Message-ID: <16161eli$9810080536@qz.little-neck.ny.us> X-Archived-At: From: tigger@alices.com (Tigger) Subject: RP TG: A Change of Direction (8/22) (Magic, TG) Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d Reply-To: tigger@alices.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Path: qz!not-for-mail Organization: The Committee To Thwart Spam Approved: X-Moderator-Contact: Eli the Bearded X-Story-Submission: X-Original-Message-ID: <362101f4.3255829@news.erols.com> A Change of Direction Part 8 by Tigger Copyright 1997, all rights reserved. Archiving/publication of this author's work on any system that requires payment in any form is prohibited by the author and is in violation of my copyright to Chapters 7 and beyond. No archiving or redistribution of this work is permitted without this copyright attribution included, intact and complete, in the posting/archiving. A Change of Direction Chapter 14 An excerpt from the Journal of Miss Jacqui Donovan 68 days A. T. I guess that since I have been Jacqui now for over two months, it is perhaps time to start counting months instead of days? Next entry, I think. Something is *really* bothering Mom, and it is getting progressively worse every day. Every time Ms. Llewellyn comes to visit, they go into her library and then she comes out still more upset. I have tried to talk to her about it like Bonnie talks to me about my problems? But she just gives me this sad little smile and tells me I am imagining things. All I know is that something about all this is really setting my hair on end. Wish she would let me help or something. Guess real girls have some type of sensitivity I either lack or have not developed yet. I really wish I could do for her what Bonnie did for me. Another problem on a similar issue. I am not sure why, but I keep remembering the wicked witch's death scene in The Wizard of Oz whenever I see her upset like that. It is a creepy feeling. And it is so vividly clear in my mind, almost like I am actually watching the show on a TV in my head. I keep seeing the witch die, over and over again. I DON'T LIKE IT!! Okay, so I made that stupid crack about Salem the day after she Transformed me. I REGRET THAT, OKAY???? It was a stupidly male comment intended to wound her and _I_ _DID_ _NOT_ _MEAN_ _IT!_ I just wish I could take back the words. Something else has changed, too, and it is *not* to my liking. I played chess today on the Internet, again. And I got CREAMED, again! My mind wanders so much now I can only keep two or three moves ahead. I know the correct moves to make. I proved that later when I reconstructed the games. I just lacked focus at the time I was playing. And I made a couple of strange, really impulsive moves in another game that, in the light of reconstructing the moves, were very weak. I know better. I am, or at least, Jack was, a much better chess player than this. The only game I seem to win consistently now is a "speed game", where thinking ahead time is limited. I seem to have an instinct for the game that does not work as well when my opponent has time to plan moves ahead and can use it to control the game. I am not comfortable with this. I was never very good at the speed game before. The strength of my game was cold, rational, ruthless strategy. Now, it is like there is too much else in my skull. I cannot focus the way I used to focus. Tomorrow, I will talk to Mom about it. Hopefully, she might be able to help. End Journal Entry *************** Jacqui slipped down to the kitchen early the following day. Although not in her Mother's class when it came to cooking, she was pretty good for a teenage male. That meant she was probably adequate as a teenage female. She set out to fix a special breakfast for her Mom. Shortly, the smell of coffee brought Laurie down to the table, still yawning. "G'mornin'" she mumbled. "What are you doing up?" "Wanted to beat you down for a change and see if I can still make a decent omelet." Jacqui grinned as she set a fluffy folded egg concoction and a cup of steaming coffee in front of her Mother. Laurie eased into the seat and took a sip of the coffee before tasting the egg. "Delicious." she proclaimed with her mouth full. She swallowed and then looked up at her daughter. "And why shouldn't it be wonderful? I taught Jack years ago. Did you think being female would do something negative to your cooking talents?" Jacqui laughed easily, surprising both women. "No, Mum. But some things have been. . . .changing." She hesitated, not knowing how to ask the question. The part of her that was still Jack pressed the issue and forced her to confront it directly. "Mum, does being female change something fundamental in my head? In my brain?" Laurie considered this for a long time. "I am not sure I know what you mean, dear. Are you having trouble with your school work?" Jacqui shook her head. "No, not trouble. Just something out of my experience. Like yesterday, I was playing chess at the park with one of the older folks who go there?" Laurie nodded her understanding. "Well, I got this wild notion to make this one particular move. It completely