3: Tumbling

We felt a twisting in our stomachs before we hit the floor and rolled, laughing as we clutched at each other, my canes rattling on the white floor.

"We did it!" Cadence cried. "This is either Crossroads or Heaven. Which is it?"

"Could be both," I laughed. "Sephie! We're home, honey!"

A wall opened ahead of us in the white room and Persephone came into the room dressed in a diaphanous blue gown. She was crying but held herself straight.

"Hero! Lincoln? Lincoln! Is it really you?" Persephone rushed across the white floor and threw herself into my arms. "It's you! It's you!"

"Of course it's me, silly girl. Who else would it be?"

"They said ... your portal went inactive as you went through it. The Supervisor said you must have been killed as you went through. Oh, Lincoln! They sent me back to Cassandra, but suddenly I was called back here to Crossroads. And you are here! How did you get here?"

"The fact that you tried to grab me when I went through the portal saved my life. I fell forward and tumbled through just as Wilson put an axe through the framework of the portal. It's been touch and go on Earth for a few days, but we found another portal. Cadence found it. Cadence, this is Persephone."

"Oh, my! You're Lisa's daughter. I'd recognize you anyplace. Welcome to Crossroads!"

"Yes. I'm Lincoln's fiancée," Cadence said rather tightly.

"You would not believe what we've gone through in the past few days!" I said.

"You?" Cadence practically screamed. "It's me who has less than nineteen days to live. It's me whose father has been trying to kill or kidnap her. It's me whose mother abandoned her to stay on Chaos. It's me who just inherited an empire and has to prove she can run it. It's me who just jumped through a fucking window forty-one stories off the ground!"

Whoa! Cadence had just stepped off the deep end. All the stress of the past week had just caught up and I realized that my holding and kissing on Sephie was probably not helping. I pried Persephone off of me and turned to catch Cadence. I wasn't quick enough. She slapped me.

"And it's you who's fucking around with another woman right in front of the woman he said he loved and wanted to marry!" Cadence collapsed on the floor crying. I tried to gather her into my arms and she squirmed away. "I am Hero Cadence. Get me a caretaker!" Cadence snapped.

"What?"

"I have a ring and I just entered through my portal," Cadence asserted, holding up the ring.

"Computer, can you identify the ring Cadence is holding?" Persephone asked. "If there is an earthly caretaker, maybe there is a female hero."

"The ring once belonged to Hero Alfonso. It was paired to the portal from which Hero Lincoln and Cadence arrived."

"See!"

"However, the ring did not activate the portal and has not done so in sixteen years. Hero Lincoln's ring activated the portal and he brought his companion Cadence through."

"Who the fuck are you?" Cadence shouted at the ceiling. There was no response.

"That's computer," I said. "He assists Persephone in caring for me and for my companions, including your mother and the damsels I rescue. He is an artificial intelligence and is normally very polite if you speak nicely to him."

Cadence passed out.

"Well, that went well," computer said.

I carried Cadence to bed, undressed her, and shed the black suit I'd been wearing. I kissed Persephone deeply and had her undress and get in bed with us on the other side of Cadence.

"What do you think happened, Lincoln?" Seph asked me. "I thought she was excited to come here."

"She is. It's been a very difficult week and she's really done remarkably well. I think getting here was a sudden jolt of reality. I don't know what she was expecting. That bastard put his portal in an open window five hundred feet above the ground. If that had been my first experience, I wouldn't have done it. I wasn't sure I was going to do it anyway until Cadence jumped. I just kept hold of her."

"I love you, my hero. I do not want to be the cause of discord between you and your chosen one," Seph said. "I so want to..." She looked at Cadence and tears stung her eyes. I couldn't help myself. I reached across Cadence between us and kissed my caretaker. We managed, somehow, not to get too carried away. I lay down beside Cadence and began to kiss her softly. Her eyes fluttered open.

"Are we in our bed? Was it all a bad dream, Linc?" she whispered.

"I'm afraid not, sweetheart. We are at Crossroads. I am here with you and I love you more than life. I know it's hard to take in, but it's all real. And yes, that is Persephone petting your hair beside you," I said. Cadence turned from me and looked at my caretaker.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to sound like a jealous bitch. I just ... Somehow seeing you together was so much harder than I thought it would be. I cracked up. I'm sorry."

"Cadence, companion of Hero Lincoln, I will never come between you and your love. But know that I love him, too, just as Lisa Caretaker does. And given the chance, I know I will love you, too," Persephone said.

"It's so much to take in," Cadence said. "Oh. I'm sorry, computer. Please forgive my rudeness earlier."

"It is nice to make your acquaintance, Cadence Companion," the disembodied voice answered.

"That is really going to take some getting used to," she sighed. "Um ... Are we all three naked in bed together?"

"That's the way we sleep here," I said.

"Persephone, I've never ... you know ... done anything with a girl before. Um ... why don't I go out for some lunch while you and Lincoln ... um ... have your reunion. I promise I won't freak out," Cadence said.

"Computer, what would you suggest for a light meal that we can eat right here in bed while we get to know one another," Seph asked.

"Antipasto," computer answered. "Please allow me to serve an array of authentic Umbrian finger foods, prepared meats, cheeses, and breads. I would suggest the Sagrantino di Montefalco wine with your meal and background music of Verdi's Four Seasons."

"Computer, how did you know about the Sagrantino di Montefalco? And Umbria?" I asked.

"When Cadence Companion arrived with Hero Alfonso's ring, I accessed the database of his preferences. It seems that was his favorite."

