1. Helioddity: "War Witches"

Although there is a reprise of a significant sequence from 'The Moloch Manoeuvres' early on, 'Helioddity' does not pick up from where 'Manoeuvres' left off. Rather, it begins from where Count Molech and Djinn the jinn left Agenor Heliopolis and the majority of his Malanthean Minoans, anarchists all, the morning of January 14, 1938. That would be Brindisi, Italy, on the southwestern Adriatic Coast, where they are awaiting an early ferry to Corfu, Greece.

Besides Agenor count the Silver Arrow Assassins (Nester and Artemis born Zeross Hyperenor), Alexandros and Roxanne born Heliopolis Kinesis, and the Zerosses (father Angelo, mother Megaera born Kinesis, their 7-year old son Demonites, and Argiope, Angelo and Artemis's Summoning Aged Sister) among the Malanthean Minoans. Unless you want to count them as among the Etocretan Extremists or Black Rose Rogues, that is. Might not be a good idea to count them for long, though, -- because 'Oddity' begins with action and rarely lets up.

Out of the Wild Weird come Granny Garuda and, riding her, Sorciere, Solace Sunrise. Silver Arrow Assassins, whose codenames are Sagitta and Sagittarius, start shooting off their dartguns. Which are full of anaesthetic-filled darts. Silver Arrows are as generous with their darts as they are unfailingly accurate. So it is, out of the sky, fall both the Garuda psychopomp and the Native American Summoning Child. End result being, ... well, you're going to have to read that for yourself. Suffice it to say someone is captured and someone else is killed, albeit howsoever temporarily since there's a chance that someone can make like a sunbird and rise anew.

Won't happen in 'Odd-1', I can tell you that. Can also tell you that the encounter in Brindisi is just the first get-together in 'Oddity' between killer witches. Another one happens later on this very chapter.

"Turn it off, female fury. Force me any further and I'll show you just how fast I can be, -- even with a gun in my belly!"

"Be a short lived demonstration[," responded the one holding the gun to her belly]. "I don't miss. Not unless I want to and, believe me, in your case I don't dare, do I?"

"Maybe not, murderess. But I twist real well."

Ultimately it was [the Female Fury] who relented. "Oh, go ahead. Kill each other. See what I care!

Which, I trust you'll agree, is an encouraging way to begin yet another series of 1938 story sequences for PHANTACEA on the Web.

2. Helioddity: "Boss Bovines"

As recounted in Forever & 40 Days, the Genesis of PHANTACEA, which is still available, six hundred and sixty-one years after Anti-Patriarch Cain destroyed not only himself, and the Tree of Life, but most of Power Point Sumeria as well as thousands of his followers, Xuthros Hor, the Tenth Patriarch of Golden Age Humankind, caused the Genesea. (Put another way, if you're starting up a pre-Flood timeline, the Anti-Patriarch did himself, and everyone else, the disservice of blowing what was left of the Garden of Eden out of existence in 661 Pre-Dome{PD} whereas the Great Flood occurred in 0 Year of the Dome {YD}or, as most of us know it, 4000 BC.)

As an immediate, reactionary response, Hor's Antagonist, the Moloch Sedon, raised Cathonia, the Cathonic Zone, out of his own essence and thereby preserved Pacifica, the Places of Peace, the archipelago of Lemuria, Mu, Eden's Zoo. Thus came into existence the Inner Earth, Big Shelter, Sedon's Head, a huge continent roughly the size of Africa. Preserved himself as well, -- albeit mostly as a star in the Night's Sky above the Hidden Continent. Preserved beneath it, on the ground itself, his three sons, the Thrygragos Brothers, and their 500 or so surviving offspring by Sedon's three daughters, the long gone Trigregos Sisters.

These are the Master Devas, the devils of yore. Not to mention lore. They are thought of as Fallen Angels. Quite rightly, too, since they are undeniably extraterrestrials. (Got to have fallen from somewhere and since one falls down it makes sense to say one fell down from up, as in upstairs, the heavens, Outer Space.) Because of what, rather who, composes it, Cathonia is often called the Sedon Sphere. Generic term for it, though, is the Cathonic Dome. Some five thousand nine hundred and thirty-eight years of the Dome after fabricating it out of himself, it still separates Sedon's Inner Earth from our Outer Earth. There are a few ways through it, however, and in January 1938 at least one of them, the Kore Gap, is known to Mystery Might, whose real name is Clymene Atreides.

Born to the Catreus Family around 1880, Clymene and her battle-lamed, sixty-year old husband, Pelops Atreides, make their home on Trigon, a tiny, tri-peaked Aegean Isle north of Crete that is owned by the Family Zeross. Her nickname is not because she's an old-time witch. Neither is it because she knows of the Kore Gap, or how to access it, although that's part of it.

