I let out a very contented, very long sigh as I settled into my hanging chair.
“I feel as if I’m intruding,” I halfway apologized, “but I need very much to begin to feel like I belong in this realm, and I could think of nowhere else where I would be as comfortable than with the two of you.”
Neither one replied, they just smiled a little more. Eris’s green eyes were nearly glowing. Autonomia put her glass down on a table which was by now bereft of the snacks I’d requested before I’d previously entered the Grotto.
“So, Gaian,” Eris finally said, “what can you tell me about our daughter that she hasn’t told me already?”
Rather than object to the fact that I had no idea what they had discussed in my absence, I looked from one to the other before my gaze settled on Eris. “I doubt she understands how powerful she is. Because she has no ambitions to rule or otherwise wield power.”
“I’ve thought that as well.” Her mother said. She cast a concerned glance Autonomia’s way. “She seems to be horrifyingly powerful, as well as uncontrollable.” Eris suddenly looked a bit frightened. Similar language was used to describe Tiamat when the Ancients discussed why they wished to destroy her. I felt a strong desire to protect my charming, disarmingly cute daughter.
“That’s why I created a separate domain for her,” I explained, “so she has a place to play around and do as she feels, without consequences in this one. Unless she desires otherwise.”
Autonomia looked a little perplexed. I’d explained something she had not been able to figure out for herself. She turned to her mother. “He can do that?” she asked.
“He just did!” Eris said, her voice dripping with admiration. I sort of get it, now that I’m retelling this story.
Reality is a matter of consciousness. One can accept or reject experiences or things one encounters at will, if they don’t fit into one’s view of reality. When I mentioned that there was a new realm created for Autonomia to dwell in, without having to bother with what others thought about how she behaved, I essentially created it. Spontaneously. Just like that. Again, it wasn’t something I really planned on doing, or knew how to do. I just envisioned it, and it was.
The quiet returned. Eris stretched and let out a long sigh. Autonomia rose from her seat to approach me. I rose from my seat to hug her – she hugs really well. She’s so soft, and always has a sweet aroma.
“Mom, how long have you known my father?” Autonomia asked after she pivoted around to face Eris. She didn’t wait for a reply.
“Why are you not fucking him?” she demanded of her mother. Eris looked like she was about to laugh, but was fighting the urge.
“Do you know where I am, right now?” our daughter asked. She reached over and grabbed my crotch.
“Right here, Mom!” Autonomia informed us. She gave me a squeeze. “I’m trapped, right here!”
“Mom, I want you to liberate me from this!” she pointed at my package, still firmly in her grasp. I was beginning to feel like an item on exhibit for ‘show and tell.’
“I’m right here, Mom!” Autonomia gave me a squeeze and released me. “Come and get me!”
By this time, Eris had burst into laughter and was in danger of toppling over, onto the floor.
“I’m going to fetch Savannah,” our daughter informed us as she gave me a good, solid hug. She kissed me on the cheek and whispered in my ear “Now get on with getting me conceived. I feel sort of unsure of myself, like I don’t really exist yet. I can’t really remember anything that’s come before now – except that I wanted to be here, now. I think you understand how that feels.” Yes, I did; but more than anything, I felt my daughter was far too involved in my sex life.
We kissed one another on the cheek and she pulled herself out of my grasp. “I’m off to party, and I doubt I’ll return here tonight. This night belongs to Savannah and me!” she called to her mother over her shoulder just as clouds began to obscure her from sight. “Love you both so much!”
“Love ya too, babe!” I told her as she disappeared. When I turned my eyes toward Eris, the Goddess was descending into the spring-fed pool, after she’d discarded her clothes.
What else could I do but likewise? I disrobed, with Eris’s watchful gaze upon me. Which was a little uncomfortable to me. After all, she was a Goddess, I was still a Mortal, and she was used to being around other Immortals. I felt somewhat inadequate.
