Aeon is a city locked away in time with its demons and dead. Lilian, Jem and Kinley can free the place (and themselves) by breaking Gowan’s machine. The philosopher-demon hybrid is quite happy to die in the attempt. But who else will he take with him?
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Gowan pulled out another fragment of wood from beneath the desk, swore and tossed it away.
“Any luck?” Lilian called from the other side of the room. She brushed the dirt off the scholar’s cold face. The corpse’s eyes jerked open, making her jump.
“Nullus,” he growled. “I spent millennia protecting that puzzle box from this city’s nobles, and they managed to destroy it in the hour it was out of my sight!”
Lord Bion winced from the safety of the tunnel’s entrance and stood aside as two more zombies marched in. Jere directed them to Lilian, who stood back and let them drag their comrade out of the wood-and-stone rubble. The undead climbed to his feet when freed and joined the others in the room, who were propping up the tower’s stones and clearing away the detritus.
“This feels unnatural,” Lord Aridius complained, seated on the other side of the entrance. He was huddled with two more living survivors, each of them inured. “The dead should rest and pass on their wisdom, not be set to work like servants.”
Jere scoffed. “You’ve been forcing them to work them for centuries in the Fight Court,” he reminded Aridius. “I’m just tweaking the instructions.” He glanced up at the gaping mess that was the ceiling. Faint echoes were drifting down to them, along with the bang and clatter of heavy objects, as rescuers started to drag away parts of the collapsed building. It would be hours before they made it down to the group in the cellar.
Closer to the machine, Jem was digging Kinley out. The tracker was awake but groggy from a concussion. “Stop chirping,” he told her irritably. “An’ get this bloody beam off my leg!”
“I will do once I know it’s not crushed,” she snapped back. “Let me check for bruising first whilst you drink water. Can you wiggle your toes?”
“Yeah, ah can. Don’ya, dare cut my trousers!”
“Oh, be quiet. I’ll buy you new ones when we’re back in Alinakard.”
Lilian rolled her eyes and joined Gowan, now staring morosely at the Perpetual Machine. It was the most serene thing in the room.
“Well?” she said softly.
“I can’t reach in,” he said. “Those stupid clerics have arranged a demon-locked circle around it. If we disturb the circle, the machine will be at the mercy of my Tower, which looks set to collapse with the next stiff breeze.” He transferred his gaze to her. “You’ll have to do it.”
Lilian blinked. “I already said I would.”
“That was with the puzzle box. It was designed to simultaneously push every gear from the outside, freezing the loop. Without it, we need brute force to break the loop so we can reach in and wedge the gears instead. It will get intense.”
Lilian rubbed her lips, realising how dry they were. Up close, Gowan’s genial facade gave way to something darker and more unnerving. She could see black specks in the white around his eyes and hear an odd, sibilant echo when he breathed.
“How?” she asked again.
“Sunlight,” he replied.
Lilian stared at him open-mouthed, then began to giggle. It erupted from her in an unladylike snort, followed by gales of helpless laughter.
“It’s not that funny,” Gowan said sulkily.
“I, I - I thought it would be something rare,” Lilian gasped, “like diamonds, or fairy iron, or a first-born tooth…” she wiped her eyes - “but it’s the most common thing in the world.”
“Except we are underground, and the machine can’t easily be moved,” Aridius pointed out, coming up behind them. With a wince, he seated himself on a stray stone, closer to Lilian than the demon. “I propose we leave this place, and I will arrange for my people to clear away the Tower to expose the machine.”
“No need,” Gowan replied. “We can do it using mirrors to reflect the sunlight. That will interfere with the time-loop long enough for Lilian to keep her fingers while breaking the machine.”
“Lord Aridius’ idea sounds safer,” Lilian said nervously.
“But without the Tower’s rubble, the fire will spread unchecked,” Gowan said.
“What fire?” Lilian and Aridius said at the same time.
Aridius’ voice was slightly higher than before.
“But then, it’s his city, his one true love at risk.” Lilian recognised the snide little voice in her head. It had been silent for days as she had dodged and double-dealed her way through Aeon. What a pity it had decided to join them now.
“The machine will burn,” Gowan explained patiently. “It’s inevitable.”
The world seemed to shrink and blur. “Will I survive?” an outside voice asked, and Lilian realised it was her own.
Gowan shook his head.
“No. Just no.” someone else shouted, and it was Jem, grabbing her shoulders. “She’s mine - you don’t get to kill her - go to hell, you worthless demonic arsehole…”
Gowan tipped his head back, closed his eyes and smiled. He was basking in Jem’s anger, Lilian realised. Eventually, Jem ran out of steam, partly thanks to Gowan’s lack of response. Aridius tugged her back.
“It feeds off emotion,” the voice whispered.