violated the strategy of the gambit I was trying to play, but the feeling was so . . . .demanding, I guess. Anyway, on a whim, I just did it. I expected to get clobbered but what actually happened was that the move totally disrupted the variation the other guy was trying to play and I won in four more moves. On the other hand, I can't control a game like I could before. I tend to get. . . distracted." Jacqui broke eye contact with Laurie as if that admission had somehow embarrassed her. She visibly gathered herself, returned her gaze to her Mother and pressed on. "Another example is I can be alone in a room, working on my schoolwork, and my concentration will break because I will suddenly just *know* that someone is going to enter the room in the next minute." Jacqui frowned. "Heck, Mom, as Jack, a marching band could be in the room with me and I would not have noticed them. I used to be able to just close out the world when I studied. Now, I can't." Laurie set down her cup and looked pensively at her daughter. "Sounds to me as if you are starting to develop a fairly strong intuition." Jacqui snorted derisively. "Intuition? As in women's intuition? Isn't that just a convenient myth?" So, Jacqui thought with a rueful smile. Jack is still with us. It was to be expected. She'd only been female, what, two months? "Look at it this way, Jacqui. The ability to focus on a goal to the exclusion of anything else, or how did you put it? Oh, yes to close out the world." She grinned over her cup. "That is a very fine talent if your job is to go kill the mastodon and drag its wooly carcass back to the cave. That is what men evolved to do. However, if your job is to protect the family while said male is out stalking dinner, other and perhaps broader instincts might be the result of the natural selection process. Other input, that a man might not need to process, that might only distract him at the critical point of the hunt, for a woman and her family might be the difference between escaping and living, or staying put and dying. Darwin doesn't just make animals bigger, stronger or faster, dear. Survival of the fittest means many things. For women it meant developing different talents and characteristics than it did for men." "So this is real? This is something you experienced? I'm not. ." and her voice trailed off, uncertainly. "Yes, it is real, and I did experience what you are describing, although I don't remember it being quite so upsetting to me. And you are not. . . WHAT?" Laurie infused the word with Motherly command. "I thought I was going a little crazy. What has been happening made no sense. There was no data I could see, but I was just so. . .so sure." She flung her arms up in a sign of frustration. "You are not going crazy, dear. The data was there, just not evident to your "regular" senses. Intuition is very real, and if you must be so bloody analytical about it, I suspect that it uses peripheral senses. Like seeing something out of the corner of your eye. Your subconscious knows it is there, but it is not in the field of vision your conscious mind is analyzing. As a result of evolution, women can accept, process and act upon such data. Men have not evolved that way." A relieved Jacqui began to work on her own meal. "So, I should learn to accept these feelings, and to act on them? Is that part of being a female that I have to learn?" Laurie hid a grin. Everything still pointed to how to get to the goal of being a male again. How very masculine of you, dear daughter, she thought. Now was probably not the time to tell her daughter that another element of her womanly heritage was a strong, almost psychic empathy that also fed that intuition. That did not fit into the "seeing out of the corner of your eye" model she had just sold the girl on. That might be more than Jacqui could assimilate in one sitting. Besides, if the other explanation was sufficient to help her accept the evidence of her new perceptions, that was more than enough for the moment. Laurie conspicuously stuck her tongue into her cheek. "Well, if you got a strong feeling to jump in the road in front of a car, I would hope you would be more rational about it than that." The answering grin from Jacqui was just what she had hoped for. Now, Laurie became serious once more. "On the other hand, I think you should regard these strong feelings as part of the way you now view the world. If it is safe to do so, experiment with them. If the feeling is recurring and strong, I would suggest that it might be important." Jacqui frowned again and Laurie caught it. "You can always talk to me, luv, if you are bothered. I am a bit more comfortable with such things than you are just now. I might be able to help you." For a moment, Laurie thought the girl might want to say something, but in the end she just smiled. "It's probably nothing, Mom. Thanks for explaining things to me. It has helped." Excerpt from the Journal of Miss Jacqui Donovan 2 Months 14 days A. T. It has been almost a week since my talk with Mom about this blasted intuition thing. Well, mine has been driving me crazy, or if *it* hasn't, then