THE BATTLE FOR THE SALAMANDER'S SARCOPHAGUS Even while Ben and Sophie watched from the shadows Theocracy gnomes stopped their robotic work and removed the magnetic crystal from the condenser. Diana had plans to scientifically study it, thinking it was some great chymical secret. The two women were no longer fighting as the electrical fluid, in killing the Ravens, had magnetized the Philosopher's Stone; the magnetic charge had to dissipate before they could use the weapon again: There was nothing they could do. Two women alone against an army of robot workers. The only thing to do was to consult an even greater magician: Stepping across the dead body of a bird-man guarding the portal of a t-tube like the sleeping soldiers before Christ's tomb, they proceeded to Smith's apothecary, hidden in the shadows of an ungodly cathedral where a false God was worshiped by ritual orgies. After they told Smith what had happened he raised one finger in the air, a look of triumph in his eyes: "This is a job for Tohu-Bohu." "The Troglodyte King?" Ben asked fearfully. "He is said to hate Fire-Children; that he despises the drugs our Salamander-priests use ritually...." Sophie looked at Ben with disgust; like her twin brother she thought drugs had no place in religion--but she had no choice but to throw her lot in with the Fire-Children.... Smith said, "You forget that his own daughter is in love with a Fire-Child: Togra loves Simon Farber--don't get jealous, Ben, we must take advantage of love for our salvation: Through the daughter's heart we may reach the Father." The Three moved like quicksilver to their destination: Troglodytica, passed like flame among the elemental gnomes, robots programmed to work unceasingly; and when the Mind-Police, tried to stop them Smith burned them all with his Alkahest sprayer. Not that Sophie and Ben weren't quick enough with their ray-guns as well. They descended past tubes of liquid energy. They descended through sand-dragon tunnels. They descended deep into the bowels of the Earth, great whore that she was, and came at last to Tohu-Bohu. The mighty Troglodyte King was sitting on a splendid gold throne encrusted with jewels in a cave lit by burning phlogiston; he was dressed in chain mail of a light, flexible plastic. He carried the most potent weapon on the planet: his Stone Axe. Not an axe made out of flint or granite or any one of a dozen different rocks; no, this Axe was constructed out of pure, solid Philosopher's Stone. It gleamed a little in the dark as the Troglodyte King asked, "Who intrudes into Tohu-Bohu's subterranean domain?" "I am Smith, a humble alchemist." He bowed low before the mighty apparition, in dread awe of the potent Stone weapon. Tohu-Bohu replied, "I know you, Smith...your reputation precedes you. You are one of the Fire-Children...I despise your cult: Tohu-Bohu does not need acid to see the Void; it is enough for him to know that he came from it when he was born and will return to it when he dies! Leave now, before I unleash the fury of my magic upon you!" Smith pleaded, "Your daughter loves my friend, Farber." Togra approached her Father now, moving out of the shadows like Wisdom out of the Void. "Do it for me, Father," she begged the mighty warrior. Tohu-Bohu at last relented: "Ask any boon and it shall be granted." He sheathed the awesome weapon. Smith and the others were thankful that they no longer had to look on the wonder and the terror of the powerful magic thing, like looking on the face of God and living. Sophie summarized the events of the last seven days. "So..." Tohu-Bohu said. "They would think to deny my daughter's lover a burial. They are filth indeed! We shall see how the entire horde of Ravens that lives in that place fares, though, when they have to face...the Stone Axe of Tohu-Bohu!" Tohu-Bohu went blustering off, to call up his armies. An hour later the entire Troglodyte force swarmed up the geothermal shafts like insects. At their fore, Smith employed a necromantical Stone to locate Farber's crystal sarcophagus; the entire Troglodyte force was at Diana's secret laboratory in no time, led by the mighty barbarian with his Stone Axe. Ravens dropped from the sky, demon bird-men clawing at Tohu-Bohu with their razor-sharp talons, but the mighty man-thing, with literal bones of steel and muscles of iron, cleaved through them all easily. Where the Stone Axe touched the enemy's flesh it was transmuted into purest gold; their blood into mercury. No force on earth or any other earth can stand against the power and fury of Tohu-Bohu once it is unleased; the demons came on thick but were easily dispersed by the Axe and the anger of Tohu-Bohu; Smith's Alkahest, a Rosicrucian secret; the ray-beamers of Sophie and Benjamin, who loved each other like sisters; and the spears, bows, and arrows of the Troglodyte horde. Togra fought there that day; fought for her dead lover, the tattoo of an eagle on her arm rippling as though alive as she hurled spear after spear. They burst through the door of the laboratory; quickly mopped up the scientists who were studying the scarlet crystal and their Mind-Police guards...the Fire-Children wrapped heavy chains around the crystal sarcophagus to drag it into the daybreak, the rejoicing Troglodyte hordes continuing to pour into the crystal city in a Revolution whose time had come--on and on they came, thick and heavy, in a battle against the Theocracy that had been plotted for years--the citizens of Phoenix joining in the rebellion as the Stone Axe fended off every weapon hurled against it. While the Fire-Children, led by Miriam Benjamin, were busily dragging the magnetic crystal into the desert Tohu-Bohu burst into the throne room. The evil Queen sat upon her throne, cried out defiantly, "You cannot transmute me, Troglodyte King--I am already a woman of living metal! Now you will have to face the full force of my magic--the power of darkness, of the moon!" She raised her diadem, a little silver thing in a crescent shape. Dazzling beams radiated from it, dazing the mighty King like abhorrent acid. Under Diana's spell he dropped his Axe.... Diana's hatred was focussed entirely on Tohu-Bohu; she didn't notice Togra picking up the Stone Axe while she concentrated her beams of psionic silver onto her greatest enemy--Tohu-Bohu was turning into a metal statue, the color of the moon, of Night who rules the skies when Day is dead.... With grim resolve Togra hurled the Axe straight at Diana's head. The body