The Time Invariance of Snow
By E. Lily Yu, first published in Tor.com
After looking into her lover's eyes and seeing an inexplicable malice, a girl in an ambiguous Scandinavian world sets off on a quest to confront the Devil about the quotidian evil he unleashed into the world.
Author
Published in
Year
Words
Availability
Collections
Plot Summary
Long ago, the Devil created a mirror that misrepresented humanity's virtues. The good would appear insignificant, the bad would appear good, and all of humanity would be left unable to gauge the true content of their souls. When a physicist began testing the symmetry of mirrors and found that mirrors were, in fact, asymmetrical representations of our world, she shattered the Devil's mirror, contaminating all earthly mirrors with that same spell of misleading wickedness.
A long time later, a girl, G., lies with her lover, K. As they talk, K. describes how he would hypothetically murder G. This offends G., but K. refuses to apologize. G. realizes that there's something evil at his core that he can't even see. She sets off on a quest, consulting various female figures in her life. She visits the elderly Lap women who reside in a nursing home and the industrious Robber Queen who spends her days stealing money from rich people in an investment bank.
Eventually, G. makes her way to the castle of the Snow Queen. There, she finds a crown that, when she puts it on and drives it into the Snow Queen's throne, transports her to the realm of the Devil. She demands an explanation for why he unleashed such evil on the world. After much evasion, he finally admits that he did it simply out of whim and boredom. She drives her sword into him.
Years later, an elderly K. comes back to G. He admits that he was wrong to speak to her that way. She forgives him, and they reflect on the long lives they lived and the wars they endured.
Tags
Read if you like...