An alternative future of women and their adventures
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Author's Note
Welcome, friend! As we concluded our last chapter, Adelaide has just discovered Eniola's tenure as Mabon Priestess somehow involves her being locked in a chastity belt by the queen. No explanation has been given as of yet, other than Eniola's matter-of-fact statement, "The queen trusts no one." This chapter picks up the story a little later that same night.
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Dedicated to those we have lost along the way.
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Chapter 5: Make Empyrea Emo Again
Beneath Empyrea City, after the Mabon festival
"You don't think it's weird?" shouted Adelaide over the din of the electrified instruments and the screech of the singer's amplified voice echoing around the underground space.
"Huh?" said Tonje, leaning in and cupping her ear.
"Eniola's thing."
"What?"
Adelaide stopped walking forward and lowered her hands to just under the level of her navel. Staring at Tonje, she pinched her index and second fingers to her thumbs and encircled her waist to illustrate.
Tonje grinned and repeated the same motion while gyrating her hips. She tossed her head back and threw an arm over Adelaide's shoulder while bumping her hip against Adelaide's.
"Not dancing..." shouted Adelaide, stepping back to encircle her waist again. "The thing.... Eniola's thing."
Tonje shrugged. She grabbed Adelaide's hands in hers and twirled Adelaide around once before lowering her backward in a dip. The driving beat of the band continued.
"Never mind." Adelaide danced close to Tonje for a moment before tapping her on the shoulder and pointing to a table where a young woman was lining up a row of beer steins. Tonje flashed a quick thumbs up and continued flailing around by herself, sending the folds of her white druidess robe flying, while Adelaide wandered off.
A group of three women, all dressed in black, with straight, jet-black hair and eyes and fingernails painted to match, swooped in to cut in front of Adelaide. One of the three took a quick glance at Adelaide, then turned to the others, smacking the back of her hand against their shoulders while pointing to Adelaide. The woman made an exaggerated gesture to Adelaide's and Tonje's druidess robes and the other two women in black stepped aside.
"Thank you," shouted Adelaide. She picked up two beer steins, raising one to salute the trio of women and handing the other to Tonje, who had slowed but not paused her dance moves. The three women turned to Adelaide, curtsied, and returned to the beer table to await their turn.
"Being a druidess has its perks," said Adelaide.
"What?" shouted Tonje.
"Never mind."
Tonje grabbed Adelaide by the hand and tugged her toward the stage where Tiara and her bandmates were giving their instruments a good thrashing. Groups of women gathered around the stage in knots, raising beer steins and moving their bodies to the rhythm being pumped out into the underground space.
"Friend's sake, they are loud!" shouted Adelaide. Tonje took no notice. She was busy dancing and moving her head to the driving beat.
Adelaide turned to look where Tiara stood, her weight currently on her back leg, as she rocked back and forth while running her fingers over the strings of her bass. "Bump, ba-da-bump," said Adelaide to no one.
Tiara tucked into a crouch and walked, bent kneed, to the front of the stage. She looked to Adelaide and offered a quick wink before standing up straight again, flipping her hair, and walking backward toward her original position in front and to the left of the drummer.
"Empyrea City!" shouted the lead singer in the center of the group. "You know the words! Sing it with us!"
Flanking the lead singer, on the other side, was the band's lead guitarist. She and Tiara simultaneously turned toward the singer, lowered their heads and charged, before spinning one-eighty at the last minute to run the opposite direction. The sound of their instruments swelled.
"Birth!" shouted the lead singer. In the gathering crowd below, Tonje threw one arm around Adelaide, raised her beer stein to the stage and joined in with the lyrics.
"School!" roared the crowd in unison with the singer. Someone bumped into Adelaide, causing her beer to slosh. She recovered, took a swig, and hoisted her stein toward the side of the stage where Tiara stood.
"Work!" The lead singer raised her left hand in a clenched fist while she gripped the microphone stand in her right and pushed the it toward the crowd. Another woman in a white druidess robe threw her arm around Adelaide from the side opposite Tonje.
"Death!" yelled the druidesses, along with the band and the others all around.
On stage, the lead singer of the band jerked the microphone stand backward, stood centimeters from the mic, and let out an ear-splitting growl. Tiara tossed her head forward and then back while thrashing the lowest of her strings. The drummer's hands flew in a blur, and the lead guitarist brandished her instrument like a weapon against the assembled crowd while the scream of her amplifier cut the air.
Everything ended all at once.
The gathered crowd sent up a cheer, the lead singer threw her hands wide, taking a bow and gesturing to her bandmates. And within less than two seconds, the drummer had her sticks over her head, clacking out the tempo for the next song.
Adelaide looked left and then right to the druidesses flanking her, smiled, and then raised her beer stein to drain half of it. "That was really--"
Adelaide never got to finish her thought. The ear-splitting crunch of guitar cut her off. Tiara's bass roared and the drummer punctuated the whole thing double time on the kick drum.
Adelaide turned to Tonje. "When Friend Tiara said you would throw her out of the hostel if she didn't use headphones, I had no idea."
"What?" shouted Tonje.
"Never mind." Adelaide hoisted her beer stein in salute to the band before draining another quarter of it in one go. She then threw her free arm over Tonje's shoulder and began kicking her feet out in time with Tonje's. Their druidess robes flew outward.
While Adelaide and Tonje were dancing, the trio of women in black made their way from the beer table toward the stage. Occasionally, one of them would lower her shoulder and charge into the others. After two or three repeats of this, they opened their mouths in laughter that was drowned out by the amplifiers and took long pulls at their beer steins.
The acrobatic woman from earlier was making her way up to the stage, spinning her way toward the trio of women. They each turned to watch as the acrobat twirled her baton and flipped head over heels in a cartwheel without using her hands for anything but baton twirling. The trio of women in black raised their beer steins to salute her and the acrobat bowed with a flourish.
"This is a trip," said Adelaide.
"Huh?" said Tonje.
"Never mind."
"Addie!" shouted Vivienne as she approached from behind Adelaide with Cosette in tow. In their hands, both Vivienne and Cosette were clutching pretzels the size of their heads.
"Addie!" shouted Vivienne again. This time reaching out to tap Adelaide on the shoulder.
Adelaide spun her head around. "Viv!"
Vivienne threw her arms wide and stepped in to embrace Adelaide. Cosette did the same, and soon Adelaide, Vivienne, Tonje, and Cosette were wrapped up in a circle of arms and legs, bopping to the music.
"Where'd you get that?" shouted Adelaide.