Message-ID: <53581asstr$1145247003@assm.asstr.org>
From: Shalon Wood <dstar@pele.cx>
Subject: {ASSM} Prudence, TX Population 1276 37 (Mff ff Mm rom)
Lines: 427
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 00:10:03 -0400
Path: assm.asstr.org!not-for-mail
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Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories
Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d

Standard disclaimers apply; this story may or may not contain, in any
given part, graphic depictions of lesbianism, homosexuality, group sex,
bdsm, underage (teen) sex, magic, occultism, violence, and biting 
sarcasm.  If you're underage, or if for any other reason it's illegal 
for you to read this, or you're disturbed by the content, please don't 
read it.

Archived at http://prudence.pele.cx, and we've got a web-forum at
http://playground.pele.cx/forums as well, for discussion of both
Prudence and our other stories. Send an email to velvet@pele.cx and
I'll add you to the mailing list to be notified when Prudence
updates. 

Comments *greatly* appreciated.

Enjoy,

Velvet
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When he found Kristen, she was sitting in the bathtub, water off, knees
pulled to her chest and arms wrapped around them. Her eyes were still red
from recent crying.

He reached out to brush the wet hair from her cheek as she looked up at
him. "Love? What's wrong?"

"I talked to her. The ghost. I talked to her."

He picked her up, cradling her to his chest. "Oh, love, I'm so sorry." He
carried her over to the bed and sat down, holding her as she shook and
cried.

Finally, she looked up at him. "She... she wanted a favor."

"What?" he asked.

She sniffed, wiping at her eyes. "She wants one of us... Kayla or I... to
take her baby."

"What do you mean?" His brow wrinkled in confusion. "Love, the baby's
dead."

She nodded. "I didn't understand, either, but she explained."

"Then what did she mean?"

"The baby's soul is trapped here," she said. "It can't go to heaven, or
anywhere. But it can get reborn, if the conception takes place here."

He shook his head. "No way. Y'all are too young."

 "She's afraid he'll come, and he'll be able to destroy her completely,"
Kristen said. "She's terrified. She just wants her baby to have a chance to
live." 

He stroked her hair, but shook his head again. "No. You're both _way_ too
young to be having a baby."

Her voice dropped to a broken whisper. "It was so _little_. How could he?"
She started to cry again.

He gathered her close and sighed. "I don't know, love. I just don't know."

"I... I want to do it." she looked up at him pleadingly. "Lots of girls get
pregnant at fourteen. Or even younger. It'll be okay."

"No," he said firmly. "Out of the question."

"Mark, I can't bear it! I can't stand to think of it, always trapped,
always crying in hunger and thirst and fear! It's too awful. I _have_ to do
something."

He looked down into her desperate eyes, and sighed. "Fine. We'll find
something _else_ we can do." He paused thoughtfully. "Shit, this is
perfect. I know just who to ask, and maybe we can help Kayla while we're at
it."

"What are you talking about?" she asked, puzzled.

His expression was full of pain. "Kayla dreamed about Karen Wilson's death.
Part of her knew it was a true dream, but she thought she was just being
paranoid, and didn't say anything. And she's blamed herself for the last
three and a half years. She hasn't been able to work magic in that entire
time. Maybe if she can do something to _help_ someone..." His voice trailed
off.

"Oh." She looked shocked for a moment, then frowned. "Mark... should you
have told me that?"

He looked down at her. "She probably wouldn't have wanted me to, no," he
admitted. "But you love her... and maybe, between us, we can get her to
believe she doesn't need to be punished. I can't stand to see her in pain,
love. It hurts."

She hugged him tightly. "I know... but she told you because she trusted
you. I don't feel right about you telling even me without her permission."

"Kristen... she loves you more than she loves me," he said. "You can do
more than I can... though a straightforward attack _will not_ work, it
seems."

"You know I'll try," she said.

He nodded. "I think, maybe, if we can show her a way to do some good..."

