The Search

How many thousands of years had it been? How many billions of worlds; how many trillions of dead ends? And, in all that time, a handful...just the barest handful...of men. And all in a world...a reality...which was oh-so-closely analogous to this one.

There had been that Greek philosopher who had come so close to understanding the truth, understanding her. So close that she had fought for—and won—the right to assume the role and the personage of the goddess he recognized who was closest to her personality. "Athena" had been created by the Evil One as a direct swipe at her; well, she who laughs last laughs best. But by the time that she dug down to and identified the man's core personality, she found to her heartbreak that he was already married...to a shrewish woman who verbally and physically abused him. But, in his society, a man could have only one wife...and leading him towards divorce would be against everything she and her Family stood for. Perhaps he might outlive her...but no. His political enemies gave him the choice of exile, or else execution by drinking hemlock. Refusing to run he died as he lived; a brave man to the last.

Then there had been that German monk two thousand years later, the one who had stood up to and single-handedly taken on the might of a corrupted Church. When she got wind of that chain of events she had dug for it feverishly. She had gotten so close but, alas! Before she could make her move and fully enter his world he had proposed marriage to the former nun Katharina von Bora!

But heaviest on her heart, and always in the back of her mind, was the King. The one who had unknowingly asked for her by name, and whom her Father had gifted with riches and splendor beyond imagination at the time….or at any time since. She had thought that he must be the one! He had ridden out one of the enemy's attempts to wedge them apart and separate them already; while it seemed like scarcely an eye blink to her it was ten full years to him. He had married others in the interim...by the time she found him again after those ten years he already had sixty queens and eighty concubines, with no limit to the virgins who longed to join their number...but that did not bother her in the least; she knew she could hold her own. Quite likely the others could become her good friends!

She had made it all the way to the wedding chamber before the enemy struck again...and with a viciousness beyond even her expectations. While the King was making love to a Doppelgänger who looked like her and pretended to be her, she was fighting for her life to fend off a violent rape after recognizing the deception at literally the last minute. Vowing to break through yet one more time and find him again, she had cried out to her love to, "Set me as a seal upon your heart!"...but had he heard? There had been an echo for a time, a year or two, but as the Doppelgänger's true nature came through and he lost faith in her it had died. Somewhere, somewhen out there among the time stream, he had given up. It literally broke her heart.

Still, the search continued. There was a link here, she felt sure. Perhaps not the answer, not the solution...but a link. She had to pursue it. "This is a hot spot," she said to her three maidens. "I'm sure of it. Scan back and forth twenty years...no; make it forty. Cover eighty years total. Be alert for any connections onward, no matter which direction they lead. I'll keep a facet of my awareness at these coördinates. Get back to me right away if you find anything worth investigating."