Author's Note: Wow. Despite my intense love for the book series Incarnations of Immortality, I didn't think I'd ever have any inspiration to write anything for it as far as fanfiction was concerned. Well... I've been re-reading the series again... out of order starting first with 'Being a Green Mother', then going on to 'For Love of Evil' and 'And Eternity'... then promptly skipping to 'Bearing an Hourglass'. This popped into my head after reading that since, on the timeline scale, Norton technically is the last Incarnation to assume his office before the big showdown which means almost everything else that happened in the other books happened BEFORE he first assumed the office. Since there was no 'first meeting' between Norton and Jolie in 'And Eternity', I realized there had to be one earlier in his tenure (though I'm not quite sure WHEN it happened in Jolie's timeline... probably after Orlene had already been to see God and failed to get his blessing).

Disclaimer: The Incarnations of Immortality book series are owned by Piers Anthony and I'm merely exploring some ideas of things that may have happened 'off-page', so to speak, in that world.

Bearing an Hourglass: After Hours

Norton felt exhausted, relieved, and satisfied all at once. He had been in the Office of Chronos for less than a week and he had been through much. He had traveled from the beginning of time to the end thus discovering the true nature of reality, the universe, and time, forced the world to live backward for six hours to foil one of Satan's devious ploys, then seen through a complex illusion in time to go back eighteen years to foil yet another plot by the Prince of Evil. And as if all that Office-related work wasn't enough, he had also realized the true extent of his feelings for Orlene, and given her up as well as the pursuit of any relationship with a normal woman. It was a lot to take in and though he wasn't sure he needed it the same way he had as a mortal, he desperately wanted some sleep.

Unfortunately, it did not seem fated to be. No sooner had he laid out on the sofa, too tired to go to his bedroom, and closed his eyes when his butler coughed to clear his throat and get his attention.

Blearily, Norton opened one eye to look at the aged man. "Yes?" he asked.

"I apologize for disturbing your rest, sir, but you have another visitor and she says she must see you to give you important information before your term of office expires or it will be too late," the butler said.

Curious, Norton sat back up, adjusting his white cloak so that it no longer covered him like a blanket. "Oh? Who is she?"

"Lady Jolie, the Consort of Satan."

At the very mention of his name, Norton became wide awake and stood up in a fury. His recent encounters with the Lord of Evil had left his temper frazzled and his lack of sleep did not improve matters. "No! I will not partake in any creature of his!"

The butler was unfazed by this outburst. "If I may, sir, she is not precisely his creature, as you put it. Jolie is the ghost of an undamned soul and she is also Gaea's handmaiden at present."

Some of Norton's anger fizzed out as confusion took its place. An undamned soul? Gaea's handmaiden? What?

"Why is she here?" he asked cautiously.

"She says she is here to give you important information that will indubitably prove relevant to you as you proceed into the remaining term of our office."

"That's awfully specific," Norton grumbled.

"Since this is your first time meeting Jolie, I believe I can guess the nature of what she wishes to discuss with you, and if you would care for my frankness, sir, she does not mean you any ill will by her visit," the butler said.

Norton was surprised. Even with Satan's previous visits, his butler had never tried to convince him to meet with him. "I think I must believe that you know more about this than I do," Norton conceded somewhat grudgingly. "I'll meet with… Jolie…"

The butler bowed his head and wordlessly left the room to fetch Norton's guest. It allowed him the opportunity to smarten up a bit and try to collect his thoughts. His first meeting with Jolie, huh? That meant she was familiar with him from her past, his future, but what did that mean for him? He had balked Satan's ploys and proved that meddling with his office would be ineffective against him. Surely, Satan should know better than to send his consort now?

Wait, no, that's now how it worked for everyone else. He lived backward, so to them, he was soon coming up on the time when he would prove he could be taken advantage of, but they hadn't yet reached that point in their timelines. Was that why Jolie was coming to see him now? She was trying to determine how far along he was in his newness to the Office so that she could report back to her lord and Satan could begin his trap? But his butler believed she didn't wish him ill and she was, in fact, an undamned soul. Why and how would a pure soul associate with the Incarnation of Evil and as his consort, no less? And Gaea's handmaiden too? What was the connection there?

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the woman's arrival and when he looked upon her face, Norton's jaw dropped. Jolie was a very lovely woman and incredibly young, no more than seventeen or eighteen years. She wore a long, conservative white dress that did much to mask the full of extent of her delicate, feminine figure, but not to hide it completely, and she practically glowed with her purity. All half-formed notions of her being sent by Satan to spy on him were promptly thrown out the proverbial window and his curiosity over what an obviously good woman such as her was doing consorting with the Devil became all-consuming. Despite this, her purity and her youth were not what struck him so profoundly. Her face was structured a little differently, but with her honey-golden hair and her gray-green eyes, she could have easily passed for Orlene's younger sister, and his heart ached anew at the thought of Orlene. He would never truly get over her. Satan's bribe to him in the other reality had proven that.

