As they moved between the bookcases, Harry noticed the way they stretched into the distance before them, becoming farther apart, eventually opening up into a much bigger area. The distance between the bookcases was about road-width apart now and expanding all the time. He looked back over his shoulder, hoping to see the others in the study, but there was just deep fog.
“We aren’t in the room anymore. Everything is changing as we move. It’s why getting lost here is so easy.”
They had arrived in a large field which was surrounded by stone pillars and trees. In the distance were mountains and a waterfall. Spread amongst the trees and pillars were figures, some sitting on blankets, others on the grass. “Are those people?” asked Harry.
“They are spirits of knowledge, and they take many forms, though mainly animal ones.” She was scanning the edges of the trees.
He checked the thread on his wrist. “So, how does this work?”
“It’s a totem, Harry. It’s not actually twine. It’s a tether, and it connects us to the study.”
“You remembered how to get here though. Did we really need this?”
“Yes, all routes lead here; it’s getting out that’s hard. The pathways we came on will be gone,” she pointed towards the direction they came from, which now looked like the rest of the park.
Harry looked up. The sky was changing colour and filled with what looked like the northern lights; there were stars behind them, but they kept blinking in and out.
“Is anything here real?” Harry asked.
“It’s all real, just not… earthlike, tangible or corporeal. You can get anything you want here, a cheeseburger-milkshake, for instance, and it’ll taste exactly how you’d expect,“ she pulled a face, ”but you’d starve to death eventually.”
“Good to know! Lucky I don’t need to eat then.” Susan gave him a look. “What?”
“Nothing.” She pointed to a huge redwood in the distance. “We’re going there.”
“Hang on”, Harry stopped walking. Susan turned around to face him. What was that look?”
She went to say ‘nothing’ but stopped herself from lying. “You are becoming human, Harry. You aren’t quite like the others, who were all summoned by Smedley.”
“What? But before, I was cut, I am made of paper… and when I fell out of the hammock… I dented.”
She walked towards him, pulling a small knife from her cuff. “This will sting a little.” Taking his hand, she pricked the end of his finger. It bled.
‘What?” He pressed his finger, and a little more blood appeared. “But?” His skin seemed to absorb it like a blotter.
“So you are not quite changed yet. Your skin and body still have paper-like properties, but soon, you will be human, or something very like it. Coming to Death’s realm, and now here, has accelerated the process.”
“What about the others? Are they changing as well?”
“No, but they know you are different.” She put away the knife. “You should speak to Gandalf when you get back. He will tell you everything.” She started walking backwards towards the trees, “But now we need to do our job, and before we starve, ideally.” She winked.
———————————————————————————
When they got to the trees, Susan walked up to a stone tablet and pulled out her Scythe, which grew to full size almost instantly. She struck it gently across its centre, and a loud chime rang out. Almost instantly, a Robin appeared on top of the tablet.
“Susan, is that you?”
“Yes, Barnaby. And how long have you been a Robin?”
“I’m a Robin?” He flew down onto the grass and changed into a Badger. “Better? Susan nodded. “Good, so why are you here? Weren’t you banned by Death from ever coming here again?”
“He rescinded on account of the universe being in danger.”
“Good reason.”
“Barnaby saved my life,” Susan said, turning to Harry.
“Oh, great job, Barnaby. I’m Harry.”
“I know who you are. We know everything here. You are an abnormality, but not my first.” Barnaby replied.
“Splendid! An abnormality?” Harry seemed a little offended.
“Yes, Harry, an abnormality. Nothing to be offended about. You just don’t quite fit into the bland categories people normally do. You are different, so you should embrace it.”
“He always talks this way,” Susan nodded towards Barnaby. “It’s been a big day for Harry, Barnaby. He’s reeling a bit. Now I need to pick your brain. We don’t have a lot of time.”
“In here you do. Time is different here.”
“It is for you, not so much for us.” Her belly rumbled. “We are facing an Adam paradox and wanted to know how the last one was stopped.”
“Yes, Mr Smedley. We are aware of him. He’s a problem.”
“Yes, he’s getting too powerful. We have to stop him.”
“Ok, ok… Let me have a look at the umm.” He walked away, talking to himself.
“He’s working on it, accessing the archives of both the future and past.” Susan, “It’ll take a while.”
“An Adam paradox?”
“It’s when someone or something tries to remake reality. It happens more often than you think, but it’s usually on a small scale, like, ‘I need to be alone, I’ll turn that moon into a paradise’, and then they die, or there’s a fight… and then they die. But Smedley is different.”
