The wind outside was typical for the day, brisk and blustery.

The little house looked like nothing more than a small wooden cottage, with stone lower walls and a sharply peaked roof. It had a single chimney that put out wood smoke, windows covered by curtains that hinted at cheery warm light. The roof was red clay shingles, the wood of the walls painted eggshell white, with the shutters and the trim painted brick red. It wasn't too big, nor too small. The snow covered the neat gardens outside, the chickens were asleep in the coop, the sheep and the two cows sleeping peacefully in the small barn with the horse, watched over by a dog with reddish brown fur.

There was a stone fence around the house and barn, uneven at the top.

It was all hand built and would fit onto almost any world in the agrarian eras.

Those who knew of the house and the occupant knew that it housed something dangerous.

Something dark.

Something evil.

Inside the house was quiet music, instrumentals from a wide variety of times and eras, as well as more than a few different species of the known regions of space.

The furniture was hand made, the cloth of the curtains, tablecloths, and the yarn for the knitted pieces were all hand-done, much of it wool and sheered from the sheep that slept in the barn. The tile was hand done and fired in the furnace that was behind the barn, the same as the glass.

There were modern amenities in the house. Well, modern depending on the time and era. The nutriforge was hidden in the pantry, but the stove used wood or coal, electric kept as a backup. The radio was tubes and wires, the light bulbs incandescents, the bathroom fixtures porcelain and steel.

There were only three small bedrooms. One a woman's, obvious only by the makeup table, the contents of the furniture, and the few pictures on the nightstand. The other two, a pair of guest rooms, were occupied by a man. Again, obvious only by the clothing and a few pictures. The wall paper was simple and stark in all of the rooms.

Someone from the early Age of Paranoia on TerraSol would have found the house largely the same as any other.

At the kitchen table sat two of the occupants. A male Terran and a female Terran. The male was tall, wide shoulders, more ropey muscle than thick muscle, with short brown hair, beard, and mustache sprinkled liberally with gray and tired brown eyes. The woman was short, plump bodied, long black hair kept in a fancy braid that fell to her waist, a pert little upturned button nose, a Cupid's bow mouth, and smoldering gray eyes.

They had short brown bottles of beer in front of them as they sat at the table, silent. The electric lights were turned off and a pair of kerosene storm lamps were lit.

"He's getting better," the male said after a bit, setting down his beer.

"Yes," the female said.

"You did a good job putting his SUDS record back together. It's up to him now," the man said. He flushed slightly. "At least you avoided the temptation to edit it or try to make it all fit perfectly."

"I hand out temptation, I don't succumb to it," the woman said, her voice neutral. "I was lucky to get what I got. When he blew the bag, he had not had an intact SUDS recording in around thirty thousand years. It was all bits and pieces I'd kept an eye for," she shook her head. "He was in worse condition than you were at first, Pete."

Pete nodded. "Yet here we are, Dee," he said.

She looked away. "Here we are."

"Your experiment with the aliens. How did it go?" Pete asked.

The woman gave a harsh bark of a laugh. "The more things change, the more they stay the same. They have all the same weaknesses and sins as humanity," she took a drink and smiled. "Daxin would be thrilled to be vindicated once again."

"He wasn't that bad," Pete said.

Dee shrugged, taking another drink off of her beer, then setting it on the table. She still kept her hand wrapped around it so she could tap the plain steel ring on her left ring finger against the glass. "I liked him. A lot. He never claimed to be anything he wasn't. What you saw was what you got. I admired that."

Pete raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Dee nodded. "Yes. I admire that in a man. Very much."

"Huh," Pete said. He finished his beer and pushed it away slightly before tapping the table. A glowing rune appeared and he tapped it again. The bottle dissolved and a new one took shape before filling with liquid. "Never thought you felt that way about him."

Dee shrugged. "The truth costs nothing."

"Still, you admitting that you liked someone," Pete chuckled.

"I haven't stabbed your ass yet," Dee said, looking at the window. She twitched her pinky on her left hand, still tapping the bottle with her ring. The curtains parted. "It's going to snow soon."

Pete just nodded.

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"I do have a question about one of your subjects," Pete said.

"That one involved in the incident with the cryo survivors," Dee said, still staring out the window.

Pete nodded. "When the one confessed to just standing there, I was surprised you didn't kill him."

Dee took a drink and shrugged. "It's very complicated, Pete. I'm not sure you can understand my reasons for sparing him beyond: I find him useful to keep around," she took another drink. "Aside, I always take into account the wishes of the wronged."

Pete frowned. "Live with it?"

Dee nodded, a slow smile appearing. She giggled, then laughed, then began laughing wildly, putting one hand on her stomach as tears flowed from her eyes and she tossed her head back and forth.

Pete sat calmly. He'd seen this a thousand times before.

The laughter cut off suddenly and Dee pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket to wipe her face and eyes.

"And he will," she smiled. She took a drink of beer as she artfully folded the handkerchief with one hand before tucking it back into the breast pocket of her dark charcoal gray blouse. Her face relaxed and she lifted her face slightly, half-closing her eyes.

Pete was struck again how she had a strange beauty, if you could get past what was behind her eyes.

"And he's expendable," Pete added.

"Everyone's expendable, Pete. Even me," Dee said. She drained her beer and stood up. "He's been on the surface of Terra long enough. I should have what I need now."

"Good hunting," Pete said as Dee got to her feet. She smoothed her blouse as Pete tapped the rune and dissolved the empty beer bottle.

