6. "Her Story in the Making"

Oh, no, not more yap! Afraid so, -- albeit not for much longer.

This installment starts out with Hush (Jolene Callion, Joli Blon), Gilda, Eden, Memory, and Dolores examining the obvious, and not so obvious, candidates for Count Molech's, um, attentions. There are a surprising number of them actually. One is Barsine Mandam, Magister Joseph Mandam's Summoning-Aged daughter, whose mother may or may not have been the Magister's wife, Mary Magdalene born Ryne, who died ever so mysteriously at sea in April 1933. (And if Barsine's mother wasn't the Magdalene, was therefore unknown, she, the real mother, could have died giving her, Barsine, birth, couldn't she?) Of course Old Joe, Dragon Joe, is a man of mystery himself. He's also a man of knowledge, fancies himself an old-time Persian Magus even though he lives in Mesopotamia, and is extremely influential.

This influence extends not only to the Gypsies (Rhea Ararat, the 'Her Story' of Mole-6's title, may have been his sister) and the Etocretans (who, almost to a one, regard him as their mentor) but to the patriarch (Loxus Ryne, Joe's much younger brother-in-law), the Xuthrodite Faith, the Alliance of Man, and, though this is not yet evident, even to the reborn Mithrant Brotherhood. Of course the Magister would never give his precious daughter to a Blood Beast Prime. However, he was ruthless enough that he might make arrangements for an alternate in her stead.

Hush is convinced that alternative has to be Valfreja Volsung. But for the fact her mother's still alive, Freya had one appealing advantage: she was sickly, had some kind of internal cancer having to do with the reproductive organs, and was not expected to live much more than another year or two. If Memory was right and the 'virgin bride' had to be aware of what she was getting into, as was consistent with vampire lore, then she was perfect.

Freya would be desperate enough to bear a Vampire Maker's child because, once the kid was born, the Maker would turn himself, then turn her, the mother, into a vamp. Thus Freya would become an immortal bloodsucker and undie happily ever after with the Mighty Moloch, Mithrant Pater that he was, at her side. She would therefore become the Korant Mater, a position currently held, at least in name, by Freya's ostensible mother, Hulga Faust always Volsung.

Ah, but that's the melting pot in the steam bath, isn't it?, argued Gilda nee O'Ryan Dre'Ath. Hulga hadn't died giving her birth, had she? Who's to say the hag was her mother?, countered Hush. Me!, proclaimed Mama Goldie. Gilda was there when Hunnish Hulga gave birth to Freya, saw her coming out of the womb. And, as should go without saying, sleight-of-hand is much easier than sleight-of-womb.

What about Argiope Zeross then? Everyone knows Mother Britomars died giving her birth. Of course the same could be said about Aerobe nee Catreus, Roxanne nee Heliopolis now Kinesis's mother. Except Hot Rox was certainly no virgin and, to put the boot to that possibility altogether, already had a child, young Romaine, who was staying with the Atriedes, Laodice's parents, -- Clymene being Aerobe's sister --, back on Aegean Trigon.

No go, complained Memory. Etzel Sangati and Agenor Heliopolis, Roxanne's anarchist of a brother, the leader -- if that wasn't a contradiction in terms -- of the Minoan maniacs, are blood brothers. They would never hurt each other and Argiope Bright Face is Agenor's fiance. Eden confirms this, whereupon Memory drops her bomb. She knows who the target is ...

"It's someone the patriarch has and is willing to trade for Sangati's vampiric kiss. Has to be! The Tantaluses, that of Aesgard and that of Olympus, only showed up within the past year or so. It's Virginia, my Virginia, -- our Virginia, Doll! Quit playing stupid, Eden. I'm right, am I not?"

Eden was shocked at Memory's assertion. "Abe trading anyone for a bogus vampire's kiss is preposterous."

"Come up something better then. I'm telling you, everything points to Abe and the Magister!"

On another front, the Alliance's hotel, Donar Lancz and Jesus Mandam, the Magister's Summoning-Aged son by Mary Magdalene nee Ryne, compare notes. Young Mandam can get about between-space, one of the very few men who has that ability. At the same time Lancz was branded with the Mithraic Labarum someone shot and killed Stephen von Blut, who was comparatively pro-Slav but staunchly anti-communist, as well as being Lancz's main rival for Hitler's ear.