"She could have the baby, but I think it would be better if I did," she
said. "No one would be surprised if _I_ turned up pregnant."

He shook his head. "We'll find a different solution. And I know just who to
ask. I need you to call Aaron, and get his mother's number."

"Why should I call instead of you?"

He raised an eyebrow. "His father might ask questions about why a teacher
was calling. He won't ask why a girl is."

"Oh," she said, blushing. "Right."

The number was acquired, and Mark dialed Lenita. He explained about the
ghost's request, and that he thought it was a _horribly_ bad idea, and the
distress that doing nothing was causing Kristen.

"I see," she said. "And I agree. Fourteen is far too young for a girl to
have a child, even for the best of reasons."

"Yes. Far too young," he agreed. "There's got to be another solution, but
to be very blunt, I'm too inexperienced to know what."

"And there's some reason this must be done now?" Lenita asked. "Rather than
wait for one of the girls to grow up?"

He sighed. "Yes. There was a body found this weekend. I'm personally
convinced it was Ryan Barnes' body. Emma Barnes is afraid he'll manage to
get in here and destroy them. She says that _he_ bound them here, and only
_he_ can release them. I find that hard to believe, that there's no other
way, but I'm new to all of this."

"Only he can release 'them'? But if another accepts the child, it will be
released. Perhaps only he can release _her_, but the child merely needs a
vessel. And perhaps her own bondage is more in her mind than in reality...
or perhaps it is the child who holds her there, and she could find peace
herself if it were cared for." Lenita paused thoughtfully. "There... might
be a way."

"What?" he asked, the relief plain in his voice.

"It would still require someone willing to bear the child as their own...
just _not_ right away. There's a ceremony that calls the spirit of one's
future young, binding it to your body for when the time is right," she
said. "The catch being that you cannot _define_ that right time. You simply
have to accept it. It might be ten years from now, it might be ten weeks."

"Er," he said. "Honestly, I don't think either of them should have a child
in the next several years."

"And perhaps you are correct. However, the chance exists that you might not
be. Arguing with fate is rarely productive."

He sighed. "Indeed. You have a point there. How would we go about this?"

"I will email Aaron the appropriate ritual and a list of what she will
need," she said. "Then one of them must perform it in the house where the
spirit resides."

"Thank you," he said, then hesitated before asking, "For my own peace of
mind, could you confirm or deny something for me?"

"Perhaps," she said. "You may ask, in any event."

"Would the gods punish someone who was a novice, and only eleven years old,
by taking their magic for making a mistake?" he asked. "Even if the result
of their mistake was horrific?"

"That would depend upon which gods were involved, Mr. Hasseran. Most would
not be so harsh, but yes, some would," she said. "But, that assumes that
the magic was a gift of those gods. Most of the time, magic is inborn, not
granted."

"Hmm. I see. Assuming the magic was inborn, the gods couldn't take it?" he
asked, just to be sure.

"That is correct," she said. "They could possibly block it, but not
permanently."

He smiled, relieved. "That's what I suspected. Thank you."

"Have you sent the things I require?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. "They should arrive in the morning, in a locked aluminum
case. Once you've got it, you can call me during my conference period and
I'll give you the combination. Perhaps I'm being overly paranoid, but I'd
prefer to know you have it in your possession before anyone else knows the
combination."

She sounded mildly amused. "I see. I will call you tomorrow then.
Goodnight, Mr. Hasseran."

"Goodnight."  He hung up the phone and turned to Kristen, who was waiting
impatiently to see what she'd said. "Okay. There's a solution that does
_not_ necessarily involve either of you getting pregnant right now. The
catch is that at the right time, whichever of you performed the ritual
_will_ end up pregnant."

She nodded. "What's the right time?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "Apparently, it has to do with fate. Maybe
Kayla would understand better."

On cue, Kayla strode into the bedroom, a sheet of paper in hand. "Okay, got
it... huh?" she asked, looking at them with a perplexed frown.

