Transit of Ishtar

by Natalie Gibson

  “You're always welcome here, now that it belongs to me.” Maeve had never agreed with the thought that men were inferior to women. This was not the cavemen era; everyone knew women didn't spawn life all on their own. There was nothing miraculous about conception. It was purely physical and both men and women were needed.

  The smile disappeared from Billy's face, “So, she's really never coming back?” Maeve didn't answer. She had already done so by admitting that the Abbess' office belonged to her now. She thought some of the sparkle went out of his liquid brown eyes. “You know, I always loved Nathalia.”

  It was ridiculous for him to think Nathalia would ever love a man, but a man in love is not always the most sensible. “I think you would have been perfect for her, if she had ever been in a place to accept your love. She needed a little lightheartedness in her life. I tried to match you two up on several occasions, but Nathalia always came up as a void where my magic was concerned. It was like there was not one human out there my ability could match her up with.”

  “What about me? Am I a void?” Billy seemed younger than usual, or maybe older, either way he was vulnerable. He was exposing a very sensitive part of his life and was scared.

  Maeve broke her own power usage ban and pulled a little strand of power from the recharged capacitors and worked her small magic. It was nothing like when she worked the actual matchmaking spells, but it told her general things about a person and their best mate. It only took her a fraction of a second to answer, “No, not a void. There are lots of women you could be very happy with. So many. I'd be hard pressed to find one that was much better than the others. There are a few right here that would make wonderful partners for you.”

  Billy shook his head no, “These girls'll always think of me as the gardener and the little boy they grew up with.”

  “Anytime you're ready, I can work my Vinculum magic for you. It's an open invitation.”

  Billy looked shocked for a second and then glancing at the bedroom door, behind which Aaron lay sleeping, he reached out and kissed Maeve. When she didn't resist, he placed his hand on the back of her neck and deepened the kiss. Maeve allowed this. It was a result of a miscommunication and did no one any harm. Maeve frequently kissed people other than her mate and Aaron was not the kind of man to fly off the handle just because he sees his spouse kissing. Kissing wasn't sex.

  Ending the kiss must be handled with great care. Maeve had to be sensitive to the fact that Billy was feeling vulnerable and had put himself out on a limb by kissing her. She couldn't laugh or make light of it, and she didn't want to. Billy was an excellent kisser and had she been in the market for another morning romp, she would have escalated this. She allowed the kiss to end naturally and then added a little peck to signify it's end in a positive manner.

  Billy glanced again at the bedroom door, “Are you sure Aaron will be ok with this? I could always go to Sara, but she's just a sophomore and not nearly as talented as you are at making the bridge between mates.”

  Maeve stood up and crossed back to her desk and picked up the little cell phone laying there. “Yes, Aaron is fine with this. I make my own decisions, especially about my magic. I wanna do this for you. You're too important to the Daughters to hand off to a subordinate.”

  Billy stood up too, still on the outside. He doubted his value to the sisterhood, but had heard the prophesy that he would be mate to one of the most unique sisters, one who's ability was unknown and unparalleled. “Do you want to go to my room?”

  “No, we can do this right here.” Maeve gestured to her office. She dialed and then spoke a few words into the cell.

  Billy could imagine Maeve's short but voluptuous body laid out across the huge desk or bent over the back of the love seat. It could work for him if she was into it. He made the conscious decision and stepped over the threshold into the office. He kicked off his boots revealing bare feet underneath and started to undo his fly. Maeve could see the male mind working and she interrupted his lewd thoughts with a knock on the bedroom door. “Aaron, I'm sorry to wake you, but could you come in here?”

  Billy started to object to another man being added to their plan but Maeve explained, “I've been working on a way to act as Vinculum without needing to have sex with my mark.”

  Billy spoke before he thought, “But I thought you couldn't pull from capacitors for your greater magic.”

