Myths and Gargoyles

by Jamie Hawke

  Mizoa was with Megha and Steph. The three of them were in some sort of magical connection, judging by the way their eyes glowed green and those little lights like fireflies floated around them.

  “We should talk,” I said, hoping to cut in before Yenifer did with a more offensive approach.

  Megha held up a hand, while the other two remained unflinching. After a moment, Megha opened her eyes, grinned, and said, “We have a plan.”

  “It’s just that we’re not sure that—”

  “What plan?” Ebrill asked.

  “She will infiltrate the coven,” Steph said, her eyes open now too, along with Mizoa’s.

  Yenifer grunted, but her eyes flitted over to meet mine.

  “I don’t understand,” I said, thinking back over the way we had found Megha working for the enemy, and saved her via a trip to the Dark Land. “They’ve seen you on our side. They—”

  “They know her as a traitor,” Ebrill said, again interrupting me, but at least nodding at my glance of annoyance. “We know their hubris—they’ll assume she only came to us as such, to infiltrate our ranks.”

  “Seems a stretch,” I countered.

  But the others were eating it up, already starting to go on about what they might find in the coven, how best to get in and what exactly Megha should be looking for. Megha nodded, eyes on me as they spoke, not even turning as Riland and the lion-dog entered, and Shisa came over to me.

  Finally, Megha held out her hand and watched as her pet, Bob, emerged from her dress, then crawled up her arm to perch on her shoulder.

  “How did you control Yenifer?” Megha asked Mizoa.

  “A simple spell,” Mizoa replied. “It allowed her free movement, so that the fighting was all her own, while I could see through her—sorry, your,” she added as she turned to Yenifer, “your eyes, and use magic through you when needed.”

  “That’s how she moved about so quickly,” I said, hand on my chin, intrigued.

  “Exactly.” Megha stood, coming to me and taking my hand. She placed it on her cheek, so that my finger was on her temple. “Enter me. Stay with me in this, so that you might see what I see, know that you can trust me fully, and that I am and have always been only on your side.”

  “I know.” Turning to Mizoa, I asked, “Is that possible?”

  “Yes,” Mizoa replied.

  “And with his magic, his transmutation, it might actually work,” Ebrill added.

  All turned to me now, and feeling the pressure of the moment, all I could say was, “Agreed.”

  “When?” Riland asked.

  “Within the hour,” Steph said.

  I let my hand move down along Megha’s cheek, stopping at the corner of her mouth. “And if this proves too dangerous? How will you get out of there?”

  Megha grinned, playfully snapping at my finger. “You know I never meant to stay. This will just be another way of going.”

  “Not funny.” I held her gaze, then turned to Mizoa. “You’ll help with this spell, so that I can see through her eyes?”

  “Yes,” Mizoa replied.

  “And my magic works when ‘in’ her like that?”

  “Yes.”

  Turning back to Megha, I smiled. “Then I’ll get you out of there.”

  Yenifer grunted. “Have we now glossed over the fact that this witch was controlling me? Are we really about to jump in bed with her?”

  As that phrase was so often literal for us, I had to keep myself from being awkward in the moment. Instead of cracking a joke or waiting for someone else to, I found a related question pushing forth.

  “Maybe while Megha’s gone, you two can go over it in a friendly way,” I said. “But first, Mizoa might be willing to answer a question.”

  “Such as?” Mizoa replied.

  “You say you were working with Glitonea to find the stones and other aspects of the temple. Well, why hasn’t anyone mentioned the other one of the Nine who left? Maybe you have insight on this?”

  “Morgen?” Mizoa’s face scrunched up in distaste. “What would you have me say?”

  “Where is she? Did you two work together? Maybe she can help us—”

  “Not likely,” Steph cut in. Turning to her, I saw her dark expression. Megha looked troubled as well.

  “Maybe I should have asked before now,” I said. “But, since we’re on the topic, care to fill me in?”

  “Morgen, also known as Morgana, Morgain, or other variations of the name. The simple answer is, we should not consider her path to be anywhere near ours.”

  “She went a different way much earlier than Glitonea did, I’m afraid,” Mizoa elaborated.

