8FOLD: Red Hart # 8: The Hero, Born of Woman

[Tom Russell]

  EIGHTFOLD PROUDLY PRESENTS MR. TOM RUSSELL'S
               HISTORY OF THE

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 ##         [8F-132] ACT EIGHT [PW-09]
             THE HERO, BORN OF WOMAN


               ~-<>-~

THE ARGUMENT.
Van brings the god-in-the-box to the Dark Sleep. She demands that
Sedenion free Nox from the Never-Lord's thrall in exchange for the
box. He refuses, and becomes convinced that the only way to save the
universe is to enslave all free minds, at last embracing his identity
as the dread Never-Lord. During the confrontation, an aspect of Nox
manages to escape, finding its way to Earth mere minutes before the
arrival of the death-moon Awides. She visits Matt Sharp, and explains
that he must tame the Red Hart.

               ~-<>-~

Dramatis Personae.

SEDENION, god of sixteenth-dimensional algebra,
     secretly the dread Never-Lord

VANESSA MORRISON, called Van, traitor to Earth
NOX, the Queen of Night

MATT SHARP, once a soldier, now the RED HART

    Allies of Red Hart:
THE SEVEN WONDERS, Earth's greatest champions
BLUE BOXER, leader of the Daylighters
JAMY LO, an alien scientist

               ~-<>-~

SCENE I. Within the Dark Sleep.
[Enter VAN in a flash of light, carrying the god-in-the-box.]

VAN
So teleportation is something I'm never doing again. I'm sorry,
stomach. This is the worst thing I've ever done to you. Much worse
than that time we ate Flying Jacob.

[Enter SEDENION in a flash of darkness.]

SEDENION
I greet thee, Vanessa of Morrison,
And welcome you most warmly to Dark Sleep.

VAN
I greet you right back there, guy.

SEDENION
I'm not a mortal man of blood and flesh;
For I'm of sacred ageless god-stuff made,
As like the box you clutch against thy breasts.

VAN
Eyes are up here, buddy. And this is for Nox. She around? We had a deal.

SEDENION
Yes, Nox is comely Queen of Night and Dark,
Her beauty so immense it frightens gods.
Her supple breasts gave suck to Sleep and Death.
At dawn of dawns, she birthed the very stars.
The mother of the Fates, of dooms decreed,
Of purest love and perfect, perfect hate.
All gods are but a single drop of dew,
While she is raging storm and wind-tossed sea.
And yet the Never-Lord did bend her knee,
For 'gainst his evil will, none can be free.

VAN
That's fascinating. Now where is she?

SEDENION
She's not e'en she, but he: but his, now mine.
Great Nox reduced to toy, a mere catspaw.

VAN
But she was so beautiful. So... perfect and wild.

SEDENION
Tis said that something broke in time ere time;
This universe is wrong, and never-meant.
His heinous crime did birth a thousand dooms.

VAN
Are... are you him? The Never-Lord?

SEDENION
No; uncle, like my father, was destroyed.
But like Octonion, the power lives,
And can be used to save us all from doom.

VAN
Oh! You're Sedenion; his son.

SEDENION
I was, and now am more, and more will be.
I now do rule the Never-Lord's domain,
And evil powers use for godly good.
The Night Queen's heart does now belong to me,
And she I sent to you, to Earth, in dreams.
The box you stole, in truth you stole for me.

VAN
No, I stole it for myself. For what I want.

SEDENION
Of course; I shall a vessel fashion now.

[Appears a space ship.]

VAN
Y'know, it's not just the stars, or a ship. It's what they represent.
You can understand that, right? You talk in meter, so you can grasp a
metaphor, I think. It's choosing who I am. It's being free. That's
what the stars are. What the night is. What I wanted when I wanted
Nox. When I stole the box she asked for.

SEDENION
And this is what I give you now, my child.

VAN
Give it to Nox. Set her free, Sedenion. You said it yourself; the
universe is wrong. Set her free. Make it right.

SEDENION
I said that it was said, not that it was.
Such whispers said Red Hart was last true hope.
In truth 'twas mine own coming was foretold.

VAN
Even so. Even if things would still be all screwed up and hopeless,
and we didn't gain a thing by it. It's still wrong what was done to
her. Please. You have to let her free.

SEDENION
Do not forget your place, woman of Earth.
Tis most unwise to make demands of gods.

VAN [revealing her pistol]
I'm an atheist.

SEDENION
You think your weapon's match for me and mine?

VAN
It worked okay on your old man. That's right. I'm the one that killed
him. And I figure you're half the mucky-muck he was.

SEDENION
I am his double. Give me his box.

VAN
Let her go. I'll give you the box, but first you let her go. Why won't
you let her go?

SEDENION
I've need of Nox and box. But not of you.

VAN [shaking]
What-- what's going on?

SEDENION
The Never-Lord made Night Queen's will his own.
His darkest power is the theft of thought.
The only one I dared not use. Till now.

[VAN becomes his thrall. She hands him the box. SEDENION moves his
arm, and VAN's arm moves; in this fashion, her arm brings the pistol
against her head.]

VAN
Please don't.

[SEDENION waves his hand dismissively. VAN pulls the trigger and her
head explodes, blood splattering on the wall. Her body collapses
limply to the floor.]

