Huignar was shivering in agitation. Benny put a hand above his top arm to calm him down.

 They were ducked behind the crest of a small hill, overlooking a meadow. In the distance was the edge of the desert, marked by some mountains - the Halls of Infinity, Huignar informed her.

 Benny's fist clenched into Huignar reflexively as she watched Miles' body consume the two Totems. Huignar reached round with a couple of claws and removed her hand, gently and drawing a minimum of blood.

 Something stood in the centre of the meadow. It looked like Miles, but with three arms and a single eye in his forehead. He was stark naked, clothes consumed in the fire of the merging - a fact that Benny contemplated for a moment, then swiftly tried to ignore. After all, the Din'l next to her was just as bare).

 His body was silver, and shone in the darkness.

 Of course, once I knew it was them who had been on Din-el, left their mark, then that my first real clue was the sewer seemed suddenly achingly appropriate.

 [End of extract]

 They broke through into the clearing, chattering excitedly, just in time to see the light from the Trin'l seeping into the ground, and into the air above. They shook fit to burst and felt their bodies losing touch with the world they lived in.

 I've spent the last half an hour flicking through the entries I've made while I've been on Din-el. Trying to find blank pages, spot something I don't remember writing. Or a gap where something I remember writing isn't there any more. I even looked under the post-it notes.

 It all seems to be there, it follows on logically, it makes sense (well, as much sense as my diary usually makes). It's all quite good, actually. I rushed bits back in the hotel - I'll cover those up later on (my grammar really isn't what it used to be) - but after that, I seem to have covered matters really rather nicely. I just hope they actually happened.

 [End of extract]

 Ships appeared from nowhere, whizzing around the sky, back and forth from the dissipating human settlements. The clouds of insects ebbed and flowed crazily, far too fast for Benny's liking.

 People were buzzing past her, coming in skimmers from a group of balloon-like structures where the city had been, dashing into the meadow and ripping the plants up. In a matter of seconds, they were gone, and so was the meadow. Her grassy hillock was now a sand dune, the meadow a naked, purple oasis. In place of the forest were more dunes and some scattered rocks.

 All traces of human colonisation were gone. The volcanoes thrust upward, growing again.

 She looked at Huignar. He eye swang aback and forth frantically and his claws twitched in agitation.

 Below her, the Council of the Cursed bounced towards the figure in the centre of the bruised water. Ripples were lapping at his waist.

 The sunlight strobed biblically overhead, the clouds of bugs waxed and waned. Din'l hopped into sight and were gone before Benny realised what they were. Sandstorms appeared and blew themselves out in seconds, the wind battered the desert mercilessly. Days and nights swam by at a rate of knots, all pale behind the silver light.

 The lay of the land moved up and down like the tide. Benny found herself swamped in sand, and had to claw her way to the surface, then suddenly she was dragged down as the ground level fell. Huignar allowed himself to be buried, poking his arms above the surface and heaving himself out when things seemed to have settled.

 The air became very cold, Benny found herself shivering. Then she was drowning in freezing water, thrashing to break through waves. The water grew so cold she could feel every pore bristle. Her skin turned blue and the water around her solidified.

 And then it was melting, and she was free of the ice. She gasped for air, but found herself falling under water again. She swallowed the purple liquid, before sharp claws tugged her to the surface.

 Huignar was happily floating, using the large disc of skin extended from his foot for buoyancy. Benny looked back towards where the city had been. The volcano was there, bigger than it had been a moment before, perhaps bigger than when she first arrived on the planet. The colours of the vegetation were more vivid and the whole thing shivered slightly in the water. Around it sailed large boats, topped with giant funnels open to the insect precipitation.

 And then the water was sucked away, and Benny and Huignar were pulled under before finding themselves on a bone-dry desert once again. In the clearing below them, the oasis had gone.

 Day and night flashed by again, but more slowly. And then it stopped.

 The sun beat down on the desert. And in the clearing, the creature melted into three separate figures.

 Benny took deep breaths, and rolled onto her back. Her clothes were in tatters from the climate change, and she was scratched and bruised. She looked back at the city again. It was huge, still set around the volcano, but now the ground beneath it was a plateau on a mountain. The flatlands of the colonial and cultivated areas had gone, replaced by the slopes of that mountain, and the mountain that supported the area where the meadow had been, where the Halls of Infinity still stood. Benny looked in the opposite direction, past the Halls. In the distance was another mountain, one without a volcano on it.

