“I am Alice,” the woman said, as she came to the ground and plain sandals appeared around her otherwise bare feet. “Come, let me look at you.” The children stepped carefully forward. “Beth.” Alice named her, “And Chris.” She hugged them both. She turned and hugged David. “And my Davey-boy needs a hug, I can tell.” David felt grateful. He did need a hug, but an eyebrow went up. Only Dad occasionally called him Davey-boy. “And James.” Alice squatted down and hugged him as well, and then she held him at arm’s length and talked to them all, but she kept her eyes focused on James and David. “And I wanted your first visit to Avalon to be special,” she said with a sigh.

“Avalon?” David had heard the name, probably from his father.

“A generic name for this island, for the whole string of islands, and there are many other names, but I did hope to give you a wonderful treat as soon as your father found his way here, only now I can barely hold things together, and with your father so sick…” Alice paused, turned her head, and sneezed, twice.

“Bless you,” James said. Lady Alice nodded and took a hankie from her sleeve.

Father might be sick, but this woman did not look too well either, Beth thought.

“This is the second heavens.” Alice stood to explain what she could. “It is the dividing place between the Earth and the throne of God. The laws of physics do not exactly apply here. Things fold in and back on themselves in impossible ways, but I have made this place stable and a place of sanctuary for my little ones. But now that Ashtoreth is here, there is no telling what may happen. The Lords of the Dias have come under her control, and they rule the castles. The Ladies are with your mother.”

“Mom is here?” David interrupted when he heard something he understood. He had hope in his voice.

“Yes, but she is in the dungeon with the Ladies, and that is not a good thing.”

“And what about Dad?” James asked in his almost whisper voice. Alice squatted down again to face him. She placed her hand on his arm and spoke.

“Sweet James.  I do not know how much of this you may understand—any of you. I do not wish to confuse you, or tell you wrong, but some things you will have to learn in time and through experience.” She stood again, shut her eyes, and spoke as clearly as she could.

“Your father is a very old and wise person called the Kairos. He did not know this before he got sick, and why he did not know is very complicated. But suffice to say, your mom did not know, and you did not know. But in this life, he is the Kairos.” Alice paused and took a deep breath.

“The Kairos stretches back into the most ancient days, even to the beginning of history.” She smiled. “I am also the Kairos—at least the one that will live fifteen hundred years from now. You see, the Kairos has lived many times in the past, and will live again in the future, except I don’t know what Ashtoreth may do. She may yet find a way to kill me, by which I mean she may find a way to kill your father.”

“The demon Ashtoreth?” Chris wanted to be clear about the Ashtoreth they were talking about.

“For the most part,” Alice said. “As like to a demon as can be.”

“The Kairos. It is like a title passed down from person to person?” David asked.

“Not exactly, but near enough,” Alice said. “It may be easiest to think of it that way.”

“You’re from the future?” James caught that.

“I am,” Alice admitted, and smiled for James.

“But wait. My father. He is this Kairos person in the present day? Okay. I don’t know what that means, but I have no reason to disbelieve you.”  Beth had another thought. “So, how many different Kairos people have there been?”

“Sixty women and sixty men, so far. He is the sixty-first, a male life. And to be more honest, Chris, Ashtoreth is not exactly a demon. She was a goddess in the ancient days, but not a nice girl even then. Now, after hiding here on Avalon for nearly two thousand years, she has been transformed into something terrible; something horribly wicked and twisted.”

“But what about my dad?” David asked. He did not entirely understand what Lady Alice meant when she said he was this Kairos person, and so was she, but his mind stayed focused on what he saw as the present and most pressing problem. “We have to save him.”

Alice smiled again, though this time, it looked like a weak smile. “Your father is in a coma, but he is resting comfortably for the moment. I don’t think Ashtoreth has decided what to do with him. In the meanwhile, she has opened doors and let all sorts of unsavories into Avalon. Monsters and the like have invaded this sanctuary. With your dad unconscious, though, she has also opened the door for me to act. I have been straining against her to keep Avalon and the whole system of islands from collapsing into the natural chaos of the second heavens, but I don’t know how much longer I will be able to keep it up without help.”

“What can we do?” Beth wondered.

Alice shook her head. “I worry about my future life, and about your father, to be sure, but I am worried about Avalon as well. If this system, this sanctuary world should be destroyed, the little spirits of the earth would have no place to run but to Earth, and that would be an unimaginable disaster for the human race. The whole future of humankind, overrun by elves, dwarfs, imps and all would be irrevocably changed, forever. It is possible that I might never be born.” Alice sneezed again. “You have no idea how keeping this place open for my little ones has kept human history moving forward in human hands.” Poor Alice appeared to be genuinely sick, and suffering, but she tried hard not to show it.

“But what can we do about all that?” Chris asked. Beth nodded. David looked up as if surprised by the idea that they might be able to do anything in a land filled with giants and monsters. James remained his usual, unreadable self.

“Go to the light. I have prayed that you may find help there. See if there is anything you can do or not. But you are your father’s children. You are the children of the Kairos. You are hope. I do not know how to hope for myself, but I will hold the land and the sea and the sky together for as long as I can. Now I must go.” A look of relief lifted to the Lady’s face as she laid her sweet hand once more against David’s face and said, “Courage.” Then she vanished. She just utterly and completely disappeared and left four children to stand in the sudden darkness.