Brain Games

Lightning flickered, showing strange greens and purples in the heavy cover of clouds. Thunder rumbled a while later, suggesting the center of the storm was still a good distance off. A cold wind drove the rain hard, bending trees and stripping blossoms off the spring flowers.

Zach made his way alone up the concrete steps to the science complex.

It was Sunday morning, but it felt like night.

"I have to do this alone," he had told Maddy.

She did not approve. "We have a lot of friends. We could storm his office, tie him up."

"I highly doubt it."

"We could try, though!"

"And more people could get hurt. Or worse. No, I have prepared for this. I have my allies. You have already given me all the help I could ask for."

Maddie frowned. "I don't like it."

Zach shrugged. He didn't like it either. But he liked everything else even less.

He had requested another emergency meeting by email, and Enkins had responded promptly in the affirmative.

Zach brushed the rainwater off as he climbed through the bio-sciences building, and felt merely cold and damp by the time he got to the office.

Enkins was in the office, alone, feet on the desk, seemingly napping.

Zach felt that something was different, and it took him a while to realize that the bare shelves were no longer empty. But they hadn't been filled with books. In fact, they were still empty of any physical objects, but there were brightly glowing symbols on the shelves. He couldn't make out what they were supposed to be, or represent, but they were in the other space, the "pranic realm."

Zach carefully fed his observation through to the Enkins-cocoon in his head.

"You are becoming more proficient, Zechariah. You see the

mes

."

Enkins started out of his reclining position.

"What calls me out on this stormy day? Do you not like the little pet I gave you? Do you want to let her go, as you did with the first? Free them, and if they come back to you it was meant to be? You are a surprisingly sensitive young man. Most of my trainees are rutting their way through half a city by now. But, you have certainly had some adventures, despite your tiresome and recurrent qualms."

"I have come to take my leave, Professor."

"Retirement? So early? I think I told you it was not an option. There's no going back."

"I'm talking about going forward... alone. I believe you said I could have my will back when I was ready. And I am ready now."

Enkins chuckled. "You think you can break my will?"

"No," Zach said. "I know that in a direct contest of wills, I will probably never be able to break yours. What you said was that I could have full access to my will without any shred of yours when I am strong enough to seize it. And I have."

Enkins looked genuinely surprised. "Hmm," he said.

Zach felt Enkins flood the cocooned entity with his force of will. As terrifically powerful as it was, it went nowhere. It circled and cycled through the tiny bubble of recursive lines.

Enkins blinked. "You did not do this," he said. "You have had help."

Zach nodded.

"I trapped that ghost you set on me, the big one."

Enkins tilted his head, considering. "How?"

"Just like you taught me, professor. I fed it."

"What makes you think I set that on you? For the record, I didn't."

"It's the only thing that makes any kind of sense. What I don't know is, why."

Enkins steepled his fingers.

"Well, Congratulations, Zechariah. You have figured some things out. Other things, you clearly have not figured out. Unfortunately, this creates a problem."

Zach shrugged. "You seem very capable about dealing with your problems. The question is, are you a man of your word?"

The professor chuckled. "I recall no binding contract for our arrangement."

Zach felt a tingle through his body. Things were not going according to his more optimistic hopes for the conversation.

"So... what then? Are you going to enslave me the way you have enslaved Jasmine? Am I going to be another of your pets?"

Enkins held up his hands in a placating manner. "Zechariah... I am merely here as a mentor and guide. I have no need of slaves, neither yourself nor Yasmin. The error here is in thinking that my mentorship with you is complete. You have reached a truly astonishing level of accomplishment in only a few short weeks, but the fact remains that the domain you are exploring is far, far more dangerous than you know, even now. And while you have had some fortuitous outcomes, you have also had your share of minor calamities. You want to be without the protections I can offer you, fine. But do not throw the baby out with the bathwater, as we used to say."

"Then you will remove your—whatever it is—that was in my brain?"

Enkins smiled in a way that made Zach uneasy.

"Certainly, it's a moment's work."

Zach felt the whole cocoon lift and release. Zach felt the last tendrils of it pulling out of his body as an extraordinarily delicious sensation. The colors of the room came into sharper clarity. The awareness of the lines and swirls of energy came into an even stronger brightness and distinctness. He saw how the flow of all motion and action and life was interwoven, as if he could identify and name every floating microbe in the air, every cell in his own body.