I am simply going crazy all by myself. I am *dreaming* of that damned Witch in Oz, now. Every night for the past few days, I have come out of a sound sleep with the Witch's death scene playing in Technicolor on the backs of my eyelids. Only thing is, this morning the scene changed - big time! Instead of the green faced actress melting, the witch was Mom, and instead of Dorothy holding the water pail, it was Jacqui. Me. Mom, this is getting *really* creepy, and I am getting *really* frightened. I can't do what Mom suggested. I can see how that conversation would go. "Hey, Mom, my intuition tells me I am going to kill you." Right. That ought to help improve matters between us. So, what do I do? I wish I knew another one of her Witch buddies. I would really like a disinterested opinion on this. But I don't have one, and I am not comfortable with this intuition thing yet to decide what to do. So I have decided on a plan of action that ought to give me some more "hard" data. It took a while to figure this out, but everything keeps pointing back to the scene in the movie. Whatever is bothering me, must be there in that movie itself. Tonight, Bonnie is coming to stay the night again. Before she arrives, I am going to make time to watch the movie again. Maybe that will give me the clue I am missing. I think the old remote may get a real workout when Jacqui, I mean Dorothy pitches that water pail. End Journal Entry. ***************** Jacqui crept out of bed at dawn. Bronwyn felt her leave, but the girl obviously wanted to be alone and decided it was best to let her. She was so tired, anyway. Jacqui had been restless the entire night. She'd gotten out of bed several times and paced about the room, or sat at her vanity. Whatever was bothering her had kept Bronwyn from getting much rest, either. She'd catch a few more winks before she had to suffer the torture of optics and wave theory later that morning. Laurie came down to find coffee made and her daughter sitting at the kitchen table. "What's wrong, luv? Can't sleep?" One thing about her child had remained constant, Laurie mused, he *or* she would not miss a minutes sleep she did not have to miss. "No. Yes. Well, maybe." Laurie smiled at that. So familiar, she thought. "Mum? I have a question and I want an honest answer." Laurie went still. "I will not lie to you, Jacqui. I have already promised you that." "Not lying is not the same thing as telling the truth as I discovered a few months ago, Mum. I need the truth and the whole truth - nothing held back. Your word, Mum, Please." "Very well, if you feel that my oath is necessary. I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So be it." Laurie intoned, her hands open and in front of her. "I have been having those feelings we talked about again. Actually, I have been having them ever since that night that The Wizard of Oz was on television. I love that movie." "I know. I think we have three copies on video and you still never miss it on TV." The smile was soft, maternal and it made Jacqui's heart skip a beat. "Mum, when the Wicked Witch is killed, she says something about all her works being destroyed with her." Laurie went stock still. Her empathy cannot be that strong, she thought in dismay. Her daughter's next words dashed that hope to bits. "Is that true? If a ... witch," she stumbled over the word, "dies, do the effects of her spells die with her?" Laurie wanted so badly to lie, but knew she could not. Moreover, she knew that Jacqui had seen the longing to evade that question in her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she tried to answer the question without giving herself away. "The effects of some simple spells do. Some spells are special spells, and those do not necessarily end with the death of the person who cast them." Jacqui heard the hesitancy in her Mother's voice and decided to ask the question she wanted answered outright. "Will I turn back into Jack if you die?" Laurie looked away, refusing to meet her daughter's gaze. "No, Jacqui. The spell is permanent unless and until someone specifically removes it." Jacqui pounced on it. "Someone! That is the first time you did not say that *I* had to break it. Just now, you said "someone else" had to do it." Jacqui considered that. A flash of that intuition struck her. "The key is still your death, isn't it?" she said flatly. Defeated, Laurie nodded and explained the process in detail. Jacqui listened impassively throughout the entire monologue. When Laurie had finished, Jacqui sat staring into her coffee cup. "You should know, darling, that in the event I die before you have learned everything you must know to undo the Transformation, friends of mine will then be able to do it for you. In fact, I have asked a special friend of mine to promise that she will see to it that your wishes are granted should I . . . die." Fear clutched hard at Jacqui's guts. She could not do this without Mom. There had been mornings when only the assurance of Mom being there had given her the courage to go on. She *had* to have Mom with her all the way through this. "You will give me another