SEDENION
The darkest power is the theft of thought.
The only one I dared not use, till now.
For life without free thought is not true life,
But endless death. It was a kindness, child.
I took your soul, and then, took pity, Van.
True life is ever violent, shifting, wild,
And needs must end. And hence: all pain, all strife.
And hence: the circling dooms that multiply,
And speed our universe to its death.
But now and only now I see the truth:
Each doom was not ordained, a thing of fate,
But born from choice, from free and foolish thought.
My father thought and chose to free the moon
To pit against the flood. And even that,
The sea of gods, did break at last the dam
That held it back for countless timeless time,
Because some feverish fools on Earth did choose
To set the Dyzen'thari upon it.
Because they had free will, and freely chose
To kill their fellow men. When blood is spilt,
Tis not the deathless dark, but living things,
Each acting to its reasons, needs, and wants,
And none of them do need or want the same.
>From that, all death, all pain, all war, all dooms.

[Enter the SEVEN WONDERS, prepared for battle. SEDENION sets aside the
box, waves his hand, and all become his SHADES.]

SEDENION
The darkest power is the theft of thought.
The only one I dared not use, till now,
For now and only now I see the truth:
Free thought is death. E'en once I've stemmed the flood,
And caged the dragon-king, and killed the moon,
New dooms and fresher hells will be unleashed
To take their place, so long as there is choice.
This cancer must be taken out, removed.
I'll make each soul and star a pinch of sand,
And I, the desert vast and red like blood,
Each thought, my thought alone; each hand, my hand!
I'll make the chorus sing my single chord.
To save us all, I'll be the Never-Lord!

[Exeunt SEDENION, in flight, attended by the SHADES of the SEVEN
WONDERS. A moment later, Van's blood stain on the wall becomes a
blood-red aspect of NOX.]

NOX
Wowza! ...Did I just say "Wowza"? Oh, joy. I got your voice and your
blood. I hardly sound reverent. And reverence you deserve, cutie-pie.
Because with your life you bought me my freedom, if only for a couple
of breaths. As you challenged him, the Never-Lord tightened his grip
around me, and a small sliver of myself-- the tiniest droplet--
spilled out between his fingers and hid in your heart. Just the
tiniest bit-- hardly a goddess, really, and certainly not the Mother
of Mothers. But enough, I think, to make a difference. Certainly
enough to make a quick trip to Earth. You may have just saved the
universe, kiddo. I know you'd rather be alive and in the stars, but
them's the breaks.

[Exit NOX. The god-in-the-box, left behind by Sedenion, begins to
stir, tendrils of Eight Power flowing into VAN's body, and into the
ship. There is a flash, and all three-- corpse, box, and ship--
disappear.]


SCENE II. The Lighthouse.
[Appears NOX. Enter a frantic BLUE BOXER and JAMY LO; they do not see her.]

BLUE BOXER
We've lost contact with the Wonders. We have to assume the
god-in-the-box is lost, too. Dammit. I still think that black hole is
our best chance. So elegant!

JAMY
How much time do we have left?

BLUE BOXER
Ten minutes. Plenty of time to figure it out.

JAMY
But your last six plans have failed.

BLUE BOXER
Seven's the magic number.

[Exeunt JAMY LO and BLUE BOXER.]

NOX
Beautiful critters, earthlings. They got that little something extra.
And with a little luck, and a little help, that little something might
just be enough. Ah, here's the one I seek!

[Exit NOX to the infirmary.]


SCENE III. The Lighthouse, Infirmary.
[Enter NOX. MATT SHARP awakes.]

MATT
Oh, I must be dreaming.

NOX
A little bit, yeah. Why?

MATT
You're beautiful. Most beautiful girl I've ever seen.

NOX
Thank you very muchly. You can flirt with me later, though. You've got
a universe to save.

MATT
Oh, you're one of them, then. I figured as such. You don't talk like
one of them, though.

NOX
Yeah, well. No time, seriously: no time. Universe! Save! You!

MATT
I can't do it, lady.

NOX
Can't, or won't?

MATT
...Won't. Do you know what he did? What happened to Rowdar?

NOX
Yes. And it was terrible. That's why they locked him up, Matthew. Him
and his uncle, when the universe began. Both of them too dangerous for
this cosmos. The uncle, who would control every heart. Who was living
death. And his nephew, who was life itself, wild and free, too wild
and too free. Pure raw and naked power, untamed, uncontrolled.

MATT
And you want me to let him free?

NOX
For all his faults, the Forest Prince knows what he is and what he
was. He's had fifteen billion years to think about it, and to think
about what he needed. So did his uncle. The Never-Lord chose a god.
Because gods think themselves better than men and women, and will do
things, will stomach things, that you won't. And the Red Hart knew
that was exactly what he needed. So he chose Earth. He chose you,
because you can keep him in check.

MATT
Yeah, that worked out real great for Rowdar.

NOX
I didn't say you did. I said you can. Don't let him take over your
body. You take over his. Make his power your own. And do it in the
next three minutes. Because the Earth needs you. The universe needs
you. Not the god born of stars and dust, but the hero, born of woman.

[He is transformed into RED HART.]

RED HART [crackling with cosmic power]
But... I'm still me! I even sound like me. None of that cosmic stuff!

NOX
Told you, dummy.

[She reels.]

RED HART
What's going on?

NOX
The Never-Lord has found me, and is snuffing out this little stray bit
of Nox. Van didn't buy me much time...

RED HART
Van? She's the one that took the box! That left us all to die! What's
she have to do with you...?

NOX
Kindly, Matt. Treat her kindly...

[She disappears.]

RED HART
Alright, space-god. We've got maybe two minutes left. Let's make 'em count.

[Exit.]


COPYRIGHT (C) 2014 TOM RUSSELL.