Part 108  Curvilinear Rainbows




     EARTH:

     My memories were leaking away, like the sparkling dew of late-
night aethers dissipating in the early morning sundawn.  Within the
constellation of forgotten possibilities, the confusion in my heart
remained, stalwart against the leeching of mind and soul as I was
transformed back into some semblance of 'me'.
     Still.
     The quadrangle of Keiichi, Skuld, Urd and myself was a very
unsettled formation as we gathered around the round cedarwood table in
the dining room.  Without Belldandy to cast form upon on our evening
repast, we had to make do with microwavable food.  Each of us,
excepting Keiichi, was too greatly disturbed to volunteer the duty of
meal prep.  Keiichi, being the least distraught, offered to cook
dinner for us.
     Keiichi was an excellent mechanic, but his engineering skills had
definitely borrowed vastly from the pool of his talents, especially
borrowing from his skills as chef.  Without Belldandy's supervision,
Keiichi was hard-pressed to cook anything more elaborate than simple
cup-noodle type dishes.  So we politely declined his offer.  For some
reason, I felt grumble-gnawed, as if I hadn't eaten a meal in days.
The last thing I wanted was mal-cooked food inside of me.
     Urd and Skuld were visibly devastated when they discovered the
form of their sister so elegantly captured in a frigid cage of ice.
Ever worse than seeing the spectral physical manifestation of
Belldandy...the two sisters shared the awareness that they couldn't
'sense' their sister at all.  It would have been easier if Belldandy
was a ghost; at least she wouldn't look so *real*.  But instead, she
looked *too* real in her congealed transparent casing.  The ice-body
resembled Belldandy so much, I expected her to become vivified and
float up out of her icy prison at any moment.  My mind flighted on the
wary notion that someone had encoffined Belldandy in the koi pond
simply to fuck with us.  To taunt us with the unreachable, so that we
would doubt our sight and our senses.  The tragic overtones of the
situation reminded me of the plight of Orpheus and Eurydice...
     Soon after I had arrived in Japan, I was made aware of the
'invisible thread' of recognition that bonded the three together.
Because Belldandy, Skuld and Urd were Norns, they exchanged a
mysterious type of 'vibration', for lack of a better word.  They
shared a Metanative wave of sensation that was invisible to we mere
mortals, but was quite discernible to them.  The Enigma Book confirmed
that they possessed a special link, but I couldn't begin to comprehend
how it felt like.  Urd had described this impression as familiar to
her as the sense of wearing clothes would be to us.  Tragically, the
body wearing Belldandy's delicate facial features imprisoned in the
koi pond might as well have been a wax figure from Madame Tussand's
museum.  It *was* Belldandy on the outside...but on the inside, there
was a null where the Soul should have been.
     A lifeless simulacrum.
     Because of this, I felt very uneasy around Keiichi...not so much
as a result of his remembering...but as a result of his forgetting.
Belldandy was encased in ice, and Keiichi was only slightly perturbed
at this.  Like an enigmatic Chinese Box puzzle, Keiichi didn't seem to
have any knowledge of his love for Belldandy.  If he did, he would
obviously be assailed by the kind of grief he had felt when she had
been promised to Tyyr by her parents during the omiai mishap.  This
was *not* the Keiichi that risked life and limb to climb a tall ladder
in the eye of SuperTyphoon Akira so he could retrieve Mjolnir from its
mount atop a tall beam we had fastened to our house.  I remembered how
he fell to injury when the winds picked, but through his efforts, we
were able to return Skuld and Belldandy back into their normal bodies.
Only Love could fuel such a daredevil ambition in a man.  And this
certainly wasn't the Keiichi who had humbled himself while proposing
to Belldandy in the middle of a victory speech at the post-Le Mans
banquet.
     Try as I might, I sensed no ripples disturbing Keiichi's Soul
regarding her disappearance.  Not even a hint of the overwrought grief
I expected him to feel when we discovered that she was gone.
Belldandy's absence seemed to be about as upsetting to Keiichi as a
missing wrench in the garage.  To me, this cast him in the
psychological garment of being *alien*.  Alien to himself, alien to my
experience of him, his affection for Belldandy congealed.  I could
fancifully assume that Keiichi had been possessed by a ghost without
reaching too far into my imaginative faculties.  In a sense, he *was*
a ghost of himself; the passion that his divine girlfriend seemed to
ignite in his heart was gone.  Belldandy had been life itself to
Keiichi; their love deeper and more vivid than a brilliant meadow of
sunflowers weaving in the May-time zephyrs.  This person sitting next
to me at the dinner table was definitely Keiichi, as I could sense the
nuances of his bearing that distinguished him.  Yet, he wasn't Keiichi
as well.  The absence of Belldandy within Keiichi was more than a
little disturbing to me.
     While his 'amnesia' made Keiichi seem simply alien to me...in the
eyes of Belldandy's sisters, his attitude of nonchalance towards
Belldandy's plight was an insidious act of betrayal that verged on
criminality.  The amnesia he was suffering wasn't a type of severe
retrograde memory loss where he was missing whole months or years out
of his life.  Nor did Keiichi seem to have a head injury or some other
trauma that could indicate that he was suffering from Post-trauma
induced amnesia.  Further, his memory deficits *only* arose when we
asked him about his feelings towards Belldandy.  He didn't have the
dream-like quality to his feelings, or the mythology of impressions
that usually accompanies amnesia.  This whole thing was too damn
selective to be a coincidence!
     Or was it?
     Skuld and Urd just couldn't seem to get it through their heads
that Keiichi wasn't forgetting Belldandy out of spite.  I felt
uncertain as well, but I wasn't convinced that his air of unconcern
towards Belldandy's absence was borne out of maliciousness.  The more
and more Urd and Skuld got angry with him, the more and more Keiichi's
face would screw up with an expression of exasperation and disbelief.
He truly seemed to believe that Belldandy was nothing more than a
friend to him.  I exhausted myself trying to suggest to him otherwise,
then I tired myself out further by suggesting to Urd and Skuld that
Keiichi's betrayal may have been forced upon him somehow.  Inside of
his heart, I argued, he still loved Belldandy.  But something was
shielding him from feeling his love for her.
     Just like inside of my heart, I still loved Urd.
     But I knew why Urd had been made to discharge the proof of her
feelings towards me.  Keiichi was bewildered; he didn't know why he
had lost all sense of his love for Belldandy...and *none* of us could
explain this change to ourselves or each other.  I had given up Urd so
that Isilblius could be defeated.  Beyond this, I didn't know *how* he
had been defeated.  But Urd and Skuld had experienced five years of
Keiichi expressing affection towards their sister.  And now it was
gone.
     I was convinced that some force had robbed him of his feelings
for Belldandy.  Either that, or I would have to face the fact that the
forgetting that I had bestowed upon Urd...had also been mistakenly
bestowed upon Keiichi.
     But to Urd and Skuld, the silence of his heart was a refusal.