  “Well, shit. So, out of the Nine,” I held up my fingers, counting them off, “we originally had Morgen, Moronoe, Mizoa, Thitis…”

  “Gliten, Glitonea, Gliton, Tyronoe, and Thitis,” Steph finished for me. When I turned to her, she said, “What? I’ve been doing my research, taking notes.”

  “Actually, that’s eight,” Mizoa said. “You forget that Thitis is both Thiten and Thiton, now. They were two different people.”

  “Ah, right. But we have you and Glitonea kind of splitting off, Morgen off doing whatever she’s doing, and Thiten and Thiton, who became Thitis, now absorbed into Fatiha. Meaning—”

  “Only Moronoe, Gliten, Gliton, and Tyronoe remain of the original Nine.”

  “But they reappoint, right?” Ebrill interjected. “So—”

  “Not exactly,” Mizoa corrected her.

  “Oh?”

  “You’re not wrong, but it only happens when a super blue moon, as it’s called now, transitions into a blood moon. Thing is, all of the remaining Nine must be in attendance to name any new members of the Nine and transfer power, and those who have left were never replaced.”

  “Couldn’t those four do it?” Megha asked.

  “No. While Morgen is gone and I forsook the Nine, so both of us could be replaced, Glitonea never truly left.”

  “So, if she sided with the remaining four, that could be very bad.”

  Mizoa nodded. “Extremely. However, I believe we have you to thank for a slight return of her sanity.”

  “Oh?”

  “She came to me, told me of her time with you, what she saw. It’s possible she isn’t so lost as we might have thought.”

  I couldn’t imagine Glitonea coming to our aid, swooping down in her griffin form or rising above a fight, completely nude with runes glowing all over her body. She was an odd one, but could certainly prove to be a valuable ally.

  “Would it be a good or bad thing to have more of the Nine?” Riland asked.

  “How could it be good?” I countered.

  “If Fatiha is getting so strong, and she’s trying to absorb the Nine…”

  “You mean, have the Nine fight our battle for us, essentially?” Megha asked, and turned to Mizoa for an answer.

  “Each one of them could be as much of a threat as Fatiha, as naming someone one of the Nine amplifies their powers and gives them new magic.” Mizoa clucked her tongue. “We certainly don’t want that, as great as it sounds to simply send them her way while we sit back and watch the two destroy each other.”

  “Wishful thinking, I guess.” I chuckled.

  “I’m here. I’ll do what needs to be done.” Yenifer glared at Mizoa. “But keep her away from me.”

  At that, she stormed off, each step causing the floor to shake.

  “It’s understandable,” Mizoa said after she had gone.

  “And me?” Aerona said, having been fairly quiet throughout. “Should I be angry? Right now, I feel simply… confused? Curious?”

  “Ironically, I think we were having some major success with you,” Mizoa said. “When this is settled, I hope you will agree to work together to finish the task.”

  “As long as I get to maintain control, this time.”

  “Deal.”

  “And I should probably check in with Galahad, apprise him of the plan, and ask if he knows anything they should be
aware of,” I said. “Where do we set up?”

  “Best to go where we can set up a defense,” Mizoa said. “Thing is, once the spell begins, it’s traceable. As you know, since it’s how you found me through the spell I was using to control Yenifer.”

  “Meaning the house could come under attack?” I asked.

  She nodded.

  “We don’t have a choice,” Megha said. “If Fatiha has what we need in the coven, we need to get in there and take it.”

  “But, that means we have a deadline,” I countered. “So, let’s get moving. Now.” To everyone else, I added, “Be ready for an assault. Better safe than sorry. Shisa, stay with me. We don’t want to break the link, and can’t have Megha getting hurt out there. Riland, let the guards know to check in with Galahad instead of me. Tell him what we’re up to, and to be ready in case there’s trouble.”

  “Will do,” Riland said, and went off to find Galahad’s guards.

  “As for us,” I held out my hand for Megha, with a nod to Mizoa, “we’ve set up a panic room, of sorts. A bunker for situations like this. It will be our safest bet.”