 Below, Miles was picking himself. He brushed some sand from his body. The two Totems were on the ground, getting their breath back.

 "Good." Benny noticed nothing unusual in Miles' voice, nothing that would indicate it wasn't him. "But not good enough," he said to the world at large. The Council of Cursed seemed to think it was meant for them.

 "No. We're alive," one of them said, hopping forward.

 "Don't worry, I'll kill you soon enough."

 The Council started bobbing up and down happily. Three more of them hopped into the clearing from the direction of the Halls, casting their monocular protuberances about themselves in confusion.

 Miles ran his hands over his chest and belly.

 "This body is no good. I am mere projection. We must find my original, the third Totem. Where is it?"

 The Council looked at each other. One of the three newcomers took a hop forward. He identified himself as Tharmon, and addressed the naked ape-descendant.

 "It was lost in the ruins of an ancient city, two thousand of your not-Din'l, ah, humanian years past. I saw it."

 "I'm not human," said Miles.

 "What has happened? Where have all the not-Din'l gone? Our planet has not looked this way for generations."

 "Exactly. We have travelled back in time."

 "That's impossible. We are in the not-past. We cannot be in the past. The past cannot be journeyed into like the not-past!"

 "Such limited vision. The future is merely the past that hasn't happened yet."

 Tharmon looked at him blankly. "What do you mean? We have no future."

 "The not-past will be the past. The past was once not-past. We have gone back in time, into your past. Only a single millennia. We must travel back millions more. We must find the third Totem. We will dig. Take me to this city."

 "And then will you kill us?"

 "Of course."

 "Yes, yes, yes," said the Evil Totem gleefully.

 Tharmon spoke to another Din'l - Huignar told Benny that her name was Lybrylla. Lybrylla jumped to Miles, folded her arms around him and leapt into the air. The other Din'l followed, carrying the two Totems with them. They headed for the distant, abandoned mountain.

 I'll paint you another picture. Of course, I now know it didn't happen this way. Or probably didn't. I wasn't thinking in enough dimensions before, up above the dig, while Mr Evil was making a nuisance of himself. With my exceptional experience, I'm rather ashamed it never occurred to me to think beyond the now. Or the relative now, if you see what I mean. Anyway, the picture.

 She's still sitting behind her desk, demurely swamped by its grandeur. She's pondering still, too.

 In the corner, watching her without looking at her, is a man in black and gold. We'll call him Vawed in lieu of anything else. He is thin, old yet youthful, his features precise and unforgiving. At his temples, small wisps of blond poke from edges of a skull cap. He is always smiling; the sort of smile that race memory has you associating with the last moments before something eats you.

 Though tailored closely to his body, his robes flow around him, so that underneath he could almost be a head and a pair of hands joined only by dowelling rods.

 The old Cardinal shuffles nervously into the room. The president doesn't notice him. Vawed does, but he just goes on smiling.

 The Cardinal coughs, and the president looks up.

 "Yes?"

 "Madam, it's, ah, about Din-el."

 "Din-el?" She looks at her desk for a moment, as if she hopes the mountain of papers before her will yield an answer explaining all. It doesn't, so she thinks some more.

 "You ordered it Time-looped, Madam President."

 "Yes," she nods. "Din-el. What about it?"

 "Two things, madam. Firstly, I rather seemed to remember the name from somewhere. So, I took it upon myself, in the spirit of your regime I very much think, to do some research."

 "Research?"

 "Yes. I started in the Matrix, but found nothing there. Nothing I was able to freely access, at least." The Cardinal flashes a glance at Vawed. Vawed stares back at him till the older man looks away.

 "Go on," prompts the president.

 "Well, I accessed certain records."

 "What records?"

 "Documents about the old time, madam."

 Vawed twitches slightly. Both the Cardinal and the president are stunned and just look at him for a few moments. He stares into the middle distance between them, then focuses on the papers on the president's desk. His gaze is intense, and the president and Cardinal find themselves following it, looking for something of extraordinary worth or import.

 "What did you find?" Vawed suddenly asks.

 "Well, it seems Din-el is rather more important than originally thought," the Cardinal replies hurriedly. "Although the planet's present history goes back mere millennia, the Din'l, the planet itself, and indeed the star it orbits, are quite impressively ancient. And were visited by, ah, erm, our people. Before the Fall, before the Curse." The Cardinal is rather awed and over-excited. "Before time travel. Before Reason."

