Relics (9 page)

“I felt the portal begin to open early last year. So far, it is too erratic for many to get through. While the portal is now open, the size is still fluctuating wildly. There is no pattern to the changes to allow a steady, safe passage. It can be as small as a basketball or large enough for an elephant to step through. So far, it is usually on the small side. Otherwise I would sense more of them coming through. They need the same relics to stabilize it that I need to close it. The race is on, and we must be the ones to win. We cannot let them through.”

For the first time, I detected actual fear in his voice.

“We simply cannot let that happen.”

“And why is that?” I asked. My heart was starting to pound. If whatever it was could scare a daemon, what would it mean for us mere mortals? “What is coming through the portal?”

He paused.

“Angels.”

I laughed. The others smiled, and I think I heard a snort from Jane because she quickly covered her mouth.

Jones seemed less than pleased at our reaction. For a moment, I detected a flare of anger before he controlled it.

“By all means, be sure to get this out of your system. I do not think you will be quite so happy when you have heard the rest.”

“Go for it, Jones. Tell us why we should be afraid of angels.”

“First of all you need to set aside your preconceived notions of daemon and angel. I use the terms you use for us for simplicity's sake, but they are by no means the names we use for ourselves. Eons ago, humans gave us names that simply described our appearance. Some of our more – shall we say active – people were identified and given names which you would recognize today. I will not bore you with the language evolution, but basically we were called Dark Ones and Light Ones. Not very creative, I grant you, but descriptive. None of us are from this realm. Nor do our true natures have anything to do with what history has made of us.”

Jane seemed startled. “Angels are from God, and you are from Satan.” She was quite certain of this, you could tell.

Jones shook his head. “No, Jane, I am sorry, but I have never come across an entity known as Satan, nor any of the other names used for him. Not personally, nor have I heard of anyone else who has. The realm from which daemons come has no Satan. Of this, I am quite sure.

“I also have not known anyone who has met the entity people call 'God.' Although, a few of our people have taken on both personas when it suited them. Impersonation by both of our species has caused a lot of confusion on your world.”

He put up a hand to stop Jane as she opened her mouth and looked at her intently. “It is not for me to say if your god and devil exist or not. They are irrelevant to me. They may very well exist in other dimensions unknown to me. That is a matter for you to decide for yourself and is none of my concern.”

“There is good and evil. I've seen it,” Jane insisted.

“Yes, of course there are forces for good and evil in all realms. But daemons and angels, as people, are both or neither, according to each individual. Just as your people are.”

The concept seemed hard for Jane. I thought of something.

“Look here, I see ghosts. I mean Jane is a ghost. I know there is something after death.”

“Obviously, since you can see and hear those who remain in this dimension. That does not have anything to do with those of us you call angels and daemons. We are simply beings from other worlds.”

“And I've seen them go into a bright white light. Not my imagination. I've seen that light.”

“Yes, you have seen them enter a portal to another dimension.”

“Oh. Well, where does that portal go?  Is that Heaven?”

Jones shrugged. “I have no idea, I have never taken it. No one I know, who has gone through that particular portal, has ever returned. That portal appears in many different places. I stay away from it.”

Well, that was interesting. A point I'd have to think about later.

He sighed another very human sigh. “Back to angels and daemons. There always has been and always will be a division between Dark Ones and Light Ones. We are from other realms, but not the same one. We both used portals to come into your world and to return to ours.

“It is quite simple really. To boil it down for you, our presence here is mostly due to a fight over food supply. It always has been.” He gave an apologetic smile. “Earth is not even our biggest or most popular supply. Your race is an acquired taste. However, there are some among both of our races who really like this world and its people.”

Jane was still struggling. Having had some of her beliefs put into question had to be frustrating for her.

“Angels are good. They help people. Everyone knows that.” She was adamant about that.

“Well, that is because winners write the history. Daemon ranks were thinned out considerably in one of the last big wars. Prior to that, we had many epic battles, here and on other feeding worlds.

That caused raised eyebrows. What was this?  Other feeding worlds?

“Well, that is not important for now. Anyway, since angels won that one, they pretty much made up their own story.”

“So, the angels were good.”

“No. Jane, you have to stop thinking of them as you have in the past. They are beings from another dimension, just as we are. They come here to feed on humans, just as we do. The only real difference is that we feed on the negative energies put out by humans – pain, loss, fear, hate. They feed off the positive – happiness, compassion, love, joy.

“We can create situations that feed us, as can they. Meaning we can make people miserable, although that level would be far too excessive for us. In fact, we need very little negative energy, and your people seem pretty good at creating your own misery. The Light Ones can make people happy, and they often do.”

“Ha!  See?  I told you they are good.” Jane was pleased.