promise, Mother. You will do nothing to take your own life, do you hear me?!!? Jacqui was screaming and she was shaking her Mother bodily with hands gripping the lapels of Laurie's robe. "You will live with this the same as I have to. You will do everything you can, short of harming one hair on your head, to help me, but don't you DARE do that to me. Don't you DARE take my Mother from me along from with everything else. Damn you, I LOVE you and I will live with almost anything except your blood on my hands." "You. . . you love me? After. . . after.." The two women met in a fierce embrace. "Yes. After everything. It was Bonnie who first reminded me of that fact. It was the same weekend I saw the movie on TV, again. I could not hear you through the hurt before. I know you thought this was for the best. At least, I knew that in here." and she touched her fingers to her forehead. "But it took a while to accept it down here." She patted her breast. "I make you a solemn promise, Mother. If you die before I am capable of making my own decision, and your friend comes to me? I swear that I will choose the option I want the least." Eyes wide, Laurie sputtered. "That is a stupidly male reaction. Goddess, but you are just pigheaded enough to mean that." "You know it, so I guess you had better be very careful until I can manage my own Transformation and make my own decision." Sighing, Laurie nodded. "Okay. I promise." She lifted a sleeve to wipe away tears. Her daughter *loved* her. That was enough for now, and Laurie was wise enough not to press for more. "So, what do you want for breakfast?" "Oh, something light - fruit and toast? I have been informed that I eat a little too enthusiastically." she sniffed indignantly. "But I will get my revenge. Four hours of refraction, reflection and interference patterns ought to cross her eyes for her." Better you than me, Bronwyn, Laurie thought, and then shoo-ed her daughter off to wake her friend. ***************** Jacqui was in the library setting up for the day's study when Laurie got Bronwyn alone. "And she figured it out all by herself? I swear, Laurie, I said nothing to her. I did nothing to alert her." "I did not think you did, luv. I think, however, we may have seen the first inkling of deeper knowing and strong empathy with her. And I think she is starting to read me like a book. Jack never could, but I think my daughter sees deeper." The disgusted look on her friend's face brought a chuckle to Bronwyn. "You had better be careful, Miss." Laurie snapped, peevishly. "She *might* start reading you!" "Ah, but unlike your own skills, deception is at the core of my talent, dear heart. She will have to become much more advanced and powerful to read past my shields. She just might, though. If she can put so little real information together and put you on the spot like that." Bronwyn just shook her head. "Good thing we only need to maintain this masquerade until she graduates." "Well, just be sure to be very careful around me, Bron. If she reads me too well, she might pick up on you." "What a wonderful thought. Well, I am off to learn more about waves than I really care to know. See you at lunch." ********************* October turned into November into December, and things became easier between Jacqui and her Mother. Meals and quiet times were no longer the silent battlefields of dark looks, cold backs and pointed sniffs they had been shortly after the Transformation. Bonnie/Bronwyn was a frequent visitor and dinner guest. Study time they called it, Laurie snorted derisively to herself. Well, Jacqui was learning how to enjoy that body she now wore, and that was an important part of learning the master the Transformation Spell. She was also learning how to give as good as she got, if the goofy grins of utter satiation on Bronwyn's face when she stopped to say good bye were any indication. Jacqui tried out for and made the girl's basketball team, although she was not a starter. Her strength and body control were simply not up to her (Jack's) previous standards. She was an adequate shooter and a determined, hard nosed defender, but her body just could not do what her mind "told" it to do. As a result, she tended to fall the floor or to trip over her own feet fairly regularly. In a year or two, she would have learned her new body well enough to be an excellent player again. Unfortunately, there just was not enough time for her body to relearn all that before the start of the season. Still, she played about fifteen of the forty eight minutes each game, usually as the second player off the bench. Both Laurie and Bronwyn were encouraged with the way the girl opened up with her teammates, and how they quickly integrated her into their after school activities. She wasn't "one of the girls", but she was "one of the team", and that helped her acclimate a bit more. Her grades continued to be among the best in the school, and she had been accepted at all of the colleges to which she had applied. Laurie had been surprised by Jacqui's decision to attend the local state college instead of heading off to one of the more prestigious