Although the assailant looked like one of the Lancz's Hermiones, Mandam is convinced the man was wearing a glamour. Is convinced, moreover, that it wasn't a man at all. Why? Because he/she got away on a stepping stone. Jesse followed the assailant into the Grey but lost him/her in, -- and this was interesting, given that she was so close to von Blut --, the hotel bedroom of Mata nee Sangati/Ararat Avar.

There are many other players in Heliodyssey beyond just those staying at the Alliance hotel or at the D'Angelo family villa. More than just Heliopolis's Etocretans and the Sangatis' gypsies as well. Some, like the Cheyenne Medicine Man named Manitoulin, Sedon St Synne and Joseph Mandam, are not even in Rome.

On Aegean Trigon, for example, the Atreides are out walking one year old Romaine Kinesis. There they make an intriguing discovery. At the foot of one of the Island's three spiralling peaks they find the black flower of a sloe or blackthorn bush. Clymene nee Catreus, Mystery Might, recognizes it instantly. It's the age-old symbol of Eris, sister of Ares, the Olympian God of War, she of the fabled Golden Apple of Discord and the legendary Judgement of Paris. Eris was more than just the personification of Discord however. She is best thought of as the living embodiment of Strife!

Three other players who are in Rome this thirteenth day of January 1938 but have contributed little to 'Manoeuvres' thus far are Auguste Moirnoir, the black-as-midnight Male Trickster who, for seventeen years, has been Hush's 'fairy' counterpart, -- Young Death to her Young Life; Solace Sunrise aka Sorciere, a Metis (half-French, half-Indian) Summoning Child who, like Hot Rox, has a child of her own; and Scylla Nereid, Fisherwoman, the exotic-looking aquatic who is somehow or other close to Magister Joseph Mandam. Moirnoir is also connected to the Mithraic Magus, as well as Sed-son, aging satyr that he is.

The Voodoo Child was supposed to be looking after young Jesse but, now that Donar Lancz had his brown-shirted, blood-stained claws into the erratic stumblebum of a Summoning Child, Moirnoir's giving up, going back to Africa to pick up the search for the missing Galvin/Shekmet party; a group of adventurers that include Barsine Mandam among their lost.

Fish and Sorciere, -- the one who, along with Granny Garuda, chased Medea Annulis back to Big Shelter in an earlier subsection --, have decided to hang around here in Rome. Good thing too. They're about to get very busy.

While Memory of the Angels is away from the house on unspecified business, Gilda Dre'Ath and Hush Mannering take a walk in the park across the street from the D'Angelos' villa. The topic of their conversation is mostly Rhea Ararat (Mama Moloch), her connection to the turn-of-the-century Anthean Sisterhood, of which she was co-Superior for awhile, her peculiar form of madness (maenadism), and her suspect 'celebration' of the True Easter, which resulted in the annual disappearances of her Year Kings from roughly 1902 until Leonora nee Tedesco D'Angelo at least semi-straightened her out circa 1909, or thereabouts.

(NOTE: Leonora was the mother of Celestine, Raphael, Dolores, and Mnemosyne as well as being the Ants' late, very much lamented, so-called Leonine Superior, -- Rhea's counterpart way back then.)

Hush and Gilda also discuss whether or not Rhea was the mother of Etzel Sangati. If she was, then it was unlikely she could have been the mother of Medea nee Aeetes Annulis as well. Quite simply they, Medea and the modern-day Moloch, were born too close together to have come from a common womb.

There are lots of other stuff of interest in their conversation and Hush is spellbound. All the more so when the Dre'Aths' Mama Goldie gets into the saga of Alexander the Great and how Olympias nee Sangati deliberately set up her son, Alexandros Kinesis, to become the reknowned Macedonian's reincarnation in hopes of relocating the Stream of Life. Then the little horror spots Count Molech's limousine, as driven by Djinn, Etzel Sangati's Arabian-looking manservant, pull into the D'Angelo driveway and decides to heed the call of nature.