She's called Mystery Might because (Duhhh!) she has certain mysterious abilities. Has demonstrated these otherwise inexplicable talents of hers over the course of the preceding decades, make that. Doesn't any more but, whatever else she may have lost, she still has her smarts and all her witch-ways. Etocretan Extremists, as led by Agenor Heliopolis (who is her nephew, late sister Aerobe's son by equally late Belus Heliopolis), consider both her and Pops Polyps, husband Pelops, their mentors. Manoan Maenads are particularly indebted to Clymene.

As the person most responsible for bringing them up, Mystery's the main reason these young women can classify themselves as true witches. Include among these latter-day Hecate-Hellions Megaera nee Kinesis now Zeross, Artemis nee Zeross now Hyperenor, and the two recently turned seventeen year old Summoning Children, Agenor's sister, Roxanne now Kinesis, and Agenor's fiance, Argiope Zeross.

Granny Garuda needs her regalia if she has any chance at all to phoenix. Unfortunately neither her nor her corpse have it any more. Someone stole it then, putting it on, buggered off between-space. That someone's name means Bright Face whereas Granny was christened Kanin Nauroz. She's a Utopian of Weir. The Master of Weir in '38 is Kyprian Somata, aka Copperhead because some Utopians consider her dealings with devils traitorous. Copperhead's also the Sister Superior of the Superior Sisterhood on the Whole Earth.

Someone has to take someone's body to the Weirdom of Cabalarkon, which is on Sedon's Head or Big Shelter as it was known throughout 'The Moloch Manoeuvres'. That someone has a companion. It's Hot Rox, not Hellion Grudge ('grudge' being what Megaera means), the witch who usually goes with that aging someone to the Headworld. She's invisible. (Rox can do that sort of thing because, as detailed in 'Manoeuvres', she's a Living Ghost!)

They make it from Mt Harmonia, one of Aegean Trigon's three Dragon's Teeth, to the other side of Cathonia. Make it to Apple Isle, to the Tholos Tomb of, -- well, that would be telling as well. There they encounter the titular Boss Bovines. Boss Cow is Miracle Maenad, the Korant Sisterhood's Corn Queen; Boss Bull is her Taurus. Both are deva-possessed.

Won't tell you who is possessing them. Won't tell who they are in reality. Will tell you that, for one of the few times thus far in on the Web, we encounter the Devil Child, who turned Young Life and Young Death into perpetual seven year olds. (As for who they are, don't worry. Faerie tricksters will be along eventually. They usually are out here in WWW-Dotland.)

"Hi, mommy. I brought Daddy Taurus."

"Hello, dear. So I see. Bit surprising too, but there you have it. I know it's been awhile, and she is tons older -- tons scrawnier too -- but you do remember Hellish Ant Clymene, don't you?"

"Tralala-Tra-La. Of course I do. But Dad the Cad says I can't kill her. Which makes me real sad. Tralala-Tra-Lorn. How come I never get to kill anyone? Tralala-Tra-Glee."

"Because mommy always knows best, sweetheart."

Devil Child is Tralalorn. Unless she's a Demon Child. Or both simultaneously. (Lorna means 'lost'.) Might as well inform you that she's only an ancillary player in Oddity and, indeed, throughout the rest of Heliodyssey. However, the person she addresses as mommy is definitely someone to keep your eye on. May actually be her mommy as well. Isn't Miracle Maenad, though. Is the devil possessing her, -- and, as we progress through Oddity, it'll become clear she's not just possessing Miracle. She's also possessing the Demon Queen who may be Tra-La's actual mommy!

Given how 'B-Bovs' ends you could be forgiven if you think the Taurus (whom Clymene and Hot Rox are led to believe is Roxanne's uncle, Ulysses Heliopolis) is a heroic figure. While I'm sure he would agree with you, once he gets rid of who's possessing him and is consequently free to go about his real business, you'll probably be horrified to discover what that is.

Unless you're in the habit of cheering for parricides, consider yourself forewarned.

3. Helioddity: "Triple Trigons"

As a youth I always wanted to rewrite the Bible. As described in my synopsis of Odd-2, I once took a stab at the beginning bits of Genesis and ended up with an explanation of how Sedon's Head came into being. But how did the Moloch Sedon come into existence?

Now that's another tale worth the telling and tell it Kyprian Somata, the Master of the Weirdom of Cababarkon, does in Odd-3. Tells it to Mystery Might, Hot Rox and her great-grandchild, Morgianna also Somata. (Morg's the Summoning Aged daughter of Kyprian's grandson, Augustus Nauroz, and Pandora Mannering, both of whom, in faerie-forms, we may have had the pleasure of meeting previously in WWW-Dotland.)

