Page 146 of Katabasis
The line remained. The sands did not eat her chalk.
Alice glanced at King Yama. She thought she saw the slightest nod of his head.
She drew a large arc then, covering as much ground as she could.
“What’s that?” Professor Grimes hovered over Alice’s shoulder. “What are you doing?”
“You won’t have seen this work,” said Alice. “He wouldn’t have shown you. Not after that set theory paper—I mean really, how low can you go?”
“Stop this.”
“Move a bit that way, would you? I need some more space.”
“Alice Law—I command you, stop this atonce.”
She ignored him. She had to focus. She had so little chalk left; just a tiny nub, not nearly enough for redos. She had to get this right, and if she didn’t—she couldn’t let herself imagine what would happen if she didn’t.
It was so hard to remember. She’d forgotten so much. She couldn’t rely on that automatic facility anymore—what she’d gained in healing, she’d given up in skill. She’d grown reliant on picture-perfect captures appearing in her mind’s eye; until this point, all her work had been mere tracing. How much harder it was to reach for memories she wasn’t sure were there. Blurred now were the lines between memory and imagination. She could not trust her mind not to invent what she wished she’d seen. The best thing she could do was to try to turn off that part of her brain that thought too much. Sink into the movement of the chalk, and let the memory of Peter guide her work.
“That’s not a valid pentagram,” said Professor Grimes.
“Hush,” she said.
“Those algorithms aren’t in conversation. You’re just making things up.”
“Like you would know.”
He slapped her across the face. He tried, anyhow. His hand passed clean through her head, and Alice felt nothing more than the tiniest waft of air. She glanced up at him, unimpressed. “Seems bodies are good for some things.”
He swiped again; a batty, pointless movement. He growled, glaring at his hand, but glare as he might he could not make the smoke materialize into a solid.
“You’ve got to have fantastic proprioception,” Alice informed him. “That’s when you know where all parts of your body are without looking. It takes years of practice, but then you can become anything. Elspeth was very good at that. She could even become butterflies.”
Professor Grimes was starting to realize his defeat. He floated back, and his essence condensed around his form; a form that was not so tall as Alice had remembered. Indeed, she’d never noticed how he’d started to develop a hunch, how his shoulders were not so broad, his demeanor not so intimidating as she’d thought.
“Alice, please. Let’s talk about this.”
“Please, Professor. I’m working.”
“Bah.” He drifted to the circle’s edge. Alice glanced up sharply. She had not considered this—she needed him inside the pentagram. But Professor Grimes seemed unable to leave. He ran up against the edge of the pentagram, but something invisible kept him from going further.
“What is this?” Professor Grimes whirled on King Yama. “Let me out.”
“You were summoned for an audience,” said King Yama. “Alice Law, are you finished with your audience?”
“No,” said Alice.
“Then it would be impolite to leave.”
“You can’t do this,” said Professor Grimes. “You’re supposed to be impartial, you can’t just—arbitrarily—it’s against the rules.”
“Haven’t you learned, Jacob Grimes?” King Yama’s smile looked demonic beneath his furrowed brows. “Hell has no rules.”
Professor Grimes wilted then. Finally, he had nothing to say.
Alice was fascinated by this. She had never seen Professor Grimes look desperate. For that matter she’d never seen himneedanything. She wondered then if he might beg—but then, Professor Grimes didn’t know how to beg. He had spent so much of his life in a position of power; he was used to granting mercies, not receiving them, and it had been so long since anyone told him no. This much was obvious, for his desperation quickly turned to indignant fury.
“I made you,” he told her. “I molded you from inchoate dream. I gave shape to your clay. I lit your fire and gave you a mind.I made you.”
