F3 Interlude

            “So what are we thinking? Sandwiches? Pasta?” I asked.

            “Matthew,” Nikki tried to sound patient and failed.

            “Pizza!” Jessie said.

            I pointed at her. “Yes. Antonia’s! Get the menu.”

            Nikki sighed as Jessie leaped from her chair to dash into Jen’s office and grab one of the many takeout menus from the collection.

M3 Negotiation

            After the Covenant, Abraham really is a new man. Shortly after the deal, God, making small talk, says “What up, Imma destroy those places.” Okay, I took some liberties there, and it’s important that we not do that. So God said “How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin!”

F3 Discovered

            I got as close as I dared, and I glimpsed part of the room, enough to make out black candles—store bought—and a concrete floor painted with geometry and symbols. I backed away. Getting closer wouldn’t do me any good, just put me at risk.

            Gotta find the Nativity.

M3 Covenant

            After Abram gets out of Egypt, we’ve got our next big thing, the Covenant. This is where God lays it out. Now a covenant is like a contract. Each side gets something. Abram is going to get prosperity and become “a father of nations.” That’s literally what his new name, Abraham, means. Sarai becomes Sarah, which means princess, a fitting meaning for her new identity.

            The name changes are actually about a new identity. No longer are they Abram and Sarai. Now, they have new lives under God’s covenant, leaving their old behind. Like much in the Bible, there is a lot of symbolism at work in this. The change is such a slight one that most people wouldn’t blink at the difference.

F3 Insane Idea

            “Are you out of your flaring mind?” Flynn yelled.

            Ann grinned ear-to-ear. “Yes, obviously. I’m doing it, anyway.”

            “I—I have no words. Has something like this ever been done?”

            “No one’s attempted it in over a hundred years. But I’m going to make it work.”

            “You seriously want to . . . what is it, again?”

            “Windsurf. That’s the closest word. They used to do it on the water on Earth.”

            “On Earth is not the same as dark energy winds.”

            “I can do it.”

            “Why?”

            “Because I want to.”

            “That’s not a flaring!—” Flynn took a breath to calm down, and looked at Ann. She had this excitement in her eyes, a light he only saw when she was flying hard. She was going to do this with or without his help.

            If I don’t help her, she’s going to end up lost in the wind.

            “Okay, walk me through how this will work.”

M3 Yes, Dear

            So with the promise of countless descendants, Sarai and Abram should probably have a kid. They’ve been trying, but it’s not like it’s happened. They’re not exactly spring chickens, either, with Abram clocking in at around 85. Having problems conceiving, they do what any couple does, go to the fertility clinic!

            No, they didn’t have one, but they did something that has become a thing today, get a surrogate. Okay, well, there are differences since this surrogate doesn’t exactly have a say in things. She is a slave, probably one of the slaves that Abram got out of the deal with Pharaoh. The interesting thing, however, is that the surrogacy was not Abram’s idea.

F3 Wishes

            The pentagram with its lettering freaked me out. What had started as a prank by bored teens turned into a legitimate case with real danger.

            Gun’s back home, so’s the holy water. Even with them I wouldn’t want to be here. Need to get Rich and maybe a few others, perform an exorcism. Would that even work, though? I don’t know what these kids believe, if anything. Jewish ceremony might work. Wish Max was here, he might be able to tell me.

M3 Try Before You Buy

            We’ve been going pretty heavy with Persephone and the Greeks. We need something sexy to take the weight off. Sounds like a job for the Bible!

            After wiping out the world with the flood and dashing the tower of Babel, we move into a new chapter with a guy named Abram. One day, God shows up with the declaration “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great” (Gen 12:2) out of the blue. No preamble, no, “Hey, how you doing?” And this is not something small, either. This is the promise of becoming kings and a nation, you know, world shattering stuff, since “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:3). No pressure, Abram. No pressure.

F3 Waking from Another's Dream

            The lecture hall erupted in applause as everyone stood, giving Alex a standing ovation.

            She blinked, trying to clear the last of the vision—memory?—from her mind. She scarcely remembered what she had just been saying. It all felt hazy, like a dream, while the image of Lee penning his letter was vivid.

            Which is just absurd. While Lee almost certainly did intentionally flub Gettysburg, there’s no way he would ever put pen to paper detailing the deed. Burning the letter would be a convenient excuse for there not to be any proof, but we can’t use nonexistent proof.

            The vision was insistent, and had all the details just right, though.

            “Dr. Conrad,” A student pushed her way onto the stage, “How did you determine that the battle plan at Gettysburg was an attempt to make the Confederacy lose?”

            The question helped cut through some of the vision, and she remembered her own research. “Lee was at odds with Gen. Longstreet, and uncharacteristically impatient, especially to attack. When you look at the diagram and disposition of forces, it really makes no sense for Lee to press an attack, especially to the extent he did. Logic, then, suggests that something else was afoot. I’d go into more detail, but then you wouldn’t have reason to take my class or buy my new book,” she winked.

M3 Counterparts

            The elevation of Persephone to Queen of the Underworld ends up leveling the playing field of the Greek hierarchy. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades each stand as rulers of a separate domain (sky, earth, and underworld, respectively). Now, though, each of these men has a female counterpart with as much or more power than the man. After witnessing Demeter’s mastery over crops and agriculture, her power over the earth cannot be denied. While Poseidon is the Earthshaker himself, Demeter’s power has a far more personal and lasting effect on humanity. People can survive the occasional earthquake, but not so much a crop failure.

            Likewise, Hades has Persephone as his counterpart. While he tends toward dignified repose, she can dish out the punishment, and is more to be feared than Hades is. Certainly she feels a large degree of independence, as well, for her to go ahead and have an affair with Adonis, particularly when Zeus gets involved to decree Adonis’s disposition.

            Zeus has his own female counterpart, but I’m not quite prepared to tell you who it is. We’ve just had 13 straight weeks of Persephone, so I think we need a bit of a hiatus from the Greeks. I’m thinking something Biblical for a bit.

            You want a hint about Zeus’s counterpart? Why? I’m not . . . fine. Okay, here’s a hint. He’s related to her. Yeah, I know, that’s not shocking since he’s related to most of the gods and goddesses. Well, too bad. Just deal with it for now. I’ll also say that she’s probably the most powerful of the Greek goddesses, putting all the others to shame with sheer scale of her power.

            Yep, that was another tease. Deal with it.