It's quite the history lesson, -- quite the His and Her Story lesson, make that. (Much of what she has to say was covered somewhat less thoroughly in Forever & 40 Days, but that's no excuse not to bop over to On the Web's online boutique and order it.) Seems that, on the far off planet of Old Weir many multiple-millennia before devils arrived on the Whole Earth, Utopian Scientocrats were not content with exceedingly long, healthy, and active lives. They wanted true immortality, to live forever, to never to grow old and never to die, not even in battle or because of natural disasters.

Many an inroad was made. The whole question of the soul, the animating animus, was analyzed. Ways were found to preserve sentience, self-identity, after life fled the body. Still wasn't good enough. Enter the Time Tumblers, the Male and Female Entities, and their remarkable Trans-Time Trigon, a three-peaked landform that followed the Male Entity, History, Heliosophos, from latest death to latest life no matter how great was the distance both spatially and temporally.

Thus, three-eyed Sedon, Evil Incarnate, had three parents: two fathers, Helios and Cabalarkon, and one mother, Miracle Memory. Which was exceedingly ironic since it was Dark Sedon, centuries later, who destroyed Old Weir's Mother Machine. Destroyed it during the Dual Entities' third lifetimes. Or did I mention that already?

How did Heliosophos die that fifth time? Sedon killed him -- just after Helios decapitated him. Male Entity made the devil to show Utopians they didn't need him; that Godhood was for God alone; that they should be satisfied with what they already had. And to prove what he made he could destroy. In many respects the current Helios, the eleventh from all reports, Ulysses Heliopolis, the Taurus of Ap/Apple/Apis Island, was still trying to destroy his most hellacious creation. Which, as I forewarned you earlier, was why he was so intent upon killing his parents before he had a chance to be born!

Naturally enough every devil still in existence, every devil ever in existence, including whichever ones currently occupies Helios and humanizes Machine Memory, will do everything they can to prevent him doing so. What Kyprian makes clear, though, is that devils aren't alone in their determination to remain existent. They have an unlikely ally, one who particularly enjoys being not only existent but human.

And who is that, you might ask. Haven't I told you enough already, I might respond. Oh, all right, here's a hint (and a link).

Golgotha Nauroz was so gaunt only the thinnest sheathe of black skin covered his facial bone structure. Thus, although he appeared to be skull-faced, he wasn't. Not really. Besides, the fact that he was carrying an eye-stave instead of a scythe should have told her he wasn't Death.

"What is it?" inquired Master Kyprian.

"Your other great-grandchild's devic half-mother's here. Says she has a proposition for you."

"Does she indeed."

Something else we learn in Trip-Trig is the identity of those who are, 17 Yamana 5938 currently (January 17, 1938 on the Outer Earth), possessing Odd-2's Boss Bovines, the recurring Male and Female Entities.

They are ...

4. Helioddity: "Hunter and Huntresses"

Mythologists among you might already know Sagitta is the name of the arrow Olympian Apollo used to kill the eagle that, on a daily basis, fed on the liver of Prometheus, the Titan who brought fire to us wee mortals. In PHANTACEA Sagitta is also the codename of the female of the two Silver Arrow Assassins. Other one, her husband, is Sagittarius, named after the Centaur Archer, one of the twelve signs of the Zodiac. (Sagitta and Sagittarius are also constellations. Needless to say Sorciere would rather stick them in the sky than have to deal with them on the ground.)

One of Oddity's many sub-plots is what happened to Granny Garuda once she came out of the Wild Weird, with Sorciere riding her, above the ferry dock in Brindisi. Silver Arrows pin-cushioned her, albeit with darts not arrows. Which is somewhat fitting since, well, -- you don't need to be a mythologist to know that Garudas are oversized eagles, do you? (Or, if you did, you don't now.) Did mention, in the synopsis to Odd-1, that someone is captured and someone else is killed. Don't need to tell you now which witch was which, do I? Didn't think so!

Sorciere (Solace nee Sunrise become Sundown), whose codename simply means 'witch' in French, her (probably) Metis mother's native tongue, and Sagitta (Artemis nee Zeross become Hyperenor), who's named after the Olympian Huntress, reputedly Apollo's twin sister, and not the Anatolian Mother Goddess (whose shrine at Ephesus, in modern day Turkey, at least partially still stands), have already developed an interesting relationship. They're the killer witches whom Meg (Megaera Four-Fingers, nee Kinesis become Zeross), Hellion Grudge, the one Sorciere called a female fury, left to kill each other at the end of Odd-1. Needless to say they did not succeed since they're our titular huntresses this time up. Guess who they go hunting for in Odd-4? Each other of course.