  “I can't, but you aren't supposed to know anything about capacitors, remember?” Just then Maeve's guardian came through the door opposite the window. “Ah, just the help I need to work the matchmaking.”

  Billy looked at the guardian and for a moment felt like he had never really seen this man. The guardian had been a visitor here periodically for Billy's whole life and had recently took permanent residency where ever Maeve was. He was tan with hair lightened by exposure to the sun, but that is where the similarity to Billy ended. The guardian had muscles on top of muscles, in places where Billy, who did hard daily manual labor, didn't know muscles would grow. Billy was a tall man at 6'5”, but this man was a giant at 7'5” plus.

  He was wearing jeans and a black tee shirt that could only have been purchased at a big and tall mans store. Even from a specialty shop, they were straining to fit him. He was barefoot and Billy had heard that even on the longest walks in the worst of weather this man would not be persuaded to wear any type of foot covering.

  He kept his head down and his eyes turned from Billy as Maeve approached him. Maeve took his giant hands in her tiny ones. He kissed her inner wrist. Her pulse jumped and she could feel the surge of power transfer. The guardian moved to shield her from Billy's view, but not before he saw the look on her face. It was a look of pure ecstasy and she was flush with it. Without a word, the guardian released her and stepped back, but stayed inside the room. He never took his eyes from Maeve's midriff and the small bump growing there.

  Maeve didn't know where the Guardian's power came from, but it worked as well as any for her. She couldn't hold on to it forever. That's why before she always had to garner the substantial portion of white energy from her orgasms. Now was different. The guardian was hers and gave in to almost any request she made. He seemed glad to share his source with her and Maeve was certain it had something to do with her unborn. She didn't know why or how it worked, but information was not something he was glad to share.

  Aaron looked drowsy when he came into the office with a steaming cup of coffee. He was wearing pajamas, but the top was just thrown on, not buttoned. He sat down at Maeve's desk behind her computer. He nodded a greeting to the guardian, who came over to stand close to him.

  Aaron seemed unconcerned when Maeve told Billy, “Take off your shirt”, so Billy did it with only the slightest anxiety. She took off her shirt and explained as she crossed over to him, “Since we won't be having sex, I need the most skin on skin contact as possible.” He only took his eyes off of her cartoonishly large breast to glance at the two other men in the room. “Don't worry about them, just wrap your arms around me and put your hands on my skin.”

  Billy did and Maeve slid one hand over his chest and wrapped it around his neck. He was substantially taller than her so her cheek just barely met his nipple. She rested her head on his chest and put her other hand over his heart. She focused her mind and formed the borrowed light into two spheres. “Squeeze tighter and try to keep as much contact with as much of our skin as possible.”

  Billy lifted her slightly and set her down again with her bare feet resting on his much larger ones. She smiled up at him, “Good idea, the more skin the better.” Maeve spun her head around toward the desk, “What are you two whispering about over there?!”

  The guardian had been looking over Aaron's shoulder at the computer screen and he straightened up so fast that his head hit the ceiling. “I asked you in here to witness not distract. Give us two minutes, please.” Aaron lifted his hands in illustration of surrender. The guardian bowed his apology and crouching a little, backed into the corner, resting on the ch
aise lounge chair there.

  Billy bent his head and rested it on her shoulder, putting her head between him and the prying male eyes. He could not help himself and he began to kiss her neck. She turned to give him more access without exposing his actions to the others. “That's good”, she whispered in his upturned ear. He kissed up her neck to her earlobe and could tell this pleased her even more without her verbal encouragement. He focused on her ear, kissing it, warming it with his breath, using his tongue to stimulate it.

  The added energy of the eargasm was going to help her do the complicated combination of spells. She concentrated on the first ball of energy, forming it into the tight dense little call spell, and then the second one into the more broad recognition spell. She thought the ritual words with each one, engraving them in light. She pushed the two balls away and out of her magic center. One went out into the world to search for Billy's perfect match. It would call her to this place and the drive would be irresistible. The other one did not have as far to go and she felt it settle in Billy's chest with her hand over his heart. She felt his interest in her diminished, his semi hard erection all but disappearing, as he recognized that Maeve was not the match he wanted.