of the cyborg was of magical, Spiritual Silver, but it sheathed a human brain: The Stone Axe split her skull, transmuting her brain into gold even as Togra raced to her stricken Father's side. The metallic luster of his skin imparted by the moon-diadem was slowly fading as the magical beams were removed; he looked into her eyes--she looked back with the love of Electra. There was a charge in the air...then cheers interrupted the silence as the whole city exploded into a carnival atmosphere, finally free of the evil Sorceress who had ruled there for a thousand years--immortal through her silver color: But the power of the Sun had destroyed her moon-magic...at last. Tohu-Bohu stood groggily, like one rising from the dead. He wanted to go out into Phoenix, the city that had for so long been forbidden to Troglodytes, find a pub, and quench his thirst with a frosty ale...but first he had to attend Farber's funeral. Farber. The Salamander was dead. # THE SALAMANDER'S FUNERAL By noon the Fire-Children, still dragging the great magnetic stone, came to rest upon a salt flat that stretched to the horizon. Where the salt and sand met the Fire-Children stopped to dig their high-priest's grave--the Salamander's grave. The light of the morning sun shone through the crystal, refracted into a thousand ruby beams. At its center ashes were scattered in the shape of a man; around it the Magi mourned; Ben, the new Salamander, led the funeral rites. She set the censer down, turned to the gathered crowd, intoning, "Let us begin the funeral mass, the Mass of Shadows." She opened a book: "These are the words of the Gospels:" # THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS Jesus said: Blessed is he who will stand at the beginning, for he shall know the end. Jesus said: Blessed is the lion which the man eats, and the lion will become man; and cursed is the man which the lion eats, and the lion will become man. Jesus said: Bring forth that within yourselves, and that which you have will save you. But if you do not have that within you, that which you do not have will kill you. Jesus said: I am the Light that is above them all. The All came from me, and it attained to me. Cleave a piece of wood; I am there, lift up a stone and you will find me there. Jesus said: If the mind came from the body, it is a marvel. But if the body came from the mind, it is a marvel of marvels. But I marvel at how this great wealth came to be in the midst of this poverty. Jesus said: The images are manifest to man and the Light within them is hidden in the Images of Light of the Father. He will manifest himself and his Image is concealed by his Light. Jesus said: When you see your likeness, you rejoice. But when you see your images which came into existence before you, which neither die nor are manifested, how much will you bear? Jesus said: When you make the Two One, and the inner and outer and above as below, and the male and female into a single One, then you shall know the Kingdom of Heaven. # THE GOSPEL OF TRUTH The Gospel of Truth is joy for those who have received the power of the Word. The Gospel is a revelation of Hope, since it is a discovery for those who seek. Indeed, the All was searching for whence it came forth. But the All was inside the incomprehensible and inconceivable One, who is superior to all thought. It was this ignorance concerning the All which produced Anguish and Terror. And Anguish became a dense mist, through which no One could see. Thus strengthened, Error elaborated its own Matter in the Emptiness, in defiance of Truth. But those who reject error repose in the All. They do not strive nor become entangled in the search for Truth for they are themselves the Truth; and the All is in them, and they in it, for they are inseparable from pure Being. They perceive their Root, and devote themselves to themselves, namely, to those in whom the All will find its root. Such is the place of the Blessed. As for the rest, may they know that after having sojourned in that place of repose it does not suit me to say anything more. # THE GOSPEL OF PHILIP God is a dyer. As the good dyes die with the things that are dyed in them, so with those that God has dyed. Since his dyes are immortal, they are immortal through his colors. But God dips what he dips in water. The Lord went into the dye-works of Levi. He took 72 colors and threw them into the vat. He took them out all white, saying, Even so came the Son of Man, to make all things white. Vessels of glass and vessels of earthenware are made by means of fire. But if vessels of glass are broken they are made over again, for they are brought into being with a breath. But vessels of earthenware, if they break, are destroyed, for they come into being without breath. Thus I say to you: Make yourselves into vessels of glass, so that you may be made over again. The apostles said to the disciples: May our whole offering obtain salt, for without salt no offering is acceptable. But Sophie is barren, without child. Because of this she is called bitter as salt. But this Sophie whom they call barren is the Mother of Angels. The light and darkness, life and death, the left and right, are brother and sister. It is not possible to separate them One from another. Because of this neither are the good good, nor the evil evil, nor is life a life, nor death death. Because of this each One shall dissolve into its origin from the beginning. But those who are exalted above the world are indissoluble and eternal. The Lord said: Blessed is he who is before he came into being, for he who is both was and shall be. # "These are the holy words of the Gospels." She closed the book, setting it on the sand beside the still smoking censer. "Let us pray that the deceased be exalted above the world, not remarried to the earth in some future incarnation." All bowed their heads in silence for a few minutes. She lifted a chalice of sacred mushrooms to the sun in consecration. Taking one she slowly chewed it as she passed the chalice around. The light refracted from the crystal became dazzling, brilliant. A million ruby beams whirled across the surface of the dune. The gem swayed in the hot desert breeze. The Fire-Children came forward to push the crystal into the grave. When it toppled it did not fall, but floated at ground level for a long time, then slowly rose. It accelerated, vanishing into the high noon sun. # End of file Press RIGHT ARROW (#6 key) of the numeric keypad to load the next file.