 The President's jaw droops every so slightly, and she slumps back into her chair. Vawed's grin deepens.

 "We'd better get someone there as soon as possible," says the President.

 "As luck would have it, I have a representative on the planet already." Vawed raises an eyebrow at the president's expression. She glances as her papers, shuffles them around a bit and then finds the one about Din-el. She looks at the date data.

 "I've told you before, Professor Summerfield is not to be involved in our activities."

 "Who?" asks Vawed, innocently.

 "You know."

 "She's not involved. Well, she is, but it's not my doing." Vawed is telling the truth here, albeit rather economically. He leans forward, conspiratorially. "But I maintain that she would be a useful envoy."

 "No." Determination, concern, guilt, frustration, etc. "Not Benny. And not any of her friends."

 Vawed just smiles, and thinks about the future. The president returns her attention to the Cardinal.

 "And the second 'thing'?" she asks.

 The Cardinal's shoulders droop worryingly, his crescent collar wobbling.

 "It's the Time-loop, madam. It, erm... It isn't working."

 But, as I said, that almost certainly isn't how it happened. Maybe I just wanted it to be her, somebody I could deal with, someone I knew would be on our side deep down (I'm not sure I actually thought that). Or maybe I just wanted to put a face on it all.

 It's got me wondering about Brax, though. How if he was isolated from them just recently in his perspective, then the Brax my maiden uncle brought along to my wedding, the Brax from centuries hence, was out of time. If you see what I mean. I always thought that his people were meant to meet each other in some regular relative order. Maybe not. But if they are, then I have to wonder, Why was it OK in his case? What made the difference? I can only think of one thing. After the War, he's the only one of them left alive. His side (if they can still be called that) are going to lose.

 I said 'almost certainly' before. What I mean is, it could still be her. People come and go and come back to high office there. But if it is her, it's a far removed her from the her I know. Knew. This Time-loop wouldn't be beyond her, of course. But the other things I've heard about, the whole reaction to the breakout of the Gods, those sound very different. Time and circumstances have rendered my knowledge of their world redundant. And for all I know, their reaction to the present events could mean that, come tomorrow morning, I won't have written this. I may well have never written anything at all.

 [End of extract]

 Around him, ancient Din'l scraped at the sand on the floor. Only a few had been lost down the sides of the mountain on the hop up, and only one had fallen down the apparently bottomless chasm inside.

 They dug with weary, brittle limbs, clawed the ground in search of their end.

 "Hurry!" screamed Miles.

 "It isn't easy," wheezed Tharmon. "Too old for this. Can't you use these powers of yours, make it less difficult, eh?"

 "I am conserving energy. Preparing myself."

 Tharmon muttered something under his breath.

 "It had better be the right place, or I won't do you any damage." Miles ran his hands over his skin again. "I think I can help you, if it will speed things up. I will Wait. Where is the Totem of Malevolence?"

 Tharmon looked around the crevasse. "I give up. Where is it?"

 "I don't know. We must find it! You." He pointed at one of the Din'l, one of the youngest. "How are you known?"

 "Argsitha, oh great one."

 "Good. Take a few of your people with you. Find that Totem."

 "Yes."

 "Now."

 "What?"

 "Go on, now. Go. This moment, go!"

 "But, the digging?"

 "There are others to dig. Find the Totem. Now."

 "But, there is digging to do. We will find the Totem." He started digging again.

 Miles sighed. "Find the Totem *before* you dig. Clear?"

 "Yes." Argsitha took a few other Din'l and hopped off.

 "What do you want with the 'other' Totem?" asked Tharmon.

 "I will form the Trin'l in full."

 "Why?"

 "To win the war, of course."

 "What war?"

 "The war we will fight. The war we will win."

 "Not-Din'l war?"

 "Of course. Although, the Din'l are important to our plan." He faced Tharmon. "You will help us win."

 "You said you would kill us."

 "I will."

 "That is not some euphemism, you will not just take us further into the past?"

 "You will be killed. I'll have to kill you. Can't use you otherwise."

 She was sitting with Huignar on a rocky outcrop, having some trouble with setting down the argument into prose in her diary. Above and below were much larger outcrops. The Din'l were digging on the one.

