Water

Note: all characters are over 18, as set out in the story.

*****

Master of Elements: Chapter 4 - Water

"She cries loudly for us to come! We hear, for the night's many tongues carry her cry across the sea." - Sappho, in 'To Atthis'.

Christopher Ward: When I agreed to Freya setting off alone in search of the Mistress of Water, I asked that she record her experiences in a diary so that no clue might be lost. She asked me what form this should take so, perhaps unwisely, I showed her the notes I had made of our adventures to date. Suffice to say she was not entirely happy by certain unwise remarks I had made before I properly got to know her and which I now unreservedly take back. Anyway, she has recorded her side of the story here, so I will leave it at that.

Freya Nordlander: Of course I forgive you Master - but that doesn't mean I'll forget! All my love, Freya.

*****

My Master was unkind enough to employ the word 'slut' to describe my lifestyle before I met him and Brigit. I prefer the term 'sex-positive feminist'. I had always enjoyed sex and if I desired someone and they wanted me then I saw no reason not to sleep with them. And it was not like I just had sex with anyone. In the four and a half years between the ages of 18 and 22, I had seventeen male and five female lovers - that works out at fewer than five per year - not exactly nymphomania! And most of them broke up with me for one reason or another, not the other way round.

What I never experienced was love, to the point where I doubted that such an emotion existed or, at least if it did, that I would ever feel it. I think this explains Chris' initial belief I was some sort of 'ice maiden'. However, I now see this differently. I think I was waiting for the right people to come along. In the same way that Brigit abstained from sex until our Master found her, I was abstaining from love.

It is totally different now. I love my Master and I love Brigit and they fill all my needs. I shall never again seek other lovers - except for my other elemental sisters, the Mistresses of Water, Earth and Aether.

This all makes sense to me. What I have struggled more to understand is the sensation of delicious submission I feel toward my Master. Before I met Chris, I considered myself a feminist to whom the idea of male dominance would have raised the reddest of red flags. I still feel that way about other men - no one is going to boss me around just because they have a cock, thank you very much - but not about him, definitely not.

When my Master gives me an order, or shows me kindness, or is cross with something I have or haven't done, I go all quivery inside. I yearn to obey him, to thank him or to appease him and to do so gives me the greatest pleasure. It arouses me in every way and when my Master then deigns to take me to his bed and use me for his sexual gratification it excites me so much that I can orgasm easily and oh so many times.

I don't understand why I'm like this but I crave the sensation submitting to him gives me and I would no longer have it any other way. I have decided that sometimes it is best not to question your feelings but to go with them and relish the joy this brings.

It is not the same with Brigit. For her I feel desire, lust even, but we are on an equal footing. But I know she feels the same about our Master as I do, even if she shows it a little differently, and it is our privilege to bring him pleasure, and in doing so we please ourselves also.

Anyway, it is time I told my story as otherwise I will end up writing pages about the wonderfulness of Chris Ward and that would be of no help to him or anyone else.

*****

In searching for the Mistress of Water I was determined not to let my Master down and, I'll admit, also hoping to show off my cleverness and so please him. I was pinning my hopes on an idea I had. Brigit and I were named after goddesses in our native cultures and there seemed to be every reason to assume the pattern would hold with the other elemental Mistresses. Logically, the girl I was looking for should carry the name of a Chinese goddess connected with water in some way.

However, I believed that was not how Chinese names generally worked. Girls' names were based on abstract concepts such as beauty or elegance. Therefore, if the one I was seeking was named for a goddess, this should be quite rare and given I also had a rough idea of her age it should be possible with suitable use of the internet to track her down.

Several weeks in Hong Kong soon disabused me of this idea. For one thing I had not recognised the complexities of Chinese religious beliefs. The multiple over-lapping faith systems and philosophies that had shaped China made the Norse or Celtic mythologies look shallow by comparison, so even identifying who might count as a water deity was not simple. And then there was the fact that I spoke, wrote and read no Chinese, which hampered my internet search.

