On a night soaked in nightmares our world ended. From great celebrations in the streets riots suddenly blazed. Not riots...massacres.
Screams in the dark, in the night. Such began as a cry of celebration and then became a sound of anguish and fury from two voices: The voice of Woman and the voice of Man. Such discord, such harmony. And then silence. A world drenched in sound, echoing into morning, into silence. A silence that in the light of dawn brings forth horrified screams.
Here we are now, in such a world, that we know in our hearts; but that is unfamiliar to us. Here is a world of a future day when man tried to harness his inner demons only to find that in binding the beast within, the man became a monster instead. And women changed too, ascending into a creature of unrealized potential.
"Did you find one that you liked?" Charon asked Bael. These were dogs. Men, but dogs. Still, they were better than wolves. Bael just looked at the poor young woman, tied up and gagged. It was necessary to have tied her up and also to have gagged her.
Although dogs, they were not animals, they hadn't, wouldn't do anything inappropriate. The world had been pretty much cleansed of losers like that when survival only favored the smartest and the strongest and the wisest.
No, she was there, like that, because she was the enemy. A sentry, that they had avoided killing. A little bit of morality went a long way. Why kill when it isn't necessary? Still, they were here to steal, to rob her and her tribe. Should they untie her she would fight them, undo her gag and she would scream for help.
They needed these supplies, that they had taken.
"What about her?" Bael asked. She had eyes like fire.
"Leave her there like that. Her friends will come for her and untie her. Then they will come after us. We must get a head start." Charon grunted, like a caveman. Both men were old, both had suffered from the wave-madness and done terrible things. They were not really like those things they had done, they were good men, in a way, or at least they wanted to be good men.
"What if it doesn't have to be like this?" Bael asked.
"We don't have time for this. We need to go. Did you find one you liked?"
Bael only responded by lifting up the hand-made jacket and putting it on. It was hand-made for someone else and he was stealing it. But here they could make clothing and they had plenty to spare. "It fits."
Suddenly their minds were spinning wildly like ballroom dancers. Wave-madness? No, this was something else. They moaned and groaned and dropped their weapons. They reeled and collapsed.
Bael's eyes closed as he fainted. Charon was already out. They had hit them with something that cut directly into their brains. What had it been this time? Was there no end to what could be done with omegasound?
Moments later Bael was struggling to get back up, but his body felt like it was very heavy. His mind couldn't issue commands to his body that it would obey. He felt like he was asleep and couldn't wake; except he was awake.
Three of the Elders entered the store-room the two men were caught robbing. Elders, the two old men were screwed, well maybe not literally, not yet anyway. Bael hoped they weren't gonna get used. He had seen that once when the Black Widow sorority had used a Nickel. Three of them had managed to exploit the young man. When they were done they had wasted him, therefore leaving no chance he could be useful to their rivals. The Nickel was sane and they had attacked him anyway. The old ways just wouldn't stop.
"On your feet you men." The Elders commanded. So they knew that Bael and Charon were not animals. They were using words instead of force. Younger women entered and untied their friend.
"They caught me and tied me up." she advised. "Strange that they didn't kill me."
"No it isn't. These are Fulls. They were part of the destruction. They have had many, many years to become men again. These, my daughters, are men. Shall I show you how they behave when we make them our guests?" One of the Elders spoke boldly of a very dangerous new idea. The Elders had known for a long time that this was coming. Best that it start here, in the Sisterhood of Sorrows, where all knowledge and wisdom remained intact.
"Please Grandmother. Please let us keep these...men." One of the young women begged. She couldn't look away. They were fascinating with their huge muscles and beards and a pungent odor that she kinda liked.
"Very well Andarial." The one she called Grandmother replied with amusement. The Elders were smiling. None of these girls had ever seen the Elders smile before; not like this.
"Please stay. You will not be harmed." One of the Elders made it sound like Charon and Bael had a choice.
"Uh, okay I guess we will stay." Charon nodded. As soon as he spoke there were gasps of appreciative wonder. His voice was so deep and unusual. Not like the voice of a woman at all. And he had such a gaze with not just intense fear, but also courage.
They all admired him like a prize. These young women were all scholars, surgeons and teachers. They had never even seen males because the Weapons Class had been cancelled long ago. The Sisterhood of Sorrows Sorority no longer allowed their daughters to go into the ruins. Why bother when they had mastered artificial reproduction? Why would they? It wasn't necessary.