 Once inside the mountain, Benny got a bit of a shock. It turned out to be hollow inside, like an inverted ice-cream cone. They had been watching for roughly half an hour, Benny taking the chance to update her diary while Huignar kept his eye out for something important below.

 "Benny," he said. "There is movement. The skinny human has sent people away."

 "Any obvious reason?" Benny asked wearily.

 "No."

 Benny joined Huignar near the edge, and looked down.

 "Wonder what he's up to now."

 "He's sent them after me," said a vicious little voice from behind her. The Evil Totem. He had lost his enfant terrible aspect, gone back to a foot-tall scale model of a humanoid.

 "So," he continued. "Which one of you gets it first?"

 "Gets what?" asked Huignar.

 "Frazzled," said the imp, drawing back his hands.

 "Just one thing," said Benny, raising her index finger.

 "What?" said the Totem, lowering his hands slightly.

 "Have we travelled back in time?"

 "Of course."

 "How?"

 "The Trin'l."

 "That's not exceptionally helpful."

 "I'm Evil. I'm not meant to help." He raised his hands again.

 "What is this Trin'l?" Benny raised an eyebrow and pouted slightly. "It sounds terribly impressive."

 "Well, it is. It's me. And the others, I s'pose."

 "You merged with the other Totem, and with Miles. And that's the Trin'l?"

 "Yes. I was the Trin'l."

 "Right. Good."

 "No, not good. Bad. Very, very bad."

 "Yes, bad."

 "Ultimate evil. Evil of overwhelming depravation. Evil that will destroy the universe."

 "How does it work?"

 "With the Time-loop."

 "What Time-loop?"

 "The one the Enemy put this planet in. Only, we wouldn't let it go, wouldn't let it stop us in our tracks like they wanted. We's too powerful. So, we're using the Time-loop. Just like we always planned. It's Evil, you see. Ultimate."

 "Don't stop digging! Of course it exists. We have seen it. Your old-- oldest one has seen it too."

 "Yes, well, I'm not too sure about him these days."

 "A long time ago, my masters brought us to life."

 "You're the third Totem?"

 "No. A part of it is a part of me. Or a part of this thing Miles is now a part of me. I'm not sure how it works, actually. The Totems were powerful items, gifts from the gods you might say. But other Gods, jealous Gods saw something useful in the Totems, in this planet. And they gave the Totems even more power. There is a War, you see. And our enemies are strong. But we will win. We know them so well, we will win. We can read them. We knew how they would react when things started happening here, minor things on an irrelevant little planet. No offence."

 "None taken."

 "That they would try and place the planet in temporal stasis, halt events here. Such weapons are meaningless to the Gods, toys for children. But they are still useful. With our Enemy's precious Time-loop around this planet, we had the basis to take ourselves back."

 "What for?"

 "From inside, Wars seem to have such clear lines. These things are difficult for my masters. Before I was in this body, I don't think I knew such concepts. I don't think I knew War, even. We will win the war. Good and Evil, enemies. Those caught in the middle. We will win the war here. Chaos and Order. These concepts are subjective, but important. Difference is important. We will win the War with the Trin'l. The Trin'l will end the difference. The Enemy will not fight us. They will not want to fight us. They will be us."

 "When the Enemy came here, they weren't time-travellers. They didn't have all their rules, all their distance. All their disinterest. And people call me Evil. That's real evil, innit? Not caring enough to kill or cure, help or hurt. Yeah?"

 "Go on."

 "They left me here, you know. They made me. And the other two. We were gifts to the Din'l. Things for them to use. Doesn't that make you sick? Not a care for our wishes, even then. They're worse now. Bastards."

 "Not because you threaten their entire not-past?"

 "And their past for that matter. But no. For aeons they have feared and destroyed those like my masters. They will not win this time. We will win the War. This is our plan. This is our War. They will join us. We will be one. Chaos eternal and total order. Dig, all of you! Dig for your deaths!"

 "Is that rhetorical?"

 Benny turned away.

 "You're touched. You've travelled in time before, right? You're special. Like the Totems and the Din'l touched by them."

 "Why?" asked Huignar. "Why have you brought immortals back with you?"

 "Dummy," the Totem spat. "The Din'l have certain beliefs, certain superstitions about the immortals, about your Cursed. Powerful beliefs. You and your ilk are perfect vessels for the Gods."