Mark reached out, pulling her down beside them, and explained what had
happened to Kristen, and the solution they'd found.

"So, basically, one of us has to agree to get pregnant at 'the right time'
which is an unspecified date in the future?" she asked.

"Apparently," he agreed. "If we decide to do it."

"I see," she said, then paused for a long while. "And if we do this, the
baby will be in... holding ... or something until it's born as ours?"

"Something like that, I guess," he said.

"Um..." She licked her lips. "We've never even talked about it... but do we
_want_ to have kids?" Kayla asked.

Mark blinked. "Well, I guess that needs to be our first discussion," he
said, and as he did so, he realized that they'd skipped another step as
well.

"I already said I'd do it," Kristen said. "I like children. I've never been
around many... people don't ask _me_ to babysit... but I do _like_ them.
I'd like to have a baby."

Kayla bit her lip. "Um... in theory, I'm okay with the idea, I guess, if
you two are," she said. "But... I _have_ been around kids. I have baby
cousins and a little brother. They can be really evil."

Mark wrapped his mind around the bond he shared with Kristen, tugging at
it, and she slid into his lap. He wrapped his arms around her, nuzzling her
ear, and whispered, "By the way, are we marrying Kayla?"

"We can't," she whispered back. "It's not legal."

"But we can in a way that would mean something to _us_," he said. "If you
wanted to, I mean."

"I thought... we kinda _were_."

He smiled against her hair. "We never asked her, you know. Not formally."

"Oh! Then yes, of course," she said.

"Do you want to ask, or shall I?"

She blushed. "You."

Mark looked up at Kayla. "Um. Love, we've kind of assumed something, but we
never actually asked. Kayla James, will you marry us?"

"Oh. Um." She seemed quite flustered. "Define 'marry' please."

"Well. Um." He smiled nervously. "I mean, we can't legally get married, but
we want to be with you forever. I guess right now you can't actually move
in with us, but we'd like you to when it's feasible. And we could have a
ceremony, at least with some... close friends."

"I... like handfasting?" she asked. "I could see that working. Um... I'm
going to say yes, but not right now. I _want_ to, but... I want to wait
'til we can be more open about things. If what you're really asking is if I
will make a commitment to... to _us_, then yes, I most certainly will.
Ceremonies can wait."

Mark wrapped his arm around her, snuggling her close. "We love you."

Kayla sighed happily and cuddled up to them, wrapping her arm around
Kristen's waist. "Love you, too, impossible creatures. Now, back to the
subject of parenthood... Mark, what do _you_ think of the idea?"

"I... well, honestly, I'd never really thought about it," he said. "Let me
put it this way -- it's not a driving need for me to have a child, but it's
certainly not something I'd object to."

"So you like kids?" Kayla asked. "Ever changed a diaper?"

He shook his head. "No, I haven't. But neither have most prospective
fathers. And I do like kids."

"And you realize the baby will almost certainly be yours, right? You're
okay with that?" Kayla asked, looking up at him seriously.

He nodded. "Yeah, I am."

"The right time might be next month, and the birth control pills might
fail, and everyone will think you impregnated a teenager," Kayla warned.

"I know." He sighed. "That's what scares me. I'm... not sure what to do
about that. I wish we had some kind of indication as to when the right time
would be."

Kayla echoed his sigh. "It'll be the _right_ time. For us and the baby,"
she said. "So, I'm _betting_ it won't be right away. Unless for some reason
we _need_ to have a baby right away... maybe it would make us leave this
place before something awful happened, or maybe it would be the only chance
we ever had to have one, or something we just can't know."

"Hmmmm," he said. "In that case, since Kristen _wants_ to have a baby, is
there a downside?"

"Well... I guess not," Kayla admitted. "So what do we do?"

"His mother is emailing the ritual to Aaron," Mark said.

"Okay, that's good. So, which of us has the baby?" Kayla asked.

