8FOLD: Red Hart # 2, "THe Beasts Set Loose"

[Tom Russell]

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

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 ##         [8F-122] ACT TWO [PW-03]
              The Beasts Set Loose

               ~-<>-~

THE ARGUMENT.
Sedenion, having escaped from his father's trap, travels to the Edge
of Space and Time, where Red Hart and the Never-Lord have been
imprisoned since the time before time. He is confronted by The
Warning, guardian of the seven seals, whom Sedenion dismisses.
Sedenion opens the prison, freeing the essence of the Red Hart.
Unbeknownst to Sedenion, the insidious Never-Lord takes residence
inside his thoughts and soul. This cosmic event is felt by Octonion,
and breaks the elder god's concentration, causing him to fail in his
attempt to tame Awides, the sentient death-moon of the Anti-Planet
Dis. Awides begins murdering Octonion. Octonion tries to pass his
god-seed to the human Vanessa Morrison, but she refuses, killing the
god of eighth-dimensional algebra. She flees in her ship, the
Plus-One, with Awides fast behind her.

               ~-<>-~

Dramatis Personae.

OCTONION, god of eighth-dimensional algebra
SEDENION, son of Octonion, himself the god
     of sixteenth-dimensional algebra

AWIDES, sentient death-moon of the Anti-Planet
THE WARNING, an ancient watchman

VANESSA MORRISON, captain of the ship Plus-One,
    ex-patriot of Earth, called Van

               ~-<>-~


Scene I. The Edge of Space and Time.
[A great and arcane prison with seven seals. Enter SEDENION.]

SEDENION
Mine foolish father boxed me up in eights.
But I've got sixteen sides and more besides;
For bold Sedenion defies the fates!
With but a blink, across all space he rides!
So here I am, the Edge of Space and Time.
And before me, the secret seven seals.
"Tis only when the fearful hour doth chime,
And when the final story told, the wheels
Begin to grind and stop-- then beats red hearts."
The time foretold! Is not it night and now?
The hour is here; the final story starts.
If but I knew its ending, when and how.
Are tales but tales? If freed from yonder room,
Will Red Hart save us, or heap doom on doom?

[Enter, in a flash of light, THE WARNING.]

THE WARNING
Who dares profane this place so long forbid?

SEDENION
I dare! I come to free the Forest Prince.

THE WARNING
Your name, young godling.

SEDENION
                         Sixteen names I have.
Which would you like?

THE WARNING
                       Sedenion the bold.
Your father, great Octonion the wise.

SEDENION [bristling]
Sedenion's both bold and wise, old man.

THE WARNING
And yet you seek to serve the Never-Lord.

SEDENION
Just once I will forgive your fool remark.
I free the nephew, not his uncle dread.
The need is now and dire. The times are dark.
The god-sea floods forth free to drown us dead.

THE WARNING
Red Hart's twin hearts will never beat alone.
For evil-heart must beat in time 'gainst good.
You think, young god, the consequence is known.
For youth is youth, and knows not what it should.

SEDENION
I warn you now; I've virtues beyond count.
But patience numbers not among them, fool!

THE WARNING
But still the warning shall The Warning give.
To free the Never-Lord kills all who live.
Time before Time, they fought, Red Hart and he.
Each mighty blow did end a galaxy.
Their ancient war must not resume once more.
All life is lost if you open this door.

SEDENION
Is not the god-sea worse? It ends not Life,
But makes it never-was, erased from time.
I'll gladly end it all, if all still was.
For Death is only just if once was Life.
And yet I pray Red Hart shall find a way.
Be gone, old man; I've heard what you've to say.

[Exit THE WARNING in a flash of light.]

SEDENION
Now by my hand the starting seal is broke!
"The evil-heart must beat in time 'gainst good."
Tis true, of course, the words The Warning spoke.
For fire must burn away the walking wood,
Or else the new will not a-sprout and thrive.
Though brightly burn the suns, e'en they go black...
... The second seal. The third. The fourth. And five!
And now, for six. One more. No going back.
Tis strange, that Bad is twined with Good, and Pain
With Beauty. Strange, for One is never Aught!
How Life can equal Death, I can't explain.
It beats against all that my father taught.
Our last true hope, yet certain doom: Red Hart!
I broke the seventh seal, and played my part!

