[Author’s Note: This episode is from Karkov's perspective.]
“You do seem obsessed with me and diarrhea,” Karkov observed before continuing.
“Keeping Darrouil alive was challenging, especially since I hadn’t yet fully installed the new leader. I was intrigued by what little I could glean from his account. He had piqued my curiosity, and I decided to save the boy. For obvious reasons, I couldn’t afford to remain away from the Palace for long. The Securitad was executing everybody they could get ahold of, and there was no guarantee they would heed me or my Fervent Leader yet.”
“So I secured Darrouil before anyone else discovered him. Fortunately, I still had a few loyal followers who could manage that much. He had no idea who I was, of course. We didn’t meet again until many years later, and it was clear he did not recognize me then. But that doesn’t mean I had forgotten him. When things calmed down, I arranged for the boy to be cared for.”
“Am I supposed to be grateful?”
“Not at all. Well, maybe. It was your mess I was cleaning up, but that’s not the point. I had Darrouil admitted to a special military program. He thought he was being trained as an elite soldier, but I saw much greater potential. Through his teachers, I ensured that certain principles were incorporated into his education. This wasn’t anything tawdry like brainwashing or indoctrination. I simply helped him identify what he already knew he wanted. And what he wanted was you.”
“So you told him all about me, how to find me, how to get me to fall for him.” Beneath the sneer, Karkov sensed real hurt.
“Don’t be absurd,” he replied. “I didn’t tell him anything truly useful. But the boy turned out to be rather resourceful, and my hope wasn’t misplaced.”
Suddenly, he perked up. “Wait, you fell for him?”
“Of course not.” The answer was deadpan, and Karkov sighed.
“Do you know what the oddest thing is?” he asked after a moment.
“What’s that?” Rin’s voice dripped with contempt.
“He and you are almost identical. You both want to kill the one you love.”
“I told you, I would have had to kill him. I didn’t want to.”
Karkov scrutinized Rin for a moment, but betrayed no emotion. Was she still lying to herself? He could see it in her eyes, and it burned him inside that all these years and all he had done to her had failed to quench that love. What must it be like to love a man such as himself? But was that his fault? Who could he be but himself? Besides, he loved someone far worse. He wondered whether Rin was more astute than he gave her credit for. Perhaps her response was accurate in more ways than one.
“The point,” he explained, “is that I thought he was your shot at happiness. Something in him had appealed to you. Maybe it was his appearance or his character or some unidentifiable combination. But I could see it. A means for you to be happy again. To be the girl I fell in love with.”
“By tricking me into loving another man? That is an odd tactic, even for you.”
“Perhaps, but you are an odd woman. You see, Rin, I know you.”
“It won’t do you any good,” she laughed. “Pretend you’re the grandest of men, that all you did was from love, and that my happiness was your paramount desire. It won’t make the slightest difference.”
“That little trinket will not work,” Karkov replied. “Not necessarily because it can’t work, but because you don’t want it to. Whatever you look like, you are an old woman. A very very old woman.”
“You’re no spring chicken yourself, asshole.”
Karkov smiled. “You’re from a time when a woman loved a single man forever. The world has changed, but we have not. You never could love another. If the one you loved became anathema to you, then so must the very idea of love itself. But what if there was another who could, even for a short time, be the man you wished your true love was? What if you could go back in time and experience what could have been?”
“Even supposing all this malarkey were true, why would you want this for me? So I can suffer all the more when the illusion vanishes and I return to a world with the real you in it? It only would redouble my contempt for you in the end.”
Karkov remained unfazed. “As I said, it’s not about me. I’m willing to pay that price. Sure you would feel pain at the parting, but wouldn’t there be happiness before it? Rin, we have an eternity to be lonely, why not take the opportunity for happiness, however brief?”
“So you did this for me? All this bullshit was so that I could have a fling with a Karkov impersonator?”
Karkov pursed his lips. “Well, you do make it sound silly. But then, all the great love stories are.”
“And this is a great love story? A short-lived dalliance with a boy you then killed.”
“To save you the pain of doing so yourself,” he pointed out. “But no, the love story is the same one it always has been. You’re just too thick to know it.”
Rin merely shrugged. “I’ll give you credit. You managed to pack several millennia’s worth of melodrama into a few hours. That’s no mean feat.”
Karkov put his hat on and rose to leave.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Rin produced the sphere and wiggled it, but made no move. “You are very confident for a man about to enter hell.”
“As I said, you won’t encumber me. Not to mention, you can’t.”
“You just did mention it,” Rin observed, obviously amused.
