MythOS by Kelly McCullough

Author:Kelly McCullough
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“Damn it, I hate this!” Melchior threw his tea mug down on the marble floor of the York Miniature transept. “It’s so unfair.”

The mug shattered, and hot tea and bits of ceramic sprayed in a wide arc across the stones just inside the cathedral’s front door. He’d come from sitting with Ahllan, and I couldn’t blame him. She’d gotten visibly worse in the time we were tracking down Melchior, seeming to sink into herself.

“Not,” she’d said, “that that’s Loki’s fault, much reason though I have to despise him. No, this is age and obsolescence. I have felt it breathing down my neck for too long to mistake it for anything else.”

Melchior kicked one of the larger bits of mug away. “I should have protected her.”

“From what?” I asked quietly. “From Loki? Considering his place in the local pantheon, you have to admit he fights a bit above your weight class. Besides, don’t you believe Ahllan when she says the problem is age? Do you think you can protect her from that?”

“I should have protected her from Shara,” he said.

“What! You just lost me there, buddy.”

“Well, the Shara clone, really,” said Melchior. “If it hadn’t sent her here, she’d never have even met Loki. And there’s the chaos issue, too.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“You remember that Ahllan said we could digest the local version of chaos, but that it might not be the healthiest of diets?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I think it’s worse than that. When I was unconscious and my system needed power, it automatically shifted to a chaos tap. When I woke up, it was the first thing I shut down. The stuff is really harsh and corrosive—I suspect that’s a big part of why she’s aged so much since she came here. Just existing in this pantheoverse is killing her. Damn the clone.”

I decided not to point out that old age didn’t care where you lived—not only would it have been beside the point, but coming from a near-ageless demi-immortal like me, it would have been a bit of a kick in the teeth.

Instead, I said, “Shara’s clone didn’t mean her harm. Quite the contrary, she was trying to protect Ahllan from the Fates.”

“Intentions don’t matter,” said Melchior. “Results do. An awful lot of evil has been done by people who thought they were doing good. Probably a lot more than by people who thought they were doing evil.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. He was right, of course, but I didn’t think it was that simple. Intentions might not mean as much as results, but they did mean something. And there had to be some room in there for methods. I was saved from having to make a response by the advent of Tisiphone.

“This is all my fault,” she growled. “That poor old troll. I should have heard Loki and stopped him.”

“What is this?” I asked, glancing from her to Melchior and back again. “National Assume Undeserved Guilt Day?”

Tisiphone laughed, a harsh, bitter sound—self-mocking. “I suppose you’re right. I just hate not being able to do anything.

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