Then the creature came to just such a case. Its path crossed another path, but the two were not joined smoothly. The second passed over the first, so that there was no intersection. But the creature slowed, orienting on the other path. Then it lifted two front legs, balancing neatly on the remaining three, and set their wheels on the new path. It now straddled both paths. A third leg lifted, joining the two on the other path. Then the last two legs lifted, coming to join the front three. The animal rolled away on the new path.
“I call it a wheeler,” Ini said.
“Agreement,” Aura said faintly, and Futility made a note. This was so far different from anything on Charm that it was difficult to assimilate.
“Interesting,” Augur said.
“I suspect I could spend a month just studying this one creature,” Aura said.
“And there's another I saw,” Ini said, pointing again. “I call it an animate sponge."
They moved across to it. It did indeed resemble a huge moving sponge, with no visible feet. Its substance showed no eyes, ears, antenna, or other perceptory organs; it was just a blob. “A sponge,” Aura agreed, and Futility made another note.
They moved on to another Chroma zone. There they spied a normal animal: a six legged bear-dog. It wasn't identical to either, but obviously derived from similar stock. It had to be the result of the same colonization that Charm received.
“Problem,” Ini said.
Aura nodded. “Six legged insects. Six legged vertebrates. We have a duplication of classes."
“So it does not follow the Charm pattern,” Ini said.
“Which could be sheer coincidence,” Augur said. “We classify by legs because there is only one major group for each number of legs. But elsewhere in the universe that may not matter at all. Counter Charm could have a number of duplications."
“Agreement,” Aura said weakly. “We may have to rethink basic classifications."
They continued, discovering many half-familiar and many quite different types of creature. Then they spied an ifrit from above. It was vague against the similar color of the Chroma, but could be made out as it obscured trees and ridges. It was orange, moving slowly toward a Blue Chroma zone.
“If it crosses—” Aura said.
“It will be in your Chroma,” Ini said.
“I want to meet it."
“Caution."
“Agreement. We must notify the Glamors."
“We should be able to contact them mentally. We aren't telepathic, but if we open our minds, they can attune."
The Blue Glamor appeared. “Needless. We are attuned. Proceed with your encounter."
“Appreciation,” Aura said.
The bubble floated down into the Blue Chroma zone. “But remain within,” Blue said. “We are averse to ugly surprises."
“Such as life eaters!” Aura agreed, laughing. “So are we. We have no idea of the real nature of the ifrits, but I doubt that they seek to befriend human children.” The story of the naming of the ifrits had of course circulated through the mission.
“Concurrence.” The Blue Glamor departed.
They waited in the bubble, hovering opposite the path across the nonChroma band between the Orange and Blue Chroma zones. Slowly the ifrit approached the path. “Boredom,” Futility said.
Aura laughed. “Ask Augur to service you."
Even the cold woman had to smile. “I will sleep instead.” She curled up in her place in the bubble.
“However,” Ini said.
There was the urgency of the ikon again. “Take him,” Aura said. The woman had nighted again with the Green Glamor, and surely been done as many times as she desired, but it seemed the ikon urge soon built up when any time passed without sex. Ini would definitely need a man of her own soon, as long as she had the ikon.
So while Futility slept and Aura watched the slow progress of the orange cloud, the red man and the invisible woman came together. There was no hurry; they were mainly passing time. Aura glanced every so often, intrigued by the way Augur seemed to be playing alone. He kissed an invisible face, stroked invisible breasts, and finally entered an invisible groin. Of course Augur and Ini had done it before, many times, but not in Aura's presence in daylight. Well, they had when the succubus Swale had governed her, making a demonstration, but that was a year ago. She found it a turn-on, and when she saw him jet into seeming air she suffered a surge of desire herself. But it would be unmannerly to show it, so she focused mainly on the ifrit.
