Date:         Thu, 10 Feb 1994 01:47:01 EST
Subject:      More from neil...
 
Here's more from neil...
 
Only for a moment was this imitation of a "Visible Man" spread
     upon the floor. In the blink of an eye, the skin seemed to
     grow like grass from the body. Short white hair grew like a
     crown on the head of the  lifeless  man child. The mouth, in
     a grimace  of  pain, screamed silently, damning someone.
     Mother knew who and why. There  was  little more to do; save
     the final  kiss.  Mother paused  for a moment, wondering how
     long this would  go  on. Her  children  would fight each other.
     Kill  each  other  in pursuit of some unattainable goal. Those
     who were happy with their lot, and those who were not. So long.
     So  long.  With that  thought she bent her head and kissed the
     lips  of  the inanimate LeCroix.
          The monastery rocked with the scream of birth. A scream
     given a name:
                             "Nicholas!"
          The  young girl held LeCroix's head in her hands as  he
     thrashed  around.  She calmed him with soothing  words,  and
     brute force. Her touch was like a steel vise in velvet.  Her
     voice like imprisoned gold.
     "Stay your rage LeCroix. There are none here who deserve it,
     not even yourself."
          "I'll destroy him! He'll never be safe!"
     The girl laughed, and LeCroix stopped dead
     "Yes,"  she  said "you'd destroy him, as he  destroyed  you.
     Yet, here you lay, conscious again, and raised from your own
     ashes. As would he be, if you succeeded. World with  out  end
     amen."
          LeCroix  shuddered  and looked up at the  face  of  the
     girl,  for the first time truly acknowledging her  presence.
     Then there was something in his face that hadn't been  there
     for centuries. He felt cold and abject fear.
          "I  see  you've heard of me. No, don't  speak. I  like
     silence. You may use your mind."
          "You are the dark mother?" the thought was incredulous.
          "I am."
          He laughed. He hadn't laughed as hard in ages, in  many
     ages.  Then the laughter died in his throat, for before  him
     stood his worse nightmare. A terrible being of fire and dark
     shadows, that the room seemed to swell to accommodate.
          LeCroix shrank into a fetal position. The vision lasted
     only a moment, and was replaced by the child again.
          "I am what I choose to be. What suits me at the moment.
     Never  doubt  for an instant anything you've  heard  of  me.
     Never believe it either"
          She  looked down at the still cowering Lecroix and  ran
     her hands gently through his hair.
          "You're  wrong  you know. Nicholas is too. Each  of  you
     believes  in the "rightness" of what you are, or want to  be,
     you  in  the  justification of evil,  and  Nicholas  in  his
     avoidance  of it. Each of you fails to accept your  place  in
     the scheme of things. Time will change that, as surely as we
     are  hear talking. For the moment however, know this.  There
     will  come  a day when Nicholas will cease  to  need  blood,
     cow, human  or otherwise.  He will walk in the Sun  as  a
     man  and fear none of humanities religious trappings.  Those
     goals he works towards will be his, though not for the
     reasons  he strives. You may draw solace from the fact  that
     he will never be human again. His destiny is to go forward. You
     have given him a great gift greater then you know. One  that
     he will someday thank you for."
          Lecroix hissed in disbelief.
     The  girl just continued, "Though there is nothing I  can
     do to stop the two of you from striving against each  other,
     the wheel will yet turn. Remember this, what you
     will have seen here has not happened. Now go!"
          Lecroix  felt  a probe in his mind. A clouding  of  his
     perceptions and the abject fear, as all memories of the little
     girl  were wiped out, and the demon stood in her  place.  He
     fled the room faster then he had ever moved before,
     producing  a small sonic boom that disturbed the bats that
     nested in the old building. For as far as he knew, the
     greatest  of evil pursued him.
          The girl stood quietly in the room. She hated the  fear
     she had to inspire, but it was the only way she had of gaining
     respect. Her children were strong. Some almost as strong as her
     (though they must never find out). It had  to be  the  stick
     rather then the carrot, or they  would  never learn  to regard
     anything other then themselves with fairness. They would roam
     unchecked  through  the world of men.  That  would  be  fatal.