Message-ID: <54937asstr$1164953402@assm.asstr.org>
From: Shalon Wood <dstar@pele.cx>
Subject: {ASSM} New Age Dawning 9 (Ff rom fantasy viol blood)
Lines: 294
Date: Fri, 01 Dec 2006 01:10:02 -0500
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Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories
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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://pandora.pele.cx, and we've got a web-forum at
http://playground.pele.cx/forums as well, for discussion of both
Pandora and our other stories. 

Comments *greatly* appreciated.

Enjoy,

Velvet
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"He's insane." Rhishandri glared at the wizard with a disgusted look on her
face. "Obviously. Let's go."

Adara put a hand on the girl's arm placatingly, but she gave the man a
dubious look. "She's right. She was human yesterday."

"Don't blaspheme, woman!" the old wizard snapped. "How dare you deny a
miracle that's right in front of you!? Never did I think to feel the
presence of divinity again. _Never_! And now, to actually _see_ it, with my
own eyes... I can die content." His filmy old eyes were actually glazed
with tears when he looked back to Rhishandri. "Lady, beloved Lady, will the
others return now as well?"

Rhi glanced helplessly at Adara, then drew back from the wizard. "You're
crazy," she repeated. "How should I know anything about gods? A wizard--
one even crazier than _you_ are-- used me in some perverted spell. That's
all," she said, firmly.

Certainly it didn't seem too likely, Adara thought as she looked at the
confused, frightened girl. But still.... She looked at the wizard
expressionlessly. "Why do you think she's a goddess?"

He picked up the crystal with shaking fingers. "There were other signs--
the bond between the two of you, the line that she has buried into his
soul-- but the final proof was this."  He handed it to her, and she turned
it over in her hands. It was slick, and slippery feeling, almost as if it
had been oiled, and slightly warm to the touch. It felt curiously alive, in
fact.

"It's a simple tool," the wizard went on. "Given to me when I was an
apprentice studying at the University at Caldera, before my disgrace.
Through it, anyone with any magical talent can see the auras of magic
around people and things. We were taught the different colors and what they
mean-- red for demons, purple or black for undead, blue for a human mage,
and so on..." His voice trembled with emotion and he looked at the floor,
his hands tugging anxiously at his ragged beard.

"Go on," Adara said, when he seemed to need prompting.

"Th-there was one color taught to us all, though that one very few could
ever expect to see, and that was gold. Gold for the divine. Gold for a
god."

"And?" Adara asked.

"Look," he whispered. "Through the crystal, look at her."

Curiously, Adara held the crystal to her eye as the wizard had done, and
turned to Rhishandri. Through the crystal, a cloud of light surrounded the
girl, extending several feet from her small body and reaching out with
tendrils to touch everyone around her. The light held swirls of deep purple
and black, and even strands of red, but the primary color was a pure,
glowing, metallic gold, unmistakable for any other shade.

Stalling for time, trying to decide whether this 'confirmation' made any
difference-- after all, the wizard could have made the color associations
up as a means to back his story-- Adara looked at the others as well. The
wizard's smaller, dimmer aura was a faded, dirty blue. The so far unnamed
man's was a dim, flat yellow, except for the gold spike that stabbed
through it from Rhishandri. Conor's was a pure, bright (but still much
smaller than Rhi's) blue-green... interesting, that. Did that mean he was a
spell-caster of some sort, or that he wasn't exactly human? Finally, she
looked down at her own. Fitting with what the wizard had said, it was
mostly blue, with purple highlights and black shadows, and stronger than
any of the others except for Rhi's, and bits of it reached out to weave
with the outstretched gold tendrils. Very, very slowly, she lowered the
crystal, only to meet Rhishandri's frightened green eyes.

She hated to frighten the girl more, but the wizard was definitely right
about at least one thing: hiding hard truths never helped anyone, in her
experience. She sighed. "He's... right," she said, reluctantly. "At least,
yours is gold."

