Page 17 of Tidal Creatures

She doesn’t belong here. She’s Chang’e’s baggage, and unattended bags are subject to search and seizure. Still, she asked for this, and so she shoves her fear down the same way she would shove herself down if she were trying to return control, looking toward the horrified form of Losna on the other side of the gate.

The other goddess is staring at her, eyes wide and glossy-bright. She hasn’t stepped down, hasn’t matched states with Judy. If anything, she seems more baffled by what just happened than anything else.

“Hey, can you come over here for a second?” Judy’s voice is thin and washed-out by the everything, lacking the resonance it needs to fill the space, and for a moment, it seems like Losna doesn’t hear her. Then she shakes off her shock and steps through the open gate, the two of them occupying the same space, the same iteration of the everything.

“Okay, lady, I’ve heard a lot of things about your incarnations in general, and this one in specific,” says Losna, voice bright and a bit excited as she looks at Judy. Her voice still has the resonance of the divine, filling the space from top to bottom. “But you know what I’ve never heard before? I’ve never heard about how you have big brass ones. This is the ballsiest, stupidest thing I’ve ever seen somebody do! What the hell do you think you’re trying to pull, standing in the everything just this side of mortality? You want to see if the stories about human hosts getting busted down into stardust are accurate or something?”

“Diana should have introduced us, if you’re new,” says Judy. “You’re not new, are you?”

“New to the area, absolutely,” says Losna. She blinks, and although she hasn’t stepped down in the slightest, her eyes are brown again. “New to this incarnation, not so much. Diana doesn’t know I’m here.”

“I have to deal with a faculty advisor who doesn’t understand why I refuse to study under one of ‘the greatest minds of the generation’; I don’t have time for some sort of Lunar power struggle,” says Judy bluntly. “I’ve never encountered a Losna incarnate who’d managed to stay manifest long enough to accumulate any real power.”

“Now you have,” says Losna. “And you’re standing in the everything with her, stepped down to the cusp of mortality. Your tide’s out, little peach goddess, and I doubt you can call it back in faster than I can wash you away, if that’s what I want. Fortunately, it’s not. So what the hell is the point of this little stunt?”

Judy raises an eyebrow. It’s a trick she spent a long time perfecting, and it normally makes people stop talking down to her and start listening to what she has to say. Thanks, Leonard Nimoy, for making people react to that expression like the person making it is the smartest in the room. Losna doesn’t even blink.

“I needed to know if the everything would change when you were the only fully active divinity inside it,” says Judy.

Losna frowns. “You risked getting vaporized for a theory question?”

“Yes, because it matters.” She pauses. Diana doesn’t know Losna is here, according to Losna, and they’re alone in the everything. No one can find them here. Not with the key on this side of the gate. “How long have you been incarnate?”

“About thirty years. I’ll give you the next one for free—I’ve been in Denver, and we have a Chang’e there. She’s been feeding me grilled peaches since I was an undergrad.”

“Have you been in college this whole time?”

“This isn’t Twilight,” says Losna. “Hell, no. I graduated and got a real job, where I could make real money and pay for a real apartment. And then the rumor mill started spinning up about the alchemists getting their knickers in a twist over something incomprehensible and probably real, real stupid, since that’s normally the sort of thing that really excites our alchemical brethren, so I started trying to find the epicenter of the chaos. Everything I could get my hands on seemed to indicate that whatever it was, it was probably out this way, California-ward.”

“There’s a lot of California,” says Judy. “Why here and not someplace warmer?”

“I like redwood trees,” says Losna.

“So you re-enrolled and came to Berkeley to find out why the alchemists were pissed off.”

“And why time’s been resetting itself for the past half-million years.”

Losna says it so calmly that for a moment, everything seems to stop. The rainbow walls of the everything continue their scintillating flashing, but there is no other motion, no other sound. Judy swallows, takes a step back, and stares at her.

“What?”

“You heard me. Every thirty-five years or so, the universe resets itself. Always back to the same point, or very close to it. I’d like to know why. I’ve talked to all the gods who have their hands on time, and none of them are responsible, so I figure it’s time to blame the alchemists. I’ve been trying to put together what they’re up to, but those assholes don’t make it easy.” She smiles then, a little feral, and says, “That’s what makes it fun. An easy hunt is no real game.”

“You’re not Losna, are you?” Judy manages not to take another step back. She reminds herself that Chang’e is a powerful goddess in her own right, even if her own upbringing in a Eurocentric culture means she sometimes doesn’t think of herself that way. “Losna’s not a hunter.”

“No, but Artemis is.” Losna blinks again, and once again her eyes are different when she opens them, green as young olives ripening on the branch. “I asked one of her current incarnations before I took on her mantle, just to be sure I wouldn’t offend her somehow. She thought it was a quaint deceit, and gave her full permission. I can give you her number, if you want to double-check.”

“I like that wording, because it implies I’m leaving here alive,” says Judy. “But no, I think I’m good.”

Artemis frowns sharply. “I would never kill another Lunar. Why would you jump so quickly to that conclusion?”

“I think the two of us need to take a little trip,” says Judy. “I need to show you something. May I step back up?”

When Artemis nods, Judy lets go, and feels Chang’e resume her place of primacy, the goddess filling her from top to bottom, more intended for the light of the everything than Judy has ever been. Releasing the body is a relief, intoxicating in its power, and she’s grateful to let go, even as she remains just below the surface to observe. She’s not leaving Chang’e alone in this, even if she could.

Chang’e bows respectfully to the stronger goddess. “It is a pleasure to see you again, huntress. I know you say one of me has been attending to your immortality, but this one has not, and so I am reunited with an old companion.”

“It’s good to see you, too,” says Artemis. “What did you need to show me?”