“He’s the real deal, with power to change everything?”
“He’s an ignorant, selfish moron who doesn’t think about how what he’s doing is going to affect anyone, with the power to change everything.”
“He’s like a politician, then,” said Harry. They both started laughing.
———————————————————————————
Harry was lying on the grass. “The sky is now purple. Since we talked to Barnaby, it had been red, blue, darker blue, yellow and green.” Susan had been killing time carving something into the tree. “What are you doing?” She didn’t answer. He got up and went to sit on a rock, now and then tugging on the yarn as if checking it was still attached to something, which, of course, it wasn’t.
Barnaby approached them. “I have the crystals. We can look back at the original Adam Paradox.” He placed the crystals in a triangle on the grass.
“Do each of us sit at a point on the triangle?” asked Harry.
“You can if you like, but I will be telling the story and accessing the data in the crystals. This isn’t a seance.” Harry was sure Barnaby chuckled a little, and then he began.
“Lilith was rejected by Adam for disobeying him. She was created his equal and not from him, unlike Eve, who was created from part of him and to be his. It was the first act of discrimination. Lilith wouldn’t take half the shit Eve did. Adam was a dog.”
“Hold on”, Harry interrupted. “Adam and Eve were real?”
“Oh yes, but not in the way you think. This was just another strand of reality which feeds into this one. It’s not a creationist theory. I’d explain it, but you might be dead soon.” Harry looked at Susan.
“He’s right. If we survive, ask Death to explain it.”
Barnaby continued. “So she left Eden and explored the world outside it, having lots of adventures, inventing swearing, tantric sex and circumcision… she was still angry. Eventually, she came across Death, a very old entity but a fledgling in this reality, and they fell in love, nothing like…”
“Lilith and Death were lovers?” This time, it was Susan who interrupted.
“Yes, but not like the limited romantic view of human love. This was equal and deep, as love was meant to be, like twin flames.”
“He never said anything about her, well, not until today.”
“Your death is not the Death… but as they are all one death, I suppose it is.” Barnaby looked at Susan. “Shall I continue, or did you want to discuss Death’s quantum entanglement and Lilith?” She shrugged.
“Continue, I’ll take it up with Death. I don’t want to think of any entanglement between Lilith and Death… and this is more important.”
“At first, this was enough for Lilith and her association with Death resulted in the ‘Mother of Vampires’ title, but she was never able to forget the way she was cast aside by Adam. Not because she had feelings for him, but because of the massive inequity and unfairness of it.” He shuffled and pulled a paper bag out of… somewhere. “Boiled sweet?” Susan took one.
“They aren’t real, but they are delicious,” she said. Harry took one as well.
“Lilith saw the world in which Adam and his kin were created, and wanted something different, a place where things were fairer, where the humans would share and help one another, and knowledge would be free. Where humans would be equal, and have a relationship more like the one she had with Death, not ultimately linked to sex, ownership and inequality. She had many ideas, and spent a lot of time seeking the knowledge to remake this world into something else, something she thought would be better”. He paused, as if processing.
“This sweet is amazing”, Harry said.
“Isn’t it!” Susan agreed, “Like all the greatest tastes in the world put in your mouth all at once.”
“Is that bacon?”
“Yes, it’s bacon!”
“After a while, she wandered here, finding the portal in Death’s study. She asked questions and got the answers she needed to formulate a plan. There were very few Totems in that reality. The Apple, a Staff made from the tree of knowledge, and the skin of the serpent were the main ones, so she would need the power of Death in order to remake the world”.
“She tried to kill Death?” Harry said, concern in his voice.
“You can’t kill Death, but you can use its power if you can access it. She approached Death and shared her plan, asking for help. Death refused to be part of the plan, but Lilith had come too far to give up, and decided to try and take what she wanted from Death anyway.”
“No!” Whispered Susan to herself.
“Death had no choice but to stop her and was forced to kill her to maintain balance. After severing her lifeforce, Death laid her to rest.” He paused.
“How did Death sever her lifeforce?” Harry asked. He could see Susan was upset.
“I’m afraid I can’t see that, but Death used something powerful, which severed her connections to the totems and then her lifeline? Then he took her to the next plane where he stayed a while, causing a bit of a backlog at the time.”
Harry turned to Susan. “Does that help us?”
“Grandad didn’t tell me any of this. We need to ask him.” She turned to Harry and then to Barnaby. “Why didn’t he tell us?”