"Greetings, Chronos," she said softly. Her voice reminded him of a harp. "I am Jolie, and I thank you for agreeing to meet with me, despite the circumstances and the trials that you will soon face or may have already faced at Satan's hands."

Norton looked at her sharply; the idea that she was a spy coming back to him. "What do you know?" he said shrewdly. He was not about to give anything away for her to run back and tell Satan.

Jolie did not seem phased by his defensive behavior though and merely shook her head. "Nothing at all, only that it is Satan's way to work over every new Incarnation when they assume the office in order to take advantage of their inexperience to try and further his own agenda. I am his consort, but I am not his creature to command. He does not tell me the nature of his business, and I do not seek to interfere with it, for he must do as he must."

Norton wasn't quite sure he understood the distinction, but he found himself believing her in spite of himself. Still, he had something far more reliable than a gut instinct. 'Is she telling the truth, Sning?' he thought to the little snake ring on his finger, so Jolie wouldn't hear him.

Squeeze.

He was both surprised and relieved by the 'one-squeeze-yes' answer. He had half-expected a 'three-squeeze-maybe/sorta/complicated' answer that he would then have to divine the true nature of. This made things much simpler.

"So, if you're not here to spy on me for Satan, then why did you want to meet with me?" he asked.

Jolie nodded. "It's a fair question. The simplest reason for my deciding to come here now is because even as soon as two months from your ascension to your office, you already knew of me, so I had to make a concerted effort to meet you early enough in your term that, when we meet again, it will not be for the first time and cause unnecessary complications."

"You are here to tell me about the future? My future?" he asked with a slight frown.

"Only a small piece," Jolie agreed. "And not one that should affect your ability to perform your office, but one that would be incredibly uncomfortable to discover by chance without the specific details."

"Knowing this won't affect my office? Or the balance of power between Good and Evil?" Norton asked warily, still not completely trusting her motives.

Squeeze. Squeeze. Squeeze. Pause. Squeeze. Squeeze.

Sning's sudden response was unexpected since he hadn't asked for the little ring's input, but he was glad to have it. However, the answer perplexed him: the first three squeezes were for the first question. Knowing this tidbit about the future both would and wouldn't affect his office? He didn't like the sound of that. Sning's answer to the second question, about whether it would affect the balance of power, reassured him slightly.

"It shouldn't," Jolie said thoughtfully, unaware of the silent communication taking place between man and ring. "though your office played an important role in helping to shape the events that took place. However, what I have to tell you isn't a secret to any of the Incarnations and the status quo between Good and Evil has been maintained these past twenty years."

SQUEEZE. Sning said fiercely, and Norton found himself momentarily impressed. Jolie had satisfactorily explained the reason for Sning's three-squeeze answer without him having to play twenty-questions.

"Okay, what is it you have to tell me?" he said, gesturing for her to take a seat, feeling more justifiably inclined to listen to her with Sning's vouchsafing of her answers.

"Well, twenty years ago, or twenty years in your future, the current Gaea assumed the Office of Nature, replacing her predecessor and in her dealings with Satan, she ended up wreaking terrible havoc on the world that forced all the Incarnations to intercede. The world was saved, but to do that, Gaea had to agree to marry Satan-"

"WHAT?!" Norton exploded to his feet.

"-And she did, even though it would mean aligning the power of Nature with the power of Evil," Jolie continued, unperturbed. "But Satan did something that nobody expected him capable of. At their wedding, in front of all the major Incarnations, he abdicated his Office to prove his love for Gaea was stronger than his love of Evil."

Norton sat back down on the couch, numb with shock, not comprehending what Jolie had just told him. The Lord of Evil… had given up his power… for the love of a woman…? He was forcibly reminded of Satan's bribe once more. Even if it had been an illusionary reward, Satan had essentially offered him the same choice: the office or the woman. Norton had chosen the office, but Satan had not. Did that make him better or worse than the Lord of Evil? Was such a question even valid?

"After Satan abdicated, he was apparently replaced for a month by the cruelest, most disgustingly-despicable evil man the world could find and the rest of the major Incarnations, sans God, decided to reinstate the previous Incarnation of Evil, preferring to deal with the old, familiar evil instead. So Satan was reinstated, replacing his successor, but in exchange for the assistance of the other Incarnations, his and Gaea's powers were not united and their marriage remains unconsummated. It's only by a technicality that they're married right now, rather than in actuality as Satan had intended."

