole time. Perhaps she had two and simply swapped a solid sphere for the delicate one before smashing it. Then she could have handed him the light version instead. It wouldn’t have been hard for someone skilled in such things.

In fact, Daryl was beginning to doubt whether Rin actually had anything to teach him. She always had to have the last word, and anything uttered in the right tone could sound profound. It frustrated him that she acted privy to some deep truth, which she only revealed facets of through abstruse comments. He sometimes suspected it just was pompous misdirection. For all he knew, the story was a fabrication. But even if unenlightening, it still was an interesting story. And what kid doesn’t like an interesting story.

What convinced him more than anything was that he couldn’t think of a possible motive for Rin to lie. The story was too far-fetched to be part of a con, and she clearly believed it. A believer wouldn’t stoop to such deception; it only would invalidate their own faith. Not to mention that an indestructible sphere sounded much less implausible than an indestructible woman, and he already had one of those. Nevertheless, Daryl asked if he could see it again.

Rin chuckled as she handed it to him. “It’s infinitely dense, but the shell masks that from the world. To us, it just behaves like a hollow ball.”

The more he looked at it, the more Daryl felt that something was off. His eyes strained, as if unable to encompass it. Yet the ball occupied only a tiny fraction of his field of view. In fact, “ball” did not adequately describe it. The thing seemed round at first glance but clearly was not, though he could not say why. All his senses screamed to look away, but he remained transfixed.

Rin had been watching Daryl’s face closely as he handled the sphere. She smiled. “Everyone has the same reaction. Well, everyone of the very few people who’ve seen one.”

“You too?” Daryl asked.

“Well, I’m used to it by now. But it still causes a headache if I look at it too long. Your eyes can adapt to most things over time, but not this.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

Rin laughed. “You should be asking what’s right with it. Of all the things that are or can be, it has the most perfect symmetry.”

“It’s not a sphere?”

Rin shook her head. “People call it that, but no. It has a higher symmetry, one no mathematics can adequately describe.”

“How do you know?” Daryl asked.

“It told me.”

“Really?”

“Yes, Daryl. The magic ubersphere actually is an excellent conversationalist. Which is more than can be said of some people.”

Daryl groaned. Why couldn’t he get a straight answer to anything? He suddenly registered her earlier comment. “It’s infinitely dense? How is that possible?”

“That’s what bothers you about the whole thing? Not the fact that it grants immortality to some random primate on some random planet? Not that it has a symmetry which mathematics can’t describe? Heck, what does that even mean? You really should think more closely about what you’re being told.”

“So you’re making this up.”

Rin shook her head. “I said you should think about these things, not that they are untrue.”

To Daryl’s surprise, she removed a ring from her finger. An engagement ring? Why had he never noticed? He didn’t recall her mentioning anyone. He realized it was unfamiliar because she hadn’t worn it before. It was a prop for their current project, which the story had pushed from his mind.

“It’s diamond,” Rin observed as she dragged the gem along the surface of a nearby hammer, noticeably scratching it.

“Why?” Daryl wore a bemused expression.

“Diamonds cut steel,” she explained, as if speaking to an imbecile.

“Why is it real?”

Rin clearly had no idea what Daryl was getting at, and it was a moment before she replied. “It seemed more authentic. Why bother with a fake?”

“But the money,” Daryl protested.

Rin shrugged. “Oh, I’ve got plenty of that.”

“But …,” Daryl gestured at the room around them.

“Hey, I never promised you’d live in the lap of luxury. Do I look like a fucking sugar-mommy?” She peered into his face. “Why? Do you need some costly feminine products?”

“I’m sorry,” Daryl stammered in disbelief. “I just thought you were …”

“Some starving warrior, walking the earth, doing good, and all that malarkey?” Rin laughed. “Look, I don’t need money, but it lubricates certain wheels and helps me do what I do. Think about it hard. Most of the reason you care about money is to provide the essentials of life. I don’t require those.”

“Yeah, but why not enjoy life?”

Rin gave a hardy chuckle at this. “Is that what you would do — enjoy life? Is that why you spent so many years looking for me? You could have built a life, but you didn’t care to enjoy anything. Quite the opposite, in fact.”

“Besides,” she lamented, “after enough time, there’s nothing left to try.”

“But good food still tastes good, doesn’t it?”

“Does it? What defines ‘good food?’” Daryl was about to ask more, but she silenced him with her hand. “Another time. But if you do need anything, let me know and we’ll attend to it. Right now, let’s focus on the matter at hand.”

“The mission,” Daryl nodded.

“No, idiot, the ring. Use it to deface the sphere.”

Daryl shrugged and did so. The diamond was not harmed, but neither was the surface.

“Infinitely dense?” Daryl wondered in amazement. “It feels so light.”

“As I said, the surface masks it.”

“But how …” Daryl began.

“How is it made?” Rin finished his question for him, and he nodded. “Well, I’ll tell you what is commonly known. Or was commonly known.”

She sighed. “Today it is doubtful anybody knows much of anything. People have such short attention spans.”