The Bride Wore Black Leather

you left, you took the miracles with you. There was never anyone else like you. We fought our battles, day by day, inch by inch, and we did achieve many of the things we believed in. If not always in the ways we expected. But day by day, and inch by inch, the world wore us down.
    “The miracles were never the point!” snapped the Sun King. He wasn’t smiling any more. He didn’t even try to hide his anger, but he made himself nod respectfully to Julien. “When I came back, you were the first one I thought of. Took me a while to track you down—in the Nightside, of all places. You always said you’d never come back here after the light you found in San Francisco. But here we both are. I knew you’d want to see me, so I put all this in your head. So you’d come here. And here I am. You are still my oldest and dearest friend, Julien; even if neither of us is who we were when we first met. Even if it appears . . . we no longer care about the same things.”
    “You’ve been messing with my mind?” said Julien. His voice would have made anyone else beware.
    “I always did,” the Sun King said complacently. “I changed the way people thought just by being near them. You saw me do it; but you never gave a damn as long as I was changing minds you disapproved of. You still believe you can talk me out of what I intend to do, don’t you? But be honest, Julien. This world you live in, this brave new modern world, this marvellous scientific twenty-first century . . . Is it the future we hoped for, the world we wanted to make? Where have all the beautiful people gone?”
    “You were supposed to come back and save the world, not destroy it,” said Julien.
    “Save, destroy; it’s all in the way you look at it,” said the Sun King.
    “What happened to you?” said Julien, his voice rising despite himself.
    “What happened to you?” said the Sun King. “The Great Victorian Adventurer? I was so proud to have you as my friend, back in good old San Fran. The hero of one age, who became the hero of another. Who gave up God and Empire for something better, something finer. We walked in glory through the streets of Haight-Ashbury, Julien. Walk with me now, through the streets of the Nightside. It can be like it used to be, when we were young and had the world at our feet.”
    “I can’t,” said Julien Advent. “You’re not the man I remember.”
    “I haven’t changed,” said the Sun King. “Not really. You only think I have because you’ve got old, inside. Look at you, Mr. Suit and Tie man. You wear that cloak like you’re ashamed of it. I still wear my colours, proudly nailed to my mast.”
    “You would have loved the New Romantics,” I said, to remind them I was still there. And then wished I hadn’t as the Sun King turned his tinted glasses and fierce gaze in my direction. Having the Sun King look right at you was like being punched in the head by a spotlight. His presence was overwhelming; you couldn’t think of anything or anyone else. So I deliberately looked away and made a big deal of adjusting my white trench coat, so it fell comfortably about me.
    “I know you,” said the Sun King, smiling. “John Taylor. The good man in a bad world. The cold knight in tarnished armour, doing good in dangerous ways. You should support me and what I intend to do.”
    I made myself glare right back at him and matched his smile with my best unsettling grin. “Not a hope in hell. This is my home. My people.”
    “What people?” said the Sun King. “All I see are broken men with shop-soiled souls, and women selling everything they have, just to get by. I see false gods and pathetic monsters, sin and corruption and blood in the gutters. This is where the lost souls come to hide, because no-one else will have them.”
    “You think I don’t know that?” I said. “You think Julien doesn’t? We’re here because we’re needed. Because not all the world’s troubles can be solved with simple, unrelenting concepts like Good and Evil, Law and Chaos, Light and Dark. The world needs us to see outside the box.”
    But the Sun King wasn’t listening. He shrugged and looked away. “If you’re not part of the solution, John Taylor, you’re part of the problem.”
    I almost collapsed when he looked away, from the relief of not having to fight off his overwhelming presence. The Sun King didn’t notice, all his attention focused on Julien.
    “You betrayed the Dream, Julien. Gave up being an adventurer to