Druid, Please: Threefold Julie

Halloween 2026

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Author's Note

This is a coming-of-age story about three young adults. At the start of this story, Julie is nineteen and a college freshman. Winn and Mason are eighteen and are high-school seniors.

All characters depicted having sex are eighteen years old or older.

This story includes graphic depictions of sex, including depictions of incest, lesbian sex, and one non-detailed depiction of two males engaging in homosexual sex. Likewise, there is quite a bit of content involving pagan Druidic religion and magic. If you don't like this, then this isn't the story for you.

Likewise, my intent was to write a good story, not to write something with extreme realism. If you do not like stories about unusual people in unusual circumstances, then this is not the story for you.

This story is novel-length work with 90,000 words. It will be published in one part to meet the criteria of the 2026 Halloween contest.

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Copyright 2026

I am the copyright holder of this work.

You may not duplicate parts or all of this story, either in text, audio or images without my permission.

I generally permit derivative works that credit the original story and author, but you must ask first. You will not receive permission to distribute derivative works off of this site.

You may not use this story as screen-read audio on a YouTube video. If you do, I will file a copyright strike against you.

You may not use this story to train any AI or machine-learning construct.

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Chapter 1 - Spiral

When I went home for fall break during my first semester of college, my confidence had been totally zapped. The year before, I had been quite the big fish in the pond that was Midlands High School. I was a two-sport varsity athlete, I was on the Homecoming court, and I had my pick among the boys at school. My folks were successful enough to buy me the right clothes and provide a decent car for me to drive. My test scores were high enough that I was granted early entry into the prestigious public university in my state. Barely one day went by when I wasn't reminded what an object of desire I was.

My time at the university had been the opposite of that. I went into sorority rush at the start of the semester with high expectations. During rush, I quickly identified the two sororities where I would be a natural fit. I characterized the one as the "fashion forward smart girls" and the other as "wealthy girls with class".

To my shock, by the third day, I'd not been invited back to either one. I ended up receiving a bid from the house that had been, at best, my fifth choice. They were, by far, the prettiest and hottest girls on campus, but they had a major flaw. The kindest way to put it is that they had a reputation for being sexually adventurous. That wasn't me at all. I had a heartbreaking forty-five minutes to decide whether to accept that bid or to just give up on the idea of Greek life. Against my better judgment, I chose to accept the bid.

In the days that followed, it became obvious that a handful of girls who I wouldn't have given the time of day to in high school had pledged the sororities that I had coveted. I had a crisis for a couple of weeks where I obsessed over why they had been selected, but I had not.

The girls in my house were very nice, but time and time again, I proved to the sisters that I wasn't a very good fit. Some of the hazing events had been beyond humiliating. I'd been forced to drink until I puked, I was unwittingly dosed with Molly, I was forced to urinate in my pants in public then walk back to the house, and my big sister had forced me to raw-dog suck her boyfriend's cock and swallow his come. When I'd complained to the sorority president, a fearsomely authoritative senior named Kennedy, I was told to fall in line or quit.

"Your initiation is going to be a hell of a lot more challenging to you than sucking one cock," she said. "You are going to be asked to do things that are designed to shock you to your core and test your commitment to the sisterhood. You need to get with the program and show us you belong."

When she saw my reaction to that, she scoffed.

"You know, Julie. There were a number of sisters who didn't believe you'd cut it here," she said phlegmatically. "I personally intervened on your behalf because I saw greatness in you. So far, you have been a disappointment to our sisterhood. Don't disappoint us any more than you already have."

So my introduction to sex was sucking the cock of someone else's boyfriend. I was so bad at it that he'd laughed at me. When he saw me gagging as I fought to swallow his come, he laughed so hard he ended up gagging, too. The sorority president was so embarrassed by the story of my performance that she'd forced the entire pledge class to go through an oral sex seminar where we were all forced to spend the better part of a weekend sucking on an unusually large dildo. That made me persona non-grata amongst my fellow pledges.

Classes, which had never been difficult for me in high school, were kicking my butt. Two classes in particular, Calculus 1 and Organic Chemistry, had kicked my ass so bad that I was barely hanging onto a C average by my fingernails. For my major, I needed to somehow recover and make at least a B in both, and it seemed at that point like it would be nearly impossible.

On top of that, I stepped on a scale and discovered that I'd somehow gained ten pounds in eight weeks. It was already noticeable on my frame, and it ate away at another source of pride for me.

As word got around about where I was pledging, all of the guys who'd expressed interest in me suddenly backed off. I asked a couple of them about this. The answer I got was, "Your sorority has a reputation for being tough on their pledges. Frankly, I don't want to have to share you with your big sister's boyfriend. If you make it through initiation, we can talk then."

Fall break was a full week at my school. I didn't have a Friday class the week before, so I called Mom and begged her to come pick me up on Thursday afternoon.

It was a four-hour ride home, so I'd planned to unload to Mom and get some advice on how to proceed. Imagine my surprise when I lugged my suitcase out to Mom's car only to discover it was being driven by my younger brother, Mason. Mom was not in the car.

He was so ecstatic to see me that he jumped out of the car and gave me a crushing hug that lifted me off my feet. I was so disappointed that I dissolved into tears.

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Chapter 2 - The Road Home

Mason pulled me into the van with him and held me tight as I ugly cried. When I began to run out of energy and settled down, he attempted to speak with me. "Julie, what's wrong? Did I do or say something wrong?"

"No," I eventually told him through shuddering sobs. "I needed to talk to Mom so bad, I've been looking forward to her company and conversation. I have a lot on my shoulders right now and I really needed to unload and she isn't even here."

"I'm so very sorry," he said.

"I can't believe Mom didn't want to pick me up herself so that we could catch up," I confessed.

"Well, the fact is that she did. I...." Mason's voice trailed off. He took a breath and then said, "I kind of begged her to let me do it."

"Why?" I asked. I started to grow angry.

"I wanted to have some time alone with you to talk," he replied. "I'm having a very tough and a very shitty senior year."

I made eye contact with him for the first time. There were tears in his eyes. "It's bad enough that I've been seeing a counselor."

"Oh shit, Mason!" I said. "I didn't know. You never said anything!"

We'd only FaceTimed a few times. The last time was on his eighteenth birthday back in September. Despite that, we texted nearly every day.

"I couldn't bring myself to say anything," he confessed. "I wasn't in the right place to have a discussion about it until last week. That's when I asked Mom to let me do the pickup."

"Well, we're two peas in a pod then," I told him. "My first semester has been a nightmare."

"Why?" he asked in shock. "Being able to be at a University pretty much seems like a paradise to me."

"In a nutshell, nothing is going right," I admitted. "I somehow got hooked up with a sorority where I don't fit in. My dating life is utterly in the toilet. I'm struggling in classes that I need to kill for my major."

"Shit," he said. "Which classes?"

"Calculus and Organic Chemistry," I replied. "They are weeder-classes for several majors and they are a lot harder than I expected. I need at least a B to continue. I'm barely averaging a C in both of them."

"I can help you with the Calculus," he said. "You're smart enough that I can probably teach you a semester of Calculus in about a week."

"I used to think I could do something like that, but now my confidence is shot," I said. "I'm not sure I could learn how to make a rum and coke in a week right now."

That made him laugh. "That's clever," he said. "Damn, it's good to see you Jules."

"How about you?" I asked. "What's got you down?"

"Winn broke up with me," he said.

"What the fuck?!" I said. "You two were so in love!"

Winn Keyleth was Mason's emo girlfriend. They were the oddest couple anyone at my school had ever seen. He was on the cross country team, yet he was also a full-blown nerd. He was the president of the Magic the Gathering and comic book clubs. She was a full-blown goth girl who was also a jock.

He wasn't ugly, but neither was he attractive. He was small in stature. She was three inches taller than my brother. Hell, I was two inches taller than my brother. Winn was at my level in terms of hotness and had been relentlessly pursued by the cream of the Midlands high school boys until they got it through their thick heads that she preferred my brother.

Somehow, despite their glaring differences, she'd pursued Mason and more or less bullied him into being her boyfriend. They'd been together since they were freshmen.

She'd been a teammate of mine for three years on the field hockey team and was one of the funniest people I'd ever met. Even though she was a serious goth, she was quite the jock. She even played the game with her thick eyeliner and her leather collar on. When the coaches and officials told her she had to take the collar off, her family actually got a lawyer involved. He argued that the collar had a religious significance and that forcing her to remove it violated her first amendment rights.

On the field she leaned into her goth-girl image. When she scored, she stuck her stick between her legs like it was a broom and made a show of riding it around the pitch. It always unnerved our opponents and made us all fall out laughing.

"We were in love," Mason sounded heartbroken when he said that, "I thought we'd be together forever. Look, Jules, we can talk about that, but I want to hear about what is going on with you that's making your semester suck."

He was quiet for the first hour of our journey while I told him my tale of woe about how the sorority rush period went. I dwelled on why the sororities at the top of my list had nothing to do with me. He was going to end up at the same University as me, so he was familiar enough with the Greek scene there to make vocalizations when I mentioned that.

"You don't think I was a fit for those?" I asked.

"Not really," he said. "You were way, way too good looking for the Taus. You would overshadow every single one of them in appearance. The girls in that house are smart enough to know there'd be a feeding frenzy around you at every mixer, and all it would take is for a petty minority of sisters to be intimidated by your looks to vote against you before they ever got a chance to know you. Not to mention, you weren't really in their money class either. Mom and Dad do all right, but you don't have that kind of money."

What he said made some sense.

"And look at the two girls from our high school who pledged there: Sally and Kathy? That should tell you everything you need to know."

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"They're gay," Mason said authoritatively.

"What?" I asked.

He actually looked away from the road to make eye contact with me. He was amused.

"How could you not know?" he asked. "They got caught making out in one of the bedrooms at Kevin Sanderchuck's party last year."

When he saw my facial expression he started to laugh and looked back at the road. "Good God, Julie," he said. "It was the biggest news in school in the second half of the year last year. They were so ashamed that they didn't speak to each other publicly for the rest of the year. Half of the students roasted them for being gay. The other half roasted them for being ashamed of who they are."

"Are you sure about that?" I asked. "I didn't hear anything about it."

"Ask anybody, Jules," he said.

I picked up my phone and texted Sophie Marston, one of my better Midlands friends and one I maintained contact with via text.

"Are Sally K. and Kathy M. gay?" I asked.

A minute later, her reply came in. "LOL. Are you just hearing about that now?"

I thought back to the Tau rush parties I'd attended. There were a couple of girls in the sorority who were so friendly and solicitous of me I thought I was a shoe-in. I reconsidered in light of what I'd heard about Sally and Kathy, and I ended up gasping out, "Holy shit! I had no fucking idea about the Taus."

He laughed that wonderful belly laugh he had. "And the other one. The pi-delts. Those girls are clothes horses. They don't wear an outfit that cost less than five grand."

"They are fashion forward, just like me," I said.

"Well, you are fashion forward, but you do it in a modest and responsible way," he said. "You go thrifting, you buy men's clothes which you tailor yourself, and you shop cheaply online and look for quirky things you like. You piece it all together slowly and deliberately. You have a very personal, very unique, and very quirky thing going. I mean that in the best way, Jules.

"In my opinion, your sense of fashion is one of the things that has always set you apart. What you aren't is someone who spends an average of six thousand dollars on an outfit. You don't need to because you are confident in your own style. The pi-delts wear six thousand dollar outfits because they are conspicuously overcompensating for a lack of taste, creativity, and originality by overspending on clothes.

"Take what you're wearing now. That skirt with that blouse is fire on you. You paired it with a pair of Chuck Taylors. You look like absolute dynamite. But, how much do you think you spent in all on that outfit? A hundred dollars, and half of that money was for the Chucks, right?"

"About that," I admitted.

"See?" he asked. "You're a fucking genius at that. You were never going to fit in with the pi-delts, Jules."

"Yeah, but look where I landed, Mace. I sure as hell don't fit in with Eta-Omega-Tau either," I said.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "They are known as the 'hot 100', right? They're supposed to be the hottest one-hundred girls on campus. I hate to break it to you, Jules, but if you aren't one of the one-hundred hottest girls on that campus, I'd be shocked. Shocked."

Hearing him say all of that was weird. He'd never really commented on my style or appearance before. It made me feel good to hear him say that. At the same time, does it mean anything when your brother gives you a compliment? Aren't they obligated to have your back?

"You really think so?" I asked.

"Oh, I know so," he replied. There was honesty in his voice. It buoyed my spirits.

"Well, my appearance might qualify me for the ETAs, but I'm not a good fit from a personality and culture perspective."

"Why not?" asked Mason.

"I don't want to talk about it," I said.

"Is it drinking? Drugs? Are they pot heads?"

I thought about that. We'd been dosed with Molly, but that was described as a "learning experience". The stated point of that exercise was to expose the pledges to what it is like when a guy is trying to dose you so he could take advantage of you. I'd secretly loved the feeling of the drug, but I'd never admitted that to anyone, even myself.

The girls in the house dearly loved a cocktail and it was a fact that I had been forced to drink until I was sick, but this was at a hazing event that preceded our first mixer. The stated point of that exercise was to expose the pledges to what it is like when a guy is trying to get you drunk so he could have his way with you. We were all taken from pleasantly tipsy to out-of-control drunk so quickly it put the fear of God into all of us.

During a chapter meeting, I watched one of the upperclass girls get censored by Kennedy for being seen using a bong at a frat mixer. She was criticized both for getting high and for being seen in public getting high. Kennedy raked her over the coals in front of everyone because she wanted to send a clear message to the campus that drug use just wasn't our thing.

"If you're going to do shit like that, for God's sake take it behind a locked door," she'd screamed.

"No," I replied to Mason's question.

"Then what's there to worry about?" he asked.

"Let's just say I just don't fit in," she said.

"Why not?" Mason asked. "Come on, Sis. If there is one thing I learned in counseling, is that a problem shared is a problem halved."

I sighed. "They're all kind of sex-crazed," I said.

"Sex-crazed?" he asked.

"Well, let's just say that a lot of the hazing involves sex," I responded.

"With the other sisters? No way!" He was extremely delighted in a very pervy and unsavory way.

"Not with each other, Mace. With boyfriends."

"You have a boyfriend?" he asked.

"No," I replied, dreading where this was headed.

"Oh," he said. "Not your boyfriend. I got it."

We drove in silence for nearly a mile when he asked, "You weren't given a choice?"

"Not really," I replied. "I complained to the Chapter President and the only choice I was given was whether to quit."

"So it was have sex with someone's boyfriend or you were out?" he asked.

"Pretty much," I replied.

"Was this, like, full-on intercourse sex?" he asked.

"Oral," I replied.

"So you were forced to blow someone's boyfriend?" he asked.

"Pretty much," I replied. I felt ashamed just admitting it.

"For the record, I did put my foot down and refuse at first. When I complained, I was told that the initiation was going to be a lot worse. The phrase 'it's just one cock' was used as part of that conversation."

I couldn't believe I was admitting this to my brother. Sharing it, however, made me feel lighter.

"Wow," he said. "I'd heard that your house was full of hotties, but I'd never heard that they were like that. Was this what you wanted to talk to Mom about?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Well, you should be aware that if you have this conversation with Mom, she isn't going to react well," he said. "She will force you to quit, you know that, right?"

"She would?" I asked. My stomach soured. I hated it when I was forced to pleasure a man not of my choosing, but I could have walked away from the sorority the first time I was told to suck a cock. I'd had to do some hard navel gazing after that. I did not want to lose my place in the pledge class either.

"Why do you think Mom would be like that?" I asked.

Mason scoffed. "When the topic of me having sex with Winn came up at the dinner table, Mom completely flipped out. She insisted I was not to have sex until I was twenty-one. She threatened to ground me for the rest of the semester, and acted like she'd reconsider sending me to college. That was with Winn. You know that Mom loves Winn and we'd been dating for years, Jules."

"Is that why Winn broke up with you?" I asked.

"No," he replied. "It's complicated. We're not done talking about this sorority thing."

"How so?" I asked.

"I was curious as to what your objection to sex is," he said. "Was it a question of not being given a choice of who, or was it more a case of that there was an expectation of doing it at all."

I thought about it and I wasn't quite sure of the answer. "Both, I guess," I said.

"Do you not like sex?" he asked. "When you and Blake had sex last year school year, was it that bad?"

I didn't answer for nearly a minute. Mason waited me out. Eventually, I said, "I never had sex with Blake, Mace."

"You didn't?" he asked in surprise. "You guys were dating pretty hard."

"Well, we kissed and touched some, but that's as far as it got."

"You didn't get to the point where there were... uhhh... releases?"he asked.

I couldn't believe he would ask that. Just him asking made me blush. "No, Mace," I replied. "No releases."

"Shit!" he said. "I was pretty convinced. Wim was pretty sure, too."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't," I said almost defensively.

"So you went to college completely inexperienced?" Mason asked me.

"Other than kissing and touching," I answered.

"So your first time was with your Sorority sister's boyfriend?" he asked.

I got the sniffles and had to fight not to break into sobs again.

"I'm so sorry, Jules," he said. "That must have been horrible."

He reached over and grabbed my hand. It was a very minimal level of emotional support, but it felt so good to know that someone was in my corner. Mason sensed that.

"I know I'm not your BFF and brothers and sisters don't usually talk about this sort of thing, but I'm here for you," he said. "If you ever need a sounding board, I'd love to do that for you. God knows I could have used one this school year."

"What happened between you and Winn, Mason?" I asked.

"Let's finish talking about your stuff first," he insisted.

"Can I ask a question about what your Sorority is asking you to do?"

"Well, to be honest, other than some extremely humiliating hazing stuff, they haven't done much to us," I said. "Well, other than being instructed to suck my big sister's boyfriend off. I am worried because there are indications there is a lot more to come."

"What kind of indications?" he asked.

"Well, none of the guys who were sniffing around before rush want to date me now. I asked about that, and they said that the ETAs are known for making their pledges do sex stuff. One guy told me point blank, 'I don't want to share you with your big sister's boyfriend.' He told me to look him up when I finished my initiation. The President of the sorority, an extremely authoritarian girl named Kennedy, told me that a lot more sex stuff was on the way for the pledge class."

"If you don't mind me asking, how was that as an experience?" he asked.

"Humiliating," I said. "I didn't realize it, but giving a blowjob is a serious skill. I had no idea what I was doing and I did it so badly that the experience was miserable for me. To make things worse, the asshole I was blowing made fun of how I was awful at it. When I came, I... uhh... had a hard time swallowing. I gagged and he and my big sister both laughed their asses off at me."

"Oh, Jules, that's just awful!" Mason sympathized. He was quiet for the next mile or so. It was clear he was processing.

"You aren't religious, right?" he asked. "You didn't find faith when you left home or anything like that?"

We'd been raised by two parents who were pretty much irreligious. They weren't antagonistic to it, it just wasn't something they did. It was not a part of our upbringing.

"No," I replied. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm trying to figure out where your attitude towards sex is coming from," he said.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"Well, a lot of people our age, most of them in fact, really like sex and make it their goal to do as much of it as possible," he said. "The ones who are religious have reasons not to: their faith frowns on it, or they have an attitude about birth control that makes it riskier, or stuff like that. Those people tend to approach sexual relationships with reluctance because it was something they were trained not to do."

"Ah!" I replied. "And because I'm not religious, you wonder why I am reluctant?"

"Yeah," he replied. "Look, Mom and Dad raised us to believe that a healthy sex life is essential for good living. You didn't grow up with those kind of taboos...." His voice trailed off again, leaving it up to me how I would respond. I thought it was deftly done. He was guiding me into a very intimate conversation in a way that was neither domineering nor pervy. I knew my brother was smart, but this was the first time that I really noticed that he possessed the devastating quality of subtlety.

"So you wonder why I'm not all about sex?" I asked.

"Pretty much," he replied. "Full disclosure, Jules: I have bias in this topic because sex is my number one priority. It's probably sixty percent or more of what I've thought about since puberty. I have obsessed over it so long it is literally part of my identity."

There was something to his tone and delivery that made me laugh. The truth was that I liked sex, too. At least, I liked the idea of it. I had a blackbelt in getting myself off, of course. I was a big fan of erotica and I had an extraordinarily active imagination, so I'd spent hours and hours imagining what various acts would be like.

I had a ritual of self pleasure that involved extended foreplay and I could render myself into a stupor with nothing more than an hour of privacy. It wasn't simple masturbation as much as it was self-love. I'd routinely simulate some of my favorite acts using a vibrator set that I'd bought online a few months before I started at the University. It contained a vibrator, a vibrating dildo, a vibrating anal stimulator, and a butt plug. I'd used it so much, I am shocked I hadn't worn it out.

I had to decide how to answer Mason's question. It was incredibly deeply personal, but I could see what he was trying to do: he was trying to contextualize my issue, deconstruct it, and then show me that it wasn't as bad as I supposed. I knew it would be therapeutic.

I decided to be honest.

"Shit, Mason, I'm all about sex, too," I said. "If your percentage is correct, then I'm spending far more time thinking about it than you are. I probably average about two hours of masturbation a day."

"You do?" he asked. "Where do you get that kind of privacy?"

The way he asked made me laugh.

"My roommate's boyfriend has a single room," I said. "She's gone four nights a week and never comes back to the room during the day. I've gotten quite comfortable with the arrangement. I pray to God no one hacks my internet traffic history to my laptop."

"Oh, wow," Mason replied. "Thanks for telling me that. That actually makes me feel a hell of a lot less like a freak. I thought I was the only one."

We both laughed nervously.

"So, you like sex, you just don't do sex?" he asked.

"Well, it's not like I have someone to do it with," I answered. As it came out, it felt defensive.

"But you did have Blake, right?" Mason looked away from the road for just a second to make eye contact before looking back to the road.

"Blake was my boyfriend, but I was never comfortable with the idea of making him my lover," I confessed. "He loved to blab and he loved the fact that dating me gave him status. I'm certain that if we'd ever gotten to the point of... releases that the whole school would have known about it."

"Ah!" said Mason. "So you're looking for an old-fashioned gentleman who doesn't kiss and tell?"

"Pretty much. Ideally, I'd want someone worthy of being my lover. That would be someone who checked off all of the boxes: kind, compassionate, good looking, gentle yet adventurous, and someone who was rock solid at discretion."

"So you weren't holding out for true love or anything like that?" he asked.

"It would be better if I had someone that I loved, but I never held back because I was waiting on love. The reality is that if I could have found a guy who checked all of those boxes at Midlands, I wouldn't be a virgin right now."

The whole idea of that made me laugh. If I had slept with some of the guys from midlands and had some experience under my belt, I'd probably actually be a dream fit for the ETAs.

"There are quite a few guys at Midlands who checked those boxes," Mason noted.

"Maybe so, but no one like that ever asked me out," I said.

"You don't have any idea how intimidating you are, do you?" he asked.

"You think that?" I asked.

"I know that," he responded.

"So tell me, how many date requests or guys did I shoot down from ninth grade to graduation?" I asked. I thought his answer to this would be interesting.

"Dozens?" he asked.

I was instantly incensed. "Five," I shot back. It was hard to keep the anger out of my voice. "And two of those guys I would have gone out with, but I was dating Blake at the time. They both knew I was dating Blake when they asked me."

"Really?" he asked.

"Really," I replied. "The truth was I simply didn't get many offers. I was nice to everyone, Mace, especially when I refused a date request."

"So you are not philosophically against the act of sex, you just lacked the right partner?" he asked.

I thought about it and realized the reality was depressing. "I guess. I know that I'm supposed to say that I am holding out for "the one". If not "the one", then at least someone it would be someone that I loved with my whole heart and who loved me in return. The truth as that I didn't get any offers for anyone who qualified at all. There have been times when I would have accepted any qualified candidate."

"If someone could find you a guy like that, would that solve your problem?" Mason asked.

"My problem?" I asked in confusion.

"Yeah. You said that you like sex and want to explore, but you haven't found the right guy to do that. You aren't fitting in with your Sorority because you are completely inexperienced. They want you to engage in advanced exploration, but you haven't done any basic exploration yet. You rebel against what they want you to do because you don't feel comfortable with the advanced exploration because you don't have the basics under your belt. The guys that your sisters are going to set you up with aren't exactly friendly and loving partners. The fact that you are rebelling makes you feel like you don't fit in."

"Well, I guess your summary is correct, Mace, but I'm not sure the situation would be improved simply by finding a partner."

"Trust me, Jules. If you got your exploration out of the way, got your stuff raked up into a pile, built some chops at the sex game, perfected your oral technique and what not, I think you would be in a much better place at your sorority. That's a solvable problem."

He took another glance at me. "I can tell that you're not convinced. Consider this: what if you were a seasoned fellatrix and you were talented enough that you knew you could utterly rock a man's world? What if you knew for sure that you could suck that asshole's brains out through his cock? Would you have done it?"

I thought about it a long time. I was only eight weeks into pledging and I already loved my big sister, Anne. She had been extraordinarily kind, helped me feel useful by having me help the sisters with fashion advice, and when I'd been drunk, hungover, or strung out on Molly, had cared for me like she was my own mother. She was also extraordinarily giving. She was on her way to being the best friend I ever had and had been the main reason that I didn't just quit the sorority.

If I was any good at blowjobs, I would have done anything I could to suck her boyfriend's brains out through his cock. I wouldn't have done it for him or to impress him. I would have done it as an act of love for her. I was suddenly ashamed that I hadn't represented myself better.

"You're right, Mace, I found myself replying. "If I could have done a better job on that stuff, I would have. I would have done it out of gratitude to my big sister."

"You're home for the next week, right?" he asked.

"Yes, until November second," I replied.

"Then, if we can find a guy who can be this lover, would you accept him?" he asked hopefully.

"I just don't know," I answered. "It is so hard to give a blanket yes or no answer. So much depends on the guy."

"I get it," Mason replied with a smile. "I'm just trying to get you to see that hope is not lost. You just need to break the problem down into bite-sized chunks and start working on them one at a time."

"I'm so overwhelmed by my life, even doing that little bit is a challenge." I confessed. "How did you get to be so smart about this stuff?"

"After Winn dumped me, my life turned to shit. I had to get smart about it."

"Care to tell me about it?" I asked.

"I don't think I have a choice," he replied.

***

Chapter 3 - Mason and Winn

"Winn is exactly one week younger than me. Well, in the run up to our eighteenth birthdays, she got all excited about it. She's a member of this crazy religion. At first, I thought they were Wiccans and I actually made the mistake once of using the 'Wiccan' term in front of her mother. I got quite an earful. Her church calls the Wiccans 'charlatans'."

"Wait, is their religion witchcraft?" I asked.

"That was the distinct impression that I got," Mason replied.

"Seriously? Does she actually believe that stuff?" I asked.

"Not a bit of it," he replied. "She claims that she is completely agnostic. She claims it is a cult. Like the kids in a lot of religious families, she just does it to appease her parents. They're the ones who made her wear that godawful collar."

Suddenly, a whole lot of her attitude made sense. Her family forced her to keep that horrible collar on her neck, and so she adopted the whole goth thing to make it seem a little less weird and then she couched it all in irony. It was actually a brilliant strategy to handle the monumental embarrassment of her parents' choice of faith. I admired that.

"Anyway, at eighteen, she was going to go through a coming-of-age ceremony and she got excited about that," he said. "She called it her 'Druid bat mitzvah'."

"She did? If she didn't believe it, then why was she excited?" I asked.

"Being eighteen was supposed to give her certain freedoms," Mason said. After nearly twenty seconds, he added. "I was getting pretty excited, too, because among the new freedoms she was going to have was the freedom to have sex with me. We were planning to have sleepovers and... well, you know."

I knew my brother well enough to know he'd want those overnight visits to be above board with my parents, too. That's probably what gave him the bone-headed idea of introducing the topic during a family dinner.

"Is that how you ended up talking with Mom about having sex with Winn?" I asked.

"Yep," he said with a pleased smile. "Anyway, in the run up to her birthday she had all of this prep stuff to do. She was kind enough to keep most of that from me. In the middle of all of it, however, her parents approached me and asked me to be a part of the ceremony. I'd never been to a church, mosque, or a synagogue or anything even vaguely religious before, so I was nervous about it. Winn's parents were unbelievably kind to me when they asked, though, so I agreed."

"What was your part in it?" I asked.

"My role in the ceremony was to be the ceremony's 'amanuenses'. I was some sort of witness. I was told it was an honor chosen for me because I was so close to Winn. I actually had to meet with their religious leaders about it."

"What was that like?" I asked.

"Profoundly fucking weird," he replied. "They asked Mom and Dad to join me for the meeting. The woman I spoke to told me what was going to take place at the ceremony. There was all of this symbolic shit in the explanation that didn't make a bit of sense: opening of portals, consecration of the vessel, sharing of the spirit.

"They didn't explain any of this shit to me, Jules. I asked about what the symbolism meant and they looked at me like I was nuts. 'This is not symbolic,' said the woman. She was this Druidic tree priestess chick. She insisted that what she was saying was real. They seriously talked about all of this stuff like it was absolutely literal.

"After this went on for a while, I was taken into a back room by the priestess chick. She said, 'It is our understanding that you wish to get together with Winn. Is this what you want?'"

I said. "I love Winn and I love being with her very much."

"She asked, 'Are you willing to be spirit-bound to her?' I confessed that I had no idea what that meant. I asked her to explain it. It meant that our spirits would be literally bound together forever. 'Is that like marriage?' I asked. The priestess chick got a puzzled look on her face. We both had this like really profound moment where we both realized that although we were talking and all the words made sense, we weren't really communicating. She told me it wasn't legal like a marriage, but it was like a marriage spiritually. There must be true love, but it is clear that you love Winn, so I will make the effort for you.

"When we came out of the back room, the priestess chick announced to the room, 'Mason has asked to be spirit bound.' There were shouts of joy and Winn was all over me in a second. Champagne was brought out for the adults. Mom and Dad thought it was nuts, but everyone was so happy, they just went with it. There was a guy there who described himself as a priest. He produced a contract for me to sign. There was only a paragraph statement there, but the terminology made no sense to me. Dad looked it over and said, 'There are no tricks in it. If you want to sign it, go ahead.'

"So, I signed it and it got really weird when the guy took out a little disposable lancet, the kind that you use to get a drop of blood to test your blood sugar. I was asked to put my bloody fingerprint on the document.

"When I removed my finger from the document. Winn gave me a huge kiss in front of all of the adults and then the priestess chick whisked her out of there. That was the last I saw of her for the next two weeks. She even missed my birthday celebration."

"I missed it too," I responded.

"You called and wished me a happy birthday," he noted. "You sent a gift, too. That was enough and it was more than Winn did. Anyway, on the day of Winn's birthday, which was a Saturday, we were picked up by Winn's Dad. He took us to the airport and we all boarded a private jet."

"Really?" I asked.

"Really," he replied. "Winn's Dad said that we were headed for a private property where a mother tree was located. He practically gushed as he said, 'It hasn't been used in three hundred years!' as if that meant something to us. We ended up flying to South Carolina. South Carolina!"

"What's a mother tree?" I interrupted.

"It was an enormous live oak tree. Just freaking ginormous. Do you know what a live oak tree is?"

"No," I replied. "Look it up," Mason commanded. It turns out that a live oak is a massive oak tree with sprawling branches, a huge canopy, and the branches are typically coated with Spanish moss.

"Wow," I said.

"We had to drive for more than an hour from the airport to get to this property. It was late afternoon and it was hot and humid and there was an enormous grove of these beautiful big-ass trees. Just outside of the grove, there were a bunch of RVs parked. Apparently, folks had been living in them on that property. There was a contingent of folks who'd been praying and performing some sort of ceremony at this tree for a full week.

"We were given our own RV. It had an air-con unit that was running full-blast in the fierce afternoon heat and humidity. Mom and Dad took a nap. I studied my lines. I had a shit load of lines I had to memorize. It was in English, but the words made no sense. I just had to remind myself this was religious gobbledygook and it probably wouldn't make sense to the uninitiated.

"At dinner time, Winn's parents showed up and we shared a meal. When it was fully dark, they said it was time for the ceremony. They walked us into the copse of trees. It was spooky as shit in the dark. The grove of live oaks almost felt like it was alive. We heard this ceremonial chanting, and we suddenly came into the clearing and there was the mother tree. They had hung suspended oil lanterns all over this tree. I wish you could have seen it, Jules. It was just magnificent.

"As we came into sight of the tree, we saw that Winn was tied face-first to the trunk. She looked like she'd been there for a while. She was completely naked. She had flowers and vines woven into her hair. Her back was covered by this absolutely badass tattoo. Do you know what a triskelion is? If not, look up Celtic triskelion on your phone."

I pulled it up. "Oh, I've seen that," I replied.

"Well, she's got something like a hundred of them all over her back, now," he said. "They're all about an inch across and they interlock and there are dozens of different styles. It's seriously mesmerizing shit. What was so shocking is that they had this extremely sharp quality. They didn't look like tattoos at all. As I stared at them, I realized they were inflamed red along the lines. They were fresh, Jules, as in, "just got them in the last couple of days" fresh.

"The priestess chick was there and she started reciting her part of the ceremony," Mason said. "The chanters didn't stop at all through the ceremony. Of course, having memorized my parts of it, I dropped in where appropriate and recited my lines. Twenty-one different times, I took a ladle out of a wooden bucket and I poured the water over Winn's head, one of her shoulders, or over her back.

I was handed a knife made out of obsidian. I cut her ropes one at a time, spouting more of that ceremonial stuff between the cuts. Eventually, I got her loose. The priestess and I caught her and carefully turned her around. She was high. I'm not sure what they gave her, but she was just fucking sailing. When she saw me, she said, 'I knew you'd come, lover.' Her chest was bare, of course, and...."

Mason started to become emotional. "Her... uhh... nipples were pierced, Jules. They were pierced with honey locust tree thorns. The thorns weren't quite as thick as a pencil, but they weren't far from it and were between four and five inches long. The priestess silently coached me into withdrawing them, and placing metal piercings in their place."

It looked like Mason was going to be sick, but he pulled it back in.

"If I couldn't see how high she was and if I didn't figure out she wasn't feeling any pain at all, I don't think I could have done it. I got through it though and after that was done, Winn was all over me. I thought she was going to do me right there in the copse in front of our parents and everything, but the priestess and some of the chanters pulled us apart. 'Not yet!' the Priestess growled at her."

"I was taken to the trunk of the tree where Winn had been tied up. They took my shirt off and I was tied up to the tree, but I was tied with my back to it. There was this guy there with weird middle-earth-Druid full-sleeve tats. He was wearing a headlamp flashlight and had on nitrile gloves. He applied this thing to my chest that looked like a pattern on carbon paper. He took a long time lining it up and getting it just so. He then poured some kind of solvent on it and carefully pressed it into my chest. He then pulled the paper off of my chest, which showed that the pattern had been transferred.

"The priestess chick stepped forward. She had the thorns I'd removed from Winn's nipples soaking in a bowl with a dark liquid. He used the thorns to scratch the pattern into my skin." Mason said that flatly.

"Did it hurt?" I asked.

"Yes and no," he replied. "The thorns were so sharp that it felt like a fingernail scratching me. After a minute or two, however, wherever he scratched me burned, like a poison ivy burn."

"Did you bleed?" I asked with morbid curiosity.

"Some," he said. "It wasn't streaming or prolific. It welled up in these big fat drops which didn't run.

"When the guy was done they cut me loose and walked me over to a low table. It was on the ground underneath the canopy of a different live oak tree. Winn was already sitting there. They'd covered her up with a loose wrap so she was no longer topless. The priestess sat down and pointed me to sit down, so I did. There was a teapot on like a small burner. I was given a cup of tea and I was told to drink. I drank it even though it tasted like shit."

I was completely mesmerized hearing him talking through this. I was horrified, but at the same time, enthralled by the story.

"They had a large wooden bowl there. It was empty. The priestess poured a liquid in it and she wiped some of the blood off of my chest and put it in the liquid. She took some drops of blood from Winn and dropped them into the bowl, too. She waited for almost a minute for something to happen, but whatever she was waiting for never happened. After a while the priestess started getting upset and she leaned over and was whispering to Winn. It was just such a confusing scene. After a while, a very tall older man stepped up and asked the priestess what was going on. She said, 'The spirit binding won't complete because Mason is in love with another.' Winn screamed out as if in pain. It was a horrible moment for me personally. I felt so fucking guilty.

"That's when it fell all apart for Winn and I. We only spoke once after the ceremony, which was in her RV the next morning at breakfast. Her parents were there and the priestess was too. Winn was as angry as I'd ever seen her. She was so angry she couldn't even look me in the eye. "How could you love another?" she said. "Who is the fucking cow?" She was so worked up, I was worried she'd have an episode.

"I... I couldn't bring myself to tell her. That's when she got the crazy-ass look on her face and she guessed, Jules. She guessed exactly who it was. I didn't have to say anything because my confirmation was written all over my face. Here's the fucking weird part. When Winn's parents and the priestess found out who it was, they were like super excited. They were so happy, and that made no sense at all. The priestess started saying how favorable it was and how this was fortunate, but Winn wasn't interested in that. All she heard was that I loved another and her heart was broken.

"She screamed at me to get out of her RV. So I left. That was the last time we spoke. I got a note from her a few days later. She gave me a bunch of instructions. The instructions were basically impossible to do. She also gave me a deadline, which is Halloween."

I circled back to the matter at hand. In the narrative, the priestess accused Mason of loving another. That made no sense, because I was beyond certain he loved her.

"Wait, don't you love Winn?" I asked.

"I do love Winn!" he said plaintively. "She is my heart and my soul. She has been so for years and years. As soon as we met, I knew, just knew she was the love of my life and we'd be together forever."

"Then why were they saying that you love someone else?" I asked. "Was the priestess chick wrong?"

"The priestess chick was right, Jules. I was racked with guilt because I did love another. Not more than Winn, but in addition to Winn," he said. He didn't sound right when he said it.

"Who is it?" I asked.

I noticed at that point that Mason was grabbing the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were white. His face was bright red and he was suddenly sweating so hard, his sweat was streaming, down his neck from his hair.

"Mason? Are you okay?" I asked. "You don't look so good."

"I don't feel so good," he said.

A sign popped up for a rest area. "Look, here's a rest area. let's take a break."

"Good idea," he said.

***

Chapter 4 - Confession

We both went in to use the rest area facilities. When I emerged from the building, it was clear that Mason wasn't out yet. Outside, there was a majestic pecan tree that had to be more than a hundred years old. Underneath the canopy was a lovely bench. I walked over and sat beneath it, enjoying the beauty of the scene. The tree was dropping its nuts and the ground around it was littered with them. I picked one up and pried it open, marveling at how it looked like brain tissue.

After maybe fifteen minutes, Mason emerged from the building. He looked better. He saw me beneath the tree and walked over.

Mason sat and said, "I need to say this before I lose my nerve. When the priestess said I loved another, she was right. I love another woman. I have since I was old enough to know what love really was."

"Who is it?" I asked.

"You, Jules," he said breathlessly. "I love you."

His statement hit me with a shock. Mason and I had always gotten along well. He was my best friend my whole life, someone I could always hang with. Just a half hour before that, he was someone I found I could confide my most intimate secrets. Like our folks, neither of us was particularly sentimental or demonstrative in our relationships, so he'd never told me he'd loved me before. My heart melted.

"Awwww!" I said to him, trying to hold in an overly-emotional response. "I love you, too, bro."

I leaned over to hug him, but he put his arm out and kept me from getting closer.

"No, Jules, you don't understand," he said, sounding utterly desperate. "I don't love you like a brother. Like a sibling. I love you like a woman. Like a girlfriend or a wife. I have since I was old enough to have those kinds of feelings."

I thought about it for a long time. It took me thirty seconds to realize what he really meant, and my gasp of surprise came nearly thirty seconds later.

I was vaguely aware that this was something that happened but I never considered it happening to me. In all of our years together, Mason had never given me even a shred of a hint that he had it bad for me. This sent my thoughts spinning.

A question popped into my head. It was the logical question. "Why?" I asked him.

"To be honest, I was very lonely in middle school," he said. "I was the nerd outcast kid who spent all day in his bedroom reading about D&D but never playing it, or spending hours and hours studying Magic: the Gathering for viable strategies. I could barely get anyone to even speak to me. You did. You always had a kind word for me, and you were everything to me that I thought a girlfriend should be: kind, considerate, honest in a positive way, encouraging, and shit, Jules, you cared about me. I grew emotionally dependent on you."

I remembered what Mason had been during that time in his life. He was awkward, unattractive, poorly groomed, late blooming, and lived in a dreamy stupor. I thought it was neurodivergence rather than depression, so I spent hours drawing him out and trying to get him to live in the land of the living. It always made my heart heavy to see such an intelligent and funny guy depressed all the time.

He grew shame-faced. "The summer I hit puberty, the summer you really blossomed. I watched you change from a girl to a stunning beauty in about eight weeks. It sounds awful to say it, but your kindness and your figure were all that kept me going for the next couple of years. I was beyond obsessed: emotionally, romantically, and sexually. I dreamed of a future where you were my wife."

What Mason was saying was shocking, not because he was attracted to me, but because I hadn't had a clue.

"I realized that a girlfriend like you would never want to be with a guy like me," Mason continued. "This is what helped me get my shit raked into a pile. I started running, eating right, and making sure I was grooming myself properly. I figured out that what you would want was a man who had a network of friends. That meant I would have to be outgoing and personable. So, I learned how to talk, chit-chat, and to interact in crowds. I learned it from watching you, Jules. I did it because I knew you would want that from your eventual partner. When I started making that effort, which I'd done in a hare-brained pursuit of you, my life got instantly better."

He stopped to look at me. He was clearly shocked that I wasn't freaking out. He suddenly grew paranoid.

"I don't think you understand what I'm saying, Jules. I was totally obsessed over you both emotionally, romantically, and physically. I hated seeing you date. I hated seeing you with your boyfriends. I fantasized about taking you to bed. I fantasized about the things we'd do in bed together. Every one of those fantasies were as far-fetched as possible, because I knew in my heart of hearts that you weren't that sort of girl in the first place, which meant you sure as hell weren't the sort of girl who would do that with her brother. That was a burden I lived with for years."

"What about Winn?" I asked.

"In the first day of my freshman year of high school, Winn showed up in my homeroom and sat next to me," Mason said. "I checked her out and she was, for sure, an oddball. That whole over-the-top ironic goth aesthetic and leather collar was really a complicated statement.

"That day, I wore my favorite shirt, which was the black shirt with a picture of the 'Archdruid's charm from Magic on it. Do you remember that shirt? It was the one with the oak tree in a heart shape?"

"No," I said.

"Well, it is the kind of thing that looks like a symbol from her religion," he said with a smile.

"During the start of homeroom, when she found out our birthdays were only a few days apart, she struck up a conversation about the shirt. She confessed to me later that she was taken with me almost immediately. You know what she saw in me that no one else ever saw? No one but you, Jules?"

"No idea," I replied.

"My creativity and my sensitivity. She saw past the shell and through to the person. She also liked the fact that I didn't care whether she was goth or had that leather collar on. She was beautiful and friendly, and she didn't care at all that I was a misfit because she was one, too."

The emotions on his face as he said that were so touching I almost cried.

"Later, after I really got to know her as well as you, I felt I was the luckiest guy in the world. You were all things brightness, as radiant as the sun. She was like the moon: mysterious, sexy, ever-changing, and alluring. Over time, my lodestar became a binary system, and I was pulled equally by the sun and the moon for a time. Eventually, I figured out and made peace with the fact that you were unobtainable. Winn was enough for any man, any ten men, if I was honest. I started to imagine a day when Winn and I would be together forever, with a dark and gloomy gothic house in the burbs full of children ironically named after monsters or dark characters. Never in a million years did I think we would ever be apart. At the same time, I was still in love with you from afar, and that was my undoing."

I shook my head because the story wasn't fully clicking with me.

"So let me see if I understand this," I said. "You were at this ceremony and the spirit-binding aspect of the ceremony failed because you weren't just in love with Winn, you were also in love with me. Is that correct?"

"Yes," he replied.

"So how does that work?" I asked. "How could the ritual be stopped by the state of someone's perception of love?"

Mason looked perplexed. He'd been looking at it uncritically. "I would normally agree with you, but in this case the priestess lady was right. I'm pretty damn sure I gave zero indication that another love was involved."

"Didn't you say you admitted it?" I asked and then I remembered. "No, you said the priestess said it, then Winn figured out who it was and then you gave it away by overreacting. Right?"

"Right," he said.

"And then you said Winn was so hurt by it that she kicked you to the curb?" I asked.

He nodded. "That's pretty much it. In retrospect, it could have been hurt or it could have been disgust. She was intoxicated and it was dark, so it was hard to tell."

"But she did kick you to the curb?" I asked.

"It was more like she just ghosted me," he answered. "She hasn't spoken to me since that breakfast. Well, except for that note."

"What did the note say?" I asked.

"It had a list of instructions," he answered. "No, that's not right. It was more like a list of tasks which I had to accomplish."

"Did the note say that if you did these things that she would take you back?" I asked.

"No," he said flatly.

"Shit," I replied. "So you don't know what the rewards or consequences of her lists even are?"

"No," Mason answered.

"So she dodges you now?" I asked.

"Yes, but the situation is actually worse than that," he replied.

"How so?"

"She is already going out with other guys," he said.

"She is?" I asked.

"Yeah, she apparently has a couple of guys she's stringing along. They follow her around like a pair of stray puppies," he said. "My friends tell me that she is frequently seen with one or the other of them. I get reports of them kissing in the cafeteria, or going to the football games and movies together, or making out at parties."

"Who are these guys?" I asked.

"Carter McAdams and Judd Thompson," he said.

I knew of them both. They were varsity athletes, assholes, and dumb as stumps. They were also notoriously good looking and had quite a reputation for being players. Carter had been held back as a sophomore. Judd was his crony. Judd, in particular, was a real piece of work. He bullied and ridiculed and more or less made everyone's lives miserable.

"Jesus!" I said. "What a cold hearted bitch!" I was genuinely angry. She was head-over-heels in love with my brother before I left for college and it took her just a few weeks to leave my brother in the dirt. Somehow, my anger made Mason brighten.

"My thoughts, exactly, Jules," he said with a tremor in his voice.

"This is just so fucked up. I've been with Winn so long that she's like totally fucking baked into my identity. Hell, I have her religious bullshit permanently scraped into my chest now. I can't believe that she was so fucking cold to me."

"Let me see your chest," I said.

He pulled up his loose-fitting shirt to his neck. There were runes scraped into his upper pectorals. He'd been working out and was quite fit. I was shocked at how muscular he'd become. The scratches he described were scars. Thin pencil-line scars that were raised up a quarter of an inch. They were a bit weird, but it was macho as hell. I am ashamed to say that the mere sight of them made me wet."

"That fucking bitch!" I raged.

***

Chapter 5 - Winn's Note

We were back on the road and I was driving now. I had demanded the keys with a growl, and he'd just handed them to me. Things had been silent as I processed and bled off the excessive anger.

Mason broke the silence after more than a quarter of an hour.

"Jules, you seemed really pissed off about what Winn did to me, but you don't seem fazed at all about how I feel about you," he said. "Am I reading that wrong? Have I disturbed you or upset you?"

"Not at all," I replied. "While you were telling me how you felt, my primary response was shock. I wasn't disturbed by what you were saying. I was disturbed because I didn't have a fucking clue."

I thought about it and said, "Guys had crushes on me and perved on me quite a bit. It became very easy to see that after a while. These guys thought they were being so careful and so subtle, but I'd catch them staring down my tits from across the room, over and over. After a while, it was like I could see right into their soul.

"In all the time we spent together, I didn't have a clue that you were like that with me. That tells me a couple of things. First of all, you were extremely circumspect. Second of all, it makes me feel guilty as hell that I wasn't paying enough attention or the right kind of attention to you."

"So you aren't disgusted about the fact that I fantasized about you?" he asked.

"Here's a rhetorical question for you, Mace," I stated. "How many guys from our high school do you think rubbed one out while thinking about me? Don't tell me, just come up with a number in your head. If I allowed that to bother me, how awful would my life be? The fact is, I had to make peace with the fact that guys thought I was hot pretty quickly. Part of it was that I didn't have a choice. Part of it was that I grew inured to the discomfort through constant exposure."

"Really?" he asked. "You aren't disgusted?"

"Not at all. I'm in this freshman philosophy seminar right now. We were discussing a quote from Goethe the other day. The quote was 'If I love you, what business is it of yours?' The more we talked about it, the more the class realized how profound it was. The central idea is that love is a deeply personal experience. Not even the person you love will ever really know how it really feels to you. As it is so very personal, it is up to each person to process it, define it, and express it in their own way.

"Loving someone from afar and having sexual fantasies about that person is probably a universal experience. I have too much to worry about to waste my time hand-wringing over whether or not others may be doing that to me."

I thought about this and quickly amended myself. "That was poorly worded, Mace. It's not that I don't care about you. I care deeply for you. You matter to me. This is a new idea for me and I have some processing to do. I can confidently say, however, that it will not bother me. I'm not disgusted. I will choose to be flattered by it."

Mason started to cry.

I reached out and put my hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay, Mace?"

"I'm just so... relieved," he said as he sobbed openly. "It was such a burden for so long. I was afraid I'd drive you away forever. You mean so much to me, and I was so afraid you would want nothing to do with me."

His strong reaction really moved me, and it was the strength of his reaction that really finally got me to process what he was saying. This was not child's play to him. When he said he was in love with me, he meant it. The crushing burden of carrying that load must have been unbearable. I had a question I wanted to ask, but I didn't want to crush his spirit. I thought it was important, however, to hear his answer.