So, is Ginny the Moloch's intended target and what's with the Strife flower? The answers -- at least partially and, in one case, quite determinate -- are found in this sequence!

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8. "To the Devil His Duel"

As the final session of the Alliance of Man's extraordinary Roman gathering concludes downtown -- successfully as it happens, at least as far as Abe Ryne is concerned -- Mnemosyne D'Angelo and Hush Mannering remain behind, at the D'Angelo family villa not far from Vatican City. It's time for another her-story, a short one this time, and it's Memory's not Rhea Ararat's. Be warned though: it's quite sensational, fairly brutal throughout and, since Afrites speak of such matters with an unabashed frankness, it may not be for the faint of heart.

It begins with Memory of the Angels killing daemonic Rhea. That happened right here in Rome back in 1923, when she was 14 years old. Rhea, who was going by the name of Norma in those days, deserved it too. Only the day before, down south in the Antheans' Pompeii Shelter at the foot of Mt. Vesuvius, Rhea/Norma kidnapped two year old Baby Virginia from the Ants' refuge and had not only murdered but mutilated then immolated Memory's oldest sister, Celestine D'Angelo. So why didn't those with Rhea/Norma retalliate, kill Memory as easily as they did the Celestial Superior?

There were probably a few reasons for that. One was they definitely wanted Ginny and Memory was the only one who could keep the youngster under control. Another was, without Rhea/Norma around, they weren't great killers. A third, only hinted at as yet (check out VolVar-5 for the bite-line), is because of something that happened during the Summoning, something that involved Bleda Sangati, the current Moloch's father, and Michael D'Angelo, the Angelics' presumed father.

Memory goes on to describe her initiation into a corrupted Sisterhood that wasn't that of Anthea, Aphrodite, Athene, or even that of Kore/Persephone/Eleusis, -- not precisely, though it might be somewhat similar. Memory can't be sure which Witch-Sisterhood it was exactly but Hush puts the pieces together and determines it was that of Hel, Helle, or Hecate: the Ghastly One, the Crone, she who eats her own children.

She calls these witches Hellions and equates them with Ophirants, Orphism, Dionysian frenzies, and maenadism. In very ancient times such Hellions would have worshipped Magna Mater, Meter, the Great Mother Goddess of the Mediterranean Region who, particularly in Phrygia and much of the rest of Asia Minor, also went by the name of Kybele or Cybele.

As the two of them relax in the heavily-guarded D'Angelo bastion, downtown, at the Alliance's conference, Abe Ryne and Baron Tyrtod von Alptraum get together for a quick tete-a-tete. The tension between the two men is almost palpable. Though long-time friends, with the spectre of Hitler, Nazism, and World War hanging over them, their relationship is severely strained.

Doesn't help when von Alp as much as accuses Ryne of plotting Stephen von Blut's death, along with the Etocretan Extremists of Agenor Heliopolis, and asserts that it was Raphael D'Angelo, via one of his Sicilian lieutenants, who tried to kill Etzel Sangati and this Djinn, his manservant, outside the Angelics' villa a couple of hours earlier.

The patriarch isn't having any of von Alp's guff, his snippy innuendo and unwarranted vituperation. Ryne's convinced something big's in the air for tonight and that it has to do with von Alp's Prussian faction, as opposed to Lancz's Nazi-oriented Hermiones, getting hold of the Aesgardian Tantalus from Count Molech. The meeting ends badly, with von Alp warning the great man to keep his twitching proboscis out of German business or he might find it pointing the other way, -- into his skull!

Ryne's in a testy mood. He calls for Agenor Heliopolis and Angelo Zeross to be brought before him. He even warns his men to watch out for Mnemosyne D'Angelo; says she's too close to Sedon St. Synne, Magister Mandam, and the various Gypsy/Manoan maniacs to be trusted. Neither Heliopolis nor Zeross are at the hotel, but the brother and sister team of Alexandros Kinesis and Megaera Zeross, Angelo's wife, are, -- and agree to speak to him. That's when things get seriously spooky!

