And so with Semiramis leading the way, the two of them ascended to the floating castle that was Demon Palace Babylon.
Three days had passed since.
In terms of hospitality, they lacked for nothing. Semiramis disappeared at some point. Android maids and an android butler had escorted them to their rooms and waited upon them hand and foot.
The lord of the manor was occupied with a pressing matter and wouldn’t be free for three days. Once the opportunity presented itself, he would explicate the mysteries that concerned them. In the meantime, they were to wait here and enjoy themselves to the fullest.
So Sayaka and Mephisto set off to explore the great palace. After three days, they had a very good idea of its construction.
With the exception of the critical power and control rooms and the lord’s personal suite, the android butler promised that they could go wherever their feet might take them. The android proved good to its word.
The end result was that they understood that while this floating castle did not, from outward appearances, measure up to the immensity of the grand palaces of old, it really did integrate warped space into its construction on a scale that exceeded any in existence.
What the contemporary state of spatial physics and geometry had only begun to hesitatingly prototype, Babylon Palace had put to practical use in amazing ways, such as extending straight lines and expanding three dimensional space almost indefinitely.
In concrete terms, a cube of a specific volume could, disregarding the finite dimensions of its walls, contain an infinite amount of space.
The wondrous utopias that wizards in ancient China purportedly created in small flasks—filled with seas and mountains and tens of thousands of people leading splendiferous lives—these “universes in a bottle” had now been turned into fact through the miracle of science.
Even with all of the powers of the mysterious manor lord, there must be limits to how far he could warp space. The endless halls had an end, after all. The size of Babylon Palace itself spoke to the limits of technology.
On one occasion during her strolls about the palace, Sayaka experienced a physical manifestation of these spatial manipulations.
Attempting to turn down a certain hallway, a large hand the size of three men blocked the way. The fingers were as big as herself. At a glance, they appeared to be stone. Except that they bent as if human.
Sayaka jumped back in surprise. The concourse she was walking down was wide enough to accommodate three trucks driving abreast. The passageway from which the hand emerged could have barely handled two people. There was no way the owner of the hand could fit in such a space. Assuming correct proportions, the rest of him should be at least twenty-five feet tall.
The hand did nothing else, so Sayaka assumed it was simply a device to indicate the end of the line. So she turned around, and had gone down several more corridors when she suddenly found herself in a hallway with a fairly low ceiling, no more than ten feet high.
A foot abruptly descended in front of her. She understood at once that it was a partner to the hand. She looked up. A leg, from knee to thigh, protruded from the ceiling, showing roughly the same muscular definition as the human equivalent.
No gap appeared where it intersected with the ceiling. The dimension that housed the big foot and this section of the ceiling must bend into a fourth dimension that connected them.
She had no choice but to retreat again and go down a different hallway. When a part of the big body didn’t appear, she began to suspect she was being toyed with.
“Doctor Mephisto!” Sayaka called out.
The beautiful countenance, eyes closed, turned to her like a zephyr. She sensed a mystical aroma wafting through the air, but it must be only her imagination.
“It’s been three days. The masked lord is supposed to show up today.”
Mephisto said bluntly, “It depends on him.”
“But spending all this time doing nothing—”
“It has been quite the thrilling adventure.”
“Huh?”
“Wherever we go, we are being closely watched. Living eyes, electronic eyes—I haven’t had the time to settle down and rest.”
Sayaka had to wonder when this man ever settled down and slept. That was when she saw a reflection in the corner of his eyes. From the corridor leading to the living room, a man in a long robe elegantly made his entrance.
The mask.
“Speak of the devil,” Doctor Mephisto said.
Having appeared at long last, the mask bowed reverentially. “Welcome to my humble abode. I was the one who invited you, so please forgive my long absence.”
“Think nothing of it,” Mephisto answered with a smile. “You’ve kept the promise made when we arrived and this is reward enough.”
“Naturally.” The mask nodded. “The preparations took three days. I presumed the famous Doctor Mephisto would be satisfied with the arrangements. Please. This way.”
In the direction of his outstretched hand, a door opened that hadn’t been there a moment before. The mask led the way. No sooner had they all passed through the door but the floor dropped out from beneath them.
Sayaka managed to stifle a scream, first because the descent was measured, and also because as soon as it began, Doctor Mephisto steadied her shoulders. The touch of his hands through her blouse was cool and firm.
“Free fall transport. But rather than a gravitational field, the application of spatial dynamics. Impressive technology.”
The words communicated admiration but his tone of voice was cool and aloof.
After descending for a hundred and fifty feet, the three of them came to a stop. A stone-lined corridor reached out before their eyes. Though not as richly adorned as above, the limestone exhibited an exceptional craftsmanship, surrounding them with an understated elegance.
This area was distinctly different from the upper levels, which were clearly designed to impress the guests. Rather, it had about it the grave formality of a ceremonial altar.
As if propelled along by a slight breeze, they came to stand before a great bronze door. The mask reached out with his right arm. It opened silently, without so much as a creak.
The expansive interior met their eyes along with a draft of chill air. There seemed no end to the space. The huge columns vanished into the distance. Here and there among the columns could be glimpsed a ring of evenly spaced candlesticks, casting off a wavering blue light.
Surrounded by the eerie flickering flames was a depression in the floor, bowl-shaped like an earthenware mortar. Water filled it to the brim.
The mask said in a muffled voice, “Step closer. See for yourselves.”
“Doctor?” Sayaka looked up at Mephisto.
“Let’s take a look,” he said.
They walked forward. The water was crystal clear. Something floated there at the bottom of the pool. Sayaka exclaimed, “It’s that woman from before!”
“Yes,” came the mask’s voice from behind them, and sounding very far away. “That is Semiramis, my wife.”