"Mace," I said as gently as I could. "Do you love Winn as much as you love me?"

"More, Jules," he said. "In terms of degree, you two were neck and neck, but you were the impossible and she was the obtainable. Psychologically, I was much more dependent on her."

Something about his tone as he answered seemed so desperate that it stirred up a bunch of thoughts in my head. "What was on the list of instructions she gave you to do, Mason?" I asked. "Are you trying to make good on those?"

Mason turned beet red. "Actually, I was going to try." Seeing my immediate reaction, he became defensive. "I'm so fucking lonely, Jules! I miss her, and I would do anything for another chance to show her how much she means to me."

He was ashamed of this, and my reaction to it was not kind. I wondered why he was so willing to just surrender his dignity like that.

For the first time, I was certain I was going to kill Winn. At the very least, I was going to make her very, very sorry. From field hockey, I knew she was tough, but I was just as tough and I had a huge advantage because I was angry as hell.

"How far down the list are you?" I asked.

"I'm on the first," he said. "Well, now that I told you that I love you, I just completed the first."

"How many?" I asked.

"What are they?" I asked.

"I have the letter right here," he said, finally breaking the silence. "I'll let you read it."

I risked a glance over at him as he pulled an envelope out of his backpack. It was a large, heavy Manila envelope. It was the kind used to send a diploma to a graduate. He made a show of handing it to me.

"Mace, I can't read that letter right now. I'm driving," I said, peeved at his stupidity.

"Then pull over and let me take over," he said.

"Just read it to me, Mace. How bad could it be?" I thought I was being reasonable.

"Nope," he said. "You need to see it and read the whole thing yourself to understand."

With a growl, I moved into the right-hand lane and exited the highway. We were in the middle of nowhere. Where the state road crossed the highway, there was nothing but the entrance and exit ramp.

At the top of the exit, I put Mom's Honda Odyssey into park and got out. Mason chose to walk around to the driver's seat the opposite way so we didn't pass by each other.

I got in the seat and fastened my seatbelt before he got back into the car. He drove straight off the exit ramp onto the entrance ramp and we were quickly homeward bound once again.

The envelope had been left on the dash in front of the passenger seat. The envelope was not addressed. It was blank.

I opened it and pulled out a sheet of paper. The paper was parchment. All along the paper were runes arranged as a border. Its ink was peculiar, a dark brown rather than black. I saw that the ink had smeared where Mason had touched it, so I was careful not to put my fingers on it.

The letter was short and hand-written with a fountain pen in that funny dark-brown ink.

--

Do the following in order:

1. Tell Julie that you are in love with her

2. Show Julie this note and then send her to talk to me

3. Solicit oral sex from Julie

4. Persuade Julie to promise that she will take your virginity.

5. Ask Julie to submit to being spirit-bound to you.

I will not speak to you until you have completed these tasks.

--

The contents were shocking. I considered it for a minute before asking him, "How do you know this is from her? She didn't even sign it. It could be a prank."

"That's her handwriting Jules " he said. "I'd recognize it anywhere and she's kind of a nut when it comes to fountain pens. She's got this pen she calls a 'Clicktek'. It is a fountain pen that retracts like a ball point."

I was not convinced, but Mason was.

"So, she was hurt when she found out you were in love with me. Does it make any sense at all that she would want us to have sex?" I asked. "That she would not only want us to have sex, but that I would take your virginity instead of her?"

There was a long pause that lasted nearly a mile until my brother let out a combination sigh and a sob. "No, Jules. It makes no sense at all." It was obvious that it broke his heart to say that.

"Well, the next step was for you to show me this note and then send me to talk to her. I'm going to do just that. Maybe I will find out whatever the hell she's getting at with this. In the meantime, we need to get something straight."

He made eye contact with me. "What's that?"

"You love me because I'm your sister and I legitimately care about you. You started crushing on me and got to the point where you were rubbing out orgasms while thinking about me. I told you that I don't mind that, and I meant it. I don't mind because it was honest and pure and came from your heart. I can tolerate that, and to an extent, I admire your honesty in admitting it to yourself and to me.

"That doesn't mean, however, that I want you to make sexual advances on me. I would appreciate it if you would refrain from asking me to suck your cock. I'll talk to Winn, which is the next step anyway. I'll get to the bottom of this. I promise you that."

***

Chapter 6 - Confronting Winn

We didn't get home until well after dinner. Mom and Dad were on their way out to a Halloween party being hosted by some friends. It was being held early so that parents could be present for the trick or treating, which the city declared was to be observed on Saturday. Halloween itself was on Tuesday and no one thought it was a good day to have the kids out trick or treating on a school night.

Mom was dressed in a slutty witch costume. It had a loose flared above-the-knee skirt and a cleavage-revealing sweetheart neckline. She'd already had a few and was visibly flushed.

"Hubba, Hubba, Hubba!" I said to her.

"Do I look okay?" she asked.

"Sexy," I replied. "Who are you going to cast your spell on tonight?"

Just as I asked, that, Dad came into the kitchen wearing a Buddy the Elf costume.

"Not your father," she said. "He declined to wear the pirate costume I got him and went with this instead."

"Dad, that costume is awful," I noted. "You wear it every year."

"It's a classic," he insisted.

"Yeah, well good luck finding someone who shares your affinity for elf culture," my mom said, which cracked me up. We high-fived while Dad rolled his eyes.

Mom handed me some cash and said, "You and Mason should go out for dinner."

"What are you hungry for?" I asked Mason.

"I'm not hungry."

I'd been jonesing for our town's Ramen shop, which was called Umami. It was run by a Vietnamese man and his Korean wife. It wasn't actually authentic Japanese, but they did make a succulent bowl of noodles. More importantly, there was nothing like it at the University.

"We're going to the Hall," I announced. The hall was formerly known as "the Villages", a strip mall with interior walks that went out of business several years before I left for college. Developers bought it, enclosed some of the interior walks and turned the place into an enormous food court. The stores were the kitchens, and the walkways were filled with hundreds of tables. That's where Umami was.

When I ordered my bowl of pork broth ramen, Mason surprised me by ordering a bowl of fish stock noodles.

As we ate, a bunch of my old friends from Midlands stopped by to say hello. One adorably cute girl I'd seen at Midlands who came over and struck up a conversation with Mason about Magic the Gathering. She was clearly flirting with him.

Mason ought to have picked up on it, but it was clear he was so distraught from his breakup that the light had gone out of his soul. He finished his bowl and then stood up and excused himself to go to the bathroom. I grabbed the girl's forearm before she could walk away dejected.

"He was with Winn a long time," I explained. "It's going to take him a bit to get over it and come around. Please be patient."

She flashed me a smile. "Thanks, Julie!" she said. It shocked me that she knew exactly who I was and I had no idea who she was.

I finished my bowl while Mason was gone and I placed our bowls in the plate return caddy at the trash bin. I decided to walk towards the bathroom. I made a wrong turn and saw them. Outside of the Dairy Queen was a large-diameter circular brick wall that was three feet high surrounding a faux fire pit. I saw Carter McAdams and Judd Thompson sitting on that wall. Winn Keyleth was sitting on Carter's lap.

I didn't recognize her at first because she wasn't wearing her goth makeup, her ridiculous leather dog collar, or her typical black layers.

She was dressed to kill, wearing a top that displayed both her cleavage and an inch of her fit belly. Winn's nails were painted a bright red which was matched to her lipstick. Her eye makeup was tasteful and minimal, making her natural lashes look huge. I'd never seen her without the goth makeup before. Without it, I was stunned by how naturally beautiful she was. She looked like a fashion model.

I looked from her to Carter McAdams and Judd Thompson. They were both my ages and they looked like grown men. Carter's hands were on Winn's hips. He sniffed at her hair and touched his lips to Winn's neck. She didn't even flinch.

She was holding one of those oversized ice cream cones of chocolate soft serve dipped in that bright-red Magic Shell. She was holding it out for Judd. He reached to take the cone from her, but she pulled it away and told him to put his hands behind his back. He obeyed. She held the cone horizontal and Judd leaned forward and took the soft serve into his mouth without using his hands, making the gesture unmistakably suggestive.

If this is the way that the three of them behaved in public, it was no wonder my brother was so humiliated. I was instantly enraged. I actually saw red.

I looked down to see a large plastic cup of soda someone had abandoned, two-thirds full. I picked it up and made a beeline for her.

I shouted "Winn! What the fuck?"

Winn looked up. It took her a second or two to recognize me and when she did, she was absolutely delighted. She looked like it was Christmas morning. She pulled the cone back from Judd and slid off of Carter's lap. When I got to her, I led with a slap.

The sound of the smack was so loud, it could be heard from the parking lot. The slap made her stumble and almost fall, but Carter caught her and steadied her. She turned back to face me with shock, surprise, and fear. I jerked the cup and sent more than twenty-four ounces of soda into her face. It sloshed into her eyes. She started to fall backward, and in her panic she grabbed my left arm. I fell on top of her, causing her to make a huge "oof" as she hit the ground.

That's when she started screaming, "Ahhhh! That burns! My eyes are burning."

I scrambled up to my knees and the ice cream cone she'd been holding was on the ground next to her. I picked it up and ground it roughly into her cleavage.

I stood up and kicked her in the crotch. My toe went right where the four seams come together. It wasn't a hard kick, but it made her go "oof" again and she spasmed in shock.

That's when Judd grabbed me. "Get your fucking hands off me! Help! Help! This guy is trying to grab my tits! Help."

Most of the people were already watching the drama, but those that weren't suddenly looked over.

Judd instantly let me go.

I stood up and said to Judd and Carter, "Listen up, Neal and Bob, this clueless narcissistic bitch isn't worth the toilet tissue you used to clean your asses today. She's using you like she used my brother and if the end for you is anything like it was for him, I can testify that you're a hell of a lot better off without this skank."

I turned back to Winn who was still lying on the ground, popped up on one elbow and was desperately trying to wipe the soda off her face and blow her nose.

I kicked her foot to get her attention. "You listen up, bitch! My brother loved you with his whole heart and he treated you like a fucking queen, and you took that love and pissed all over it. You're a worthless piece of shit, you know that? He's way too good for you and if there is any karma or justice, you will rue the day that you treated a guy who is that worthy so shabbily."

"Listen up everyone!" I shouted out to the enormous crowd, most of whom were now watching.

"Sooner or later people will show you who they really are inside. Winn Keyleth is a no-good, piece-of-shit, unfaithful, heartless bitch. If you doubt that, just look at how she treated my brother. All he ever gave her was love, and all she ever did was shit on him. You've all been warned."

I turned to see Mason right there. He was in shock at what he had witnessed. "Jules!" he shouted. "What have you just done? Now, she'll never talk to me."

"I gave her a taste of what she's earned," I said with a burning voice. "Let's get the fuck out of here."

On our way to the car, I was accosted by the young woman who had been flirting with Mason earlier.

"Holy shit, Julie!" she said enthusiastically. "I want to be you when I grow up."

***

Chapter 7 - Unexpected Visitor

My brother was so angry at how I'd treated Winn that he refused to talk to me all the way home. That, of course, made me angry.

"I don't see why you would be upset, Mason," I said. "You saw the way that Winn was fucking around with both Carter and Judd at the same time. You still want her back, after that? Have some fucking dignity!"

When we got home, Mason went straight to his room and slammed the door. Our house was a big luxury ranch home, and both of the kids bedrooms were down the hall on the opposite side of the house from our parents' room. All of the bedrooms opened up onto a pool deck. There was a Jack-and-Jill bathroom between our rooms.

I went into my room and seethed for more than an hour until I settled down. Social media on my phone was blowing up. The incident outside of the Dairy Queen rapidly became the stuff of legend. Luckily, it played out so quickly that no one managed to get video footage of it, but there were a lot of pictures posted that showed Winn with smeared makeup, red eyes, and the remnants of a soft-serve cone on her cleavage.

The commenters were busy speculating about what happened. I was mentioned by name and there were several people who'd posted video of Winn playing around with Carter and Judd at the Hall. Many of the comments were extremely nasty and varied from "Winn was acting like a total slut" to "She had it coming."

I looked on the social media timelines and Winn's transition away from her Goth look coincided with her weird birthday ceremony. It was shocking to see how her reinvention from Goth to a conventional "It girl" was not well received at all. Every single one of her posts contained a sniping shit-talking comment along the lines of "Just because she takes the dog collar off doesn't mean we won't still see her as a dog."

As if I needed a reminder, I was stunned to see how cruel high school girls could be. As bad as things were for me at the ETA house, I'd never had to contend with anything as awful as that. I wondered what the animus was behind the comments like that and I realized that by changing her look, Winn had challenged the status quo and the social order at school. When she was Goth, she'd put herself into a certain category in everyone's head. She was the athletic fit girl with an exotic beauty, but an unconventional look, that broadcast "Weirdo". That put her outside of a lot of the social pecking orders. When she'd dropped the Goth look and started to wear conventional clothing, her beauty was suddenly much more obvious, and this forced changes to the pecking order. A lot of girls suddenly found themselves a rung lower than before, and they didn't take kindly to it.

It made me wonder if I'd done the wrong thing by humiliating her like that. Every time I started to feel sympathetic toward Winn, I would remember how devastated Mason was and my outrage would spark right up again.

When I grew tired of surfing social media, I decided I needed a shower. Mason had long since gone to bed and Mom and Dad had come home an hour ago and had gone straight to sleep. I took a nice long hot shower and put on my favorite soft-flannel pajamas. I turned off my room lights and was just about to crawl into bed when I heard a tapping at the door between my room and the pool deck outside.

I froze and listened to see if I was imagining something. There was no sound whatsoever. I started to get into bed again and the tapping started again, more insistently. I had no idea who it was, but they either had to climb over a fifteen foot high privacy wall that surrounded our entire back yard, or someone had picked the lock on the gate. Fearing that the intruder was up to no good, I picked up my field hockey stick so I could defend myself if necessary. I slowly walked over next to the door, and peeked through a tiny gap in the blinds. It was dark in the room and the pool deck lights were on, so I figured that the intruder couldn't see me.

To my surprise, I saw Winn standing there. She was wearing flannel pajamas like mine, but she had a thick hoodie over her top. The hood was drawn and I could see her long hair was wet inside of the hood. She was looking right at me as if I were fully lit.

"We need to talk," she said. For a long moment, I neither moved nor responded. I just stood there silent and still with my heart pounding.

Winn said, "Dammit Julie, I'm looking right at you. Open up the door and have a conversation with me like a decent human being."

"No." I said. "After what you did to my brother, I've got nothing to say to you."

She sighed. "Just open the fucking door, Julie. I went to a lot of trouble over the last two hours to make sure that we could have this conversation without being interrupted. I know that Mason showed you that note and I know you have questions. I cannot answer those questions without showing you some things you need to see. That's not going to happen unless you come out here and talk to me like a human being."

I sighed, stepped forward and unlocked the door. I opened it a couple of inches in a silent invitation and I quickly sat on the bed with my stick in my lap.

Winn came in and left the door open behind her. She went right to the drawer where I kept my sweats. She pulled out a big fluffy hoodie and threw it into my lap. She went to the next drawer down and pulled out a pair of fleece-lined runner tights. She dumped those in my lap too.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"It's nippy out there. I wished I'd dressed warmer, so I'm trying to do you a favor," she replied.

"No way am I leaving this house with you," I said. I was sure she wanted to lure me away, so she could jump me in the woods.

"I swear on my life that you will not be harmed, by me or by anyone else," she said. "This is about talking, Julie."

"What kind of guarantee can you give me?" I asked.

She sat at my desk and wrote a note. "This is Winn Keyleth. I am taking Julie for a walk so that we can discuss many things regarding her brother. I promised her that she will be safe while she is with me and will come to no harm."

She signed it and then, using a pocket knife she pulled out of her hoodie pouch, she made a cut in her thumb and placed a bloody thumb print right next to her signature.

She set the note on my pillow.

"You got boots?" she asked.

"Yes," I replied.

"Put them on," she instructed.

"Why?" I asked.

"As I've already said, you need to ask me questions about the note I gave your brother. I cannot answer those questions with any degree of satisfaction until you've seen what I need to show you. The walk isn't that long, but it is muddy this time of year. That's why you need your boots."

I reached into my drawer and threw a pair of my dad's old sweat pants at her. "If you are cold, these will fit over the top," I said.

A minute later, she led me out of the back gate of my back yard.

"How'd you get in here?" I asked.

"Mason showed me where you stash the hidden key," she answered as she stepped confidently into the woods. How she could see anything was beyond me because it was overcast and the moon and stars were obscured.

"How can you see anything in this dark?"

"I have pretty good night vision," she responded. "There will be plenty of light when we get to where we're going."

She took my arm and pulled me confidently along a path so small it could only be used by rabbits. Somehow, Winn knew exactly where to go.

We soon emerged from the woods onto the greenway trail that was a half mile behind our house. She started walking up the trail towards the top of the hill. As we walked, the clouds suddenly parted, displaying slivers of an almost-full moon. The pathway was bathed in light.

This side of town was where the wealthier people lived. The more money you had, the higher up the hill you lived. My parents did very well, but they lived at the base of the hill. Winn's parents didn't live at the top, but they were more than half way. They owned a huge parcel of land which was rumored to contain over a thousand acres of old-growth woods. We were headed in that direction.

Winn started talking. "You know, we don't have any say in what religion our parents practice. We are born into a system of beliefs and we are raised to see the world from the lens of those beliefs from an age so young that we never really doubt them. It is your normal every-day life, so you just assume that's how the world is.

"I was only seven years old when I was invited on my first sleepover. That's when I figured out for the first time just how crazy my family was. It was Miley Carlton. Do you remember her?"

"I do," I replied. She'd moved away while we were in middle school.

"Well, I was invited over to her house and boy, let me tell you, my eyes were opened right up. First of all, Miley's dad was enormous. He seemed to be twice the size of Miley's mom. Further, her dad was in charge of their household. Unquestionably in charge. That was a shock. My dad is physically small. I'm six inches taller than him and I'm pretty sure I could beat him in a wrestling match. He did not have a decision-making role in anything my family did. My mother never allowed it.

"More striking to me, Miley's mother actually loved her husband. I mean, really loved him. She didn't chastise him, talk down to him, or treat him like her servant and slave. It was such a warm, loving, and inviting household, it was a shock to me. I loved being at Miley's house, I honestly thought I'd walked into heaven. I loved the general happiness and contentedness and it soaked into my bones."

"I take it your home is not that way?" I asked.

"No," she replied. "My father is actually a great guy. He's smart and imaginative and when he loves, he loves with his whole heart."

She stopped to look me in the eye. "Does that sound familiar? A deeply intelligent guy, short in stature, who loves with his whole heart? Is it any wonder that I fell for your brother?"

She broke eye contact and walked on, expecting me to follow.

"Dad was stuck under my mother's thumb, of course. My mother literally treated him like he was her slave and that he was of no consequence to her whatsoever. My mother, I've come to learn, is the source of every fucked up thing in my life. I think this is because she lacks certain human emotions: love, compassion, and empathy. She is cold, aloof, and tends to see others as tools to use rather than people. I had no idea just how fucked up that was. At least I didn't until I spent that night at Miley's house.

"After that, what I wanted, desperately, was to grow up in a home like Miley's. I prayed that something bad would happen to my mother so that Dad and I could somehow find happiness together. It wasn't meant to be."

We walked in silence. I didn't know how to respond to that. Winn suddenly continued. "It wasn't too long after I spent the night with Miley that I figured out that my parent's religion was utter bullshit. I've read accounts from several people about the moment they realized the religion they'd been raised to believe wasn't true. My experience was no different than theirs except that I was seven fucking years old when it happened, Julie.

"Seriously, I woke up one morning and knew, just knew, that there is no goddess, the trees were not sentient, that magic is not real, that the priestesses were charlatans with no real power, and that I wasn't destined to be the central figure in some huge future religious awakening. I realized I was in for a hellish existence for the rest of my childhood as my mother stuffed bullshit belief after bullshit belief down my throat. I sensed there were two roads I could travel. I could rebel and get pounded flat, as so many rebellious children do. The other road was for me to, in the timeless tradition of kids around the world, fake a belief in it until I reached adulthood where I could turn my back on it and leave it in the dust.

"What made it so hard, however, was that my mother had big dreams for me. As I said before, I didn't want to stick out like a sore thumb to my classmates, but Mom made that utterly impossible. First of all, they kept giving me this fucking tree sap mixture to make me grow. I was the biggest kid in my class for my whole childhood until I was in the eighth grade. That's the year when some of the taller boys finally outgrew me. It was the first time I ever had to look up at a male classmate. Secondly, there was all the ceremonial bullshit that they put me through. I had to wear that fucking dog collar my whole childhood."

"What was that all about?" I asked.

Winn sighed. "I was being consecrated. That's a word everyone has heard, but few know what it really means. Something that has been consecrated has been set apart for a special religious purpose. The collar was a sign of my consecration. My parents put it on me the moment my neck emerged from the womb. I've only had it off for less than one minute at a time my whole life and only when I was bathing. It had to be removed and replaced by a priestess. Until my eighteenth birthday, I'd never bathed or showered alone my whole life. It was just so fucking oppressive.

"That's just one thing, however," she said. "I also got tattoos about eight times a year. They weren't with needles and ink. They were drawn on, with brushes like henna. The ink was made out of walnuts. They itched like crazy and I'd be stained for weeks afterwards. I lived in mortal fear one of our classmates would see them and start teasing me for it."

"Yeah," I said. "I figured out that the whole Goth thing wasn't an affectation, but a disguise."

This made her look over to me and smile. "You saw it? You understood without having to explain that? Oh, thank God! That will make the rest of this so much easier. You know, your brother was the first person to figure it out. You know how long it took him?"

I shrugged. "I don't have a clue."

"Half a day," she said brightly. "We were having lunch in the school cafeteria the first day we met and he asked me if the Goth thing was an act to cover up the religious significance of the collar. He is just so smart and imaginative. All of those make-believe games that he loved gave him the infrastructure he would need to see right into the heart of an insecure freshman girl. He won my heart that day."

Her saying that made me angry. She saw my growing anger and went back to our previous topic. "The collar was bad enough, but I lived in mortal fear my tattoos would be discovered."

"What were the tattoos for?" I asked.

"Ceremonial," she replied. "Preparing the body to merge with the spirit, or some shit like that. You know how these quacks will say, 'Turmeric and flax seed are beneficial' without ever explaining what 'beneficial' means or how it works?"

I nodded.

"Same thing."

Something about the way she said this made me laugh. She gave me such an amazing smile that it was quite touching.

"As I grew older and older, my mother slowly grew the stakes in the whole religious mumbo jumbo. It was nearly intolerable. The light at the end of my tunnel was my eighteenth birthday. The collar could come off and, in the eyes of the faith, I would be an adult and out from under my mother's thumb at last. I would finally be able to have a relationship with Mason on my own terms."

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"Ah, well. My mother and the priestesses don't exactly see men as co-equal partners. Part of the leadership of our belief is men, but there aren't very many of them and they aren't held in esteem by the women of the faith or the priestesses. When men accumulate the kind of power that confers on them the status of priest, they inevitably use that power to score as much pussy as humanly possible. They destabilize the social order feeding their inner flame for strange."

Again, her way of explaining it made me laugh. I couldn't stop myself from laughing.

"In order for me to have any semblance of a normal boy-girl relationship with Mason without the priestesses interfering, we would have to be spirit-bound. When Mason agreed right away to be spirit-bound without putting up a fuss, I was ecstatic. I thought we'd have to take him by force. It can be done, but I didn't want the guilt of that on my soul."

"What the fuck?" I said in disgust. "What does being spirit-bound really mean?"

"It is like a marriage but on a spiritual level rather than a physical corporeal level. In our faith, people who are spirit-bound are considered married. What our culture constitutes legal marriage, as in 'do you take this woman', has no real meaning to us whatsoever except on a civil level. Our tradition involves hand-fasting, which is like a non-permanent marriage. Most of our couples hand-fast when they decide to raise children.

If our people do marry, it is done as a legal backstop to make sure kids are protected in the event of death and to ensure that inheritances are handled correctly by the state. The faith doesn't really respect civil marriage, so there is nothing about it of any significance on a spiritual or romantic level for us."

"So why did you want this with my brother?" I asked.

"I love him, Julie," she answered. "He belongs to me and I want to spend the rest of my life with him. I am certain he wants the same from me. It is important that we are spirit-bound because once we are spirit-bound, there is no one in our church who can do anything to keep us apart."

"Is your mother spirit-bound to your father?" I asked.

She got a disgusted look on her face. "No," she replied. I could sense there was more to it, but she didn't say anything.

"Is this why she treats him like shit?" I asked.

"Partly," she answered. "The bottom line with them is that not everyone is qualified to be spirit-bound. They aren't qualified. This is one reason why she treats him so poorly."

"If she has no respect for your father and she treats him poorly, why did they bother to get together?" I asked.

"My mother was convinced that taking my father as her mate was necessary to fulfill the prophecy that she would produce a child with special abilities," Winn answered.

"Is the fact that you and Mason are spirit-compatible the reason why your parents were happy when it was announced that he agreed to be spirit-bound?" I asked.

Winn was silent for a moment as she considered it. "Not really. Their joy was mostly about fulfilling a prophecy. There's this prophecy in our belief that says the next Bé Chuille would be a spirit-bound on her initiation to a willing Drui of astonishing power. A Drui is a male who has enough power to become a priest. The faith recognizes less than three dozen Druis in all of North America right now.

"Over the last few years, Fedelma, one of the priestess who congregates with us, became convinced that Mason is a Drui. The fact that we found each other in our early adolescence is so unlikely that it is seen as proof that it was the fulfillment of prophecy."

"You used a term in there, a Bay-Killer?" I asked.

"Bé Chuille," she clarified. "Pronounced, 'bay KHWILL-eh'. It means, loosely, 'Hazel Woman'. In our faith. there was a historical figure named Bé Chuille. She was a warrior, a priestess, a prophet. and was also an incredibly powerful sorceress. She defended the people of our faith against an invading army led by a powerful witch named Carman. That's where the title 'Bé Chuille' comes from.

"In our faith almost all of the leaders are women. Bé Chuilles are rare, by the way. It's been nearly three-hundred years since we had one and it is why the priestesses are so eager to involve themselves with my family."

She looked at me and saw that I was having a hard time. "I know, Julie, I'm throwing a lot of shit at you. All you need to remember is that this is a grand fiction. There is nothing authentic or real about this religion at all. It makes sense to the people who practice it, but that doesn't mean it is true.

"What should tell you that it is a fraud is that they think I am some sort of golden child destined to be the next Bé Chuille. I know it's bullshit because my mother doesn't even think my father, the man who created me, is even human."

She said that last part with such sadness that it was touching. "At least my mother is learning. It will take her a while, but I am confident that she will learn."

She suddenly came to a halt. "This is where we leave the greenway," she stated.

I intuited that we were nowhere near her house. I pointed up the path. "Isn't your house further up that way?" I asked.

"It is, but we aren't going there," she answered. With a gesture. she said, "All along here is our family land."

She withdrew a shawl and said, "Put this on your head and arrange it so that it looks like you can't see. The rules are that only initiates can see the way in and out. I think the rule is bullshit because the protections against intrusion are pretty good. Also, I want to build a sense of trust between us."

She helped me wrap the shawl around my face. She pulled me off of the path and into the tree line, then down another rabbit trail. We were suddenly against a tall chain link fence with a razor wire top. She went to a gate and used a key to open it. We walked through a hedge to find a brick wall that was at least fifteen feet high with a concrete top. We walked several hundred feet down and there was a gate through the brick wall. She used the key to open the gate.

As soon as we stepped through, two people stepped out of the shadows. One was a woman and the other one was a small man.

"Hey Dad," I heard Winn say. In the dim light, I saw her stoop a little to give him a hug,

"Hey pumpkin!" I heard a warm voice say.

"How's Mom?" she asked, "Did you get her to eat today?"

"I sure did!" he responded enthusiastically. "I got her to take water every couple of hours and she had a full meal at dinner tonight. I think that she's coming around."

"See, Dad! I told you she would come around," she said.

"Do we have to make her so miserable? " he asked plaintively, It hurts my heart to...."

Winn made a quick zip-it gesture and flicked her eyes over at me.

Winn's Dad instantly shut his mouth with a cringe.

"Relax, Dad," I heard Winn say. "You know I'm not like that."

He looked over at me and when he saw me, he smiled. "Is this Mason's sister?"

"Yes," she replied. "Let's get this shawl off and then I will introduce you."

She helped me doff the shawl, and I made a show of trying to adjust to the ambient light.

She introduced me to her father, who gave me a very chaste hug.

"It is nice to finally meet you, Julie!" he said with genuine warmth in his voice. "I'm a big fan of your brother. I couldn't be more delighted that he and Winn found each other."

He was speaking as if Winn hadn't broken up with him. I was sufficiently shocked that I didn't think to answer.

Winn then introduced me to Fedelma.

"She is a priestess of the high rank in our faith and is chief priestess of this grove," Winn noted.

I looked over at her. She was a woman in her late thirties. She had long straight dark brown hair that was parted in the middle, like something out of the seventies. She was lithe yet large-breasted and she was stunningly good-looking. She was hiding her figure with an oversized LL Bean coat, cargo pants, and galoshes.

I became aware that Fedelma was actually holding her breath. She took both of my hands in hers and her hands were actually trembling. I suddenly felt a pulsing warm flush pass through my body like a chill, only it was the opposite of a chill.

What the fuck? I asked myself. I was just about to ask her what she'd done to me when with a broad smile, the priestess suddenly released my hands.

"Winn, you must feel this!" she enthused. "Take Julie by the hands."

Winn gave her a strange look and came over and took my hands where Fedelma had held them. Winn suddenly got a shocked look on her face. The same warm glow passed through me.

"What is going on?" I asked.

"Do you feel it?" Fedelma asked almost breathlessly. "Can you feel the energy flow?"

"I can!" Winn said with amazement.

"What are you two doing to me?" I asked. "That makes me feel uncomfortable."

"She has the talent! She's one of us!" Fedelma gushed. "She's picking up the energy of the grove and it is coursing through her! She's strong, Winn. She's as strong as her brother if not more, but that's not all."

"It isn't?" asked Winn.

"Concentrate and you'll feel it," encouraged Fedelma.

"I feel a tension in there. It feels like a spring trying to push a door open," said Winn. "What does that mean?"

"What you're feeling is potential," said the priestess. "Do you understand yet what that potential is?"

"No," replied Winn.

"She's a maiden, Winn," she said.

Winn got a shocked look on her face. "You're a virgin, Julie?"

I was suddenly embarrassed, I just nodded.

"What about Blake?" she asked. "You two never...?"

"Never," I replied.

"This is good, right?" Winn asked Fedelma.

"Better than we could have dreamed," she replied. "It is another sign." The way she said it was weirdly reverent.

"Does this change the plan?" asked Winn.

"Yes," Fedelma answered immediately. "One big ceremony on Halloween to do it all."

Fedelma turned to me. "No intercourse before Halloween, Julie."

To use Mason's words from the car ride, it was profoundly fucking weird.

***

Chapter 8 - A Talk In The Grove

We walked about ten minutes from the gate down a path. It had been incredibly awkward since Fedelma admonished me not to have intercourse. Winn immediately told her to shut the fuck up and the group had been silent since then.

The path opened up as we came to a grouping of absolutely enormous old-growth trees. The sight of it was so majestic in the moonlight that my heart started pounding.

"What kind of trees are these?" I asked.

"These are sycamores," replied Fedelma. "They were a hundred feet tall when the first pilgrim stepped foot on Plymouth Rock."

"I had no idea we had trees like this anywhere in the state. How come I didn't know?"

"My family has owned this track of land for hundreds of years," Winn replied. "These trees are on privately-held land and we don't welcome visitors, ever."

It made perfect sense to me that they would want to keep something like this quiet. In the eighteen hundreds, there would have been enormous pressure to cut them down so that they could be economically exploited. I'd seen a disk-shaped slice of the trunk of a giant California sequoia displayed in a museum. The placard said that the tree had been cut down so that they could prove to people that trees that size existed. Knowing that a tree that magnificent had been chopped down for such a frivolous reason had filled me with sadness.

In the modern era, were the existence of these trees publicly known, there would be a tremendous public pressure to make a state or a national park out of this land so that "the people" could enjoy their natural heritage. Winn's family would find themselves fighting eminent domain claims for years until the state had confiscated their land.

Beneath the biggest sycamore was a tiny wooden hut, built all the way around the massive trunk, making it look like the tree grew out of the top of the shack. I could see the shack had a little chimney letting out a thin stream of white smoke.

Winn held the door open for me, but told Fedelma not to enter. I saw a brief flash of irritation on Fedelma's face before she closed the door. It was blessedly warm inside and there was a clean platform floor. A pot belly stove had a tea kettle sitting on top of it. Winn sat at a small wood table near the stove and took her hoodie and shoes off. She invited me to do the same. She walked over to the stove and shifted the kettle close to the center of the stove top.

"I'm going to make us some tea while we chat," she said. "I'm going to ask you some questions and you are going to think I'm crazy. I am not crazy. What I am is ignorant. I'm ignorant of the way relationships are supposed to be. I am also ignorant of what makes for a healthy marriage. I am also largely ignorant of what makes men tick. I beg you, Julie, please be patient with me and help me to understand."

"What is it that you wanted to ask?" I was shocked when I heard my own voice pose the question.

She took a huge breath because she was scared to death. "When you attacked me tonight, why did you say I was humiliating your brother? I love your brother more than I love myself. I would never willingly or consciously humiliate him.

"After the incident tonight, I saw it all over social media. People kept saying that I was a slut, that I deserved it, or even more baffling to me, that I had it coming. I don't understand, Julie. What did I do to your brother?"

I was shocked. If I couldn't read her face just then, I would have been sure she was trying to fuck with me, but it was clear from her expression that she was honestly confused.

"You have been my brother's girlfriend since the very start of freshman year, right?" I asked.

"Yes," she answered.

"How many people in the school know that?" I asked her.

"Pretty much everyone," she replied.

"Everyone knows that the two of you have been peas and carrots for years and then all of a sudden after your birthday, you dumped him," I said. "A few days after that, you started flirting with those two assholes and you have made a complete spectacle out of yourself with them. That was humiliating to my brother, Winn."

"You think I dumped him?" she asked.

"Not just me, Winn," I answered. "Everyone thinks you've dumped him, Mason especially."

"But I didn't dump him!" she protested.

"You haven't spoken to him since the morning after the ceremony. You visibly avoid him in school. You won't return his calls, texts, or emails. You are traipsing around flirting with other guys now," I said. "If that isn't dumping him, then what is it?"

She thought about this for a long time.

"I didn't dump him, Julie. I am not in the process of dumping him, nor will I ever dump him. He is mine. Mine forever." Her statement was so possessive and fierce. I was taken aback.

"Then why haven't you spoken with him in weeks?" I asked. "The entire school is convinced he was dumped and the evidence you have provided is both evident and conclusive. He's devastated by how callous you've been."

She looked embarrassed. "In truth, I was mad at your brother when the ceremony failed. For so long, I'd been looking forward to being spirit-bound to him. We were going to make love all night long while I was still one with the spirit of the tree. Then I found out he was in love with someone else, I totally lost my shit. It took me by surprise. I thought we had a love that was unassailable. It took me almost an entire week to regain my equilibrium."

"So why didn't you tell him you needed some space? Why didn't you go back to him after that week and tell him how you felt?" My questions seemed to flummox her.

There was a long pause as she considered it. "It is awkward," she said. "I'm between a rock and a hard place."

"How so?" I asked.

"We made it a third of the way through the spirit-binding ceremony. We completed the part where he became mine, but we didn't complete the parts where our spirits joined, or where I became his. The orthodox position in our faith is that when he became mine, it gave me the ability to coerce him. The ability to coerce him is said to go away when our spirits unite."

"That isn't true, is it?" I asked. "How would it even work?"

"At face value, it is preposterous," Winn said. "Our tradition, however, is to respect it as if it is real. Were I to step in and spend time with him, they would suspect me of coercing him. It would be a very bad move diplomatically for the Bandraoi to be involved in something like that."

"Bandraoi?" I asked.

"That's what Fedelma and I are. We are priestesses of our faith."

"What faith?" I asked.

"Tuatha Dé Danann," she replied. "Loosely translated as 'the people of the goddess Danu'. The English used to call us the Druids. If you look us up on Wikipedia, you will see a bunch of Irish folklore. No offense to the Irish, but our people once inhabited all of the forests between the British Isles all the way to India. We were so much more than just the people of that island.

"What about your involvement with Mason makes a diplomatic issue?" I asked.

"When we arranged for the spirit binding, we had to show the priests that Mason was doing the spirit-binding of his own volition. We had Mason sign a contract to that effect. Diplomacy was involved. It was all so very tedious. As the ceremony wasn't completed, I could be accused of breaching my contract.

"Intentionally, I have had no contact with him because the priests might seize upon it to raise a stink. At the very least, it would cause a diplomatic incident. I've had to be very circumspect."

"So, you are saying you didn't talk to him because of how people in your faith would disapprove?" I asked.

"That's exactly what I'm saying," answered Winn.

"Why didn't you delegate someone to tell Mason this?" I asked.

"I sent him the note," she said.

"That note was worse than useless," I answered. "It had five instructions. It contained no explanation of why those instructions were required. It had no explanation of what would happen if the instructions were followed, nor what would happen if they weren't. On top of that, the instructions were batshit crazy."

"Batshit crazy?" she asked.

"You instructed him to seduce his sister into sex and then talk her into being spirit-bound without explaining what that means," I clarified. "That's definitionally batshit crazy."

Winn got a concerned look on her face.

"What is with those instructions anyway?" I asked.

"Spirit binding is a very complicated topic. Remember how I said you had to truly love and have power within you to be spirit-bound?"

I nodded.

"The true love part doesn't have to be exclusive. You do not have to love exclusively to be spirit-bound but there are certain scenarios where love for another can block you. In Mason's case, it is blocking because his love for you was unusually strong and it is unrequited."

"How can it be unrequited?" I asked. "I love him a lot, too."

"It is unrequited because you love him as a sibling and he loves you as a lover," she answered. "To remove the block, we need to have you acknowledge his unrequited love first. Then, we will be able to complete the spirit-binding."

"And the way for us to acknowledge the love is to have sex?" I asked.

Winn thought deeply for a moment and said, "Can we put a pin in that and come back to it? I would like to finish the discussion about how you think I humiliated your brother."

The tea kettle on the stove began to whistle. Winn stood, took the kettle off of the stove, and walked it over to the table. She had some sort of steeping basket prepared already which she slid into the pot. She glanced at her watch. "Seven minutes," she said to herself as she set an alarm.

"You want to know how you humiliated Mason?" I asked.

She nodded.

"After three years of being my brother's girlfriend, you suddenly won't have anything to do with him. People are observant and that says 'breakup'. Add to that the fact that you left Mason and immediately became intimate with Carter and Judd.

"What will people see? They will see that you left a short guy with average looks and modest athletic ability. You are shortly afterwards seen playing grab-ass in public with two stud-athletes who are handsome, over six feet tall, popular, and stars in Varsity sports. These people are going to ask why you broke up with Mason to go with those two guys.

I made eye contact.

"Why do people who have been in a long deep relationship break up right after the girlfriend turns eighteen, Winn?" I asked. "When you answer you need to consider the values of the people outside of your faith. Almost everyone at Midlands comes from a religious background where monogamy is considered the minimum standard of behavior. This is baked in to everything: their faith, the way their society runs, the way they look at the world."

Winn nodded. She could see where I was headed.

"So let me ask again, from the perspective of monogamist, why would a couple in a multi-year deep relationship suddenly break up right after the girlfriend's eighteenth birthday?" I asked.

"Shit!" she replied.

"My guess is that most will think you finally had sex and that Mason was a dud in the sack. They will think that because your next lovers are two obvious studs."

Winn had tears rolling down her cheeks.

"It gets worse though. If you dump Mason, what happens to Mason's status with his peers, the other boys at the high school?" I asked.

"Would it go down?" she asked.

"Yep. Do you know why?" I asked.

She shook her head.

"My brother is short, nerdy, and isn't that much of an athlete. What is the one thing that he's got going for him?" I inquired.

"I'm guessing you're going to say it is me?" Winn asked.

"Yep," I replied. "You are an oddball, but you are pretty, wealthy, athletic, and you have a really dynamic personality. You are very desirable. Even more so now that you've dropped the goth look. Whatever status my brother has in school is conferred on him for having landed you. That status boost is disproportionate because the fact he is obviously punching above his level to land you. When people think you have dumped him, what happens to his status? It drops down to negative numbers, because now he is the guy who couldn't hold on to you."

It was gut wrenching watching her take this in and realize that the situation was much worse than she imagined.

"Now, here's the absolute kicker. Since you kicked him to the curb, you've been seen fucking around in public with those two assholes. What will people think about him if you two do get back together?"

"I don't know," she answered.

"They will think he's weak and he has no self esteem. They will assume that he is so desperate to cling to you that he's willing to put up with being made into a cuckold and a fool by you," I said. "You've set it up so that the only way he can retain a shred of dignity is to walk away from you forever. When he doesn't walk away, because he loves you utterly, he will become an object of contempt in everyone's eyes."

She wept piteously for more than a minute until her alarm went off. I took the opportunity to pour us both a cup of the tea.

She took hers wordlessly. She then blew on it and then sipped.

"You should try it," she said.

I took a sip. It tasted terrible, but my whole body instantly perked up. I felt a wave of energy surge through me.

"What is this stuff?" I asked.

"Herbal mixture," Winn replied.

We sat in silence until the tea was finished. Winn was concentrating hard on the tea as she sipped it. It appeared that she really savored the energy she was getting.

She broke the silence a few minutes later. "Needless to say, Julie, I realize that you are correct about what you are saying. I messed up with Mason and I have my work cut out for me to make it up to your brother. I swear to you on the roots of this tree that I will do everything in my power to make good on the injury I have caused." She was so earnest and so heartbroken that my heart bled for her and my brother as she said that.

"Would you mind explaining to Mason what I told you tonight? How I am not dumping him and the circumstances that prevent me from communicating with him?"

"I will tell him what you told me," I promised. "It is going to be a hard pill for him to swallow, Winn. The fact that you have taken two new lovers did not impress Mason at all."

"They are not my lovers!" she snapped. She was so fierce that shocked me. "They are my prisoners! They are being punished!"

I couldn't help it. It made me laugh. "What was the punishment Winn? Being forced to sit you on their laps, grope your body, smell your hair, and kiss the back of your neck?"

"What you saw wasn't sexual intimacy," Winn insisted. "It is part of a larger plan to draw attention to their increasingly outrageous behavior."

"What plan?" I asked.

"You called Carter and Judd, 'Neal and Bob', right?" she inquired. "It was a play on fellatio, right? K-N-E-E-L instead of the name N-E-A-L? That was really clever. Where did you get that from?"

"My roommate at the University has a fixation on nineties misogynist bad-boy comics," I explained. "She considers her interest in them to be ironic. I think it is an insidious form of self-loathing. She plays their recordings all of the time. One of those comedians, when he is heckled, likes to refer to the hecklers as 'Neal and Bob'. It stuck with me."

"What made you decide to call Carter and Judd, 'Neal and Bob'?" she asked.

"I don't know, it just came to me," I answered.

"Maybe you were subconsciously seeing something about their nature?" she asked.

She laughed at my facial expression.

"Did you know it was Carter and Judd who took the video of Sally and Kathy making out at that party last year and passed it around school? I hated how they did that. It was so unnecessary and malicious that I was outraged. In August, at the beginning of the school year, they teased some poor sophomore kid who just came out. Their teasing was so vicious that the kid tried to commit suicide. I decided I had to teach Carter and Judd a lesson.

"I compelled them to become highly promiscuous practicing homosexuals. It was easy, Julie. They've both struggled with homosexual urges for the last few years. It is one of the reasons why they were so damn vicious with that poor sophomore.

"Let me tell you, they took to it like a duck takes to water. They love it. In just a few short weeks, they're sucking something like ten to twenty cocks a day. There's a rest area out on the highway that they like to frequent. They also suck a lot of cock in a video booth at a sex shop downtown. When they can't do that, they manage hookups on tinder or they do each other. I have them journaling their activity."

"You made them do this?" I asked.

"I can be very persuasive," she said. She was not being ironic. "Listen, the practitioners of my religion think I am some sort of golden child. That gives me a dump truck of resources that I can bring to bear. I used those resources to convince them it was in their best interests to explore their sexualities together."

"Are you saying you used magic?" I asked.

"Would it surprise you?" she inquired.

"What was that word you used earlier? Preposterous? That's preposterous, Winn," I shot back. "Those two guys aren't gay. There is zero evidence of it."

"Just because you haven't seen the evidence doesn't mean that it doesn't exist," she replied. "In the weeks since my birthday, they've both developed quite a lot of expertise in oral sex. "

"So if they are gay for each other, what was with all the flirting and grab-ass those guys were doing with you at the Dairy Queen?" I was so upset, my voice trembled when I asked.

"What I was doing with them earlier tonight was picking their brains for tips and tricks on how to make my own sucking better. I will show you the evidence as soon as I can, Julie. First, however, I want you to see this. Come with me."

***

Chapter 9 - Facing Winn

She stood up and walked me around the edge of the room, around the trunk ninety degrees. There were several shelves which had been attached to the tree. The shelves were covered with shoebox-sized lacquered boxes. Each box contained what was essentially a miniature diorama with little figurines and objects inside.

Winn took a deep breath. I could tell that she was nervous about what she was going to say.

"All my life, the priestesses kept telling me that I was magical and that when I came of age, I'd have the ability to cast very powerful spells," she said. "As I mentioned earlier, I realized from a very early age that this was total bullshit."

She looked at me to see how I took that statement. I just nodded to her.

"When I was seventeen, I apprenticed with Fedelma. I was not allowed to directly wield magic. I was underaged and that is strictly forbidden. What they do to start you off with is tree gaeses. I started off with these."

"What's a gaes?" I asked.

"It is a spell which compels a certain outcome," she answered. "You can cast a gaes to make someone do something. For example, we could cast a gaes compelling your mother to quit her job. You can cast gaes that outcomes will or won't occur. A couple of hundred years ago, my coreligionists cast a powerful gaes to make sure this grove was never discovered by an outsider."

Winn pointed to the top shelf. The lacquered boxes there looked the newest. "These were the first gaeses that I created."

I looked down into the boxes and there was a small model of a sycamore tree. In the next box over, there were several figurines of various men and women.

"Interesting," I said. "Let me guess, these work like voodoo dolls?"

Winn rolled her eyes. "Voodoo isn't really respected by my community. Our faith predates Voodoo by nearly ten thousand years. Voodoo isn't really magic. It is a deceptive discipline that traffics in credulity and superstition.

"Voodoo works by convincing the people being cursed that they are subject to powers that don't exist," she said. "The voodoo shamans use representational dolls as a hack. They convince the victim that something is going on by brandishing the doll as proof that the curse is there and working on them. The person being cursed sees the doll and they are hoodwinked into thinking that something is happening. The giveaway that it is a fraud is that without seeing the doll, the curses don't work. The curse, at its root, is a trick."

"This is different?" I asked, pointing to the lacquered boxes.

"Strictly speaking, these are never shown to the people being geased," Winn said. "Well, almost never."

When she saw the reaction that I had to viewing the boxes, she said, "That's the exact same reaction I had when I saw it the first time. Fedelma kept telling me that I had to have an open mind. I decided to run some tests. I set up a bunch of geases and then observed what happened over time. My tests were inconclusive. Some were successful, but some weren't."

"What are these dioramas meant to do specifically?" I asked, pointing to the shelves.

"This is the North of the tree," answered Winn. "You can tell by the moss on this side. Geases made 'to the moss' have a broad effect against general things. Remember the geas I said that protected this grove of trees from discovery for over two-hundred years? When we played field hockey, Fedelma had a geas 'to the moss' protecting the team against injury. We had no injuries, but that's not really proof the geas was successful.

"On the South side of the tree, or 'to the sun' as we call it, you can cast very specific geases. Suppose you want Adam to ask Betty out on Wednesday and Carla out on Friday, you would cast it 'to the sun'."

I could swear I could feel power or energy emanating from the lacquered boxes. I reached out my hand and the feeling on the palm of my hand grew stronger as I got closer.

"Do you feel the energy?" asked Winn. "The tea we drank should help with that. Why don't you touch one of the boxes?"

I touched one and I felt something like a very mild electrical shock.

"Did you feel the energy?" she asked.

I nodded. "What are these geases?" I asked, pointing to a group of boxes that were recently set up. For some reason they were giving me the creeps.

"This one is a geas against the priests interfering with Mason. This will be in place until we are spirit-bound and he gets protection for that."

"Protection?" I asked.

"Yes, when you are spirit bound to someone who has the talent, you basically become immune to most other forms of magic." She pointed to another box. This one protects your parents."

"Is there one protecting me?" I asked.

"No," she replied.

"Why not?" I asked.

She sighed. "We haven't yet figured out what to do with you. You are, figuratively speaking, the weak link in our defenses right now because Mason loves you too much. If you were threatened, Mason would do anything to rescue you, even if that meant he would betray me and the priestesses around me. That makes you a big-ass target in the clown-fight which is the politics of my people.

"Fedelma and the other priestesses have been trying to do divinations and readings on you and they are getting absolutely nothing. That, in and of itself, is extremely unusual. Some are convinced that this is because the priests have you in their control already. That was unlikely, but it is a possibility.