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

     Keiichi looked up from the textbook on Advanced Transform
mathematics.  His mind was wandering again...he had completely drifted
away from Professor Matsumoto's lecture.  Which was dangerous,
considering that there were only eleven other students in the class.
The Prof didn't tolerate slacking in his NIT Graduate School seminars.
He was quick to remind his students that they were in his class only
by virtue of the sufferance of others: either the taxpayers in the
case of those who received student aid; or family members, in the case
of Sayoko.  Any snoozing or inattentiveness in class, and the elderly
Chair of Mathematics at NIT would snap out a quick reproof against the
transgressor.  He came from the old school, where public humiliation
in the classroom was considered a 'teaching' method.
     Once again, he had tears in his eyes.  Every so often, Keiichi
noticed that his eyes would well up with unbidden wetness.  Of course,
he hadn't broken into any bouts of girlish sobbing, but his heart
would feel so lead-weight heavy at the most unexpected times.
Everyone at school kept asking him about Belldandy's whereabouts, and
he had to lie that his friend was "off on vacation to visit her
homeland".  Occasionally, he would catch his closest friends at NIT
looking at him askance, as if there was something wrong with him.
They all seemed to think that he was in love with Belldandy!  Which
wasn't true...Keiichi had never had a steady girlfriend in his life.
While all the other guys were dating in high school and college, he
was too uncertain of himself to ask any girls out.  But they kept
insisting that he was "Belldandy's boyfriend".  It was bad enough
getting pecked by Urd and Skuld at home, but he was getting vibed at
school as well.
     Then, hours later, Keiichi would be laying in his futon in his
room after a hard night at work studying engineering schematics...and
the sudden urge to cry would once again possess him.  True, he was
definitely saddened by the fact that Belldandy was gone.  Like the
others, he was unnerved by the fact that some life-like replica of her
had been deposited in a frozen pool of ice where the koi pond used to
be.  But not sad enough that he'd be crying.  Belldandy was a
Goddess...wherever she was, Keiichi knew that she could take care of
herself.
     "What the hell is wrong with me?" he asked himself, unamused at
his flights of inattention.  He jarred himself, forcing his gaze to
fix upon Dr. Matsumoto, who was hurriedly scrawling the outline for
today's lecture on the chalkboard.
     Against the noisy clacker-screech of chalk on chalkboard, Keiichi
reminded himself that he could visit Cevn after class was over.  His
friend had a roomy office, and kept office hours in the afternoon on
Tuesdays and Thursdays.  But something seemed different about him.
Cevn had become a little stand-offish to Keiichi as of late.  Keiichi
knew that Cevn had majored in psychology in his undergrad years; thus,
he had hoped that he could put on his 'therapist's hat' and explain
these sudden bouts of melancholy.  But instead of explanations, Cevn
would probe him with searching questions.  Also, Keiichi sensed that
his worries seemed to trouble Cevn as well.  Ever since he had
awakened from the mysterious dreamless sleep he experienced a couple
weeks ago, Keiichi was constantly conflicted by indecision.
     Urd and Skuld were ice-cold to him...their polite deference as
ice-cold as Belldandy's form under the koi pond.  No one could explain
how she had wound up in the koi pond in the first place, statue-like
in the frozen shallowness.  Now that it was early December, the first
seasonal snows had flurried upon Chiba, painting the cityscape with
grey and white.  With each snowfall, either Skuld or Urd would
solemnly go out into the front yard and sweep the snow off the ice of
the koi pond, so that Belldandy wouldn't be buried out of sight in the
drifts.
     They could cry.
     Several midnights ago, he heard a wailing sobbing coming from the
sister's bedroom during a mid-night waking spell.  He could understand
why Skuld and Urd were so sad.  Oddly enough, he sensed that the two
sisters seemed to *blame* him for Belldandy's disappearance.  But
Keiichi couldn't fathom why *he* was sad as well.
     Belldandy had come down from heaven to grant him a wish, and he
couldn't remember what his wish had been.
     For a second, he tried again to remember what his wish had been,
but such a task was quite impossible in the midst of one of Professor
Matsumoto's lectures on the higher advances of math...

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

     "Would you stop staring at me!" Urd yelled at Cevn.  She had
caught him staring at her again.  Floating in mid-air in front of the
TV in a red sweater, black mini-skirt and knee-high knits, she had
shifted position...and spied him looking at her from the corner of the
living room.  The insensitive jerk!  He was only *pretending* to read
the book he had in his hands.  Why'd he even bother flipping the pages
to make his reading appear authentic?  Everyone knew that he was
spying on her.  She thought briefly that she and Skuld should ban him
from being in the living room in the evening while she was watching
her sitcoms.  He could read his books in his room, for all Urd cared.
     Sitcoms were stupid, because they reminded her of how stupid
mortal men and women really are.  But for some reason, she couldn't
label Cevn as being stupid.  Irritating to an extreme...yes!  He was
definitely treading on her nerves.  But stupid...no, she didn't see
him as stupid.
     He was worse.
     When she had first brought him here, the guy was almost phobic
towards women.  While most guys would stare at her gawkishly with
lust-fascinated, borderline-drooling expressions...she didn't hold
that kind of power over Cevn.  Instead, Urd discerned that his aura
was percolated with tension and anxiety whenever he was around her.
At first, Urd had assumed that he was gay, but later on Belldandy and
Keiichi confided to her that Cevn was 'troubled'.  Then Cevn himself
had disclosed the horrific events in his past, which sealed her
sister's assessment of him.  His anxiety around her wasn't his fault,
nor hers.  Naturally, Urd was fascinated with the challenge of trying
to use her beauty to see if she force him past his shyness.  But
numerous attempts at seduction had transformed themselves in
'incidents'; usually, Cevn would have an emotional meltdown and wind
up blenching away from her.  And everyone else in the house had gotten
on her for attempting to seduce Cevn, chewing her out for being
disrespectful towards his sensitivities.  Eventually, the game grew
old, especially when Urd realized that her charm couldn't offset his
fears.  After this, she allowed herself to tolerate him, resigned to
the fact that he was even more hapless than Keiichi.  But
romantically, he might as well be brick thrown into mud.
     Urd knew that Cevn's 'sensitivities' were nothing more than the
result of his being fucked up around women.  Like most mortals, he had
converted his 'issues' into 'baggage'; he eventually became convinced
that he had no traits of consequence to render himself attractive in
the eyes of the opposite sex.  Being a Goddess Senior First Class, Urd
knew that she could easily employ a selective Mindwipe technique to
remove all the bad memories from him, so that he could start behaving
normally like most other guys.  Instead of shedding waves of fear like
a cat sheds hair, Cevn could get a nosebleed whenever she pranced
around him in an alluring outfit.
     That would be normal.
     But right now, Urd was inclined to Mindwipe him completely.  Wash
the paint off the canvas, erase the chalkboard, drain the teapot...
     Lately, Cevn *wasn't* acting himself.  It was bad enough that
Keiichi was so weird in the head, totally forgetting five years of
being heart-bonded with Belldandy.  Keiichi's ignorance of this was a
constant source of irritation to her and Skuld.  But Cevn's
'attentions' towards her were wearing Urd's patience thin.  Paper
thin.  The nervousness she sensed when she sat near him at the dinner
table wasn't the "stay away from me" kind.  Strangely enough, Cevn's
edgy demeanor reminded Urd of an ex-boyfriend, especially how awkward
he acted around her after they had broken up.  Normally, when a God
and Goddess chose to end a romantic relationship, the pair simply
reconstitute their relationship...and their hearts do the rest.  There
was no stringing along, no back-biting, no enmeshment, no back-and-
forth denial, no stalking, no battles in court...none of the bitter
afflictions that often plagued mortals when they call it off.  And
yet, when Urd broke up with the Cherry Blossom Spirit, she remained
infatuated.  900 millennia later, and a simple T-shirt design for
Keiichi's motor club...still set her off into passionate fantasies.
Troubadour simple bailed on her, seeking some 'muse' instead of her
affections.  Dimwit.  Before Troubadour, Cherry Blossom and she had
mutually agreed to break up because their relationship had hit a dead
end of sorts.  Even after she had broken up with the Cherry Blossom
Spirit, his fickle nature caused him to try and win her affections
back for a couple millennia before she finally made him aware that she
was no longer interested in him.  But they had been in love, so she
could understand his lingering affection.  Cevn and she had never been
in love...such a love being utterly impossible considering her status
as Norn of the Past...but yet he was acting goofy, as if he had been
in love with her.  As a young adult, Urd later became the Norn of the
Past and was forbidden by the Ultimate Force to have a romantic
relationship.  Yet, she still wondered "what if?" from time to time.
     She sensed the same emotional wanderlust in Cevn's eyes, as if
*he* was wondering "what if?"
     There he was again, peeking over the top of his book at her.
     "This is *my* living room!" Urd said in a punctuating growl of a
voice.  "If you're going to stare, at least do so discretely.
Otherwise, go read your book in your room."
     Without a word, Cevn stood up and left the living room.
     Urd sighed, as she could sense the troubled aura lingering behind
him.  A moment later, her attention was engaged by the antics of the
girl on TV trying to decide between the kind-hearted accountant and
the rebellious artist...