I was starting to get worried as day after day I got nowhere. At most I could only stay for six months without a visa and this didn't seem to be a productive use of time. I concluded I was going to have to move soon. I wasn't sure I fancied snooping about in mainland China, so I booked a flight to Taiwan with a view to continuing my search from there, but I was losing hope that I had any prospect of success. The idea of disappointing Chris filled me with a nagging misery.

In a last desperate move, I gave up my careful method and just started doing random internet searches for topics related to my situation. And so it was that what seemed like a miracle occurred. My search for Mistress of Water turned up an entire blog, written in both Chinese and English by a young woman named Sarah Chen but who throughout called herself Matsu.

I read it in increasingly stunned amazement. Everything checked out. She seemed to understand much of what Chris had explained to us back in Sweden, so much so that I began to wonder if it was a trap. And the blog featured many requests for others who understood to get in touch, especially the other elemental Mistresses. If the blog was legitimate, then it seemed that while I had been searching for the Mistress of Water, she had been searching for me.

Contact details were included in the blog. Trap or not I had to risk it. This was not just my best lead, it was my only one. I emailed Matsu - and I did it as Freya Nordlander, Mistress of Air.

*****

Two days later I was in the capital city of Taiwan, Taipei City. Matsu had collected me from the airport and my fears of a trap were instantly removed. The moment I met her I was hugely attracted to her, just as happened with Brigit. I knew instinctively that she was the real deal. I felt a glow of satisfaction that I had succeeded, much deeper feelings of joy that I had found another of my sisters and finally a little thrill of sexual excitement at how cutely hot she was.

As for Matsu she was almost overwhelmed with happiness and exhilaration, although I detected no sign of any physical attraction to me; I surmised she was straight. Unsurprisingly, she spoke no more Swedish than I did Chinese but her English was excellent - her parents had largely grown to adulthood in Hong Kong - and so we had a common language and using it Matsu almost babbled her wonder and delight at finally having found me. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and I found myself liking her at once.

She took me to my hotel and then insisted that we dine together that evening, an offer I happily accepted as I was keen to know more about her and especially how it was that she seemed aware of her destiny in a way Chris, Brigit and I had not been. Matsu took me to her favourite restaurant in Taipei. Her choice was excellent and certainly the best Chinese food I had ever tasted.

She obviously regarded this as an important event and had dressed up for it, making me feel pleased I had done to same. I had gone for the classic 'little black dress' - which worked well with my long blonde hair and blue eyes - heels and had some very nice lacy black lingerie on underneath. When I looked at Matsu, I found myself hoping that she would be peeling that underwear off me later, preferably with her teeth. Hung on a chain round my neck under the dress was something that might help with that; a gold ring set with a large and lustrous pearl.

We were of similar age, she being 21 to my 22, but physically somewhat different. I'm fairly tall for a woman - 1.75m, so 5'9". Matsu was noticeably shorter, I reckoned perhaps by 10cm/4 inches. We were both slim, but whereas my height made me look somewhat willowy (I've never liked that), she looked compact, fit and energetic, an impression I later found to be true. She was wearing a pretty floral blouse and a respectable skirt that came down to the knees but neither disguised her wonderfully curved figure. Her boobs weren't huge - B cups perhaps - but looked bigger on her small frame, especially as she had as narrow a waist as I could recall.

Better even than her body was her face. Matsu had the sweetly cute look of the best K-pop girls or JAV idols (I case you're wondering how I know about the latter, I once had a boyfriend who liked that sort of thing. To be honest, I thought they were hot too), but with a special charm of her own. She had long straight black hair, deep brown eyes, a cute nose and wide, kissable lips. She was gorgeous, and would have turned heads anywhere in the world.

My inner lust monster, that part of me that has always wanted to sleep with every man or woman I found attractive, had gone into overdrive. I had been celibate since that wonderful orgy in the sauna. That was weeks ago now and, anyway, my thoughts were all of my Master and Brigit these days; everyone else was off-limits. But not Matsu. She was Mistress of Water and I was allowed to take her to my bed. I found my panties were starting to get damp at the thought and urgently diverted my attention to the food before she noticed my arousal.