science schools. Staying close to home made sense, though, since only Laurie could teach her daughter what she needed to know, what she still wanted to know. Sometimes Laurie still wished for the post-Transformation relationship she had enjoyed with her own Mother. The happy discoveries, the little victories over the unexpected pitfalls of being female, the shared laughter and the lovemaking were all things she was unable to share with her own daughter. Her daughter was attacking (that was the only word that fit) every task Laurie set for her. Frankly, it was just a little scary how easily the girl had absorbed and stored away large amounts of knowledge in that computer brain of hers. Laurie was particularly pleased with how well her daughter was picking up the fundamentals of Laurie's own specialty, the healing magic, although the girl did tend to forget to shield herself properly when she established a link. That was really not a problem when healing minor ills or when simply giving comfort, but it could be a huge problem if the hurt or disease being dealt with was really serious. In that case, a failure to properly shield could be fatal for the healer. The healing link was almost like a sharing of life, and if the individual being healed was ill enough, he or she could almost syphon life out of the healer. A healer had to learn to protect the vital inner core of their own life-power, or else both healer and patient might die. Laurie wondered if Jacqui's problem with shielding was that there was still so much "Jack" in Jacqui. Males rarely felt the need to protect themselves the way women often did. Laurie herself had learned the healing arts far later in her transition that Jacqui was learning them now. Was Laurie's own instinct for feminine-based self protection more keenly developed because of that, or was she just more inclined that way than her daughter? She did not know, but hoped that Jacqui would start to remember to be more careful with herself in the future. Particularly with healing. Still, Laurie could not have hoped for a better, more motivated pupil. She just wished that what it was that motivated her daughter could have been different. So, things were definitely looking up, at least in Laurie's view, when one evening in early December, an angry and distraught Jacqui had stormed into the house. Completely ignoring her Mother's greeting, the girl had stomped up to her room without a word. Moments later, she had come flying down the stairs, wearing her exercise shorts and a man's t-shirt that Laurie had not known she'd bought, and went out to the basketball court on the driveway. Laurie had watched her for almost an hour, in the cold dark of a December night, running and shooting, shooting and running. There was something odd to the way the girl moved, too. Her movements were jerky, strained-looking, without any of the fluidity and grace she had been working so hard at developing over the past weeks. She looked like a short girl trying to emulate the play of a tall male. That was it. For whatever reason, Jacqui had forsaken all the new skills she had painstakingly developed since her Transformation, and was reverting back to the way Jack had approached the game. Only she lacked the height, strength and speed to make it work for her. Laurie put down what she had been doing and went outside to her daughter. The remnants of the eye makeup Jacqui wore now (because Bonnie had asked her to) had made dark tracks down her cheeks. Laurie knew in an instant, that it was not perspiration that was responsible for those marks. Her daughter had been crying the entire time she'd been out here punishing herself. The ball got away from Jacqui and bounced to Laurie who caught it easily. Although not the athlete her son had been, she was in good shape and she had been wearing these female bumps a lot longer than Jacqui. In one smooth movement, she took the ball up into a jumpshot and sank the twelve footer. She'd been practicing, too, during school hours. Jacqui had not realized her Mother had been there until that moment and simply stared at her, the tears still streaming down her face. Laurie retrieved the ball and zipped it at her daughter's midriff. "How about a game of one-on-one, tough-girl? 21 points, win by two?" she challenged. The look of surprise told her that Jacqui had not expected that. Grimly, the girl nodded and tossed the ball back to her Mother, conceding the first turn. What followed was not a game, it was warfare. Whatever was driving the girl, Laurie thought the third time she had been put on her backside, it is not the spirit of friendly competition. The fourth time she and Jacqui had tussled for the rebound of an errant shot, Laurie had gotten her lip split. Her ribs were going to be black and blue from the vicious way Jacqui used her elbows to clear a path to the basket. Laurie only scored on quick jumpers made before her opponent could close on her because of the way Jacqui swarmed her on defense. You should have fouled out within the first five minutes, luv, Laurie thought grimly as Jacqui stormed past her to sink another lay