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.He is Satan.Now the horrible truth comes clear.Satan knew that her destiny was to become Nature, and that her power allied to his would give him ultimate control of the world.So he courted her anonymously, to capture her love before she realized.She is furious.Her vaunted temper explodes with a fury amplified by her new power, as she searches for him to destroy him.The aspects of nature on Earth go crazy; storms develop of a severity never seen before, every volcano on the globe erupts violently, earthquakes shake every continent, the tides of the ocean sweep over the land, fires rage, pestilence rages ferociously, plague takes hold—all life on the globe is being destroyed.But as that happens, and she looks at the ruins of what had been, she realizes two things: she has destroyed the world, not Satan, who is secure in Hell; and—she still loves him.All this has been useless.Too late, it seems, she is ready to listen and reason.Chronos returns, and advises her that he can undo the damage, with her consent.She consents, and he takes her back a short distance in time, to the moment before the Rage of Nature began.It has not yet happened to the world—but her memory and his remain intact.She has the chance to do it over.Certainly she will not again abuse her power like this—but still she loves Satan.He comes to her and protests that his intentions are honorable; he wishes to marry her.That marriage will put the world effectively into his power, for she would not act against her husband even if she did not support him.She knows that this was Satan’s plan all along, but also knows she is captive to it.She must either fight him or marry him, and she has already tried fighting him.So, reluctantly, she agrees to marry him.This is the outcome the other Incarnations feared.They had known that either fighting or marriage was a disaster, and sought to divert her before she came into her power.They had not told her before, because she was as likely to renounce the office of Nature as to renounce Satan, and that would void the prophecy and generate a host of unfathomable complications that none of them, including Satan himself, wanted.So they had to play it through and hope—and that hope was vain.Now they must resign themselves to their loss; they will attend the wedding ceremony.It is quite a ceremony.All the minions of Hell turn out, with absolute discipline and courtesy, to organize every detail.This is Satan’s triumph; he means to have no blemish on it.Every attending Incarnation is given a place of honor and treated with respect.A choir of demons sings with the voices of angels.Orb, as Gaea, comes to the altar for the exchange of vows, still distressed but compelled by nothing other than her own love.All the world watches, dreading what is to be, yet unwilling to condemn it and unable to stop it.Then Satan appears, as handsome as any man has ever been.He turns to Gaea, takes her hand, and sings to her.All the world is filled with the power of his song, which is completely beautiful and loving and sincere.As he sings, brilliant smoke swirls about him, obscuring him—and when the song is done, the smoke dissipates and Satan is gone.All the demons and the spirits of Hell are gone too; only the mortals and the Incarnations remain.Satan has deserted Gaea at the altar, declining at the last moment to marry her.She cries, knowing that her dream is not to be.Her tears extend throughout the world, and there is gentle rain everywhere.But though she is in anguish, there is a compensation.For this is the proof that Satan loves her after all.He has no conscience, by definition; he is the Incarnation of Evil.He will use any ruse, destroy any person or any thing, do anything to win his ultimately victory.But he cannot destroy that single spark of good in him—the proof that even the Incarnation of Evil is not pure—which is his love for Gaea.To marry her would have been to destroy her, and that he could not do.Thus he has given up the victory that seemed within his grasp, and the world has been spared.* Bearing an Hourglass.Book two of the Incarnations of Immortality series.***Michael BishopMichael Bishop has lived in Pine Mountain, Georgia, forty straight years.His latest publications include handsome trade paperbacks from Patrick Swenson’s Fairwood Press of revised versions of his novels Brittle Innings (2012), Ancient of Days (2013), and a Thirtieth Anniversary edition of Who Made Stevie Crye? (Aug 2014), released under the author’s exclusive imprint, Kudzu Planet Productions, both as book and e-book, with the photomontage illustrations by J.K [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]