I’m feeling light-headed. Fear will do that. I got it sometimes in the arena when I knew they were going to throw something special at me but I didn’t know what. I pick up my leather jacket and bite down hard on the sleeve. It would be a shame to live through this having bitten off my tongue.
I don’t know what to say, Candy. We only had a couple of days together but they were a hell of a couple of days. Sorry for letting myself get stuck here. Talk about a long-distance relationship. If I live through this, I’ll tell you all about the new big stupid thing I did. If I die, just add it to the long list of bullshit you don’t need to hear.
I always wondered what Lucifer felt when God hit him with the final thunderbolt. The one that scorched and dented his theoretically invulnerable angelic armor.
This should be interesting.
I manifest the Gladius. It burns my injured hand but not enough to stop. I hold it out and count to three. Then swing it.
Whatever it is I feel when the Gladius hits my chest, it’s not pain. It’s something so far beyond pain that my human brain can’t register it. The only way I know I’ve made contact is that I’m knocked flat on my back with a heady bouquet of burning skin and seared metal in my nose. I don’t think the Middle Way smells like this. Missed it again, Bill.
I’m done fighting and looking for answers. I got mine.
What did that last thunderbolt feel like?
Nothing at all.
Good night, moon.
I drift for a million years. I’m in Mr. Muninn’s cavern. Samael is with him. They’re playing Operation. The buzzer goes off when Samael tries to take out the funny bone.
Muninn doesn’t look surprised to see me.
“Would you like a drink, son?”
“Sure. Am I dead?”
He just smiles and wags a finger at me.
I look at Samael.
“No wonder you never went up against Aelita. You can’t even work tweezers.”
He nods and sips from a crystal champagne glass.
“Lovely to see you too, Jimmy. How’s tricks?”
“Is this real? Am I here? Are you there?”
“Real is a relative thing for people like us. What’s real? What’s here? What’s there? Things are as real and as where as you want them to be.”
“I’m not like you or Muninn. My celestial half is gone. I’m just another human asshole.”
Over my shoulder I hear Muninn laugh.
Samael sets down his glass and tries for the funny bone again. He misses.
“You’re not a regular human any more than we are.”
I look around the cavern piled high with junk from every earthly civilization that ever was. Everything from cave paintings to a Higgs boson trapped in a magnetic bottle.
I turn to Samael. He raises an eyebrow.
