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Chapter 1- 10
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Ash lay there, floating in the warmth of the aftermath of her first sexual experience. The sensation of lying there in the embrace of her father with his still rigid shaft filling her was… well she didn’t have words to describe it, but it felt incredible. As basked in the moment, she became aware again of the presence that she had sensed behind her at the beginning. It slowly approached from behind her and she opened her eyes and looked upwards. The woman that had appeared out of nowhere at the shrine was standing above her, smiling down at her. The woman knelt, and bent to kiss Ashley on the forehead and a voice spoke inside her head, “Well done, my Beloved.” Once again the woman locked gazes with Ashley and the scene around here faded into darkness. Once again Ashley found herself in the void, with bright sparks flitting around her. One of the sparks drew closer and then stopped before her, resolving itself into the strange woman. “What is going on here? Was that real… a dream… a fantasy? Was that man my dad? Who are you?” The woman smiled kindly at her. “So many questions. It is unfortunate that you came to me unprepared, untrained. I will do what I can to make things clear to you, but we must be swift for we do not have much time.” “Once, long ago as you would measure time, I was known as Meh-Mem-Sut. The ruin that you were exploring was my temple.” “You’re a god?” “A god? You could call me a god, of sorts. I am a creature of energy, whose memory stretches back uncounted ages, to the beginning of time. Who and what I am is, in part a function of what others wish to see… of what others believe… and my power comes from them and from their belief and from their… gifts.” “For many years I lived with the people who built my temple. They saw me as a source of strength and fertility… I made the desert around them bloom with the strength and gifts that they gave me. I was imprisoned and my people taken away… and my strength and power faded. I am a mere shadow of what I once was.” “Now, thanks to you, I am free once more… and because it is you who freed me, we have become bound together.” As the woman, the goddess, said those words, her appearance shifted, until it seemed as if Ashley was looking into a dark mirror. The face and the body before her were hers, but with raven hair and ebony eyes. “Bound?” “You are my priestess… my link to the physical world… and through you I can link to others. All will be explained in time… but I am still weak from my long isolation and I cannot hold you here much longer.” “What you just experienced was something from the past… the beginning of the initiation of a new High Priestess… one of your forerunners. The faces and the people you saw were shaped by the knowledge I hold and who you are… the man was not YOUR father, but the father of the girl whose experience you relived—and so you saw him as your father.” At those words, Ashley felt a strange sense of disappointment… the experience had seemed so very real and exciting… and satisfying. The fact that her father had been involved had only served, somehow, to increase the excitement and satisfaction. She did not see the brief, impish smile that crossed Meh-Mem-Sut’s face. “What it is important for you to know, now, is that until I regain my strength I can do little besides influence or cloud the minds of others and to make small changes in the physical world around me. I can keep you and others that I am linked to in good health, I can heal less than mortal injuries, I can make small changes in appearances… but that is it. I cannot force people to do things against their will, especially if their will is strong—nor can I move across great distances or deal with many people at once.” “How will you get stronger?” ‘My strength comes from belief and strong emotion... it is the emotions and sensations of my people that feed me—and the strongest emotions and sensations come from love and sex and hate. These are the most powerful, the most intense… but hate is a foul thing and is poison to me, so I avoid it.” With a distant look in her eyes, she continued. “Others took that path, the path of hatred, long ago… it leads to a place I do not wish to see.” “Now, I am linked to you… and through you to your mother and your father. They feel, to a degree what you feel… and you will feel, also, what they feel. Through the link you will become closer… and you, in turn will bring others to me... another gift,” and she smiled. I have become closer with you father, because he has shared himself with me and I with him.” With those words, Ashley felt a small spike of jealousy—that Meh-Mem-Sut had shared something with her father that she had not... that she had intruded, somehow, into the family. “Do not be jealous, my Beloved… for we are all family now and, in the end, we will share all things. You will learn, in time, and adapt... for great changes are coming, if all goes well. Things have occurred that may surprise or shock you… but they work to the good, in the end.” “I can spare no more strength to hold you here, my child, it is time for you to return.” The woman and the flitting sparks faded away and Ashley sank down into darkness and unconsciousness. |
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