Rhishandri frowned darkly. "So? It's a trick. He could say that gold means
whatever he wants, or could have enchanted the stone itself." Her voice
grew louder, took on more on an edge of panic with each word. "He's just
trying to make you afraid of me!"

He _could_ have been making it up. Adara certainly had no love nor great
trust for wizards. But the colors he'd described fit her understanding of
her own nature, as near to perfect as she could tell, and he couldn't have
known what she was, not that easily. And the girl's fear was certainly
understandable; the majority of the old gods were (had been?) homicidal
maniacs. Still... she found herself leaning towards belief. More answers
were obviously needed. She looked at the cringing wizard. "She was human
yesterday. I saw the mage drag her into her chambers."

Despite his obvious fear, he shook his head. "Looked human, she might have.
Her nature might even have been concealed, even from her. Now, though, she
is more. Much more."

Rhishandri jumped to her feet, hissing angrily. "He's _lying_," she
snarled. "I knew better than to trust a wizard! I won't listen to his lies
any longer. I'll wait for you with the animals... if...." She hesitated,
looking at Adara uncertainly. "If you still trust me enough to travel with
you, I mean." Shaking, but with hands clenched into fists, she turned and
stalked towards the door.

"Wait," Adara said softly.

Rhi stopped, but didn't turn around. "Why?"

"We need to know. I find it hard to believe, but if it's true... well, you
don't seem like a monster to _me_." Adara tried to keep her voice soothing,
and it seemed to work, because the girl turned around cautiously.

"You can't possibly think he might be telling the truth," she said, looking
at Adara with big eyes. "He's up to something. He wants something." Her
pleading expression changed abruptly to bloodthirsty anger. "We should just
kill him."

Conor reluctantly cleared his throat. "Now, lass... ye can't just kill
everyone who ye disagree with," he said hesitantly.

She looked stubborn. "Not everyone," she said, shaking her head. "Just
wizards."

Adara looked at the wizard. "_Do_ you want something?" That had been
gnawing at her-- what possible reason would the man have to lie? What could
he get out of it, especially since he had to know he was endangering his
life with his story?

The old man was shaking so hard it looked painful, and was deathly pale.
"O-only for the gods t-to return, Lady," he whispered tremulously. "It's
been so long... if it takes my death, t'would be worth it."

She cocked her head. "Why do you assume you are going to die?"

"She wants it. When a goddess wants you dead, dead you will soon be." There
was nothing that she could detect other than resolution and belief in his
words.

"Well _that_ would be a nice bonus," Rhishandri sneered nastily. "If it
weren't utter nonsense!"

"She's already said she wants you dead," Adara pointed out. "If she is a
goddess, then how are you still alive?"

The wizard bowed his head. "I don't pretend to understand the ways of the
gods. My brother was the pious one, not me. I can only assume that she does
not truly wish me dead, yet," he said. "I hope to serve her in some other
way, if I can."

Rhishandri hissed again, her tiny fangs showing, and crossed her arms over
her chest.

A bit hesitantly, Conor said, "Lass... he may not be correct, but... he
believes what he's sayin'. I've a bit o' magic o' me own, ye see. Enough ta
tell that much."

She turned her angry glare from the wizard to him. He stiffened, but held
his position, neither running nor cringing. "And even if he's right, ye're
no different now than ye were this morning, eh?" He met her eyes
unflinchingly. "Still the same person, whatever ye be."

Some of the anger seemed to leave her, and she frowned thoughtfully, but
there was still a lot of rebellion in her tone when she muttered, "This is
ridiculous."

Adara shook her head. "Not if he's right. And not if _other_ wizards agree
with him. Maybe that's why the other one wanted you so much."  Turning to
the wizard, she asked, "Assuming that she is a goddess, and just became
one... could a truly powerful wizard _control_ her?"

The old man looked stunned. "New? A _new_ goddess? I... I don't know. How
can such a thing be? I... It would be possible, I suppose, but the kind of
power it would take... I know of no one who could do it alone, but a group
working together, perhaps, bind her they might, if she let them."