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

THERA:

     Belldandy awoke to find Keiichi staring at her.  Instinctively,
she pulled the futon covers tight under her chin and glared at him.
     "The nerve of you!  We're in a temple, and you're observing me
while I'm sleeping.  What if the priest saw you...eeep!!!"
     As if on cue, the priest waved at her.
     *Two* men were invading her waking moments.  One was God, the
other was a Buddhist priest.  In neither case was it appropriate for
them to be in the same room with her.  This could only mean one thing.
     "What'd I do wrong?" Belldandy stammered.
     "You didn't do anything wrong," Keiichi assured her.  "But our
honorable host has a few words he'd like to have with you."
     Belldandy didn't feel very assured by his choice of words.  She
felt like she was going to get scolded by the principal for being
tardy.  Maybe the priest was mad at her for sleeping in.  Priests tend
to get up *very* early in the morning...
     "Young lady, after talking to your boyfriend..."
     Belldandy shot an withering stare at Keiichi, who grinned
sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head.
     "I have decided to travel to China and India to seek further
enlightenment.  For one so young, he seems to be well versed in the
Way.  He has given me much to contemplate.  However, I am hindered by
a material bond.  I cannot leave in good conscience without assigning
the care of this ancient temple to a responsible party.  Normally, I
would have to maneuver through catacombs of bureaucracy, both
governmental and religious, to accomplish such a task.  Handing over a
temple isn't as easy as handing over a shrine; there is no family
involved in matters of inheritance.  As I am a poor monk, I have no
followers or apprentices that I can avail to for such a matter.
However, your companion suggested a reasonable alternative.  He said
that he would undertake the keep of this temple, provided that you
share in the task.  Which means that you and he would reside here.  He
appraised me of your current indigent status," the priest noted.
     "What did you tell him!" Belldandy shouted, sitting up quickly in
her futon.
     "He merely said that you were a college student who had lost her
student housing," the priest answered.  "He *is* solicitous towards
your well-being...you should trust your boyfriend."
     "HE IS NOT MY BOYFRIEND!" Belldandy shouted, pounding her fist on
the wooden temple flooring.
     "Ahhh, but you quarrel like..." the priest started to comment.
Keiichi waved him off with an up-and-down hand motion.
     "My proposition is this.  I am willing to let you and this young
man live here in the ancient temple, provided that you see to the
upkeep of all the buildings and the grounds.  This young man," the
priest noted, reaching up and clapping a hand on Keiichi's shoulder,
"assures me that he is fully capable of hard work.  He even claims to
be a competent repairman.  This old temple needs so *many* repairs..."
     Every instinct inside of her was screaming at her to say "NO!"
     "We'll do it!"
     She covered her mouth with her hands, but it was too late.
     "Ahhh!!!  This is wonderful!" the priest exclaimed, happily
clapping his hands together in front of his chin.  Keiichi grinned at
her, perhaps surprised that she had agreed.
     Before Belldandy could get another word in, the priest asked, "My
dear, could you prepare a final meal for an aged spiritual wanderer,
one that will christen his coming journey with a seasoning of good
memories?"