  “Lead the way,” Mizoa replied, and the rest went to their stations, ready for our infiltration mission and any repercussions that could result from it.

  141

  We set up in the bunker, what had once been Gertrude’s secret room and that I had changed to work on a massively defensive scale. While we set up, I turned on the runes and went about applying new runes in strategic places with the help of my elemental spell and a bit of lightning on the end of my staff.

  “If there’s an attack, this will give us time,” I said.

  Megha nodded, clearly distracted, while Mizoa gave me a humored smile. “You have a long way to go.”

  “And still, I kicked Fatiha’s ass.”

  “Hardly by yourself,” Megha countered, giving me a sideways glance.

  “Right, sure. And we stopped her portal, didn’t exactly defeat her.”

  “With all the power she has absorbed, I imagine we’ll have some real problems when the time comes,” Mizoa pointed out. “Stay on guard.”

  “We will,” Megha replied.

  “Then, let us begin.”

  She had Megha and I sit facing each other, cross-legged, and then circled us, saying, “Duck, duck…”

  “Are you shitting me?” I asked. “You have a sense of humor?”

  “A shitty one,” Megha added, frowning.

  Mizoa shrugged. “I’ve enjoyed learning about today’s world, but haven’t had enough chances to play. What, you don’t like playing?”

  Megha and I shared an ‘oh, boy’ look, but then there was a flash of light, some chanting from Mizoa, and suddenly I was looking at myself. Not a bad sight, honestly. Looking at oneself from someone else’s eyes is quite different from looking in a mirror, because when looking through their eyes you are also affected by their emotions. Kind of how a person looks better if their personality is awesome, but once they prove to be an ass, not so much. In this case, Megha seemed to find me strong and sexy.

  I tried to speak, but instead it came out as a thought. This is weird.

  “You’ll get used to it,” Mizoa said, then motioned to the door. “Megha, go ahead. I’ll stay here to keep a watch on him. If the situation gets too bad here, I should be able to notify the two of you through him.”

  “Understood,” Megha replied, and stood. Being in her body, feeling the way she walked, a shorter gait, wider hips, breasts but nothing dangling between the legs… was weird. She made her way up to the roof, where I was able to see the others through her eyes, watched as she said farewell, and then called the creature she had flown on last. Translucent, with those rainbow light patterns.

  We were off. What I didn’t anticipate, however, was the way I could travel through her thoughts as she went. On one hand, I could simply enjoy the ride, looking out through her eyes and seeing D.C. float by beneath as she rode her strange see-through creature. On the other, it was like there were mental passages and doorways I could explore.

  As she flew, I wandered down one and entered to find a fantasy of her walking into a room to see me lying there, legs spread, balls and hard cock—much larger than I was pretty sure I was packing—ready for her. But, not only that. This other version of me was surrounded by jars of various colors. She approached other me, mind reeling with excitement and craving for that hard cock, her longing to feel my fingers caressing her, my lips pressed to her neck, moving up, nibbling at her ears.

  Kneeling at my side, she took red with one finger, tracing a line from my chest to my belly button. Then came more red lines, followed by blue, and she knelt, licking it off of me. Something edible, and apparently delicious, because she kept going. More colors, more licking. Oddly, in this scenario I was in her psyche, so I felt her sensations instead of mine. In a way, it was like being pleasured while watching a video of someone pleasuring me. Only, I was in the first person point of view, which made it exceptionally weird when her fingers felt the silky smooth skin of the tip of my cock, rubbing purple onto it, or when her tongue licked a line through that purple. I could honestly say that, at that moment, I don’t think I had ever felt anything weirder. Since then, sure, plenty, but never before that. Her mouth then took that cock fully into her mouth and throat.

  I could feel all of this as the real her imagined it. Could feel even the sensation of the warmth between her legs, a slight dampness.

  Moist.

  The word entered my head as a mocking jest, and I realized she had thrown it out there. Maybe she was one of those types who found the word obnoxious, or maybe she thought it turned me on and was thinking it on purpose to tease me. Suddenly, she had the colors and was scratching them into me as she started riding my cock, and I squirmed at the sight of other me.