Did ifrits reproduce? Did they have males and females? Did they mate? Did they have sex? How? Probably they were asexual beings, but at the moment Aura preferred to ponder the sexual alternative. How could two clouds have sex? Did one form a gaseous member, the other a nebulous cleft, and did they put the one in the other? More likely they simply exchanged puffs of vapor, in slow motion.
Unless they did it in the solid form, meeting in a nonChroma zone for the purpose. Could two balls mate? That did not seem feasible. Suppose they assumed solid form without leaving their Chroma? Then they would have magic to facilitate the process.
Augur and Ini were done for the moment; they dressed again and resumed watching the approaching ifrit. Aura considered sharing her thoughts with them, but decided to let that wait, lest it betray her jealousy of their recent pleasure. Had a male Glamor happened by, she would have been glad to clasp him. It would have been a nice contrast if the Green Glamor had come for Ini, found her occupied with Augur, and been clasped by Aura instead. She found herself pondering the fifty times he had done it with Symbol; what must that have been like? Fifty climaxes in an hour? It was hard to imagine, but Aura was making the effort.
The cloud reached the fringe of Orange Chroma and squeezed down into a ball. The ball rolled across the nonChroma zone, following the path. It was apparent that it rolled uphill toward the Blue Chroma zone.
“How?” Futility asked, amazed.
“Partly inertia,” Ini explained. “A ball will roll almost as far up a slope as it has rolled down. Partly internal balance: it evidently shifts its weight to the front to facilitate motion in that direction. Partly it must be magic, as it intercepts the fringe of the opposite Chroma zone. A fairly sophisticated adaptation."
“The demons of Charm are not intelligent of themselves,” Augur said. “Neither do they assume solid form. If this is demonic, it's a different type."
“Just as the animals are different,” Aura agreed. “Maybe a different colonization."
“Fascination,” Ini said. “Fundamentally distinct varieties of demons."
“Which means we can afford to assume very little,” Augur said. “The ifrits may be dangerous, harmless, or indifferent."
“How does it feed?” Aura asked rhetorically. “Does it hunt, kill, absorb?"
“Assuming it needs to feed,” Ini said. “If it is a creature of the air, it may simply gather floating dust."
Now the ifrit was in the Blue Chroma zone, expanding back into cloud form. It remained orange, but the outer edge was turning blue. It was changing Chroma.
“Amazement,” Ini breathed. “It truly is converting. Slow for animal motion, but rapid for Chroma assimilation. It takes years to accomplish such a change on Charm."
“And never occurs, if a person uses a Chroma gem stone to retain Chroma identity,” Augur said, glancing at Ini's filled clothing. “Curiosity: if you took no precautions in a Blue Chroma zone, how long would it be before you became fully visible?"
“The same time it would take you to become invisible, unprotected in an Air Chroma zone,” Ini said. “Perhaps a decade for the process to be complete, because the bones are slow. The intermediate stages would be visually messy."
“You would look like a skeleton!” he said, smiling.
“Negation. My skin, lungs, and digestive tract would become visible blue first, as they have the most contact with the other Chroma. That is to say, with the air and water and food of that Chroma. So you would see me seemingly full formed, but the internal
process would not be complete for some further time. You would be able to look into my ear and see my head seemingly empty.” She was surely smiling.
“Acknowledgment,” he agreed.
“You, in contrast, would indeed become skeletal,” Ini continued. “Your skin and lungs would become invisible first, but only the skin would show it. Underneath, your muscles and bones would remain red for some time."
“Interest,” Aura said, still watching the ifrit. “A skinless red man."
“Conclusion,” he said. “I will not reside long in the Air Chroma. I would prefer to remain red, or change slowly to blue."
The ifrit was now almost the size of cloud it had been before, and well on the way to being blue. Only a small portion remained solid; the rest funneled broadly upward.
“I want to go out to meet it,” Aura said.
“Negation,” Ini said. “We agreed to remain protected."
“Then let's summon the Blue Glamor back. I can't study this entity well from afar."