Jones shook his head. “There can be too much of a good thing, Jane. They are just as inclined to feed from a drug addict under the influence as they are to feed off of last week's lottery winner. And they will arrange for those situations, if they feel like it. Believe me when I say it is easier to find the drug addict and make sure they are well supplied and happy than it is to get that lottery winner. The reason for the human emotion is irrelevant. It only matters that it is positive and very strong. Once they find someone they like, they will keep their victim in a heightened emotional state to maintain the levels of energy they need. Humans cannot exist like that indefinitely. They simply burn out. “

The implications were pretty clear to me, and I don't think angels had quite the appeal they had before. An entity that would keep you happy sounded fine on the surface, but at what cost?  Artificially induced happiness?  Drugged?  Certain scenes from sci-fi movies, with people kept asleep and wired to hideous machines for years, came to mind. I shuddered. I'd rather have my emotions be my own, thank you very much.

“As I said, neither of our peoples has your values. And an angel’s appetite is much greater than a daemon’s. We need only a small amount of negative energy to supplement us. They need massive amounts of positive. Because there is far more unhappiness on this world, it is not the best choice for either race.”

I could see his point.

“How many of you are there?” Thulu asked.

“A bit over a million, but not on Earth. Here probably about four hundred daemons. Angels number over several million, but here there are less than a hundred at present.”

Nana cocked her head. “Really?  Why is that?”

Jones crossed one leg over the other. “Because the last time they attempted to open a portal to this world, it was not open for very long. Many of the angels already here were banished back to their own realm. A balance was kept.”

“So, why should we help you?  Maybe we should help the angels. Maybe you're lying about them and they're really good. Or maybe we should get rid of all of you.” Thulu's look was steady. “Sounds to me like we'd be better off with both sides gone.”

Jones looked at his hands. “I doubt that you would be able to remove all of us. If you mean close both portals –” He shrugged. “We regulate ours already. Closing it would not really make a difference to us. Those of us caught on this side probably want to be here anyway, and those on our home world have many other more popular alternatives. Besides, portals have a way of not staying closed forever.

“The angels go through resources rather faster than we do. This is one reason they are returning here. Also their favorite world is at war – not conducive to happiness. They have been there a long time, and the effects of their feeding are damaging the native population, who are beginning to turn on each other. Plus, your world is – easy pickings.” He gave a grim smile.

“We can speculate endlessly on why they are coming here, rather than another world. For now, I suggest that we go to work finding the rest of the relics and a few other pieces I need to close the portal.”

Jones explained that there were nine pieces total. Four carved panels that detailed the ancient ritual and how the relics were used in the ceremony. He had two of the panels, which dated from the Tang Dynasty, around 720 CE. There were four relics, all of gold: the dagger, a small plate, a cup and a pitcher. He already had the plate, as well. The final piece was an ancient scroll, giving details on how to perform the ceremony and exactly what was to be said.

“So, you need two panels, three of the relics and the scroll?”

Jones nodded. “Can you find them?”

Thulu shrugged. “Is the plate the item from Jane's house?”

“No, I was able to track that down last year. It was my first piece, and the owner was happy to part with it for a price.” He gave us a grin and shrugged his shoulders. “I did not find anything in Jane's house.”

“That reminds me,” I said. “Jane wants her locket back.” Jones looked at me blankly, and then at Jane, who nodded.

“One of your guys helped himself to a locket that was in Jane's nightstand. It was a present for her granddaughter, and she wants it back.”

Jones frowned, nodded and looked Jane square in the eye. “I will get it back for you. It is the least I can do under the circumstances.”

She nodded graciously. “Thank you.”

He looked at each of us in turn. “Well, I am certain you would like to discuss my proposal for a partnership. I promise it would be to your advantage. I would make it very worthwhile. There is also the consideration that you would be preserving your world's way of life. That is, if the altruistic appeals to you.” He tapped on the glass behind him.

True to his word, Jones returned us to our car. He agreed to email us pictures of the panels he had and the plate. We planned to speak later, but we needed a break.

Jones asked about our usual fee, but we didn't even want to think about that. There were too many things we needed to think through. Besides, we weren't sure we were going to work with him. We told him we'd let him know after we discussed it.

As soon as we got to our car, Jane disappeared with a subdued wave.

Thulu and I dropped off a strangely quiet Nana and went home. We were just too burned out to do much else. Angels, daemons, dead clients, ancient relics, portals to other dimensions. Information overload, and my brain was going five million miles a minute.

Once we were inside, with shoes off and glasses of wine in hand, we curled up on our cushy sofa in the family room.

“I believe him, I think,” said Thulu. “I'm not sure about who is good or not. He wasn't painting either side as good, which makes me think he's probably being as honest as he can.”

I sipped my wine, thinking about Jones's story, staring into space.

“I didn't get a sense of much of anything from him, so it's hard to tell. But for now, I'm inclined to believe him, too. At least until I have proof to the contrary. But do you buy this save the world crap?”

“Well, a thousands of years old daemon as a drama queen would be pretty funny. I think there's more to it than his wanting to help humans. He's not exactly the altruistic type himself, is he?”

“Nope, didn't get a lot of altruism from him. I honestly don't know, Thulu, but I don't think we have the whole story here. Still, it won't hurt to check some things out, I guess.” I stretched out the kinks in my neck. “So what do you want to do next?”

As I looked at Thulu, he gave me a familiar, impish grin that left no doubt in my mind what he wanted to do next.