  You want this? I mentally asked. You’re kinkier than I realized!

  Just a test to see if you’re looking around in my mind, Megha replied. Try this one.

  In a flash, she had other me pinned against the wall, held there with clawed hands that emerged as if they were part of the wood. Good thing that wasn’t the real me, because those claws were literally ripping into my flesh while she was still there, one wall hand holding up her leg to help her ride me.

  Oh, fuck, oh fuck! A laugh echoed through her thoughts as cum shot out and exploded through her, causing her to fly all over the room in bursts of raw energy and cum.

  You… are… fucked… up. My instinct was to pull out of there, to leave while I still could. Going into Megha’s mind was quite possibly more than I was ready for.

  Maybe next time you’ll keep your nose out of my business, Megha’s mind-voice conveyed, a hint of humor in her tone.

  You have issues.

  I watched the city for a minute instead, then felt a nudge from behind. Turning, I saw a door opening, a hand in the darkness motioning me to follow. My first thought was that I wasn’t ready for more raw-energy explosions, but there was something about this path, a welcoming feeling like a tree’s shade on a warm day.

  Is this the real you?

  No response, just the open door. A glance through her eyes showed us moving approaching an upscale neighborhood, which meant there wasn’t likely much time for this random exploring. On top of that, how often was Megha going to let me in like this? On that note, I realized this was a damn fun spell, so I set my magic to trying to replicate the way Mizoa had done it, to store for later in case any of the other ladies would let me enter them mentally.

  Stepping through the door, I blinked at the bright lights.

  I was in Avalon! Or, her mind’s version of Avalon, more likely, as I was still clearly seeing it from her point of view. The sky was a pristine turquoise like pictures I had seen of water in Belize, the hills rolling green peppered with shades of pink and yellow, which I assumed were flower patches. At the moment, the land was peaceful.

  All alone, I—or maybe I should say, Megha—knelt beside a lake to trace her re
flection—blurring the perfect vision of her in the nude. At first, I was confused about why she would be standing out there nude, but then she glanced over and there, on the ground where I hadn’t been able to see her before, lay a beautiful woman with her bare ass to the sky. Having seen A River Runs Through It, my first instinct was to warn her against getting a sunburned ass, but I remembered that not only could I not speak through Megha, especially in a memory, but there was no actual sun in Avalon that I could see, and therefore it might not have been at risk of sunburn.

  Instead, I simply watched her as Megha did, the woman’s shoulders rising and falling with the gentle sound of her breath, a cool breeze blowing over us and tussling her hair. The woman moaned, turning enough that the side of her breasts became visible, and again I felt the moist warmth between Megha’s legs as my own.

  Then the woman looked up with a pleasant, drowsy smile, and I stared in surprise upon realizing it was Rianne. Mizoa’s mother, the powerful woman who had led the fight that resulted in me leaving with the Liahona and separating Avalon from our world. She was lying there, nude, staring straight at Megha.

  “Get back in here, you,” Rianne said, and then she was up and scooting close, reaching for Megha, kissing her.

  Megha pulled back, hating that she had to. “I don’t know if I can do it.”

  “We must.”

  “And if we fail? If they see through the plan, have me killed? You can live with that?”

  “I… must.” Rianne pulled away, sitting with knees up to her chest, arms wrapped around her legs. “As much as I love you, there is a way to this world. One that requires sacrifice from time to time. Let’s hope this isn’t that time, but also be aware that we cannot simply love and fuck all day and expect the forces of evil to simply recede into the shadows.”

  “Can’t we?” Megha stood, then ran and leaped—throwing herself into the lake. Water splashed and she stood, arms out and dripping water. “This is our life. Don’t you see? Me and you, here, doing whatever we please!”

  “Don’t…” Rianne stood now, moving slowly toward Megha, seductively entering the water and gliding forward. “Don’t tempt me, don’t say things that sound like the enemy.” She took Megha’s hand, thrust it between her legs and let out a bit of a whimper, biting her lower lip. Holding her pussy through Megha’s memory, I wasn’t sure if I should feel guilty or ashamed.