Once we had eaten I asked Matsu what she did for a living. She answered with the same keen enthusiasm she had shown for everything else so far.

"I have always been attracted by water and the sea in particular, so I'm doing a degree course in marine biology, but it includes practical work as well and I'm seconded to the government Fisheries Agency. I spend a lot of my time at a fishing village on the coast and out on the boats and the ocean. I guess it would be the same for you - a lifelong interest in your element."

Then, unable to contain her excitement any longer, she went on "So, you're the Mistress of Air! I can't tell you how long I've waited for the moment! Let me guess what you do for a living - don't tell me - you're a pilot. Am I right!"

"Umm, no, sorry," I said. "Back in Sweden I was an estate agent."

She looked confused, "But that doesn't have anything to do with air. I thought you would have felt an attraction to something that related to your true nature."

"No. I didn't know anything about it until Chris came along," I explained, as gently as I could. Matsu looked a little crestfallen. I assumed she had thought a lot about what the other Mistresses and the Seeker might be like. I suddenly felt like I had let her down in some way.

"Still I guess you must have instinctively known to prepare for the trials ahead," Matsu continued. "Aside from my powers over water I have practiced martial arts skills. It was surprisingly hard to find teachers in Taiwan but I persevered and I'm now a brown belt in Kung Fu - Shaolin style. I fully intend to make black belt in the next year if I get the time. What combat skills have your learnt?"

'Oh god', I thought, 'this is starting to get embarrassing'. "Sorry again, I really am, but none," I said, "but Chris, Brigit and I did manage to kill two trolls, so I'm not totally helpless. Although, it was really Chris; if I'd been alone I wouldn't be talking to you now."

"So," she said in a tone that mixed faint hope with resignation, "the Mistress of Fire - this Brigit you mentioned - she isn't a firefighter or something like that?"

"She's a farmer's daughter and I believe she intended to also go into farming," I replied as gently as I could.

"Farming," said Matsu dully. "That sounds more like a job for the Mistress of Earth. I suppose that she'll turn out to be data analyst or something. So I guess that the Seeker isn't a super spy or a field archaeologist or anything like that..."

"No, I'm really sorry. Chris said he was an accountant. A very handsome and brave accountant in my opinion, if that helps. I don't think any of us had your experience of feeling our powers or knowing our destiny from an early age. It was a surprise to us all, although it felt very right once we knew." I could see she was disappointed. Partly to snap her out of it but also because I wanted to know, I asked Matsu to tell me her life story and how she had discovered her powers.

She looked pensive for a moment and then began. "My parents were Hoa - that is ethnic Chinese living in Vietnam - and they were both born into prosperous families of merchants and traders but after the Communists took over the whole country in 1975 it got very bad for the Chinese. In 1978 both families decided they had to flee the country - my father was 12 at the time and my mother would have been 10. They became 'boat people', that is they took to the South China Sea in flimsy boats, paying people smugglers for the privilege - so you see my family had a connection to water even before I was born."

"They made it to Hong Kong, but of course they had lost all their wealth and had to start again from scratch. Well, they were hard working and after a few years both families they were doing well once more. My two grandfathers did business with one another and that is how my mom and dad came to meet. He was 25 and she 23 and they had a lot in common. Soon enough they fell in love and both families agreed it was a good match so they got married. That was in 1992. They had two children - my elder brother and sister - but then in 1997 moved again. Hong Kong was being handed over by the British to the Chinese and my dad said he had had seen enough of Communists to last a lifetime, so they sold everything and moved here to Taiwan and in 2001 I was born."

"Now this is where it gets more interesting. My family name is Chen and my father called me Sarah - he had caught the habit common in Hong Kong of using a western name - but my mother gave me a second name, in itself unusual, as was the name she chose. It is not traditional in China to name people after gods. Matsu, or Mazu as it is often given, was supposedly an ordinary girl called Lin Mo who showed remarkable abilities and saved family members who were fishermen when a storm overwhelmed their boat. After her death she became revered as a deity of seafarers, very popular throughout China's coastal regions and Chinese communities in Southeast Asia and especially here in Taiwan. She is said to roam the seas, protecting her believers from peril, a powerful and benevolent Queen of Heaven."