The professor, however, was standing as if stunned, his mouth open, but not speaking.

The door opened, and Jasmine stepped in, and after her, Ava.

Zach felt just as stunned, but closed his mouth.

"Um," he said.

Ava carried the same old backpack he had seen her with a hundred times, but now he saw it was woven and reinforced with trillions of intricate energy lines.

She walked to the shelves with the strange symbols, and began scooping them into her backpack.

"What's going on?" Zach said.

"The Goddess has freed us," Jasmine said.

"From..." Zach nodded at the motionless professor.

Jasmine nodded.

"And... Ava? Is the Goddess?"

Jasmine nodded.

"Yes and no, Zach. Mostly no. No more than the Professor is Enki."

"Enkins?"

"Just a name, a sound, whatever."

Ava zipped up her backpack.

"You did everything perfectly, Zach. Your work, however, is not complete."

Zach slumped into a chair.

"I have no clue what's going on."

"Of course not, Zach. You're a man. Men rarely understand what is going on. Usually my father is a little bit more alert, but he has gotten soft in his old age."

"Your

father

?"

"Look it up, Zach. Enki, Lord of Wisdom, is father to Inanna, among others. Of course, this human is just some out of work biology teacher, and this here--" Ava gestured to herself, "is a young woman from central Ohio, but I think you can begin to understand the difference."

"What does any of this have to do with... me?"

"You didn't think I could waltz in here and steal the

mes

again without some help? You graciously delivered my spirit behind his defenses. He will be utterly irate when he wakens, but the victory is accomplished. He will accept his fate, and he will begin his arduous reclamation of the

mes

. First, I hope to undo some of the recent damages. This world is truly a disaster, in case you haven't noticed, Zach. Mass extinctions. Climate change. Global disease. Wars and rumors of war. Game show hosts for kings. The situation is quite frankly ludicrous."

Having slung her pack back over her shoulder, Ava started to leave.

"Wait!" Zach said. "I have a million questions! And also, what am I supposed to do about Enkins?"

"You and Jasmine can do anything you want with him. You'll find him to be a very sorry figure now, at least for a while. And as for your questions... I already told you that your work is not complete. You didn't think I brought this storm here without a purpose? We will meet in the holy place, and there we will do the ritual."

She turned and left.

As soon as she did so, the professor stumbled forward.

Everything about his countenance had changed. He looked haggard, exhausted. Even his clothes seemed suddenly threadbare.

"What..." he started to say, then cried out and fell to his knees.

"That bitch," he screamed, looking at the empty shelves.

Or,

almost empty

. Zach saw there was one symbol remaining.

"What's this?" he asked reaching for it.

Enkins dragged himself to his feet.

"She left

lamentation

. Just one of her little jokes. She has no idea how much damage she has done. This is a catastrophe."

Jasmine was looking at the professor with curiosity.

"She said we are free of you now," Jasmine said.

Easing himself into one of the battered old stacking chairs, Enkins waved her off.

"Go, go. You are useless to me now."

Jasmine looked questioningly at Zach. He shrugged.

Jasmine stalked forward her expression suddenly ugly. Zach found himself recoiling from her. "You know, I didn't trade you my body, my mind, and my soul for

nothing

. I was expecting powers. The power of life and death, you said. I could do what I wanted with my step-father, you said. Make it as slow and painful as I chose, you said."

"You can and always could," Enkins said. "You just liked being told what to do."

"You pathetic

liar

," Jasmine hissed into his face. "You are just like him. You are the one I should torment."

"That remains beyond your powers," Enkins said. "Although you could potentially torment the man whom this body belongs to. I suppose I should give it back to him now."

"What about me," Zach said.

"You're a clever boy. Would you like to throw your lot in with me, help me recover the remaining sixty three sources of power before that girl can unravel centuries of civilization?"

"Ah, no? I don't think I do," Zach said.

Enkins laughed. "I didn't expect you to. You're her pawn after all, not mine."

The professor shook his head in wonderment. "It really was very, very clever of her. She's my daughter alright."

And finally: "Well, my young proteges, good luck to you both. I am quite sure you will need it. I am off to plan my revenge."

And with that the professor slumped in his chair, unmoving.