up to make the score 20-10. Laurie took the ball to the circle and started to shoot when, out of no where, Jacqui moved in to block her shot. Although she did not have to do so following a blocked shot, Jacqui cleared to the circle, giving Laurie time to get defensive position. Jacqui simply ran over her, making the winning shot. Both women fell to the pavement, Laurie because Jacqui knocked her down, Jacqui because she tripped over her falling Mother when she came down from making her shot. The back of Laurie's head bounced hard off the blacktop, making her see stars. Hearing the sickening *thunk* of her Mother's head on pavement broke through Jacqui's black mood. Quickly she moved to her Mother, seeking to initiate the healing link as she had been taught. No real damage she sensed with a relieved sigh. "How . . . many times." Laurie gasped. "Have I told you to guard yourself when you do that?" A sheepish grin flitted across Jacqui's smudgy features. "It might be easier to answer how many times you haven't. Are you all right?" "What do your senses tell you, girl? And don't try to tell me you don't know because I felt just how deep you went." Laurie had been as stunned by that as by the fall. The girl had gone very deep into her Mother's mind to ensure that there had been no damage. "You will be okay. Just take two aspirin and call me in the morning." She quipped back as Laurie gingerly lifted herself into a sitting position and scooted over to lean against the garage. "Smartie." she grunted. "Mind telling me what that was all about? And now that you have trounced and humiliated me, do you feel any better?" The happiness she had felt when she'd known her Mother was all right evaporated and Jacqui seemed to shrink in front of her Mother's eyes. Wearily, she dropped down to sit beside her mother against the garage. "It was just a very bad day." "Wanna tell your old Mom about it?" Laurie put an arm about Jacqui's shoulders. "Today was "Commitment Day", and it just all became real. I couldn't do anything right at practice today, and I may get moved even farther down the bench because of it." "Commitment Day? What is that?" Laurie was confused. Looking disgusted, Jacqui snorted at her Mother's ignorance. "Today is the day that the letters go out at the big schools, the ones offering basketball scholarships. It is also the first day you can formally commit to a school, accepting their offer. There would have been one of those letters in the mailbox today, special delivery, from BC. The coach there promised me one last summer after that basketball camp I went to in June. He was there as one of the counselors and he'd scouted me while his team was out here playing Stanford." "I did not know about that. You never told me that." Laurie whispered. "Didn't want to jinx it by wanting it too much. You can never tell how these things are really going to turn out. I might have gotten injured, or somebody from this year's team that he was counting on for next year might have lost eligibility. Then, he would have to do something else with the scholarship he wanted to offer to me." Jacqui stared up at the moon. "Heckuva jinx, though. Ineligible to accept a scholarship by reason of suddenly being the wrong gender. I can't even play decently anymore. Cripes, Mom, couldn't you have at least made me into a tall, athletic female?" The comment was made with at least an attempt at humor. It failed miserably as gallows humor usually does. "You are the woman you would have been had you been born a woman. You actually are quite athletic, dear. Unfortunately, no spell is going to give you the benefit and confidence of having lived in a body for years. You have to learn those things yourself because you have so much to unlearn." "I know. It is getting better. You know? I even tried binding these puppies," she cupped her breasts in her palms, "with a rib belt to see if that would help my coordination. It helped, but did nothing for the facts that my butt is all wrong and my muscles are too weak." "Your butt is beautiful, Missy, and I can tell you from painful experience, that you are plenty strong for a woman your age." "Right." The tone was more resigned than sardonic. "Anyway, everything became real today. Everything that's changed, that is. There won't be a basketball scholarship in my future. If Jack Donovan ever walks this earth again, he won't be the person I knew. It just all hit me at once - nothing is the same and" a sob broke through again, "and it won't and can't be the same ever again." Laurie drew her into her arms and held her as she cried. "You are right, dear, but you would have changed, anyway, over years. If today somehow, you met yourself as you would have been four years later, you would not know that person either. Change is part of growth, and growth is always change." Damn, damn, damn, Laurie thought again. Why had she done this? WHY??? Because we needed her power and because we thought we knew what was best, her mind answered. We still need her power. Particularly if Bronwyn is correct about what she thinks is happening. Jacqui pushed herself away