Titular hunter is Aquilla, a hollow-boned avian-human who is also an Inner Earth Summoning Child. Is Granny Garuda's grandson. Is aquiline, an Eagle of the Grey. Has his own regalia. Guess who doesn't any more, -- although, if she had, might yet phoenix? All right, so you know that already as well, but did you know devils are not allowed to kill? Aren't allowed doesn't mean can't, of course, but they don't. At least they don't yet! (Although you'll hear a fair amount about her during Oddity, it will be awhile before we re-encounter a possible exception to that rule.)

Reason for that is devils, third generational Master Devas, thrive on worship. Wouldn't want to kill off your own potential worshippers, would you? Devils don't. Don't, additionally, because the Moloch Sedon would cathonitize them instantly, make them stars in the Night's Sky above his own Headworld, if they did. Unfortunately, many of their more fanatical adherents are all too prone to killing in the name of one devil or another. Sound familiar? (Change devil to god and I'm sure it would.)

Aquilla would kill anyone so long as he secured his Granny's feathers in the process, such that she at least had an opportunity to make like a sunbird and rise anew. Garudas worship Byronic devils, third generational Master Devas. (All third generation devils are referred to as Master Devas. Reason for that is, with some seminal assistance from Mr Lone-Born of the First Generation Sedon, they're the offspring of the Thrygragos Brothers via the Trigregos Sisters. Collectively, the Six Great Gods are considered Second Generation Devils.)

A number of Byronics, including their Great God Father, the Unmoving One Himself, appear in Odd-4. These devils have appeared in PHANTACEA on the Web before, albeit not in the 1938 serials. (Among their number highlight Damon Goldenrod and Aphropsyche Morningstar. They seem intent on making 'Heliodyssey' their shot at Big Shelter's circa 5938 Big Time.)

The Byronics, only slightly ambiguously, imply to the aquiline Summoning Child that they would not mind if the Taurus, Ulysses Heliopolis, gets dead. Need I tell you who gets dead instead? All right, I won't. Mostly because no one gets dead in Odd-4. Need I tell you who gets seriously unhealthy? No need. Title already has.

Neither was altogether immobilized as yet. They glared at each other, tried to get up, tried to spring at one another. Both wanted to tear the other's throat out. Neither could. Their jaws no longer worked the way they usually worked.

Their springs had sprung!

5. Helioddity: "Helios Goes Nuclear"

Goes nuclear, -- in 1938? Not a chance, right? Exactly. So, are we suddenly in the then near-future? No, we're in the long ago past. Which means it must be time to pull out your dog-eared copy of 'Forever & 40 Days, the Genesis of PHANTACEA' again. (Or, if you don't have one, then it's past time to order it.)

Master Kyprian finishes off her telling of Helios's Fifth Lifetime: Helios creates Sedon, then tries to kill him by cutting off his head, whereupon Sedon kills Helios instead (for the fifth time), but preserves the life of his other father, the Utopian Cabalarkon, by turning him into a psychic vampire. She then moves briefly to his Third Lifetime, which for everyone except the Dual Entities happened long after his Fifth.

Just to further review, his Third's the one wherein the Moloch Sedon destroys Old Weir's Mother Machine, though not before Helios incorporates much of its workings into Trans-Time Trigon and thereby in effect brings into being the fully functional Mnemosyne Machine. Either way you look at it this, Kyprian's topical lifetime, happens much later than his Fifth or his Third.

Chronologically speaking, that is to say in terms what passes for their linear timeline, it may not even have happened yet for the Dual Entities. That's because, in Oddity, they are 1938-currently experiencing their Eleventh Lifetimes together. Still might, if everyone except Heliosophos has their way, actually start enjoying their first one together as well.

"But this is madness. For every devil you kill, assuming you kill even one, thousands of its adherents die."

"That few? I had hoped for ten thousand at a minimum."

"You're talking mass murder, -- the death of not just every deva but every one of their followers, no matter how innocent."

"Innocents do not worship devils!"

Helios considered his goals, and the means he took to achieve them, beyond reproach. Unfortunately, no matter howsoever justifiable it may or may not have been, Memory nuking Weirstar did not mark the end of the Moloch Sedon, the Thrygragos Brothers, the Trigregos Sisters and absolutely all of their then-thousands of offspring, the Master Devas.

Neither was it the end for Helios and Machine Memory; not even for them in whatever lifetime it was for the Male Entity. We'll get to how that lifetime did end momentarily. Won't be Kyprian telling the appropriate His and Her Stories next time, however. Will be ... Well, who do you think it'll be?

Golgotha Nauroz ... cut off both Pyrame's arms with her own sickle. On her knees, arterial blood spurting from her shoulder sockets, the priestess glared at him, through him, defiantly. Her grin chilled him to the bone.

"And the head?" he inquired.

"Good idea," said the long-serving Master of Weir.

Talk about hospitality, eh?

Makes you wonder if Oddity has a principal plot of its own, doesn't it? It does. You might even call it a supra-plotline. I'll be sure to point it out to you when we get there.