"Well, y'all need to decide that," he said.

She smiled and shook her head. "Actually, we _all_ need to decide that.
Because if Kristen has it, it will likely inherit some of her abilities...
and needs."

"Oh!" Kristen's eyes widened. "I hadn't thought of that."

"Mmm. Point," Mark said.

"So... see, that choice will affect us _all_," Kayla finished.

"Yeah. It will," he said. "Okay. What do _you two_ think about it?"

Kristen looked near tears. "I... don't know. I wanted to have a baby,
but... would it be right to do this to an innocent child?"

"But look at the things you can _do_, love," he said, stroking her back
comfortingly. "It's not all negative, not now that you know."

"Yes... but... I'm not human," she said. "I wouldn't be this way if I'd had
a choice."

"A lot of people _would_, though, Kris," Kayla said, but Kristen looked at
her skeptically.

"And think about it for a second, love," Mark said. "There is no _way_ I
could manage some of the things with anyone else that I've managed with
you. It would be physically impossible."

"I know," she said. "Now that I've found you, I _like_ it, but up until
then, I was miserable."

He stared down at her for a moment, then frowned sharply. "I just
remembered something that makes the question moot. It's too dangerous for
you to have a child, love."

"Huh? Why?"

"Medically," he said. "Your mother was on complete bed rest for five
months, and she had a c-section."

"Oh," she said, relaxing. "But I'm larger than my mother was, by quite a
bit. And I'm half-human. I might not even have those problems."

He wasn't convinced, though it was true. From the pictures he'd seen, and
Steven's description, Jarai had the build of the average Asian woman, with
slimmer hips, and was a good six inches shorter than her daughter. "Are you
enough larger, though?" he asked.

"Kayla's smaller than me, Mark," she pointed out.

"Well. You have a point," he said. "Still, it's something we need to
consider."

"I _do_ want to have a baby," Kristen said. "And I don't think 'the right
time' would be defined as 'at a time when it would kill me'. It might be
the _best_ way for me to have a baby, actually."

"That's... also a good point," he said. "Okay, Kayla do you _want_ to have
a baby? Yourself?"

"Uh. Y-- N-- Maybe. I don't know," she said. "I _will_, if that's the best
way, but for myself, not particularly. And if Kristen is going to have a
child, then I don't think that I should at all."

Mark raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"

"Two reasons. One, two women can produce more children than even a
three-person family can support, so it makes sense to limit them. And two,
_her_ children would be supernaturally beautiful, magical creatures. Any
that I bore would just be human... can you say, 'inferiority complex'?
They'd be miserable, and they'd _hate_ their siblings."

He hadn't even considered that. "I... see. You might have a point there. I
guess that means that it should be Kristen, then."

Kayla nodded. "Plus, it seems important to her, and frankly, it's just
_not_ to me. I want to have kids, or a kid, anyway, but it doesn't matter
to me whose hole it falls out of. Baby's a baby. So Kris can have the whole
earth mother thing going if she wants."

"I... it _is_ important to me," Kristen said. "I don't know why. I didn't
even realize it until we started talking about it. Maybe it's selfish, but
I really do want to have at least one baby."

Mark nodded, still worried. "Then I guess it's decided."

"Yep." Kayla smiled at him. "We knock up Kristen. Dirty old man.
Eventually, of course. No reason to go off birth control or anything
drastic."

"Right." He sighed. "Okay. That's decided. How about the warding stuff?"

"Got it right here. We need some strongly scented stuff to burn, like sage
or cinnamon or cloves or dragonsblood or something."

He nodded. "I think I've got cloves in the kitchen."

They headed downstairs to look for ingredients, and prepare for the ritual.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you like this, you might want to take a look at Strange Love, an
e-zine of sf/fantasy/paranormal erotica. The first issue is on sale
now for $2 at:

http://strangelove.pele.cx

Take a look!

-- 
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
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