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

     Somehow, she had managed it.  Belldandy had used almost all of
the food in the kitchen to prepare a feast for the priest.  Obligation
commingled with frustration; she felt obligated because the priest was
willing to loan them an *entire* temple.  Real estate prices being
what they were in Makuhari and Chiba, the expansive temple grounds
alone were worth more money than she'd see in a dozen lifetimes.  Her
frustration dwelled upon the realization that she had been shuffled
into 'cook duty' without even bothering to protest.  Stupid male
chauvinists.
     Keiichi visited her from time to time, suggesting to her how to
spice her food.  This also fueled Belldandy's irritation; especially
when she realized that he probably knew what he was talking about.
     After all, he was God.
     Keiichi had taken it upon himself to lay out a large floormat for
the 'banquet'.  Belldandy sat on the end, while he and the priest sat
across from each other.  The food was very tasty, but Belldandy was
warily eying the dozens of bowls and plates that had accumulated
during the meal.
     She was definitely *not* going to do the dishes!
     The next several hours passed quickly, as the priest gave them
explicit instructions on the numerous chores involved in taking care
of the temple.  Finally, after a monologue of 'rules' about the
functions of the temple, the aged priest rubbed his belly and belched,
signifying the end of their supper.  He stood up and bowed to her and
Keiichi appreciatively.
     "If you will excuse me," he asked.
     "Sir, if I may have your leave to begin repairs on the temple,"
Keiichi volunteered.  The priest fixed him with a surprised
expression, noting that "none should leave the dinner table and begin
chores so quickly."
     "I feel that I should start right away, to repay your act of
compassionate kindness," Keiichi insisted.
     "If you feel that way, then freely go about your repairs," the
priest acquiesced.
     Keiichi waved his hand...
     Belldandy gasped as the entire temple was wrapped in a golden
light for what seemed like five or six seconds.  When the light
lifted, she was left speechless...
     The cedarwood floor was no longer scratched and thin worn.  The
stripes of wood in the flooring seemed brand new; there wasn't a hint
of warping or ill-fitting pieces.  In fact, *everything* seemed brand
new.  The Buddha-images in the worship room shone brightly with a
polish of golds and silvers, the ceiling beams were sturdy and
aromatic, the walls were freshly panels and unchipped.
     The priest was awestruck in his silence.
     "Now you've gone and done it!" Belldandy thought to herself as
she regarded Keiichi.  Arms crossed, he was surveying his handwork.
He didn't just repair the temple...he had rendered it brand new.  It
could have been built yesterday, as far as the eye could reckon.
     "M..mmm...nmer...Merciful Buddha!" the priest finally gasped in a
thin voice.
     "I hope you approve, sir," Keiichi said, bowing deeply to the
priest.  "Those who undertake spiritual pursuits are rarely
appreciated in this modern age of instant convenience and consumer
decadence.  What you see before you is not my doing, but it is of the
temple itself.  I have but allowed the spirit of the temple to
manifest as it would, and the temple chose to manifest thus in
gratitude for the years of devotion and hard work you have poured into
it.  This is the temple's essence, and it is most thankful to you.
Please enjoy this glimpse into its Soul..."
     The priest twirled around in the middle of the room...
     "Do you think it's safe?" Belldandy commented aside to Keiichi.
"He doesn't know anything about who you really are.  He's a
*priest*...and you just performed a miracle!  He's bound to tell
someone..."
     "Not if he's in India," Keiichi replied with a wink.  "He'll take
at least a dozen years just to learn the languages there, while all
the while he will be instructed by the holiest spiritual masters
there.  Once he gains further enlightenment, he'll realize the miracle
for what it is...just a part of life."
     "B..but," Belldandy started to argue.
     "And now, to India with you!" Keiichi said.  With a flash, the
priest was gone.
     "He's well on his way to becoming a Buddha!" Keiichi commented to
himself with a grin.
     Belldandy shook her head...and then realized that she was alone.
In a temple.  With a man.  Just the two of them.  And He was God.

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

ASGARD MATRIX VII:

     Prizm surveyed the bowed bridge of a million technicolors from
the balcony of the Swarp Gate tower.  She could see the six other
Swarp Gate towers piercing the sky-mist in the distance, each slender
circular tower perched along alternating sides of the bridge.  Beyond
them was the blue glow of the Matrix, ribboned by millions of other
Bridges.  Although the floating constellation-city of Kami-sama was
the *true* hub of the Yggdrasil Logorinth...when she gazed out at the
nebulous Matrix, Prizm could almost feel a certain sense that Asgard
Matrix VII was the center of all of Yggdrasil.  The Matrix was a
construct of Beauty itself; she felt graced simply by being present
within it.
     "Okay, now that we're all here, do you want to explain to us why
we're here, Ulfryn?" Pryzm asked, holding her hands behind her back as
she turned to face her younger twin sister.  Ulfryn had beckoned their
flight to this place, and Pryzm had made it so.  Whether their
escapade would remain undiscovered remained to be seen, but she had
taken care of the hard part...getting to Yggdrasil.  Prizm was going
on sheer trust, hoping that her sis knew what she was doing.  However,
when she pressed Ulfryn for an explanation about why this expedition
was so urgent, her sister kept her lips sealed.
     "What can be so important that you asked us all to skip school,
leave the Earthrealm and come here?  You even told us not to tell our
parents or grandparents!  And you didn't bother to tell me, you own
twin sister.  You just said it had to do with 'family business' or
something," Pryzm added with a soft scowl, her grey-brown eyes
piercing.
     "It does!!!  It does have to do with family!" Ulfryn interjected
hastily, meeting her sister's eyes.
     Nearby, Pryzm could feel the basso subsonic humming of the Swarp
Hypernality...which seemed to vibrate in synch with her own tension.
She and the other three children had a hybrid of capabilities that
reflected their dual nature.  On the Earthrealm, they struggled with
math and geography, aged in spans equivalent to other mortal children,
and had the usual conflicts with peers and parents.  Here, in the
Yggdrasil Logorinth, they possessed the Goddess powers of, say, an
Earthrealm Spirit.  They could jump in on any inculcation session with
their God-boy and God-girl classmates and not lose a beat.  And they
didn't age, although their physical manifestations matched those they
had on the Earthrealm.  Mother had to prepare them each time they
visited the grandparents...the sudden shift from being 11-year-old
schoolgirls to being young Goddesses was often overwhelming the first
few moments in the Logorinth.  As far as family education...Mother
took care of the "Goddess" stuff, while Father took care of the
"Human" stuff, at least when he was off-season or playing at home.  Of
course, both of them talked about the 'sex' stuff, while Father
instructed them on athletics and 'no drug lectures'.
     Both she and Ulfryn still felt a little creepy at time with the
idea of having breakfast with their Dad before going to school in the
morning, and then catching the train home at dusk, eating dinner with
Mom, and then turning on the TV to watch him pitch for the Giants on
NHK national network the same night.
     Family.
     As Ulfryn tried to decide on how she was going to explain
herself, her memory lit upon the events that set the whole wheel
spinning...
     It was about a year ago when she first started noticing the
ghosts.
     Actually, the whole thing started started when Falcyn and Sygyn
came to visit.  Whenever their cousins and their Aunt would visit,
they would stay in the Demon's Wing of the temple house.  Usually
during summer break, Auntie would leave them for a few weeks while she
conducted 'business' in Vanagdrasil.
     Ulfryn had known Falcyn as far back as she could remember; he was
always the tall boy-cousin who looked so cute and acted so rotten.  At
times Ulfryn aspired to be like Falcyn...especially when he started
into his teens.  Suddenly, he wasn't a punk; instead, she thought he
was so mature.  Already in Junior High at that time, he was wearing
the dark blue uniform of his school.  Auntie had enrolled him and
Sygyn in one of those 'good' schools, mostly so that Falcyn could have
the best sports instructors and Sygyn's genius wouldn't go to waste.
But that day, seeing him in his uniform...
     She was reminded of another boy.  No, not a boy...but a grown-up.
It was the weirdest thing she had experienced, which was saying a lot
when your Mom is a Goddess, your Dad is a star baseball player, and
your Aunt is a Demoness.  Every time she would look at Falcyn...Ulfryn
would see *two* of him.  She would see a shaggy-haired teenage boy who
had idol-star looks when he didn't wear his silly glasses.  But she
would also see an *older* Falcyn; a young man who had dark bangs of
straight brown hair and a winning smile.
     It got so bad, Ulfryn had eaten a whole half gallon of her Mom's
favorite ice cream that night and got sick.
     The next day was more of the same.  Falcyn was always so serious,
except when he was flirting with girls.  Then, he was simply goofy.
Of course, Pryzm used this trait to tease him all the time.  But later
in the day, Auntie and Mom left for a "grown-ups shopping expedition",
leaving the four of them to play around in the yard.  In the
afternoon, Ulfryn noticed that she was definitely feeling
uncomfortable around Falcyn...feeling almost feverish whenever at
times.  Worried that she was sick, she chased down Mom when they got
back from shopping and asked her if she could take a nap.
     That night, she saw Falcyn riding a motorcycle.  The dream was
vivid to the point of being as clear as a movie.  But that wasn't
all...in her catalog of dreams, she also saw an older woman.  Not a
*old* woman, but a woman about Mom's age.  The woman seemed to smile
gently at her, wordlessly reassuring her that she wasn't dreaming...
     And then she would wake up.
     But sometimes, after dreaming the same dream a few dozen times,
Ulfryn awakened one morning to find that the woman and man were still
in her room *after she woke up*!
     When she fearfully explained all this to Mother, her Mom simply
suggested that she had been working too hard in school, and now she
had taken on some 'imaginary friends' to help her ease the pressure.
True to her nature, Mom didn't ignore her outright; she installed a
network of surveillance devices in Ulfryn's room, so she could 'catch'
the holophotic imprint of the visitors.
     But nothing happened.  Mom's detection devices yielded nothing
out of the ordinary.  It was quite unlikely for her Mother's mecha
creations to malfunction...after all, Mom was *very good* at designing
and building new inventions...so Ulfryn decided that she was just
imagining the whole thing.  Maybe Mom was right.  She was right about
so many things...
     Maybe her reaction was due to the fact that her cousin was not
just a boy, but a Demon.  Ulfryn even fretted with the idea that maybe
she was old enough to find her older cousing attractive, as in "I wish
he was my boyfriend" sort of attractive.  This scared her to death,
and Pryzm had teased her to death once she learned about Ulfryn's
'secret'.  Maybe that was why she was imagining all sorts of stuff,
like an older version of Falcyn.
     Ulfryn almost gave up, hoping that the dream-visitors would go
away.  She didn't feel bothered by them, but she *was* bothered by the
mystery surrounding them.  There was no way to prove they existed, and
no one else ever saw them.
     Then one day, she saw *four* of them.  She had dozed off in
school, irritated because one of the boys in her class had teased her
and her sister.  Her hair was a remarkable color of pink, with streaks
of black and brunette mixed in...and she had always had to lie about
it.  Girls on the Earthrealm just don't have naturally pink hair, with
apologies to all the anime heroines who did.  And Pryzm would stick up
for her, which resulted in additional teasing of the 'tomboy' variety
directed at her older twin sister.
     So actually, Ulfryn was faking sleep so that the boy and his
hoodlum friends wouldn't bother her and her sister any more...but then
she fell asleep for real.  When she woke up, embarrassed at falling
asleep on her desk, Ulfryn saw a girl and a boy in addition to the
woman and the man-who-looked-like-Falcyn.
     Mother didn't have a clue what *that* had meant.
     Since Mom didn't know, Ulfryn snuck away one night and sought the
highest authority she knew of...
     Kami-sama Himself.
     Scared to death...not only because she was visiting the Presence,
but that she might get caught sneaking out of the house, Ulfryn had
approached the constellation-city residence of the Almighty.  Inside
of the reception castle, the pink-haired receptionist informed her
that she was expected...and then Ulfryn had became even more
terrified.  She remembered thinking, "He *must* be the Almighty; He's
actually *awaiting* my visit, and I haven't told *any one*!!!"  By the
time she was admitted through the crystal doors into His mega-awe-
inspiring audience chamber, she was quivering from head to toe.
     In less than a minute, He had her giggling.
     Her fears forgotten, Ulfryn posed the single question that had
journeyed her towards risking everything to seek His insight.
     "What do my dreams mean?"
     After a pause, He answered, "Your dreams are a part of yourself,
and yet not a part of yourself, My Child."
     When Ulfryn pressed Him for further explanation, He declined.
She was disappointed, until He told her an Earthrealm fable about the
husband would couldn't feed himself, and when his wife left to visit
her parents, he starved to death.  Ulfryn immediately knew what He was
suggesting in His silence.  She had to come up with the answers
herself.  But He was very loving and tender towards her...she had
never felt so protected and safe, even when she was around Mother and
Father.  She told Him that she thought he was the greatest man in all
of the Multiverse...and He answered her "No.  Your father is the
greatest man in the Multiverse, because he loves you totally, with all
of his heart."
     She was brought to tears by His heart-touching revelation of the
truth, and He gathered her onto His lap and hugged her to His chest
for a moment.  She remembered His last words to her...
     "My Child, everything you ever will need in your life is already
inside of your heart.  The greatest joy one can find in life is
learning how to listen to their heart."
     With a sly grin, He even snuck her back home by doing some neat
trick with Time and Space, so that she wouldn't get in trouble with
Mom...
     He was the Almighty.
     Ulfryn told Pryzm about her adventure in the Lord's palace, and
His answer-that-wasn't-an-answer.  Needless to say, Pryzm almost
choked on her breath at first, gasped out "You visited the
*Almighty*?!"  But once her older twin became inclined to believe her,
she started the usual teasing about her being "a dreamer" and
threatened to tell on her to Mom.  But Ulfryn knew that Pryzm was also
very concerned about her, in a big-sisterly way.  Pryzm even confided
to her that she was worried one day while walking home from school.
     How could she let some silly dreams influence her enough to cause
her to go to the *Lord* to get help?
     In a final act of desperation, Ulfryn decided to try and follow
the Lord's advice.  But listening to one's heart is quite difficult,
for the speech of the heart is uncertain and often whispered.  Ulfryn
spent several months listening to her kokoro.  A year ago, she didn't
even know what a kokoro was, except the kind of kokoro that she read
about in shojo manga and saw during evening dramas on TV.
     And then it all came to her last week...