"Others were saying it was because you have the talent, which was a possibility given that your brother has the talent, too. Tonight, Fedelma claimed to have proof that you have the talent. But, I'm getting off track. We were talking about the geases. You were a target and a weakness in our line of defense and it wasn't easy to figure out how to protect you. Consequently, the decision was made to try to bring you under our control."

I bristled. "Exactly how were you going to do that?" I asked.

"Fedelma looked for ways that we could increase your dependence on others. Take for instance, your University studies. By making things harder for you, we could get you seeking outside tutoring, which would allow us to place assets with influence in your life. Let me show you."

She walked me over to a box where there was a figurine which was a miniature depiction of me. In the box, I could see there was a carved miniature periodic table, a carved model of an organic molecule, and a carved depiction of a miniature calculator. I quickly drew a connection to my academic struggles.

"What the fuck, Winn?" I raged. "You are trying to set it up so that I would do poorly in school?"

Winn shrugged. "You said it yourself a minute ago, Julie: the idea that a diorama like this would actually have an impact on the real world is completely preposterous."

That took me aback. Even though my mind was telling me that this was bullshit, something in my psyche urgently wanted it stopped. I instinctively reached out to tear the diorama apart. As my hand got closer to the lacquered box, however, I felt intense feeling of dread and nausea pass through my body.

"Yeah, you don't want to touch a geas aimed at you," said Winn.

"Turn it off," I insisted. "I've never struggled in school before but calculus and organic chemistry are kicking my ass this semester."

"Really?" she asked in total surprise.

"Really," I replied. "Every time I'm in class, I struggle with brain fog. It is all I can do to stay awake and understand what the prof is saying."

"Okay," she said. "Let's run an experiment."

She reached over to the shelf and removed the diorama. She carried it back around the trunk to where the table was. She carefully pulled the carved items out of the box, and threw them into the fire in the pot-bellied stove. As they burned, I felt something very slight tickle my brain. It was almost nothing, however, and it made me feel paranoid that it worked on me psychosomatically.

"Fuck!" I said.

"You felt something?" she asked.

"I did feel something, but I think I imagined it. No, I must have imagined it," I replied.

Winn nodded. "My guess is that it is psychosomatic," she assessed. "Remember, this shit is preposterous."

I looked at her for signs that she was being ironic or sarcastic. She wasn't.

"What other geases do you have going on with me?" I asked.

She looked really embarrassed.

"What is it that you're too embarrassed to say?" I asked.

"My people are the world's foremost experts in sex," she said. "A lot of our magic is related to that. We wanted to make conditions favorable for you to need outside expertise in sex. We cast a geas 'to the moss' that you would need help with sex so that we could get someone placed in your life to tutor you in that."

I instantly thought about my situation in my sorority and grew pissed. I immediately jumped to the conclusion that this could be why I was struggling with fitting in with my sorority. I wanted that geas gone, too.

"Remove it," I commanded.

With a shrug, Winn walked over to the north side and returned with another diorama. She quickly and carefully disassembled it and threw the items into the stove. I had the same light tingling of something being lifted away.

"If this is real, destroying that gaes should generate a sharp increase in arousal. It is said that kind of geas can be both good and bad," Winn said with a laugh. "We are in a grove of immense power. All of that power ought to be coursing through you, stoking up your libido, putting tightness in your belly, and making you wet."

As she listed off the symptoms, I began to feel them. Again, I didn't think I was that suggestible, but the sharp onset of arousal was hard to debunk in my brain. Worse, the smirk on her face showed that Winn knew what she'd done to me.

"Julie, here is something that you need to consider," she said. "The talent seems to confer several advantages on those who have it. You are going to find that those with it tend to be naturally beautiful, extremely attractive relative to other women, extroverted, unsentimental when it comes to sex and relationships, and they are-- we are, for the lack of a better term, promiscuous. We aren't sluts: we are not indiscriminate when we seek out partners. We are very selective. However, we tend to have a lot more partners than women who don't have the talent.

"Now that Fedelma thinks you have the talent, and that it is strong in you, she'll assign a priestess to mentor you. There is a lot for you to learn. The important thing to remember is that your sexual drive isn't a character flaw or some trauma from your childhood manifesting in you as promiscuity. It is just how you are built. The talent makes you a sexual being."

"What if I don't want instruction from your priestesses?" I asked.

"That's out of the question," she stated. "Remember, my people are utterly convinced that magic is real. In their eyes, untrained women with the talent are a danger to themselves and to society as a whole. They think of you like you are a superhero with death-ray vision. We simply can't allow you to walk around in society until you've been taught to control your power."

In answer to my negative reaction, she said, "It won't be as oppressive as you think. The priestesses are fun people and since you are at the university, the one that Fedelma will assign will be young. You two will be like besties. You'll see."

"What other geases did you set up for me?" I asked.

She got a grim, yet determined look on her face. She grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the south side of the tree.

"This geas is for you," she said. "It is for Mason as well."

"What is it meant to do?" I asked.

"We are specifically trying to get you two to have sex this week," she said.

"So the instructions you sent to my brother were real?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied. Her facial expression was defiant.

"You are asking me to commit incest with my brother," I said. "You are asking us to do something unthinkable."

"It is unthinkable to your people, but my people don't have the same view of incest," she said.

"Your people are okay with incest?" My voice was full of doubt.

"It isn't forbidden like it is in other religions. It is a matter of the body." Her tone in that last part sounded like she had made her case.

"So incest isn't wrong for you guys?" I asked. "What if the child is underaged?"

She was disgusted. "Oh, sex with children is strictly forbidden. People who do this are punished swiftly and severely." She physically shivered. "That's just so disgusting!"

"You're saying that sex between siblings or parents and children is okay as long as they are adults?"

She shrugged. "That's a matter of the body," she answered.

"What about the birth defects that come from having sex with people who are genetically too close to you?" I asked. "Don't your people have any taboos against that?"

"Of course we do!" she answered. "When our people have children, that is not a matter of the body. Different rules apply."

"But accidents happen," I answered.

"When our people join physically as a matter of the body, we don't produce children."

"How is that possible?" I asked. "Birth control isn't foolproof."

"Your birth control isn't foolproof," she said. "Ours is. Once conception is blocked, sex is simply a matter of the body."

"On what principle does your birth control work?" I asked.

"It is probably better to have that discussion at another time. Suffice it to say that when sex is a matter of the body, we do not produce children," she said authoritatively.

"So your people aren't monogamous?" I asked.

"No," she replied, surprised that I didn't know that. "Did I not just say that sex is a matter of the body?"

"Were you planning on cheating on my brother?" I asked.

"This is where your people and mine differ the most," she said with a smile. "We know that to your people, monogamy is an important part of the social structure. It is hard for our people to conceive of why. Our society isn't built around the idea that you will have one and only one sexual partner for your entire life.

"Don't you love my brother?" I asked.

"I adore your brother," she insisted. "My spirit longs for his. I am just eighteen, but I already know that I will bear his children if we are able. Right now, my body doesn't long for anyone else, but who is to say that it won't years from now? Who is to say your brother's body won't long for someone else in the future? The truth is that his body longs for you right now."

"You know this is bat-shit crazy right?" I asked.

"Why do you think that?" she asked.

"You could not be spirit-bound to him for his love for another. You were so jealous and angry when you found out, you ghosted him. Your proposed solution to remove the block and to heal the rift the jealousy caused is to send him to have sex with that person. None of this mentions the fact that the other person is his sister."

"This is bat-shit crazy to you?" Winn asked.

"Definitionally," I replied. "What if we are intimate with each other and he realizes that you will never match up to me?"

"That's monogamous thinking," she replied. "That isn't how it works for us."

"But Mason and I are not of your people," I protested. "We were raised by monogamous people in a predominantly monogamous culture."

She did not respond, she just clenched her jaw.

"Winn, I want you to remove the Gaes," I said.

"No," she answered. "I have faith you will come to understand. You will open up to Mason."

A tear streamed down her cheek. Her facial expression was stubborn. Her will was fierce.

"Winn, what you are asking me to do may be reasonable for your people, but it isn't for me," I protested. "This isn't how I was raised."

"I know that this is a difficult thing for you to do, but this will happen. For better or for worse, Julie, the fact that you and your brother have the talent will bring you both to us eventually. No matter what happens in the next week, you are both a part of us now."

"You are talking like this magic is real, but it is clear you don't believe it." I said. "Why are you showing this geas to me? You know that I think it is bullshit."

"I need a victory in this, Julie," she replied. "By speaking to you directly about this, I'm giving myself three ways to win."

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"It is true that I don't think the magic is real," she answered. "I'm trying to be open-minded about it. Let's postulate there is a very, very small possibility that it might actually work. That's the first way I could win.

"The second way to win is a little bit more complicated. I recently read a book on persuasion called Influence. It discussed an experiment where people were asked to do someone a favor. The interesting part was that people were much more likely to comply when the request included the word 'because', event when what came after the 'because' wasn't actually a reason. The author called it a trigger for automatic compliance."

Winn made deep eye contact with me from her kneeling position on the floor. "I am asking you to do this, Julie, because it will bring your brother and I back together. If you won't do it for me, do it out of the love you feel for Mason."

It was transparently and blatantly manipulative, but it still worked to some extent. I would do anything to help my brother, and despite all that happened, I still liked and cared for Winn, too. I didn't want her to be miserable and she seemed so convinced that what she was asking me to do would resolve her misery.

"What was your third way to win?" I asked.

"Ah. Remember how I told you that voodoo is a religion of deception? It works by making the victims obsess over the fact that the representational doll is real?"

"Yes," I replied.

"By showing you the geas dioramas, I'm putting the image in your head that this magic is actually real and actually having an effect on you," she said. "I have some experience in this, Julie. The first time I saw a geas that was set up to influence me, I couldn't get the image of it out of my head. It really worked on me. Day and night, I convinced myself, I was feeling it work on me. I'm betting it will be the same for you."

"Do you feel it, Julie?" Winn asked with an ironic smirk on her face. "Do you feel the magic worming its way into your mind? Do you feel it coursing through you and preparing your body for sex? Do you feel it making you wet for your brother?"

There was a moment of silence while I realized that I was flushed and my heart was racing. It felt exactly what she was describing and far stronger than I would have suspected. A total weariness instantly settled on me. "I'm done here, Winn. I want to go home."

***

Chapter 10 - Post Processing

Fedelma herself drove me in a golf cart to Winn's home. In the golf cart, she said, "Winnifred told me she threw a lot at you tonight."

"You got that right," I responded.

"It is always a challenge for a woman raised in the mundane world to become part of the sisterhood of the talented. Thankfully, we have a lot of experience with it, so we know what to do."

"Mundane?" I asked. "Is that the politic way of saying 'muggle' in your community?"

This made her laugh. "You joke, but there are factions in the community who have started using the term 'muggle' unironically."

"I suppose it is better to be called a muggle than a barbarian or an infidel," I said.

Fedelma laughed again.

When we got to Winn's house, she opened up an SUV. After I climbed in, she said, "I've got a couple of things that I need to nail down quickly. The first is that I need to get a sister assigned to teach you. It would be best to pair you up with an older woman who came into the sisterhood over-aged, like you did."

"Over-aged?" I asked.

"Women raised in the faith are raised in the culture. They are apprenticed when they are seventeen and they are initiated when they are eighteen. This is the standard and preferred path.

"When we find the talented outside of the faith who aren't yet old enough to be apprenticed, we start teaching them the culture. Then they join the preferred path at the correct age.

"When we find the talented who are over the age of eighteen, we initiate them first, then we skip teaching the culture and the apprenticeship. We start teaching practical lessons immediately. It is more challenging that way, but we are playing a game of catch-up. It is best that you learn to wield your talent before you start making life choices like, marriage, kids, and career.

"Some poor women marry monogamously and we only find out later they have the talent. It puts them in a hell of a position because they've structured their lives around a promise of monogamy."

"Is it that hard to be a monogamous priestess?" I asked.

Fedelma frowned. "Most women in the sisterhood see it as tragic to possess a capability that goes unused. My advice to you is to avoid making a decision pertaining to monogamy until you know what being part of the sisterhood really means."

"Where was I?" she asked. "Yes, getting a priestess assigned to you. For most women in your situation, I would assign someone older, of a similar power level, who came into the faith over-aged, like you. However, we have an asset at your University who is uniquely placed to be able to help you. She is barely older than you, and she was raised in the faith, but she isn't nearly as strong. If you wanted to, you could use your strength to bully her around. Don't! Expect Winnifred and me to hold you accountable."

"My other concern is that I need to line up a good tree for you," she said.

That sounded ominous. "A good tree?" I asked.

"When you are initiated, you commune with the spirit of the tree. We need to find one that lines up with your personality. Winnifred is a natural-born leader, and is perhaps the most stubborn person I've ever met. We had her initiated on an enormous thousand-year-old live oak. That was the suitable tree. I need to find the suitable tree for you. Do you have an opinion on what kind of tree?"

"I can't possibly have an opinion," I said. "I know nothing about your faith, traditions, or the qualities that you assign to various trees."

"Winnifred says that you're a flirt," she said.

"Am I?" I asked.

"You are certainly an extrovert," she said authoritatively.

I shrugged.

"I realize you are a maiden and they're inexperienced, but how do you feel about sex?" she asked. "Are you fearful of it? Squeamish?"

"I don't think I am," I replied. "The only reason I'm still a virgin is because I got involved with a guy I didn't trust to be my lover."

Fedelma chuckled. "Let that be a lesson to you."

"About what?" I shot back.

"About how making unwise decisions about monogamy can fuck up your life," she answered.

I seethed a bit after that.

"Do you have any objections to being initiated on a Willow tree?" she asked.

I wondered how the hell I was supposed to respond to a question like that.

"I know absolutely nothing about your faith, Fedelma. Should I have an objection?" I asked.

She got a complicated look on her face.

"That's a big topic," she replied. "It your tired, this isn't the best time."

***

At home, rather than entering through the front door, I walked around to the rear gate and re-entered my room through the pool-deck door. The note that Winn left on my pillow was still there. I crumpled it up and put it in the trash.

I went to the bathroom to do my nightly routine. Once I was in there, I realized that I'd already done it. I only had to peel off my tights and my hoodie and use the toilet. When I was done, I heard Mason's heavy breathing. It sounded funny to me, so I decided to look in on him.

The clouds from earlier in the evening had departed, so when I stepped into his room, the nearly full moon gave the room a bright glow. My brother was sleeping peacefully. For some indescribable reason, I had an urge to see his face.

I walked over to his bed and was startled to see that he was wearing a blackout sleep mask. I'd known he went through a phase where he was having trouble sleeping, but I never took him for a sleep-mask kind of guy.

My brother wasn't conventionally handsome. His eyes were his best feature. His nose and mouth were both a little too wide. Despite that, he exuded a very wholesome boy-next-door quality. It was the perfect face for his personality: a solid and reliable face for a solid and reliable guy. As Winn had said tonight, when he loves, he loves with his whole heart. I realized that if I had a boyfriend with a heart half as good as Mason's, I would have fucked him until the vacuum caved his balls in.

Fedelma's earlier comment about monogamy suddenly hit me. I foolishly agreed to be Blake's steady girlfriend. I knew his character was not one that would allow me to ever sleep with him. Instead of breaking up, I foolishly clung to a relationship that was never going to work. In doing so, I'd robbed us both of the possibility of finding a lover who would have been ideal for us.

She was utterly correct: Blake and I had both been burned by monogamy. In that moment, it made me profoundly lonely. I never felt so alone.

I decided I needed a hug. Without even thinking about it, I slid under the covers and snuggled up to Mason. I found myself embracing him from behind. I was taller than him, so I felt like I'd enveloped him. His arms and shoulders were very muscular. He didn't have big slabs of muscles, but he was both lean and ripped.

I put my nose into the back of his neck and inhaled. It was masculine and organic and intoxicating. It was the very best smell I'd ever experienced in my life. My entire body began to tremble, and I felt my already-aroused body flush even more. All of my senses came alive. The sexual tension that built up after Winn destroyed that diorama had never gone away. It was suddenly almost unbearable. I pressed my breasts into his back, which felt so good, I had to stifle a groan.

While keeping my left arm wrapped around Mason, I slipped my right, which was on the bottom, into my panties. I cupped my own sex while sandwiching my clit between my index and middle fingers and I slowly began to tease myself. I inhaled deeply from my nose to get another hit of that Mason's smell and without warning, I shuddered into the most massive orgasm I'd ever experienced in my life. It didn't diminish quickly. It just went on and on for what seemed like forever as my body released an unbelievable amount of tension. As the orgasm eventually began to recede, I slid my index finger inside of me at an angle and then swirled it around once, adding a lightly stretched feeling to the pleasure. It ramped up the orgasm just as it finished, giving me a huge boost right at the end.

When I withdrew my finger, I felt an overwhelming need to smell it. It had a strong organic odor, but it wasn't unpleasant at all. I liked that smell. It was the smell of pleasure. I licked my own finger clean. The afterglow crashed down on me like a fifty-foot tall wave breaking on the shore. I was suddenly inundated and drifting in a sea of wellbeing. It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced in my life. I was high as fuck and totally relaxed. It was the first time in months that I actually felt peace.

It never crossed my mind that the magic, or the "because effect", or the head games Winn had played by showing me the geas boxes were what led me to crawl into my brother's bed and masturbate while smelling him. All I felt in that moment was peace and contentment. I was so relaxed, I fell asleep next to Mason.

***

Chapter 11 - Morning Kiss

I startled awake with the sun shining on my face. The bed was warmer than usual, and I felt a body pressed up next to me. I'd shared a bed a few times with a friend at slumber parties as a kid, but I'd never slept in a bed with someone else since I was in middle school. It was a shock. The feeling of the warm body pressed up against me felt good. Damn good. At the same time, I was filled with panic, because for the first twenty to thirty seconds I had no idea where I was or who I was in bed with.

Eventually, my panic subsided enough for me to piece together what had happened the night before. I remembered being exhausted in the early morning hours and climbing into Mason's bed on a whim.

A thrill passed through my body, part arousal and part shame, as I remembered masturbating with my boobs pressed into Mason's back and my nose buried in his hair.

I took stock of my situation. I was on my back, more or less in the center of Mason's queen-size bed.

Mason was on his side, to my right, facing me. He was still wearing the sleep mask. His top leg was bent and rested lightly on my thigh. His top arm was lying across me, and his hand was on my left breast. He was not gripping or squeezing it, his hand was just there. I felt his erection pressed against my thigh

I had on a night shirt and panties. My brother wore a pair of boxer briefs and a loose-fitting tee. His face was in my hair, and I could feel his breath on my neck and face as he breathed the slow, deep breaths of sleeping. My arm, somehow, was tucked under the pillow on which his head was resting. I was well and truly trapped. There was no way I could slide out without waking him.

That sweet, organic masculine smell that I'd breathed in deeply as I crawled into bed had concentrated overnight, and the pillow under my head was redolent with it. The casual intimacy of having him in bed next to me aroused me. It wasn't slow to develop. One instant I was waking up. The next, my nipples were erect, my lips were puffy, my sex was slick and moist, and I felt that familiar tension tightening in my belly. It felt fucking fantastic. I was light-headed from it.

Mason stirred a little. He wasn't awake, but it wasn't hard to see that he was beginning to wake. His arm twitched, and the palm of the hand on my breast rubbed across my hard nipple, eliciting a moan from me. I turned to look at his face. I wanted to watch him wake.

That placed our faces just an inch or so apart. It was too close for my vision to focus well. He was breathing in from his nose and out of his mouth. I felt his exhalations across my lips. It was so erotic that my body began trembling and my heart began pounding.

I began telling myself that I needed to pull away before he woke. I needed to put some distance between us before I did something really stupid. As much as my mind was screaming at me to get out of there, my body didn't move.

During my senior year in high school, my friend Sophie Marston had told me the story of a hookup she'd made while visiting her sister at State. She was dating her former boyfriend at the time, and the hookup had been with a guy she met at a party and didn't even really know. I knew she loved her boyfriend, yet she'd brazenly cheated on him. I was confounded by why she did it. She wasn't drunk or high, and the pictures of the guy she hooked up with weren't that impressive.

She confessed that the more tempted she became to cheat, the more excited she'd become. By the time her temptation culminated in a frenetic coupling with a stranger in his dorm room, she was on fire. She confessed that the wrongness of what she'd done had made the sex far better and far hotter than anything she'd ever experienced with Todd. Afterwards, however, she was filled with self-loathing.

"Why did you do it?" I asked.

In a world-weary way, she'd said, "Oh Julie, the mind wants what it wants and the body wants what it wants. They fight it out and sometimes the body wins. If you'd met the kind of guy who checked all your boxes, you were ovulating, and you knew that no one would ever know, you'd understand."

As I remembered that story, I wondered if what I was feeling at that moment was what she felt right before she'd let the stranger at State college slide his hand into her panties for the first time. I was suddenly conscious of Fedelma's warning on our way home: "unwise decisions about monogamy can fuck up your life."

I decided enough was enough. My brain screamed, "Sit up and put some distance between you, right now!"

Instead, I leaned in and kissed him.

The touch was soft and warm. His lips were pretty dry. He needed lip balm. I reached out with my tongue and moistened them. When I did it, a jolt of instant electric pleasure shot down my spine. It was one of the most intense feelings I ever experienced. It made me completely lose control.

Before I knew it, my tongue was sliding into his mouth, seeking out his own. I'd French-kissed Blake, of course, but nothing I'd ever done with him had been so deliciously hot.

Blake was everything I liked in a man, appearance-wise: tall, broad shouldered, fit, with a fine featured handsomeness that brought actors like Orlando Bloom, Jude Law, or a young Rob Lowe to mind. I liked Blake and I cared for him in a way, but when it came to intimacy, I just didn't trust him enough to let my passion get away from me.

Mason was another thing entirely. He wasn't handsome at all. Prior to yesterday, I never once considered him sexy or thought of him that way. He was plain to the eye and didn't have any of the masculine features that I coveted. At the same time, I knew his heart and his personality through and through. I would entrust him with my life and soul.

Kissing him while he was asleep was a revelation. It was just so fucking wrong and naughty. The thrill that shot down my spine was instantly addicting. I couldn't believe what I was doing. The heady and giddy emotion of diving headlong into something so forbidden electrified me. It was like spraying kerosene on a fire.

I felt Mason start to stir. I knew he would be awake soon, and I wanted to hold out as long as possible. I pressed into him. My right hand was caught under his pillow, so I reached out with my left and touched his bare stomach. His belly was rock hard from all the running he'd been doing during cross-country season. I ran my hand in a circle. This finally woke him.

He suddenly snapped awake and instantly realized someone was kissing him. His hand reflexively closed around my breast, which made me moan into his mouth.

He was suddenly kissing me back fiercely. I shifted my leg and this had the effect of stroking his cock with my thigh. This made him moan into my mouth.

His hand on my breast grew more aggressive. He squeezed harder and trapped my erect nipple between his index and middle fingers. The feeling of it was exquisite. I realized I was arching my back to intensify the feeling.

He broke the kiss for a moment and said, "My God, Winn! You're so fucking hot. Your skin is burning up."

I reached up with my bottom right arm and put my hand on the back of his head. I rolled over onto my right side, so I would be facing him. I put my thigh over his and pulled him into me, hoping that his cock would touch my pussy. The angle wasn't right, however, and I felt it drag across my belly, sheathed by his boxer briefs.

I pulled him back into another kiss. He was fully aroused and gave as good as he got. The passion and heat of this kiss nearly melted my soul. After a minute, he broke our kiss to catch his breath. We started kissing again and he reached up and took my other breast with his bottom hand. He shifted his hands. With his eyes closed, he was running his fingertips in a slow tight circle, spiraling slowly to find my nipples again.

When he found them, he asked, "What happened to your piercings, Winn?"

I opened up my eyes, but he was still masked. It was evident that he loved the contact and the feel and he was concentrating on that rather than looking at me.

I pulled the back of his head in towards me to restart this kiss. That is what made him reach up and pull his mask off. After a moment of shock, his whole body stiffened as he tried to make sense of the fact that it wasn't Winn, but his older sister.

"Julie?" he asked, almost in a panic. "What are you doing?"

"Don't stop!" I said urgently as I pressed into the back of his head to initiate the kiss again. With my other hand, I pulled his hand back down onto my breast. "Kiss me, Mace, and don't stop."

Our lips made contact again and I went after him aggressively with my tongue to show him how badly I wanted it. His hands on my breasts tightened, and with a shock he realized he was actually fondling his sister's tits. He groaned into my mouth so loudly it took my breath away. I lightly dragged my hand down his belly towards his pelvis. That was too much for him and he suddenly let out a massive groan, his skin flushed hot, his entire body trembled, and his hips started bucking fruitlessly. It took me a moment to realize the pulsing of his cock meant he had come in his briefs and the wetness and the warmth that I was feeling on my belly was his ejaculate.

I ground my hips in towards him to intensify the contact between his underwear-covered cock and my belly. The groan he emitted intensified and took on a quality of relief and being overcome with a wash of pleasure.

The whole time he came, he never stopped kissing me, swiping his tongue into my mouth while he groaned. He was panting through his nose so hard it was making quite a racket. He came for a shockingly long time. It was even more intense than what I'd felt the night before.

Eventually his hips stopped bucking and his body stopped trembling and he broke his kiss.

"God damn, Jules, you made me come in my shorts just from kissing you." He sounded drunk, dopey, and high when he spoke.

My heart fluttered as I realized that I'd made him come simply from kissing him and letting him squeeze my tits. I knew what a good orgasm felt like and his had been transparently stronger than any I'd ever experienced. I marveled that I'd given that to him simply with a kiss. I'd never felt sexier, more attractive, or more wanted. I felt my soul glowing from it.

"Did you like that?" I asked.

"Holy shit!" he gushed. "It was so good that at this very moment, I feel like my life is complete. After that, everything else is going to be anticlimactic."

The way he said that made us both laugh.

He was quiet for nearly two minutes before he spoke again.

"Look Jules, I've got nothing but gratitude for that. I don't mean to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I gotta ask: what the fuck?"

We chuckled again to release tension.

"I had the craziest night of my life yesterday," I tried to explain. "I took a walk last night and got back really late. It was a quarter past two. I didn't want to be alone. I really didn't want to be alone, so I climbed into your bed. I didn't intend to spend the whole night with you, but I fell asleep. This morning when I woke up, you were snuggled up against me with your hand on my breast. I woke up on fire with a desperate need to kiss you. I'm sorry that I did it without asking, but clearly, you seem to enjoy it."

"Well, your kisses made my blood instantly boil, Jules. That kissing was the hottest thing I ever experienced. I... I didn't realize it was you. I'm sorry I got carried away and groped you. I thought you were Winn."

His hands were still on my breasts. He made no move to remove them, and I made no move to push his hands away. He looked into my face guiltily, but he wasn't about to willingly unhand them.

"I love you, Jules," he said. "I didn't think I'd ever get a chance to feel your boobs. You made one of my biggest dreams come true." He looked very guilty and he became emotional.

"It's okay, Mason," I soothed. "I know you thought I was Winn, and I don't mind your hands on my breasts any more than I minded the kissing. They both felt really nice."

"You went walking by yourself last night?" he asked.

"It would be more correct to say that I had a late night visitor and we took a walk together," I said.

"Who?" he asked.

"Winn," I replied.

"You walked with Winn?" he asked in shock.

"Walked and talked."

"What did she say?" he asked. His tone was so desperate that it made my heart ache.

"A lot. Primarily, she was trying to figure out why I was so pissed at her yesterday evening."

Mason was so confused that he had absolutely no response. His dumbfounded expression amused me.

"Look, Mason. She claimed to me that she didn't dump you and doesn't plan on ever dumping you," I replied. "She was shocked when I pointed out to her that her actions were indistinguishable from dumping you. She was honestly horrified when I showed it to her."

"If she wasn't dumping me, then why did she ghost me?" he asked.

"She claimed she was in a political bind with her religion. Has she told you much about her religion?" I asked.

"She's told me a lot, but I don't know how much, if any of it, to believe."

"Did she tell you that the priests and the priestesses don't get along?" I asked.

"Yes," he replied.

"Well, Winn and that priestess chick, Fedelma? They think that you have enough magic in you to qualify to be a priest? Priests don't often allow themselves to be spirit-bound. They are very suspicious that you are being coerced by the priestesses."

"Really?" he asked.

I explained to him what they'd told me about having to get him to sign a contract to avoid the appearance of coercion.

Mason saw through it instantly. "Well, whether or not it is coercive, it was deceptive. I had no idea that I qualified for their priesthood, so I wasn't aware of what I was giving up by being bound."

He thought about it and then shrugged. "I guess that's a moot objection, because I was going to do whatever it took to stay with Winn."

"When Winn says that she had magic, do you believe her?" I asked.

"No, but she doesn't believe it either," he answered. "She thinks it is all transparent bullshit. Why do you ask?"

"She talked to me openly about the magic last night. She said it was all bullshit, but I get the feeling she's lying."

"She's lying because the magic is real?" he asked.

"No, Mace. She's lying about her belief. She says she knows it isn't real, but secretly believes it is."

"She wasn't like that before the initiation," he observed. "Do you think something happened to her at the initiation, Jules?"

"I don't know. I just feel like I'm getting mixed messages. She says the magic is bullshit, but she's trying to be open-minded about it. She's casting spells as an experiment to find out if there is anything to it. She says that her tests were inconclusive. She was lying about that, Mason. She really thinks those geases work. What's really crazy to me is that she's casting geases in an attempt to manipulate us into doing what she wants."

"What does she want?" he asked.

"To do exactly what those instructions say," I replied.

"She wants us to have sex with each other and then be spirit-bound?" he asked.

"Yes," I responded. For the next several minutes, I explained to him about the geases she cast to put me in a vulnerable position and put me in their debt.

I also explained to him that she showed me geases that she cast to control my behavior and her "three ways to win" theory. That last part delighted Mason.

"Winn is so clever!" he gushed. "That's just like her to be that savvy in how she handles something like this."

He looked at me.

"You came back from that and crawled into bed with me?" he asked. "Was that magic or mental manipulation?"

"At this point I'm more inclined to say it was mental manipulation," I replied. "There's another dimension to the manipulation that you don't know yet."

"What's that?" he asked.

"They say that the same magic that runs in you also runs in me. They say I will be a powerful priestess in their order. They are insisting that I have to go through the same initiation that you witnessed Winn go through, in which I will commune with the spirit of a tree. They've admitted that they're already picking the tree out."

"Do you want that?" he asked.

"Nope," I replied. "I don't like how they're handling us. With you, they've set things up so that the priests will think the priestesses are giving you the appearance of choice while they are actually taking your choices away. With me, they aren't even bothering with the illusion of choice. They said that as an uninitiated woman with strong magical power, I am a menace to society. They claimed that, by law, they have the right to coerce me into the initiation and training. The way they talked about it was like I was a superhero with death-ray vision and that 'for the good of all', they had the right to forcibly train me to control it."

That's when Mason's alarm went off. It was eerie how perfectly the alarm timed with my statement.

"Isn't it kind of late for school?" I asked.

"Teacher work day," he replied.

"What are your plans for today?" I inquired.

"Teach you calculus," he said with a smile.

***

Chapter 12 - Monogamy

The first hour of calculus was slow-going as Mason struggled to establish a baseline for what I knew and where I was having trouble. After that hour, things picked up. We took a break between noon and one, and Mason made us grilled cheeses while I worked example problems from the book.

It was two in the afternoon when the house phone rang. I answered it and I was surprised to hear Fedelma's voice. "Good afternoon's Julie. Do you have a few minutes to talk?"

"Yes. I'm in the kitchen," I said. "Do you mind if I put it on speaker?"

"By all means," she answered.

When I activated the speaker, she said, "I've contacted the woman I want to mentor you. Her name is Shreya. She's of Indian ancestry, but don't let that fool you. She's one of us and was raised in the faith."

That comment struck me as profoundly weird. I had no idea that unexpected ancestry would be a problem in Winn's faith.

"She's a graduate student in Chemistry at your University. She was an Eta-Omega-Tau at the University of Virginia, where she got her undergraduate degree in Chemistry. She's made friends with your house mother and she hangs out quite a bit at your house. Her face may be familiar. She is a chemistry student, so she can help you with your struggles in Chemistry and she's supposed to be a whiz at Calculus, too."

"My brother is helping out with that," I said.

"And how is Mason doing?" she asked with genuine interest.

"From what I can tell, he's happy to have me back home," I said. "He was telling me how delighted he was just this morning."

I looked at Mason, and he blushed beet red.

"What would really help is if Winn herself shared directly with him what she asked me to tell him last night," I offered.

"We're working on that," she said. "We've been trying to get the priests to send a chaperone, but none of them will do it. We think they're trying to play out as much rope as possible so that Winn will ensnare herself. Were you able to tell him that Winn loves him?"

"I sent that message loud and clear, but this is one of those things where observed behavior is better than words," I said. "Winn has to walk the walk and not just talk the talk."

"One of the reasons why I was calling was to find out if he was going to the party at Kyle Johnson's house tonight. Do you know if he is?"

I looked at Mason, who shrugged.

"He never mentioned it one way or another," I replied.

"You should go and take him with you," she nudged.

"Why?" I asked. "The last thing a college girl wants to do is to come home from college to attend a high school party."

That made Fedelma laugh. "Well, you were complaining about Winn's involvement with Carter and Judd yesterday. Today, Winn's plan for those two will be revealed at the Kyle Johnson party. Mason should be there to see. You should be there to support your brother."

***

Mom came home from work early because she was so eager to talk to me. She arrived just after the call, and we spent the afternoon talking about every aspect of my college life.

In the twenty-four hours since I told the same things to Mason on my trip home, I'd been able to process and put my various woes into perspective. What had driven me into a depression was not that any given problem was that bad. I was being overwhelmed by a pile of small issues that added up. Mason helped me to compartmentalize, plan, and then take action towards resolving the problems. I was in a totally different mindset in just one day.

With my new fresh outlook on my troubles, I was able to tell Mom about the issues I was struggling with along with what my plan was for fixing them. I followed Mason's advice and kept the fact that I was forced to give the blowjob at my sorority to myself. I also presented some of the negatives as a positive. For example: the fact that boys weren't interested in dating the pledges from my sorority allowed me to say that I'd placed boys on the back-burner until I was through initiation.

Mom looked disappointed when I said that. "You don't approve?" I asked. "You were always harping on me not to allow boys to pressure me into sex and not to cheapen myself by being with a boy who is not worthy."

Mom nodded. "I did because you were in high school, and your figure and beauty make you a target for aggressive and unscrupulous attention. That isn't to say that having fun with boys is wrong. You just want to do it on your own terms, safely, and in an appropriate setting. High school culture sucks. At times, it resembles a prison: a bunch of people forced to live daily in each other's company with everything that happens observed under a microscope.

"That's not an ideal time for a young woman to experiment sexually because everything you do is under scrutiny and becomes public knowledge instantly. Now that you're out of high school, you'll never again be living in a fishbowl with that much scrutiny.

"If you had found the right partner, that would have been a different story. For whatever reason, though, you hooked up with Blake. I was scared to death because while he was very handsome, smart, and wealthy, I never really trusted him. He ran his mouth too much. I was certain that you'd sleep with him and word would get all over school. That shows you what I know, because you two were sleeping together for nearly two years and I didn't catch you, nor did word of it ever get back to me."

I looked at her in shock. "I never slept with Blake, Mom," I said.

"Never?" she asked.

"Not once," I replied. "The guy liked to advertise his own exploits. I saw it just like you did: if I ever allowed him to do anything with me, the whole school would know by midnight."

"Nobody before Blake?" she asked.

"No one," I replied.

"So you are a virgin?" she asked.

"Pure as the proverbial snow," I replied.

Her hand shot out and held mine. "First of all, let me say that I'm unbelievably proud of you for listening to me and taking my advice. As a mother, knowing that you took my advice is one of the most rewarding things I've ever experienced."

She was tearing up. The fact that she got emotional made me emotional.

"I'm going to give you some more advice, and I want you to take it to heart and really listen." She squeezed my hand in an odd way that dug her finely manicured nails into the meat on the side of my hand.

"Lose your virginity this semester. Find a boy who is clean, respectful, and discreet. Find someone who is sexy to you, but isn't someone you will love for life. Make it a group project to try as much out as you can manage. If you want to try anything out at all with sex, do it in your freshman year. Do it now. And for God's sake, use protection. Are you on birth control? If not, get on it and stay on it. If you need me to pay for it, tell me what you need and I will provide it."

I was so shocked, my jaw dropped. "I can't believe you just said that!"

"Listen to me, Julie. What you just told me about keeping Blake at arm's length proves to me that you are mature enough to handle sex. You are in the right time of life and the right place to experiment. If you have a bucket list of sexual things you want to try, now is the time to do it. When you're married with two kids and you are depressed about turning thirty, that isn't the right time to decide to explore something new. Don't get yourself into a position where you are facing down menopause and an empty nest with regrets that you didn't try to spread your wings a little more when it was more appropriate."

"Is that happening with you?" I asked.

"I will be honest with you because I want you to learn from my own experience. This is between you and me only. If you ever repeat a word of this back to your father, I will never forgive you. Can I trust you?"

"Sure, Mom," I answered. "You can trust me."

"I have some regrets in life about things and opportunities that I had when I was younger and didn't take advantage of," she confessed. "I've also had opportunities materialize later in life, when I was a young mother and the stakes to explore were simply too high."

"What kinds of things do you wish you could have explored?" I asked.

She looked at me and said, "Most kids don't want to hear their parents talk about sex. Can you handle it?"

"Yes," I replied.

"I wish I'd had a few more partners before I met your father. I wish I'd had a few quick flings to give me a little more experience. In particular, I wish I'd tried out a guy with a bigger penis."

In response to my facial expression, she said, "No, your father isn't in any way inadequate. He is well-equipped. My sister and my best friend Jody are size queens. They keep telling me that I don't know what I'm missing. I'm happy with what your father has, but I'd love to be able to tell them that it wasn't all that for me and I don't really respond like they do."

She looked at me to see how I took that. She smiled when she saw I was doing fine.

"There are a couple of things I always wanted to try. When I was your age, I always figured that I'd have all the time in the world, but within six months of dating your father, he asked me to marry him. I loved him utterly and had no qualms about committing to being his partner for life, but the timing of it meant that I had to set those desires aside."

"What did you want to do?" I asked.

Again, Mom looked at me to see how I was doing. "Two things mainly," she replied. "I wanted to experience group sex. I wanted to be with two guys and get double teamed. It was my go-to fantasy when I was your age."

"It was?" I asked. What the fuck? I asked myself.

"Yep," she answered.

"Did you ever have the opportunity to do that?" I asked.

"Once," she answered. "It was when you were eight and Mason was seven. I was twenty-nine and I was feeling depressed about facing down the big three-oh. I was on a business trip to Sanibel Beach, Florida.

"The client was a good friend. Her name was Charlotte. I went back to work after you and your brother both enrolled in school, and I struggled coming back. She was fifteen years older than me and was part mother and part older sister. She became my biggest client and my advocate.

"That year, she knew that I was struggling because she'd had a similar experience years before. She helped me through it. When she saw I was about to have a breakdown, she scheduled me to come down to do her external audits. Charlotte was the general manager for a half-dozen resorts, and she booked me a suite at an all-inclusive luxury resort on Sanibel. She really only needed me for a week, but she booked me for the whole month.

"It was early January and we were going through a cold snap up here. Your father could see I was breaking down and knew Charlotte was trying to help me, so he bought a skimpy bikini for me and instructed me to not return home without impressive tan lines.

"I spent those thirty days baking myself in the sun, drinking, flirting, and acting like a single woman. I would wake up late, work out, spend the morning at the beach, go in for a nap at lunchtime, then spend the afternoons at the pool. It was a magical time for me, because it was the first time in years that I didn't have three people making constant demands on my time and attention.

"The crowd at the resorts at that time of year was largely older singles. I was befriended by a couple of extremely wealthy socialites from New York City. Every night, they dragged me out to eat, and afterwards, we'd go to the most amazing night club which was right there on the property. I spent every night that week flirting, drinking, and dancing. I lived large and in a way that I never had the courage to do back in college. It was the best month of my life. I met your Dad when I was nineteen. It was the only time in my life after I met him at age nineteen where I lived without adult responsibilities and commitments on my shoulders.

"I met several men down there who, in other circumstances, would have given your father a run for his money in competing for my hand in marriage. Certainly, they were attractive enough to me that I would have slept with them if your father would have allowed it.

"One of the women, Marcy, who I am still in touch with ten years later, found out having a threesome with two guys was my ultimate fantasy. She set me up with two guys who were known as 'the brothers'. They weren't brothers, but they liked to double-team women and were allegedly great at it.

"It was the temptation of my life, Julie. As tempting as it was, however, I just couldn't risk destroying my family. I returned home after that trip with my virtue intact, but not without a certain amount of regret. Hardly a month goes by when I don't think wistfully about what might have been. I knew in college before I ever met your father that a threesome with two men was something that I wanted to do, and I regret that I didn't do it when I could have."

The seriousness of her expression told it all.

"You said there were a couple of things," I said. "What was the other?"

"Oh, I'm certain that you don't want to know about that one," she said with a self-deprecating laugh.

"I do want to know, Mom. You matter to me, and if you aren't going to tell me, then who are you going to tell?"

The facial expression that I got back was heart-warming.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," she answered. She released a big breath and said, "I've never told anyone this before, so please be gentle."

She waited until I nodded.

"I'm pretty sure I'm bisexual." She looked regretful and corrected herself. "No! If I'm going to do this, I need to be honest about it with you and with myself. I am bisexual, Julie. I've known this about myself for years, but I've never admitted it until now."

It was shocking to hear because I never picked up on the fact that my mom was like that at all. I'd never seen the slightest hint of same-sex attraction from her in my nineteen years. She was so nervous about her admission to me that I instantly put on my poker face. She watched my facial expression for a full minute before she dared to move on. I could scarcely bring myself to breathe.

"This one is a lot harder for me than the group-sex fantasy because I am much, much pickier about women than I am about men," she confessed. "I've only met a dozen women in my life who I found attractive enough to bed."

"How interested were you in those?" I asked.

"Interested enough that I seriously considered risking my marriage to ask for permission from your father," she answered. "Again, I love your father and he is enough for me. Even so, there were things I would like to try. I'm in the home stretch of my fertility and I'm starting to ramp up at a time when your father is ramping down. The temptation to do something stupid by asking your father for permission to explore is something that I wrestle with daily."

"Don't put yourself into this position, Julie! My advice to you is that if you have a bucket list, get those items checked off before you go looking for Mr. Right."

She said it with such emotion that it made me want to cry.

"Do you think that Dad has regrets like that, too?" I asked.

Mom shrugged. "It seems unlikely. He's a very private person about matters of sex. We've never really talked about that kind of thing. What he says all the time is that I am enough for him."

"Can I ask you why you are encouraging me to explore, but you got mad at Mason for asking you for permission to spend the night with Winn?" I asked.

"Oh, that's easy," she replied. "When Mason and I talked about that, I was worried that those two were too close."

"Too close?" I asked.

"You didn't see them this year before they broke up. They were utterly inseparable. Mason wasn't even eighteen years old yet and he was acting like a middle-aged married man. I want what's best for Mason. That means, I eventually want him to find someone he is as close to as Winn to settle down. The idea of a husband and wife going to the altar as virgins and then living out their days faithfully is a beautiful concept, but that isn't how it is any more.

"I want him to sow his oats and live life for a little while before he settles down. I want him to have some more girlfriends and see what's out there. I don't want him to end up marrying the first woman he sleeps with and then being stuck with regret over that for the rest of his life."

"Huh!" I said. "I heard an acquaintance of mine say recently that 'unwise decisions in monogamy can really fuck up your life'. I never thought I'd hear you echo that sentiment."

"It might sound like I'm saying the same thing as your friend, Julie, but I'm not," Mom said gently. "I adore your father and being with him and having you two kids has been the best blessing of my life. The fact that I have a few regrets doesn't take that away. I just want you to learn from me and to live a life free of regret."

"Mom, Winn's religion doesn't believe in monogamy, ¨ I blurted out. "Winn would never expect Mason to be faithful for life."

Mom got a frown on her face. "That's shocking to me. Really? I think they should be faithful to each other when it is time to settle down and have a family. I think it is important for kids to have parents who are faithful and reliable."

I decided to switch topics. "Mom, what was Winn's birthday ceremony like?"

"Oh! That was very pretty," said Mom with an amazed expression. "It was some kind of outdoor church service. It was very quaint and very beautiful."

"You didn't think it was strange?" I asked.

"Oh, no, Julie," she answered. "Your father and I went to an Indian wedding earlier this year. I thought that was pretty exotic. Winn's wasn't like that at all. It was quiet and beautiful."

There was something about this description that didn't jibe with what Mason told me the day before.

"Where was the ceremony?" I asked.

"They took us on an airplane to South Carolina, if you can believe it," she said. "Even though it was dark, it was still eighty-five degrees and frightfully humid. There was this beautiful grove of enormous oak trees, the kind with garlands of moss in the branches? The ceremony was at night, and they hung these large lanterns in the tree, and it was just so gorgeous. They had a bunch of people singing little hymns in the trees. Winn was wearing this gorgeous earth mother getup and they had her hair braided with flowers. It was not dark, because there were lanterns everywhere, but it was so contrasty it was hard to see. You know, the bright spots were so bright, that you couldn't see a thing in the dark areas."

"Where was Mason during the ceremony?" I asked.

"Oh, he was with us. He was standing on the other side of your father from me," she said.

This definitely did not jibe with Mason's description. It would be unlike Mom to get a detail like that wrong.

"How long did the service last?" I asked.

She looked really confused, as if she had no idea. "I don't remember," she said with a shrug. "An hour, maybe? Afterwards, they put us up in an RV overnight. Your father and I were so exhausted by the long day and the heat of the night, that we crashed right afterwards."

Mom got a complicated expression on her face. "Mason and Winn broke up right after that. You could have knocked me over with a feather, because they were so incredibly close. No one saw that coming, but the good part is that he will now have a chance to play the field a little and sow his oats."

***

Chapter 13 - Lessons

Just after dinner, Mason and I were discussing whether we should go to the Kyle Johnson party when there was a knock at the front door.

I opened it and found a beautiful young woman standing there. I immediately recognized her. I had seen her at the sorority house, often times in the company of Ashlynn. This had to be the woman that Fedelma mentioned.

"Shreya?" I asked.

"Julie!" she greeted me warmly. She leaned forward and hugged me, with a look of utter delight on her face. Despite her exotic appearance, she had a flat midwestern American accent. She broke the hug quickly and entered as if I'd invited her.

She spoke, "So, Fedelma tells me that you know absolutely nothing about our faith, and that I'm to do what I can to bring you up to speed as quickly as possible. I'm an initiated priestess and you are my apprentice. To you, I am your völva-kennari.

"There is a traditional greeting that you are supposed to give anyone who outranks you in the faith. That includes me. I want to make this absolutely clear: it is never a requirement to show any deference to me personally. I'd never ask it of you, and for someone with your strength, I would be powerless to compel it. I do ask, however, that you respect the office I hold and the traditions of the Tuatha Dé Danann.

"Fedelma warned me that you're ridiculously overpowered. When we get to the point where I am teaching you the magic, you will outgrow me quickly. As connected as you are with the Bé Chuille, it would be politically impossible for me to force you to comply to my instruction. If you don't do it, then it will reflect poorly on both of us. I'm basically begging you to do this."

"Shreya, I want you to know that I'm not an asshole," I said. "You will receive only respect from me."

"Thank you, Julie," she said with genuine gratitude.

"What am I supposed to do?"

"You stand with your knees together, you place your hands on your knees, and then you squat like this." She bobbed very quickly. It was a minimal gesture.

"After the bob, it is traditional for the student to reach out and touch the earring at the top of my helix," she said. She pulled her hair back from her ear to expose a tight ring around the outside edge of the top of her ear. It was a green ring that shimmered with blues and greens as though it were made of abalone.

Shreya's behavior to this point was so defensive, it was clear that she was extremely intimidated by me. I needed to put her at ease.

I mimicked her quick bob and then reached out with my right hand to touch the ring on her left ear.

She looked down at me. I was wearing a sweatshirt and a ratty old pair of leggings. "You are definitely not dressed for the party. Where's your room? Let's see if we can find something more appropriate for what Fedelma says the Bé Chuille wants."

It was then that Mason made his presence known by clearing his throat. Shreya looked at him and was immediately awestruck. "You are Mason, right?" she asked. "The consort to the Bé Chuille?"

Mason stepped up and offered his hand. "I'm Mason. Right now, I'm not the consort of anyone. It is nice to meet you."

Shreya was taken aback because she did not expect him to greet her like that. She reached out and shook his hand. In the kitchen, I heard Mom and Dad sharing a laugh. This bothered Shreya.

"Is there a place we can go to speak privately?" she asked.

"Let's go to my room," I suggested.

***

In my room, Shreya quickly doffed her coat, and I got a good look at her. She appeared to be about my age, or maybe a year or two older than me. She wouldn't pass as a high school student, but no one would question her as an undergraduate. She was clearly of Indian ancestry. Her coloring was dark, and her glowing skin had a light caramel color. She was, however, fair-skinned relative to many Indian women. Her facial features were sharp and she was beautiful.

She was wearing an asymmetrical neckline knit top and a pair of hip-hugging straight-legged jeans. There was an exposed strip of belly which was stunningly attractive. Seriously, her midriff was the stuff of legend. She would have made a young Britney Spears green with envy.