"When I was old enough to understand who I was named for - I think I was about five or six - I asked mom why she had called me Matsu. She said that when she had fled Vietnam in that boat as a child it had been caught in a terrible storm and it had seemed certain that everyone would die. Miraculously when all seemed lost the winds had dropped and the seas calmed and shortly after they were picked up by a larger vessel and taken to Hong Kong. Just as the storm abated my mother said that the Goddess Matsu spoke to her, although no one else heard anything. She said my mom had to be saved as she was destined to give birth to a special daughter who would help in trying to stop a great evil and later when I was born my mother had this certainty that I was the one who that prophesy was about - so she named me for the goddess."

"After that, I was convinced of my destiny. I used to sit in my bath and make the water move around with my mind - and believe me it really did. Then when I got older, into my teens, I would go down to the seaside and just feel the ocean with my mind and I found I could control it, at least to some degree. And I researched everything I could about such powers, in both Chinese and western sources. That's how I found out about the Enemy, the Seeker and that there were other women like me out there somewhere. So I started the blog ... and now it's worked. "

Matsu finally fell silent, as if lost in memory. Remembering how wonderful I felt when Chris first showed me how to control air, I said: "That must have felt marvellous; to have such power so young."

"Yes ... but it was also frustrating," Matsu said, "I have always felt something was holding me back. As if there was more there, but I couldn't tap into it."

My heart beat a little faster; this was my moment. I had read Matsu's blog in full and while she had found out a lot there were things she didn't know about and one of those was the rings.

"Matsu, look here," I said, holding up my ring with its beautiful sapphire. "This is the ring of the Mistress of Air. It enhances my powers, perhaps many times over. Each of us has one. Brigit's ring has a ruby. I will not speak of the others until their rightful owners are found. But I have yours with me. Chris gave it to me to bring to the Mistress of Water should I find her."

Matsu's eyes were wide, "May I see it?" she whispered.

"Of course, it's yours by right." I took hold of the chain around my neck and pulled it out from under my dress. Then I unfastened it and slipped the ring off the chain. I held it up between thumb and forefinger. The perfect pearl glimmered, reflecting the gleam of the restaurant's lighting in curious patterns.

Matsu was staring at it with naked longing. I understood - I had felt the same when I first saw my ring, even if Chris had failed to notice it. Still, I had a duty to warn her of the consequences of taking it for her own, although I was certain she would ignore them and, if I'm being honest, was delighted about that.

"Matsu, if you take this ring you will grow in power but you will also lose some freedom. You will find you acknowledge Christopher Ward as your Master and will want to share his bed."

"Is that bad?" she asked wide-eyed.

"God no, it's bloody fantastic; I love it. I wish he was here," I sighed. "Apologies for the direct question, but are you a virgin?"

Matsu blushed and dropped those lovely eyes to the table top. "I think I knew I was supposed to save myself ... but, there was this boy on my course. I mean, we were both nineteen and I was in love ... We were together for a year. I can see I have failed. I suppose you are Brigit remained virgins for our Master?"

"Umm, well, Brigit did, sort of. Me ... not so much," I said. "But there's more. You will feel an attraction for your sisters, the other Mistresses of the Elements. Have you ever been with a woman?"

Matsu looked rather shocked, "No ... no ...such a thing has never ... I mean I have no desires that way."

"Put this ring on and you will find you begin to think differently," I said, perhaps a little too much desire in my voice. "But the power - believe me, it's worth any price. I have never felt so alive as when I use my abilities." I put the pearl ring down on the table between us, giving her the final choice.

Matsu slowly extended her hand, picked it up and, copying me, put it on her left hand ring finger. As I watched she gave a sudden jolt, a look of bliss crossed her face and then she slumped forward on the table as if in the throes of some minor convulsion. It occurred to me that, as she had already partially mastered her powers through her own efforts, wearing the ring had probably transitioned her directly to a full awareness of her powers and I had some idea just how awesome that was.