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

     "Okay, you guys...I'll tell you my big secret," Ulfryn said in a
wavering voice.  Pryzm could tell that her sister was scared; she was
fighting with herself to maintain eye contact with she and the
others...
     Must be *some* secret!
     "But you all have to pinky-promise me that you won't tease me if
I'm wrong, and that you won't tell Mom and Dad and Auntie about this.
It's *our* secret from now on..." Ulfryn added, a worried look on her
face.
     "That's stupid!  That's beyond stupid...that's retarded!
Besides, guys don't do pinky-promises!" Falcyn immediately noted
disapprovingly, his half-boy half-man's voice shrill with irritation.
     "Falcyn..." Sygyn warned in a threatening voice dewy with
displeasure.  Pryzm almost giggled as 'Falcyn The Mighty' backed down,
convincingly chided by a single word from his younger sis.  Grimacing,
he stuck out his pinky...
     The four joined their pinkies and took a solemn oath.  Prizm
thought Ulfryn's solemnity about her 'secret' was a bit on the inane
side, but she hooked her pinky finger with the others and shook it
three times.  Oddly enough, she noticed that Ulfryn's initial anxiety
seemed to mellow once the assurance had been granted by her cousins.
     "Okay...now I can tell you all," Ulfryn said, and then paused,
her gaze wandering off in the direction of a handsome young God who
floated by.
     "About the secret..." Pryzm asked, spiced with impatience.  She
was almost ready to step on her sister's foot if Ulfryn spent even
another nanosecond looking at that young God...
     "Ahhh...did you know we have an older brother and sister?" Ulfryn
said, her face matter-of-factly calm.
     "Of course we have an older boy-cousin and girl-cous..." Pryzm
started to argue.  Her breath clipped short in mid-sentence.  For some
reason, she cocked her head slightly to the side and regarded her
sister.  Ulfryn's face seemed to be a palate of conflicting emotions.
     "Uh...Ulfryn, uh...can you say that again?"
     "I asked you if you knew that we have an older brother and
sister.  Because we do!" Ulfryn near-shouted.
     Falcyn's face was rapidly turning red; he looked like he was
going to explode into a Demonic Rage.  Sygyn wasn't that far behind
him, her dainty face was peppered with red freckles...
     "Y..y..y..you asked us to come here...so you could tell us
*that*?" Pryzm gasped, almost choking on her own surprise and anger.
     "This...is the worst!" Sygyn shouted.  Despite her waifish form,
her older cousin seemed to take on stature, figuratively standing
three meters high when she was *this* angry.  Sygyn was delicate in
physical frame and emotional makeup, but she was also her Mother's
daughter.  Which meant that she could snap...
     Sygyn's fangs were definitely glistening as they peeked out of
the corners of her mouth.
     "Look, Ulfryn!  This isn't fair to us!  I don't know what
possessed you to set all of this up, but you made all of us skip
school!  For nothing more than a prank!  If you need attention, then
you shouldn't do stupid things to get it!  Negative attention is not
the way to go, sis!" Pryzm shouted.
     "I SAW IT!!!  I SAW THEM!  I'VE BEEN SEEING THEM FOR ALMOST SIX
MONTHS!  AND THEY'RE *REAL*!" Ulfryn screamed at the top of her lungs.
     Several hundred Gods and Goddesses literally paused in mid-flight
to stare at them.
     Pryzm slapped a hand against her forehead in frustration.  As she
met the stares of the nearby Gods and Goddesses, she turned on her
heel to face away from the interior of the building, her face suddenly
hot.  Not only had Ulfryn sent them on some stupid errand...it had all
turned out to be a stupid prank!  And now she was acting stupid,
screaming in the middle of a Swarp Gate tower!  Stupid younger sister!
She was making a stupid scene...
     "Ahh...what do we have here, Skuld?  Looks like someone's
skipping school..."
     Pryzm's hastily convened mishmash of resentment towards her
younger sister quickly flew the coop at the sound of the familiar
voice.  The voice was calm and assured, confident to the point of
sounding insouciant...but the impact of that one remark was anything
besides being nonchalant.  The words were like a series of stones
being thrown into a placid pond.  The tingling in her cheekbones told
her the rest: her face had probably shifted in the White Hole zone in
terms of being flushed with dismay and fear.  And then the most
terrifying voice she could imagine spoke...
     "Mara, what are we going to do about these four little strays?"
     "SHIT!" Falcyn managed to gasp right before his Mother, Mara,
grabbed him tightly by the earlobe and started shaking his head
roughly.

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

     Outside the Swarp Gate tower, four children were floating briskly
back towards the BridgePortal, escorted by two adults, a Goddess and a
Demoness.  Both women wore exasperated expressions on their faces.
     "Let me get this straight," Skuld said in a weary voice.  "The
four of you decided to skip out of school on a Monday, come here
because you believe that these dreams you're having are actually signs
from somewhere, and start some kind of investigation about those
signs.  And you believe these 'signs' are telling each of you that you
have an older sister and brother?"
     "Yes, Mother!" Ulfryn and Pryzm shouted, their faces briefly lit
up with a hopeful expression.
     "My daughter the dreamer..." Skuld sighed, looking right at
Ulfryn.  She had a strong suspicion that this whole scheme was
something Ulfryn had cooked up.  After all, she *had* been having some
strange night visions as of late...so she had claimed.
     "Here I am, the Norn of the Future, and I didn't even see this
one coming!" Skuld said with self-amused sigh.  She stroked her long
ravenesque black hair and then tied it into a bun on the back of her
head, hoping this would make her appear more 'parental'.  As much as
she loved her daughters, Skuld knew that she had to fully be in
'Mother Mode' to deal with this mess...
     This was a doozy, to say the least.
     Mara laughed in a rich voice at her younger sister's joke.  But
she quickly regained her stern expression, regarding her sister's and
her kids with an imperial authority.  As expected, Sygyn seemed to
make herself smaller, and Falcyn looked down at the ground as they
floated up towards the BridgePortal, occasionally glancing up briefly
to look at her with defiance.
     "He'll make a good Demon when he grows up," Mara thought to
herself, impressed by the daring glances of resentment he shot towards
her.
     But not today.
     "I don't know how we can possibly let this one go unpunished,
Mara," Skuld announced.  "I would suggest that we ground the kids for
a couple of weeks, so they can reflect on the fact that free will has
consequences, even for children.  Especially for willful children who
decide to run away to Yggdrasil Logorinth on a whim."
     "I was thinking the same thing, Skuld!" Mara said, her red-orange
Demoness eyes gleaming as she overheard sighs of protest from the
kids.  "But grounding is just the beginning, as far as I'm concerned."