"_LET_ them?!" Rhishandri leapt forward and slammed her hands down on the
low table, leaning over it to glare at the cowering wizard. "Of course I
wouldn't _let_ them!"

He rushed to placate her, his eyes wide with terror. "G-goddess, please! I
meant no disrespect! Only that did you not realize your power, you might
not use it against them. Please!"

Rhishandri turned away with a growl, unseen claws ripping at the wood of
the table, and then started angrily pacing the small room, her fingers
clenching and unclenching.

Adara watched her for a few seconds, until she was sure the girl wasn't
going to actually lose control of herself, then turned back to the wizard.
"Would one _think_ that he could?" she asked.

"Oh yes, he very well might," he said. "Powerful mages control demons as a
matter of course, and easy it is to get overconfident. Particularly if he
knew she was... new." The word 'new' had a wondering, amazed tone to it,
and the look in his eyes could only be described as 'worshipful'.

Adara drummed her fingers on the table, considering. "It's crazy," she
said, at last. "But... it would explain things."

Rhi stopped pacing and turned to her with panicky eyes. "It's impossible."

"Goddess, you already hold one man's soul," the wizard said quietly. "What
else could you be?"

She stared at him, her face filling with horror. "His soul?" she whispered,
hoarsely, and shook her head in denial, then turned, lightning fast, to
face the silent would-be kidnapper.

The big man just stared at her placidly, and she snarled. Too fast for the
eye to follow, she reached out and struck him, hard, then stepped back,
leaving him a clear path to the door. Still, he didn't move, didn't even
raise a hand to touch the four parallel slashes left across his cheek by
the claws, or attempt to stop the blood that dripped from them.

"Run!" She stared up at him, her eyes wide and wild, with flecks of gold
creeping into the green. "Why won't you run?!"

He dropped to his knees, looking up at her. He made no move to protect
himself, and his tilted head left his throat bare and vulnerable. "I
cannot," he said, softly. "I am yours."

She gave a sharp scream of rage, then turned and slammed a fist through the
wall. She stood there, quivering, her back to all of them, silent but
practically radiating fear and fury.

The tense silence stretched longer and longer. The kneeling man continued
to bleed. The wizard continued to watch, pale and trembling. The only one
to move at all was Conor, who edged ever so slightly towards the door.

Finally, Adara rose and went to stand beside her. "Why is this a problem?"
she asked quietly.

Rhi turned just enough to look up at her. "If I accept this, then I'll
never be free. I'll always be alone. No one will ever see me as anything
but a... a source of power. Something to be used, controlled, or feared."
The words were soft, but full of heartrending emotion. Her eyes glistened,
and she dropped her gaze to the floor. "A thing. Not a person. Not a
woman."

Adara reached out and tilted her chin up gently. "Only if you let that
happen."

"I can't see any way to stop it."

"Don't treat people any differently," Adara said. "And at least _some_ will
treat you as a person." She sighed, and shrugged. "That's about the best
any of us can hope for in this world, anyway."

Rhi's shoulders slumped. "I guess you're right. It's better than being
treated as property, at least. I suppose. And you're probably right as
well, in saying that that is all there is to do. Well, that and getting
far, far away from all of the thrice-damned wizards."

Adara smiled down at her. "Or you could get _rid_ of the wizards, at least
the bad ones. You might want to think about that."

That helped. The girl's eyes lit up, just a bit, and she smiled as well.
"Oh! Oh _yes_! Killing wizards could be my favorite new hobby."

The wizard in the house made a frightened, inarticulate squeaking sound,
and paled as Rhi turned cold green eyes on him. "Goddess..." he said
pleadingly.

"What do _you_ want?" she snapped.

***

***Author's Note: I know this is a bad end point, but it's at least a
transition within this scene if not between scenes, and there's no better
stopping place for at least three or four thousand words, even after some
judicious editing. Sorry. On the upside, the next update should run fairly
long, and has some interesting information in it.***

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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:

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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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