The Blue Glamor appeared, accompanied by the Red Glamor. “We are curious too,” Blue said. “We will guard you outside.” They disappeared.
“Joy!” Aura jumped through the wall of the bubble, which became porous to her passage. Augur followed. Ini stripped off her clothing, becoming invisible again, and joined them. Only Futility, more vulnerable, remained behind.
They strode toward the cloud as the last of it turned vapor. Aura lifted her arms and waved her hands. “Hey, Ifrit!” she called. “We want to talk with you.” She felt giddy with the audacity of this approach. But how else could they ascertain whether the thing was aware? She had to do something out of the ordinary, that would attract the attention of a sentient entity. If that was what this was.
For a moment nothing happened. Then the cloud changed. It had been floating at about small treetop height; now it slowly descended to the ground, angling toward them. It was responding!
“Hello!” Aura cried. “Introduction: I am Aura, a human being of the Blue Chroma. This is Augur, a human being of a Red Chroma.” Was she making any sense at all to this thing? Even if it could see and hear her, how would it know her language? More likely she was coming across as a tasty morsel to consume, if it ate morsels.
The cloud gathered on the ground before them. It extended a smoky tendril of vapor toward her.
Aura nerved herself and stood her ground. She didn't think vapor could hurt her; even if it was poisonous, she could use her blue magic to withstand it. Certainly it couldn't harm her mechanically. “I am Aura,” she repeated. “I am from Charm—the other planet."
The tendril touched her face. There was a tingle of magic. It spread out to encompass her head, slightly cool. She stood firm, with measured breathing. There was a musky odor that was somehow familiar. Then she placed it: the fog that had been in the Purple Chroma zone at night—it must have been an ifrit! But not an enemy, for it had been gone by the time they got caught by the life-sucking demon. It must have been passing through, on its way to wherever ifrits went. It hadn't recognized them as significant, any more than they had recognized it.
The mist spread downward around her body, permeating her clothing, coming up against her skin. It touched every part of her, like water in a bath, but much lighter. It was shaping her outline in complete detail.
Some of the vapor entered her mouth and nose. She controlled her aversive reaction and breathed it in. She wanted to know the nature of this entity; it was fair to let it knew her nature too. She was not suffocating; the air remained breathable.
The vapor thickened about her head. It covered her ears and eyes. She kept her eyes open, staring straight ahead. She was looking through thick blue fog—and did she see a vague core of orange? The ifrit had made the same change a human being would have made, from the outside inward; its core would be the last to conform.
The tingle of magic intensified. The thing was trying to get inside her head, literally. I am Aura—human being, she thought as clearly and forcefully as she could. From the other world.
For what seemed like a long time, the mist enclosed her head. The magic played around and through her, not hostile, not friendly just—curious.
She had little doubt now that the ifrit was sentient. It was aware of its surroundings, and of her as a special creature. There was no thought message, no meaning in the magic; it was just exploring. Possibly it took her for an interesting artifact, something to be catalogued and identified for future reference. Perhaps there were things on Counter Charm that attacked ifrits, so they needed to know about what they encountered. Needed to classify friends and enemies and neutrals. Which category was she being placed in?
Aura, she thought carefully. Friend.
At last the vapor around her thinned. It separated from her body and head; it withdrew from her lungs. The tendril retracted into the cloud. She had not been harmed.
Then the cloud lifted. The action was slow, as vapor in an open space normally was, but she was acclimatized, and saw it as a conscious, determined action. Soon (it seemed) the ifrit floated away.
She looked around. Augur still stood beside her. “Did it enter you too?” she asked him.
“Affirmation."
“Did you recognize the smell?"
“The fog last night!” he exclaimed. “An ifrit!"
“Surmise: it was just passing by, and had no connection to the evil demon."
“Likelihood,” he agreed.
The Blue and Red Glamors appeared. “Impressive,” Blue said. “You two have nerve."