Zach reached in to feel for a pulse. "Where is the pulse?" he asked. "I've only seen people do this in movies. It should be in the neck, right?"

Jasmine didn't answer, she spit on the floor in pure disgust and walked out.

Eventually, Zach found a pulse, but the professor showed no signs of stirring. He decided it might be best to leave the professor to recover on his own.

He glanced back at the shelf where

lamentation

had been, and saw that it was now gone.

* * * * *

"

Ava?!

"

Maddy stamped her foot, incredulous. "Ava is a Goddess?"

"Nnnno, but..."

"Walk me through it again. This is honestly the craziest thing yet."

Zach had told his story once, and now he started from the beginning. Maddy stopped him to question every detail. Thunder rolled close and heavy across the campus. Lisa was out, her bed meticulously made and piled with plushies.

She also had wikipedia up. "Mes are some kind of object," she said. "They contain all the attributes of civilization. They belonged to the God Enki until Inanna stole them. I guess he got them back at some point. Nobody knows what they were. But they were not the kind of thing that you toss on an adjunct professor's bookshelf. That seems a bit careless."

Zach shrugged. "Literally none of it makes any sense to me," he said.

"Well, Ava wasn't wrong about one thing. You

are

just a guy."

"She said I had more to do. It sounded like she was totally done with Enkins. Enki. Whatever. But that there was more I had to do to get all the answers. She said to meet at the holy place."

"The chapel?" Maddy said skeptically. "It's Sunday. There could be people there. And: what do you think she wants from you now? She got what

she

wanted, right?"

Zach realized he felt really uneasy. "Yeah, she did."

"Well, let's get to the chapel and find out!"

"Do you think we should talk to Jacob? She is, like, you know,

his

girlfriend."

Maddy shook her head. "Ava was never his girlfriend. I think we know that now. She was using him. Or the Goddess was. And he was probably a very happy victim."

Zach nodded. "Fair point. But you think our little chapel is what she meant by holy place? Somehow I feel like a non-denominational campus chapel hardly counts as a holy place to some ancient Goddess."

"Honestly, Zach, what else could she mean. If there was an ancient pagan Goddess temple around here, don't you think we would know about it?"

"No?"

"Well, she expected you to know what she meant. So let's go before this storm gets any worse."

* * * * *

From the outside the chapel showed no sign of a service in progress. The stained glass windows were dark, and the red painted door shut. It was faux-gothic, like most of the old campus. Designed to look a few centuries older than it actually was.

Ducking into the shelter of the narthex, Maddy tried the door, which swung open.

The chapel had been designed for a time when more students were likely to attend services. It was large, with a spaciousness that did give it a serene ambiance. Some candles were lit, including four on the altar, which was draped with a white cloth embroidered with green and gold along the edges.

A number of women stood in the sanctuary.

Ava stepped down from the altar. Both Zach and Maddy gasped at her. She was stunning.

Wide hips, full breasts, perfectly accentuated with something that was part toga, part robe, cinched with gold of an unusually intense color. The way she moved radiated a sexuality so strong, that Zach felt his cock swell instantly, uncomfortably. He felt the arousal flood through him and it had that slightly unsettling buzzing sensation that he had experienced on that one, awful night.

The windows lit with a strike of lightning so close the thunder cracked sharply before the blue-green flash had faded.

"Zechariah! Madeleine! You decided to attend."

"Isn't this a Christian church?" Zach asked.

Ava laughed. "There is only one divine, and she is everything that is. As your Jesus very well knew. Now, Maddy, you can take your place with our attendants, and Zach, your position is right where you think it is."

"Oh no," Maddy said, stepping up to Ava. "He's not doing this ritual with Ava. He's doing it with me."

"You know nothing of this ritual," Ava said dismissively.

"I think I can guess," Maddy answered.

Zach realized he knew all the women.

The girl on the lawn. Sara. Diana. The girl from the cafeteria. Mia. Jasmine. Katya. Lisa. Vicky. All were standing, humming an eerie, haunting harmony that seemed to flow from one minor key to another.

Maddy realized it at the same time.

"Oh, shit," she said.

Ava smiled broadly. "You have made an impression on the ladies of this academy, Zach. And now we set it all to rights."

Maddy started to place a hand on Ava, but struggled as if against restraint.