“Because he can’t. He had the memories removed. He only remembers the feelings he had. He and Lilith were unique. They were linked at a quantum level to each other. When he killed her, a part of himself was literally lost, which he could never replace, so he had the memories removed.”
“Shit!” Susan bent her head.
“We need to get back, Susan,” Harry said, not knowing what else to say. He thought he saw her wipe her eyes.
“One other thing you should know before you go, as you get closer to Smedley and if you were to enter his shop, your totems will become more powerful, maybe unpredictable. The vale between realities is thinner there.”
“Ok, yes, that’s useful.” She stood up and hugged Barnaby. “Thank you”. He hugged her back, turned into a butterfly and disappeared.
“So do we just follow this like a beacon?” Harry wasn’t sure what to do and decided it was better to focus on getting back for now. There would be time to talk later.
Susan stood up straight and smiled at him, thankful he wasn’t trying to sympathise. “Basically, but there will be some unexpected stuff on the way. This place plays tricks on the mind.” They started following the yarn. It pooled on the floor in front of them. “You still have to wind Harry.”
“But it’s not real yarn.”
“It doesn’t know that, now, wind.” She was smiling. He smiled back and began to wind. He liked her smile.
———————————————————————————
“No, it’s not Hogwarts,” Susan was laughing. “As I said, it’s tricky. It pulls memories out of your head to delay you. It wants you to stay.” They had been walking for a while now.
“Why?”
“It wants your brain!” She gave him a mad stare. “Actually, it just wants to add your energy to itself. It’s instinctive, not malicious… this place is a living thing, and we are kind of in its stomach.” She had relaxed more after they had been walking a while. “Grandad told me all about it after I got lost here.”
“How are you related to Death?” He’d wanted to ask for a while.
“Not by blood. Death adopted my mother… and my father was his apprentice.”
“So you call him Grandad out of respect?”
“No, he’s my Grandad, and he’s more of a they, but Grandthey sounds weird.”
“Ok, sooo does that make Lilith your Grandmother in some way?” He hoped she’d see it as a joke.
“Shit, I’d never thought of that. Why is everything so complicated!” She shot him a look. “Maybe it’s all your fault, Potter!” He could see she was holding back a smile.
“My fault, how did that happen?”
“Well, everything was so simple before you turned up and now I’ve got to ask my Grandad about killing his lover, who might or might not be my Grandma.” She stopped and looked serious for a moment. “God, I have got to ask him that, haven’t I?”
“It’ll be ok, he’s your Grandthey.” He noticed a light over her shoulder, “What’s that ahead, looks like a wall of fire?”
“Nice subject change, that’ll be the bookshelves”, she started to jog, “Come on, you’ll need a bit of a run at them to get through”.
———————————————————————————
They burst into the study, Harry falling flat on his face. The study was empty except for Death, Cinderella and Fred.
“Did you play the joke on him, Susan?” Death might have been smiling. Who knows.
“Of course not, he’s just clumsy.” She winked at Death.
“You’ve been gone for days. What did you find out?”
“Days?”
“Told you, but it won’t matter.” He decided not to ask what Susan meant. “Grandad, we found out about you and Lilith, the real Lilith, and what you did to her.”
“Hmm, you mean to kill her, don’t you, not the other stuff.”
“Yes, I meant kill her! Don’t put pictures in my head!” Susan sat down next to him. “I didn’t think you could remember.”
“I can’t, but I know I killed her. It’s in the archive, but I don’t remember why or how, just that it still hurts.” No one spoke. Somehow they could feel Death’s pain.
Harry eventually spoke up and broke the silence. “Well, at least we know it can be done. We just aren’t sure how.” He turned to Susan. “I guess you’ll want to talk to your grandad. We can talk about getting back to the other place later.“ She gave a little smile, squeezed his arm and turned back to Death.
Harry walked over and stood in front of the fireplace. He found himself looking at the picture and thinking about the change he was going through. Cinderella came and stood by him and hugged him. “Tough trip, Harry?”
“It’s certainly given me a lot to think about.” He was studying the picture/portrait. “Fred said it’s hard to see the image of death if you are still alive.”
“Yes, he shimmers in and out for me as well.” Cinderella put a log on the fire.
“Well, at least the picture is evidence we’re alive.”
“Yes, Harry, you’re a real boy,” She ruffled his hair and laughed. It sounded good. “And now you have something to lose!”
He turned to her and paused for a moment. “My life?” He asked.
“Her…” She nodded towards Susan, “Or maybe that’s more something to live for.”