     "Mommmmm..." Sygyn wailed pensively.
     "They didn't bother to tell either of us about their little
'trip'.  I'm all for dishonesty...*if* one can get away with it.  But
they didn't even bother to cover their tracks.  Your Banpei caught
their departure on holo..."
     Skuld watched as both her daughters visibly sagged with regret.
Of course they couldn't just run away!  She had spent years
continually upgrading Banpei, just for these kinds of situations.
After all, Pryzm and Ulfryn were the *only* half-mortal half-Goddess
kids on the Earthrealm...it was imperative that she went to great
measures to prevent any 'mishaps' should they decide to tap into their
nascent Goddess abilities.  Yet, she had to begrudgingly give Prizm
credit; her eldest daughter had managed to create a Transport Mandala
right under her nose.  Of course, she had her husband to blame for
this...Tomohisa had booked a "Romantic Weekend Getaway" at a very
private onsen ryokan in Shikoku.  Overjoyed at a chance to have her
husband all to herself for a whole weekend, Skuld wasted no time in
calling Mara to see if Falcyn and Sygyn could come over and babysit
for the weekend.  Mara was more than happy to oblige, grateful to have
her Demoness Lair all to herself.
     Skuld realized that, obviously, the older cousins were in on the
whole game as well.  But still, the fact that Pryzm had built the
Mandala in just one weekend was very impressive.  Skuld felt a moody
whimsy, remembering how she had done something just as risky when she
was her daughter's age...
     And on a more adult level, Skuld realized that her getaway with
her husband was well worth it, despite the present situation.  *Very*
satisfying...especially the shopping and the late night cuddling.  Her
amorous reminisces were sheerly interrupted by Pryzm's grumbling voice
of dismay.
     "Mother!  Weren't you a girl, once!" Pryzm protested.  "This
isn't *fair*!  You can't ground us for *two whole weeks*..."
     "Wanna bet?!" Mara interrupted in a snappy voice.
     "...and why should we all get punished when it was Ulfryn's idea
in the...ulp!"
     Skuld was amused by Pryzm's arguments.  She had gotten over
*that* one years ago; the "aren't you just a kid?" taunts...she used
to hate being reminded that she was a kid when she was younger.  Now,
it was "weren't you even a girl once?".  Her daughters were at that
age now; it seemed that they kept pulling that one out every time they
wanted to build a case for stretching the limits.  Now, her daughters
were struggling with the same issues.  To her surprise, Falcyn
interrupted Pryzm by trying to lay the blame squarely on himself,
protecting Ulfryn.
     But it was a moot point, because she knew her daughters so well.
Ulfryn's guilty expression was all Skuld needed to realize that this
had been started by her youngest...

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

     The silence was almost overbearing, even if they were on the
BridgePortal.  Pryzm seemed to be locked within a cascading, never-
ending sense of regret...the gnawing repining that came when she
realized that she had broken their pinky-promise.
     "It's okay, sis," Ulfryn whispered to her.  "They already know
everything.  No doubt, Banpei recorded our conversations as well as
our using the Mandala to get here."
     "I'm so sorry, sis," Pryzm offered.  She was supposed to be the
tough one of the two sisters, and yet she had been the first to cave
in when the pressure heated up on them this time.  She floated low
over the rainbow surface of the bridge and kicked it, pent up with
guilt.  Her Mother quickly motioned her back up with an insistent
hand-wave.  She floated back to join the group, but she didn't want to
look at anyone.  Especially Aunt Mara, who was probably eating all of
this up.
     Stupid Demoness of an Aunt!
     Why, of all the young Goddesses in Yggdrasil, was she and her
sister the only ones to have a *Demoness* for an Aunt?  It was hard
enough being half-mortal...but to be raised around a Aunt that
delighted in catching them in the middle of a wrongdoing...this was
wickedly terrible!
     "Ha ah ha!  Where are they?  Where are my little girls?" a thick
male voice boomed nearby, drawing Pryzm's attention away from her
misgivings about her so-called life...
     "AHA!  There they are!  There's my little darlings!" the basso
voice shouted, even closer.
     Pryzm and Ulfryn exchanged a glance, and then grinned.
     Grandpa!
     With a whisk of an effort, Grandpa Odeyn floated over to the
gathering.

     Rescued!

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

     Skuld couldn't believe her luck.  Of all the times for her Father
to drop in!  Now she couldn't scold her daughters at all.  Not that
she wanted to scold them, of course, but now that Grandpa was here,
the immediacy of enforcing some kind of discipline for their
misbehavior would be lost.  Now, they would get pampered...and she
couldn't do a thing about it.
     Her Father, Odeyn, was probably the most doting grandfather in
Yggdrasil Logorinth.  Not to mention that he was the *only*
grandfather of half-human, half-Goddess granddaughters...
     "Er...Hi Dad," Skuld said in a level voice.
     "They're all here!  All my cuties!" Odeyn shouted, gathering
Skuld and her two girls in a broad-armed bear hug.  Skuld glanced over
his shoulder at Mara, knowing that she couldn't do anything to
discipline her kids either.  Mara's disappointment was writ all over
her face, her expression reminded Skuld of the time Falcyn had poured
soy sauce in her dinner wine.
     Skuld didn't miss Falcyn's sharply bratty grin either.  The
little brat!  He *knew* that Grandpa Odeyn's presence had both
surprised and upstaged her...and he wasn't about to hide his amusement
at the circumstances.  His sister Sygyn was transparent; relief at
being let off the hook almost radiating from her grateful mien.
     "What a surprise!  And Mara...and Falcyn and Sygyn too!  Wait
until Grandma sees the two of you!  It's been so long since you
visited last!" Odeyn acknowledged with a hearty enthusiasm.
     "And since it's a surprise visit, that's all the better!  We're
all going to have a really fun time together.  Grandma will be so glad
to have company, especially since it's her niece and nephew!"
     Skuld snickered as Falcyn and Sygyn's faces fell flat in response
to Odeyn's 'invitation'.
     "Well, I guess it can't be helped," Mara said, shrugging herself
in resignation as Odeyn clapped an arm around her shoulders.

