QBLH
The Five of Cups:
Sadness, loss,
Despair, and loneliness
XLI
Disappointment
The water wasn't happy
and now sadly flows off
to find calmer grounds
(1312-1272BC Exodus proposed, 1185 Troy)
The girls are landed around 1225 BC and given time to raise their children
“Helen, your path is the more difficult, and your time has not yet come,” Jim said gently. “I believe I must use you to bring about the death of my own alter-ego, so that your place may be secured. For now, remain with Antiope and see that she succeeds in uniting the Amazons. When the time is right, I will place companions around you and see you safely made the bride of Sparta.”
Helen smiled sadly. “My heart will always be yours, Jim. But how do you expect me to share a bed with this man without killing him?”
“We will take you on your wedding night.”
“Sparta will not forgive that.”
“I am aware.”
Helen laughed softly. “How devious. That makes you Paris.”
“And who else,” Jim replied, “could spirit himself away from a duel with Menelaus and return to your bedchamber? Certainly not absent gods.”
“Then take me to Paris after Troy, when we return to the future,” Helen said. “I will be in the mood.”
“Your wish is my command,” Jim said, smiling.
Jim had given each woman a priceless artifact and instructed them to keep these items close at all times. Each device contained micro-circuits linked to Genie’s communication network, allowing him to locate them instantly if needed.
Antiope carried her legendary girdle.
Helen wore a massive diamond set into a thick gold-bonded nanocircuit ring, embedded in a silicon-carbide lattice. The ring concealed a focused energy emitter capable of devastating force if invoked—and, more importantly, it served as her private link to Genie. Heaven help the man who tried to remove it from her hand.
The stoic Antiope finally wept when she realized Jim was leaving them. Helen masked her sorrow more effectively, refusing to let him believe he would be missed.
They spent one last evening together and resolved to part at daybreak.
Genie scrambled the Pegasus’s sensor arrays so Isis could not pinpoint their location from orbit. To further complicate matters, Genie disabled air-to-ground transport and degraded the ship’s communications. Isis could neither land nor warp safely—and yet Jim retained full access to the Pegasus’s systems. Genie could, of course, unscramble its own interference through layered multiplexing. Even Jim marveled at what the Idiot could accomplish.
Antiope and Helen were now on their own.
They would raise their children under Amazon protection until Jim was confident Isis could no longer reach them. He knew this confidence was likely misplaced—but history itself reassured him. There were no recorded children of Helen or Antiope. Their secrecy would succeed.
Jim trusted them. Once he had earned their loyalty, he knew better than to underestimate their capabilities.
In time, they would return to the twenty-first century and help catalyze the greatest advance in women’s rights the world had ever known. Isis would appoint Jim as Qblh; Qblh would appoint Antiope and Helen as trustees. Their children would be presented as citizens of Artemis—innocent, untainted, and royal by law. Isis would be bound to accept them.
For now, that future would have to wait.
Jim departed unseen.
Idiot folded a shielding manifold around him, enclosing him within his merkabah—elsewhere, beyond duration. Linked directly to the Pegasus, Jim moved without transit, navigating the ship’s interior until he reached the facsimile throne room.
An active portal shimmered near the throne, sealed by a stasis barrier. If Pegasus returned to the twenty-first century, the portal would open fully into Isis’s court. For now, no stable transit solution existed.
Jim decided he would be that solution.
Isis sat alone on the throne, visibly unsettled. Nothing was unfolding as Shaltain had promised.
Idiot aggravated her further by transmitting an operational assessment of Shaltain’s readiness. Her irritation deepened—exactly as Jim had hoped.
At last, Isis cursed Shaltain aloud and swore that upon her return she would unplug the infernal machine. Shaltain protested, but the more it argued, the more convinced Isis became that its selfish logic had overridden loyalty.
Concealed and invisible, Jim listened as Idiot informed him that Shaltain knew there was no return solution—and that Isis would ultimately depend on Qblh to save her.
“And why would that be?” Isis demanded.
“To avoid paradox,” she answered herself.
She was right.
Sensing Qblh’s presence without seeing him, Isis raised her voice in song—a spell meant for him alone. Her court joined her.
We are made in each other’s likeness
And I will make you the keeper of my garden world
If you honor me in kind, I'll be grateful, but be warned
I'm a jealous Being
Who placed the demons in hell
And the angels in heaven
At my side
So set me free, I'll grant your hearts desire
And I will share the secrets of the grand design
Give me daughters, send me sons and I'll make them all chosen ones
I will send them out to die
To meet the angels of death
With no tears, no regrets
We have descended from the heights
My blood must pay for this debt
That was made when we left
Because of me
And if they taste the blood we'll let them drink
And if they taste the flesh we'll let them eat
And if one has to be forgiven then we'll pardon all of them
And if they raze our walls we'll let them in
And if they raise their swords we'll let them hit
And if one has to be forgiven then
We'll love them
Let me lead you to the garden world
I will place you at the right of my father's hand
I was tempted in the wild I crossed from start until end of time
You have emerged the sacred lamb
Whose blood must pay for the debt
That was made when we left
As we have ascend into the heavens I have freed my angels as if from hell
And place them in heaven
At my side
Revised from “Trail of the Dead”
Isis Unveiled