  She stepped back, away from him. They both dropped their arms at the same time and stood facing each other. “That's it?”, Billy asked.

  “That's it. It's done, but I've no way of knowing where your match is or how long it will take her to get to you. You'll have trouble if you start dating the wrong girl. You might even have trouble getting it up for anyone who's not the one. Sorry.”

  Billy shrugged as slipped his boots back on and tucked his pants into them, “It'll be worth it when she gets here. I don't get laid that often anyway.” He stepped back through the window, more careful this time that his dirty shoes didn't soil the window seat cushion. On the outside, he looked back and thanked Maeve as he worked his shirt back over his head. “I'll get right to work on that mini scent garden” he shouted over his shoulder as he ran off.

  As soon as he was out of earshot, Maeve spun to face the two men in her life, but before she could fire her inquiry concerning their behavior, her guardian asked a question. “Did you read this?” He gestured towards the computer.

  She wondered at the sound. His voice was an enigma; completely bizarre and yet somehow pleasant, like music made from street noise. It halted all thought. Whatever she had been going to ask him disappeared in the shadow of his tune. She knew she had spoken with him a million times, but every time it struck her as if this was the first she'd heard it.

  “The email? I was gonna delete it, but Billy distracted me. Don't worry about it. The Daughters attract more than our fair share of crazies. I don't think you're a demon out to drink my baby's blood.”

  “I love the One and would gladly give my life to keep Her from the smallest discomfort. Who sends the holy mother this electronic letter?”

  Were there two or three voices that came from his mouth? It was so oddly disturbing and lulling at the same time. She felt compelled to answer him truthfully. The guardian was a man that could be trusted, but not easily deceived. “I don't know him. Maybe Aaron could tell you who wrote the email. I didn't recognize the sender's address.”

  “I already told him that I've never heard the name Paion and the email originated from one of those anonymous sites where you can send emails secretly. I can't read the header and tell where it came from. I'm not saying somebody can't, I'm just saying I can't.”

  “A Paion has never contacted a Daughter of Ishtar, when it has not ended in violence and death. Your kind and their's are enemies. They have life and yet it is not enough for them. They are greedy men who would take the Mes from women and use them for evil. We thought we had buried their kind, but they have resurfaced. Now they try to turn you against us.”

  “So Paion's not a name?” Maeve had a dozen questions based on the guardian's little speech. It was actually the most words she ever heard him say at one time. She wondered if she would be able to remember the lecture or if that, like the quality of his voice, would disappear from her memory.

  The guardian closed the laptop with one hand, without turning it off. He didn't answer her. “They dare to call me Akhkharu!” Anger radiated off of him and as Maeve and Aaron looked on, it poured out of his palm into the computer. The laptop popped and sparks went out in all directions, like a jumping jack in the driveway on July 4th. When he pulled his hand away, the guardian's palm print was left in the hard plastic shell. “I apologize, Holy Mother, for my outburst.”

  Maeve looked into her guardian's beautiful faceted crystalline eyes and heard his song. Why was it so hard to remember her conversations with him? And what the hell had happened to her laptop?

  Chapter 3

  When Nathalia woke, it was dark and she was alone. Part of her was glad that Eiran wasn't there. She refused to acknowledge the other part, that was pointedly NOT glad he wasn't holding her. She gently tested her home power supply and feeling it there, breathed a sigh of relief.

  She hadn't realized how much power her ability took. She hadn't meant to drain the capacitors and felt sick that she might have endangered them. She didn't know if it was a change in her or if it was just speaking to Eiran that used so much more energy than usual. Either way she was determined to learn how to access Eiran's power source.