"Thank you, computer. That will be an excellent repast for us as we become acquainted," Seph said. We sat up in bed with pillows behind us. Cadence was a little self-conscious being naked and I saw her steal several glances at Persephone's impressive chest. I put an arm around Cadence and turned her head toward me.

"You might not want to watch this the first time. It's a little disconcerting."

"What?" she asked.

"Having food appear out of nowhere." I turned her head back to the front where a tray had been placed across our laps with an assortment of antipasti and the wine already poured. Cadence looked around.

"Who brought that?"

"Computer did, dear," Persephone said. "Did you know that there have been over four hundred instances of Heroes passing out the first time food appeared in front of them?" she continued conversationally. "Of course, most of them were before television made its appearance on Earth. I've been watching different Earth television shows. I think the instances of fainting began to decline about the time the Star Trek series aired with its transporter. Heroes and companions who had seen that had less difficulty accepting food appearing out of nowhere." She rolled a thin piece of salami around an olive and popped it in Cadence's mouth before my sweetheart could respond.

Once food actually touches your lips, conversation relaxes, and before long we were telling Persephone what had happened from the time I crashed into Wilson on the way out of the portal to stepping out the open window in Alfonso's office.

"I wanted to believe everything was real," Cadence confessed. "But it's all so impossible. My sweet, kind Lincoln going off to battle bad guys on a primitive world and then fuck women until they were pregnant. Even all the training and the quest and the clothes. There was still that doubt in my mind. It's all a game. We're going on a fantastic LARP. And then Mom didn't come back. And Wilson trying to kidnap or kill me. And Gino and the will and the inheritance. I was overwhelmed."

"You were keeping up pretty well until we actually got here," I said. "If you were in doubt, how could you make the leap?"

"Remember back when I was thirteen and curious about religion? I went to church with my friend, Sally. I decided they were really weird and never went back," Cadence said. "But I still remember the sermon and I actually looked up the Bible verses. It was the story of Joshua leading the Israelites across the Jordan River to the promised land. The river was at flood stage, but the men carrying that thing with the laws in it, walked right into the river and found dry land. That's one of the reasons I never went back to that church. How stupid is it to walk into a flood and find dry land?"

"About as stupid as jumping out a forty-first story window into another world," I laughed.

"That's just it. The preacher said the story wasn't about the Israelites getting into the promised land; it was about faith. He said, 'Faith isn't standing by the river chanting, I believe, I believe, I believe. Faith is putting your foot out and stepping into the abyss.' When I picked up my grandfather's ring, I realized I'd been standing at the edge chanting 'I believe.' So I put my foot out and stepped into the abyss," Cadence cried.

"And Lincoln brought you safely here," Seph said softly.

"Are you sure I'm not a hero?"

"All companions are heroes. That doesn't mean they can come without their hero, though," Persephone said. What a nice way to put it. I thought of Lord Chang, stranded on Chaos after Danny Sun died. "You are going to be a great hero's companion."

I kissed Cadence and then I kissed Seph. Cadence shuddered a little and then joined our kiss.

"You won't stop loving me, will you, Lincoln?" she whispered.

"Never."

"Then you'd better make love to our caretaker. I can feel her dripping on my leg."

"So when can we go find Mom?" Cadence asked as we ate a dinner prepared to perfection by computer.

"We have to get you trained and choose a mission," Persephone explained. "In the morning I'll assess your level and get you both tuned up. Neither my hero nor his companion nor his caretaker will go into Chaos unprepared."

"I'm prepared," Cadence said. I think she had a double agenda. She wanted to hurry to see her mother, but she also wanted put some distance between Seph and me. She'd been beside us while we made love, but she hadn't been enthusiastic. Not at all like Lisa. Lisa was ready to make love to Persephone the minute she saw the girl's picture. Cadence still viewed my caretaker as a bit of a threat—competition.

"We'll see when we do the tests in the morning," Seph insisted. "And when we start selecting a mission, I need to find one that is in the area where we assume Lisa Caretaker is wandering. Do you think she will stay in the South, Lincoln?"

"I believe so. The conditions in the South are better for a traveling circus, assuming she still has the show. I would expect her to stick to that climate. The Northlands tend to be more rugged. There are many more small towns and not as many large centers. Traveling a distance with wagons on any but the largest roads would be catastrophic. They would never do anything but repair carts."

"So just choose a damsel in the South and let's go," Cadence stated.

"Now that you have an empire to rule on Earth, do you really want to be stranded on Chaos for the rest of your life?" I asked.

"Why would we get stranded? I'm not volunteering to stay like Mother did."

"And if I'm dead, how are either of you going to get back?"

"Dead?"

"This is serious business, Cadence. One wrong step and I'm dead. Trust Persephone to choose us a mission that will get us to the right place and give us a good chance of success. We're going off-mission to find Lisa as it is. I might have to rescue the damsel and then cart her around while we find Lisa. And believe me, as much as I love the women I've rescued, they aren't that pleasant to be around on Chaos once they've been rescued," I said.

"Great. Hauling around another horny woman who wants to fuck you all the time," Cadence growled.

"There are rules that state the hero cannot fuck the damsel until they return to Crossroads," Persephone said. "I believe it is one of the great challenges that heroes face to show their true character."

Cadence got frustrated pretty fast. The Companion's Rule Book we'd read indicated that she could have sex with the hero on Earth and on Chaos—in fact, was expected to—but not on Crossroads.

"So I suppose you're going to have sex with me," Cadence said after Seph and I had made love again the next morning.

"It's my choice," Seph said. They really weren't getting along well. I was not at all happy about it. "So far, I haven't seen anything that attracts me to you sexually."