“Augur has nerve,” Aura said. “I'm in my home Chroma; I can protect myself if I have to. He can't."
“When I saw you do it, I realized the ifrit was exploring, not attacking,” Augur said. “So I added to its information."
“Swale wants to know whether there was sexual contact,” Ini said. She remained invisible; Aura had forgotten her presence for the moment. “She did not dare go through its vapor, after the way she was trapped last night."
“No sex,” Aura said. “I felt the vapor touching my most private parts, but was aware of no sexual aspect."
“Similarity,” Augur said. “It was concerned with shape rather than function."
“Sapient?” Red asked.
“I was not aware of intelligence, just sentience,” Aura said. She was speaking surprisingly objectively, considering the confused exhilaration she felt. Contact with an alien thing! “It was—curious. I think it saw us as odd animals, so it checked to see whether we were friendly, hostile, or neutral. I tried to think ‘FRIEND’ but have no certainty that it either received or understood. Now it surely knows we are animals and not threatening it, so it has moved on."
“Classification?” Blue asked.
“Not animal or vegetable, I think,” Aura said. “But aware, so it must be alive. I'd say demon. Augur would know better than I about that."
“Definitely demon,” Augur agreed. “Not the hungry type we encountered in the Purple Chroma zone. An ifrit seems to have passed through when we were there, but moved on. I take this as confirmation that there are fundamentally different classes of demons here, probably separate colonizations. The ifrit was not attempting to suck out our life force. It was merely checking. My estimate is that it is harmless."
“Incautious assumption,” Red said. Aura noticed with a certain bemusement that there was now no trace of seduction toward Augur. They were seeing her in business mode. “We must discuss this with the Glamors."
“Agreement,” Blue said. Both vanished.
Aura went with Augur and Ini back to the bubble. They caught Futility up on what had happened, and she made rapid notes as they floated back to the main base.
The Glamors were ready for them. “Request,” Havoc said. “Open your minds so we can read the direct experience."
They did so. There was no sensation, but Aura knew the Glamors were getting the full story of the ifrit contact.
“Confirmation,” Gale said. “Sentience, not sapience.
Demons of animal level. Probably innocuous."
Now the Yellow Glamor spoke. “Demons are my constituency,” she said. “Therefore this is my domain. Today I was investigating the demon in the Purple Chroma zone, and impressing on it the need to ignore human beings as potential prey. I believe it understands.” She smiled. She was a pretty woman, as all human female Glamors were, but for a moment her even yellow teeth showed glintingly pointed. “Thus I was not on hand for the ifrit contact. I agree that it answers the description of a new species of demon, but this must be verified directly. I will be with you for the next contact."
“Desire,” Ini said.
“You and Futility too,” Yellow agreed. “To observe and make notes.” She glanced briefly at the children. “Others should remain clear, until we have better information."
That was it. The other Glamors yielded to the specialist. On Charm Red was the Chroma specializing in Demons, but Chroma was coincidental with Glamors. The Yellow Glamor lived and breathed demons, drawing her power from them and representing them; she understood them better than any other person of human form. Gale, Symbol, and the children had discovered the ifrits and named them, but they would not be part of this investigation.
They moved on into the activities of the evening, including supper and Futility's dance. Aura had to admit that the woman was good at it; she had an excellent body, and made the most of it. At the end she retired again with the Translucent Glamor, who seemed taken with her. Aura had the impression that the woman's indifference to sex was secondary to her satisfaction at being desired by a Glamor.
Aura was allowed to sleep with Augur again. “I'm still charged up from that experience,” she told him. “Maybe they are mere animals in effect, but so different from any I have encountered before that I am fascinated. I hope there can be other contacts."
“There surely will be. At least until the Yellow Glamor is satisfied."
She embraced him, more than ready for sex, but fell asleep before it got anywhere, as far as she knew. That annoyed her; she had been more tired than she realized, but she had promised herself sex with him, then thrown away the chance.