Her jeans made her ass look like a work of art, I was an inch or two taller than she was, but she was lithe, and that helped her look taller than she actually was.

She caught me checking her out, so she turned around. On the small of her back, where a tramp stamp would go, she had a tight constellation of triskelion tattoos. They were each about an inch around. She then turned her back on Mason so he could see it too.

"Is it true the Bé Chuille has these all over her back?" she asked Mason.

"It is," he replied.

"I'm surprised she could take so many," Shreya commented without clarification.

She then turned to me and unbuttoned her pants. She pulled her jeans and panties just far enough down to expose the area on her pelvis that was just above her lips. She did it so Mason could see it, too.

She'd removed all of her pubic hair, and she had a small tattoo of a willow tree. It wasn't big, it was maybe the size of a hand, but it was beautifully and exquisitely rendered with vibrant greens and yellows with an elaborately textured brown trunk. It was a true work of art with an amazing attention to detail.

"Wow!" I exclaimed. "Why are you showing me that?" I asked.

"It is the symbol of my office as a priestess," she replied. "It is the equivalent of a Federal Agent showing you their badge. I am a first-degree priestess of the Willow."

She pulled her panties up and buttoned her pants back up.

"What does the Willow tree represent?" I asked.

"Traditionally, it is associated with emotional resiliency, strong spiritual power, healing, and medicine. Within the faith, it is the tree most associated with sex. It is said that the spirit of the female willow trees are horny AF."

"Female trees?" I asked.

"Some trees are clonal, meaning they reproduce only via cloning. Some trees are 'monoecious' which means that they are hermaphroditic and have both male and female reproductive organs on the same plant. Others are 'dioecious', meaning that the species possesses males and females," she replied. "Almost all of the Willow species are dioecious. The wild girls, the ones who really like sex, they are the ones who are initiated on female willows."

"So you are basically outing yourself?" I asked. "You are into sex?"

"Big time and shamelessly," she replied with a laugh. "It was destiny. My clit is the size of a large man's thumb. Ask me to show it to you sometime."

When she saw my facial reaction, she said, "Fedelma thinks you are just like me. Part of why she sent me to you was to suss that out a little more."

"Exactly how does one suss out if a virgin is 'big time and shamelessly' into sex?" I asked.

"I dress you in a sexy outfit, take you to a party filled with horny people, and observe what happens," she replied.

"Before we do that, however, I need to speak with Mason first. Mason?"

Shreya walked over to him.

"Fedelma wanted you to know that if you choose to attend the party we are going to tonight, the Bé Chuille has agreed to meet with you there. She wishes to make a conspicuous public display that you two are still a couple, and she wishes to reconcile with you. As a measure of her earnestness and goodwill, she has offered me to you as a gift to use in any way except for intercourse.

"In case you have any doubts as to the sincerity of her actions, Fedelma herself will confirm what I am saying."

She sinuously dropped down to her knees in front of him.

"As for me personally, I would love to do this for you of my own volition. I volunteered for this opportunity. As you have just heard, I love sex and I am quite adept at using my body to pleasure a man. I guarantee you we will both enjoy it."

Mason was blushing beet red by the time she finished. In that moment, I suddenly felt a wave of negative emotion. At first I suspected I was jealous. After careful consideration, I decided that I wasn't being possessive of Mason, which actually brought a tangible wave of relief.

What I was feeling was envy for Shreya's freedom in offering herself to a man she didn't know. I wished I had that freedom, too. I got lost in reverie as I started to question whether I wanted to offer myself to just any man or to Mason. I couldn't figure it out. It was maddening.

I was pulled out of my reverie by Mason's discomfort as he tried to stammer out a response. "I'm a horny teenage guy, Shreya. Of course, I'd love anything that you would offer, but I think that it would probably be more politic for me to go before the Bé Chuille without having just played around with her underling."

It was a clever response. Shreya's statement had placed him on the spot, and he'd effortlessly danced around her.

Shreya smiled as if she expected that answer. "Well, the offer stands at any time, Mason."

***

I stood with Mason and Shreya outside Kyle Johnson's house. She was still in her knit top and hip-hugger straight leg jeans. I was in a corset top with a pair of high rise jeans. I was exposing midriff too, but not as much as Shreya. Where I had her beat hands-down was in the cleavage factor.

I bought that corset top while I was out shopping with Anne, my big sister at the sorority. She had been quite insistent. "God, Julie. If I had tits like yours, all I'd ever wear would be corset tops. Please get this one for me. Please!"

In the weeks that I had it, I'd never had the courage to actually wear it. Shreya, too, had been insistent, challenging my promise to be respectful of her rank and status almost immediately. When I realized that I was at risk of breaking that promise, I backed down.

"You are my sensei, right? So, I will do as you say, Sensei," I answered.

"I'm not your Sensei, Julie," Shreya said gently. "I am your Völva-kennari."

"I will do as you say, Völva-kennari," I offered.

Shreya flashed a smile at me and said, "Trust me, I'll have you looking hotter than you've ever been."

She wasn't wrong. As soon as she saw that corset top, she had the foundation for the outfit. She paired it with my high rise jeans and ankle boots, because it was supposed to be chilly out. She accessorized the outfit with her own jewelry. She had a choker that was studded with the abalone-like material that her helix ring was made from. She paired that with two small-radius hoop earrings made from the same material.

When I put it all on, Shreya was delighted with the result. "The choker is traditional for an apprentice in the faith. That jewelry has been used to seduce men for almost four hundred years."

She insisted on doing my makeup herself. I'd put some coverup and eye liner earlier in the day, and she'd wiped it all off with a makeup remover wipe. "You shouldn't ever use that stuff, Julie. In the faith, we have a moisturizer that works better.

She dabbed the moisturizer on me with a cotton pad, and almost immediately, I felt the skin tightening up and the blood flowing in it. It gave me that supernaturally healthy glow that her skin had.

"What is in this?" I asked.

"It's organic," she replied. "My mom has used this stuff for fifty years, and she's never had a zit or a wrinkle in her life. All the priestesses wear it. You will, too."

I don't know why I did, but I asked, "Is your mother of the Willow?"

"That's a complicated question," she replied. "She was initiated in India in Kashmir. That's in the north. High elevations and cold. The tree she was initiated on was a Chinar. Have you heard of the Chinar tree?"

"No," I responded.

"Huge trees," she said. "Some of the them are astonishingly old. The best groves are in isolated valleys in the Himalayas. Their leaves turn bright red and gold in the fall. The faith is smaller there, and priestesses don't really specialize as much as they do here. My mother is a scholar of sexuality, but she does some healing, too."

She then applied some eyeliner and mascara. The eye liner was heavier than I would have liked, but the mascara was barely there. I couldn't deny it really made my eyes pop.

"That's it," she said. "That's all you need."

She had me stand up to examine myself in the mirror. "That's fire. Julie. You are a true 'Melter of a Hearts' as my mother would like to say. Can I get a selfie? Mom would love to see this!"

She sent the selfie out, and not a minute later, a reply came in.

"See!" pronounced Shreya with a laugh. Her mother had texted, "Melters of Hearts."

Another text came in while I was looking at it. "This is who they gave you as your first apprentice? Tread lightly. She is powerful."

I was shocked at this and quickly handed the phone back to Shreya, who was a little embarrassed.

"What's up with the assessment of power and the fear factor?" I asked.

"Beauty and height are indicators of power among the Bandraoi," she said. "Unfortunately, there is a tradition of... bullying? That might be too harsh of a term. Let's call it, 'mean-girl shit'. The more powerful members of the Bandraoi end up dishing out mean girl shit. Part of this comes from the fact that the authority is based on power rather than ability, wisdom, or experience."

"I don't participate in 'mean-girl shit'," I insisted. "If I do it, I beg you to say something to me. Please hold me accountable."

Shreya smiled at this. "I like you, Julie. I was so nervous and I didn't know what to expect, but you are a delight!"

It had been a lovely moment between the two of us.

In front of Kyle Johnson's house, Shreya pulled Mason's arm around her waist. "The Bé Chuille want people to see that we are together. I will not disappoint her in this."

She walked through the front door as if she owned the place. There was a guy near the door who had just handed a wine cooler to his girlfriend. I didn't know him, but I recognized her as one of Mason's classmates.

Shreya walked right up to her with Mason's hand glued to her own. She stepped right into the young woman's personal space, looked deeply into her eyes, and said, "Mason, this one is really sexy. Do you think she'll join us?"

As she said that, Shreya bent and gave the girl a panty-melting kiss. Within moments the young woman was trembling and shuddering. It was clear she was in the middle of having a massive orgasm. When Shreya broke the kiss, the young woman swooned. She was a horned-up befuddled mess.

"I don't think so, Shreya," said Mason loud enough for everyone to hear. "She's dating Jimmy, here."

Shreya turned to face the young man, whose eyes were as big as saucers. "You better take good care of her, Jimmy. She's hot blooded and is social."

The young woman blushed. She liked that compliment.

Shreya then plucked the wine cooler out of the young woman's hand as if it had been offered to her.

"Thanks!" Shreya said brightly and twisted the cap off as she walked into the house, pulling Mason after her.

Kyle Johnson's family was wealthy and the house was enormous. There was a massive great room that contained the equivalent of a kitchen, breakfast nook, living room, and family room in a single large continuous space.

There were maybe fifty people in all in the great room. That sounds like a lot, but twice that many could have fit in there comfortably. A surprising number of them were people from my class at Midlands, which helped me feel less conspicuous about being a college girl at a high school party.

I was immediately pulled into a conversation with a couple of my former field hockey teammates who wanted to know all about the college experience. They'd heard I was pledging Eta and wanted the inside scoop. It was a fun conversation. I heard Winn's distinctive hoot as she came out of the home office that was just off the great room. She closed the door behind her. Winn was laughing as she stepped into the room. She was dressed in a bohemian peasant blouse and peasant skirt combo that somehow showed off every one of her exquisite curves.

She made a big show of seeing Mason straight away. "Mason!" she said, distraught. Everyone in the house stopped what they were doing to watch the drama. I looked over at Mason, and he had been caught red-handed kissing Shreya.

"What the fuck, Mason!" yelled Winn. "Who is this skank?"

"This is Shreya," he said. "She's a friend of Julie's from college."

"Why are you kissing her?" she asked.

Mason did not reply. He just looked at her with anger and defiance.

"I thought we had something special!" she said.

"I thought so too, until you started fucking around with Carter and Judd!" he said. The anger was real. He wasn't acting.

"Fucking around?" she responded, evidently deeply offended. "I'm not fucking around with those two!"

"Then how do you explain what you've been doing with them?" Mason asked.

"I've been trying to get them together," she said.

"Together?" Mason asked in confusion.

She stomped over and grabbed Mason's forearm. It was a stunning sight, because she was inches taller than him. She dragged him over to the home office which was just off the great room and opened the door.

The sound of grunts and groans came from in the office. Inside, Carter and Judd were buck naked, lying on top of a massive wooden desk. They were sixty-nining each other vigorously. They didn't bother to stop when the door opened and didn't appear to be aware that they had an audience. They'd obviously been at it a while and they were each deep throating the other with a skill and commitment that was, frankly, stunning. The smell of sex wafted into the great room.

There was an explosion of shock as people came to understand what they were looking at. I saw phones instantly snap up, taking pictures and video. Carter and Judd were so into what they were doing that they didn't even notice the scene that they were creating.

I slowly became aware after a minute that Winn and Mason were in a massive embrace and were kissing.

I felt a tap on my shoulder. Shreya said, "We're done here. Let's go."

"I can't leave Mason," I said.

"Fedelma said the Bé Chuille will take him home. We need to go."

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"To a bar," she said. She handed me something. I looked down and it was a driver's license. It as identical to my current license with the same picture, but with a different background color on the picture. All of the information on it was accurate except for the birth year, which was wrong. According to this license, I was twenty-one. The more I examined it, the more I realized it was a hundred percent real and would stand up to any amount of official scrutiny.

"Where did you get this?" I asked.

"Fedelma," Shreya answered.

***

Chapter 14 - Night Out

The bar that Shreya took us to was crowded and jumping. It was the Friday night closest to Halloween, so a number of customers were there in costume for a Halloween costume event.

To say that Shreya had been the life of the party at the bar was an understatement. She'd flirted with literally everyone, from the waitress and the female bartender, to every guy who looked her way. She had no problems flirting with couples, either.

With the guys, she'd get them hard, feel them up a little, and then turn and grind her magnificent ass on their bulge. With women, she'd kiss them and bring them to an orgasm just as she'd done to Mason's classmate at the Kyle Johnson party.

By the time we'd been at the bar an hour, so many people had bought us drinks that we had to ask the waitress and bartender to refuse the offers.

Under Shreya's gentle encouragement, I slowly opened up and started flirting the same way that I'd watched her do it. Pretty soon, I had guys dragging me off to the dance floor, one after the other. As the night wore on, I got more and more comfortable with the casual contact that seemed to be accepted in that context. I had several guys take liberties with their hands on my ass and a couple of adventurous guys had snuck a hand up to feel the underside of my breast. I wasn't innocent either. I felt a few asses and cocks through pants while I was dancing.

Every time I made sensual contact with someone, I felt a jolt of energy shoot through my belly. Shreya, of course, was looking for that and noticed it.

"When you give or receive sensuality, you feel the energy, don't you? It feels like someone is caressing your stomach from the inside, right?"

"Yes," I replied.

"That's your power inside of you. Have you ever seen a tuning fork resonate?"

"No," I answered.

"You can take a tuning fork and strike it and make it vibrate," she said. "You can also take that same fork and place it up against something that is already vibrating and it will start to resonate in sympathy. That's what you are feeling in your belly. When people get wound up, you are resonating in sympathy.

"Have you ever kissed a woman?" she asked.

"No," I replied.

"You've kissed a guy?"

"Yeah," I answered.

"Kissing a woman is very different. The energy is more delicate and sensitive. You should try it."

I just stared at her in shock.

"Look, I'm not saying you have to sleep with a woman, you just have to kiss her. Suzanne, our cocktail waitress, has been giving you the eye since we got here. You should kiss her."

"Is she gay?" I asked.

Shreya shrugged. "I'm guessing she is latently bisexual. She either never met the right person or had the right circumstance. Given the way I keep seeing her gawk at your cleavage, I'm guessing that you might be the right person for her."

Something about the way she said it made both of us laugh. I'd been very judicious with the alcohol and had, to that point in the evening, limited myself to sipping on a single cocktail. I considered whether I wanted to do it. I'd never felt the desire to kiss or bed a woman, but the idea of it didn't disgust me.

Frankly, the thought of kissing anyone at that moment sounded pretty good. The flirting, the sensuality of the dancing, especially the slow dances, and the energetic banter that I'd shared with Shreya had gotten my motor seriously running. I could have used a good kiss about then.

Shreya smiled as my expression showed I was thinking about it. "When you kiss, step into her. Make as much vertical contact as you can and put your hand right here on her belly."

She showed me a spot on her own belly.

"Make it like a caress, but press in a half inch or so. If the kiss is really good, you will feel her energy go up with the kiss. The resonance in your stomach will flutter. If it is really good, you're going to feel something light and fluffy wrap around your fingers. If you move your hand slowly, maintaining contact with your fingers, it will stay wrapped around your fingers. It will feel like the draw string of a laundry bag. Draw the string tight very slowly. She will react, but don't stop. Keep kissing her. It sounds convoluted, but when you are in that kiss, it will all be perfectly clear."

"What will this do?" I asked.

"Change her life forever," she answered.

This made us both laugh.

I lifted the glass and sank the remaining half of it. "I'll do it," I said. My timing was impeccable because Suzanne was on her way over to see if we needed another round.

I stood up just as she reached the table.

"You won't need that tray for this, Suzanne," I said.

"For what?" she asked, confused.

"For the kiss you want from me, but are afraid to ask for."

She hastily set her tray on the table top next to me.

I stepped in and kissed her. I pressed my tongue into her mouth aggressively and after two seconds of resistance, her whole body melted into mine as the kiss had a devastating effect on her. I stepped in further, mashing my body against hers. I remembered the belly comment, so I laid my hand on her belly.

Just as Shreya had described, I felt something that felt like a drawstring made out of spiderwebs wrap itself around my fingers. I slowly slid my hand up her torso until my hand was cupping her breast and squeezing. It put tension on the spiderweb strings, which stayed attached to my hand.

Suzanne suddenly started shaking and trembling and came like an absolute freight train. Suzanne began groaning into my mouth. It was so heady and erotic, I was light headed. I began to see stars. I could tangibly feel that energy resonating in my belly and it was the most remarkable feeling I'd ever felt. I loved it.

Remembering Shreya's instructions, I moved my hand from her breast to her neck. That pulled the spider web string even tighter. Suzanne's orgasm redoubled and intensified.

By then, several people at nearby tables were hooting and whistling at us as we kissed. One sour-faced woman was shouting "get a room!" but her voice was just one among many.

When I finally broke the kiss, poor Suzanne was worse for the wear. She had no breath left in her and her energy was shot. She was dopey, high, and was just as befuddled as the woman that Shreya had kissed back at Kyle Johnson's house. I gently sat Suzanne down in the chair and ran her hair back behind her ear as she desperately tried to recuperate.

I bent and whispered into her ear, "You're a fantastic kisser, Suzanne. Thank you for sharing that moment with me."

The look that she gave me was nothing short of reverent. I waited a moment to make sure she was sufficiently recovered. When Suzanne started breathing normally again, Shreya asked her to just bring us ginger ale refills whenever our glasses were empty.

As soon as Suzanne stepped away, I asked Shreya, "Was that magic?"

She got a look on her face which read, "Not exactly. It's a chakra thing, and that puts it into kind of a gray area. People who don't have the talent can do chakra things, but not often and not with such a decisive result. People with the talent can do it as easily as they breathe. For the record, I wouldn't let you do real magic just yet. You aren't initiated, so you aren't technically allowed to practice magic."

My first refill, when it came, was served on a cocktail napkin with Suzanne's name and phone number written on it. I made a show of folding the napkin and putting it in my pocket. Suzanne gave me a big smile from across the room.

After that, I had a couple of guys ask me to kiss their girlfriends, too. If I felt the girlfriend was genuinely interested, I gave the girls exactly what I'd given Suzanne: a class five orgasm while kissing another woman in a crowded bar room.

At Shreya's prompting, I kissed a couple of guys the same way to feel their resonances. Once, I did the chakra string thing to a guy during a slow dance. He was dressed up in a costume as a cowboy, complete with boots and a stetson-style hat.

As we kissed, he ground his substantial cock into my belly. I lifted my hand to his stomach. I felt a thick string of spiderweb material wrap itself around my fingers. I pulled it tight as I caressed his chest while we kissed. Sure enough he came in his pants just from kissing me.

The look of rapture on his face was twice as intense as Suzanne's. The fact of the matter was that guys had a lot more energy than girls and those types of moves simply hit them harder. When he came to his senses after the orgasm, the slow song was ending.

He suddenly realized I was well aware that he'd just come in his pants and was both ashamed and humiliated. He tried to pull out of our dancing embrace so he could beat a hasty retreat. Instead, I held him tightly and whispered aggressively in his ear, "God damn, that was hot Cowboy! Knowing that you were so hot for me that you couldn't hold back made me feel like the sexiest woman alive! I'll remember that dance forever. I leaned in and kissed him again, intentionally trying to melt his brain for a second time.

He walked away after that kiss like a man who'd just won the lottery. He was so dazed that he didn't even realize he'd never bothered to ask me for my name or number. I only knew of him by my nickname for him: cowboy.

***

Shreya pulled her car up in front of my house at fifteen minutes after midnight. I can honestly say, I'd had the absolute best night of my life in just over four hours at the bar. Shreya had shown me how to relax, how to flirt, and how to be comfortable letting myself go in a sexy and fun context.

"Are you spending the night with me?" I asked. "You drove three hours to be here, so the least I can do is offer you a place to crash."

"Thanks, but Fedelma offered to let me bunk with her tonight and there's no way in hell I'd ever turn that offer down," she replied.

"Why? Is it like a royal summons? More command than request?"

Shreya laughed. "No, Julie! You know how I said I'm a level one Priestess?"

"Yeah," I replied.

"Fedelma's the high priestess which means she's like a level fifty," she said. "She knows more about wringing orgasms out of junior priestesses than I know about Chemistry. She promised to keep me up half of the night screaming her name. She knows that taking on a student like you was a tough assignment, so she promised I will be well-rewarded."

I suddenly felt both jealous that she would be with Fedelma and envious that she'd be relentlessly pleasured tonight. Unfortunately, Shreya read my reaction perfectly.

"Oh, please don't be like that, Julie," she said. "You aren't initiated yet and even if I wasn't forbidden to give you orgasms, I couldn't in good conscience play around with you just yet."

"You were forbidden to give me orgasms?" I asked.

"Explicitly forbidden," she replied. "Don't worry though. You're my apprentice now. Half of what I have to teach you is sex magic, so trust me, we will spend quite a bit of time in bed together. Just not tonight."

With that pronouncement, she leaned over and unbuttoned my jeans. She slid her left hand into my pants, fingertips first. She pushed her hand in until her fingertips were tangled in the thatch of pubic hair over my lips. She placed her right hand on my breast. She said something in a foreign language and I felt energy that was hot like a candle wax jump from her palm into my uterus and vagina through my belly.

"What the fuck?" I asked.

"I was instructed to use a spell of arousal on you before I dropped you off," she said. "I'm following orders." She withdrew her hand.

My heart was suddenly pounding. I felt a bead of sweat spontaneously start to trickle down my scalp. An urgent sexual need dripped into my body from my uterus, slowly moving an inch at a time outward from where her hand had been.

I had been wet and aroused at the bar and now, I could literally feel my juices dripping out of my slit. There was so much tension in my belly that my hands were shaking.

"You can't leave me like this!" I said.

"Physician, heal thyself," she said ironically with a laugh and a smirk. She crooked her finger and wiggled it suggestively. "For now, though, I've got to go. I'll see you later," she said leaning across me to open my door for me.

I quickly leaned in and kissed her hotly, pressing my tongue into her vigorously. I placed my hand on her belly and when I felt the spiderweb string wrap around my fingers, I pulled it as hard as I could. Even though the drawstring wasn't really there, her whole pelvis lifted off the seat as if it was and I'd hoisted her up by it.

Shreya suddenly started to shake so hard that it was like she was having a seizure. I kept it going. After a minute or so, she made a horrific gurgling sound that terrified me. I immediately pulled out of the kiss and let the drawstring go. It couldn't have been more than a minute or so that I held her in that state, but it had been so intense that Shreya was completely unresponsive and out of it. I was panicked wondering if I'd harmed her.

That's when Fedelma's SUV drove down my street and pulled up my driveway. Mason got out and went into the house. As Fedelma pulled back out of the driveway, I stepped out of the car and flagged her down.

Fedelma pulled over next to us and rolled down her car window.

I did my bob and then quickly touched her ear. To say that Fedelma was pleased by this was an understatement.

"What's wrong, Julie?" she asked.

"I... uhhh... I think I've hurt Shreya," I confessed.

She quickly got out of her car and opened up the driver's side door, and placed her fingertips on Shreya's cheek and neck. After a second, Fedelma started laughing. "Did she teach you the chakra string technique tonight?" she asked.

"If that's the thing where you make contact with a person's belly while kissing and then pull on the spiderweb string thing, then yes," I answered.

Fedelma laughed even harder.

"Why are you laughing?" I asked. "I didn't mean to hurt her."

"You didn't hurt her, Julie," said Fedelma. "You did the exact opposite: you just gave her the orgasm of her life. It was so strong that you rendered her incoherent. This is going to take you a while to learn, but you are extraordinarily strong. If Shreya had done that to you and pulled that hard, you would have come hard, but it wouldn't have been any where near like that."

"So she is going to be okay?" I asked.

"Yes," she answered. "The only damage you did is that she's going to think you are a deity. You probably should be gentle when you do that for a while until you learn your own strength. Giving someone hard pleasure like that can be addicting to the receiver and you can ruin their lives with it if you aren't careful."

"But I did it to some people in the bar and they didn't react like that at all," I protested.

"They aren't Bandraoi," she answered. "The power in us makes that technique ten times more effective. Let me guess what happened: Shreya put her arousal charm on you and then told you that she wasn't going to help you work the tension off. You got mad so you used the one technique you knew on her?"

"That's pretty much it," I said.

"Winnifred is going to piss her pants laughing about this," she said. "What you should do is contemplate why Shreya was instructed to make you so horny that you acted rashly."

It took me a minute to figure out she ordered the arousal charm because she was trying to get me to hook up with my brother Mason.

"If it means anything to you, Winnifred did the same to your brother tonight. She laid the worst case of blue-balls I've ever seen in my life on him," she said.

A smirk grew on her face. "You could help him. He needs it and you need it and it would be a matter of the body. I will say this and I mean it: absolutely no fucking!"

That was when Shreya began to rouse. "Fedelma?" she asked.

"Have a nice ride?" Fedelma asked.

"Fedelma, Julie is unbelievably strong," Shreya said.

"Didn't I tell you that?" Fedelma was amused.

Fedelma asked, "Julie, can we leave her car here overnight?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Come on, Shreya," said Fedelma as if to a little child. "Let's get you into my car."

"I can't feel my legs," Shreya answered.

***

Chapter 15 - Help

In my room, I stripped out of the jeans and corset top. My panties were sopping. I needed to pee very badly, so I figured I'd pee and then clean up.

I could hear the shower running. Mason and I had a deal that we were allowed to go in and use the toilet while the other showered if it was an emergency because the shower curtain provided sufficient privacy. I figured Mason wouldn't even notice me being there.

I went into the bathroom and Mason hadn't bothered to pull the shower curtain shut. He was masturbating furiously. His cock, which I could not remember ever seeing before, wasn't huge, but it was well proportioned. It certainly wasn't as big as Blake's, which I'd seen a few times and nowhere near the size of the cowboy in the bar earlier that evening.

I sat on the toilet and began to pee. If Mason had turned ninety degrees at any time, he would have seen me. I watched him work himself and he was clearly at the point where he was ready to shoot edging himself to maximize his pleasure. When I was done, I mopped myself up as best as I could.

Seeing Mason's penis did not improve my arousal situation. I didn't want to flush without warning Mason, because it would cause the shower to run hot for a second and Mason would get scalded.

"Mason?" I called out.

He jumped out of his skin in absolute panic. He quickly turned his back to me and squeezed his legs together. He reached out and tried to pull the shower curtain shut without turning around.

"Oh my God, Julie!" he said. "You scared the shit out of me."

After a few seconds, he said, "That was so humiliating!"

"What was?" I asked.

"Having you walk in on me while I was jerking off," he answered.

"Don't feel embarrassed," I consoled. "I'm going to be doing the same in a moment. Shreya got me really wound-up tonight. She did it on purpose."

"How?" he asked. I didn't want to tell him she was claiming to use magic. The alternate explanation, that she was using a Jedi mind trick on me, was just as crazy.

"It's complicated," I answered.

"Why did you come into the bathroom?" Mason asked.

"I had to pee," I explained. "I didn't want to interrupt, but I need to flush and I didn't want to scald you."

"Okay, I'm ready for that," he said. "Go ahead."

I flushed the toilet and I was filled with an overwhelming desire to get Mason off. What I really wanted to do, more than anything, was to lay waste to my brother as I had to Cowboy and to Shreya.

I couldn't help it, I just had to take another peek at him. I stuck my head into the shower. "Mason?"

He was still standing with his back to me.

"What?" he asked.

"If you want, I can help you with that," I offered. "Want to share a bed again?" My heart was absolutely pounding. I could not believe that I just offered that.

"Really?" he asked. "You mean that?"

"Yes," I replied. "Shreya showed me something tonight and I want to see what you think of it."

"Okay," he said.

"I'll be in your room," I said.

I walked into his room pulled his covers back and laid down on his bed wearing only my thong panties.

He came in a minute later with his towel around his waist. He saw my bare breasts and was gobsmacked. He didn't know what to do.

"Can I see your cock again?" I asked.

He dropped his towel.

"I can't say I've seen very many of them, but I like yours," I said. "It looks good."

"Thanks," he said with a blush.

"Come lay down next to me," I said.

He laid down and I quickly rolled into him and kissed him. I wanted to start quickly, before either of us thought about it too much. Our kiss, as it had been the night before, was electric. Within seconds, his whole body was trembling again. Without really thinking about it, I placed my hand on his stomach as I had with the people in the bar. I suddenly felt the gossamer drawstring in my hand, only it was fat like a rope rather than skinny like a string.

I reached out with both of my hands and took a hold of Mason's cock. His answering groan was otherworldly. His penis was hot and soft, yet it was also strangely rock hard. As I slowly squeezed and manipulated Mason's cock, I felt the fat rope of energy tangle around his penis and pull tight. I stopped moving my hands and by accident, I discovered that by moving my elbow minutely, I could pull the drawstring rope without changing my grip on him.

I slowly and gently rocked my elbow back and forth. The manipulation of the rope was so light and gentle it was like I was tickling him to orgasm. He immediately overwhelmed with the pleasure and he went somewhere inside. He built up a monstrous head of steam with minimal stimulation.

The resonance of the pleasure that Mason felt was tying my stomach into knots. I kissed him even more passionately and after about a minute of the almost imperceptible slow strokes on the spirit rope, Mason was on the precipice of a massive explosion. I stopped and made the smallest possible movement back and forth, quick subtle almost non-existent pulls. I'd discovered that in my own masturbation sessions that if I edged for a while and then stimulated myself with the absolute minimum stimulus, it could drive myself into a stupendous orgasm. Mason's explosion took me by surprise and there was no doubting the strength of his pleasure.

He shot rope after rope of come all over his own chest and neck, liberally painting the underside of his own chin. The noises of bliss and pleasure that Mason was making made my heart pound. He kept coming and coming for nearly a minute. It took a while, but Mason started to shy even from my minimal contact. I released his cock and let the drawstring spiderweb rope slip from my grip. He instantly relaxed into a profound stupor.

Remembering my blowjob lessons from the sorority house, I knew it was somewhat urgent to get him cleaned off before the ejaculate dried. I raised up onto my knees and I sucked and lick his neck, chest, and chin clean. I was doing it before I even really thought about it.

For years, I thought that I wouldn't like ejaculate: neither taste nor texture, but I found it to be slightly sweet and the texture was fine. I wouldn't order a bowl of it off of a menu, but as I'd been advised by Anne, by big sister at the sorority, it was a lot easier to just eat it than to try to wipe it up. "It's not that bad, and your man will adore you for it," she'd told me.

Mason wasn't coherent enough to even realize what I was doing. He looked like a junkie who'd just shot up.

"You taste good," I said in case he could hear me.

When I was done, I picked up his towel from the floor and wiped Mason dry.

I found my heartbeat quickening as I realized it was finally time for me. I rolled onto my back, drew my knees to my chest, and slid my panties off so I could masturbate with both hands. I used my right for my clit and my left for my vagina. I debated whether to try to insert three fingers instead of two. I decided to play it by ear.

Just a minute or two after I started, I was already nearing completion. Mason suddenly asked, "Can I help?"

I didn't quite know what to say. "Sure, if you want."

I felt him scrambling across the bed. I removed my left hand, to give Mason a better view.

"What do you want to do?" I asked.

"Can I use my finger on you?" he asked. "Inside? Like you were?"

"That would be nice," I answered. "You can use two if you are gentle."

I felt his fingers gently touch the outside and then slide in. It felt fucking fantastic. What made it so amazing was that I didn't know what was coming. I felt every single little movement he made.

"Oh God, Mason, that's wonderful!" I cooed.

He kept up with his fingers, exploring how different movements made me react. Before long, I felt him moving in closer. His hot breath blew across my lips. He began licking my labia while he slowly and subtly fingered my vagina. I was working my clitoris very lightly, edging to prolong the pleasure, and he was mirroring my gentle energy.

After a minute, the pleasure started to level off. That's when I felt him start to lick between my fingers as I caressed my clitoris. The licking felt absolutely amazing-- way better than my finger. I moved my fingers out of the way. Mason moved in greedily.

"God you taste good, Jules," he said. "Better than I dreamed."

He was licking too indirectly, so I grabbed his hair and moved his face around until he got his tongue on target.

"Right on my clit," I said.

I let him know when he found the right spot my growling out, "There! Harder!"

The orgasm, when it came, was unlike anything I'd ever felt. The pleasure was overwhelming. It was like the top of my head came off and I was suddenly inundated by an ocean of pleasure and well-being. I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience. I felt as if the loud grunting and groaning were coming from someone else rather than me. It went on and on. Wave after wave crashed over me and sent me into trembling paroxysms.

Suddenly, it was all too much for me. I realized I was throttling Mason with my thighs, so I opened them and gently pushed his face away. I registered that during the contractions, he'd been quite vigorous with his finger and that sent me into orbit. He withdrew his fingers very quickly. I felt him crawl away from me.

All I wanted to do was just float in the sea of peace and tranquility that I was immersed in.

After a minute, Mason made contact again. He crawled to my back and spooned me. His cock, which was hot and turgid once again nestled itself between my cheeks. He knew I was feeling the afterglow so he did as little as possible so as not to disturb me. I felt his scratchy cheeks glide across my upper back and neck as he gave me tiny little kisses. The feeling of that intimacy was exquisite.

"Thank you, Jules," I heard Mason say, almost in a whisper. "That was a dream come true."

That simple statement made me feel amazing. I knew in my heart of hearts that I'd just given Mason the greatest orgasm of his lifetime. My stomach glowed from knowing I'd done my best. My brother truly had a heart of gold. I would be lucky to ever meet another as kind as him. I was thrilled to have done this for him, doubly so to be the person who made his dreams come true.

I drifted off for a few minutes. I startled myself awake with one of those twitches that you get when you feel like you're falling. I realized that our respective angles had changed and his cock was right next to my entrance. If I arched my back and tilted my hips just a little bit, I could have him in me. I was tempted to take in just the tip. My heart started pounding at the thought of it. Suddenly, Fedelma's sharp voice echoed in my head, "Absolutely, no fucking!"

I realized that if I didn't do something, that's exactly what would happen. I broke contact and pushed on Mason's hips to roll him onto his back. With my face pointed towards his feet, I crawled up to his erect cock. I guessed it was around five inches long. It was neither fat nor thin, and it seemed perfectly proportioned. It was so hard it was a deep red and it pointed up at such a sharp angle, it was flat against his belly.

During the impromptu oral sex lessons at the sorority house, we'd been given a dildo that was seven and a half inches long and was thicker than Mason. It had been crafted to have a soft skin texture, but it was mostly rigid plastic and I struggled with its size.

Mason's real cock was a lot less daunting. It was smaller both in length and girth, and it was warm and soft.

I opened my mouth and sucked in the head of his cock. Mason's muted, "Oh my God!" came out almost like a growl. I'm not going to lie, I got a thrill from doing that to him.

I judged how deep I could go and I realized his size would allow me to take in most, if not all, of his length. I moved my hands up to play with his balls and I withdrew him from my mouth. This was a move I'd been taught.

Another thing from the blowjob lessons came to mind: you never give a blowjob with your shirt on when you can help it.

"Being able to see and play with your tits makes it more exciting for him. It will go faster, you won't have to work as hard, and you won't stain your shirt," Brittany, one of the upper class sisters, intoned.

I was already shirtless, so I instructed Mason, "Play with my tits while I do this."

I went back and started licking him all around. I would need the spit as lube for what I planned to do. Mason's hands drifted up and gently cupped my breasts again. He neither mauled me nor mashed me. His touch was soft and loving.

When I coated him with spit, I sucked him in again, going as deep as I could. At the sorority house, we'd been taught to wiggle our toes to keep from gagging. That was a tip that one of the dental hygiene majors gave us. They were instructed to tell patients who were prone to gagging. The sisters figured out that it worked with blowjobs as well.

I wiggled my toes and got my lips about three-quarters of the way down. I could have gone further, but his penis was too dry and that was holding me back. When I went back to licking and coating until I suspected I'd overdone it. I sucked him in and got to the point where his head was right at the pinch point in my neck. I could deep-throat him if I could get just another half inch in.

I was taught to open my jaw and dip my chin. I felt the head of his penis suddenly slide into my throat. With my toes wiggling like crazy, I pushed myself down on his cock until my lips were resting on his pelvis.

Mason's groan of pleasure when he realized what I'd done filled me with delight. We'd been taught to swallow with the cock in the throat, so I did that and every swallow caused him to grunt again.

When I was growing short on air, I withdrew him from my throat and lightly licked the underside of his cock while I caught my breath.

When I was ready, I made sure he was coated with spit and I pulled him into my throat again. When he was there, I used my fingernails to lightly scratch his scrotum while I rhythmically swallowed. The groan he made with the added stimulus of my fingernails was almost a scream.

When my air ran short I with drew him from my throat again.

"That feels so good I'm dizzy!" Mason said. "You're fucking amazing, you know that Jules?"

His comment was cheesy, but the stupor in his voice was what really convinced me he was being honest.

I pulled him into my throat a third time. This time, I rocked back and forth, which had the effect of dragging his sensitive head back and forth across the constriction. I applied my fingernails to his balls again and Mason started screaming my name as he came.

The first few spasms he made sent his come straight down my throat. I pulled him out of my throat and licked around his cock as he finished. I swallowed as I went along.

He went soft almost immediately, so I pulled out and laid down next to Mason. Mason wasn't moving, he was clearly in that same profound stupor he'd fallen into before.

"I love you, Mace," I said, kissing his cheek.

He turned to look at me, but his eyes weren't focusing.

"Not that I'm complaining, but what did I do to deserve that?" he asked.

"We can't fuck, Mace," I answered. "That's where we were headed when you were spooning me and grinding your boner into me. I'm sorry, but I'm not on birth control and I'm just not ready for that."

"Everything you did to me is so much better than I thought it would be," he said. His voice was filled with wonder. It made me chuckle in delight.

"I'm glad that I could help you," I said.

"How are you feeling about that?" he asked. "Do you feel guilty? Disgusted with yourself?"

I thought about it for nearly a minute.

"I don't feel either, Mace," I answered. "The truth is that I was happy to do it for you. As long as what we do stays between us, I don't really see any problem with it. How about you?"

"I have zero regret, Jules."

He rolled over and kissed me. I was surprised that he did it given that he'd just come in my mouth. He had to have tasted his own spend, but he had zero reaction at all to it.

After that, I put on some fresh bikini panties and slipped back into bed with Mason. He was already asleep and his warmth and slow steady breathing put me to sleep in no time.

***

Chapter 16 - Morning After

I woke up late. I was in Mason's bed by myself. I used the bathroom and I stood in front of the mirror, expecting to see the love handle that I'd developed in college. I knew exactly where it should have been. To my surprise, it wasn't there. My belly was perfectly flat.

I wondered how it could have disappeared overnight. I ran my hand over the spot where I remembered it being, but there was nothing there. I actually wondered if I'd ever had one. I'd read accounts of people with dysmorphia hallucinating when they looked at themselves in the mirror. I shook my head in confusion.

I slipped on a nightshirt and went to the kitchen to see if Mason was there. I found my mother sitting at the table, drinking a cup of coffee and looking at her phone.

"Have you seen Mason?" I asked. I started to fix myself some yogurt.

Mom looked up at me and said, "Yes. He goes on training runs every Saturday," she replied. "I rousted him this morning."

There was something about her tone that didn't sound right. I looked up and she was really examining me.

"What?" I asked.

"You slept in Mason's bed last night." It was not a question, but a statement of fact.

My heart started pounding, but I kept my cool.

"Yeah," I answered. "We were talking after we got home last night and I fell asleep."

"Topless?" she asked. Her tone was not one of approval.

"Mason's seen my tits before, Mom." As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I blushed. I can't recall ever having used the word "tits" in front of my mother before.

Mom was taken aback by my attitude. "Do you make it a habit of showing him your tits?" she asked. Her tone was laced with disapproval.

"No," I replied. "We have shared a bathroom basically our whole lives, though. He's seen them before."

I held her gaze and desperately tried to brazen it out.

"Maybe I should have had this conversation with you years ago, but you shouldn't do that," she replied. "You must not do that. Men aren't like women. If you get them hot-blooded they will do anything, even things that will get them thrown into jail and ruin their lives. You should never tease a man like that unless you intend to sleep with him, and you certainly shouldn't ever put your brother in a position where you tempt him into doing something stupid."

"He seemed alright with it last night," I answered.

"No man is going to say no to seeing a pair of tits, even if they are his sister's," her tone was one of disbelief. She couldn't believe that I didn't know this already. "I must insist, Julie, do not parade yourself around your brother naked. No good could come from it."

Maybe no good will come, but he will come real good! I answered her in my thoughts. I was filled with a perverse desire to tell her I moderated any negative reaction on his part by sucking him off. I decided that wasn't politic.

"What are your plans for today?" she asked.

"I need to do some shopping," I said. "I don't have much money, but I need a few things and a dress for the winter formal. Do you want to go to the mall and then thrifting with me?"

"Sorry, I can't do that today," Mom apologized. "I have a cut and a color scheduled with Jane at noon, then a mani-pedi."

"Where's Dad?" I asked.

"Golfing," she said. "He's off with his foursome every Saturday morning just like clockwork."

***

When I returned to my room, the door was closed. I opened it and nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw a woman sitting on my bed. It took me a second or two to recognize that it was Winn.

I did the quick bob and touched the earring at the top of her ear. Instead of having a single ring like Shreya, Winn had a half-inch-long barrel.

Winn was incredibly shocked that I did that.

"Winn, you scared the shit out of me," I proclaimed. "I didn't recognize you."

"Really?" she asked.

"Your new look isn't what I am used to," I admitted.

"Do you like it? My new look?" She was uncharacteristically vulnerable in that moment. She stood to show me that she was wearing a casual cotton midi dress.

"That's a dumb question, Winn. We both know you're gorgeous and that you'd look hot in a potato sack," I said. "To not admit that is just plain disingenuous."

This made her smile, as if she was caught trying to do something sneaky.

"I will say that I like your new look better than the goth look, but that's simply a matter of taste," I proclaimed. "I'm absolutely certain there are some guys at Midlands who were disconsolate when you dumped the sex-pot goth-girl look."

"Actually, I took a shocking amount of criticism when I changed my look," Winn replied.

"Yeah," I agreed. "I saw that on social media. That's just bullshit. When you outshine the other girls on their own terms, they're gonna be pissed. Haters gonna hate."

My statement made Winn smile.

"If you are looking for my brother, he isn't here," I said.

"I know that, Julie. I am not here for him. I'm here for you," she clarified.

"Why?" I asked.

"Couple of things, actually," she replied. "First of all, you had a big night last night. I wanted to see if you were okay."

I smiled at my memories of the bar. "I had a blast with Shreya last night," I said.

"Yes," said Winn with a smirk, "Fedelma told me that you did a number on her after she put the arousal charm on you. Fedelma said she spent the remainder of the night drooling and dazed."

She laughed as she said that. I shrugged. I didn't know how to respond.

"That isn't what I meant, however," added Winn. "I'm asking about what you did with Mason at the end of the night."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I replied.

Her expression told me she knew I wasn't being truthful.

"True story," said Winn with irony. "I was dead asleep in my bed last night when an acolyte of Fedelma's came crashing into my room and begged me to come to the trees due to an emergency."

"When we got out there, there were a half dozen acolytes running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Fedelma showed up in a nightgown, out-of-breath, and completely disheveled. Remember that little hut we were in that wrapped around the tree?"

I nodded.

"It was filled with smoke," said Winn. "The geas we'd set up to get you and your brother together spontaneously combusted. None of the priestesses had ever heard of that happening before. Not even Fedelma knew what that meant."

"So, you were concerned about what happened between Mason and I?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied. "I realize you have a hundred reasons to keep whatever happened to yourself, but I'm begging you to be open and honest with me. Did you two have sex?"

My heart was pounding. I was embarrassed as hell, and I was blushing so much my skin felt hot to the touch. Winn saw it right away.

"You did!" she said. The facial expression Winn gave was very complicated: joy, jealousy, anger, and excitement all wrapped up in one hard-to-read smile.

"I really need to know if you guys fucked," she stated. "Did you?"

"No," I replied. "We did other things."

Her smile eased. The anger and jealousy was gone.

"Hands?" she asked. "Oral?"

I nodded. "And kissing. We started kissing. I used the string thing while we were kissing and that led us to swapping oral."

"No intercourse?" she asked.

"I did oral on him in lieu of intercourse," I said.

There was a long moment of silence.

"What is it you want to ask?" I inquired.

"How are you holding up?" she asked. "Are you disgusted? Residual guilt? Regrets?"

"Mason and I spoke about it before we slept last night. We were both okay last night."

"And today?" Winn asked.

"I am not ashamed, but I'm freaking out that people will find out. My Mom caught me sleeping topless in Mason's bed this morning. She was pretty suspicious that something was going on."

"Go take a shower," said Winn. "Dress casually. We've got a long day before us."

She stood up and walked to the door of my room. "While you do that, I'm going to go talk to your mom."

"She's not your number one fan right now," I observed.

"I'm a big girl, Julie," she answered.

***

Winn drove us across town. She wasn't very talkative on the way. Just before we got to our destination, she said, "I'm very sorry to do this to you, but I'm caught in a situation where I don't have a lot of options," she said.

"Do what?" I asked.

"You'll see," she responded.

She pulled into a Dennys.

"I could have offered you breakfast back at the house," I stated.

"This isn't about food, Julie," she said. She pulled up and parked in a place where we could see right into the restaurant. My father was sitting in the enormous plate glass window in a booth. A woman was in the booth with him. She was sitting next to him rather than across from him.

I vaguely recognized her. She was someone I'd seen at the company picnic for Dad's office in the summer.

Their interaction had a distinctly flirty quality to it. She was snuggled up to my father and there was a lot of unnecessary physical contact both ways.

"What the fuck?" I shouted out. I was absolutely devastated.

Winn sighed. "We've been watching your family to see if the priests were interfering and we stumbled on this," she said, gesturing towards the plate glass window.

"If it makes a difference, they aren't having sex with each other yet," said Winn. "She's been working on your dad for a couple of months. He's done well at resisting her this far, but as you can tell from their interaction, his defenses have broken down. He's going to fall."

"She works with Dad, right?" I asked.

"Yep," answered Winn. "That's Tracy Hoke. Our sources tell us that she's a project manager at your dad's office. They're on some cross-functional team together, but they report to different directors. Their office doesn't have a policy on relationships outside of reporting chains, so the normal prohibitions aren't in place. She's married with two kids. She went back to work earlier this year and as far as we can tell, she has a thing for your father. He seems to reciprocate that interest."

"Why?" I asked. "She isn't in the same league as my mother."

"It's about ego," she answered. "Your father is good looking, but even so, it isn't in the experience of most men to be relentlessly pursued the way that Tracy is after him."

I went to get out of the car to confront them. Winn held me back. "I didn't bring you here to confront them yourself. I brought you here to discuss whether I should attempt to interfere."

"You?" I asked. "What can you do?"

"I have all of the resources of the Tuatha Dé Danann at my disposal. I can separate them. I can make them hate each other. I can convince her to quit and move away. I can compel your father to a particular set of behaviors. I could get your mother to accept an open affair, or to at least look the other way. Really, there are more things I could do than I couldn't do.

"The thing I'm struggling with here is that I'd be messing with the family of my partner. I have the willingness and the ability to interfere, but I just don't know what's appropriate. I was hoping that you could help me figure this one out."

"I want them kept apart," I answered. "I'm not sure how to do it without devastating, Mom."

"Leave it to me," answered Winn.

***

Chapter 17 - Measurement

Less than an hour later, Winn and I were walking back into the grove of old Sycamore trees on Winn's family's land.

I was taken underneath an enormous canopy a couple of trees over from the one with the hut and the geases. Fedelma and Shreya were there chatting and laughing. They were wearing dark brown robes. There were more than a dozen women wearing white robes. Most of them were running around making preparations of some sort. Others were kneeling at the trunk of the tree with their hands on it. They were chanting.

As I approached, Shreya made eye contact and waved. When I got close, I did my bob to Fedelma and then turned to do the same to Shreya. After that, I looked at the dozen or so women in white robes. With a whisper, I asked Shreya, "Do I greet them, too?"

"No," she replied. "They aren't priestesses. They are lay women of the faith who volunteer some of their time to help the priestesses out. When they are helping out our rituals, we call them acolytes. Otherwise, we refer to them as 'our children'."

An acolyte came by with a heavy wool robe for Winn. Winn and Fedelma stepped about fifteen feet away from Shreya and me. They were whispering back and forth and occasionally glancing at me.

Winn quickly unzipped her dress and let it fall from her shoulders. The nudity somehow emphasized her height and her regal bearing. She looked like she was seven feet tall. Fedelma, who was a remarkable woman in her own right appeared dowdy in comparison. From the way she carried herself, it was easy to tell that Fedelma was afraid of Winn.

Winn reached behind her back and unfastened her bra as she continued to whisper to Fedelma. When her bra dropped, it revealed that she had thick silver rings in her nipples. She slid down her panties and she too had been denuded of hair in the area just above her sex. In its place, there was a hand-sized tattoo of an enormous tree. It didn't look like Shreya's. I instantly realized that this was the live oak on which she'd been initiated, whereas Shreya's had been a weeping willow.

She turned around, and I expected to see the full back tattoo which Mason had described to me, but her back was just bare skin.

"I thought she was supposed to have a tattoo on her back?" I whispered to Shreya.

Shreya slid her own robe off of her shoulders to reveal her bare back. Where her constellation of miniature triskelions had been the night before was now bare skin. She closed her eyes and concentrated. Her tattoo slowly began to materialize.

