Nightside 05 - Paths Not Taken

lightning cracked down out of nowhere. Vivid bolts stabbed down all through the bath house, and the various Members jumped up off their couches and ran for their lives. I got the sense they'd had to do this before. The creatures in the pool vanished, disappearing back to wherever they'd come from. I grabbed a couch and overturned it, and Suzie and I hid behind it as the lightning storm continued.
    "Nice one, Taylor," said Suzie.
    "For a god powerful beyond all reason, he has really lousy aim," I said.
    The lightning broke off abruptly and the couch was plucked away from us. Poseidonis threw it the length of the pool, and then leaned over to glare at Suzie and me. His face was bright red with rage, and very ugly. Suzie and I scrabbled backwards, then ran like hell to the other end of the bath house as his long arras stretched after us. Poseido-nis was standing bent over in the pool, his hunched back pressed against the ceiling. He was growing bigger by the minute, actually filling his end of the bath house. He roared like a maddened bull, and the sound was deafening as it echoed back from the tiled walls.
    "So," said Suzie, a little breathlessly. "We're naked and unarmed, facing a really pissed off god. What's your next bright idea?"
    "I'm thinking!"
    "Well, think faster!"
    Poseidonis was still growing, the bath's ceiling cracking apart as his back and shoulders heaved up against it. He reached for Suzie and me with his huge hands, and we scattered in different directions. The god paused for a moment, torn between two conflicting decisions, and while he wrestled with the problem, I happened to notice that the great pool was almost completely drained of water. Poseidonis was the god of the sea, and he'd sucked all the water out of the pool to make up his new bulk. But this was also a steam bath ... I grabbed one of the couches, used it as a lever, and overturned the iron brazier full of coals right into the pool. There was a great rushing up of steam, as the coals hit what was left of the water, and in a moment everything disappeared behind a thick fog. Poseidonis cried out angrily, but his voice didn't sound nearly as loud.
    The steam slowly thinned away, to reveal an almost human-sized god, standing confusedly by the side of the pool. The extreme heat had boiled the excess water right out of him. Suzie ran forward and was upon him in a moment, a length of jagged wood from a dismembered couch in her hand. She grabbed a handful of the god's curly hair, jerked back his head, and set the sharp wooden edges at his throat.
    "All right, all right!" yelled Poseidonis. "Mortal, call your woman off!"
    "Maybe," I said, strolling down the pool to join them. "Are you feeling in a more cooperative mood, now?"
    "Yes, yes! You've got to let me get out of here, before the heat evaporates me completely! I hate it when that happens."
    "We need a favour," I said firmly.
    Poseidonis scowled petulantly. "Anything, to get rid of you."
    "My associate and I need to go further back in Time," I said.
    "Two hundred years should do it," said Suzie.
    "To the very beginnings of the Nightside," I concluded.
    "Ah," said the god. "Now that's a problem. Gods! Ease off with that wood, woman! Just because my godly person can repair any damage, eventually, it doesn't mean I'm not sensitive to pain! Look, I don't do Time travel. That's Chronos's province. I'm only the god of the sea, and horses, because of a book-keeping error, and I have no power over Time. We gods are really very strict when it comes to demarcation. And no, I can't introduce you to Chronos; no-one's seen him in years. I'm sorry, but I really can't help you!"
    "Then who could?" said Suzie.
    "I don't know ... I don't! Honestly I don't! Oh gods, I'm going to end up with splinters, I know it... Look; there's this really awful bar not far from here, supposed to be the oldest bar in the Nightside. That's the place to ask."
    Suzie glared at me. "Don't you even think of saying / told you so, Taylor."
    "I wouldn't dare," I assured her. I looked at Poseidonis. "What's the bar called?"
    "Dies Irae. Which only goes to show that someone there has a classical and very warped sense of humour. Would you like me to transport you right there?"
    "You can do that?" I said.
    "Only with your consent, in my current weakened state,
    or I'd have transported you both to the moon, by now ... Ow! That hurt, woman!"
    "Send us to the bar," I said. "Straight there, with no detours, and with all our clothing and