"Goddess," Maddy said, "We know you are not Ava. So take me. Use me."

Ava turned her intent gaze more curiously on Maddy, looking her up and down.

"Why?"

"Because I love Zach, and you can use that too, can't you."

"Technically, it adds complication. It is better not to."

Vicky broke ranks with the others. "It is better not to for the Priestess," she said. "But that is when the priestess summons you. You are already here."

Ava smiled. "My priestess-scholar is correct, and has learned her lesson perfectly. Then it shall be so."

Vicky returned to the circle of women, and Ava joined her.

Maddy held out her hand to Zach.

"Lie on the altar," she said, and her voice was her own. Another universe-splitting crack of lightning flooded the chapel with light, and the wind howled more strongly still. It seemed as if the earth itself was trembling under the onslaught.

"You are witnesses to the ritual. Ava and Vicky: watch and learn."

She gestured to Zach and he, somewhat dazed although under no compulsion, stripped off his wet clothes and lay on the altar.

Maddy, too, peeled off her clothing and stepped up onto the altar.

"This night, with the power of winds of the four quarters around us, the energy of earth and sky, the waxing moon and the equinox in perfect alignment, we celebrate the return of civilization to the loving embrace of Goddess. May all the forms of Shakti join with us now."

And so saying, Maddy knelt astride Zach.

"Where lingam joins yoni, may earth join air and night join day; may wisdom join power."

There was no foreplay. This was no lovemaking. Maddy settled herself warm and slippery onto Zach's straining cock, and their hips met.

Zach felt the spark as he touched her in the deepest places. His vision dissolved into awareness of energy. The two of them in radiant union on the altar; the ten lights surrounding them; the wild vortex of energy now centered tearing at the chapel roof, pelting the windows; lightning forking through the shadows, crackling against tree and stone, shattering the darkness.

She swirled him inside her, as if stirring the storm to further violence.

Zach felt the energies well up in him, but Maddy did as well and she touched him in a way that rippled the rising orgasm outwards. Their watchers continued to chant, but now it was more like moaning in harmony.

Zach caught a glimpse of tall Diana, feeling her sexy power more strongly than she had ever imagined. And the girl on the lawn, part baffled, part thrilled, lost in wonder. And the girl from the cafeteria, clutching her breasts, heaving with pleasure.

Maddy rode him gently, slowly, but with all the presence of the Goddess within her.

The pleasure seemed to reflect off the stone and glass of the chapel, rippling back and forth with some deep beauty, increasing with each reflecting wave.

He felt Mia, flushed and joyful, singing with all her voice, sending her excitement up into the storm. And Sara, quivering with rippling orgasms, shedding all lingering influences of Zach and Enkins.

Maddy leaned forward, still rolling her hips against him, somewhere beyond mere physical pleasure. She looked into his eyes. "It's still me, Zach," she whispered. "I am Inanna now, but I am me, too. We're doing this."

Zach knew it was true, even as he felt Jasmine washing herself clean of a lifetime of rage and pain. Even as he felt Katya flowing with a pure love that almost took his breath away.

Zach breathed each rising wave of pleasure through Maddy, through to the crashing storm, through their witnesses. He felt the presence of others. Other forms of Goddess singing beyond the edge of his ability to experience. He felt his three

yaojing (

the little one, the parasite, and the shadowy spider) all swirling with the storm, tumbling gleefully in the chaos, engorged with the energy.

He felt Lisa trembling with the love of God, all the programming of all her life, including the programming Enkins had put into her through him tearing away. One bad belief after another. One falsely demanded obedience after another. She seemed to unfurl angel's wings, baring her breasts, singing the love of God that Mary Magdalene sang.

Maddy had found a perfect rhythm, rocking over him. The heat passing through them was intense. Droplets of sweat showered down on him. A stroke of lightning connected the chapel itself to heaven, and the sound of the air it split deafened him for a moment, leaving his eyes seeing strange colors and a ringing in his ears. Stone had fallen, somewhere, he heard it rattling and cracking, and wind starting to pull parts of the roof away.

He felt Vicky, and saw her in the gowns of the priestess. Lush, voluptuous, sensual. He saw how all the tangled theories and stories had been torn apart, and life flowing through her. He saw the lifetime of lovers she would bless, as woman, as priestess.