Just how do silver arrowheads end up in his pocket, the pockets of his two pre-teen sons, David and Saul, the Dre'Aths, including Angus and wife Gilda, and those of some of his men, among them Len Starrus and Ted Mayhew? Alex says it's magic and it may well be. Ryne knows about witches. Meg hints his wife, Eden Nightingale, is not only one but is somehow beyond even her ken in terms of abilities.

So, is Eden an old-time witch? Given she's never been trained, are her otherwise inexplicable 'talents' due to the fact she has been possessed by the spirit of a major league witch from the past? (Perhaps it's Leonora D'Angelo, as she herself once speculated to the little trickster.) And, if she was, could Meg, sister-in-law Roxanne now Kinesis, and some of the other Etocretans be possessed by the likes of Olympias nee Sangati, Britomars Zeross, or Aerobe Heliopolis?

It's certainly a thought but, then again, there might be other explanations. For example, could Sangati's Djinn be a real djinn, -- a genuine genie?

Sean Dre'Ath did not stay at the Hotel for the Alliance's final session. He took a cab back to the D'Angelos' villa. Felt so bad about letting himself be sucked in by Ginny's wiles, not to mention her fetching eyes, that he wanted to try to explain his misbehaviour, to put it mildly, to his wife, Rebecca Elizabeth nee Maxwell. This puts Anita D'Angelo, Raphael and Sophia nee St. Synne's legitimate Summoning Aged daughter, in an awkward position.

Even though the house was guarded by not only Papa Rafe's Sicilians but by a delegation of Ryne's heavily-armed professionals, Nita did not feel comfortable being in the same room as the estranged Dre'Ath couple. But what could she do? Her mother had left her in charge of the children, her own evident siblings, Marcello, Gloriella, and Claudia, as well as Aranyani Ryne and Baby Betty, Sean and Becky's one year old.

As capable as Nita was at nearly everything she tried, she needed help with the children. Three at once, Gloriel, Aranyani, and Marcello, plus a crying baby and a couple of potentially volcanic parents, were a bit much.

Becky Dre'Ath suddenly slumped forward. Something blew out the back of Sean's left shoulder and upper chest. Blood, gore, and slivers of bone covered her, the kids, the playpen, the toys, even the walls. Something else came out of the air, -- no, out of little Aran! Some one! A silver streak! A quicksilver-quick shriek of a horrible-headed or hideously-helmeted harridan all in silver and wearing Quicksilver's, Mercury's, talarial winged boots! With silver snakes slither-struggling out of its, her, silver scalp only to end up going nowhere!

Then certain things were not there any more. The quicksilver killer, Sean Dre'Ath, and most of what passed for her mind; her precious but, as was no secret, ever-fragile sanity. Don't scream, Nita told herself.

She did not need to, -- the kids did it for her!

It's not just Sean Dre'Ath, be he dead or somehow still alive, who has disappeared though. By the time the Rynes, Dre'Aths, and the rest of the D'Angelos make it back to the villa that night, so too have Joli Blon and Memory of the Angels, the Terrible Twins, Virginia Mannering, and even Maxwell Dre'Ath. They weren't the only ones either.

Frantic phone calls to the various hotels where they were staying confirmed that literally a couple dozen of the seventeen, or nearly seventeen, year old Summoning Children had apparently vanished as well.

Loxus Abraham Ryne already had a sense of impending doom. Control-freak that he was, he could probably be excused. Finding a silver arrowhead in one's pocket when it shouldn't have been there, learning that his precious wife, the mother of his three children, might be an old-time witch, then hearing that his meddlesome nephew, Jesus Mandam, had been spotted in the company of Donar Lancz that morning, -- and that no one had bothered to tell him about it! -- was only the worst of it.

Despite Eden's assurances that the trickster would take care of everything, that did little to bolster his confidence. In fact, it only plummeted him further into the proverbial bottomless pit of your not quite everyday average abject despair. Then news came from John Sundown. He'd found some of them, the Nazis, the Etocretans, and even some of the Gypsies. Unfortunately, so too had Papa Rafe's Sicilians. It could turn into a serious slaughterhouse, advised Ted Mayhew.

Found them where? As to that, best read the story.

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