Esther went over to them with unbridled curiosity and began touching them and sniffing them. She really wanted to see their man-parts; not just illustrations. That would be impolite: she was sure, and Grandmother had said they were guests. Still, Esther kept sniffing. She couldn't resist because she was a very sensual person in a world where convention was lost. Her tongue flicked out and she tasted Bael's cheek. All of the young women were giggling now.
Bael smiled too. She was like a friendly dog with all her sniffing and licking. If she had a tail it would be wagging. He looked at the young woman. A moment of relaxation swept over him. She was staring at him so coyly that he felt a great nostalgia. Those memories were gone: blown away by the wave-madness, but he knew that the world had once been filled with moments as intimate and touching as this one. Surely it had been.
"We will stay." Bael said softly. "Nowhere I would rather be."
"Are there others?" One of the Elders asked because she wanted to know now, not later.
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"There are none. We had a Nickel with us for awhile." Charon glared.
"You know our terms." Another Elder noted. "How?"
"A Jezebel came to us and stayed in our camp. She was quite bold. She paid us for intercourse by sparing our lives. When we had gotten her pregnant: she was so grateful that she told us everything." Charon said.
"That cannot be the truth. No Jezebel would share secrets. Least of all with men." Cassandra spoke up. She did not trust these men, after they had manhandled her and tied her up.
"This one did." Bael backed up his friend. The Elders began probing them, they gave no outward indication of deception, but their minds might not be intact with real memories. A Jezebel behaving in such a way? It made no sense.
"What was her name?" Andarial had always hated Jezebels and had longed for an excuse to leave the compound of the Sisterhood of Sorrows. Now she asked so that she might take the lead, in investigating, thereby getting out from under the command of her mothers.
"She called herself Skade." Charon said. This brought a great deal of surprise to the faces of all of the women and the Elders too. They knew that name and it changed everything.
"Skade?" Andarial was pleased. "Mothers, Grandmothers, I am ready to go find this one they speak of. Let me go seek her and find out what she is up to."
"What? You won't find her. She is long gone." Bael looked confused. "How would you find her? It was a couple years ago. She could be in another ruins by now. You wouldn't stand a chance crossing the open landscape. There are eagles and stalkers...and repeaters...and savage women. You would be killed."
"I am sure I would be fine. I am the one they say is the new Dream Walker. Who could get near enough to me?" Andarial was either a fool or... she had to be a fool.
"What is a Dream Walker?" Charon asked.
"It is too much to explain right now. The concept of the first Dream Walker and who I am, replacing her, those are a whole story." Andarial said defensively. She worried they thought she was overconfident and arrogant. She was, but she didn't want the men to find her unattractive. Some part of her, some primitive part of her, wanted their approval. She wasn't sure why it mattered.
"Your names?" An Elder changed the subject.
"I am Charon." The slightly older and stronger man said first.
"I am Bael." The one with slightly more handsome features said after that.
"You named yourselves, but those are good names." An Elder said. "Come with us, Charon and Bael. Come and be our guests. Nothing will be forced on you. You will be made plenty of offers, I am sure. You may choose to say yes or no to requests. You will each be given a room, nay, a suite. This is a strange new day, let us begin it correctly."
"May I walk beside you?" Esther asked Bael. He nodded and she took his arm, gazing up at him with puppy-eyes. He already had a friend, it seemed. He was glad they had been caught. At least now they would be fed. He wasn't interested in their 'offers' but the attention was nice.
As the men were taken away to be coddled until they were tame, Andarial stood alone in the store-room.
"That little bitch called herself Skade. She is asking for it." Andarial said out loud. Her face and eyes filled with hatred and her fists clenched. Jealousy of the fabled woman's freedom and boldness made her want to find and kill her.
Andarial decided she was going to form an expedition, find this Skade, and put an end to her. For no reason other than Andarial wished she had been the one to walk into the camp of two men, have them both with barely a threat, let alone force, get pregnant and begin her own bloodline. It was an injury to Andarial's sense of self worth. This Skade would be as legendary as this day when two men came to live here. Possibly more.
