Lindon scanned Mercy’s spirit. “We can treat her. Stand aside.”
Charity hesitated. She glanced around as though looking for help. Then, helplessly, she moved.
Lindon bent down to pick Mercy up, but one person stood up to him. Pride covered her. “We’ll take care of her,” the Underlord insisted.
Lindon picked Mercy up anyway.
“When I see you again,” Lindon said, “I hope we’re on the same side.”
Then they left, because no one could stop them.
23
Iteration 300: Vesper
While Suriel stitched together yet another ruined world, she left Ozriel with little to occupy him.
There wasn’t much she could do about it. This was part of her role as his caretaker. She had to keep him in her presence, under observation, and from using any powers without her permission. Therefore, while she dedicated her concentration to an important task like restoring the laws of reality to an entire world, she commanded him to do nothing.
Even without his powers, he could still access the private Abidan network for entertainment, education, or catching up on what he’d missed. Given that there had been a world-spanning war from which they were desperately trying to recover, he should surely have much to learn.
Instead, he drifted around her and talked.
“Oh, they’re already fighting Malice!” Ozriel said brightly. “Yes! Get her! Stab her once for me!”
Suriel reconstituted an entire continent from nothing. It had started to dissolve into the Void, so it was harder than usual. “I’ll catch up on the Report later.”
“Did I tell you Dross was back? I kind of liked the other one, but it’s nice to hear his old voice again.”
Suriel’s finger twitched. She wanted to see.
The gray featureless ghost of a woman appeared over her shoulder as her Presence manifested itself. [Suriel requires her full concentration for this task, and you are proving a distraction. I will accompany you instead. One moment, and I will temporarily seal her hearing so that you and I can watch together.]
Suriel wondered once again if it was possible to have a full-powered Presence with a cooperative personality.
Her Presence turned to her and folded its arms. [Permission to seal your hearing temporarily, for the purpose of having a private discussion with Ozriel?]
“Hurry up!” Ozriel insisted. He was looking off into the distance. “Malice is about to try transporting Mercy away.”
Suriel’s Presence shuffled a little closer to Ozriel. It kept its thoughts disciplined, but Suriel knew it wanted to go watch.
“Permission denied,” Suriel said irritably. “We can watch later. There’s work to do.”
Ozriel gave her a put-upon look. “You know there’s something different about watching live!” He sighed. “It’s even better watching from the inside. Being there. It’s so much more fun than downloading thought-records from an infinite number of kilometers away—”
“I can’t go down to Cradle, can I? I’m not from there.” She regretted that for a moment, then immediately felt guilty.
Her home world was a fine place, it had just been at peace for thousands of years. There were still the occasional petty squabbles over land or respect—there was no such thing as a true utopia, not as long as it was inhabited by humans—but she had no interest in descending as a mortal to influence trade disputes or border negotiations.
“You don’t need to go down there, just come over here and…” Ozriel made a disappointed sound. “Never mind, temporal sync is broken. Have to wait for time to catch up.” He shook a black-gauntleted fist at the planet floating beneath them. “Curse you, Vesper! Fix your time!”
“That’s what I’m trying to do,” Suriel said, but she was relieved. She wouldn’t rush an actual job to watch something for her own entertainment, and now she could have both.
In truth, fixing the temporal stability of the world, making time run smoothly again, was a simple process. Barring actual damage from corruption, the world’s time would work consistently as long as it had a closer relationship with the Way. So restoring Fate and bringing people back to life also fixed the temporal laws at the same time.
Without Ozriel to distract her, she found the work soothing. While she worked to stitch reality back together, she could forget about the broader conflict and the scope of the damage in other worlds. Reconstruction was a purely positive action.
And it was gratifying to know that she was using her talents effectively. She alone could do the work of an entire squad of lesser Phoenixes, even including some of the more skilled and talented under her command.