Chapter 26

December Seventeenth

"So, why aren't you fat, or really tall, or ... well something?" Balathu asked. "Or are you in the flesh?"

Blinking her eyes in confusion, Lei replied, "Why would I be either of those things, here or physically?"

"Well, you fused with the Outsider, and you've told me before that, in their own universe, they can be as small as a man or as big as a house. If you're both in one body now, shouldn't you be huge?"

Lei chuckled. "I am no larger in person than I appear to be here. Part of the reason for that is simple vanity: I had no desire to look monstrous. There was also a very practical reason. It takes a substantial number of hybrid cells to take hold in a new host fast enough to prevent the neural pathways from decaying. If the number is insufficient, higher brain functions are lost, and the result is a feral.

"If all of those cells had to come from the creator, the creation of an intelligent fledgling would take too much from her, leaving her weak, at least for a time. So, to put it in the simplest terms possible, we scraped off the excess hybrid cells at the moment of fusion. I cannot adequately describe the place where they were stored. Think of it as the timeless void that exists in the interstices of the universes in eleventh dimensional space.

"They remain connected to the whole, and I can sense their presence just like I can that of one of my children, although the mass seems to be both everywhere and nowhere at the same time. A distinctly odd sensation, I assure you.

"When an attempt is made to create a new fledgling, and the invading cells manage to forge a connection with the source, they are also establishing a connection with that mass. Dozens of cells are transferred along that pathway for each that was in the new host to begin with. So, while it still takes a significant number of starting cells for higher brain functions to be preserved, it is nowhere near what would have been required were the mass not present."

Balathu digested this information for a minute. "Wouldn't the mass be exhausted eventually, making it impossible to create an intelligent fledgling without the, ah, downsides?"

"No. The path works in both directions. Once a fledgling awakes, begins to feed and starts to grow new cells on their own, some of those are transferred back to the mass."

After a few subjective minutes of silence, Balathu asked, "There's another thing that I've been curious about. What's so special about the heart?"

"When the Outsider takes hold in a new host, it does so through the circulatory system. The heart, as the center of that system, serves as a sort of ganglionic interface between the new, hybrid tissue and what remains of the human that was. As time goes on and the vampire's body becomes predominantly hybrid, it loses some, but not all, of its importance."

She held up a finger to forestall any additional questions. "You have been outside your body for more than twice the period that you could have managed when we began your training. It is time for you to rest."

"One more question?"

"Make it short."

"If the Outsider lives solely on zi, how can it grow or repair existing parts of itself? I mean ... well, if there's nothing of substance taken in..."

Lei laughed. "Although you have asked a difficult question, I shall strive to give a simple answer. Mass and energy are different sides of the same coin. The Outsiders, and, to a lesser extent, vampires, possess the ability to convert the latter into the former."

A dubious expression crossed his face. "The speed of light squared is an awfully big number. It would take incredibly huge amounts of energy..."

"Indeed, but energy is readily available in the quantities needed. As I've told you before, dark energy, which is the modern, albeit inappropriate, term for zi, makes up nearly three fourths of the mass energy of the universe. It is especially concentrated in the living things on which the Outsider feeds."