 "And by occupying the immortal Din'l, they will blend in with the ancient Din'l. Join them when they meet the aliens. Live with them and the aliens in the Din'l cities."

 "More than just an ugly face, ain't she?" he asked Huignar.

 "And then what?"

 "Who knows? I'll be long gone by then."

 "Really?"

 "Yeah. Once the Trin'l is formed properly, it cannot be broken. And we have to oversee the joining of one pantheon with another. Now, wasn't I going to flambe you two?"

 "Well, you'd better get a move on."

 "Benny!" said Huignar.

 "After all, it'll be the last time."

 "What?"

 "Once you're part of the Trin'l you won't be Evil anymore. Just normal, ordinary, average, in-between, right?"

 "Erm, yeah."

 "And all you'll be concerned with is establishing communion and peace between your Gods and their enemy. No more toasting innocent bystanders. Come along, fire away. Better to go as a devil in the flames than as an angel in the wings and all that."

 The Evil Totem raised his hands to fry Benny and Huignar, but it was clear that his heart wasn't really in it, his mind was elsewhere.

 "Unless you fancy helping us stop the Trin'l being formed, of course. No, never mind, silly idea. Well, Huignar, how do you fancy it? Well done, or bloody?"

 "Wait. Go back to that 'helping' bit." The Totem sounded ashamed.

 "Yes?"

 "So, you think you can stop the Trin'l being formed?"

 "Easily. We'll just keep you away from the others. If they don't find you, they can't merge with you."

 "What a very good idea," came a new voice. The three turned to see who it was. A tall, thin man in a black pin-stripe suit looked down at them. Only Benny recognised him.

 "You? What the hell are you doing here?"

 "Business."

 "Where's your brother?"

 "Otherwise occupied."

 "I see. I don't think I caught your name before."

 "Angel."

 "Huignar, Evil Totem, this is Angel Delbarre."

 "Very pleased to meet your, Huignar. Now, Totem, I want you to return to your solid state and stop being naughty."

 "Bollocks," said the Totem, and threw a few fireballs at Angel. They consumed him instantly.

 "No!" shouted Benny.

 "Ah. That'll be our Evil little friend. Lybrylla. Find Argsitha and the others, and get that thing." He turned to Tharmon. "Another thousand years should make your job a little easier."

 The Totem looked up at her witheringly, raising his eyebrow until it was a good inch above his head. Then he grew a potbelly, a fat bum and a pointed tail, little horns popped on his head and maracas in his hands. He proceeded to dance in a little circle, wiggling his bum and singing "I am Evil Totem, I am Evil Totem".

 Benny waited until his back was turned and then kicked him up the arse, sending him sprawling into a rock.

 "Bitch!"

 "We're supposed to be working together you evil little bugger."

 "I can't help it. I am what I am."

 "Excuse me," another new voice. "But if you two have stopped messing around, we do have things to attend to."

 Oddly enough, it was Angel. For a man who had just been burned to death, he looked remarkably healthy. About twenty years older, about three stone heavier and half a foot shorter, but still in relatively good health. He turned up the bottoms of his trousers, took off his tight coat and stretched shirt and replaced them with a voluminous woollen jumper patterned with miniature Christmas trees, and a tweed jacket.

 "Always come prepared," he said.

 "You're one of them," said Benny.

 "Of course."

 "I thought you'd all gone."

 "I couldn't resist cruising back to some of the old haunts."

 "Oh no!" screamed the Totem. "Buggered if I'm hanging around with your sort." And with that, he leapt over the side of the cliff. Benny dived after him, and found she was unable to stop. She gripped the cliff's edge as her legs slid into air below her.

 Miles grinned upwards. He opened his arms. The Good Totem began to bounce excitedly. It jumped towards him, as a very annoyed Evil Totem shot off a few more fireballs before falling into Miles' face. Benny saw the three combine again, forming the cod Trin'l, just before she lost her grip. She felt the touch of Angel's fingers as she went, heard Huignar scream in shock.

 And then she looked down. And found she was falling helplessly. She sailed past Miles, past the dig, into the vast, empty insides of the mountain. As she fell, she saw something below her. Something growing, returning to life as she fell through time. Something coming towards her.

 [From Bartholomew's Planetary Gazetteer, Vol. XXIX.]

 To be continued