After my encounter with Shirley I sat down and did some serious thinking about what the ring might have done to her. If the readings I saw were accurate she already had a serious lust towards me. Who knows how long she had been fantasizing about submission to me, or how those fantasy daydreams had built up such mental energy where I was the focus?
The only setting I had messed with had been her Doubt--Faith gauge moving it from neighborly trust to much higher levels. We did share keys and watch out for each other's home when one of us was on vacation after all. I had shifted it from that normal friend zone trust level hard over to total complete trust in anything I said being revealed truth.
I had made a list of the ten gauges and looked up their root definitions over the internet to try and grasp what exactly each setting would do with or to the person being shifted. For reasons unknown Tina had been pretty doubtful of me and with a big mental effort I had shifted that dial from a Doubt of five to a Faith of five, a swing of half way across the dial. I still hadn't seen exactly what impact that had on my lovely wife as she was still at work, but that swing had exhausted me mentally. With Shirley I had swung the setting from a Faith of five to the maximum of ten and the difference was pretty obvious. This time the change had been a mental effort but it had not left me worn out. Was that because the shift was only half as much of a change? Or was it getting easier because I had already done it once before and I was growing stronger at it?
The other negative feelings seemed mostly obvious. Envy was a deep resentment of the person you were dreaming about while its opposite Sympathy meant an emotional attachment to the well being of the person. Hate--Love, Wrath--Serenity and Lust--Chastity seemed likewise obvious. The ones I wasn't so sure of were classics from culture going back to the beginning of recorded history as well, but how did they fit in context to viewing another person?
Take Sloth--Ambition. Sure Sloth meant you were apathetic and lazy and just didn't care to put in any effort while Ambition meant you were a self starter who would work hard to achieve your goal. That was hard to understand in terms of the gauge about me, did it mean you saw me as lazy or ambitious? Or did it mean you didn't care what I did on the one hand and eagerly wanted to help me achieve my goals on the other hand?
Lead--Follow was pretty clear, you saw me as your leader or follower. But what did Fear--Hope represent? Did Fear mean you found me scary and wanted to avoid being around me? Or did it mean you were afraid of losing my attention? I had a girlfriend before I met Tina who had been very clingy, she was so afraid of losing my attention I could hardly leave the room without her following me within a minute of my departure. I eventually got tired of the issue and broke off our relationship even though she had been very eager to please in bed for fear of losing me. Either way I saw Fear as being a bad thing in relationships, though just a touch of fear might add a little excitement. I know a lot of women who had an attraction for that 'bad boy' vibe and I always suspected it was the thrill of mild fear that intensified their passion. Now that I thought about it Shirley had seen me as about two points on the Fear side of the scale so maybe that was more true than I had realized.
I had quickly noted Shirley's readings when I pulled myself out of her dream. Envy two, Greed two, Serenity one, Ambition two, Pride one, Lust eight, Love one, Fear two, Faith ten, Lead two. Pride--Humility was another puzzle. Did it mean taking Pride in being around me like a parent takes pride in their children's accomplishments? Or did it mean Shirley thought she was smarter and more capable of making good decisions than I was? On the other side did Humility mean she thought I was superior to her sense of self like a person being humble before the President or before their God? Or did it mean she thought I was humble and didn't take credit for my own accomplishments?
It wasn't like the ring came with an owner's manual, even one written in Italian would have been helpful. I would have to pay close attention to how my changes made people react. According to a long ago Psychology course I took for my university minor people's emotions were a tangled up ball of different aspects that all influenced each other. You could have sympathy for someone and still hate them, have lust without love or doubt them completely and still follow their directions to the best of your ability. The thing was, what combination of emotions would be best for different people to feel towards me?
I had just inherited and invested a significant sum of money, did that make my boss envy and hate me? Probably not, he was already filthy rich himself. But what about my secretary Louise, she had after all been the one to file the financial paperwork so she knew I was now sitting in a well secured financial position. I had set things up so if I were to suddenly die like our friends Andrei and Crina my inheritance would be split between Tina, Zelda and Rose with the girl's money being in trust if they were under 25 when I died. Having a 20 year old go from upper middle class to lower wealthy class overnight seemed like a bad idea, I had seen a lot of bad financial decision made by the young in my career in finance.
Later as Tina and I sat down to dinner that night I probed a bit to find out how the changes may have influenced her.
"Tina, you know I love you and you can trust me. Something seems to be bothering you and I hope we can talk about whatever it is."
She flushed a little then took a big sip of her mead before heaving a sigh and answering. "You are right Fred, I had been struggling a little but it started so small I didn't think anything of it at first. I still love you, truly I do."
"But?" I said raising an eyebrow at her and taking her hand.
"You remember last fall when Gina got married and I went to her reception?"
"Certainly, with all the Covid restrictions it was a real hassle, how could I forget?"
"Well I had a bit too much to drink at the reception and the grooms sister Marla took me for a walk around to clear my head. Once she got me alone Marla pushed me up against a wall and kissed me passionately and did her best to seduce me. I didn't know she was a lesbian but as one of the few women who was at the reception without a male companion she decided I was available and she was quite aggressive about it. I managed to convince her I am happily married and I returned to the reception where I stuck to soft drinks for the rest of the night."
"This has been eating away at you for six months?"
"Not at first, but she got in my head with the things she said during her attempt to seduce me. I was drunk and lonely and I was tempted though I swear I resisted. I have been feeling guilty about not telling you since I got back."
Remembering the dream I saw yesterday with the young mother of her patient I made a guess. "Marla aroused you didn't she?"
Tina sighed and looked down at the table. I gently squeezed her hand and asked another question. "Do you regret not letting her have her way with you?"
"No!" she answered quickly, "But I heard all the stories about taking a girl as your lover when I was at University, about how much better they are at oral sex than men. It keeps popping up in my head. Even though I never did it a part of me always wondered if it was better."