          *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

     That night, while everyone was asleep, four children in Stealth
Mode manifests snuck out of their bedrooms and floated up into one of
the Cylindrical Forests hovering near their grandparent's compound.
     Unlike their temple home on the Earthrealm, there was no Banpei
to detect half-mortal half-Divine children leaving the premises, a
fact that Pryzm was quite pleased with.  Since Grandpa and Grandma
only had a single daughter, there wasn't a need for any security
measures.  Besides, Pryzm knew that her grandparents had learned this
the hard way.  Even as a young girl, Mom would easily defeat any
technological means they created to try and keep her from sneaking out
at night.
     "How could have I been so stupid?" she argued with herself.  "I
completely forgot about Banpei!  That makes me a total idiot!"
     For a moment, she imagined getting even with the robot sentry by
painting his face up to look stupid and ridiculous.  When she and
Ulfryn were little, Banpei and Mom used to let she and her sister get
away with that.  They would dress Banpei up in women's kimonos and
paint 'hair' on his round head.  Or they would try and make his face
look like an anime character.  But now that they were 11, any
tomfoolery with Banpei wouldn't be tolerated.
     Besides, it wasn't his fault...Banpei was beyond blame in this
situation.  Pryzm knew full well that his AI was very protective of
she and Ulfryn.  She knew that, in his own way, Banpei loved them
almost as much as he loved Sigel.
     Once they were deep into the floating cylinder of forests, they
started a campfire and gathered close to the flickering licks of
flame.
     As if on cue, everybody turned and looked at Ulfryn.
     "Please Pryzm...you *have* to believe me!  These dreams I've been
having...they're not just dreams.  I can *tell* that our brother and
sister are trying to communicate to us!" Ulfryn pleaded, tears in her
eye.
     "How do you know this?  How can we trust you?" Sygyn asked.
Something must be up, because she couldn't remember the last time her
sister was *this* upset.  Ulfryn had mentioned the dreams to her
before, but Pryzm couldn't begin to guess that she had thought they
were real.  Yet, her younger twin was floating in the air, a figure
that was solid with conviction that she was telling the truth.
     "I don't know how to prove it!  They're my dreams!  How can I
make you guys see my dreams?" Ulfryn quickly argued, clearly
frustrated.  "Look, I see this guy that looks like Falcyn...and then
some beautiful woman near him.  She's like *way* beautiful and kind.
Just like Mom!"
     "Our Mom's beautiful too!" Sygyn interrupted, vexed that Ulfryn
hadn't included Mara in the comparison.
     "Sooo..oo...o?" Falcyn asked impatiently, crossing his arms like
a little Napoleon.
     "Since Mom's the Norn of the Future, do you think I might be
seeing Falcyn's future?" Ulfryn guested out loud, a finger on her
chin.
     "EHHH?" Falcyn gasped out.
     "Not likely," Pryzm answered.  "Falcyn's *never* going to have a
boyfriend, until he stops being such a show-off."
     The three girls giggled as a cloud of steam formed above Falcyn's
head.
     "Fine.  Be that way!" Falcyn snapped, folding his arms even more
tightly across his chest.
     "Still, I doubt that any of our Mom's Norn abilities have been
passed onto us.  It's kinda hard to explain, but I've always suspected
that Mom and the Norn thing are two different sides of the coin.
Like...they're kinda *separate* in a way.  Mom wasn't always a Norn,
was she?  So did she have her special TimeSpace abilities before she
was tapped out to be a Norn?  Or maybe she didn't.  Maybe the Norn
office *picked* Mom...which means that seeing into the Future is
something that goes along with being a Norn, not something that's
special about Mom."
     "If it isn't the Future, then what can it be?  We don't know who
the Norn of the Past or the Norn of the Present is..." Ulfryn wondered
aloud.
     "Yeah!  Don't the stupid Rules prevent Mom from telling us?"
Pryzm added.
     "You guys!  I read in one of the Earthrealm myth books that the
Norns have to be three, and they have to be sisters.  It was very
clear on the point that they *had* to be sisters, not just best
friends or something!" Sygyn noted.
     "Not that again!" Falcyn exclaimed.  "I know that you're part
Demoness, but these are *Goddesses* we're talking about.  Who's
right...some ape in Scandinavia who drank too much homebrew and cooked
up some divinities in his head while having DTs...or what the
Goddesses here are saying?  Aunt Skuld's a *pure* Goddess, and she's
never said anything about the other two Norns.  And she doesn't have
any sisters either, besides Mom.  So there!  I'd rather take my
chances believing what's real, instead of those Earthrealm fictions
you always read, Sygyn."
     "Still, it *is* an interesting idea!" Pryzm noted.  "Could you
imagine if Mom had two more sisters?  What if she was the youngest
sister?"
     "She *is* the youngest sister, you nitwit!" Falcyn corrected her.
     "What if she was the oldest sister?" Sygyn added.
     "No way!  Could you imagine that?  It'd be totally silly!" Pryzm
exclaimed.
     "Sooo...what about these two kids you see in your dream?" Sygyn
asked.
     "They're older than us...but younger than you and your brother,"
Ulfryn explained.  "Maybe they're 12 or 13 in Earthrealm years."
     "Are they wearing school uniforms?" Sygyn asked.
     "C'mon, be serious!" Ulfryn answered, exasperated.  "They're
*dreams*!  Okay!?"
     "But you said you thought they were real.  Are you lying...or are
you telling the truth?" Falcyn said serious.
     "It's the truth!  I swear it!  I mean...they're like shadows or
something.  They're dark and vague.  Sometimes, all I can see is an
outline that's kind half there, if you know what I mean.  Sorta like
the afterflash that you see in one of the picture club booths.  They
seem to fade into mid-air..."
     "They couldn't be ghosts," Pryzm noted thoughtfully.  "Mom's
totally spooked by ghosts of any kind.  You should see that woman when
we go to see a scary movie at the theater.  She screams sometimes!"
     "So if they're not ghosts, and they're not real, and they're not
not-real...then what the hell are they?" Falcyn asked.
     "They're *something*, Falcyn...otherwise why would they pick
Ulfryn.  Why would they show themselves to our cousin, instead of
showing themselves to you or me?" Sygyn reasoned.  "If they are
something, then they have to be in one of the Multiverses.  Everything
is in the OmniArc..."
     Pryzm was glad that her cousin was casting about reasonable
explanations before this whole discussion turned into a freak-fest
about spooks and mysteries.  She thought really hard for a minute,
trying to figure out how they could prove Ulfryn's theory.  The Ygg
Xeomnic mainframe network was responsible for regulating all of the
Nine Dimensions, along with the Almighty...and their Vanagdrasilian
counterparts.
     "I have an idea!  Since everything that can possibly happen is
measured and monitored by the Xeomn network, then we should see some
evidence there of Ulfryn's dreams," Sygyn offered.
     "Hmm...that's at least partially true.  But the Ygg Xeomn doesn't
regulate free will, creativity and the like.  Which means that it
can't measure dreams, per se," Pryzm argued.
     "So if we can't find some way to monitor her dreams, then we
can't prove that these 'visitors' even came at all," Sygyn said in a
voice low with disappointment.  "Not to mention that we'd have to wait
until Ulfryn dreamed them again..."
     "And since she is the *only* one who sees them, how do we know
that *we* can see them?  I mean...if they want to reveal themselves
only to Ulfryn, wouldn't anything we do be screwed up, because no
matter what, they don't want to be seen by anyone else?  So if we find
a way to 'see' them somehow, we still won't be able to perceive them?"
Falcyn offered
     "Can't we just Probe into her Mind and find out?" Sygyn offered.
"If we did, then Pryzm would be the ideal candidate, since she's
Ulfryn's sister."
     Both Pryzm and Ulfryn paled at this.  Yes, they were sisters.
But no...they wouldn't be comfortable Probing each other's thoughts.
Ulfryn brought up the additional point that since they were half-
mortals, a mental Probe might create problems down the road.  In fact,
it might even be dangerous.
     "So we're back to the same problem.  How do you prove that
nothing is something?"
     "Actually, a better way to look at this challenge might be to
*disprove* that nothing is nothing.  Eliminate the unknowable...and
then you can discover the knowable.  A basic principle of knowledge.
And I think I might know of a way to get at the truth of what Ulfryn's
claiming to see.  But it'll involve some *major* hacking of the Ygg
Xeomn network and mainframe..."

          "MOM!!!!"           "AUNT SKULD!!!"