The look on her face told me otherwise. There’s no figuring out women, as far as I’m concerned…
“Introducing Autonomia, Goddess of the Everywhen!” a voice in the clouds bellowed. Autonomia danced her way down the Grand Stairway, spun around on one foot when she reached the floor, and raised one hand high above her head. As she did so, Savannah returned to the Grand Hall and trotted out to stand alongside Autonomia, also with a hand extended above her head. They looked like bookends. Chloe and Zoe joined them, one on each side of the Goddesses. When the four of them were in place, they called out to the Beings in the Grand Hall, “Hi, everyone! We’re party favors!”
They joined hands and rushed over to a pile of futons and pillows in the middle of a circle of banquet tables laid out with food and beverages. Once there, they jumped into the cushions, pillows, and mattresses. And were immediately swarmed by the horniest amongst the Immortals present. For the rest of the night, sounds of unfettered glee, moans of pleasure, and cries of delight echoed through the Grand Hall. The girls did themselves proud, and that night is remembered as one of the highlights of the most acclaimed of all Ninkasi’s Harvest Banquets.
Sometime the Next Morning
“Something’s come up,” I told Eris as we dressed ourselves in preparation for our return to the Festivities. I felt a profound change in Ninkasi’s Sacred Hall. “I need to find Autonomia. She might be…fading?”
My Chaotic wife gave me a quick peck on the cheek.
“I need to go to wherever Autonomia is,” I told the clouds, and they transported me to the Banquet Hall. Autonomia, Savannah, Chloe and Zoe lay in shambles amongst a pile of pillows covered in…various…juicy pools of…stuff that comes from bodies…all the stuffs…pools of it…pools…
“Can we get some cleansing rain here?” I asked, exasperated that I even had to ask. This was no way for Goddesses to look, not even after a long night of licentious debauchery deserving of record books and commemorative stelae.
Chloe and Zoe lay spread eagle. Their breath came in heaving swallows, yet their faces bore huge smiles. For the first time, I noticed they do not have bare skin, but are covered in very fine, very short fur. It was matted to the skin beneath, here and there, with…yeah…all that stuff. Pools of it. Pools.
Autonomia’s face was swollen in several places, her lower lip split and bleeding. She was missing a tooth. Or two. Or…The cleansing rain was almost ice-cold at first, which made all the girls squeal and lurch. That’s when I noticed Savannah’s head. No time for that now, I thought, as I began to run my hands over my daughter’s bruised face.
The gizmos on my arms once again powered up and bands around my wrists glowed green. I moved a hand across Autonomia’s swollen, bruised face. The bruises faded a bit, and the wound on her lip stopped bleeding. She made an attempt to sit up, but I held her firmly to disallow much motion. I stroked her face again and the bruises faded some more.
“Honey, you’re a Divine Mess.” I chastised her. That’s when I realized she was naked, but so covered with bruises, dried blood, dried…stuff…as to appear clothed. Somewhat.
“You should see the other guy!” she said as she held a triumphant fist aloft and looked off into the distance. This elicited a little bit of a laugh from Savannah, who absolutely shocked me by raising a hand into the air.
“That’s what I’m sayin’!” she tried to say. She got the words out, you understand – but they were more like squeaky little cries than…say…speech. Autonomia flung one of her hands at Savannah’s. It glanced off the side of her palm, which knocked both of their arms back into the pools of…stuff. They both began to cry a little.
“Savannah, do NOT move.” I told her. “I think your neck is broken.”
I can’t begin to explain just how disappointed I was with Savannah. This was no way for a Volunteer Concubine to behave – out getting fucked to death with her rowdy friends! And to think I trust her (someday) to be Autonomia’s nanny!
(Now…how is that possible? Me having memories about things in the future? Mine and Savannah’s future, and Autonomia’s past. Apparent past. She hasn’t been born at this point in the story, you know. And should I even care about timelines and such anyways? At the time – there in the Banquet Hall – I had other things on my mind.)
“Sweetheart, your eyeballs had bruises and whelps on them.” Autonomia giggled nervously and almost shrugged her shoulders. I think they were both out of socket. I stroked her face once again and prompted her to “Look at my hand, sweetie!” She tried. “No, dear, the one in front of you.” She didn’t move. I snapped my fingers a few times. “Up here, sweetie!