"I hate you. I hate you and I hate you." Andarial was breathing with short angry breath. She could see Skade in her mind's eye. Charon and Bael had memories of her that Andarial could see with more clarity than the men could even recall. She had made love to both men, over and over. Andarial's jealousy was like a raw nerve. She could see it all, like a vivid memory. She wanted to kill this Skade. It was an injury to Andarial. No joy was for her, like her sisters and mothers.
They would celebrate.
Time became like a vortex of horror for Andarial.
A corruption had begun in her heart.
Andarial shut herself away. Her rage grew and grew, frustration and fury twisting her greatness and pride into an abomination. Nobody wanted to help her hunt down Skade. Her sisters said:
"Just let her go. Why does her existence trouble you so much?" and other things like that.
Andarial couldn't let her go. "She dared call herself Skade. She thinks she will betray womankind and become the mother of a new kind. She thinks she is better than me!" Andarial said to herself over and over, pacing her chambers.
Every day a new celebration was made for the men. It never got old. The Sisterhood of Sorrows made themselves stupid with all their happiness. Andarial saw it that way and she couldn't stand all the celebrating. Every few days or so a different young woman would present herself to one of the two men: there would be songs and food and dancing and lovemaking.
Andarial hated all of it. She wanted all of her sisters to die. How could they be happy? This Skade was out there mocking them. Andarial's eyes had dark rings under them and she had stopped socializing.
Sitting alone in the classroom that seemed like it was an abandoned temple was the darkness that was a woman. This shade was all that was left of one who was meant to be a hero, a champion of womankind, of humanity. Fallen now to this petty and angry wretch.
It was a dream-soaked day an Elder came to her and asked:
"What will you do, my daughter?"
"I will go and I will find Skade and I will kill her and all of hers."
"It is not right: you are sick. Let me into your mind: so that I might help you. You are special: a Dream Walker. It is a terrible waste that is happening to you." the Elder spoke serenely. Then she asked. "What is happening to you?"
"I don't know." Andarial said, realizing how much she had changed. The mirror showed a monster where a beautiful young woman had stood. Long had she been special and a last hope and the center of attention and admiration. Now she was shunned and she had let her beauty become haggard.
"You are Andarial, still. I am Ydriel. Do you know that? That I have my own name?" Ydriel asked. "I used to be a teacher. Before I became an Elder."
Ydriel almost said more but Andarial sent her a thought, a quiet one but the truth. Ydriel sat there for a long time trying to understand exactly what Andarial was experiencing. This was not a human experience with a name. Andarial was suffering from an unnamed affliction.
"You were not always an Elder?" Andarial tried to sound humorous. The effort made her voice crack and she suddenly started crying. She fell upon her biological mother's shoulder. It was not normal for actual mother and daughter to maintain any kind of singular bond in the sororities. Ydriel knew, of course, that Andarial was her own personal daughter. Andarial did not know, but she had always liked this Elder the best, trusted her, felt the closest to her.
"It is okay." Ydriel held her. "You were born in this world; you don't understand. You are offended; I realize that. You are the most proud among us, and that is my fault. I have put you on high, and now it all seems meaningless, in this time of change."
"Yes." Andarial wept bitterly. She did feel that way, it was true. Suddenly, with someone understanding why she was in pain, it didn't hurt as much. She still hated Skade, but she no longer wanted to leave. "I will stay."
"Good. There is nothing out there. All that you need is here. It is hard to accept: that your purpose is to just be here and be happy. Come celebrate with us. The council has decided to keep all of our Nickels. All of them will stay. We are going to make a special place for them to grow into men and let Charon and Bael teach them the ways of men. It will be very interesting. Don't you want to see this happen?"
"Yes." Andarial decided. One of those Nickels was her own son. She had not looked at him for a long time. Excitement grew in her. She wanted to go and see him. "May I see Pacman?"
"Of course. I thought that telling you this might let you admit you love him. He came from you and now you can keep him. Don't you see what all of this means?"
"I am afraid that I do. I have walked the dreams, Grandmother. I have seen how all of this came to be. I knew better than to become attached to...my son." Andarial spoke it in a way that held great meaning. "It is not easy to accept that all that has gone before...is gone"
Ydriel thought about this for a long time. Her daughter knew things that no other woman could remember. It was hard to instruct someone with such wisdom, but she managed to say the words that Andarial most needed: "Not gone. It is changing. The ruins are still out there. There was an apocalypse; but this is a jubilation."