It was so shocking to see, I said, "What the fuck?"

"The tattoo is only visible when you want it to be," she said. "We generally only show it when we must prove to others that we are Bandraoi."

I wondered just how that was accomplished. I guessed it was some sort of temperature-sensitive ink, so that if she got excited, or got the circulation flowing in her back, it would make the ink show. Shreya pulled her robe back up as Winn and Fedelma returned to us.

Fedelma said, "We are here to make a formal measurement of your power. We did this not too long ago to Winn, and she measured out as the most powerful Bandraoi we've seen in nearly a thousand years. You aren't going to be as powerful, but I would not be surprised if you surpassed even me. Would you like to find out?"

I was instantly revolted by the idea. I wanted to refuse, but something inside of me was fighting with my desire to just walk away. "What would I have to do?" I asked, looking for an excuse to say no.

"We submerge you in a bath of water mixed with a very special blend of tree saps. When we pull you out, the amount of sap that attaches to your back is an indication of your capability."

"Isn't it a little cold for that?" I asked.

"It is a bit nippy today, but the bath we will submerge you in will be bathtub warm, and I promise you we'll be as quick as possible," she said.

This was it. This was my chance to refuse, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I panicked in my head, wondering if this was some sort of geas forcing me to do something I didn't want to. I felt stupid because I knew that the concept of magically influencing people that way was bullshit.

Fedelma took my silence as assent. She asked an acolyte who was supervising, "Are we ready?"

"Yes, Fedelma," the woman answered.

They walked me over to a large wooden tub. It looked like it had been sawn off the end of an enormous barrel. It was nearly ten feet in diameter and was a few feet tall. The inside contained water that was so hot it was steaming in the cool morning air. It was hooked up to some sort of portable pump unit and a boiler. The water was being kept warm by this contraption.

Above the tub, a short bench suspended from the thick lower tree limbs with block and tackle.

"What is this?" I asked.

"Have you ever seen how paper marbling is done?" asked Fedelma.

"No," I replied.

"A hydrophobic ink is floated on top of water," she said. "A pattern in the ink is formed that resembles marble. You then submerge the paper into the pattern. The ink clings to the paper, which lifts the ink off the surface of the water. You carefully remove the paper and the ink stays with it, making the paper resemble marble."

"So what does that have to do with the tub?" I asked.

"That's what we do to you," Fedelma replied. "We make an ink pattern and then dip you into it. How much of the ink sticks to you reveals how strong you are in the power. Winn's entire back is covered. Just over half of my back is covered. Shreya's back has a three inch wide strip."

"I saw it yesterday," I replied.

As we stood there, a woman deposited a bucket of milky white liquid into the water.

"That's the tree sap," announced Fedelma.

"Get her ready," Fedelma commanded to Shreya.

It started with her stripping me naked right there under the tree. As I stripped, all of the women in the grove watched with a high level of apparent interest. Shreya's look when she saw me naked was so lascivious it was hard not to be scandalized. Winn's look at me was something else entirely. She'd seen me naked in the showers after field hockey practices and games, so she knew what I looked like. If I had to make a guess, she was simply happy that I was there.

Fedelma's glance was more disquieting. She was not interested in me either as a friend or as a lover. To her, I was nothing more than an object or a tool. She evaluated me like a butcher would evaluate a pig being led to the slaughter. It was disquieting to be looked at like that, to say the least.

I tried to be as nonchalant about my nakedness as Winn had been, but I was pretty sure I was blushing beet red.

When I was fully naked, an acolyte came up and slid a robe on me. This wasn't the dark brown of the ones worn by Winn, Shreya, and Fedelma, or white like those worn by the acolytes. Rather, it was the light tan of a camel hair coat. It was cashmere and was both warm and incredibly soft.

After that, several of the acolytes brought over wooden frames roughly the size of a door frame, each with a different dimension. They would hold them up to my body. It became evident that they were trying to find the one that fit me the best.

When Shreya picked one, it was placed into the water and was suspended from above so that it isolated a section of the water where waves or ripples would not disturb it. One of the acolytes brought over a tray of inks and started putting drops on the water that she would eventually work into triskelion shapes.

"We need to go," said Shreya. "She'll be at that for a couple of hours, and we need to get you prepped."

***

My preparation started with a large mug of a foul-tasting tea which Shreya did not drink. I drank it in the tree hut, which now smelled like smoke from the geas fire from last night.

As I drank, Shreya said, "I'm going to be honest with you. What you are going to do today is not pleasant. The prep isn't fun. What I can tell you is that it goes quickly: three hours max."

"What kind of unpleasantness is involved?" I asked.

"Pain and nausea," she replied.

"How bad? I asked.

"It varies based on the candidate. Given that you are powerful it is best to prepare for the fact that the pain will be severe," she answered.

When she saw how horrified I was, Shreya said, "As soon as the prep is over, the unpleasantness is over. The part where we dip you in that tub out there isn't bad at all. You'll be in and out in less than three minutes. After that, you'll be given a sedative that is, frankly, fucking amazing. You're going to be out of it for a while and when you wake, you will feel like you just had the best nap of your life. By eight o'clock tonight, you'll be right as rain."

"Oh, is that all?" I said sarcastically. "Just half a day of excruciating pain?"

"Pain and nausea," she said with irony. "The time involved is three hours. You will spend the rest of the day sleeping off some really good drugs. I'm sorry, but pain and nausea is the nature of the trial. When you grow up in the faith you learn the customs and you typically see it performed when you are apprenticed. That's both good and bad. You have years to obsess over it and build it up in your head. My fear of what it would be like far exceeded the discomfort I experienced.

"Apprentices raised in the faith always complain that overaged women like you, those who are initiated without apprenticing first, have it better because you don't have time to worry. There is a lot of wisdom to this."

"But aren't you ruining that advantage by telling me how awful it will be in advance?" I replied.

Shreya suddenly squeezed my hand very hard to get my attention.

In a furtive whisper, she said, "I'm telling this to you because of politics you aren't aware of. You and the Bé Chuille are strong enough that Fedelma is threatened by you. Your strength will give you room to maneuver and largely stay clear of Fedelma's machinations. Even more, it is clear that the strength you two possess unsettles her.

"When it comes to the talent, toughness is a sign of strength. The Bé Chuille didn't make one complaint the whole way through the prep. I have heard her brag that you are as tough as her and she expects you will do the same. My suggestion is to lean into that toughness for the prep. It's just a couple of hours and having Fedelma in awe of you is in your best interest."

A few minutes later, Winn stepped close to me and whispered into my ear. "This sucks, but you are tough. No complaints. No whining. No groans of displeasure. I'm begging you to do this for Mason and for me. I promise you that if you tough this out, it will be more than worth your while."

Her statement was ominous as hell.

***

Shreya wasn't lying. The pain was excruciating. When I finished the tea, I was walked out to a tent with several acolytes in it. There was a portable space heater so that the inside was comfortably warm. There was a tarp on the ground covered with a soft dry moss, In the middle was a wooden chair that was part dental chair and part gynecological examination table. I was placed in it and my limbs were lashed down so that I couldn't move.

Fedelma stepped in and with a brush, covered all of my skin from the neck down with a sticky cream. She liberally coated even my most private spaces, using a brush to force it deep into my crevices.

While Fedelma did this, Shreya whispered into my ear that they were removing my body hair permanently. She bragged that the paste was completely organic. Thankfully, it didn't smell awful like normal depilatory cream. Nonetheless, it burned like fire. The place it burned the worst was, of course, my crotch. The cream was smeared well into my crevices. When the burning finally subsided, it began to itch like mad.

"This stuff kills off the hair follicles and prevents new ones from growing," whispered Shreya. "A hundred years ago, a woman with no evident body hair set the priestesses apart. We are beneficiaries of the modern grooming practices. What you are going through sucks, but you will never have to be shaved, waxed, flossed, sugared, or use depilatory cream again.

"I had unusually hairy arms growing up and I was so self-conscious about it that I hated my arms. You can't believe what a relief it was to me that this hair was permanently removed. That's how I consoled myself as I suffered through it."

While I sat there and itched and burned, Fedelma stood there, impassively judging how I was handling the discomfort. Her uncaring attitude made me angry, so I bit down on my desire to cry, curse, and complain. I just took it.

Almost immediately, a couple of the acolytes started braiding my hair. They were basically braiding my hair into cornrows using tiny beads that were acorns that had been drilled and then polished into beads.

After burning and itching like crazy for a half hour, the women brought out stiff bristle brushes and began scrubbing my skin roughly, even in the most sensitive and intimate of areas. The women were pitiless as they worked. Fedelma continued to watch impassively to see if I would complain.

What Shreya had told me about unseen politics had raised my anger. I mastered my anger and resolved that I wouldn't make a peep. I saw the acolytes making eye contact with each other as they went along. It was obvious that some of them were bothered by the fact that I wasn't complaining of their rough treatment.

It was clear that a couple of them were deliberately trying to draw a reaction out of me. They would work very roughly and then look at Fedelma for signs of approval or disapproval. It was transparently obvious that she'd told the women to make me howl. This made me nearly apoplectic with anger. I funneled every ounce of that energy into mastering my pain and discomfort.

Eventually, Fedelma censored the acolytes. "That's enough with the rough treatment! She obviously isn't going to complain and all you are doing is building up ill will with an extraordinarily powerful Bandraoi." Anger spilled out of her voice as she said this. She was angry that I'd been so tough.

The brushes were put away. More buckets of warm water were brought and then my skin was washed thoroughly with an herbal-smelling soap. My hair was washed with a very thick and oily shampoo four times, which caused an oily build up that felt dirty, heavy, and made my scalp itch. I felt utterly miserable.

As the acolytes were finishing up, I began to feel so nauseated that saliva started streaming into my mouth. "I'm going to be sick," I warned.

I was untied from the chair and I barely made it to an empty bucket before I vomited uncontrollably. As I was vomiting, I was hit with a wave of stomach cramps and I began shitting uncontrollably too. Every time I vomited or shit, an acolyte with a bucket of warm water would gently wash me with a wash cloth. Acolytes would shovel out the soiled moss, the underlying tarp was washed clean, and then more fresh moss was laid down.

I had debilitating cramps in every part of my body. My arms, legs, and core all locked up with painful unrelenting cramps. Even the muscles of my hands cramped up. Despite the cool temperatures, I was streaming with sweat. I was as helpless as a babe in the woods. The women did nothing to help me relieve my cramping muscles. Instead, they admonished me to keep drinking water.

The very last thing I wanted was more in my belly to vomit out. A funnel was brought. Water was poured down my throat, and a few minutes later, I'd vomit it all back up again. It went on and on for over two hours. Eventually, I got to the point where there was nothing left in my alimentary tract to purge. Shockingly, once I'd cleaned everything out, the cramps and nausea subsided and I suddenly felt a lot better.

Shreya was then there with another tea. This one had a floral smell and was sweet. Ten minutes later, I was high as fuck. I didn't feel euphoric like I had with the Molly at the sorority house, but I did feel a similar sort of split in the mind-body connection, a burst of energy, and I began to hallucinate. I felt that the trees in the grove were all speaking with me.

A half hour after I finished the tea, I was walked back over to the tub. Shreya placed a snorkel attached to a long hose in my mouth,

She was forceful. "Bite down on the mouth piece and don't let water in, or you will choke and we will have to do this whole process over again. We are going to submerge you, slide the ink on top of you, and then pull you up through the ink. Don't spit out the snorkel hose until we tell you."

I had a hard time following her because by then, I was hallucinating that the trees were talking to me. Their speaking was so loud, it was hard for me to focus on her voice.

They used the block and tackle to raise the bench out of the water. They had me lie face-down on it and tied me to it. They then lifted me up and lowered me into the water. I went under water and breathed as best as I could through the snorkel hose.

My eyes were closed because Shreya had told me it was important to keep the tree sap out of them. When I was under water, the hallucinations and the noise of the grove just stopped. My consciousness faded to my breathing and a soft hum, which I presumed was the pump which was keeping the tub warm. I was utterly exhausted from the prep and I instantly felt like I was falling, just as you feel sometimes when you are falling asleep. I recognized I was in some liminal state of consciousness. I was asleep, but at the same time, I was awake. I was myself, but I was hurting, exhausted, and I was hallucinating.

I felt it before I heard her. I was suddenly in the presence of an immense being. I don't know how I knew, but it was as clear as day to me. I felt like a mouse being observed by an elephant.

I could not see her, but I knew exactly that she was looking at me and through me. I knew that the gaze was feminine, although I had no idea how.

I heard something like a voice being shouted from a million miles away, carried across a distance so great it should have been lost. It started as a low vibration and suddenly resolved into a feminine voice, deep and steady, and stretched thin by distance even as it resonated outward from the center of my body.

"Yesssssss!" she said in triumph, the word carrying a quiet satisfaction that made my breath catch. "There you are, Julienne."

She sounded pleased in a way that was calm and certain, as if she had expected this outcome and found it confirmed.

"The sap has done its work and is etching into your bones as we speak. You can hear me for now. Soon, you will always be able to hear me."

Her attention sharpened, and I felt it move across me with deliberate care, cataloging every perception. It felt like she was carefully testing the shape of something she treasured and intended to keep for a long time.

The presence behind my eyes deepened, focused, and then something in her brightened.

"Oh," she said with a soft chuckle. It made my pulse quicken despite myself.

"Yesssss," she murmured again. "You are exactly as I hoped."

Her attention lingered, not drifting away but settling in, as if she had found a detail she particularly liked and intended to enjoy it.

"So much hunger inside of you, yet you have never tasted anything at all!" she said. "There is discipline in that which is very useful, although it is misplaced. We'll fix that in good time." There was no judgment in that at all. It was admiration.

"So open to wanting. So ready to take in what is offered. So willing."

I felt exposed in a way that was not entirely unpleasant, which frightened me more than if it had been.

"The hunger that is in you for pleasure is not a flaw, Julienne," she admonished gently. "It is a door. When you open it, you will find the door leads to places you will like."

The words seemed to sink into me, finding a place that responded to them.

"We must save your restraint for other things," she continued. "Restraint is a tool to be hoarded. Restraint is finite. Desire is a tool to be spent. It continually renews itself. Believe me, Julienne, I would not choose you if you were small in your desires."

Her voice softened further, taking on a tone that was almost affectionate.

"You are well made, Julienne," she said. "Responsive, receptive, and intelligent. You feel deeply, and you will want without apology once you allow yourself to admit it."

The approval in her voice settled over me like warmth. It unnerved me because it was clear she was simply claiming me.

"I will not ask you to diminish yourself," she went on. "I will refine you. I will teach you where to place that hunger so that it returns to you, again and again. There is no end to what I can give you," she said, and her voice lowered, intimate despite the impossible distance. "There is no limit to the pleasure you can give, if you learn to open properly."

"You will not do my will alone," she continued. "You will draw others in. They will learn how you bring them what they want. They will come to you and you will please them for me."

A quiet pause followed, not empty, but expectant.

Her attention settled once more behind my eyes, steady and patient.

"Let me show you," the being said.

I suddenly felt as if I were being picked up and cradled in a single enormous hand with a palm wider than my body was tall. The sensation was overwhelming. I felt enormous fingers gently rolling me over onto my face and then bodily lifting my hips to put my lower half on my knees.

I was suddenly self conscious that I was naked and this position opened up my crotch fully to inspection. I felt a huge fingertip, over a foot wide, gently caress my ass and then rub itself down my slit. My body filled with the electric shock of arousal from the caress. For some reason I was completely certain that I was being sensually caressed by a giant thumb.

By the third soft and slow stroke down my slit, I was completely on fire. On the fourth, I came harder than I ever imagined was possible. It was all I could do to keep the snorkel clinched in my mouth. The massive orgasm that I had the evening before at the hands of my brother paled in comparison to the overwhelming, powerful, life-changing surge that coursed through my bloodstream. It felt so damn good I never wanted it to stop. As the pleasure began to fade, I actually found myself mentally begging for it to continue. "More! Please more! I'll do anything!"

The disembodied voice made a hearty belly laugh which engulfed my senses.

"Later! My daughter," the voice said. "We will have plenty of time for that later. It is a wonder that my blood runs so strongly through your veins and yet you almost escaped the notice of my people. You are nearly as strong as Winn, my chosen prophet who they call the Bé Chuille. I will tell you what I told her: you two belong to me personally. You two will be my prophets. She is the greater and you are the lesser.

"Those women who are called my priestesses are mostly dilettantes and fools. You two are mine and not theirs! Their foolish schemes and goals are a waste of time. What they seek to achieve is for their benefit and not mine. You shall work for me and for me alone. You shall do my bidding and my bidding alone. You shall speak my will directly to my people."

"Who are you?" I asked in my head.

"I am Danu, your Goddess," she replied. "You will be my lesser prophet."

"What do I call you?" I asked.

"You shall call me Danu to my people. In my presence, you may call me 'Mother'."

"Yes, Mother," I replied.

"To continue, we need to bind you to a tree. Doubtless my other daughters will have seen your strength, and will make it happen, but that is your next requirement. After that, you are to work with my daughter Shreya and learn my ways from her. She is sharp and she loves her work. Your purpose is giving pleasure in my name. This is Shreya's purpose, too."

There was a pause, which allowed me to breathe and adjust.

"I can see in your heart that you were raised to believe that giving many people pleasure is bad. I assure you that what you will do in my name is never bad. The people of this land will call you a whore, but I will call you my darling."

"Yes, Mother," I answered.

"You are most worried about your parents," the voice intoned. "You are worried that they will break apart."

Ever since seeing my father in the Denny's that morning, I'd had an ache in my heart so deep I couldn't express it. This voice in my head suddenly released a torrent of emotions in me. I hadn't even known how much I'd been affected. I bit down on the urge to burst into tears.

The voice continued, "I will bring your parents into the faith. I will keep them together and I will care for them. I will extend my protection around them. I can see in your heart this is what you most want, so it will be provided to you."

"Thank you, Mother," I answered. It took every ounce of my resolve not to burst into tears in relief. My emotions were swinging wildly.

"You are also worried about your brother. You are concerned about how he has been pulled into the politics of those who follow me. You wish to protect him. He will be bound to you, and you can protect him yourself."

There was another pause.

"I see that you understand," she said with delight in her voice. "If you do as I bid you to do, you will be rewarded beyond your wildest imagination. If you don't, you will feel my displeasure."

Just as she said that, I was woken from the stupor of my afterglow by the pain from the preparation which I endured earlier. The bench I was tied to jerked and I was slowly raised up. As my back broke the surface of the water I felt the oily ink cling to my back. At first, it felt like a thin layer of plastic wrap. The sensation became unbearable, as though the ink was trying to burn holes in my back and bore into my very bones.

When they had me suspended above the tub, I heard someone say as if from a great distance, "You can spit the snorkel out, Julie."

I spit it out and took a full breath of air for the first time in a couple of minutes. The ink's agony mingled with the afterglow Danu's caresses. My heart was racing, and I felt like I was going to pass out. They moved the bench and then lowered me down beside the tub. When the bench touched the ground, there were gasps.

"So many!" said one acolyte.

"Such strength!" said another.

A third said angrily, "Dammit, Brenda! Did you have to be so rough with the brush work on her crotch? She's going to be pissed at us when this is all ov...!"

I heard a scuffle, then Fedelma commanded "Silence!" The woman was instantly shushed.

The ropes fastening me to the bench were untied. I stood up and turned to face the women.

Words spilled out of my mouth unbidden.

"I am the lesser prophet of Danu! Tell the people that the lesser prophet has arrived! Tell them that Danu speaks directly to them through the greater and lesser prophets!"

I sagged. Shreya, Fedelma, and two acolytes were trying to hold me up so I would not fall over. Shreya was there with another mug of tea. This one smelled like peppermint and was overwhelmingly sweet. It was indeed a sedative and as Shreya testified, it was fucking amazing. As I drank it, whatever was in it absorbed directly into my bloodstream through my mouth. I was instantly buzzed. Despite the pain of the tattoo burning itself into my skin, I was asleep in minutes.

***

Chapter 18 - Purpose

When I awoke, it was dark outside and in the room. The only light was moonlight shining through a window. I was lying in a large bed, completely naked.

My muscles ached like I'd run a marathon earlier, but I was otherwise healthy. As Shreya had promised, the nap had been amazing and I felt pretty rejuvenated.

There was a warm body spooned against my back. It wasn't Mason. It was feminine and soft, without the bony muscularity of my brother. After a minute, I realized that I was feeling bare breasts against my back. I startled at that revelation, which made the figure behind me laugh.

"Good, you're awake. It's me, Julie," said Winn.

I made a move to break away, but she grabbed me tightly and said, "Please, give me a few more minutes, okay? I have some stuff to tell you and how we are right now, naked, and together, and in the dark, will give me the courage that I need."

I stopped trying to get away, and Winn snuggled closer to me.

"Thank you, Julie," she said with a lot of emotion in her voice, "Holding you like this has been a dream come true."

"Your dream was to hold me naked?" I asked.

Winn sighed and said, "Yes, Julie."

"I was in sixth grade and just starting to hit puberty when I figured out that I was gay." She said that in a small, obviously terrified voice. "Do you remember Mrs. Miller?"

She had been a young teacher when I was in middle school. She taught six, seventh, and eighth grade English. She was from a wealthy family and was a fashion plate. She had a never-ending supply of fashionable dresses that wowed the girls.

"Sure," I replied.

"I fell for her in a big way," Winn confessed. "I spent hours and hours doing homework for her class and getting it just right. I was desperate for her to take notice of me. I couldn't catch her eye, however. Sarah Long was her teacher's pet and I just couldn't supplant her. The hours I wallowed in envy and jealousy over that!"

She sounded amused by her own memories.

"Thank God, my infatuation with her wasn't so obvious that it was noticed. I managed to keep my little secret crush and my perpetual agony to myself. Looking back on it, I am able to see now that I was desperate for the love of a mother figure, as my own mother was as loving as a stone."

I felt terrible for Winn at that moment. The love of my mother meant everything in the world to me when I was twelve and I was dealing with major self-worth issues during my early puberty.

"Then, the summer after seventh grade, I was invited to a pool party," she said. "It was the first boy-girl party I was invited to. I walked into the back yard with my fucking flat black one-piece that my mom wanted me to wear. It was essentially a bathing gown with attached shorts. Not to mention, I was wearing that fucking dog collar.

"I was as tall as I am now back then and I was a bean pole. Seriously, I was like Olive Oyl, but with two little hanging bean-bags on my chest. I felt like a total freak. Everyone turned to look at me. Everyone. I've never been more humiliated in my life. I ran to the pool and jumped in. It was a mercy that Maddie was there. She was one of the few real friends I had. I swam over to her and thanked my lucky stars that I had someone to talk to.

"Not five minutes after that, Debbie Davidson walked in," she said with a touch of awe in her voice. "She was beautiful, and I was transfixed. I just couldn't look away. Nobody noticed, of course, because everyone else was looking at her, too. Luckily, I had a few minutes to cool down and pull my wits together.

"I knew that my response was not normal. I decided to run some tests. I asked Maddie who she thought the hottest guys at the party were. She pointed out the boys she liked. Those guys didn't do anything for me. I tested myself by looking at the cute girls and what I discovered was alarming. I found myself drawn to the girls in a way I wasn't drawn the boys. I suddenly understood my infatuation with Mrs. Miller in a whole new way.

Winn's voice suddenly became full of emotion. "It was one of the most horrible days of my life. I was already the 'weird dog-collar girl' and when I realized I was queer on top of that, it was simply way too much for a twelve-year-old to bear. I did my best to hide it at all costs. I learned how to mask my attraction to women and how to fake interest in boys. Even so, I developed a major fear that my classmates would discover I was gay.

"The weird factor that came from wearing the dog collar helped me with that. The fact that I didn't send notes to boys or develop obvious crushes went unnoticed because I was already definitionally weird. In the eighth grade, I figured out my goth-girl fashion hack. Once I started dressing goth, no one really looked at the collar any more. I was weird, but in a way that I controlled. Secretly, however, I was queer, and I kept that to myself.

"When I was a freshman in high school, I tried out for the field hockey squad and I made it. The first time I saw you, I was immediately enthralled. You were tall like me. We were the only two girls on the team that used thirty-seven inch sticks. With my height, they put me at center midfield. You were the center striker, so I played right behind you. I spent months of the year staring at you while you played in front of me. It was both heaven and hell in one image."

The way she said that made me laugh.

"We had practices for nearly three weeks before school even started. I'd totally fallen for you by then. You were tall like me, beautiful like me, athletic like me, in the smart kid classes like me, and you were fiercely competitive like me. Perhaps it wasn't true love, but it was certainly a bonafide crush. I tortured myself with that. I'd take pictures of you, stalk you on social media, and dream of what it would be like if we could get together.

"I met your brother on my first day at high school. I will tell you two things about this and I will be perfectly honest about both. The first is that I had no idea that Mason was your brother. You two have a certain facial resemblance, but he was short and is dark featured and you're the total opposite. It took nearly a month for me to figure out you two were siblings.

The second is that the moment I started talking with Mason, I instantly felt that he was a kindred spirit. He was weird and lonely, too. Like me, he was like an alien trying to surreptitiously impersonate a normal human and insinuate himself into human society. He was also loving and kind just like my father. He looked at me with such evident hunger, Julie. So many guys gave me the eye because they wanted to bed me. Mason gave me the eye because he was desperate for a friend who would just accept him for who he was.

"By the time we finished lunch on that first day, I was in love with him already. God's honest truth, Julie, it was that quick for me. Not only did I fall in love with him instantly, Mason was the first boy I ever had a crush on. That crush hit me like a freight train. If I could have, I would have married him that first day right there in the cafeteria. That was out of the question, however, so I played the long game.

"I prevailed upon him to be my boyfriend. Not only had I fallen for him, but I was delighted to be with a guy. The sheer amount of relief from the anxiety over being outed as queer was life-changing. I need you to understand, Julie, he was never a beard or a lavender boyfriend for me. I love him, heart and soul. I am certain that I love him as much as any woman has ever loved a man. I want him in my life permanently. The people of my faith do not often permanently pair bond, but in my heart, I already have with Mason. He is my past, present, and future as far as I am concerned.

"I will not lie, however. I am still very attracted to women, and you are, and have always been, the woman I'm most attracted to. I've tried to make sense of this over the years. Now that I am an adult, I would describe myself as a bisexual woman who is much more lesbian than hetero.

"In my religion, the Tuatha Dé Danann, there isn't anything particularly unusual about sex between two women. We aren't monogamous and the lay members of the faith are expected to have sexual relations with the priestesses because it facilitates the use of magic. Outside of our faith, people tend to think of homosexuality in terms of orientation, identity, and long-term pair bonding. Inside the faith, it is primarily thought of as practicality. It isn't necessarily associated with pair-bonding. It can be just two people getting each other off. The term we have for practical sex is 'a matter of the body'.

"This afternoon, while you slept, I climbed into bed with you naked and I held you. I did it and I am not sorry. I did it because I had what might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience it. I hope you can forgive me for doing it without your permission, but I will not lie: I have no regrets. This afternoon was one of the greatest experiences of my lifetime."

After a pause, I had to say it. "Both you and Shreya speak as if it will be routine for me to have sex with women, Winn." I said cautiously. "I'm not at all gay. I'm zero percent gay."

Even as I said it, the physical closeness of her body snuggled into mine was working on me. The feel of her breasts on my back and her arms wrapped around me, and the feeling of her soft breath against the back of my neck made me unmistakably aroused. I proclaimed I was not at all gay, yet my thighs were slick with my own juices simply from having Winn hold me.

Winn did not respond to what I said. Instead, she changed tacks.

"I feel very guilty for pulling you and your brother into the shit show that is my religious faith," Winn admitted. "For the most part, the Tuatha Dé Danann are good people. They love each other, they have a lively and vibrant community, and they really do look after each other. The problem is within the priestesses. It is riddled with corruption, self-interest, authoritarianism, and serious mean-girl shit. I think that there are a few bad apples at the top who are spoiling the rest of the barrel.

"As Bé Chuille, my mission is going to be to clean out the faith. If we can make the priestesses less self-centered, less obsessed with power, and more focused on serving the people, we can make our numbers grow again. As their leader, I am going to be a reformer.

"I am hoping that you will help me. You will be the ideal assistant for what I will do. You were not raised in the faith, so you aren't steeped from birth in the bullshit politics. The people will see you as neutral. I've got to know, however, when you came out of the water, you claimed to be the lesser prophet of Danu. Did anyone tell you to say that? Did Fedelma or Shreya put you up to that?"

"No," I responded.

"Why did you say it?" she asked.

"I don't know," I said. "Honestly, I had this weird, I'm not sure what to call it. Dream? Hallucination? I heard a voice."

"She talked to you, too!" Winn exclaimed.

"I heard a voice," I said cautiously. "The voice talked to me."

"The voice was female?" I could hear excitement in Winn's breathing.

"It was," I replied.

There was a long pause. "I'm going to ask you a weird question. Did she... use her thumb?"

Just asking that question instantly made me flush as I remembered the ecstasy of the touch. I shivered.

"Yes," I replied. I tried to keep the heat out of my voice, but I could hear it there anyway. "I've never felt like that before. I didn't want it to stop."

"Me neither," Winn said. Her voice sounded like mine.

"Was that real?" I asked. "Did that really happen?"

"I've been obsessing over that question, Julie. I had another experience, during the initiation proper, that was just as powerful. Just as real. I always thought that the spiritual aspect to the faith was just bullshit, but those experiences, they just can't be discounted. There hasn't been anyone that I could talk to about it."

"You didn't answer my question, Winn. Do you think that voice I heard was real?" I asked.

"Can we talk about it after you are initiated? I think it will be important for you to have that experience first," she replied.

"I'm not sure I want to be initiated, Winn," I answered.

"You're not going to have a choice, Julie. I'm sorry, but you are too far down that path. Fedelma, a half dozen priestesses who were there today, and a passel of acolytes are all now convinced you are the lesser prophet of Danu. That declaration came from your own lips. You aren't going to have a chance to back out now. If you refuse, they will bind you up and initiate you anyway."

"Is it as awful as what I experienced today?" I asked.

"No," she replied immediately. "It is a very different experience."

A minute of silence passed before Winn asked, "Did she tell you what you are supposed to do?"

"She said my purpose was to give pleasure in her name," I replied.

"She told me that I was to reform the priestesses and turn their attention to bringing more people into the faith," Winn replied. "She said, 'Pleasure will bring them.' I'm guessing that you're going to be my representative ambassador to the groves."

Winn asked, "Did she make you any promises?"

"Yes," I replied. "She promised to keep my parents together. She was going to bring them into the faith and protect them."

"Interesting," replied Winn.

"How about you?" I asked.

"She promised to give me you and your brother to take as my lovers," she answered. I felt her hand slowly reach around me. She wet her fingers in my juices, then brought them to her mouth and sucked them clean. It was humiliating, yet so sensual and erotic that I nearly lost control. My heart was racing. I found myself praying that she would caress my breast next. If she had caressed my breast just so in that moment, I'm morally certain that I would have orgasmed. Unfortunately. she didn't.

"I want you to know Julie, that I vow that I will never use a geas or magic to compel you to make love to me." She sensually kissed the back of my neck in a way which lit me on fire. "I'll wait until you are ready for me, Lover."

***

Chapter 19 - Greeting

I was taken by private airplane to Albany, Georgia. Winn, Fedelma, Shreya, and two other priestesses were on the flight. They were Fedelma's underlings and I hadn't been introduced to them.

We were met at the airport by a group of women whose ear piercings indicated that they were priestesses. They were led by a woman in her mid-thirties, whose name was Aoife Kelleher. She wasn't as tall as Winn or I, but she was a similar height to Fedelma. She was attractive, but in a masculine way. She was clearly lesbian. To my shock and Winn's, she talked down to Fedelma. She also refused to give Winn the proper ritual greeting, even though Fedelma had introduced her as the Bé Chuille.

The ride from the small airport to a gated property took most of an hour. We rode in silence. Winn looked like she was stewing. She was not happy with her greeting.

Our destination was a mansion. It was a seventies-era modernist contemporary house with natural cedar siding and several natural stone chimneys. At least three floors were visible, but the house was split level and built into the side of a hill, with enormous wrap-around porches on every side.

The name on the mailbox at the mouth of the driveway was Rowan, but Aoife walked into the home as if she owned it. She led Fedelma, Winn, and I into a home office and closed the door. She sat behind the expansive desk and made Fedelma, Winn, and I sit in the guest chairs.

"So this little wisp of a thing is supposed to be the Bé Chuille?" she asked Fedelma, her voice riddled with scorn.

"You talked Beslana into giving up one of her massive Live oaks for her initiation? Beslana always was weak-willed. And you have the temerity to bring an initiate into my grove to soil one of my grand willows?"

It was hard not to take it as an insult and I could see Winn's face getting a stubborn look I'd seen before. She was even less impressed with Aoife than I was.

Fedelma was struggling to stay even-tempered. "Think what you want, Aoife, but Winnifred Keyleth is the Bé Chuille. You should moderate your tone out of respect for her and out of respect for the faith.

Aoife scoffed. "Druid, Please!" she said dismissively.

Winn and I made eye contact. We both had to suppress a laugh. That was a good line.

To Winn she said, "Okay then girl, let's see it. If you are the Bé Chuille, let's see it."

"See what?" asked Winn.

"Your back, dumbass," she said. "I want to see how much power you were marked with."

"You're making a big mistake, Aoife," said Fedelma.

Aoife ignored her. To Winn, she said, "I'm waiting."

Winn's face was a mask of anger. She very slowly proceeded to strip. Interestingly, she stripped her bottom completely bare before she even took off her jacket. It was evident that she wanted to tantalize Aoife, who was clearly gay. She also wanted to build up the suspense. There was showmanship in how she bared her back.

When she was done stripping, she let Aoife get a good gander at her tits and the live oak tattoo just above her pudendum. Winn then turned around and knelt sensually. Her ass and waist looked absolutely fucking magnificent. Doubtless, Winn knew it and was using it to draw Aoife in.

Winn put her hands behind her head and made a show of concentrating. The tattoos slowly began to appear. At first, Aoife was amused by it. As the tattoos started getting darker and appeared higher and higher on her back, concern filled Aoife's face. When the tattoos hit Winn's shoulder blades, Aoife's mouth dropped open.

The room was utterly silent as Winn slowly stood up and turned back around to stare into Aoife's face. She was really pissed and the anger had hardened Winn's resolve. The eye contact between the two was epic and then all of a sudden, Aoife wilted. She came around the desk and immediately dropped down to her knees. "I am sorry, Bé Chuille. Forgive me. I never dared to dream that you'd come in my lifetime. I was... I was skeptical because..."

Winn continued to stare her down and said nothing. Eventually, Aoife pressed her own face into the floor. "Forgive me, Mother," she said pitifully.

It was an amazing drama to witness.

"You recognize me as the Bé Chuille?" asked Winn.

"I do," answered Aoife.

"I am the greater prophet of Danu," Winn said ceremonially. "Rise, daughter!"

Aoife levered herself up onto her knees, but did not stand. She looked confused, as if she didn't understand what had just happened.

Winn looked at me. "Julie, show her your tattoos."

Following Winn's lead, I stripped in the same way, working hard to emulate Winn's deliberate sensuality. I bared my bottom first and then I slowly undid the buttons of my top, leaving the shirt on. I shrugged off the shirt and then popped open the front clasp on my bra, allowing Aoife to fixate on my tits.

I then sensually turned around as I slowly sank to my knees. I placed my hands behind my head and then looked back over my shoulder and made eye contact. The look on Aoife's face was rapt.

During the plane ride, Shreya had worked with me to teach me the trick of showing my tattoos. Before, I could barely manage it. While I was before Aoife, however, I had no problems making it happen. I didn't know how to make my tattoos appear one row at a time like Winn had, so I slowly brought them up so that they all faded in at the same time.

Aoife gasped out loud. She turned to Fedelma. "Fedelma, how is this possible? They're both so young and so strong!"

"Winn is the greater prophet of Danu. Julie is the lesser," Fedelma announced.

"But this girl isn't even initiated!" protested Aoife.

Winn looked at me and said, "Show her."

I wasn't certain what I was supposed to do. I looked at Fedelma and Shreya hoping they would jump in and say something. Both remained silent.

I stood and walked over to where Aoife knelt. As I got there, I heard Danu's voice whispering to me. "Kiss her, Julie. Kiss her like you did with my servant Shreya."

I pulled Aoife to her feet and stepped into her personal space. I pressed my tits into her and put my face close to hers. Close enough to kiss, but I made no move to close the gap. I knew this would tantalize her.

I spoke quietly so my breath went straight into her mouth. "Danu herself told me that my purpose was to bring pleasure to her people, Aoife."

I leaned in and kissed her. Aoife was so ready for this that she melted and groaned into my mouth as soon as I made contact. Out of reflex, I put my hand on Aoife's belly. I suddenly felt a string of the spirit gossamer entwine with my hands. I slowly pulled it up, I pulled it up so far that Aoife raised onto her tip toes. Aoife came so massively, she looked like she was having a grand mal seizure. I quickly wrapped my arm around her so that she would not fall over, and pulled her body into mine. I kept kissing and pulling on the gossamer rope. Aoife breathed in the midst of her orgasm and she was suddenly making a noise somewhere between keening and a shriek. It got louder and louder as the pleasure intensified and really started to pummel her.

I kept it up, and after thirty seconds or so of her desperate keening, the doors burst open. Several of Aoife's underlings scurried into the room to see what was the matter. When they saw me naked, with my back filled with tattoos, making their leader orgasm so hard she could neither stand nor breathe properly, they stopped right where they were and gazed at the scene in amazement.

I kissed Aoife for nearly three minutes straight until she lost the strength to keep her legs rigid. I couldn't hold her up by myself, so I broke the kiss and slowly dropped both of us to the ground. I gently laid Aoife down and then rolled her into the recovery position. When I was sure that she was comfortable, I faced Aoife's underlings.

"I am the lesser prophet of Danu," I announced. "My purpose is to bring pleasure to the people. It will not be held against you if at first you don't believe, but trust me, priestesses of the grove: you will believe! Danu has spoken."

I'm not sure where the words or the confidence came from, but it was there and I was certain that I was powerful, radiant, and terrifying all at once.

To Aoife's underlings, I gave a simple command. "Kneel before the Bé Chuille."

As one, they fell to their knees. I then turned to look at Winn. To my surprise, I saw Fedelma, Shreya, and Fedelma's underlings kneeling too. The look of incomprehension, confusion, and amazement on all of their faces was gratifying.

I stepped up to Winn and I knelt before her too.

It was maybe ten minutes later when Aoife began to stir. We were all enjoying a cup of herbal tea that Aoife's attendants had brought for us.

When Aoife sat up, Winn asked, "Did you have a nice ride?" The smirk on her face was insouciant.

"I've never felt like that, Mother," she said.

"Are you coherent enough to attend? We have items to discuss."

"Certainly mother," Aoife replied as she slowly stood and stretched her legs and back.

"We will need a tree to initiate the lesser prophet of Danu. Fedelma thinks one of your magnificent Willows will do the trick. Please, discuss it with Fedelma and make the necessary arrangements."

It was phrased as a dismissal.

***

Chapter 20 - Sally

I was taken to the tree. My tree. It was a black willow tree whose main trunk was thirty-nine feet and two inches around and it was a hundred and ten feet tall. We were several hundred miles further south than back home and it was warmer here to start with, so the leaves on the willow were just now starting to turn yellow, but hadn't yet begun to fall. There were seven other willows in this grove that were also very large, but they weren't nearly as impressive as this one.

A dozen acolytes were positioned around the trunk and were chanting in preparation for my initiation.

We were on a platform in the woods with an angled roof that would give anyone on the platform an unobstructed view of the magnificent mother tree.

The mother tree was within a stone's throw of a narrow but deep river that flowed year round and the tree's canopy shaded a tributary stream which emptied down a five foot waterfall into the river. It had a southern-facing view and would get an enormous amount of sunlight

The sycamores in the grove at Winn's house were a lot bigger than this one, but this one felt substantial in a way that Sycamores didn't.

"You feel it, don't you?" asked Shreya.

"Feel what?" I asked.

"This tree is very powerful, Julie," Shreya observed. "Scary powerful." She clearly had misgivings.

The priestess who was escorting us out here, one of Aoife's underlings, positively preened at Shreya's compliment.

"We call her 'Sally' and she is enormously powerful," bragged the woman. "She is the grandmother and the matriarch of this forest."

"Why is a powerful tree something to fear?" I asked Shreya.

"A tree has a will," Shreya responded. "If the initiate can't withstand the tree's will, there can be consequences."

The expressions on their faces told a story.

"When was Sally last used for a binding?" Shreya asked the priestess.

"An attempt was made in 1871. It was during the reconstruction. There was a vacuum of power after the war and the community needed strength. They pushed someone into it who wasn't strong enough. It was said that the candidate could not handle the power and went mad in the attempt."

I looked over at her and the underling had a guilty look on her face. She realized too late this might not be something I would want to hear.

The priestess was in her early forties. Like all of the priestesses was fit and attractive, but she was five inches shorter than me and was the shortest priestess I'd seen. She had the most amazing side-parted French bob. Her hair was tucked behind her ear, revealing the most remarkably delicate ear I'd ever seen. It gave her an almost elfin beauty.

I got the distinct impression she was a kind woman who had been picked on. Fedelma's retinue made it clear to her that being sent out as a tour guide to the initiate was a belittling and menial assignment.

"She was said to have three inches of triskelions, Ma'am," she said quickly. "She was nowhere near as strong as you."

"What is your name?" I asked.

"Cerridwin, Ma'am," she said. "Most people call me Cerri." She was afraid of me. Shitting-her-pants afraid.

"It isn't right for you to call me Ma'am, Cerri. I want you to call me Julie," I said. "You seem afraid of priestesses in positions of power. After meeting Aoife, I think I know why."

Cerri's face was stone. She didn't betray a smidge of her inner thoughts.

"This is not how it is meant to be. To be a priestess at all is to be a servant. The greater the power, the greater the obligation to serve. Aoife should be the friendliest and most magnanimous priestess you've ever met. There is a sickness in the Tuatha Dé Danann. From what we've seen, it appears that it starts at the top. Danu has tasked the Bé Chuille with restoring the faith to health. She has tasked me with helping the Bé Chuille. The priestesses at the top will reform or they will be replaced."

Cerri's facial expression showed hope for the first time.

"Do you have a family?" I asked her.

"I have two daughters and a son," she replied. "My son is in the military. My daughters are in college."

"Do you have a husband?" I asked.

"I had a hand-fasted partner until recently," she said. She looked like she was contemplating saying more.

Shreya saw this and asked, "Did they take him from you?"

"Yes," Cerri replied morosely. "They said that since my children were so successful, he was needed to produce more children. They put him with a young woman in her early twenties. She's the daughter of the grove-holder."

"He didn't leave you willingly?" asked Shreya.

"He didn't want to. The grove-holder's daughter didn't want him either, but Aoife made them because she was in some sort of pissing match with the grove-holder," replied Cerri softly. After she said it, she looked around to make sure she was not overheard.

"That's abuse!" Shreya said in an angry whisper.

"This is how this grove is run," replied Cerri. "It's been like that since Aoife came to us. My kids all left to escape it. When my daughters get pregnant, they will call for me to come assist them. That's when I'll make my move to transfer to a new grove."

Shreya nodded. She'd heard of such stories.

Shreya asked Cerri, "Have they made any accommodations? Do you get to see your man? Did they assign another man?"

Cerri was holding back tears. "None," she replied bitterly. "I complained when they came to take my man, so they prohibited me from any pleasure at all. It has been eighteen months since they've allowed me to practice magic at all."

Shreya was angry. It was a shock to see her open and energetic face so upset.

I took a breath and smiled. "As I said, Danu has tasked the Bé Chuille to clean out the corruption at the highest levels of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Taking your partner, then prohibiting you from using magic or experiencing pleasure is abuse. I vow to you right now, Cerri, I will speak directly to the Bé Chuille about this. I can't promise you anything, but her mission is to institute a reform that will address abuse like this."

Cerri's eyes were wide open. She was both exhilarated and terrified.

***

"Are you serious?" asked Winn in a whisper.

We were by ourselves inside what had been Aoife's office. It was, in fact, the den in the mansion house that belonged to the grove-holder. Neither Aoife nor Grove-holder was consulted in that decision.

"Yes," I replied. "Cerri was afraid to say anything in private. What Aoife is doing here is seriously messed up, Winn. From what I hear Shreya and Cerri say, this isn't the only problem grove, either. "I can't be a part of a religion that's like that, Winn."

Winn had that stubborn look on her face. "Jules, you don't have a choice. You must be initiated and trained in the power that you have."

"Winn, you told me that magic was bullshit. You told me that yourself," I protested. "Your pretense that I have to go through this ceremony is complete bullshit."

"It's going to happen, Jules," she replied. "This is what you chose when you announced to two dozen people that you are the lesser prophet of Danu. You sealed your own fate with those words. If you didn't want to join us, why did you say them?"

She took a swig from a water bottle and waited for me to answer.

I had no answer for her questions. I said what I said when I came out of the water compulsively. There was no reasonable or logical explanation. In that hallucination I had in the water, I wasn't told I had to say anything.

When Winn decided she'd let that hang long enough, she said, "There are many groves with dysfunctional leadership. Not all are as rotten as this one, but they're still dysfunctional. It is going to take a while to unwind the damage. I promise you that I will investigate and hold Aoife responsible, but I don't think I have the latitude to move against her just yet. Especially since she is actually hosting this event at the last minute as a favor to me."

"I can't just leave Cerri here, Winn," I said. "I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

"When your parents get here, I will assign Cerri as their escort. When it comes time to go, I can use that as a pretext to take her with us."

She thought about something and then smiled. "It would be better for you to handle it yourself."

"How should I handle it?" I asked.

"You're a prophet," she observed. "Declare her to be part of your retinue. They won't dare oppose you."

***

Chapter 21 - Initiation

I spent nearly four hours naked in what looked like an 19th century gynecologist's chair, getting tattooed. The tattoo artist was a member of Winn's faith who was in her thirties. She was a tattoo artist from Seattle and had been flown in to put a picture of the Black Willow tree known as "Sally" onto the piece of skin just above my vulva. The artist was a friend of Fedelma and had done the tattoos for both Shreya and Winn.

The tattoo was sized so that it would be completely covered by a standard pair of panties or a typical bikini bottom.

Sheryl and Cerri hung out with me and we talked as the work was done. Winn and Fedelma came in and out as their other obligations allowed.

I was given a tea that made the pain manageable and induced a profound euphoria. It made me incredibly talkative and apparently unleashed my sense of humor because I had everyone in stitches.

After the tattoo was in the final stages, Winn asked Cerri, "Are you a healer?"

"Yes, Mother," replied Cerri. "I am of the ash."

"Are you good at it?" asked Winn.

"Yes, Mother."

"Then you will heal Julie when her tattoo is complete," pronounced Winn. "Shreya, go get Cerri ready."

"Yes, Mother," Shreya replied with a smile.

The look of amazement and hope on Cerri's face made me stifle a laugh. Aoife glowered from her corner.

Shreya and Cerri left the room. As they left, Fedelma came in.

"The tree was awake before we got here," she said. "That tree is very energetic, Winn. Are you certain that this is worth the risk?"

"Julie is the strongest woman I've ever met," she answered. "If I could handle that Live Oak, she can handle Sally."

"Well, all is ready," said Fedelma. "We should start within the hour. That will be the most auspicious timing for your bonding."There was an unmistakable hint of excitement in her voice.

A few minutes after that, the tattoo was completed. As the artist was cleaning up, Cerri and Shreya came back into the room. They looked like they'd been having sex. Shreya's hair was mussed and her lipstick was smeared. Cerri had this "just fucked" glow that was unmistakable.

I felt Fedelma approach me from behind. She slid an eye-mask blindfold over my eyes.

"What's with the blindfold?" I asked.

"We need you to relax for the healing and the final initiation prep," said Fedelma. "It makes it easy. Trust me, you will want it."

I could sense Cerri approaching closely. I felt her place one hand on the part of my chest above and between my breasts.

After a minute, I felt her slowly bend over putting her lips next to mine. "Please kiss me, Julie," she said.

I felt the contact of her soft lips on mine. I kissed her back. As she kissed me, she offered her tongue to me. I instinctively sucked it into my mouth. There was a sudden inrush of energy and pleasure which passed from her tongue to mine. The weird part about it was how the energy slowly flowed down my spine to my uterus, like honey dripping from a spoon. Once the energy hit my uterus, I felt it spread out to where my skin had been worked on. That marvelous euphoria tea was wearing off and my skin was sore and painful, as if I'd gotten the worst sunburn of my life there.

I felt the energy push the pain and discomfort of that area completely away. It literally felt like the pain was getting pushed from inside of my body and out through the skin.

Once the pain was gone, I felt Cerri's fingers pulling on my nipples. She was pretty rough, pulling them out and away from my chest. My nipples were fairly small. They were about as big around as a McDonald's straw, stuck out about a quarter of an inch, and were extremely sensitive.

I had this moment of weirdness, where I felt a sharp pressure develop in the center of my breasts. The pressure felt like it was pushing my nipples out, fattening and lengthening them. As they grew, Cerri worked the nipples with her fingers as if she were molding Play-Doh into a gumdrop shape.

"A little bigger," said Winn. "That's perfect! Just like that! Nicely done."

Cerri broke the kiss and stepped away.

Winn then asked someone in the room, "Will that bear the rings?"