“Yeah, that’s my girl!” She finally located the correct hand. “Now, keep your eyes on my hand.”
I slowly caused her face to pivot around until I could clearly see both of her eyes – thankfully!
She turned those eyes toward my face. “Oh, THERE you are!” she tried to laugh, but instead spit a whole tooth out between her swollen lips.
“Everything hurts!” she cried, and leaned forward. She would have burst into tears and wailed aloud, but it would’ve hurt too much, so she settled on leaning forward for a soothing hug. I put my hands beneath her sagging armpits, then lifted them up quickly while I grabbed her arms above the elbows and jerked them up-and-outwards.
“Pa-DOP!” went her arms, as they both slipped back into their accustomed places. My daughter was too weak to pull away from me and wailed aloud now for real.
“I just told you everything hurts!” she pouted after she caught her breath, “You’re mean!” She cried some more.
“I’m not mean, and you’re hungover.” I informed her.
“It’s okay,” Savannah stage-whisper-squeaked. “Once everything…starts…going dark…doesn’t hurt…so much…any…more.” She went limp. It was a subtle change, but a change nonetheless.
“Savannah, I have to say,” I told her as I lay Autonomia down on a pillow the cleansing rain had cleansed. “I am more than a little disappointed in you. You’re her nanny! Or, you will be, one day. You could choose to be a more positive role model for my daughter.”
I carefully lifted her head, steadied her neck, and turned them towards where I thought they belonged. The green, glowing bands on my wrists revved way the fuck up and began to hum. I felt around with my fingers until I found what I believed was the top of Savannah’s spinal column, then set her neck down on it. The green bands grew all but blindingly bright, and the hum became a high-pitched whine, then “POP!” and her neck was back in place again, good as new. I don’t know why it popped. It shouldn’t have popped. Why did it pop?
Savannah was a little angry with me. “We’re around the same age, and that stuff hasn’t happened yet!” she spat at me. Then, all the pain she hadn’t felt for a while came flooding back into her consciousness. It took the breath clean out of her. “…oh…dear…god…” she gasped.
“It’s too late for flattery now, missy!” Volunteer or not, Savannah is my concubine, which makes her a slave, which means…she should…you know, not talk back to me and stuff. Insolent little hussy.
“Same age?” I mocked her. “So, this is what you did to prepare yourself for the job as her nanny?
“And, it hasn’t happened to you, yet – but it’s in her past!” I jerked a thumb in my daughter’s direction. “Dumb-butt…” I added under my breath.
“…mean…” she cried at me.
“Mean!” Autonomia seconded. I reached over and patted her tummy. Her eyes crossed and she fainted. The green bands worked their magic, though, and her internal organs were healed, all at once.
As I began to reach for her nearest leg, a fuzzy, little blue hand grabbed me firmly about the wrist.
“That’s enough from you, mister! We’ll take over from here!” Chloe insisted as she lifted Autonomia up from the cushions and laid my daughter’s arm across her blue-striped shoulders.
Zoe pushed past me, on her way to rescue Savannah. “Meanie!” she said as her fingertips brushed me back half a step.
“I’m NOT…” I began to protest, which was futile, since the clouds had already taken the four of them away.
With only a Mortal in the way, the cleansing rain became a raging downpour. I had to highstep my way out, as the water level quickly rose until all the cushions, pillows, futons, etc. were carried away by the current, whilst cleansing rainwater poured off me.
I’d just about had enough with that place. Other than meeting my Goddess wives, my Goddess daughter, and my Goddess concubine, and punching out and drinking with Marduk, and playing music, and the Divine beer, and the Divine food, and all the Divine sex, I was not having such a great time there. As a matter of fact, most of the best memories I’d made since I arrived took place in the Everywhen. “I need a break,” I muttered to myself. “I need to go somewhere where I get treated with a little respect.” I would have added “Is that too much for a motherfucker to ask?” except the clouds had already pounced on me and transported me…
the Hereafter 