CHTHON

Chthon

Piers Anthony

CHTHON (thon), form of English adjective chthonian, i.e., pertaining to netherworld: derived from Greek chthon, the earth.
1. A subterranean prison for incorrigibles, location classified.
2. A garnet mine.

SECTOR CYCLOPAEDIA, §398

THE MINIONETTES

“Man took his legends with him when he went to space,” said Aton’s father. “You heard of the terrible Taphids that consume entire spaceships; of the Xetian spidermen whose web-paintings penetrate all illusion; of the living hell of Chthon, where ultimate wealth and horror make eternal love. But this is the—the fable of the minionette.

“The minionette is a siren, an immortal sprite of untold beauty and strength, able to read a man’s inmost passion. It is certain misery to love her—if love is what you can call the fascination compelled by her comeliness. It—it is said that if a man can only hold back his emotion long enough to force a kiss from her, the minionette will love him—and that is the most terrible fate of all.”

“In Heaven you have heard no marriage is...”

JOHN CROWE RANSOM,
“The Equilibrists”

PROLOGUE

N!
Nova Factorial
Stellar explosion so vast and swift that light falls centuries behind.
This is our setting: the nova of life.
It springs from the microcosm to the planet
In eons;
From the planet to the universe
In centuries;
And its duration is the inverse function of its magnitude.

§
Section, symbolic
Date of the emergence of man: propulsion to the stars.
All that has gone before is ancient.
Number the new years: Section I, Section 100, and on;
Communicate through sophisticate Galactic—
Though colloquial convenience lingers.
Modify man’s genes for space
But hide the strange divergences. Make myths of those...

5
Family of Five
Fifth-ranked of the founding Families of Hvee
Who settled the garden world in §79,
seeking their transcendental paradise.
But Five is decimated by the chill of §305.
Two lines remain, the eldest:
Aurelius (§348-402), betrothed to a daughter of Ten;
Benjamin (§352-460), celibate;
And the hopes of this highborn Family devolve on the child of Aurelius:

Aton (§374-400)
Aton, agonist;
Aton, protagonist;
Contending for the knowledge of the nature of evil;
Condemned for that contention.
Aton—while your body dies in prison, your emotion lives beyond;
Yet both are one: your death reflects your life.
Every episode you suffer here parallels your other existence,
Now
And in the past
And in the time to come.

Aton, Aton—child of the sun—
Come, come to our nether world:
We have need of the damned.

I. ATON

§400

1

It was hot in that cabinet. Aton licked at the salt and grime on his lips as rivulets itched down his neck and soaked into the rough prison shirt. In the sweating surface of the book he carried he saw a dark-haired, clean-shaven man.

Normal features, average stature—was this the person of a criminal? Am I, he thought, am I...?