  Eiran had, being unable to speak in a way she could understand, shown her pictures of the technique in her mind. Nathalia sat cross legged on her marble bed and tried. She pictured the woman, their shared ancestor that lay dead beneath her. Nathalia did not remember her as a body, but as a living person. She used the image given to her by Eiran, of the woman dancing in the sunlight with him, her son, as a small boy. The woman was laughing, really alive. Nathalia felt the warmth of the sun on her own face even though there wasn't even any moonlight tonight. She called her lifeline to the surface and traced it back to that mother. She could feel the energy, foreign but familiar, gathering in her head, making her feel tingly and warm. She grasped a thread and used it, Eiran?

  There was no answer. She got up and noticed with irritation that she was naked again. It was a new moon so the skylight offered no help, but even in this pitch blackness Nathalia could see just fine. In fact, she thought that perhaps it was a little easier to see because there were less details to distract her in the dark. A little sensory deprivation was exactly what she needed after being bombarded for goddess knows how long.

  She made her way out the door and down the hall without needing to touch the walls to navigate. That was good; her fingers were much too sensitive. She needed to get out of here and less data accumulation would help that happen. She felt the air change and knew she was in the main room off of which the mothers tombs branched.

  From her exploration she knew there was no getting away, no stairway up, no exit out. Not by the usual means anyway. In the darkness she could see the room differently now. There were two segments of the wall that looked unusual. They were magical, but no kind Nathalia could recognize. Behind the one on her right she thought she could see glowing human shapes. It looked like walking light bulbs behind a thick black curtain.

  She chose the other one, the one on her left. She could tell even less about it than the first one, but that way called to her. It had a draw to it. It was subtle, like it was hiding from something. It wasn't hiding from Nathalia as much as enticing her. She approached the portal slowly, but could not by will alone, resist it entirely. She stopped just a foot in front and put her hand out to touch the veil between rooms.

  She barely felt it, but it felt and recognized her. She could sense the complexity of the spell. She had never seen anything like it. Her touch made circles ripple out and, when they reached the door frame, bounced back. She studied the waves. However it was made, this was both the doorway and the doorman. It was contrived and cast to let certain people through and keep other ones out.

  She pushed and found the veil accepted her. She stepped through. Her first
feeling was of immense peace. It washed over her in waves and she knew the effects could be felt for miles. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the calming sensation. Eiran was the only person she had ever met who shared her telepathic abilities. She too could make people feel what she felt. Anger had always been much easier for her than happiness, but that was because hers had been a life of fear, not joy.

  She opened her eyes. At first all she saw was Eiran. He was seated only a few feet from her, cross legged on the dirt floor. She couldn't be sure he knew she was there. He was in a deep meditative trance. Circulating all of that positive energy must have taken a great deal of concentration. He was sweating from the effort. She tried not to disturb him and decided to have a look around.

  The room was irregularly shaped and, like the mother's tomb, was deep underground. Every inch was covered with carvings. Nathalia had never been here, but she recognized it as the prison where Eiran was keeper. Set into the stone walls every few feet there were what looked like clear plastic pods. If this was the prison, these prisoners did not look like the monstrous Akhkharu of her dreams. A few of the pods held giant men, all beautiful, sleeping peacefully. Most of them were grotesque burned human remains in varying levels of decay, charred mummies protected from climate change by their clear poly-coffins. She began to imagine the violence and pain that must have caused this type of burn damage.

  As soon as she did, she felt Eiran up the output of joy. He must have sensed her repulsion and countered it's effects. His brother had said that her fear and agitation invigorated Eiran's prisoners and made it harder for him to control them and keep their influence at a minimum. Nathalia fought to control her emotions and resolved not to show fear again in this room.

  Inside some of the poly-pods there were just piles of ash. She examined one like this closely with her increased senses. She knew that this ash was a person. It was alive and growing. These were somehow even more repulsive than the others and she set her mind to studying the walls and their decorations.