Karkov eyed her. “We both know that sphere is a fake. It’s probably just a painted ping pong ball.”
“This?” She casually tossed it to Karkov, and he instinctively caught it. As he stood there frozen with a confused expression, she smiled.
“I may have been a little vague earlier. You remember how I said I need to touch the sphere to you? Well, the ‘I’ part really is superfluous. The only thing required to bind you is contact with the sphere. Of course I almost always do it the obvious way because, well, who would be stupid enough to touch the sphere on their own? But now … well you’ve opened up all sorts of fun possibilities. You really have grown careless.”
Karkov quickly dropped the sphere and sprang back. Rin gave a scornful laugh as she quietly walked over to collect it. “Ping pong ball, huh? It’s real.”
He regarded her coldly. “Clearly not, since I’m fine.”
“Another minor omission on my part. I neglected to mention that I must ask the universe to bind you.”
“And you didn’t. Or couldn’t.” There was triumph in his voice. “That was a mistake. I won’t give you another chance.”
“Of course you would,” Rin chuckled. “And another, and another. As many as I want.” She gave him a searching look. “But you still haven’t figured it out? I don’t need another chance. Contact doesn’t have to be maintained. The mere fact that you touched it means I can bind you at any time. From anywhere. I also left out that tidbit.”
In response to Karkov’s obvious skepticism, she grinned. “Shall I prove it?”
He mutely shook his head.
“Good. I have a few very degrading acts I’d like you to perform before I send you to hell. If you do them right, I may wait a little.”
Karkov looked at her with a tired expression. “Rin, if you want to bind me, then just do so. I’m going home now.” He walked over and kissed her on the lips on the way to the door. “All you ever had to do was ask.”
“Sit down, you idiot,” Rin shouted just before he reached the door.
“Why? You’re just going to mock me.” Nonetheless, Karkov returned to his seat.
She slid the sphere toward him, and he eyed her suspiciously. “I don’t need to play any tricks. You’re right. It’s not the real binding sphere.”
“You’ll understand my hesitation,” Karkov replied, making no move to take the sphere.
Rin shrugged. “It’s Sree’s. I thought it would be handy to menace you with, so I kept it. Since it sounds like you were friends, I thought you may want a memento. I have no use for the thing.”
Karkov wasn’t sure whether to believe her and left the sphere where it was. “That’s rather callous.”
“I’m not sentimental that way. It’s your choice. If you leave it, nothing will happen but it may end up getting lost.”
“Which of Sree’s spheres?”
Rin smiled. “It doesn’t matter, of course. But since you ask, this is the second one. I don’t know where she kept the original or whether she kept it at all.”
She pushed the sphere a little closer to Karkov, and he didn’t recoil. “Consider this a gift. A useless, meaningless gift, but a gift nonetheless. A consolation prize, perhaps. Because now I will tell you where you miscalculated.”
“You have no weapon. Why should I listen to anything you have to say?” Karkov answered. He made no move to rise.
“Suit yourself, but it would be to your benefit to do so. Besides, if this love of yours is so boundless shouldn’t you eagerly endure anything for a moment more with its object.”
He rolled his eyes. “Very well, what is it?”
Rin laughed. “That’s the spirit. You are very confident, and all things considered you probably have good reason to be. It is quite difficult to craft a sphere which could bind you, if such a thing even is possible. But there are two ways you may yet come to harm.”
Karkov said nothing, and she continued.
“First, there may be other means of encumbering you. Means which don’t involve a sphere.”
He dismissed the idea with a contemptuous gesture. “If it could be done, it would have.”
Rin shrugged. “You make an interesting assumption about progress. Just because a small number of people with primitive technology couldn’t do it, doesn’t mean that billions with advanced technology can’t. I like your arrogance, though. It will serve me well.”
“Perhaps, but any such concern would apply to you too,” Karkov pointed out. “What reason have you to believe that your impossible magic is any more resilient than my impossible magic? Especially since the two are intimately connected.”
Before Rin could offer any argument, he pressed on. “And second?”
“You asked why I waited until this precise point in time. It was an astute observation, and there is a reason. Telling me your protections ordinarily wouldn’t have made any difference. The problem of crafting your sphere simply is too difficult for any one person.”
“But over the last few decades there has emerged a tool which makes that job much much easier, which is perfect for it in fact. And it constantly is being improved. These ants are useful for something, it turns out. Nobody could have predicted that one day they would build such a thing.”
“And what miraculous invention is that?” Karkov asked, his voice drenched in skepticism.
Rin smiled. “Computers.”