from her Mother and wiped her eyes. "Thanks, Mom. I needed that. One thing about being a girl is that there are times when a good cry helps. Now, I can let the tears out without feeling like less than a man." Laurie struggled up to her feet and reached down to help her daughter up. "Well, that's a first. Something good about being a woman." Not exactly something to cheer about as good things go, but it is the first time she has said anything like that. "Come on. Let's get cleaned up and fix dinner. After that beating you just gave me, I am starved. And it is *your* turn to do dishes, Missy." The expected groan cheered them both, and they went into the house, arm in arm. *********** Lancaster read the report on his desk one more time and then sat back to reflect on the information. His covert operations against the Sisterhood were proceeding but the main goal of the operation, the name and location of the High Priestess, were still unknown to him. So far, they had captured four Sisters and had put them to the question. None of them had revealed what he needed to know before they had died. Admittedly, they had not been very powerful women. Perhaps they were not important (he equated importance with power) enough to know what he longed to find out. Surely, if they had known the answers he sought, they would have told his inquisitors to stop the pain. All four had died horribly. That pleased the High Leader. Unfortunately, all four had died without telling him what he *had* to know. That did not please him. Perhaps they should take the Donovan woman and her changeling whelp next. None of the women he'd taken had children. Perhaps he could torture the bitch-boy in front of the Mother. He sat there savoring the thought of it, but decided to hold that as a last resort. There was something strange about what was happening with those two and he wanted to understand that. Some intuition told him that there was a very powerful weapon against the Sisterhood in that household if only he could understand it. He had two other members of that damnable order identified on the East Coast. He would take them next, and make sure that his inquisitors took greater care to make their pain. . .more non-lethal. At least until they told him what he needed to know. ~-----~ "Hello? Laurie Donovan, here." "Laurel? Bronwyn. Muriel and Katrina have disappeared. Neither their contact Sisters nor I can touch their minds. I think they have passed over, but no one can find their remains anywhere." "That makes, what, three now?" "No, four. Four junior sisters have all disappeared without a trace in the last six months. All women who had only the basic teaching in their crafts and all women whose primary talents in the craft were not martial. Katrina was an herbalist and Muriel was an oracle. I don't like it, Laurel. It smells of foul play. The police won't see a pattern because they lived in different parts of the country and no one outside the Sisterhood knows of that connection." "No one except the Brotherhood." "That would mean that they are actively searching for Sisters and then killing them. That is farther than they have ever gone before." "They never perceived us as a direct threat before, dear. They always thought they could overwhelm us with their Dark Power. Eleanor and Eva changed that mistaken perception completely during the last major confrontation. We have to expect that whoever was left of the Brotherhood after that figured out what happened and how we facilitated that defeat." "And now, they are ready to move again, and are trying to make sure we don't do it again? Then why go after novices? Why not go after the ones with the power to hurt their plans?" "How would they know who to go after? Novices are still fairly recent in their Transformation. Perhaps they made mistakes in their behavior, or perhaps something about their every day activities pointed to their association with the Sisterhood if someone was looking and knew what to look for. I think we need to warn the other Sisters, luv." "Yes, I agree. How are we going to protect Jacqui? She does not know enough to protect herself and she is not ready to face the reality of who we are and why we really did this to her." "No, she's not. I am afraid that must be your and my job, Bronwyn. It was our decision to Transform her, and it must then be our responsibility to see that she comes to no harm over it." "Well, I guess I can stand Einstein and Newton a while longer. I will get the warning out tonight, Laurel. Be careful, luv." The line clicked off. Laurel sat quietly for a very long time. War was coming, and by her own hand, she had put her only child into the middle of it without her knowledge or her consent. But then, Mothers have been sending their sons off to wars for millennia. They just did not normally put them into skirts, first. Someday, she thought. Maybe someday she'd be able to forgive herself for that. End Part 8. Continued in Part 9 -- +----------------' Story submission `-+-' Moderator contact `--------------+ | | | | Archive site +----------------------+--------------------+ Newsgroup FAQ | ----