Norton felt like his brain was going to explode. She hadn't directly said so, but every time she had referred to the 'other' Incarnations, he knew she had included him in that number. If what Jolie said was true, then some twenty years hence, Satan would willingly leave his office and he, Chronos, would equally-willingly allow him to take the office back, even knowing what grueling paces Satan would put his past self through!

"But where do you come into all this?!" Norton gasped, trying to latch onto something tangible without spiraling into a whirlpool of revelations.

Jolie gave him a faint smile. "You won't believe me, but I'll tell you anyway. Officially, Gaea is Satan's wife, though this is no more than a technicality. I am officially his consort, but in reality, I am his first wife from his mortal life, married to the man who would be Satan."

Norton gaped at her, mind-blown.

"I told you, you wouldn't believe me," Jolie said, smiling kindly at him. "If it makes you feel any better, Chronos, I was not actually present for any of what I've just described except for Satan's reinstatement and I was just as overwhelmed as you, perhaps more so even, when I learned all of this. You see, I was a ghost sleeping in a drop of blood on my living husband's wrist from the moment he began his corruption to evil and because I have a positive balance, I could not manifest in such close proximity to evil. Imagine my shock when I finally awoke to discover that not only was I in a time 700 years in the future, but my husband had become the very Incarnation of Evil he had fought the better part of his mortal life to defy, and that the only reason I was awake at all was because of the woman standing before me who had taken my drop of blood from his wrist and whom he had remarried in my absence. Everything that has happened during my 700-year sleep I've had to learn either from Gaea, who now keeps my blood with her and whom I serve as her handmaiden, Mars's consort, and various mortals who've allowed me permission to animate their bodies and learn from their memories."

Jolie had made her point. He could see how it would be worse from her perspective.

"I… thank you for telling me this…" he said awkwardly, not really sure that this information wouldn't somehow affect his office, but at the same time, equally unsure that he could have continued working in his office for the next twenty years without hearing something about this, especially if Jolie came to visit him in his future. "Is there… anything else you need of me?"

Jolie shook her head and stood up. "No, I merely needed to debrief you on the context behind our future interactions. Oh, and I don't know who, but not long in your future, one of the other Incarnations will debrief you on the exact nature of the contest between Satan and God. It's finally been discerned."

"Wait, you know what it is?!" Norton exclaimed in alarm. The last he'd heard from the other Incarnations, none of them knew what it was.

"Yes, Gaea and Satan have both told me, but all of the major Incarnations know. Even you'll know by the time I visit you again in two months, your time," Jolie said calmly.

"But just yesterday when I was with the other Incarnations, they all said they didn't know the nature of the contest between Good and Evil and what Luna's key vote meant!" Norton protested.

Jolie grimaced. "Ah, I see. They probably told you that since you're still so new and they didn't want to distract you unnecessarily from your big showdown with Satan. This key vote of Luna's… it's nothing like what any of us expected it to be. Even I'm still having a bit of trouble wrapping my head around it."

"But if you know it, can't you tell me?" he asked.

Jolie only shook her head. "I don't think I should. I really think it would be better for you to hear it from the other Incarnations, so they can better answer any questions you may have, but I can't imagine you'll be left in the dark for too much longer. They'll want to give you time to prepare."

"Time to prepare for what?!" Norton demanded, feeling annoyed.

Again, Jolie only shook her head. "I'm sorry, Chronos. It's not my place to say except that hopefully, it will result in a better world."

Resigned to the fact that she refused to say anymore on the subject, Norton sighed and stood up too. "Thank you for being so forthcoming and honest during your visit, Jolie. I'll keep what you've said in mind for the future, but don't expect me to suddenly get along with your husband, or even like him. I can't forgive him for what he's done."

To him, to Orlene, Gaw-Two, Luna, Thanatos, the other Incarnations, the mortal realm. No, he couldn't ever forgive him, no matter what Jolie said.

Jolie gave him a sad smile, and once more, her uncanny resemblance to Orlene made his heart hurt. "I understand. Satan has a job to do, and he does it well, but I don't like it and I don't expect anyone else to like him for it either."

She was marvelously practical about this, but he supposed she had to be. It was clear to Norton that despite everything Jolie must have gone through, she still loved Satan, even knowing what he had become. He wasn't sure whether that made her brave or foolish. Maybe both.

Jolie extended her hand to him and he took it, clasping it in his own. "You have always been courteous to me, despite my Infernal associations, and I only regret that this is the last time I'll see you," she said warmly.

"I look forward to our future acquaintance," Norton said, sincere regardless of his negative feelings towards her husband.

Jolie smiled up at him in gratitude, then released his hand and walked out of the mansion through the opposite doorway to leave through one of the back entrances and thus prevent herself from meeting herself as she left.