"It will," replied the tattoo artist.

I felt Cerri kiss me again. My nipples went numb. I felt something like pressure on the side of my left nipple. I couldn't really figure out what was happening. A minute later, the feeling was repeated on my right nipple.

I heard a door opening.

"Is the sap ready for the Initiate?" I heard Fedelma intone.

"It is, Mother," announced Aoife.

"Give it to me, Daughter," I heard Winn say.

I sensed someone approach. I instinctively knew this was Winn.

"Open your mouth, Daughter," said Winn. "I'm going to place the sap on your tongue. This will allow you to commune with your tree. The sap is sticky and sweet like honey, but with a slightly bitter taste that you will enjoy."

I hesitated, so she said quietly, "Trust me Jules, you'll like this part."

I opened my mouth and felt something that resembled honey in texture, drizzled onto my tongue. It didn't have the overpowering sweetness of honey. Instead, it tasted like Nutella but way richer, slightly less sweet, and with a minimal bitter aftertaste.

I felt a sudden onrush of pleasure that felt so good I half groaned and half laughed. I held the sticky substance in my mouth until it was completely dissolved away.

"I've got four more spoons of this stuff for you, Julie," said Winn, "I know you want to savor it, but we need you to move quicker."

I did the next four spoonfuls as fast as I could. It was the most amazing taste. By the time I swallowed the fifth drizzle, I was so incoherent from the pleasure, I doubt I could have swallowed a sixth.

I was a limp noodle when they took the blindfold off. Several acolytes wearing white robes, all of them very stout, picked me up and wrapped a robe around me. I was then placed into a wheelchair. I was whisked out of the mansion, and down the path. It was chilly: mid sixties I would guess. It was definitely sweater weather. Being naked was slightly uncomfortable.

As we passed through the woods, I swear I could hear the trees talking. Most of what I could hear was, "Grandmother, grandmother, she comes! She comes to you!"

At the tree, I was picked up. The robe was taken off and I was pressed face-first into the trunk. It took me a minute or two to realize that the bark that should have been rough against my skin

had been stripped off. The wood beneath it had been polished absolutely smooth. I expected it to be freezing cold, but to my surprise, it was warm and was right at body temperature. It felt so good, I moaned in pleasure.

A rope was tied around each of my wrists and was pulled tight around the enormous trunk. I then felt a hand reach from beneath my legs to press into the tree just below my sex. I heard chanting and then I felt the trunk slowly start to bulge out. A smooth seat, not unlike an extremely wide and comfortable tractor seat grew out just under me.

"Sit," I heard Winn command.

I sat down on the seat. It was literally form fitting to my anatomy and was extremely comfortable. It had a smooth bump which pressed in against my clitoris. I ground into it and it felt so good, I groaned loudly.

I felt ropes being tied to each ankle, and they were pulled up so that I couldn't stand or leave the seat if I wanted to.

The acolytes who tied me up stepped away.

I cannot describe what actually happened next. You will have seen a scene in a movie where someone is drugged and then they show you trippy, distorted, and unfocused images where the audio is slowed down and indistinct. This was much what my experience was like. I don't remember it like it was a narrative sequence of events. Instead, it was like one of those dream sequences where things happened illogically out of sequence.

Most of what I remember was the tree speaking to me. It told me about being seeded. About the fruitful growing seasons when it was young. It spoke about favorable warm and wet seasons for its first ten years.

She spoke of storms, ice, droughts, and blights. She talked about harsh winters and cloudy cold years where she saw little sun. She talked about watching her fellow trees fail, either due to injury or senescence.

She also spoke of abundance. She landed in an ideal place for a tree of her species. She spoke about maturing from a sapling into a young tree. She remembered her first seeding season, when she felt the painful ache of developing dozens of catkins for the first time. She described the glorious rapture of being bathed in the pollen of a male tree for the first time and of the overwhelming pleasure and joy of feeling her catkins being pollinated. The feeling was not unlike an orgasm to her and it would last for the entire three-week pollinating season. It was utterly overwhelming for her to feel such pleasure year in and year out over hundreds of years.

She recounted how her seeds, her children, would develop quickly. Within sixty days, the catkins would release their silk and thousands of her children would be carried by the fluffy cottony silk far and wide.

She spoke of growing generation after generation of her children. The dozens of catkins in her first seeding year grew into hundreds, then thousands, then hundreds of thousands. The seeds released increased from several hundred to millions per year. She talked about the multitudes of her children who were spread far and wide in this part of the country.

Always, her talk kept coming back to that glorious part of the year where she was bathed in pollen. She would become aroused just thinking about pollination. For some reason, her attitude and her desire to return to the feel of the pollinating season, made me horny as hell. The horny desire of the tree never flagged and it infused me with desire of my own. Despite her almost fearsome age, nearly ten times the age of others of her kind, she was full of the mandate to live: drink, breathe, feast on the provision of the day, copulate when the sun and season calls for it, and reproduce.

I felt myself being installed with will, with strength, with the desire to bathe myself in pollen, and with the will to life.

At the same time, I could feel something about the electrical system of my spine rewiring itself. It felt on the inside like what your hair feels like when it is braided. A tug in one direction, a pull as it is wrapped, then a tug in the opposite direction. I felt energy circulating up and down my spine. From my uterus, up my spine, to my brain, and then circulating back down. I could feel and sense the energy flow better than I could feel and sense anything from my five external senses.

At periodic intervals, someone would pour water in my mouth, using a water bottle with a curved plastic straw.

At less frequent intervals, I would feel the effect of the hallucinogenic sap starting to wear off. Sometimes it was dark. Other times it was light. During one of these periods of lucidity, I had the startling realization that I'd been reflexively grinding my pussy against the bump on the seat. I knew this because it was wet and my vulva was very sore. I didn't have a conscious memory of coming from the grinding, but I felt like I was in a state of profound afterglow, so I was pretty certain that I had orgasmed over and over.

Usually within a minute or two of me snapping out of the hallucinatory dream, a priestess would be there to give me another dose of the sap and I would start sailing again. It was usually Winn herself, although sometimes it was Fedelma or Shreya. The drug robbed me of my sense of time, so I didn't know if it was minutes, hours, or even days.

***

Chapter 22 - Second Encounter

I suddenly felt Danu's presence again. This time, it wasn't terrifying, but comforting.

"Ahhhhhhh," she said with a delighted relief. "That's better. It is much easier with the spirit of the tree in you. What a magnificent Willow they gave you. Even as strong as you are, you can barely handle this tree's spirit. You and Winnifred will be the strongest of my daughters in a five-thousand years."

She was delighted by the pronouncement. Her voice wasn't nearly as loud. I had an intuitive understanding that somehow, the tree's spirit made it easier for Danu to communicate with me. Before, she had to shout to be heard. Now, she could whisper from a million miles away and I would hear it.

"Did you make me declare myself to be your lesser prophet?" I found myself asking her.

Her belly laugh emerged again. "Yes, daughter. You are one of my prophets. I couldn't possibly have you slipping through the cracks, could I?"

Danu suddenly pivoted.

"Why were you enraged over my daughter Cerridwin," she asked.

"The Priestesses took her partner of many years from her because of a dispute between the high priestess of the grove and the grove holder," I replied. "This dispute had nothing to do with Cerridwin. When she complained, they prohibited her from having sex or practicing magic."

"The priestesses?" asked Danu. "Cerridwin herself is a priestess."

"The leaders among the priestesses," I replied.

"So you see the corruption among the leadership and it makes you angry?" asked Danu.

"Yes!" I replied.

"Good!" Danu replied. "This is why my faith does not grow. How do the faithful benefit when the leaders just see them as pawns to use in a fight with each other for more power?"

I didn't know what to say.

"Can't you take away the power of the bad ones?" I asked.

Danu gave a vocalization of frustration. "I gave my daughters the spirit and strength of the tree. It is not easy to remove this from them without harming the tree. These women are powerful and are useful resources. It is much better to equip my prophets with the power they need bring the miscreants back into my will than it is to destroy them. I would have the delinquents become productive leaders of my faith once more."

"I have given the task of reforming my priestesses to the greater prophet. I have equipped her with a will of iron and a desire to make my faith beautiful and attractive again. I shall equip you to be her assistant. I could give you the power to punish, but I think it is much better for you to appeal to the priestesses to do their duty by giving them pleasure.

"Use pleasure to remind them of their duty. I have told you already that your job is to bring my pleasure to my people. You will remind the faithful of the joy that comes from following me."

"How will I know who to give pleasure to or how to do it?" I asked.

"Now that you have the spirit of the tree in you, speaking with you won't require that I shout at you from so far away. You will know my will."

There was silence for a minute. "I am fond of all of my daughters, but I also have my favorites. I will confess that I really like you, Julienne. You have a big spirit. You don't sit idly by and observe injustice. You act. For that, I am going to give you something I have never given any of my daughters before."

"What's that?" I asked.

"Remember my thumb, Julienne?" Danu asked.

I instantly shivered with arousal. "Yes, Mother," I responded.

"This is one way that you will bring my errant daughters back into my will. You will use my thumb."

"But your thumb gives pleasure," I replied.

"So it does."

"So you think I will be able to bring the errant priestesses back into line by giving them pleasure?" I asked. "Won't that encourage them to disobey in order to seek more pleasure?"

Her belly laugh returned.

"On each meeting, you give them the merest taste of my pleasure. On their first offense, you give them a ten-breath jolt of pleasure. On a second offense, you give them twenty breaths. There won't be a third offense." Danu was utterly certain. "My daughters will see the threat and they will comply."

"Threat?" I asked.

"Yes," Danu replied. "If you use my thumb more than a few times, it will enslave them. They will know this and sense the danger. If they don't then they will be enslaved and will fight to the death to accomplish your merest suggestion."

I shivered in fear that I would be given such power. "Won't this power tempt and corrupt me?" I asked.

"As my prophet, I will be in contact with you in a way that my other daughters aren't. You will know my will. I have seen into your heart and knowing my will should be enough to stop you from becoming corrupt."

There was silence while I considered what she mentioned.

"Daughter," she said bringing me out of my reverie.

"Yes, Mother," I replied.

"We must talk about your shame over sex," she said. "You will not be able to do the tasks that I have given you if you cling to that shame. You will have many partners, both men and women. The power of pleasure is what binds my people together. I know that you did not grow up in my faith, but you will need to come to grips with this. The tree to which you were bound was a very old Willow with an almost boundless spirit. Your desire for sex will grow to match the spirit of the tree. You must grow to become something more than what you are and make peace with that, or it will drive you to madness.

"There are many ways of living and there are many ways of reckoning right from wrong. You were not raised in a faith at all, so this shouldn't be an issue, but such is the desire to do the right thing in you that you will destroy yourself if you are not careful. Like the tree whose spirit lives inside of you now, you must grow."

"Won't I get pregnant?" I asked. "Won't promiscuity increase my risk of catching an STI?"

"I protect my people, Julienne," she replied. "You were not raised among my people, so you will not know this, but my people cannot catch the diseases you fear, nor will you have children until it is time. When it is time, I will make it happen."

There was a long pause while I built up my courage. "I already know your thoughts, Daughter. You might as well say it."

"Must I have sex with women?" I asked.

She laughed. "The day we first spoke you lay in bed with Winnifred and you burned for her. I think you will find the time you will spend with both men and women to your liking. The spirit of the tree in you will give you energy which you must spend. You will be well rewarded for spending it. My power is the power of pleasure."

"I don't know if I can," I said.

"You must and you will. When the time comes, it will not be difficult. You must take care of my Greater Prophet, Julienne.

"Remember this: Winnifred is perhaps the loneliest woman on earth. We, as a people, are few in number. She was consecrated and set apart, even from my people, from birth. She has never known a mother who loved her. Her father loved her, but her mother did not love him and treated him as her slave. Now that Winn is an adult, she must serve as my greater prophet. She will never be one of the people for she must always sit in a position of judgement.

My heart ached for Winn at that moment, I had never really considered what her life had been like, and it wasn't hard to see it was hellish compared to mine.

"Yes, daughter," said Danu. "You have your mother, father, and brother. You grew up in a loving home. Winnifred will have none of these unless you give them to her."

"It must be you because the people will fear and resent my Greater prophet, because she will speak with my authority and will bring my judgement. The people will love you because you will bring my pleasure to them.

"For this reason, I have given you and your brother to Winnifred as her solace and comfort. Winnifred will be bound to your brother. Your brother will be bound to you. You will be bound to Winnifred."

"Don't you have to be in love to bind someone?" I asked. I desperately tried to remember what I had been told about spirit binding. "I like her, but I don't love her."

An enormous fingertip touched me gently on my chest. It was at least a foot across. It was warm to the touch.. It was so real, I felt as if I could feel the ridges and swirls of her fingerprints on my upper chest as she touched me. I felt power course from the fingertip through my chest.

"What are you doing, Mother?" I asked.

"I'm preparing you to be bound, Daughter," she said. "Normally, love does the preparation, but you will have to find love after the binding is made. If you look for it, you will find love in Winnifred and in your brother. You will not find it anywhere else."

"I don't get a choice?" I asked.

Danu laughed. "Many of my daughters were married outside of our faith and did not have a choice of whom they married. Almost all of them found love. Love that is discovered after a marriage is often more true and longer-lasting than love that is found before. It will be no different for you. Find it, and you will have it."

"Mother," I asked. "Am I hallucinating all of this? Is all of this real? Is the magic real?"

The belly laugh returned. "You will see. I think, however, it is time that I give you what you asked for."

"What I asked for?" I asked. I was so overwhelmed with it all, it was hard for me to keep my wits about me.

"The last time we were together, you begged for more pleasure," she said. "You asked me to not stop."

I felt like I was in the palm of her hand again.

This time, I quickly rolled over onto my face, pooched my butt up, and relaxed my hips to expose my sex. This made Danu laugh again. "So needy!"

I felt the light touch of her thumb dragging across my sex and I groaned. The pleasure was so intense, it literally took my breath away. Every cell of my body from the split ends in my hair down to my toenails resonated to the energy which filled me. The pleasure utterly consumed me and it went on and on and on.

***

Chapter 23 - Binding

"Jules, are you okay?" It was just a whisper, but I immediately recognized Winn. I clawed myself out of my dream.

She rubbed her fingers through my hair, which was strangely sweaty. I sensed the night air was nippy, but inside, I was so hot, my skin was covered with a sheen of sweat. I could see steam rolling off the skin of my arms in the glow of the rising moon, which was nearly full.

"Winn," I whispered back. "Where am I?"

"You're in the initiation. You're joined with the spirit of the tree."

"How long?" I asked.

"Days," she replied. "This tree is very powerful and it takes time. It's almost over. We have to finish the ceremony. Are you in pain? Do you need more sap?"

"I can't feel anything," I said.

I saw the glow of her watch. "In twenty minutes it will be midnight and we will conclude the ceremony," she said.

"What day?" I asked.

"It will be midnight on the start of Halloween day."

I gasped. I had been tied to the tree for over three days.

Several acolytes arrayed themselves around the tree, pressing their hands to the trunk and chanting. While they did that, a few others lit lamps that had been hung from the branches.

I felt the spirit of the tree rouse with the chanting. I heard the tree whispering to me. "Sister, you are so warm against my trunk. Soon, I will cast you off like a catkin, but we will commune and we will make each other strong for many turnings of the sun."

I suddenly heard a voice speaking ceremonially. I could see her not ten feet from me, but it sounded like Aoife from a long way away.

Suddenly a ladle of hot water was poured over my head, shoulders, and back. Despite my sweating, the warmth of the water felt wonderful, and it sluiced grime off of my skin.

Aoife then said something indistinct again. This time, I heard a man's voice answer. I couldn't hear what he was saying but I was certain it was Mason.

This happened over and over: Aoife would say something, Mason would respond, then he'd pour water over me.

A minute or two later. I was startled awake again. This time, Mason was right up against me. "Mace, I knew you'd come," I said. I was filled with joy to know he was there.

"Easy, Jules. Easy," he whispered. "You're almost done."

I then felt one of the ropes that stretched me tight around the trunk of the tree go slack. Mason then intoned something else and a second rope went slack.

This repeated a few more times and then Aoife and Mason were standing me up. They turned me around and sat me back down on the seat, facing outward. Mason was staring down at me with concern. I was filled with lust for him. I tried to stand up, but Aoife held me down. "Sit, Daughter," she said.

I heard Danu laugh softly in my head. You are not her daughter, Julienne. Tell her that you are my daughter.

"I am not your daughter!" I said sharply. "I am Danu's daughter," Aoife jerked as if I'd slapped her.

Mason pulled the thorns out of my nipples while he gently threaded stainless steel metal rings through the holes at the same time. I felt pressure as he worked, but no pain. I was then pierced again. This time it was on the top of my ear where all of the priestesses had been pierced. I saw it before they put it on me. It was a barrel like Winn's, but not as big as hers.

Aoife, Fedelma, and Winn lifted me up to my feet. They walked me over to the shelter from which I'd first beheld Sally.

During the walk, my muscles started to cramp. It wasn't the actual cramp, but the tension and ache you feel just before the onset. I had the feeling that if I took a blow, or bumped one of my limbs, I'd immediately suffer the worst Charlie horse of my life.

My nipples began to burn ferociously. The weight of the rings and the strange coolness of the metal felt foreign on my chest. I looked down and realized my nipples were now enormous thick jumbo-gumdrops. I had a vague recollection that Cerri had reshaped them before the initiation began. The skin of my butt and my vulva was raw from all of the time I spent tied to the tree. I could feel my own pulse in their ache.

When we reached the pavilion. The platform floor had been lined with thick carpets, and the walls were covered with canvas and curtains. Inside, a propane heater was running and it was quite comfortable. I was placed into a very stout wooden chair that had a soft pillow. One of Fedelma's underlings, a woman named Airmid, who was of the ash and was said to be extraordinarily gifted, immediately stepped up to me. She felt my forehead and then the skin of my upper chest.

She tisked and said, "Your friend is very tough, Bé Chuille. That Willow tree was utterly wild and was nearly too strong for her. The only initiate I've seen who had an ordeal even remotely close to hers was you," she reported.

"Was it worse than mine?" Winn asked.

"Yes," answered Aramid. "Seventy-one, Mother."

"She came seventy-one times?" asked Winn. Her voice was alarmed.

"Bé Chuille, you were warned that the tree was both strong and wild," she answered.

"Was her mind damaged?" asked Winn, with a touching concern.

"No, but there will be a personality shift as there was with you," said Airmid.

"In what way?" asked Winn.

"She will be a lot more sexually aggressive," she replied. "There is no permanent physical injury. I'm going to do what I can for the pain. After she recovers, she's going to be almost uncontrollable."

Next thing I knew, Airmid was right there in front of me. I never noticed before that she had such a perfectly lovely nose.

"Kiss me, Mother," she said. It felt weird to be referred to as "mother". As I kissed her, she slid her tongue into my mouth. I sucked it instinctively. The energy flowed down my spine to my injured areas. An immediate wave of relief washed through me as my aches and pains were slowly pushed out of my body. It was a very welcome sensation.

I suddenly felt empty, unbearably hungry, and utterly exhausted. Fedelma herself knelt before me with a mug of bone broth, and held it as I drank. It was hot, but at the exact right temperature where I could drink it right down. After that, she fed me a few morsels of meat that were mixed with chopped nuts wrapped up in a baby spinach leaf. They were heavenly

When she fed those to me, I asked for more, but she said, "You must take this slow, or you could eat too much and make yourself sick. This is enough for now and there will be all you can eat later."

The food settled me down and very quickly restored my energy. I slowly became aware that a coiling tension settled low in my belly, sharp enough to make it hard to take in a full breath. I'd felt strong desire before, but never like this. It was solid and substantial and had weight to it that could not be dismissed. It pressed into my guts, lingered, and refused to be reasoned with. I felt my limbs begin to tremble.

Danu laughed and whispered to me. "Yes, daughter! So needy! You feel the strength of the tree in you! This will be your power and your joy. You will see."

Winn was suddenly there. "Are you okay?" she asked.

I pulled her down and whispered into her ear. "This is an emergency. I need five minutes and a locked door. Don't ask!"

She chuckled and a look of joy came over her face. She leaned in and whispered nervously into my ear, "I can help you with that. After the binding ceremony, in fact, I can offer you all of the time in the world."

Winn leaned back to see my expression. She leaned in again and whispered. "She told me you were to be bound to me." It was clear, she was referring to Danu. "Do you actually want that?"

"Mason and I are to be your solace and consolation," I whispered back. "It was her promise to you. We are to be your family."

"Yes, but do you want it?" she asked.

"I like you as a person, but I don't know you well enough to either want you or reject you. Let's be honest, Winn. Does what we want even matter anymore?" I asked.

Winn made eye contact with me which was more communicative than an hour-long conversation. We were in this together and we both knew that if there ever was a way out of it, that opportunity was long gone.

This time, I leaned into her. "Is she in your head and talking to you, too?" I whispered.

"All the time," she replied.

"I was told that if I wanted love, I would have to find it with you and my brother," I said. "I will make peace with that."

Danu whispered directly into my mind. "Stand up and declare yourself to be mine, Daughter. Then give them a taste of my Thumb. Just the merest taste." Her statement was accompanied by a chuckle.

I stood up and faced the group on the platform. There were maybe ten priestesses, and a contingent of four men that I took to be Priests. They were meticulously dressed in finery that made them look like peacocks. "Boys!" Danu whispered into my ear in disgust. "I need men, and these are content to act as boys. I have much work for them to do, but they act like boys!" I felt the hot glow of her anger.

Behind the priests and priestesses were more than a dozen acolytes, most of whom were gawking. It was clear that they were witnessing something momentous and were unable to process it effectively. Next to the acolytes were my parents, who were being tended to by Cerri. Next to them was Winn's father and mother. Winn's was wearing a dog collar connected to a leash being held by Winn's father. She had been imperious and haughty before. She looked utterly broken now.

Danu whispered the words to me and I proclaimed the to the group on the platform.

"I am the lesser prophet of Danu. Even now, she speaks to you through me. I shall bring pleasure to her people. The Bé Chuille and I will restore the Tuatha Dé Danann. If you do as Danu commands, you will be rewarded with pleasure. If you oppose us, you will be punished... with pleasure. You will be punished to the point of slavery if need be."

My pause for effect made both the priests and priestesses shiver.

"Danu would much rather have willing servants doing her bidding than slaves, but she will take you as a slave if she must. Either way, you will do her will."

I took in a deep breath and said in a loud voice, "Kneel before the prophets of Danu!"

I felt a flash of power burst out of me. The acolytes immediately dropped to their knees. The priests and priestesses looked at each other as they fought it, but they dropped down to their knees just the same. Something suddenly dropped them all down on their knees at the same time with a hard thump.

I looked around and even my parents were kneeling.

I felt the power of Danu's thumb fill me. Energy was contained in it was under so much pressure, it felt like an overfilled water balloon. I instinctively knew I had to be very deft and careful. I held out my thumb so they could all see my thumbprint. This was to be the nozzle. I let the barest mist of energy escape. I slowly swept my thumb over each person in the platform. The involuntary groans that they made as the pleasure hit them made it clear it was the most powerful sensation they'd ever felt. Everyone's reaction was slightly different, yet they all responded.

I took one knee at Winn's side as they collectively bent lower and pressed their faces into the platform.

***

Fifteen minutes later, Winn, Mason, and I were sitting at a low table with our butts on pillows on the floor. Mason was shirtless and his chest was bloody. They'd used the thorns from my nipples to carve more runes in his chest.

I had an atavistic reaction of arousal to seeing those runes. If I had a physical type, Mason was the person furthest from it. Yet, I was unable to resist him, I was so aroused, I was in heat. I was sitting in a puddle of my own making.

I looked over at Winn, who caught me red-handed gawping at Mason's chest.

She smiled at me knowingly and whispered, "I know, right? It was the same for me."

I couldn't help but smile back at her.

"I go first," she said.

Mason just looked confused and didn't know what was going on.

Fedelma came over and set three mugs of tea and three bowls on the table in the middle.

"Each of you drink your mug," she commanded. It tasted bad. I would have said it was like soup made from dirty socks, but no one asked.

Winn then set out three identical bowls that were filled with a dark liquid. She then put drops of blood from Mason into one of them. She put a drop of my blood in the same bowl. It immediately foamed up.

"Success!" said Fedelma.

She then placed a drop of Mason's blood and a drop of Winn's into the next. It too, immediately foamed up.

"Yes!" pronounced Winn when she saw that happen. "You're mine, Mace. You're mine forever!"

She then put drops of blood from me into the third bowl, followed by drops of Winn's. For a second nothing happened, but after a dramatic pause. it too foamed over.

This time it was Fedelma who shouted for joy. "They are a triskele! The prophecy! The Bé Chuille is one of three!"

I heard shouts of joy and celebration from the crowd. Fedelma came to herself. "We must finish the binding."

She poured the contents of all three bowls into one. She waved forward the artist who had tattooed me before the initiation began.

The artist picked up a big fat brush that resembled those used by Chinese calligraphers. She dipped it into the bowl.

"First you, Bé Chuille," if you please," said the artist.

Winn instantly doffed her robe. The artist drew an exquisite triskelion right on Win's chest. The liquid was like an ink that was blacker than black.

She then turned to Mason. "You are next." She drew the same figure on his. When she removed her brush, both Winn and Mason flinched and bobbled on weak knees. They looked at each other with a look of total joy and laughed. "Oh my God!" shouted Winn. "This is awesome!"

The artist then turned to me. She dipped the brush. The ink was cold and I felt it immediately absorb into my skin. When she removed the brush, a wave of dizziness suddenly passed through me. I felt two waves of emotion hit me. It took a second to realize they weren't mine. They weren't thoughts, they were emotions. True emotions from the heart, and not moderated by the head. It was easy to distinguish Winn's from Mason's.

After a moment, I realized what was going on. As Danu had promised, Winn was bound to Mason. Mason was bound to me. I was bound to Winn. I could feel them both, and they, in turn, could feel me.

Mason's emotions were masculine and were forceful. I felt desire, and longing, and such love from him for me that it was impossible not to be in awe of it.

Winn's emotions were feminine and delicate in comparison. Her's were nuanced and accepting in a way that Mason's weren't. Her feelings for me were shockingly deep. She wanted me just as powerfully as Mason did, but differently. He wanted to possess me. She wanted to commune with me.

Winn attacked Mason. She immediately was all over him. His response and answering emotion was both surprise and hunger.

Danu whispered directly into my mind. Tell everyone the binding is complete. Tell them all to leave so that you can have the freedom of the grove. This is your time as lovers. This is not their business.

I stood up and turned to the group. "The binding is complete," I declared.

Fedelma said, "But Julie, we still have to...."

"Enough!" I shouted. "Danu commands you all to leave us to have the freedom of the grove. Cerri, take care of my parents. They're muggles and will need reassurance. Try to explain to them what is going on."

The acolytes grabbed up what they could of the chairs and accoutrements and quickly scattered. The priestesses and priests made a show of making a slow and orderly withdrawal, but I learned later they were utterly terrified. No one in living memory had ever seen two women initiated on trees half as strong as the ones that Winn and I had. The authority with which I spoke was something they'd not expected, and the pleasure of Danu's thumb had scared them shitless. They had all felt stronger pleasure than they ever dreamed was possible. In it, they sensed their own undoing.

***

Chapter 24 - Fulfillment

By the time the Priests and Priestesses all turned their backs on us, Winn shrugged off her robe and in one move forced Mason to fall down on his butt on the platform. He landed on a large pile of soft and comfortable rugs.

Mason's pants were down around his knees and Win stripped them off in one pull. Suddenly, he was naked too. His modest cock was hard as a rock and was so hard it was purple. It tapped on his belly in time to his heartbeat.

I could feel their joy, elation, and passion. Mason's heart was absolutely pounding.

Winn suddenly spread Mason's legs back and pinned his knees to his chest. Oddly, this exposed Mason's cock, yet rendered him both immobile and helpless. She crawled over his legs and forcefully sat on his cock. At the same time, she leaned her full weight on his forearms, forcibly pinning him to the platform floor.

Mason groaned. I felt pleasure hit both of their nervous systems. "Oh, fuck yes!" groaned out Winn. "I've waited a long time for this!"

She started to fuck him so vigorously, I thought she was going to hurt him at first. I could feel his pleasure and hers, however, and they were both enjoying the hell out of it. I was stunned by Winn's ferocity. It was so aggressive that it literally took my breath away.

I felt love and elation in him as she fucked him, but the act itself was the opposite of loving. She was getting hers and was just using Mason to do it. Mason, for his part, was loving it. He just opened himself up in surrender and let Winn take what she wanted. I sensed in the back of my mind that there was a total gender role reversal at play. Winn was the masculine and Mason was the feminine.

I heard a voice that was not Danu. It wasn't even speaking, per se, but an emotion that washed through me.

"Come sister," said the spirit of the Willow. "It is the time for pollen, open up your flowers and welcome it in."

The spirit of the tree pushed a wave of arousal into me. It was so strong, the muscles of my belly and my legs actually trembled. I had been slick and aroused when I was cut loose from the tree. I could feel myself streaming down my own legs.

Winn pulled away from kissing my brother and laughed out loud. She said, "Did you feel that Mace? Did you feel how wild the spirit of the Willow tree is in Julie? You know what that means? You're going to have to do a lot of fucking to keep the other two thirds of our triskele happy!"

I felt Winn's arousal suddenly rise. I looked down and realized she was looking at me.

"Come here!" she commanded.

I made my way over.

"Lose the robe and stand in front of me," she commanded.

I let it drop to the ground and did as she asked.

I was pretty sure she was going to give me oral and I was not disappointed. When I got in front of Winn, she wrapped her hands around my ass and pulled my sex into her face.

I suddenly began to moan as her tongue lightly skated down the middle of my crease. I felt two hands rubbing the backs of my thighs. It took me a second to realize that Mason was reaching up to caress me. His fingers drifted in towards my lips and I could feel his excitement peak as he touched my labia and gently pulled me open as Winn licked me.

Winn began to work on me in earnest and it was the most amazing feeling I'd ever experienced. Clearly, Winn was experimenting and trying to discover a way to make it even better. She tried different things, but neither she, nor Mason were waiting for me to tell them whether I liked it or not. I suddenly realized that they were just reading my response directly. They could instantly feel exactly what I was feeling, and could adjust and respond without having to bother with communication.

I felt one of Mason's fingers probe my entrance. I was so aroused at that point that I was streaming.

"Yes," I groaned out. "Put a finger in me, Mace."

I felt his arousal spike again and he slid a finger into me gingerly, pulled it out, and then slid it in even deeper. It felt magnificent, and an unselfconscious groan erupted out of me unbidden, straight from the bottom of my diaphragm. That was too much for Mason. I could sense his sudden escalation in pleasure. The fact that he'd slid his finger into my pussy and made me groan like that was too much for him.

He came so explosively, his groan was more like a shout. I could sense the torrent of pleasure washing through him as he climaxed.

In the aftermath, the sheer joy he felt radiated through whatever connected us. He had just done two things he didn't think would ever happen: he completed his first intercourse with his long-time girlfriend while pleasuring his beloved sister. In that moment, Mason was quite literally, the happiest man on earth. Peace descended on the three of us for a time as we basked in his joy.

I felt something like an electric shock hit him. It flowed from Winn into Mason. His tension and passion, which had been released, suddenly began to ratchet back up.

Winn pulled her face out of my crotch.

"Keep going!" she said breathlessly. She had restarted her relentless fucking.

"What did you do?" Mason asked.

"I reset your refractory period so we can keep going," she said before she buried her face back into my pussy.

When she returned, she was much more direct and she used her hands on my ass to pull me into her mouth.

I focused on what Winn was feeling at that moment. She was physically tired. Her energetic fucking was hard on her thighs. Emotionally, she was in her happy place. There was no place on earth she'd rather be than mounted on Mason's cock with her face buried in my crotch. Her elation was similar to Mason's. She never dared to dream this day would come.

My brother's finger suddenly began to tickle my G spot. It felt amazing, but the intensity was too much. I instantly started to come.

"Ohhhhh!" I groaned out and I peaked and fell into a shattering orgasm. I had to put my hands on Winn's shoulders so I didn't fall.

"I can feel her pussy pulsing," Mason growled to Winn.

The pleasure the dumped into my blood stream was too much. All of a sudden, I was on the platform floor next to them. I don't remember sitting down, much less lying down.

I could sense Winn winding up. She'd found an angle and a rhythm that worked for her and she was going to orgasm soon. I leaned over and kissed my brother. I could feel something inside of Mason ignite. The overwhelming feeling of love was so powerful it boggled my own comprehension. It was too much for Winn and she came gloriously from slamming her pussy down on Mason's cock.

Waves of pleasure and joy radiated from her. When she was utterly spent. She stood from her squatting position on top of Mason.

"Your turn," said Winn. "We need to get his come in you to complete the binding."

She grabbed my hand and helped me to stand.

"Lay in the table," she commanded. There was a wooden table in the pavilion covered with a table cloth.

I sat on it, pivoted on its long axis and I lay back.

"Near the edge," she said. Winn grabbed my ankles and pulled, so my butt was half way on and half way off the table. It was clear that Winn wanted Mason standing while he took me.

Mason stood before me. He took my legs in his hands, which made my precarious position on the table a lot more comfortable.

I felt a wave of love from Mason. "You're so beautiful, Jules," he said with a smile I didn't want to ever forget.

He pressed his cock against my entrance. "You sure this is okay?" he asked.

"Do it, Mace," I replied. "Fuck me."

He pushed in. I was an athletic girl, and I had a pretty adventurous history with self pleasure. There was no hymen to rupture, but having a real cock in me for the first time was an incredibly powerful moment.

As strong as my emotions were, what I was feeling from Mason was a hundred times a strong. The feeling of wonder and gratitude and sheer power of his love for me was so overwhelming, I didn't know how to respond. I wondered how Winn was taking that. She had a strong personality and I imagined that she would be jealous and envious. I concentrated and most of what I could sense was joy, but there was some jealousy, too. Some small part of her didn't want to share either Mason or me, even to each other.

Every thrust he made was long and slow and was full of such powerful emotion that I was instantly overwhelmed. I heard Winn say, "Touch her clit Mason while you do this. Figure out what feels best for her."

As she was saying that, she climbed onto the table. She crawled over and then threw her pussy over my mouth. Her sex was boiling hot and had a strong musk. She was dribbling Mason's come and she was messy as hell.

I wasn't quite sure why I stuck my tongue out of my mouth. I can remember wondering if that was when I really wanted, but I'd acted on instinct and didn't hesitate. She slowly lowered herself until my tongue made contact with her lips.

As I ran my tongue up her crease from her anus to clit, Winn practically screamed out, "Oh, fuck yes!"

Her entire sex, like mine, was totally bare and it was so soft, hot, and swollen with arousal that I couldn't believe how amazing it felt. I'd literally never felt anything softer or sexier in my life.

For the next ten minutes or so, I was consumed by sensations of my brother fucking me while I ate Winn out. Towards the end, I could sense that Mason was straining to hold back and Winn had begun to ground her sex of my mouth to intensify what I was doing to her. I'd been going light on her because it took Mason a while to figure out what he was doing with his fingers.

I finally crossed whatever barrier had been there before and began to ramp up to a massive orgasm.

Winn reached down and slapped my arm. "Not yet!" she commanded. "We come together."

She raised her voice so Mason could hear. "Mace, it's time," I commanded. "Make her come and fill her pussy. Make her yours forever."

The words had the effect that she wanted. He immediately began to pump harder with more desperation and his fingers on my clit were suddenly frantic in just the right way. I attacked Winn's clit and finally gave her all the contact that she could stand. Mason was the first to trip over. As Mason reached his climax, he shouted out, "I love you Jules." Winn detonated and the feeling of Mason's hot come jetting out into my vagina did me in.

Our shared orgasm was glorious.

***

Chapter 25 - Unloading

At that point, we were overcome with exhaustion and were content to enjoy what we felt.

Winn was on one side of me and Mason was on the other. We snuggled and occasionally kissed each other, but no one said anything. A chilly breeze shot through the grove, and blew under the canvas and curtains like they weren't there. We wouldn't be able to stay out here naked for much longer. Even though it was warmer here than home, it was unmistakably autumn. It was Halloween after all.

"Let's go get warm," said Winn. Mason and I got up and followed her to the middle of the grove where there was a hut there built around the biggest tree. It was similar to the hut in the grove back home. The inside was lit with lanterns and there was smoke coming out of the chimney, indicating the stove inside was keeping the place warm.

As soon as we stepped in, we were amazed. The place had been laboriously and lovingly decorated by the congregation of the grove. Along the ceiling all the way around was a shelf lined with little colored glass cups holding lit candles. Each candle was from a different family in the grove.

Every square inch of the wall was covered with handmade decorations. They were slips of parchment, each with a pressed leaf or a pressed flower attached to it. Underneath was an encouraging note.

Winn walked over to see them and said, "Look at these! They're notes of encouragement and love. This one says, 'Congrats on your bonding, may Danu bless your union. Love Samantha.' Awwww! That was so sweet!"

The note had come from the unsteady hand of an elementary-aged child.

Not too far from the stove, was a giant mound of pillows, blankets, and furs. Close by was a table with food and drinks that would not spoil. It was more like tapas than a meal.

My stomach growled the moment I smelled it. Winn forced me to sit down on the makeshift bed and she took turns with Mason hand-feeding me. Seriously, they wouldn't let me touch my own food. It was shockingly sensual and before too long, Mason was erect again.

While they fed me, Winn pulled him into her lap so they were facing in the same direction and she gave him a slow and sensual hand job from behind. Something about this made me so hot my blood nearly boiled.

I crawled over on my knees and pressed my tits into his face. Winn and I could feel his arousal through the bond and anytime he came close to orgasm, Winn and I backed off. We teased him for some time before we collapsed into an erotic tangle on the pile of blankets and furs.

We kept at it for some time, continually shifting positions and exploring the different connections we could make. At one point, Mason and Winn ended up double teaming me. I wasn't sure who was licking my front and who was licking my back, but they worked perfectly in concert and I came so hard it felt like I was having a seizure. Shortly after that, Mason entered me from behind while I used my tongue and fingers to drive Winn into a similar release.

It was the most amazing night of my life.

***

After we utterly exhausted ourselves, we lay there in silence. I could sense both of their emotions. Winn was triumphant. I could feel her love for the two of us and it was easy to tell that she'd just seen her life's dream fulfilled.

Mason was coping with anxiety. His life had been difficult and he'd never had a victory in his life quite like tonight. He was so unused to winning, he didn't know how to handle it. I couldn't tell exactly what he was thinking, but he was catastrophizing, waiting for either Winn or I to sit up and declare this all to be a mistake.

I reassured him in the simplest way that I could. I picked up his hand and put it on my closest tit, so my nipple ring was at his fingertips. What would possibly signal my acceptance of him more than that?

"I'm not going anywhere Mason," I said. "Relax. Focus on what Winn is feeling. Focus on what I am feeling. Can you feel it? We love you. We are bound together, and we aren't going anywhere. This wasn't a mistake. This wasn't anything that we regret. Winn and I both came into this with our eyes open and we made the choice.

I could sense him searching for our feelings. After a minute, he just relaxed. The anxiety that had been a part of his existence his whole life was suddenly gone. He wept.

Winn and I let him cry himself out. It took a long time because his body had a lot to unload. It was undoing ten years of trauma, loneliness, and heartache. I could sense Winn pouring her love and support into him through the bond, so I did the same.

"Yes, Daughter," said Danu. "My Son is very sensitive. It is the most winsome part of him. You must take care of him."

When my brother stopped crying, Danu commanded me, "Kiss him."

I leaned over and kissed Mason, sliding my tongue into his mouth. I felt a powerful surge of energy build up in my uterus, slide up my spine into my mouth, and then out through my tongue and into his.

He trembled like he was having a seizure as I sensed the energy slowly spread through his body.

"That's enough child," said Danu.

I broke the kiss. Mason asked, "Oh my God, what was that?"

"Julie was working magic on you," answered Winn.

"Magic?" asked Mason. Winn did not answer, she just looked at me. I realized quickly, Winn didn't know any more than I did.

"What did you just do, Mother?" I asked Danu in my head.

"Winnifred chose your brother because he is a weak specimen and this is what she requires," answered Danu. "She will never be content to have a man that she cannot physically dominate.

"Her choice was perfect for her in most respects but his vessel is inadequate for delivering pleasure. His limb is too small, his stones are too weak for the demand that will be placed on it, and his stamina is pathetic.

"If I give your brother to the priests as he is now, they would enslave him by promising to repair his inadequacies. They would lure him with the promise to make him taller, to make his cock bigger, or to make his stones more substantial. Each tweak to him will have a cost which will place your brother in their debt. Too quickly, they would have him bound up in a cord which cannot be broken. This runs contrary to my purposes.

"I am dealing with this by making him the way I want him, and I have changed his nature so that the priests will have no power to alter him later," she replied.

"How do you want him, mother?" I asked.

"Just as he is now, but with a nice thick member and stones big enough for two men!" she said with a laugh. "This is how you will want him, too."

"Danu just did magic through me," I reported. "She is giving you a bigger cock, and she's making sure your balls are up to the task of keeping two needy women pleased."

"And who is Danu?" he asked.

"Danu is my goddess," replied Winn. "Specifically, the goddess of my religion, the Tuatha Dé Danann. We are the people of the goddess Danu. Now that you're bound to us, she's your goddess, too."

"I've heard of the Tuatha Dé Danann in folklore," he said.

"Be careful of oral histories," Winn said dismissively. "They are often wildly inaccurate. Language changes over time. If you have questions about her, or my religion, just ask."

"Jules was acting like she was talking to her telepathically," he said.

"I was," I replied. "She presents herself as a voice in my head."

He looked at Winn. She nodded and said, "Me, too."

"How did she come to be a voice in your head?" asked Mason.

"Danu came to us during the initiation ceremony where we were bound to the tree," answered Winn.

"Does everyone in your religion have Danu in their heads?" he asked. He was concerned.

"No, just Julie and I," answered Winn. "We are the prophets of Danu. A priestess is one who speaks to the god or goddess on behalf of the people. A prophet...."

Mason interrupted, "Yes, a prophet speaks to the people on behalf of the God. I got that. I also get that you are a prophet. Your very unusual upbringing explains that. It doesn't explain, however, why my sister is a prophet too."

"For people to be priests, priestesses, or prophets in my religion, they must be able to do magic," said Winn. "That boils down to genetics and biology making the body compatible. The degree of compatibility determines their strength. The three of us are all compatible, and Julie and I are the strongest women in thousands of years. That's why we were chosen to be the prophets. It is believed that you will also be a priest of astonishing power, but the priestesses don't have a good way to measure a man's strength.

"Will I be tied to a tree and go through the same ceremony?" he asked.

"No," answered Winn. "Men have a different way of doing things. Your initiation will happen out of our purview."

"So, because you are prophets, Danu actually lives inside your head?"

Winn nodded.

"So, did you cut some sort of special deal with Danu? A warlock is a magic user who cuts a deal with a supernatural entity to get their power. Did you do that?"

I asked Danu in my head, "Mother, is that how it is? I have made some sort of deal with you?"

"Close enough to the truth, Daughter," she answered in my head. "I give you my power to wield in the execution of my will. If you use it to do something I don't like, I will just deny it to you."

"It is true for me," I said when Winn declined to answer. "I have struck an ersatz bargain. I can do magic on my own, but she also gives me her power to wield so long as I do things that she approves of."

"And you?" he asked Winn.

"It's complicated," she answered. "The dog collar stuff blurs the lines. It is more correct to say that my mother struck a bargain with Danu, not me."

"So you're Warlocks," he said as if testing the idea out, "Ugh, I don't like that term. It's male-gendered and it doesn't sound right.

"Warlockess?" he tried, sounding it out. "Is that any better?"

"We are prophets, Mason." said Winn. "Nothing more and nothing less, that is how you should think of us and call us."

Mason turned to me. "So, Danu did magic through you to give me a giant cock and balls?" he asked.

"Will give," I corrected. "They will need some time to grow."

"I'm just supposed to believe this will happen?" he asked.

"Did you see how thick our nipples are, Mace?" Winn asked. "Do eighteen and nineteen year old women normally have nipples like that?

He looked at our breasts.

"Did you see how quickly we were healed after our initiation?" she asked. "How did that happen?"

"Can you ask Danu to make me taller?" he asked sheepishly.

"Maybe give me some more muscle?"

"She's not going to do that, Mason," I said. "She thinks you are perfect the way you are."

Mason looked very disappointed.

Winn stepped in. "You are permanently bound to two women, both of whom are prophets of Danu, horny as hell, and more than willing to make sure you are perpetually satisfied. In top of that, you will have a cock that will be the envy of most men you will likely meet. That should be enough, Mason."

Danu laughed when Winn said it.

"Yes!" she said with glee.

***

Chapter 26 - Rock Star

We'd left our clothes on the platform and they'd been picked up overnight, so we had no clothes to wear.

Winn walked out of the hut and strode toward the mansion naked as the day she was born, hickies on her neck and tits, and with an abused puffy-red pussy leaking come. She didn't give a fuck. She walked down the path like she owned it. She was such a fucking rock star.

"See how Winnifred carries herself," said Danu in my mind. "You must learn confidence from her. She knows who she is with certainty and she doesn't care what other people think of her. You and Winn are my ambassadors to my people, so you will present yourself with poise and confidence."

I felt a painful tingling burn in my shoulders, where I had slumped so that my tits didn't stick out so much.

"Back straight and breasts out!" she commanded. It made me reflexively stand up tall and stick my chest out.

"It makes no sense to hide your figure, Daughter," she chastised. "Every single priestess and grove member knows exactly what you were doing last night. What takes place at a binding isn't a mystery. They will be sick with envy of you. Those that have never known a bond will wonder what it was like for you to make love to your bonded lover for the first time. Those few that have known a bond will wonder what it was like to be double-bound. That envy is power daughter. You must cultivate this power."

Easier said than done, I thought to myself.

"You will learn!" Danu fired back.

"I know that the pleasure you experienced at the binding ceremony was more than you ever dreamed of, Daughter," said Danu with a softer tone. "You cannot hide that from me. The very best thing you can do right now is to show them that it was glorious. That means you walk in there like Winnifred. You will learn sex from Shreya, but you will learn confidence from Winnifred."

I wondered if she meant she wanted me to imitate Winn. I studied her gait and her bearing and I did my very best to imitate it.

"Yes!" Danu enthused in my head. "Exactly! This is how you will walk among my people. It is time you took stock of who you really are. You are one of the most beautiful women among my daughters. Not one of my other daughters at the house has half of your looks save Winnifred herself. This is the way of our people: the more of my power that you hold and wield, the more beautiful you will become. The power will keep your complexion clear, it will enable your ability to recover from injury, it will make you utterly symmetrical, and it will keep you young. The effect will only become stronger as you age.

"You will never grow fat no matter what you eat, you will never wrinkle. You will age slowly, but at half the speed of most women. By the time you are thirty, most of the people you meet will think you are the most beautiful woman they've ever seen. Get used to it now."

My heart skipped a beat. When I was in middle school, my emerging adolescence had taken me through awkward phases. I was the proverbial ugly duckling at age twelve. I'd finally grown into my face when I turned fifteen. I instinctively felt my beauty, mostly sensing it in the looks and glances from strangers and the way they reacted to me. I was vain enough that Danu's promises that I would maintain my beauty were extremely reassuring.

"Yes, Mother," I replied.

"Tonight is Samhain. It marks the end of summer and the beginning of Winter. This is a special night because the veil between the worlds is thinnest. For thousands of years, my people have celebrated the Samhain, always in ever-changing ways so that the people of five hundred years ago would not recognize what is done today.

"In the present, the tradition is that there will be a sundown bonfire ceremony followed by a feast. The people will come dressed in costumes and disguises. There will be games, divination, and mischief. The people will know that the Bé Chuille is here, and they will also know that the Lesser Prophet was just initiated in their grove. They will expect much from you and you will not disappoint. I will guide you in what to do.

"You must be ready for one thing. At the binding ceremony last night, you spoke to Cerridwin and tasked her with taking care of your parents. That Aoife is a rotten apple, and she has cultivated a group of like-minded women around her. Winn is going to take care of her. You must claim Cerridwin for your retinue soon, or Aoife's allies will move against her. Cerridwin and Shreya will be your retinue. I have declared it."

"Yes, Mother," I replied in my head.

Winn stepped out of the grove and into a large clearing just outside of the grove. There were more than a hundred people out there, all adults. Groups of the men were pitching large canvas tents. Others were carrying long tables and chairs. The women were setting up the tables and decorating.

As soon as Winn appeared, all of the activity simply stopped. They openly stared. The prospect of seeing the leader of their faith completely naked and newly fucked was something that generated quite a bit of interest. I walked up and stood just to her right, and half a step behind her, doing my best to imitate her erect posture and serene confidence.

"Julie, call in Fedelma and Aoife," Winn said to me casually.

I intuitively understood she was demonstrating my relationship to her.

"Bring us Fedelma and Aoife!" I called out forcefully.

"I will get them, mother!" said a woman who was near us in the clearing. She scurried out.

"Where are Cerridwin and my parents?" I asked.

Another woman, an acolyte I remembered from when I got my tattoos, said, "I will get them, Lesser Prophet."

She left.

As I waited, I could feel Mason's spend leaking out of me and down my thigh. These people could evidently see it and they were whispering to each other about it. These people all knew that I'd just been fucking my brother.

"Help me Mother," I said to Danu inside of my head. "I do not feel confidence at all!"

I felt a sudden wave of giddiness and happiness shoot through me.