"Make sure Harry exercises. I'll be back as soon as I can," Dee said.

Pete just nodded.

Dee held out a hand and a glowing doorway appeared, opening from the bottom to the top, a rectangle of pure white light. She stepped through it and vanished.

Pete just dialed up another beer, picked it up, and got up. He moved the two storm lamps into the frontroom and relaxed on the couch, staring at the fire in the fireplace.

0-0-0-0-0

The starport was busy. It was an older one, rebuilt repeatedly, renovated and modernized over and over. The city had been destroyed more than once, rebuilt in defiance of what had happened. At first it had only been propeller driven planes, but now it serviced suborbitals and smaller spacecraft. Tens of thousands of people moved through the starport for destinations all over the globe and the solar system.

Marsha Ketburn checked her hair one last time in the mirror, making sure the shimmer-glitter in it was cycling through the RGB spectrum correctly, then tucked the control wand back into her purse as a toilet flushed. She started to take a step back when a short plump matronly woman stepped from one of the stalls.

"Oh, sorry," Marsha said.

The woman just nodded, moving up to the sink to wash her hands.

"Long layover?" Marsha asked.

The woman just nodded, staring into the mirror.

Marsha caught the woman's gunmetal gray eyes in the mirror.

Something about them made her attempts at polite conversation vanish. She clutched her purse tightly and hustled out of bathroom.

The woman looked around, then flicked her hand out again.

Another doorway appeared.

She stepped through it and was gone. The doorway vanished.

0-0-0-0-0

The night was clear and warm. The villagers had retired to their homes, but a handful were around a large firepit in the middle of the village. The villagers wore traditional garb, as their ancestors had done for thousands of years. Two females, both older, sat on either side of a younger one, their body language brooking no nonsense.

A male came out of the darkness, a modern plasma rifle in his hands.

"A woman approaches. White skin, gray clothing. She walks unafraid in the night," he said.

The younger woman nodded. "I felt her arrive."

"Should we drive her from our lands?" the male asked.

The younger woman shook her head. "No. She is not as she appears. Guide her here, I will speak with her."

Both of the older women looked slightly concerned, but the younger one produced a pipe and slowly packed it with tobacco as the man vanished back into the darkness. She lit it, puffing at it to get a good draw, then relaxed, waiting.

The male led the woman to the edge of the firelight.

"Menhit," the woman said.

"Dee," the younger woman said, nodding.

"May I come in?" Dee asked.

Menhit nodded. "You have the protection and courtesy of my village for as long as you abide by the ancient ways."

Dee just nodded, moving over and sitting down.

"How did you get here?" Menhit asked.

"How else?" Dee said, her voice flat.

"The mat-trans," Menhit guessed. "I was told it no longer functioned."

"Worked fine for me. Even the improvements I've made are functioning correctly," Dee said.

"So, are you the Devil of the SUDS made flesh, or something older?" Menhit asked.

Dee reached down and picked up a handful of dust, letting it fall from her fingertips as she stared across the fire at Menhit.

"Older. Much older," Dee stated.

Menhit cocked her head. "A wedding ring," she looked up at Dee's face. "Really?"

Dee's face hardened. "You don't know me."

Menhit nodded, puffing on her pipe before she spoke. "Indeed. I suspect few ever have," she looked at the woman on either side. "Leave us. What we will speak of involves Immortals and is not for those who wish to stay uninvolved to hear."

The two woman looked doubtful but got up and left.

"Your daughters," Dee said.

Menhit nodded. "Yes."

They sat silently for a moment.

"What brings you to my humble village?" Menhit asked after a long while.

Dee looked up at the stars.

"It's going to get bad, Menhit. Real bad. Things went wrong while I slumbered, dreaming I was a normal woman with normal concerns," Dee said. She looked back at Menhit. "I need to know if I can count on you or if you're going to sit here and live out your life."

Menhit sat thoughtfully, staring at the fire, for a long moment before looking back at Dee. "How bad?"

"You'll be defending your village from Mar-gite or worse in less than two decades," Dee stated.

"And what part will I have to play?" Menhit asked.

Dee gave a smile. "We have to wake a few people up."

"Kalki?" Menhit asked.

Dee nodded. "Yes. He'll listen to you. He is wary of me."

Menhit gave a slight chuckle. "My little brother is not stupid. Matthias?"

"Him too."

Menhit nodded. "Anyone else?"

Dee just smiled, lifting one finger and drawing her finger across her throat.

Menhit just nodded, staring at the fire after seeing the gesture.

"I'll do it all myself if I have to," Dee said softly. "I'll pick up the mantle from where you Immortals set it down. I'll do whatever I have to do to save humanity," she looked back up at the stars. "I don't give two fucks about the rest of them, but I won't stand idly by while humanity is swept from the universe again even if I have to burn the stars from the sky with my own two hands."

There was silence for a long moment.

"They will want to give me a proper sendoff," Menhit said.

Dee shrugged. "I don't care if they fill a box full of cow shit, shove you in it, and ship you to Timbuktu as long as you come along."

"I will join," Menhit said. She looked up at the stars. "For my children, if nothing else, I will join hands with the Devil."

Dee just smiled.

0-0-0-0-0

Kalki set down the fruit, sitting down on the hand carved bench before reaching over to pet his goat.

"We have visitors coming, Dancer," he said, smiling. He looked up at the clear blue sky. "We're going to go on a trip, you and I."

The goat just made happy noises and clattered around in a little dance, wagging its tail.