[The prison opens. A bolt of red shoots out and exits. SEDENION
watches, and wonders.]

SEDENION
He's free! O Prince of Forests-All, gods-speed!
But where's the uncle dread, the Never-Lord?
Did stag slay sin while locked in timeless time?
Was wise Octonion, my father, wrong?
[He laughs and dances hysterically]
Oh yes, so wrong, oh yes, at last, at last!
So swift Sedenion, the six and ten,
I saved us all at last from doom of dooms!
I laugh! I spit upon my father's eight!
I am his double! Master! Teacher! Lord!

[Exit SEDENION, laughing. THE WARNING is suddenly visible.]

THE WARNING
The god cannot the lurking devil see.
As One is Aught, now Never-Lord is thee.


SCENE II. Aboard the Plus-One, orbiting the death-moon.
[OCTONION, alone, screaming. Enter VAN.]

VAN
What's going on?

OCTONION
My son... my son has done the foolish thing.
I fear that we are doomed and he is damned.

VAN
Is he here? On Awides?

OCTONION
A thousand-thousand galaxies away.
I felt him like a ripple in a pond,
So fleeting, brief and barely there. But there,
But for a second, for a single breath.
But long enough to break mine sacred trance,
And with it dash away our only chance.

VAN
Like, our only chance? Or are you just being, y'know, cosmic?

OCTONION
The god-sea free, to drown the universe,
To wash it all from time and memory.
The uncle's free, to rule the universe,
To make all hearts his heart, all thoughts his thoughts.
The nephew's free, to burn the universe
Like ants, if that will stop the Never-Lord.
And death-moon free, to kill the universe,
For I did fail to bring the beast to heel.
Yes. Awides does wake, and hungers. Oh!

AWIDES [a booming voice]
Delicious! Been so long since ate god-meat!
Sweet blood-of-stars and flesh-of-gravity!
Must swallow slow to savor such flavor!


VAN
That's. That's a crazy moon, and it's talking about eating you.

AWIDES
And you! So young and sexy-sex! A bite!
A nibble, thou! Light snack! But first, the meal!

[OCTONION collapses, reeling.]

OCTONION
Vanessa, I shall be dead anon.
The murder-moon may kill you next, poor Van.

VAN
I kinda heard that part.

OCTONION
Too late for me, too late, but not for you.
There's but one chance to save yourself and all.
For as the Never-Lord now lives inside
Sedenion, I might yet live in you.

VAN
I'm really not sure what any of that means. I don't even know who Sedenion is.

OCTONION
No time, no time! For he winnows me down.

AWIDES
So smooth! Velvet!

OCTONION
                   My hand, take it in yours.

VAN
Why?

OCTONION
To pass to your young body my god-seed.
You shall become the demigod of eight,
And carry on my endless vigilance.

VAN
No, I don't want anything to do with your god-seed.

OCTONION
You understand me not. The universe
Now sings to you the song of destiny!

VAN
Oh, I got that. I know what it is. It's not you being squicky. It's
cosmic stuff. Saving the universe. Your song of destiny, your
god-flood, your murder-moon. Algebra. And I don't want it. Any of it!

OCTONION [lunging towards her]
We seldom choose the times in which we're born.
I die, but not the deathless Eight-Power!

VAN
I said no!

[She fires her pistol at him. He dies, vanishing in an explosion of light.]

VAN
Sorry, math-magic man. But my first rule is, I make my rules.

AWIDES
You killed him! Choking, gagging, greasy, dead!
God-slayer! Succulent! Eat you instead!

VAN
You think you're the first guy tried to eat me? Puh-lease.

[VAN rushes to her control panel.]

VAN
C'mon, girl. Something tells me you got to be faster than a stupid,
sub-literate moon. Let's blow this stand of popsicles.

[Exit VAN in the Plus-One, pursued slowly by the moon.]

COPYRIGHT (C) 2014 TOM RUSSELL