"I told you to show them how you feel, Daughter!" Danu laughed back at me. "You should be projecting the image of a woman who is fucked out, in afterglow, filled with joy, and more than a little sore."

With the giddy joy, my parts suddenly started throbbing with soreness. It was not a bad feeling.

Fedelma, Aoife, and Fedelma's attendants made their way into the main ballroom. Cerridwin and my folks came in just behind them. Shreya was with them. My parents saw that both Mason and I were naked and had obviously been having sex. They weren't surprised, but they were very disturbed.

Winn said to Aoife, "Ah, there you are.

"I am informing you that I will be the Veil-warden at the feast of the Samhain this evening, and Julie will be the Warden's Shadow," she said. "My condolences to you and your assistant, but Danu wills it. She is very pleased with the grove members here and she will oversee a special blessing tonight to celebrate the coming of her Greater and Lesser Prophets.

"Ensure the preparations are complete and then resume your place among the priestesses for the feast. Danu herself will be with her prophets tonight, and will be giving out special dispensations. You too will be given a special dispensation just like the rest. Inform the grove."

Aoife was both shocked and devastated.

Danu laughed in my head. "See how confident Winnifred is! She swooped in and took Aoife's place. She will use her role as Veil-warden of the Samhain to put her in her place tonight. Aoife knows this instinctively, which demonstrates that she knows she has much to atone for."

Aoife just stood there looking dumbfounded and resentful.

"Any questions, Daughter?" asked Winn while giving her a cold stare.

"No, Mother."

"The Lesser Prophet will now declare her retinue," said Winn. She turned to look at me.

"Cerridwin, are you here?" I announced.

"Yes, Mother," she announced, stepping forward.

"You are to join Shreya in my retinue effective immediately," I announced, trying to mimic Winn's tone.

"Mother!" interrupted Aoife. "That is not recommended, Cerridwin is being punished... and...."

"Silence!" commanded Winn. "The Lesser Prophet is speaking! Danu has instructed the Lesser Prophet to name her retinue. Dare you interfere?"

Aoife was so embarrassed she turned beet red. "No Mother, but...."

She was brought up short as she made eye contact with Winn, who was furious. Aoife dropped her head.

"As I was saying, Danu's will is for you to join my retinue," I said to Cerridwin. "Be ready to leave with the Bé Chuille and I when we depart. Bring two weeks of clothes to start. We will see about relocating you permanently later."

"Yes, Mother. I am at your service," Cerridwin said with evident joy.

"Have you taken good care of my parents?" I asked.

"Yes, Mother," she replied.

"My parents are to be guests of honor here at the feast tonight," I stated. "You are to act as their hostess. I wish to recruit them into our faith. Bear in mind that they do not know of Danu or of the customs of her people, so we must win them over. Make sure that the Tuatha Dé Danann make them feel at home tonight."

Saying this in front of a hundred witnesses would ensure this would happen.

"Mom, Dad," I said. "I know you have a ton of questions about what is going on between Winn, Mason, and me. My apologies, but I've been occupied and tonight I will have responsibilities during the feast. I will do my best to carve out some time for you this afternoon. Hopefully, as you dine tonight at the feast, some of the Tuatha will help you to understand my role as the lesser prophet of Danu, and Mason's role as consort to the prophets of Danu."

Mom and Dad nodded. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Winn smile triumphantly, and Mason blush beet red as I named him consort.

***

Chapter 27 - Elder

In the afternoon, Winn and I were outfitted in our costumes for the feast. My costume looked like something a gypsy would wear.

It consisted of a silk off-the-shoulder crop top with long gossamer transparent sleeves. A silk shawl was spread over the top, so I could dynamically moderate the amount of cleavage I would show. To go with the top was an ankle-length peasant skirt of many layers worn low across the hips to expose the belly button. The skirt was opaque only in the pelvis. Every other part was semi-transparent and it was easy to see my form beneath it.

A scarf was drawn across the top of the skirt. My fabrics were colorful, and it was adorned with jewelry made with small animal bones that had been painted and polished until they shined.

Winn's costume was the same cut and style, but instead of being colorful, hers was made entirely in shades of gray. Instead of the bright red lipstick that was given to me, she was adorned with black lipstick. Her shawl was to be worn over her head, and there was a veil before her face which would be drawn aside during her ritual interactions.

"So you're back to being sexy goth chick?" I asked her, which made her laugh.

"I do kind of miss it, from time to time," she admitted.

The costumes had been sized to fit Aoife and her chief assistant, but they had to be altered for Winn and I. We were both quite a bit taller and being more than a decade younger, we were a lot less wide in the hips than they were. There was a skilled seamstress among the grove and she worked hard to make our costumes perfect.

While the alterations were being made, we had tea with Aisling Tierney. Aisling was the woman who had been the Chief Priestess before Aoife. She had stepped down, making her the grove Elder. Aoife had won her position as chief priestess by besting the other priestesses for the grove in open competition.

Aisling was a very strong-willed woman and refused to speak to us openly until we had both shown her our triskelions and our tattoos. She goggled at the power the two of us had and looked both delighted and eager. After that, she insisted we call her by her first name.

"Aisling, why didn't we see you during Julie's initiation and then at the bonding ceremony?" asked Winn.

"Aoife prohibited it," she replied.

"She did? That is against tradition," Winn replied.

Aisling scoffed. "Tradition means little to Aoife and her cronies," she said in disgust. "When I stepped down, I still had a few good years in me. If I had known how it would play out, I would have held on as long as I needed to, for the good of the grove if for no other reason."

"What happened?" asked Winn.

"Aoife transferred into our grove three years before I stepped down," said Aisling. "At the time, I didn't think too much of it. She came from a grove in Oregon. She came highly recommended and was certainly powerful. Her stated reason for the transfer was that she and the chief priestess of her former grove were not getting along and she was looking for a fresh start. That's common enough among priestesses in their thirties who are just coming into their prime that I didn't think too much of it."

"Once she got here, she had a series of run-ins with the priestesses who were born and raised in the grove. Different groves have different practices and attitudes, so I instructed the priestesses to gently guide her and make allowances until she found her place among us. I brought her in as my assistant so she could learn our ways from me personally.

"Not too long after she joined me, I started showing symptoms of perimenopause. My hair was falling out, my power was fluctuating, and my cycle was suddenly irregular. I knew there were four women, good women all, who were strong enough and well-seasoned enough that they could take my place. I reluctantly decided to step down for the good of the grove.

"When we had the choosing, there was something about the process that wasn't right. The first two rounds, where the contestant proved their strength did not go correctly at all. Several of the younger, less powerful women, defeated opponents who were much stronger and much more experienced. Three of the women who I thought might succeed me were defeated by priestesses who had half as many triskelions.

"In the last round of the choosing, where the priestesses try to take physical control of their opponent, the woman I was certain would win was defeated so easily, that I was certain cheating was involved. Before I could intervene and put a stop to the competition, Aoife was declared the winner.

"Her leadership over the grove since she was installed has been an unmitigated disaster. As soon as she was in charge, she effectively banished me. With that done, she brought in a half-dozen transfers. All of them are young, of middling power, and they are her only trusted lieutenants. She hasn't once lain with or performed magic on a man of the grove since she got here, nor has any of her lieutenants. She has driven away two of the three women who I thought might succeed me, she has made a bitter enemy of the grove holder, and she has effectively kept me banished and cut out of the grove political leadership."

Aisling sighed deeply. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, and I hate to be the one to make this accusation, but I feel like I need to do this for the faith."

"What is it, Daughter?" asked Winn.

"I wrote around to all of the other Elders from every single congregation I have contacts with. What has happened here with Aoife has happened elsewhere too. We have no absolute proof, but the elders and I have pieced together that this is a plot. Aoife is a member of a faction that styles itself the 'Circle of the Yew'. They are young, radical, and have set about enacting an agenda of takeover.

"I, along with several other Elders, believe that they drive out sitting priestesses by administering to them teas which mimic the symptoms of perimenopause. They then interfere with the choosing by giving teas which weaken the other candidates resolve and their power. Through our investigations, the Elders have come to realize that the final test of the choosing: taking control of the other candidate, is not a measure of power, as we suspected, but a measure of will.

"There are ways to make yourself willful and inured to the will of others. Those will work even when there is a severe power difference. We believe that the Yew Circle knows this and that is how they are seizing control."

"Do you have any proof of this?" I asked.

"Only myself. As soon as I stopped taking the teas which were prepared by the other priestesses, my perimenopause symptoms went away. I am willing to allow myself to be delved if you wish to see the truth of this."

"You will submit to a delving?" Winn asked in disbelief.

"Yes," replied Aisling. "This is too important for modesty. The needs of the grove outweigh my ego a thousand fold."

"Open yourself, Daughter," Winn commanded.

"See her work this spell," whispered Danu. You will have to do the same many times until the Yew circle is dealt with."

I watched intently and I saw Winn make ritual gestures and her last four gestures, were an exact four-move sequence from Cat's Cradle. This caused gossamer strands from Aisling's forehead to suddenly materialize, pulled tight across Winn's fingertips.

Winn gasped. "You are not perimenopausal at all!" she practically shouted. "You have years of service left in you!"

"It is just as I suspected, Mother," said Aisling almost dejectedly. "I was so foolish. I should have let one of my lieutenants delve me when I showed the symptoms, but I was too proud."

"This cannot and will not stand, Daughter," said Winn, who was enraged.

"Danu is most pleased that you have brought this to my attention, Daughter. She wishes to give you a boon. What would you have?"

"I want one and only one thing, Mother," Aisling replied. "I have dedicated my life to the good of this grove. I love the people of this grove as if they were all my own children. I cannot sit idly by and simply watch as she destroys my life's work. I want Aoife gone. I would give anything, my own life if need be, to see that happen."

There was a very long pause while Winn considered what she said.

"Danu grants your request," said Winn. "It shall be done tonight."

"When Aoife is replaced, will you be willing to serve again?"

"Yes, Mother," she responded with such evident relief she started to cry. Winn and I both held her to console her.

***

Chapter 28 - Foretelling

When Cerridwin came in she was smiling. She walked straight to Winn and did the bob. She then turned to me and did the same. It was shocking to me because she was the first woman to do this to me.

"See, Daughter, this one understands respect and courtesy," said Danu.

"Must I accept the bob?" I asked. "I'm just an initiate, and not even a priestess yet."

"That is true," answered Danu. "You are not a priestess, nor will you ever be. You are my prophet. That is both more and different than being a priestess."

Cerridwin saw the consternation on my face, and asked, "Did I overstep by giving you my curtsy, Mother?"

"No, Cerridwin," I answered. "Danu herself was speaking to me. This is all new to me and I think of myself as an initiate. Danu, however, said this title is not accurate because I am neither an initiate nor will I ever be a priestess. She says that what I am, what I will always be, is her Lesser Prophet. Nothing more, and nothing less. I was tempted to tell you not to curtsy to me, but Danu did not allow me to say that. Danu does not care one iota how you treat me as a person. As the prophet, her ambassador, and living avatar among her people, however, she commands me to insist on receiving the respect and courtesy that is due my rank. That was what I was reacting to."

Cerridwin's eyes went wide.

"In private, or when it is just you and I and the Bé Chuille, just call me Julie," I said.

"Yes, Julie," she responded. "Please call me Cerri."

"Do you really have conversations with Danu in your head?" she asked.

"Yes," I replied. "I would rather not have that spread around as common knowledge, but that is how it is. I had two encounters with Danu. The first was when I was measured. The second occurred during my initiation, and she has been a literal voice inside of my head since. When I say I speak for Danu, I mean it literally."

Cerridwin looked incredulous.

"Danu tells me that I should tell you that you have her permission to ask her any question you want, but she knows what you will ask about is your sister, Macha."

Cerridwin's eyes immediately started to water.

"Is she...? Did she...?" asked Cerridwin.

"Danu says that she is alive, Cerri. Roy Lee did not kill her as you feared. She is living in the mountains of Tennessee near the North Carolina border. She has married a local there name Dale and has two daughters. She named the oldest Cerridwin and she is the spitting image of you. When she split with Roy Lee, he beat her and then threatened her with a knife. She feared for her life and ran. She does not know that Roy Lee passed away."

Cerridwin nodded. "I figured as much."

"She would like to hear from you. I have her number."

I took out a stickie note and wrote down the number. "It is Samhain. She will be thinking of you tonight. You should call her before the feast."

She looked amazed. "This is the best Samhain gift I've ever received," she said.

"Danu says your selfless service has been noticed. We are also going to see about extracting your husband from the mess he's in. That will be handled when the grove-holder's daughter crosses the veil tonight."

"Really?" she asked in a tone so hopeful it hurt my heart.

"Really," I answered. Needing to switch topics, I said, "How are my parents doing?"

"They are hanging in there. They are quite bewildered by what they saw last night and this morning," she replied. "I think I've managed to give them a solid overview of our faith, and they certainly understand what I've described. I'm not sure that they understand that this is a real faith, and not a bunch of cosplaying crackpots."

"Do they understand what it means that Julie, Mason, and I are bonded?" asked Winn.

"I have some experience in explaining the faith to outsiders," she replied. "I thought it was best to describe bonding to them as analogous to marriage. I think they understand that much," she replied. "However, they still struggle with the fact that three people could be married or that siblings can be married under that arrangement."

"Were they upset that Mason and I were having sex?" I asked.

Cerridwin laughed. "Your mother told me that she caught you in Mason's bed last week. She was pretty convinced by what she saw that you and your brother were sexually active back then. She tried to put her best face on it by telling herself that you're at least married now and among people who will accept the nature of your relationship."

"And my father?" I asked, dreading what she would say.

"Your father is quite a remarkable man," Cerri said expressing open admiration. "Sharp, open-minded, curious, and supple. He just took it all in. Once he determined that you weren't coerced, he only asked one question: are they happy? You'd don't see that kind of intelligence every day."

"I will be honest Julie," she said. "I'm quite taken with your father. I understand that they are new to the faith, but do you mind if I ask your mother to share him, tonight?" She blushed pink as she asked, but she got it out without breaking eye contact.

"Sharing?" I asked Winn. "Does that mean what I think it means?"

"We spoke before about how our faith isn't really built around monogamy. It would not be unusual for established couples to have sex with other people. We call this 'sharing'."

"You want to have sex with my father?" I asked.

"Yes, Julie," she replied.

I loved my father dearly, but couldn't quite see the appeal of that at all. In fact, I had to suppress an eye roll.

"How is that done?" I asked. "Do you proposition him?"

"Given that your folks are outside of the faith, I would approach your mother first during a festival," said Cerridwin.

"Out of curiosity, do you find my mother attractive?" I asked.

"She is quite attractive," she said. "Why do you ask?"

"She told me recently that she is a non-practicing bisexual. She's pretty sure she's into women."

"Really?" she asked with a burst of excitement. "I felt some energy there, but they are so.... conventional... I thought I was being overly optimistic."

"Yes," I replied. "If you approach my mother, you may get a better response if you propose to both of them. Offer to show them both what this sharing thing is all about."

"So you don't mind if I try?" she asked.

"If the faith allows it, why would I mind?" I asked.

Winn stepped in at this point. "She's worried that you will see it as a disingenuous attempt to curry favor with you."

In my head, I asked Danu. "Is Cerridwin being disingenuous?"

"No, Daughter," replied Danu. "Tell Cerridwin that I have given you a foretelling that you three will spend many nights in bed together."

I turned to Cerridwin. "Danu has offered a foretelling. You will spend many nights in bed with my parents."

Her eyes lit up again. "I will be bold!" she declared.

"When you proposition my mother, flash her your ear," I said. "It is exquisite."

***

Chapter 29 - Bewildered

Mom and Dad came in together. Mom walked straight over to Winn and hugged her.

"Winn, congratulations! I was surprised when I heard that you and Mason had gotten married. It all happened so quickly, but I want you to know how happy I am for both of you. Seeing Mason this happy means more to me than I can say, and I am so glad that he has found someone like you to share his life with.

"I want you to know that I don't think of you as my daughter-in-law. I think of you as my daughter. You are part of our family now, and I hope you and I can become close. I want to be there for you, and I want you to feel that you always have a mother in me. I wish you and Mason a lifetime of happiness together."

I felt a surge of emotions from the bond with Winn. She was suddenly hugging my mother fiercely and they were both instantly crying. Mom had no clue how much that meant to Winn.

Danu said to me in my head, "She is not the only one married to Mason, Daughter. You need to correct your mother's misapprehension."

"But, this is Winn's moment I don't...."

Danu cut me off. "Do it!"

"Mom," I said scarcely believing that I was saying this. "It was not just Winn and Mason who were bonded. Winn and I are wives too."

Mom looked so bewildered, that Winn took pity on her.

"Mom, why don't you sit and have a cup of tea with Julie," she said.

Winn helped Mom sit ponderously down on the couch.

Winn tugged on Dad's arm. "Come, Dad we have some things to discuss."

She took Dad to the far end of the room and they were soon talking softly to each other.

I poured Mom a cup of tea. Mom blew on it and drank it without thinking.

Mom looked at me. "Winn is your wife?" she asked.

"And I am hers," I answered.

"And Mason?" she asked. "Is he your husband?"

"In a manner of speaking," I replied. "Although the people of the faith don't really use terms like husband and wife."

"That's... You will have to forgive me, Julie, but that's quite concerning to me," she said. "What if you get pregnant by Mason?"

"We won't, Mom," I replied. "We are using the contraception of the Tuatha Dé Danann. When the time comes for me to have children, we will examine whether our children would be genetically sound. If not, we'll find a sperm donor."

"You want your brother to father your children?" she asked.

"Why wouldn't I?" I asked. "I trust him, I love him, and next to Dad, he is the kindest, sweetest man I've ever met. Why wouldn't I want him to father my children? If there's no risk to it, Mason is an ideal father. He's utterly amazing."

Mom, of course, adored Mason and she couldn't refute that argument.

"The Tuatha? They will accept an incestuous relationship?" she asked.

"They have a very practical and pragmatic view of it," I said. "When the contraception is one hundred percent effective, and the relationship is between consenting adults, and that is what we are, consenting adults, the Tuatha Dé Danann won't have a problem with it."

"How long have you two been... active together?" she asked.

"We did some kissing and had oral sex once last week. That day when you caught us in bed together was our first time having any sort of sexual contact at all. Our first time with intercourse was last night, after we were bonded."

"And are you sexually active with Winn, too?" she asked.

"Yes," I replied. "I am bisexual. I like men more than women, but I like women too. Sound familiar? I don't think this apple fell too far from the tree."

Mom blushed, but she smiled. She liked hearing how we were similar.

"Winn and I, well that's a more recent thing. We've known each other for four years now. We've been friends and teammates during that time and there is a strong spark between us."

"So what was it like having sex with a woman?" she asked. Her curiosity was evident.

"Exquisite, Mom," I replied. "Soft, warm, and intimate. Way more fun than I thought it would be."

"Are you happy?" she asked.

"Yes, Mom," I replied. "This is what I want."

"But this is so sudden," said Mom.

"Winn and Mason have dated for years," I observed. "You've known that they've been crazy for each other that whole time. How can that possibly be considered sudden?"

Mom looked miffed at me saying that, which told me I'd scored a point.

"Your part in it was sudden," she corrected.

"Frankly, my part in it, and the bond between Mason, Winn, and me isn't really the hard part of this whole conversation," I said.

"What is the hard part?" Mom asked.

"My religious conversion," I replied. "In case you haven't gathered by now, the Tuatha Dé Danann is a faith where magic is practiced," I said. "That's the part you should be struggling with."

"Magic, as in witches casting spells?" she asked.

"Not witches, but yes to the magic," I replied. "The priestesses of the Tuatha perform magic as a matter of course. Both Mason and I have the ability to do magic. Technically speaking, I am a Warlock."

Mom scoffed at that.

I held out the palm of my hand face up, whispered a word that Shreya had taught me earlier in the day and a cold blue flame ignited in the palm of my hand.

Mom was mesmerized by it. I slowly brought the flame up to my mouth and then I blew on it towards her. It immediately brought us into an illusion of my making. We were back at home sitting in the living room with Dad and Mason. Mom and I were twelve years old, dad and Mason were both in their forties.

"What the fuck?" asked Mom in a rare burst of profanity. "How did you do this?"

"It's magic, Mom," I said. "I learned this spell so I can do it at the celebration tonight. I create the flame, then I form a picture in my mind, and then I blow it into the flame with my breath."

I let the flame die and suddenly we were back in the study and back to our normal ages. Mom was wide-eyed by the instant transformation.

"I get that this is going to be a lot to adjust to," I said. "I don't expect you to believe everything we tell you at first. I simply ask you to observe what you see and keep an open mind about why you see what you see. There will be a lot of magic done tonight at the feast. Watch and be skeptical. Ask yourself how we are doing what we do. If you fight it, you'll just have a harder time adjusting."

After thinking about it, she replied, "Okay, I can do that."

"In the meantime, you will see the feast of the Samhain celebrated tonight," I said. "There is one aspect to the Tuatha de Danann, which I need to reiterate to you: it is not a faith that is based on monogamy and permanent pair-bonding. You will see many people together tonight who are not normally couples."

"Really?" she asked.

I nodded. "Also, in our faith, women having sex with each other is not unusual. Part of the magic involves having ritual sex with the priestesses. There is a high likelihood you, Dad, or both of you, will be propositioned to participate in lovemaking outside of your marriage tonight."

Mom's eyes were wide again.

"Winn is speaking to Dad about this and trying to prepare him," I said. "I am trying to prepare you: you must not react harshly to their propositions. They see nothing wrong with it and if they are asking you, it is flattering because they are choosing you over others they might otherwise proposition. If you are not interested, all you need to do is say, 'I am sorry, but I am just observing tonight.' You will not be harassed and your refusal will not offend them. They know you aren't part of the faith.

"The important part is that you must speak with Dad before the feast and come up with a plan of what you two will do if propositioned. My advice to you is to be blunt and ask him if he would be interested. If you don't, it could lead to misunderstanding. You never know, he might be accommodating. You told me that you regret not seeking more adventure before you married Dad. Perhaps you can have that adventure together."

Later, after Mom and Dad left, I turned to Winn.

"How'd it go for you?" I asked.

"I read your father the riot act about his activities with Tracy Hoke. He was abashed that he'd been caught flirting with her and vowed that he would back off. He also promised me he'd talk about it with your mother."

I nodded.

"I also told him about your mother's latent bisexuality and Danu's foretelling. He just rolled with it. Cerridwin was right, your father is very supple. I don't know men very well, but I can tell that is a rare talent in a man."

"You forget, Winn, that I grew up with Mason," I said. "He takes after Dad a lot."

"True," she replied.

***

Chapter 30 - The Children

Winn and I stepped from the mansion into the front yard where the children had just finished their early feast and were ready to start their own celebration. We were dressed as the Warden and her Shadow, and we were trailed by a half dozen priestesses who formed our retinue. These were all younger priestesses of the grove who knew these children intimately.

The kids erupted into a spontaneous cheer and we were swarmed. The priestesses threw out candy by the handful.

To keep the kids from wandering into the adult celebration, they'd designated the kids area to be the front yard of the mansion. The house was constructed such that you could not get from the front to the back without going through the house. There would be a handful of older folks in the house at all times to manage access to each yard.

By tradition, the sixteen and seventeen-year-olds were left in charge of the younglings. Just in case, the older folks in the mansion would keep an eye on the front yard to make sure nothing got out of hand.

Two of the seventeen-year-old girls would be chosen to play the role of Warden and the Shadow. They would play-act opening the veil, making goofy harmless foretellings to the children.

When Winn was twelve, she received this gem: "You will find a coin on the ground and keep it. Years later, you will wonder whether it was the coin spoken of in this prophecy."

Shreya's favorite was: "One day you will open the refrigerator three times in a row, and on the third opening, the food you seek will finally appear."

She still laughed about it years later. "You don't want to know how many times I opened the fridge after that just to test the foretelling,"

The teens left in charge would then award random trinkets that were supposed to be portends.

Winn said, "When the kids go down for the night in the sleep tent, the older teens play chaste kissing games and flirt with each other. The was something magical about Samhain. The same kids who wouldn't give me the time of day my whole life would actually hang with me and act friendly during Samhain. It meant so much to me. Good times!"

The kids celebration, which started in the mid-afternoon and would end not long after dark, did get an appearance from the Warden of the veil and the Shadow.

We did not interact with the children, but we did open the veil with the high schoolers. We were also supposed to make the selection of who would be the Warden and the Shadow over the children.

Not growing up in the religion, I didn't know quite what to expect. I was told that the person would be brought in and would pull back in the veil on Winn's face, which was the parting of the veil.

Winn would then offer foretellings and allow them to ask questions. When this was done, she would name gifts or blessings to be given. Once the person closed the veil, I would make the gift or blessing happen, usually by delegating a priestess to bestow the gift.

The Warden represented Danu behind the veil. The Shadow, represented Danu's hands on the world. The priestesses represented the people who would bring Danu's will to the grove. Danu promised me that she would guide me through what to do.

Winn warned me of one thing: the teenagers commonly asked for body modification.

This was never done because body modification magic involved kissing. The Tuatha were extremely strict against adults having such contact with anyone under eighteen.

"It can be heartbreaking, Julie, but we must refuse." When she said it, I got the sense she was telling herself instead of me.

There was an enormous tent, divided into many alcoves, which was set aside and kept dark and quiet for the parting of the veil. The alcove where Winn sat was dimly lit with a lantern of natural flame. The priestesses all had their own alcoves, each containing a table and two chairs, so they could interact with the teens privately.

We worked the children from youngest to oldest. For the fourteen-year-olds, this was their first parting of the veil and they were mostly scared shitless.

The process was simple. I walked the child in through the vestibule of the tent, which was built like a long hall and walked them to the Warden. In front of the Warden, I bid them to kneel and pull aside Winn's veil.

Winn offered them foretellings given to her by Danu herself. Winn would allow them to ask questions or make requests. Then, she would sometimes tell the teen what blessing would be given, or she would say, "The Priestess has something for you."

As Winn was doing this, Danu would often tell me what blessing to name and which priestess the teen should be delegated to. Danu had an uncanny way of knowing the exact priestess who would best relate to the teen.

I would take the child to the Priestess Danu had picked out, tell her what Danu wanted done, and then retrieve the next teen.

***

The third parting we did was, for lack of a better word, fraught. The teen boy was in his first parting. He practically begged for his same-sex attraction to be taken away. Winn was remarkably gentle with him.

"When I was your age, I was certain that I was a lesbian," she said. "Absolutely, certain. I had never felt attraction to a boy. That very year I met Mason, and now he is my consort. I cannot say that I am attracted to all men, but I am attracted to him and a few others. That is enough for me. I tell you this because you are still growing and that growth brings change.

"You need to know this: regardless of who you are attracted to, Danu loves you just the same. Danu instructs that there is nothing wrong with same-sex attraction. It is a matter of the body. Danu knows that different people are made in different ways and she gives everyone equal value. There is room in the grove for all. Everyone is welcome and everyone is equally valued. When you are a teenager, what you are attracted to and what gives you pleasure seems all encompassing, but this isn't who you are. It is only a small part of life and it does not change who you are on the inside. Danu sees who you are on the inside."

He looked so grateful and relieved it was heart-breaking to know the kind of pain he must have felt.

"Danu has a foretelling for you," announced Winn.

"Yes, Mother," the boy said eagerly.

"Danu says you have a gift for arboriculture," she announced. "You will be treasured for your expertise and you will be called in to tend to groves far and wide."

The boy's face lit up with excitement. "Really?"

"Yes, Child," Winn replied.

Danu indicated which priestess she wanted me to take him to. As I walked him there, she said, "Tell the priestess of my foretelling. Instruct her to connect the boy with Gregory Foster. He is prohibited contact with Morris Laurent. Laurent is skilled in some areas, but he will blossom under Foster. This priestess will attempt to redirect the boy to Laurent for a kickback. Call her out for this discreetly."

"Yes, Mother," I answered in my head.

As we approached the priestess, I repeated what Danu had said. When I mentioned the grove's arborists by name, the priestess's eyes opened wide in shock.

"How did you know their names?" she asked.

"Danu told me," I replied. I leaned forward and whispered into her ear. "Just as she told me that you will try to direct the boy to Morris Laurent for a kickback. You must not defy Danu in this for personal gain."

As I stood up, the priestess turned beet red. "Mother, I... I wouldn't do that! I would never do that!" she insisted. The amount of embarrassment she was feeling indicated otherwise.

"Danu is a merciful goddess, Daughter, but you must never presume her mercy," I said soberly.

When I said that, Danu laughed in my head. "Yes! That was perfect! You are coming along nicely!"

The very next parting was just as fraught. It was with a young teen girl who was visibly overweight. She begged Winn to make her skinny. "Mother, they call me 'Mildred the Cow' at school."

"Are the children who call you this of the grove?" asked Winn.

"No, Mother," she answered. "But I'm so picked on that the children of the grove avoid me at school so they don't get picked on, too. I am so lonely." She started to cry.

Winn looked so moved I thought she would cry.

Dani said to me, "Winn is begging me to help this child. I can do so, but you have to agree to help and it will be painful."

"I will do it, Mother," I said.

I could feel Danu's pride in my answer. "Good girl!" Her glowing praise made me feel both goofy and happy.

Winn promised the girl that we would try something for her benefit that hadn't been done in a thousand years.

"Thank you, Mother," said the girl.

"Don't thank me, thank the Lesser Prophet," said Winn. "It is she that will make the attempt."

When I took the girl to the priestess, Danu sent me to Morgan, who was of the Ash and was the best healer in our group of volunteers. I told the girl to sit. I then went and collected all of the priestesses who did not have a teen with them at the moment.

"Danu has instructed me to do an act that has not been tried in a thousand years. She says that body modification is not done in children under eighteen because intimate kissing is required. Danu says the kissing is used to build up energy in the person being healed so the transformation can be done. Is this correct?"

"Yes, Mother," answered Morgan.

"Danu told me that there is a way to bring up energy without using kissing," I said. "She will guide me in this. She brought me here so you can witness what I do and so that you can testify that no kissing was used. She also said that I will need healing. Those of you of the Ash, stand ready."

"Shall we begin?" I asked the teen.

"Yes, Mother," she answered.

"Relax and when you feel the energy, let it in. Morgan, when you sense enough energy, use it to perform a weight-loss transformation. Understand?"

"Yes, Mother."

Danu talked me through a series of repetitive hand motions. I felt a source of heat inside of me that built and built. As it built, it got hotter and it soon grew to the point where I felt I was being cooked from the inside. I kept going until the pain was excruciating.

"That is enough, Daughter," said Danu. "Hold out your hand and blow it into her."

I held my upturned palm in front of my face and blew towards the teen. She jerked in her chair and the priestesses all gasped.

"Is that enough energy?" I croaked through the pain.

"Yes, Mother," Morgan replied, sounding utterly amazed. She quickly began to act. After less than a minute, she said, "It is done."

I released the heat that was contained in me and staggered to the floor. The priestesses rushed in to support me. Morgan was suddenly there kissing me and applying healing to me.

"You must not do that often, Mother," she whispered just to me. "You were severely damaged on the inside. Luckily, it could be healed, but if you had held much more, or held what you did for much longer, I might not have been able to manage it."

While the other Priestesses tended to me, I heard Morgan telling the girl,

"You will spend a lot of time the next week on the toilet. That is how it leaves the body. I recommend you borrow a few good books and that you shower afterwards instead of wiping, so you don't make yourself raw."

***

Only one other parting with the teens was difficult. It was with one of the seventeen-year-old girls. Her name was Wren.

Almost immediately, Winn said, "Daughter, have they told you that you have magic and that you are strong in it?"

"Yes, Mother," Wren answered. "Aoife told me this at my first parting. She has been spending time with me personally to prepare me."

Danu growled in my head. "This is not how the chief priestesses are supposed to act, Julienne! They are supposed to pair up uninitiated underaged women with an apprentice priestess and stay away from them until the initiation. To do otherwise reeks of an effort to develop a cult of personal influence."

After a pause, Wren said, "Mother, I am scared."

"Why?" asked Winn. "Your birthday is still nine months away. You have plenty of time to prepare for your initiation."

Wren blushed crimson and said, "I want to be a priestess desperately," she confessed. "I am the first woman in our family to ever have magic. Mother and grandmother are so proud, they've been telling anyone who will listen that I will be a priestess. I am terrified that I won't qualify."

"Why is that, Daughter?" asked Winn.

"I think I am a lesbian, Mother," she replied. "I am here to beg you to give me an interest in men so that I can be trained to be a priestess."

There was a long pause as Winn spoke internally with Danu. I took the opportunity to speak to Danu also. "Why would the fact that she is a lesbian disqualify her from being a priestess?"

"My priestesses have positions of authority in the grove, so it is not obvious, but Priestesses are servants and not masters. They must serve the entire grove. They are ethically bound to help anyone who asks for help in any way that is not prohibited by the faith. A priestess who will not perform intimate magic with the male half of the grove is, in essence, picking and choosing whom she will serve. Over time, when priestesses pick and choose, it always causes factionalism, anger, and heartache. Always."

"What happens to the women who are lesbians, then?" I asked. "Are they frozen out of the priesthood?"

"The opposite, Daughter," Danu replied. "Each can choose for themselves whether they will lie with men or not. Those who won't, still have magic. They are initiated and are taught to wield the magic they possess. Once they learn it, they may practice it in any way permitted by the faith. The apprenticeship for Priestesses includes lying with men. Those that refuse to do this, choose not to be a priestess. If they are not willing to serve the entire grove, they cannot act with authority over the entire grove. Do you understand why this is required?"

"Yes, Mother," I replied.

"You heard the Elder speak of Aoife," Danu said. "She refuses to perform intimate magic with men. She has allowed several young priestesses, most of them recently-transferred to the grove, to likewise refuse to interact with men. This is already causing anger, resentment, and strife in the grove. It cannot stand."

It was then that Winn replied to Wren. "Danu says that you have told this to Aoife and that she told you that there was a way to become a priestess and remain apart from men. You are afraid you will be blocked from being a priestess and that you will disappoint your family. You are afraid precisely because you know in your heart of hearts that what Aoife has promised is not proper.

The girl sagged in anguish before Winn. "Yes, Mother," she replied while trying to hold a sob in.

"Danu commands you to tell me the secret you've been keeping inside of you," said Winn gently. "She already knows the secret, but you will not heal until you have admitted it out loud."

"Mother, I... Aoife has performed magic on me several times. Illegal magic," the girl sobbed out.

"Bring the priestesses in here," Winn commanded me. "All of them."

I went and retrieved them. As we returned to the darkened corner of the massive tent, Wren had stopped crying and was quietly chatting with Winn.

Winn said to Wren, "I will place you under compulsion of truth for this Daughter, so that the Priestesses will know that you do not lie.

Winn cast a spell, then commanded, "Daughter, tell the Priestesses what you have just told me."

"Aoife has been performing magic on me for the last three years," she replied. "Magic that is prohibited for someone my age."

The priestesses were both shocked and in denial at first, but as she described what was being done and how it came about, the details were convincing.

When Wren finished her story, Winn released the compulsion.

"Danu has a foretelling for you, Daughter," said Winn. "You will fall madly in love with a young man named Will Mason."

This caused a gasp among the priestesses, who clearly knew this young man.

Winn continued. "He will love you just as strongly. He has enough magic that you two will be bonded. You will have three children: two daughters and a son. Both of your daughters will be priestesses. You will be a priestess of this grove. You will be powerful and steadfast, and you will be beloved for your kindness and generosity for generations."

Danu said to me, "She must be marked. Julie, I want for you to do it.

As we worked through the teens, we marked all of the women who had a foretelling of children with orange dye, by dipping their fingers into a container. One finger for each child foretold.

Those marks had all been orange. I reached for the jar of orange dye, but Danu said, "Use the green first for two fingers. The third will be orange."

"The green is for a girl who will be a priestess?" I asked Danu in my head.

"Just so, Daughter."

When I finished marking the teen's fingers. Wren held them up for the gathering to see. She was utterly delighted with her foretelling. "I cannot wait to show Mom!" she enthused.

Winn gave a huge smile.

"As you are blessed by Danu, I will name you Warden of the children tonight," Winn said. "Your Shadow will be Gwenneth. When you are done here, you must tell her."

"Yes, Mother!" the girl answered with even more delight.

"Danu has given you a gift too," said Winn. She pulled a ring off of her finger and handed it to me.

"The members of my family are the Grove-holders in my home-grove. This ring has been in our family for five generations. Danu has instructed me to give you this ring as an heirloom for your family's next five generations."

"Thank you, Mother!" the girl replied in wonder.

I brought the ring to her and slid it in her left index finger, which is where Winn had kept it for all the years I'd known her.

***

Chapter 31 - Trial

We stood before the entire adult grove. More than a thousand adults had assembled on the terrace below the daïs for the ceremony to start the Samhain. Winn performed the ceremony, which was mercifully short.

Before Winn had concluded the ceremony, however, she announced, "Elder Aisling Tierney, please step forward."

She emerged from the crowd, mounted the daïs and stood on the other side of Winn from me.

Winn continued, "Aoife Kelleher, stand before the grove."

All the way through the ceremony, I watched Aoife whispering furtively with one of the priestesses who had been part of our entourage with the children. Doubtless, the priestess was warning Aoife of what had happened in Wren's parting.

"Yes, Mother," said Aoife as she strode out of the crowd and stood at the front of the terrace. She did not mount the daïs. She stood before us with the grove to her back, facing Winn and I. The optics were that she led the entire grove in opposition to Winn and I.

"Our grove stands before you, Mother. You have called us and we are listening. What is it you wish to tell our grove?"

Her attitude pissed Winn off. I watched her expression go flat, and her nose twitched. I'd seen that happen many times on the Field Hockey pitch when the opponents had really made her angry and shit was about to go down.

My body suddenly filled with adrenaline. "Easy, Daughter!" Danu said in my head. "Remain silent and you will see why I have chosen Winnifred to be my Greater Prophet."

"Come up here," Winn commanded.

Winn took in a breath and spoke with a clear very loud voice, "Aoife Kelleher, how many adults are members of this grove?"

"Just over a thousand adults, Mother," she replied.

"And how many priestesses are there to serve your thousand?" Winn asked.

"Thirty-one priestesses and six apprentices, Mother," Aoife answered.

"Danu has directed me to question the grove about your administration. You will stand silent and you will allow the people of the grove to speak unhindered. Do you understand?"

"Of course," answered Aoife. "This grove knows where their best interest lies and I am curious what they will say."

It was so quiet after she said that you could hear a pin drop.

To the grove Winn said, "Danu commands that if you know an answer to his question that you raise your hand. If called on, you will step forward and give a truthful answer. There will be no repercussions or consequences if you speak honestly."

"Did anyone here know Aoife or of her before transferred to this grove five years ago?" asked Winn

Not one person raised their hand or said anything.

"When Aoife first came here, who among you knew her well enough to judge her character?" asked Winn next.

Again, no one raised their hand or said anything. At this point, Aoife began to see the direction of Winn's attack. Her facial expression soured. Winn's next question made it even worse.

"How long had Aoife lived among you before she was named chief priestess?"

Many hands were suddenly raised. Winn pointed to the grove holder. "Speak," she commanded.

"Two-and-a-half years, Mother," he answered.

"Did I hear that correctly? She was only in the grove two-and-half years before she was made chief priestess?" Winn asked him.

"Yes, Mother," he replied.

"Thank you Child," said Winn.

Winn turned back to address the grove.

"Aoife has chosen her high attendants. Did she make anyone born in this grove a high attendant?"

No hands came up and there was a long silence before Winn continued.

"Did anyone born to this grove know any of the high attendants for more than two years before they were made a high attendant?"

There was complete silence

At this point, the concern on Aoife's face was quite evident. It was easy to see that she was trying to figure out how to interfere.

"Has anyone witnessed Aoife or any of her high attendants acting in a way that ran contrary to the traditions of this grove?"

Close to a third of the people raised a hand. I thought Winn would stop to ask questions, but instead she continued on.

"Has anyone witnessed Aoife or a member of her high attendants acting arbitrarily or playing favorites among the grove?"

This time, close to a third of the people raised their hands.

"Has anyone observed Aoife treating different members of this grove with different rules?"

Again nearly a third of the people raised their hands.

"Has anyone here witnessed Aoife punish someone who complained about her non-traditional, arbitrary, or discriminatory actions, or about the way she showed favoritism?"

This time, half of the people raised their hands.

You could see that the people of the grove were starting to realize what Winn was accomplishing in this gathering.

"Is there a man here who can testify that Aoife has performed magic for him before she became the high priestess?

Not one hand was raised.

"Can any man here testify that Aoife performed magic for him after she became the high priestess?"

Again, no hands were raised.

"Is there a man here who has asked Aoife for magic and been refused?"

Close to over a hundred hands raised.

"Has anyone born to this grove ever witnessed Aoife tell a man that men of this grove are not worthy of her magic?"

Several dozen hands were raised.

"Are there women here who have received magic from Aoife when men standing beside them were refused it?"

About a tenth of the people raised their hands.

"Has anyone witnessed Aoife perform magic on someone who did not understand what the magic was for or why it was being performed?"

Almost three dozen hands were raised.

This caused a murmur amongst the grove members. To use magic on a person without their consent or understanding was strictly forbidden.

"Priestess apprentices, step forward!" Winn commanded.

"What is the meaning of this?" shouted Aoife angrily.

"Silence!" Winn rebuffed. "Lesser Prophet, if she speaks again before this questioning is over, punish her."

"Yes, Mother!" I replied.

The apprentice priestesses came up the daïs and formed a line.

Winn gave them all a kindly smile. "If you answer this question honestly, there will be no repercussions or punishments. I give you my word. Do you all understand?"

They all nodded.

"Close your eyes," she commanded. They all did so.

"If Aoife performed intimate magic on you before you were initiated, raise your hand."

As women of the grove are initiated after their eighteenth birthday, what they were being asked was whether Aoife had done magic on them before they were of age. All six of them raised a hand.

There was an instant rumble from the crowd. I could discern many angry voices.

"Lower your hands, Daughters," Winn commanded. They did so.

"Which of you has lain with a man as part of their apprenticeship so far?" Winn asked.

No hands were raised.

At this point, Aoife could hold back no longer.

"I can no longer sit by and let this whelp of a girl profane this grove, the priestesses in it, and our administration of it," shouted Aoife angrily. The people of this grove will not be accused by one such as you!"

I could see spit fly from her mouth as she spoke.

"She claims to be a prophet of Danu and to speak with her authority, but I name her a charlatan! I challenge her to prove that she has Danu's favor."

The smile that Winn gave Aoife in reply was vulpine.

"How do you propose that I prove this to you?" Winn asked. "Name your challenge and I shall do whatever you propose."

"I demand the final test of the choosing!" shouted Aoife. "I demand that you engage me in a battle."

"I will do this if you wish, but this is neither a test of strength nor favor, Daughter," Winn observed. "It is nothing more than a simple battle of will. How will this prove that I have the favor of Danu?"

Aoife was flummoxed by this question. Winn let her hang for nearly half a minute before she said.

"Are you saying that if Danu gives me the will to resist your commands, you will accept that I have her favor?"

"Yes," Aoife answered. "But if you fall to my will, it will be a sign that you don't have and never had Danu's favor!"

When Danu heard this, she laughed in my head. "Julienne, what do you think will happen? Do you think Winnifred will fall to this fraud?"

"No, Mother," I replied.

"Watch and learn, Daughter."

For the next several minutes, while the contest was prepared, Winn was the very picture of accommodation. She stood where Aoife wanted her to, she waited for Aoife to prepare herself mentally, and she even insisted that Aoife herself be the starter for the contest.

"Just say 'Go' when you are ready," said Winn. "Don't worry. I will give you the first try without opposition."

Aoife squared herself, shouted "Go!", and then for the next five minutes, shouted command after command at Winn while she stood there impassively, examined her fingernails, scratched her back, and at one point yawned in boredom.

After five minutes, Aoife just petered out. Her face was a mask of disbelief. She could not believe that Winn had resisted her so effortlessly.

"Are you through, Daughter?" Winn asked.

When Aoife didn't bother to reply, Winn said, "My turn."

She slowly stripped off the costume of the Warden of the veil and stood before the grove completely naked, with her triskelion tattoos glowed in the lights suspended over the daïs.

The sheer amount of tattoos on her back caused another rumble from the crowd. A voice shouted 'Bé Chuille' in the exact same fervent tone the Fremen shouted 'Lisan al-Gaib!' in the last Dune movie. Several others answered the original call by shouting the same thing the same way.

Winn turned slowly to Aoife and said one word.

"Confess!"

Aoife instantly dropped to her knees and started to shout, "I poisoned the Elder to encourage her to retire. I cheated in the choosing to become chief priestess! I used my authority as chief priestess for my personal gain! I undeservedly punished people for their opposition to me! I acted to spread the agenda of the Circle of the Yew! I performed magic on the underaged women of the grove!"

She shouted each confession at the top of her lungs.

"Enough!" said Winn. Aoife fell silent.

"People of the grove!" Winn intoned. "Danu removes Aoife from her role as chief priestess of this grove, and all of her attendants effective immediately."

"Does anyone in the grove object to the administration of Elder Aisling Tierney during her time as chief priestess?"

No one responded.

"Does anyone object to placing Elder Tierney back in charge of the grove until the grove has been restored to health and a proper choosing can be performed?" Winn asked.

No one objected.

"Then let it be known that Danu's will is that Elder Aisling Tierney is now Chief Priestess of this grove once again."

There was a burst of applause. During the questions, I'd judged that the grove was not pleased with Aoife, but even so, the reaction was unexpected.

"As for those who wish to have real proof that I speak with the will of Danu, I will give you a sign."

"Take off your clothes, Daughter," said Danu. "No questions, just do it."

I hastily stripped off my clothes while Winn built herself up to what was going to be a powerful magical display. She gathered the energy and then blew it out onto the grove. A giant head of a mature regal middle-aged woman fifty feet high suddenly filled the daïs.

Winn slowly walked out in front of the head.

The head spoke.

"I am Danu and this is Winnifred Keyleth, my Greater Prophet. I am sending her to the groves to judge in my name!" the head pronounced. It wasn't Winn's voice, but the exact voice of Danu that I heard in my head.

The entire grove suddenly collapsed to their knees. Many voices called out reverently, "Danu!" Others cried out "Mother!"

"Step forward and stand next to Winnifred," Danu commanded.

I slowly walked in front of the head and stood next to Winn.

"This is Julienne Whitaker, my lesser prophet. I am sending her to the groves to give pleasure in my name!" the head pronounced.

Danu said to me in my head, "Raise your thumb."

I presented my thumb to the crowd. I felt power build up inside of me and then burst out like a single shot from a gun.

When the wave of power hit them, I watched in fascination as over a thousand people experienced the strongest orgasms of their lives.

***

Chapter 32 - Veil

While the priestesses gathered, Winn and I only had a few minutes to wolf down a plate of food. Several of the men of the grove were quite accomplished at cooking barbecue, and we had a choice of turkey, brisket, or pork served on a tray with seven sections, each filled with a portion of a side.

The food was tasty and I was in a calorie deficit from my initiation, so I ate ravenously. Winn ate quickly too, although she did it while talking to Elder Tierney.

"I apologize, but you will have to handle the situation with Aoife on your own," said Winn. "I sent Fedelma back to our grove this morning to officiate Samhain there. My people will be disappointed that I celebrated here, and I must return quickly to manage that. Find out who the underaged victims were, and work with them to see if they are willing to testify. Take it to the civil authorities."

"Won't that give the Tuatha a black eye?" asked the Elder.

"It will, but that doesn't matter!" replied Winn harshly. "Danu does not countenance hiding the misdeeds of her leaders. What would be ten times worse than the embarrassment of Aoife is if you hid her perfidy and it was revealed to the public later. The Tuatha Dé Danann must see that they will receive justice when the leadership does wrong. Look at what happens to other religions. They hide the misdeeds of their leadership and are forever discredited when those misdeeds are later discovered.

"Danu has restricted Aoife's ability to perform magic, and will leave justice to the civil authorities."

"What is the tradition here for parting the veil?" asked Winn.

"We let the grove decide for themselves if they choose to part the veil in any given year," replied the Elder. "Most years, around a hundred slots are sufficient. About half of those are couples who approach together. At two and a half minutes per slot, it's a long night for the Warden, but it's doable.

"Unfortunately, I don't think that will work this year, Mother," she observed. "The people were impressed by your sign and they know you are the Warden of the veil. Everyone will want to draw the veil."

Winn nodded like she suspected that was true.

"Do you have the tradition here of pinning a leaf to your breast at the feast?" Winn asked.

"Yes, Mother," replied the Elder.

"Send out the priestesses to tell the people of the grove that Danu will choose tonight who will part the veil. Tell them that if their leaf turns silver, that is the sign that Danu wishes for them to part the veil. They are to go immediately to the tent."

"Danu can do that?" she asked.

"When her prophets are present at the Samhain, she can," replied Winn.

The Elder smiled doubtfully. "We'll do as you say, Mother."

She rallied the priestesses around her and started dictating assignments.

"See how even a devout chief priestess who has worked magic for fifty years, still manages to doubt?" Danu asked in my head.

As soon as Winn was finished with her plate, she stood and said, "Let's go, Julie."

***

The tent for the parting was almost identical to the one that was set up for the teens, only it had more alcoves for priestesses.

Almost immediately after we got to the tent, the first person arrived. From a distance, it appeared to be the figure of a woman. Up close, however, it became clear that this was a man.