“We’ll do it my way,” Aridius announced. “Careful exposure to sunlight, with buckets on hand to douse the flames. There’s no rush.”
“Then you’ll create an unchecked firestorm,” Gowan said with inhuman stillness. “And you can’t use a zombie or a golem to cross the barrier you have wrapped around the machine. It has to be a human.” He stared at Lilian again, his gaze hungry. “You promised.”
“Lilian, no,” It was Jem again, pleading now. “You’ll die if you do this.”
“It’s a demon pact,” Kinley said. He joined them, limping between two support-zombies. Softly, sadly, he added: “If she breaks it, she belongs to him for good. Living an’ dead.”
Lilian took a shaky breath and rubbed her knuckles. “It’s what I do, Jem. I make deals with powerful men.” She nodded at Gowan. “It looks like this will be my last one.”
“You made a deal with me, too,” Jem said. “You said we would be together. That you’d go anywhere with me.”
“It’s time,” said the voice.
“I did,” Lilian agreed. “But we can’t do that whilst we’re in Aeon.” She looked down as she twisted her family ring off the third finger of her right hand. Family rings ranged from noble’s gold to servant’s iron, but they were always made from smooth, white birchwood for courtesans. Lilian’s ring had been carved for her great-grandmother, and the centuries had turned it from white to a deep, golden yellow. She held it out to Jem, who started to sob. “I intend to survive,” she went on. “But if it doesn’t work, I want you to take me home.” She enfolded the ring into Jem’s palm.
Jem sniffled, but she took the ring and slipped it on next to her own. The Diamous family ring was red gold, contrasting nicely with the birch. “I love you,” she said directly.
Beautiful, black-eyed Jem. “You always knew she would walk away. That’s the price of loving a noble. Even if she didn’t want to be one.”
“I know,” Lilian said. “Now, where can we find mirrors?”
*
Ultimately, Bion ordered three of the closest shops to supply them. Jere used the zombies to hold them in place through the tunnels in a long and complicated relay, whilst Aridius directed the city guards to evacuate the streets closest to the Tower. People were keen to comply once they knew an impatient, hungry demon was underneath the ruins.
Gowan fiddled with the final mirror. It shone at the machine, the light bouncing off the metal components. Lilian put her hand up to shield her eyes from the glare.
“I don’t see how this will work,” Jem grumbled. “It’s not doing anything.”
She was the last living person left in the room, apart from Lilian. Kinley had limped out with the other survivors, clapping them both on the shoulder as he left.
“Because it’s not concentrated,” Gowan retorted. He walked over to the rubble and pulled out Raul’s partially crushed glasses from the stones. One lens was still intact. “Once I direct the light through this, the loop will pause, and you can move in. You need to be fast. The machine will heat up quickly.”
“What do I need to break?” Lilian asked tersely. Her heart sped up a notch.
“Anything you can grab.” Gown said. “It’s finely calibrated. Pull two or three of the cogs off and upset the levers. That will be enough.”
She nodded and looked at Jem. “You need to go.”
Jem pursed her lips. “I’ll wait in the tunnel,” she said. It was a rare compromise by Jem’s standards. She gave Lilian one last look and walked through the gap in the cellar’s wall.
Gowan held up the lens. “Bonus. Let us begin, Lilian. Move into the circle and stand by the time loop.”
Trembling, Lilian did. She always thought she would be brave when death came, but this felt more like an execution. Up close, the machine stank of burnt oil. It hummed next to her skin like a living thing. Gowan moistened his lips, his movements jerky with eagerness.
“Be ready,” he said.
Lilian nodded and raised her hand, ready to plunge it into the machine’s heart. Gowan adjusted the glass, and the light narrowed into a tiny pinprick. It hit the Infinity Loop at its central cross-over point, causing the phenomenon to split in two.
The machine screeched. It sounded almost human in anguish, the joints halting and the gears stuttering under the strain. Lilian dived in, trying her best not to think as she pulled anything she could touch. The air around her was heating up as quickly as a furnace. She could feel the hairs on her skin singe and her face flush. Then, the pads of her fingers started to burn as though she were holding a hot pair of tongs, and she recoiled just as the machine burst into flame.
She stepped back, her boot kicking one of the rope-bound demon stones. The rope itself was alight and blackening from the machine’s heat. Lilian pushed backwards through the barrier, now more like treacle than air. Her face and hands felt raw from the heat. She could barely breathe the air. Dropping to her knees, she crawled towards the gap in the wall.
“Is it done?” she asked, almost shouting at Gowan over the noise. The demon was still in place, one hand upraised to direct the pinpoint of light through the glass. He looked at her, enraptured.
“Ita est,” he said. “At last.”
The machine exploded. Lilian didn’t have time to scream.
Next week will be the final episode.