What misled me was that he was short and slender with narrow shoulders and long, carefully-coiffed layered hair that shone in the moonlight. Up close, he was in his early twenties. His face was fine-featured with a stunning feminine beauty.

Beauty was not too strong a word, for he was utterly beautiful.

He stopped when he got to me. He blushed and stammered but didn't say anything. He just looked at his own chest, where the leaf he'd pinned there had turned silver. The transformation had been exothermic because the leaf was smoking in the chill of the early evening.

I noticed that the leaf had been pinned to a bulky hand-knit cardigan made out of cashmere. The colors shifted slightly in the knit pattern so it looked like the color was constantly changing. Beneath the sweater was a silk dress shirt. His pants were a pair of chinos. His shoes were Bjørn Grippers, a slim profile leather men's shoe with a minimal sole that was made in the early 2000s. I'd been hunting for a pair of those used online for more than a year, and I kept losing the auctions.

His outfit was an odd combination, but it worked. It did, however, practically scream "gay".

Danu sensed my thoughts and chastised me. "Julienne, this is my child Will Mason. He is the one who is to bond with my daughter Wren."

"Really?" I asked.

Danu was instantly enraged. "Hug him! Hug him right now!" she commanded.

I quickly pulled him into a hug. He was so shocked, his whole body tensed, but I soon felt his erection against my thigh. He laid his cheek against my shoulder which put his nose into my hair. When he smelled me, he groaned. "Oh, God!"

His whole body started to tremble and the thought flashed through my mind that he might come in his pants from the contact that I was giving him.

"Kiss him, Daughter," Danu commanded. "Do it now."

I was a few inches taller than him, so I bent my head down and touched my lips to his. He was shocked, but so eager that it didn't hold him back. He had no idea what he was doing, so I kept calm and steady and he quickly learned to imitate what I was doing. When he was under control, I slid my tongue into his mouth, he ground his pelvis into me, trembled, then came so hard I had to hold him up.

He was so embarrassed he broke the kiss and started to cry. I put my hand on the back of his head and gently shushed him.

"It's okay, Will, I don't mind," I whispered into his ear. "It was really sexy."

It took him a moment to settle down.

"You were so beautiful on the daïs," he confessed in wonder. "You are just so gorgeous. I'd never seen a naked woman before in real life."

I hadn't really had much time to process the fact that this entire grove saw me naked. I was, however, delighted to know I'd left a positive impression on him.

Danu prompted me to tell him, "Danu sees you, Will. She has known you from birth and she has heard your prayers. Come, you must part the veil."

I led him to Winn. While she talked to him, Danu told me, "Will is touched by the veil. Your people call this autism. He lives a very healthy and vibrant life inside of his mind, but he does not interact with people well.

"To make things more complicated for him, his father died in Afghanistan when he was a child. Will grew up in a house with seven women and no male figures to speak of. He does not know how men act and he models his behavior after women. His condition gives him texture issues with most clothing. He makes his own clothing out of silk. This is a desperate attempt to overcome the fact that, to him, most clothes feel like seaweed on his skin.

"My priestesses see this and they assume that he is homosexual. They are taught to be welcoming because all are welcome in the grove. They've been trying to lead him to admit that he is attracted to men. They have not diagnosed him properly. He is not attracted to men at all. What he needs is to be taught the ways of men and to build his confidence in pursuing relationships with women.

"When Winn is done speaking, you will take him to Bridget Kelley. She is a priestess of the willow and she has a thing for teaching men what she knows about sex. When Wren is initiated, she will apprentice with Bridget. That will bring Will and Wren together."

A minute later, I took Will to Bridget. She was in her twenties and greeted Will by name, it was obvious they knew each other. As I repeated Danu's instructions to her, she was shocked when I told her that Will was straight and on the spectrum and needed guidance and training. I could instantly see she was up to the task. Twenty minutes later, I walked by her alcove and caught a glimpse of them. Bridget was topless and had Will's cock out. The disbelieving smile on Will's face told the whole story.

Winn was like a machine as she worked through the partings. Some of the partings lasted less than two minutes. I became the bottleneck. We switched things up and assigned a priestess to take the members of the grove to Winn, and all I did was watch the parting and escort the grove member to the proper priestess.

Danu timed calling the next grove member to the parting so they arrived just as they were needed. She did this utterly flawlessly. We were able to get fifty-one partings done in the first two hours. Winn and I took a quick break to use the restroom and to get a drink. The general feeling in the tent amongst the priestesses was that this Samhain was the best they'd ever participated in. There was an energy there that was amazing and the instructions given to the priestesses had been direct, easily achievable, and meaningful to the recipients.

When we went back to work after the break, the first group was Cerridwin and her husband, the grove holder, and his daughter. Winn told them that their punishment had been removed by Danu and that the grove-holder's daughter was no longer obligated have children by Cerridwin's husband. Their relief was evident and they weren't even directed to see a priestess afterwards. As I walked them out of the tent, I asked Cerridwin how my parents were coping.

"They are having the time of their lives," she replied. "We have plans to meet in the Tent of the Communion later."

She laughed at my facial expression. "My kids would make that exact same facial expression and howl, 'TMI! TMI!' any time that I spoke of my physical relationship with their father. Respectfully, Mother, you won't be a good prophet for Danu until you recognize that your parents are people." She smiled as she walked away.

Her statement made Danu laugh raucously in my head. "I will give you your first lesson in this tonight, Daughter."

The second half of the partings went slower. The people I brought to Winn had deeper issues and required more time. These were people who needed some type of healing: family drama, estranged lovers, addiction issues, an angry spouse who would not allow her husband custody. Given that Danu was direct and did not dawdle, it was shocking when some of these partings took up to fifteen minutes to finish.

When we finished our second fifty parting, there were no more grove members called by Danu. Winn and I were physically worn out. We were visibly dropping.

A priestess of the ash did some sort of spell on us to reinvigorate us. I didn't feel rested, but I was no longer bone weary. I counted that as a victory as we stepped out of the tent.

***

Chapter 33 - Young Again

As we stepped out into the cool October air, I felt like it must have been two in the morning, or even later. I was shocked to find that it wasn't yet ten in the evening.

"I've been adjusting the flow of time to make sure we had plenty of time this evening to accomplish what I wanted," Danu told me.

When Winn and I walked into the clearing, there were hundreds of grove members standing outside waiting for us. They burst into a spontaneous ovation.

The Elder approached us.

"What's going on?" Winn asked her.

"Word of your partings passed quickly through the grove," replied the Elder.

"We would watch people step into the tent, then immediately step out the other side. They would talk about all you had done, but it was happening instantly. It was clear that you were using the power of Danu in your partings. They are curious as to what will happen next. Unfortunately, the games and events all concluded while you were working."

"That's okay," announced Winn, "We only have one more agenda item this evening."

"What's that?" asked the Elder.

"Your reward," Winn announced.

"My reward?"

"Yes!" Winn replied with a knowing smile. "Aisling Tierney, Danu is most pleased with your service and your care of the grove." She pitched it loud enough so the crowd could hear.

Aisling immediately tried to refuse the reward, but Winn wouldn't hear of it.

"You gave all of your youth and vigor to this grove," Winn said loud enough for many to hear. "Even after your beloved Thomas was taken from you so early, you continued to give everything you had to the grove, even when it meant you would never bear the children you coveted. Danu knows and sees your sacrifice, Daughter. She wills that you will have your reward."

Aisling was near tears. "Mother, I do not have a partner, and I am much too old. After Thomas, it never.... I never...." She was unable to finish and trailed off as she began to weep.

Winn and I instantly cradled her in our arms.

"You will be made young again," Winn pronounced quietly so that only she could hear. "Danu says there are no less than two dozen men of different ages who would be willing to handfast you and give you children. Danu gives you the latitude to choose who you will, but she says that Craig Laughton is the one she would choose for you. He has admired you from afar for many years, he is pleasant on the eye, he is not taken, and he can be bonded. He would bond you in an instant, Aisling."

"Craig Laughton?" she whispered back scandalized. "He's twenty years younger than me!"

"When Danu makes you young again, he will appear twenty years older than you," pronounced Winn. "When you go out on the town, the people will speak enviously about how he has robbed the cradle. I will ask you this, Aisling. What is age when you have the blessing of Danu?"

"I have never heard of magic that can make a woman younger," Aisling said cautiously.

"Danu herself will do the magic through my own hands," Winn announced. "Julie here will provide the energy. Isn't that right, Julie?"

"Mother, how am I supposed to generate energy in Aisling?" I asked Danu in my head. As soon as I asked it, however, I realized it was a dumb question.

Danu cackled maniacally in my head as she answered. "The same way that you will generate energy in anyone who is of age, Daughter."

"Mother, I am not.... I cannot...." I babbled back to her in my head.

"That is not true, Daughter. I watched you do everything you would need to do to Aisling with Winn less than twenty-four hours ago."

I was going to say that I couldn't, when Danu said. "This is the role I have chosen for you, Daughter, You will bring pleasure to my people. Your life will be a life of service, just like Aisling. You will bring her pleasure to build her energy up."

I didn't think I would be able to do it when I felt the spirit of the Willow tree named Sally rise inside of me. "Come Daughter!" the tree spirit said. "It is the time for pollen."

After a moment of consideration, I stepped back from the awkward embrace between Aisling, Winn, and myself. I held out my hand for Aisling.

"Would you be so kind as to lead us to the Tent of the Communion?" I asked.

***

The Communion tents were the same enormous structures used for the evening meal. Inside, they had been subdivided into ten 20 by 20 alcoves with two areas at the top filled cubby shelves to hold clothing and belongings.

The inside of the tent smelled strongly of sex. I could hear people chatting, laughing, grunting, and moaning. All of the alcoves were in use by groups of people. There was one woman in particular who was getting railed and having the time of her life. The intensity of the sound of her voice as she experienced the pleasure of the act did something to me that made my legs wobbly.

I took off my clothes and threw them into the first empty cubby I could find. I turned to Aisling and insisted on disrobing her.

Her body was older. It wasn't the image of youthful perfection like Winn and I possessed, but it was a body that had seen something of the world, done battle, and had emerged damaged but victorious

One thing I did notice was that she had the best nipples I'd ever seen. They were meaty, were more than an inch long, and were fat like a big magic marker. They actually made her rings look small.

Aisling was having a hard time believing that I was disrobing her. She leaned over and whispered to me, "I haven't had a woman your age since before you were born. You don't have to do this, Mother."

"Call me, Julie!" I insisted. "In this tent, while I am making love to you, I am Julie."

I then kissed her and led her into the first empty open alcove. Winn stepped in behind us. She'd chosen to leave her clothes on. Several of the priestesses who were with us in the tent of the Veil, entered into the alcove, and took positions along the edge. It was obvious that they were very curious as to what would happen next. They were acting as though they were there in case we needed their service. They used this to claim a front row seat to what would be done.

"Let them be," instructed Danu in my head. "You will need witnesses, and these will be as good as any."

"Mother," I said with trepidation. "Other than what I did with Winn the other night, I've never really pleasured anyone, much less a woman of Aisling's age. What do I do?"

A memory suddenly filled my senses. Somehow, I immediately knew that it wasn't my memory, but the memory of some former prophet who'd been dead for more than a thousand years. In this memory, I was making love to an older woman in shelter in a grove of trees. This memory gave me a roadmap, and also taught me that I needed to be slow and deliberate with plenty of warmup.

I started with a kiss. Forty minutes later, we were still kissing. My strange memory had shown me how to ply Aisling with arousal charms, energy boosts, and pleasure enhancers to build her up as I went along. I brought her up to a fine fever pitch and I kept her there.

Every time I pulled another trick out of the bag, I would hear a titter of whispers from the priestesses who lined the alcove. No less than three priestesses of the Willow had their cell phones out and were recording what I was doing while they dictated their own running commentary about what they saw. It was pretty clear from their excitement, that the strange foreign memory had taught me magical sexual techniques that were unknown in modern times.

I heard Shreya futilely trying to answer questions about me. "No, I have absolutely no idea where she learned that," I heard her say. "This knowledge did not come from me. She came to me as a total beginner."

I rolled Aisling onto her side, and cast some magic to loosen her hips and enhance her flexibility. I lifted her top leg up, folding it at the knee and pressing her top knee up into her breasts.

I straddled her bottom thigh and lowered my crotch down onto it. I scootched up and I was suddenly pressing the meat of my sex into the meat of hers. The angle was perfect. She groaned in pleasure.

I began to build a slow circular movement in my hips that would press the meat of my vulva into hers. While I did this, I threaded both of my index fingers through the rings in her nipples.

I said a word that only the memory of another remembered and suddenly felt energy circulate from my vulva into hers, up through her spine, out her breasts, into my fingertips, up through my arms, back down my spine, and out through my vulva. So much energy was flowing that the air felt like it was crackling,

One of the priestesses of the Willow said, "You can do that? I didn't know you could do that! Look at how much energy is flowing!"

Aisling's groans suddenly escalated in tone until she was keening.

Winn suddenly stood up and stretched. "The energy is about to come. Give us some room. You four, move back about three feet. The flows are going to coil up right here," she said pointing at an open space. "If anyone gets tangled up in them, I am going to be hella pissed"

Her statement caused a half dozen people to move back another three feet.

Aisling's crisis hit a peak and her orgasm arrived like a freight train barreling out of control. On her very first spasm, I said another string of words that the foreign memory gave me. I didn't see it happen, but I knew exactly what was happening.

When a woman orgasms really hard, her anus and her vagina spasm open and shut in rhythmical contractions. Deep inside of the body, in a place that cannot be seen by the human eye, lies a gate to the realm in which energy comes from. it is at the base of the spine near the nerves which service the pelvis.

During orgasm, that gate spasms open and closed, too. Little droplets of energy leak out and are instantly absorbed by the body. It travels up the spine to the brain and the signals are sent to release endorphins and all of the feel-good chemicals. It is why a good, strong orgasm feels so damned exquisite.

When her energy gate opened up, I said a spell that wedged that gate open. A rope of pure energy was suddenly extruded out.

Winn, with a spell of her own, quickly grabbed the end of the rope and began to yank it out of the gate in long continuous rope, which Winn carefully coiled into a figure eight on the floor.

From where I was, it looked like the rope would never end. It was not unlike a magician who was pulling a continuous stream of scarves out of someone's nose, only instead of colorful scarves, it was a glowing pearlescent rope which glowed in the dim light of the room.

The priestesses all erupted in excitement, not unlike a henhouse erupting when a predator tries to break into their enclosure.

"Silence!" I choked out. "Let us work!"

It was taking an obscene amount of effort to hold the gate open and I couldn't afford any distractions. Danu had told me that my part required strength, but Winn's part required precision and delicacy.

"Ten breaths," I called out. This was something else that had come from that strange memory. My role was to tell the spell caster just how long I could hold the gate open. I was telling her ten breaths. Subconsciously, before we began, the spell caster had laboriously synced her breaths to mine so that we would be on the same time scale.

Close to a minute later, I slowly proclaimed, "Four breaths, three breaths, two breaths, one breath!" as I breathed in and out.

On the last breath, Winn wrapped the entire rope around her wrist and tied it off with a lark's head.

"Seized!" she shouted, and I pulled my wedge, which closed the gate, cutting off the end of the rope. Winn snatched up the end just as it was cut. This was not easy, as the end thrashed and twisted like she was trying to hold onto a maniacally angry squirrel. She gradually pulled her hands together and deftly threaded the end of the rope into the rope's beginning, which she'd held in her left hand.

I slid off of Aisling, and stood, stooping to pick her up.

"We need her standing," I said to anyone who would listen. Three priestesses, all priestess of the Ash were there to help lift her up and support her.

Winn took the rope and began to weave it around Aisling's body so that the wraps themselves held the joined ends of the rope into place.

This caused quite a stir. No one had ever seen magic like this. Some of the women, particularly priestesses of the Ash who felt that they were absolute masters of their healing craft, wept as they saw us weave a spell the likes of which they never even conceived.

When I judged that I had a firm control of Aisling, I said, "Everybody else get back. Only Winn and I can touch her until the spell is over."

The ladies who had been helping quickly stepped away.

When Winn tucked the last turn of the rope into the wrapping, Aisling's limbs, torso, and head were all totally wrapped in the energy rope.

Winn started making hand gestures. I waited for Winn to intone a single word and when she did, I let go of Aisling. The ropes suddenly pulled tight, and drew themselves beneath Aisling's skin.

An ash like powder began to accumulate on her skin and slough off, leaving a fine black talc on the floor of the alcove. I knew from the foreign memory that this was literally the detritus of age from Aisling's body being cast away.

I said a quick spell to charge it with static and I started to wipe it up with a clean towel.

Other priestesses saw what I was doing and jumped to help, quickly wiping the black talc off of Aisling's body as soon as it appeared. I was exhausted, so I flopped down on my ass and just watched. I felt Winn flop down beside me. She leaned into me.

"We did it, Jules," she whispered into my ear. "I can't believe we just fucking did that."

I whispered to her. "Did Danu give you the memory of another woman?" I asked.

She made eye contact and gave me a nod that read both "Yes" and "What the fuck?"

I nodded to her. She leaned back into me. "The lovemaking that you did to her. I've never seen anything like it. I practically live on lesbian porn, and I've never seen anything close to that."

After a few minutes the talc production slowed down and then stopped. Aisling had also regained some of her senses and was speaking quietly to the women cleaning her. She looked like she was my age. She was the same height as before, but was slender like a girl just out of her teens and before the ripening that would broaden her hips and enlarge her breasts. Her skin was smooth and shiny and her nose and facial structure were what it had been when she was a teen. She had been a stunning beauty at my age.

I heard Aisling say, "If I didn't just live through it, I would never believe it."

The priestesses began to hoot and cheer. Before we knew it, Winn and I had been lifted up and were being walked out of the tent.

Over a thousand people had gathered outside the mouth of the tent. They'd been told a miraculous piece of magic was being done on their chief priestess and the people wanted to see.

When Aisling came out as a young woman, it was total bedlam. There were cheers and screams, and Winn and I were swarmed. Men were screaming out "Bé Chuille! Bé Chuille!"

I was lifted up by three different men and I was soon riding on someone's shoulders.

I felt power suddenly build up inside me and I screamed "Silence!" at Danu's command. It was so supernaturally loud that everyone in the clearing suddenly stopped to look at me.

I felt Danu prompting me to cast a spell unlike any that I'd seen or heard about since I became involved with Winn and the Tuatha.

"This isn't my magic," Danu reported to me. "This is something older, more ancient, and is only possible because you are bound to the spirit of their grandmother tree here. I breathed in as Danu prompted and I could hear a sudden rustle as if the entire massive grove of trees just inhaled an enormous breath.

"Yes!" proclaimed the spirit of the tree that I'd been bound to. "Yes! Send it to them. Tell them it is the time for pollen!"

I uttered fifteen words that hadn't been said on earth in over eight thousand years. There was a sudden explosive breeze from the grove of trees which shook all of the tents in the clearing. You could hear people groan audibly as the breeze hit them. It was a general spell of arousal and it utterly saturated everyone in the clearing. You could see tension suddenly build in the people of the grove.

"Danu has proclaimed this Samhain a special night for celebration! The trees of the grove have yielded their strength to you tonight to gird your ardor. If you wish to honor your goddess Danu, use this ardor the trees have bestowed on you to seek and experience pleasure tonight in her name!"

I could sense two thousand faces staring at me, wondering what would come next.

"Where is the consort of the prophets of Danu?" I demanded. "Bring him to us immediately! We will be in a Tent of Communion honoring Danu!"

Less than three minutes later, Winn, Mason, and I were in the alcove in one of the other communion tents.

Mason was fucking me doggy style, while I was giving Winn oral sex. I had two fingers in her pussy and one in her ass. I was circulating her energy from her clit back into her vagina and anus through my fingers. She was continually spasming in a never ending orgasm. It was something I had done to Aisling. Winn was utterly stupefied by the pleasure.

Shreya was squatting over Winn, who was giving her oral sex. The "What the fuck?" look on her face made me want to laugh.

I loved this moment, I loved what Mason was doing to me. I loved what I was doing to Winn. 8 loved that Shreya was here.

I could hear my brother's steady breaths as he bucked into me. All around us, everywhere, everyone in the grove, all at once, were fucking.

I knew it was my doing and I reveled in it.

***

Chapter 34 - Moving Forward

It was strangely quiet when I was woken up. The quiet was a side-effect of the exhaustion we all felt. After I'd cast the spell of arousal, Winn and I had done our level best to lead by example, but we were both utterly exhausted.

I was coming off of a multi-day initiation with only a magically-provided recovery to recharge me. Then we'd worked tirelessly for hours and, with Winn, performed the masterwork of magic which made Aisling young once again. In the Tent of the Communion, I literally fell asleep with Shreya's fingers still inside of me.

In the morning, the elderly folks, who spent the night in the house had to come down and roust the adults because the kids were waking up. Once breakfast was over, the parents had to pick them up. The kids would be eager and jacked up to tell their parents about their own celebration.

When they walked down to the communion tents, they didn't expect to find the remnants of a couple of thousand people who engaged in a magic-fueled orgy into the early hours of the morning. Every single person who was in the clearing had fallen asleep in the tents of the Communion.

In fact, so many people had jammed the tents of Communion, that the cubby areas were just giant piles of discarded clothes. It was going to take a huge effort to detangle the pile and find everyone's clothes.

Winn and I had been wearing the costumes of the Warden and the Shadow, so they weren't our clothes in the first place. The only person who retained his clothes was Mason. Ironically, the reason why he had his clothes was because neither a win nor I was patient enough to let him disrobe before we pulled him into the alcove.

In the morning chill, Winn and I walked naked through the people, greeting the members of the grove, touching their foreheads, and conferring Danu's blessing on them.

The general feeling in the grove was that they'd just lived through the kind of experience that they'd only read about. They were desperate to tell people what had happened. Word would spread far and wide about what Winn and I had done here over the last few days.

Before too long, Winn, Shreya, Mason, and I were collected by the Grove-holder's daughter, who led us up to the house. It was warm inside. My parents were already there with Cerridwin. Dad was in his undershirt and boxers. Mom was in dad's dress shirt. Cerridwin had donned a priestess robe from the closet downstairs. They were chatting with the grove holder and his wife while they cooked blueberry pancakes. The pancakes smelled so good it made my stomach rumble.

Just as the plates were served out, Aisling stumbled in completely naked, looking like something that the cat dragged in. She walked over to Winn and I and startled us by making her bob and touching our ears.

"Let it happen," Danu commanded me. "This is proper."

When Aisling completed her bobs, she asked the grove-holders wife for permission to use a bathroom.

"My goodness, Mother," said the Grove-holder's wife. "You don't have to ask! You know our house is open to you at any time."

"Kelly, I know you are generous in that respect, but it is better to never presume," answered Aisling.

Aisling came out of the bathroom ten minutes later, clean and refreshed. She looked utterly bewildered.

"Mother, you actually did make me younger," she said. "Was that truly a work of Danu herself?"

Winn thought for a second before she answered and said, "It was a work of Danu. She guided Julie and I through what we had to do. Were it not for Danu, neither Julie nor I would have known what to do. However, it was her guidance and our hands."

Aisling nodded. "I was in my seventies, you know, and looking forward to a nice quiet retired life. Astrid, the best healer in the grove tells me I have the body of a twenty-year old. I presume this magic more or less restarted the timeline of my life?"

"It did," replied Winn. "Your lifespan will be similar to Julie and I. You are stuck with us for years and years. The people here love you as Chief Priestess, so you can keep that position if you want. Or, if you prefer to concentrate on motherhood this time around, you can yield your position and call for a choosing. Danu seems to think you are entitled to a life of your own this time, but she leaves that decision to you."

***

Before we left the grove, Cerridwin gave a prolonged goodbye to her husband.

"Now that your situation here is resolved," I said. "You don't have to go with me. I hate the prospect that I'm splitting you from your partner."

Cerridwin acted like I was crazy for suggesting it. "No Mother, if it's all the same to you, this is the opportunity of a lifetime for me. Not many priestesses can say that they were chosen to be in the personal retinue of an honest-to-God prophet of Danu. Besides, where else am I going to learn the type of magic you and the Bé Chuille wielded last night?"

***

On the airplane, Mason sat next to Winn and Mom sat next to me. Cerridwin sat next to my father. The casual contact between them as they sat down spoke volumes about how last night went for them.

"Are you okay this morning?" I asked Mom. "The last few days have been a lot to take in."

"To be honest, I'm a little tired," answered Mom. "Other than that, I'm doing marvelously well."

I nodded towards the seats where Cerridwin and Dad sat. "It is pretty obvious that Dad and Cerridwin were intimate last night. Are you okay with that?" I asked.

"He wasn't the only one," answered Mom. "I was intimate with Cerridwin, too. And a man or two besides that. The adventure of last night was amazing! I feel so alive!"

"Are you okay with the religious aspects of it?" I asked.

Mom shrugged. "I'm not sure what to believe, and I doubt I ever will," Mom replied. "That's just how I'm wired. I do, however, adore the people. Everyone is so friendly. And the customs, while peculiar, are not to be despised."

***

Halfway through the flight, Winn decided to talk through our housing plans while I was at the University. She sat Shreya and Cerridwin opposite of Winn and I at the table in the rear of the cabin.

"Mason and I plan to apply to and attend the same university as Julie," said Winn. "Shreya is already there as a graduate student. Cerridwin, we need to put some thought into how we will situate you there."

Cerridwin asked the question that I had on my mind. "Why bother going to the university at all?" she asked. "You are obviously powerful and gifted in magic. What advantage does a university degree avail you?"

Winn nodded as if she anticipated this question, too. "I actually had this discussion with Danu not long after I was initiated. In the days when the Tuatha Dé Danann were at their zenith in terms of power and influence in pre-Christian Europe, they were known far and wide as the most educated people in the West. They averaged twenty years of schooling in a time where less than one percent of people received any education at all.

"The Tuatha were renowned for their knowledge, prodigious memories, their intellect, and their sophistication. They were advisors and diplomats and whenever they could, brought their knowledge and expertise to bear on a situation. They earned the respect they were given with their minds. Danu expects her prophets to have a doctorate at a minimum."

This was a shock to me. I was thinking about a career in a medical-adjacent field, like genomics or bioinformatics, but I'd never really thought about going all the way to a PhD.

I asked Danu in my head. "Mother, you wish for me to have a doctorate?" I asked.

"Yes, Daughter," she replied. "You shall have two. I have foretold this."

"What will you have me study, Mother?" I asked her.

"Neuroscience," she replied. "You will make pleasure the field of your life's study. You will become the world's foremost expert in this topic. I have willed it."

"What was the other topic of study, Mother?" I asked.

"Game design," she replied. "For what good is a comprehensive knowledge of pleasure without knowing how to leverage it for your purposes?"

I laughed out loud, which interrupted something Winn was saying. Everyone turned to look at me and I immediately apologized.

Winn gave me a smirk. "Danu must of told you what you will study."

"She did," I replied. "What will you study?"

"Organizational psychology," she replied.

"Has Danu spoken of me?" asked Shreya.

"You are to continue on your current course of study," Winn answered.

"And what will I do while you are studying?" asked Cerridwin.

"Danu wants you to study, too," replied Winn. "You shall study Biology and specialize in regenerative medicine."

The emotions on her face were very complicated.

Winn continued, "The faith will fund your studies, and after you enroll, your partner will be brought to our University until your studies are complete. As you are in the retinue of the Lesser prophet, your travel budget will be almost unlimited."

"It has been years since I've been in school, Mother," said Winn.

"This is not a cause for concern daughter," Winn replied. "You are already very clever or you would not be a successful registered nurse. Danu will equip you with a flawless memory. This course of study will be easy for you, you will see."

Shreya asked Winn, "Will you have a retinue too, Mother?"

"I will in time," replied Winn. "I will need a priestess of the Hickory who knows the law, a priestess of the Maple or Pecan who knows resource management, and a priestess of the Beech, who will help us with our learning programs. Danu says we must be experts in our fields of study."

"Shreya, you will continue to apprentice Julie in magic and sex," replied Winn. Before Shreya could object, Winn added, "Danu finds the process of teaching her through other memory to be tedious and slow, Daughter. Skill which is built slowly and organically takes root gradually, but firmly. Just like the roots of a tree. This is the best for the Lesser Prophet. You must see that she does not embarrass the faith in the bedroom."

"Yes, Mother," answered Shreya.

"Are there any trees at the University." Winn asked Shreya.

"There is an arboretum," answered Shreya. "It is small, maybe two hundred and fifty acres total, but there are several lovely trees there, including an absolutely massive black walnut, and a large beech which is quite responsive."

"The administration at the University doesn't mind you using it?" Winn asked.

"There's a student Methodist church that has been permitted to hold occasional services in the arboretum for a hundred years," replied Shreya. "We figure that if the administration attempts to oppose us, we can always sue to get equal access."

"People come to the University seeking to learn and grow. It is an ideal place for them to learn about the Tuatha Dé Danann," said Winn.

***

Chapter 35 - Horror

Winn led Mason and me into her house.

"Dad, we're back!" Winn called out.

"We're in the kitchen," we heard Winn's father call out.

As we stepped into the kitchen, my body jolted at what I saw. Winn's father, David, was standing next to the kitchen table. Seated at the table was Winn's mother, Morvith. Where her head should be, was a tree stump.

The stump pivoted to look at us. In the side of the stump where the mouth, nose, and eyes would be, were tiny knot holes. I could see the glint of Winn's mother's eyes through the eye holes, and a flash of lip and tooth in the mouth hole. They were inches deep beneath the bark of the stump.

David said to Winn, "She had been doing so much better, but she didn't like going back into the stump yesterday. She is not eating or drinking again." He sounded exasperated.

Winn walked over to Morvith and slapped the bark of the stump around the mouth hole. At the last minute, Morvith sensed the blow coming and threw up her hands to protect herself. Her hands were also enclosed in tree stumps. She was too slow and Winn made a resounding contact. It sounded like a loud knock.

"Mother! We've talked about this," Winn said angrily. "Your whole life, you saw other people as nothing more than objects to use, push around, or possess. That must stop! You will remain in the stump until you can learn to see other people as valuable. You will either grow or you will die entombed in the stump. All you have to do to be released from the stump is to recognize that other people are more valuable than you. Danu herself assures me that you can learn, so I'm giving you this opportunity.

"When Dad uses his valuable time and effort to feed you, and care for you, you need to show him a little gratitude for his effort."

The stump suddenly pivoted back and forth as if Winn's mother was shaking her head in refusal.

"Mother, you will learn, or you will die!" pronounced Winn.

The horror that filled me made me want to be physically ill.

Winn whirled to me with a look on her face that was so hurt, I was stunned. She grabbed me and pulled me upstairs to her room.

***

In Winn's room, Winn saw the true extent of the disgust and horror on my face, and felt the aversion of my emotions through our bond.

She collapsed on the bed and wept. Mason crawled in next to her and spooned her to settle her down.

"That's not fair, Julie!" said Mason. "Don't you dare judge Winn until you know the real story."

"Mother, what did I just see?" I asked Danu.

"Morvith is being stumped. That's an ancient punishment as old as our faith for someone who refuses to see other people as valuable. I instructed Winn to stump her."

"You did?" I asked.

"Yes, Daughter. Morvith can end the stumping whenever she wants. All she needs to do is to consider someone else more important than herself. She refuses out of pride, which is why she remains in the stump.

"You have not noticed this, Daughter, but being in the stump places a tremendous burden on Winn's father. Morvith is incapable of doing anything for herself, so he must care for her like she is an infant. Even going to the bathroom is not possible without his help. How could she even clean herself afterwards?"

"The refusal to eat is nothing more than petulance. She is like a toddler throwing herself to the soil because she wants something her parents refuse to provide. Her attitude is a sign that she needs more time in the stump.

"Over time, Morvith will mature. She will grow to see the effort her partner is spending to keep her alive, and will learn to appreciate it. For one so far gone as her, this process will likely take over a year, but she will grow to appreciate her family eventually, or she will die once the community gets tired of taking care of her."

It was then that Danu gave me Winn's memories of her childhood.

One after the other, memories filled my consciousness. Each one was more shocking than the last. Morvith treated David like a slave and treated Winn like a possession.

The most shocking memory was when Morvith violently shook an elementary-school-aged Winn by the D-ring on her collar as punishment for some perceived infraction. The look on her mother's face showed that she was utterly unhinged.

"You are my property and you will do what I say!" shouted her mother. "You are my consecration to Danu and you will do my bidding, or I will remove you and make another! Don't make me waste my time making another!"

Her mother was truly a fucking monster.

"How could that be allowed to happen, Mother?" I asked Danu. "How could a monster like that force an entire grove into compliance with such an atrocity?"

"Everyone in the grove knew that Winnifred's mother was mentally ill," Danu replied. "They all knew no healthy mother would ever willingly put their child through the ordeal of the consecration that Winn went through."

"No one stood up to resist?" I asked. "Why did Fedelma go along with this madness?"

"Fedelma was not the chief priestess here until a year or two ago. The chief priestess prior to Fedelma was named Angharad. She was corrupt and Morvith blackmailed her into enforcing her corruption scheme on the grove. Winn's mother forced her to rule the grove in her name with an iron fist."

"How did Fedelma become chief priestess?" I asked.

"Angharad drowned," replied Danu. "She had a habit of swimming while drunk."

"Is Fedelma in league with Morvith, too?" I asked.

"She is not," Danu replied. "When she came to power, Fedelma immediately stood up to Morvith and cleaned up the worst corruption at the grove here. She managed to keep Winn's mother at bay until Winn was initiated. For this act alone, Fedelma is beloved and is considered a hero."

"So it is good that she's on Winn's side then?" I asked.

Danu laughed at my naivety. "Child, Fedelma is not on Winn's side."

"She isn't?"

"Fedelma is a member of the Circle of the Yew," Danu replied. "She is one of the leaders. She used the corruption under Angharad to establish herself as a reformer, and the changes she instituted made her extremely popular. She has been actively opposing you and Winn as much as she can."

"But she and Aoife hated each other," I observed.

"They were rivals who didn't understand the threat that you and Winn represented. Aoife was hasty and impulsive and it cost her dearly. Fedelma understands the threat now and will be much more subtle and a lot more careful."

"Then we need to take Fedelma out before she can arrange a defense," I assessed.

Danu laughed again.

"Julienne, there is nothing Winn can do to Fedelma at the moment. Remember that she is a hero here because of her opposition of Morvith. If Winn attempted to depose Fedelma, she would have an open revolt on her hands."

I was dismayed.

"Daughter, you must learn this, and learn it quickly," said Danu. "Morvith is despised as is the entire Keyleth clan. They have a dismal history of exploiting their status as grove holders. They are recognized as the most corrupt grove-holders in the history of this country. Winnifred's family is filthy rich from the money they extorted from the members of the grove."

"So the grove does not support Winn?" I asked.

"For now, the grove has been ambivalent about Winn herself," replied Danu. "They know that she was terrorized as a child and that she was just initiated and has vowed to use her role as my Greater Prophet to restore the faith. They hope that she will bring lasting change, but they fear that she is simply the next Keyleth to exploit them. My people say that behavior is the best indicator of true belief. They are waiting to see how Winn acts in her role.

"Winn earned a small amount of goodwill by stumping her mother and showing that to the grove. That goodwill was mostly wiped out when Winn immediately went to a rival grove, initiated the Lesser Prophet there, and then hosted the Samhain there. She performed miracles and signs that every member of my faith in every grove knows about already. If you were a grove member here, would you not feel slighted and resentful?"

"Yes, Mother," I answered.

"For now. Winn must bide her time and draw Fedelma out until the festival of Goleuni."

"What festival is that, Mother?" I asked.

"Winter solstice," she answered. "The Greater Prophet is planning something special for that."

"What is her plan, Mother?" I asked.

"Winnifred has no desire to be grove-holder after her mother retires. She believes it is time for the Keyleth family stewardship over the Franklin grove to end. She discerns, and she is quite right in this, that she can do more for the Tuatha as Greater Prophet than she can as grove-holder."

"Who will take over the grove?" I asked.

"If Winnifred gets her way, the people of the grove."

I marveled at that.

"For now, though, Winn has a difficult path to traverse. Politically, what I am asking her to do is not easy. There will come times where she must be, hard, mean, callous, and ruthless to accomplish what I require. You do not have to agree with her decisions, but you must understand why she makes those decisions. As much as you can, you must support her.

"You are the one person on this earth who is in a position to truly understand who she is, what she must do, and why she must do it. You are the one person on this earth to whom she can be honest and vulnerable. You must be for her what her mother never was. You must be for her something that she has never had: someone who loves her unconditionally and believes in her. With the love of one good person and my power within her, she can do anything.

"I chose you because you, more than any of my other Daughters, can be that person for her. I told you this before. Winn Keyleth is the loneliest woman on earth. You must be her family and her comfort. If you won't do this for her, then no one can."

"What about Mason?" I asked. "Can't he do this for her, too?"

"Mason is important as her partner and as a mate. His role is crucial, but can any man ever really understand the reality that a woman faces? He has exceptional character and he can sympathize and empathize, but he isn't a woman, Julienne. He cannot do for Winnifred, what you can."

"Yes, Mother," I replied.

A profound sadness overcame me. I crawled into bed on the opposite side of Winn from Mason. I hugged her and wept.

"I'm so sorry, Winn," I said over and over through tears. "I had no right to judge you. I didn't know or understand, but Danu showed me the truth. Please forgive me. Please forgive me."

Winn turned towards me and in an instant we were kissing passionately.

What I felt in her through our bond was need. Not necessarily physical need, although that was there, too. What she needed was to know that I had her back and that I was on her side.

I had thought Danu chose me to help Winn carry the burden of her power. I understood at that moment that she had chosen me to help Winn bear the burden of her loneliness.

Winn needed someone who would love her when she was difficult, stand beside her when she was hated, and believe in her when she could no longer believe in herself.

I did not know whether I was capable of being that woman, but Winn was clinging to me as though her life depended on it.

So I held her.

***

Epilogue

Mom dropped me off at the dorm and went house hunting with Cerridwin. Cerridwin was looking to buy a home and Mom had a good head for finances and a keen eye for good value. They were holding hands as they pulled away.

On our return from Georgia. Mason and I immediately moved in with Winn. She did not want to abandon her father to a big, empty house. She also had an enormous bedroom with a king-sized bed, so it made sense.

Cerridwin had moved right into the master bedroom with my parents, a fact which became obvious when Winn, Mason, and I went to dinner. Mom and Cerridwin had something going that looked surprisingly serious. I asked mom only two questions: were the husbands copasetic? Was she happy?

That second question was more of a message than an actual inquiry.

Winn, Mason, and I spent the last few days of fall break basically fucking all day. It was in Winn's bedroom that I made peace with girl-on-girl sex. The other-memory had given me a PhD in sapphic pleasure. I instinctively knew that this knowledge made me one of the most accomplished lovers of women in the whole world. It's funny that when you're good at doing something, it ceases to be work and becomes something akin to art. I loved practicing my art on Winn.

Danu had admonished me that I would have to find love in our union, and I can honestly say I found it between Winn's thighs. The bond made it clear that both Mason and Winn were head-over-heels for me. Their feelings, in-turn, brought me around to their way of thinking shockingly fast. Before I returned to college, I was nearly as besotted with the two of them as they were with me.

As I unpacked my bag in my dorm room, the tree spirit in me was unusually restless. I decided to go for a run. I put on a sports bra and a favorite pair of yoga tights. I planned to throw my favorite zippered hoodie on just before I left to keep me warm. Once I had been running a bit and warmed up, I would take off the hoodie and tie it around my waist.

I was about a quarter of a mile into the run when I realized I'd left notifications disabled on my phone. I turn them on and immediately received a text announcing an emergency all-hands meeting at the sorority starting in fifteen minutes.

I had just enough time to make it. I left the dorm room and was running half way across campus when I realized I had forgotten my hoodie. I also realized that I was inappropriately dressed for the sorority meeting. The requirement was for the sisters to wear presentable clothing to the chapter meetings. My workout clothes weren't up to snuff. I realized that I could either go back to the dorm and change and be unforgivably late, or I could show up on time, but unforgivably dressed.

I decided to show up on time and take my lumps for my appearance. As I walked across campus, I got a lot of stares. The looks from men were lascivious. The looks from women varied from curiosity, to disgust, to blatant envy. I knew I looked good in athleisure wear and that type of varied response was nothing new to me.

I stepped into the sorority house. The parlor where the sisters held meetings was already full and full of chatter. I glanced at myself in the full length mirror that was near the front door and I was shocked.

My sports bra was too thin and blatantly showed my new thick nipples and nipple rings. Worse, my tattoos were showing. all the way from my lower back to near the top of my shoulders.

"Shit!" I said quietly. I concentrated, trying to make them fade, but it was no good. Nothing I did worked.

"Mother, how am I going to hide my tattoos?" I asked Danu.

"You aren't going to hide your tattoos," she replied. "You are my Lesser Prophet, you will not hide!"

She was upset at the mere suggestion of it.

"But Mother, my sisters don't know about the Tuatha Dé Danann. The tattoos and the nipple rings run contrary to the dress standards. How can I possibly explain them to my sisters?"

Danu just laughed. "Prepare to be surprised, Daughter. The meeting is going to start. Go in there now."

I walked into the parlor just as Kennedy, the Sorority President, started to get everyone's attention. I was standing right next to her and all of the sisters in the chapter looked right at me as I entered. The room was filled with gasps.

Kennedy said angrily, "Whoever that is, you're late!"

She pivoted to stare at me and was so gobsmacked by what she saw that she just stood there.

I saw her eyes go first to my tattoos, then the nipple rings, then I saw her look up to the top of my left ear. That was unmistakable. She knew exactly what to look for and where it would be.

"You... You...." she found that she couldn't continue. She looked out into the crowd that had assembled on couches and chairs.

Finally, she said, "Amy, we discussed the agenda before the meeting, can you continue for me? I've got to handle this."

She grabbed me by the forearm and led me down the hall to the downstairs bedrooms. As the president, she had a large-sized single room right next to the house mother. She closed the door and instantly dropped down to her knees and dropped her head.

"Forgive me Mother, I did not know you were a priestess of the Tuatha," she said.

"You are in the Tuatha?" I asked.

"Yes, Mother," she replied. "A bunch of us are."

"A bunch of you?" I asked.

"About eighty percent of the sisters here are Tuatha. I am from the Centerville grove. Amy and Lauren are both from the Springfield Grove. Forgive me for being so impertinent for so long. If I had known.... If I had any idea...."

"It's okay, Daughter," I said. "I was not a member of the Tuatha until fall break."

I lifted her off of her knees and sat her on the bed. I sat next to her.

"You weren't?" she asked, with confusion written all over her face.

"My family was not religious at all. My brother got pulled into the Tuatha dé Danann through the grove holder's daughter in Franklin. When I was introduced to the chief priestess there, she identified that I had magic within me. I was initiated as an over-aged woman over the break."

"I've never seen that many tattoos, ever, Mother. Were you initiated of the Oak?" she asked.

I slid my tights to the floor to show her my tattoo.

"The Willow?" she asked. "I.... How is that possible?"

Something about how she asked made me laugh.

"I know little of sex, Kennedy, and even less of magic or of the Tuatha proper," I said. "I am apprenticed to Shreya, and she will guide me in this even though I outrank her."

"You outrank her?" Kennedy asked.

"I am the Lesser Prophet of Danu, Daughter," I said.

She gasped as she realized what I was saying. "Last week in Georgia?" she asked. "That was you?"

"I was initiated on an enormous ancient Willow down there. What happened on the Samhain afterwards was mostly Danu's doing, and that of the Greater Prophet."

"The Greater Prophet?" she asked.

"A newly initiated priestess from the Franklin grove," I said. "She is the daughter of the grove holder and she is even stronger than I. I will introduce her to you. She will make an excellent sister here when she arrives next fall."

At this point, Kennedy became overwhelmed and started to cry. "If I had known who you were, I never would have been so disrespectful."

I pulled her into a hug to silence her. "You did exactly as you should, Daughter. You saw something in me when no one else did. You stood up for me and gave me a chance when no one else did. Danu is pleased by your actions.

"Once I became a pledge, you needed to get my attention and how you did it was the best way. You will continue to do that until I am initiated as a sister. If you start treating me any differently, or with favoritism, my sisters will never accept me as one of them.

"Although I am the Lesser Prophet of Danu, I am still just an apprentice to a junior priestess. In this house, I will be just a pledge, nothing more and nothing less, until I am initiated as a sister here. After I am initiated, I will be just a sister. Nothing more and nothing less."

Kennedy nodded.

"Is it true that eighty percent of our sisters are Tuatha?" I asked.

"Yes," she answered. "It is rare to have such a concentrated gathering away from a grove, so the chief priestesses from Centerville, Springfield, and Franklin grove worked together to bring Shreya here so that we had a priestess to tend to us."

"I need you to arrange a meeting for the Tuatha members of the house," I said. "Word of my tattoos will quickly spread and I want to make sure everyone treats me like just another pledge. I know that this will go against your training, but Danu expects you to do your best in this."

***

After the meeting was over, my big sister Anne and I had dinner together. During the meal, I got her to open up to me about her insecurities. She had serious issues with body image because of her small chest. She'd been saving up for years for a breast augmentation. She was also half-starving herself in a bid to remain fit.

This was shocking to me because she was very good looking. I never would have guessed that her warm, confident exterior held such anxiety and self-disgust within.

I called Cerridwin and Shreya, and they met us at the sorority house. At my instruction, Cerridwin gave Anne tits the exact size of mine. She also made a tweak to Anne's metabolism to speed it up so that she could basically eat whatever she wanted and remain fit. It was the standard kind of body-sculpting that would have been offered to any of the Tuatha women who was of-age.

Within a week or two, Anne would shed her remaining baby fat. She would still be one of the prettiest girls on campus, but now she'd also have a body that would give men whiplash.

Anne had rolled her eyes when I told her I could fix her insecurities with magic. After Cerridwin performed that magic, however, Anne's attitude changed. She was so grateful that she wept.

As a gift, I'd given her two of my bras and the bustier top she'd convinced me to buy. The bustier top fit her like a glove now and she refused to take it off.

I then sent Cerridwin down to introduce herself to Kennedy. She would be delighted to have a full-blown priestess at the sorority's disposal.

Her door knocked, and Anne let her boyfriend Chad in. "Hey babe, I came as quick as I could..." When he saw her cleavage, he gawked. It was obvious he wanted to ask about it, but didn't want to do that in front of Shreya and I.

"What's up?" he asked.

Anne smiled at him and said, "You remember how awful Julie was the last time she tried to give you head?"

Chad nodded.

"Shreya here has been giving her instruction and she needs practice," Anne said boldly. "I offered her your services again, unless, of course, you object."

Chad nervously looked at each of us and said, "If she wants to, and it is okay with you, then I have no objections."

This was not a surprise to any woman in that room.

Pretty soon, I had Chad sitting on Anne's bed bottomless. Both Anne and Shreya were in the other bed, with a bird's eye view of what I was going to do to Chad.

I slowly unbuttoned my shirt and slid it from my shoulders, revealing a lacy red bra. I slowly undid the front clasp on the bra to reveal my tits. Chad goggled when he saw the nipple rings.

"Did you get your nipples pierced?" he asked. There was a tremor in his voice.

"Sure did, Handsome," I replied. "Now, I need you to know this before we get started, Chad. I'm not doing this for you, understand? I need someone to practice on and Anne volunteered you for the job. So, don't thank me. Thank the woman who loves you enough to make sure you got this opportunity."

Chad looked over at Anne and gave a tender and grateful smile. "I love you, Sweetie."

"Awwww, I love you too, Baboo," answered Anne sweetly.

I sinuously knelt before Chad and with nothing more than slow sensual licks, completely rocked his world. Within fifteen minutes, he was so aroused, he was out of his mind. I looked over at Anne who'd flushed pink from the sound of his uncontrolled moans.

I slid a tad bit closer and I slipped his big toes through my nipple rings.

"I'm going to finish you now," I told Chad. "Flex your toes while I bring you off. Trust me, you'll like it."

He was rhythmically curling his toes when my slow sensual licks to the underside of his cock finally had their devastating effect.

He screamed, "Ohhhhh Gaaaaaaaaawddd," as he ejaculated.

I had been using an energy flow technique that Shreya taught me with one small innovation: with his toes stuck through my nipple rings, it gave the energy a way to circulate rather than just flow in and out. The energy circulation caused a much stronger physiological response. I can confidently attest that Chad came as hard as any man has ever come in the history of mankind.

The massive load Chad ejaculated out shot up over his head and painted the pillow and the headboard behind him.

At the start of fall break, Mason had talked about how I ought to have sucked Chad's brains out through his cock. I had done the equivalent with nothing more than my tongue and my nipple rings.

For the next ten minutes or so after that, Chad's IQ would drop to a third of its normal. I knew this would happen because it was exactly what happened to my brother Mason when I'd practiced this technique on him three times the day before I returned to the university.

"Well done, Julie!" enthused Shreya. She reluctantly agreed not to call me Mother in front of mundanes, but she found it difficult.

The truth was that Anne wouldn't be a mundane for long. She was quite libidinous and was a natural fit at the ETA house, which meant she was also a natural fit for the Tuatha dé Danann.

I already had a plan to bring her in. Being a member of this Sorority, and being the big sister to Danu's own lesser prophet wouldn't hurt, and what Cerridwin had just done for her, it would be a cinch.

Anne laughed at the mess Chad had made out of her headboard.

"Wow, Julie!" she said. "How did you do that?"

"I'd love to show you, Anne," I replied. "You're next."