Love and Fortune

Author's Note:

Welcome to Book 2 of the Love and Fortune series! Readers of the last 12 chapters will notice the series has moved to Sci-Fi & Fantasy from its original 'home' in the Mind Control category. I think this move is warranted because, while this tale definitely has elements of psychic power and mentally-enhanced play, the next direction it's going will lean much further toward action-packed modern fantasy adventure than cerebral Mind Control-type stuff.

For the sake of avoiding confusion, I'm going to continue to label these chapters as Love and Fortune, and keep counting up on top of the previous chapters, but in case it matters to any readers, you can consider this one Chapter 1 of Book 2.

Furthermore, if you're brand-new here and wondering if you should read the first 12 chapters, that's honestly entirely optional. The start of this book represents a big pivot in the content and direction of the story, and what comes next will make the last book seem more like a prelude to the real 'main event' coming up.

So feel free to go back to the start if you want the full context and lore (or, if you only want to know the

most

essential stuff, chapters 11 & 12 provide the most direct lead-up to this). Just know it's pretty laidback, without too much of a gripping plot. If you'd rather jump into some tenser action and adventure, this will be a fine place to start. I've tried to look out for any new readers by offering a bit of 'recap' through character and place descriptions. Hopefully, that should make things make enough sense.

This Story Contains:

extremely indulgent magically-enhanced harem shenanigans, horny goddesses, sexy utopias in unlikely places, potentially inaccurate depictions of foreign crime syndicate activity, gratuitous revisionism of well-known mythologies and spiritual texts, ill-advised carnal acts perpetrated in a library, sex workers liking what they do, and various shout-outs and references both obvious and obscure (can you spot 'em?). You've been warned.

BOOK 2: FATE AND MAGIC

Previously, in the world of Love and Fortune...

Ben was an ordinary young man trapped in a day-to-day cycle of modern ennui -- until a magical gift, an enchanted bead bracelet sent from Kenya by his cousin Belle, took his life in a fantastically new direction. Blessed with the magic boon inscribed on his bracelet's central charm -- 'much love and good fortune' -- he found that the world became a much more interesting and fun place: one where beautiful women seemed to fall into his lap at every turn, and where most things in life had a way of turning out right.

As Ben enjoyed the blessings of his magical bracelet, he quickly gathered a growing entourage of devoted lovers -- something it seemed his charm's power wanted him to do. And before long, he was formally meeting the goddess behind that power: Zawadi, an ancient and primal African deity of love and fortune, elated to have Ben in her service. Becoming Zawadi's devotee meant becoming a conduit of her power and an ambassador for her will. Ben soon understood that his role in the universe was to spread the positive energy of the goddess as far as it could go: more often than not, through pleasure.

To that end, he sought reconnection with Belle, which took him on a pilgrimage to Zawadi's ancestral homeland in Kenya. There, he found a whole new home -- a lush, modern community called the Haven, founded by Belle as a refuge for her own lovers and fellow devotees of the goddess. Over thirty women lived there, all of them openly devoted to Zawadi... and for Ben, moving into Belle's commune meant sharing and ruling over a vast, interconnected harem.

But Ben's journey of discovery was far from done. At the Haven, he was only just beginning to unravel the mysteries of the Living Goddesses: countless other ethereal beings like Zawadi who found and fostered devotees all across the world, bestowing them with their own boons. Now, with the aid of his cousin and his beloved girlfriends, Ben was gearing up to embark on a new quest -- to travel the world and find these other devotees, wherever they might be.

However, without him knowing yet, powerful forces were stirring elsewhere. And, as he would soon discover, there was more than one sort of magic in the world.

Chapter 13: Chaos Rising

The sun was high over China. Thick heat beat down on the streets and alleys of the city below. It was a busy time of day in Shanghai: the streets teemed with people moving about, going from someplace to another in every possible direction.

Through the many-faced throng, a slim and shadowy figure went on her own way, unbothered and unnoticed.

Jianjun didn't pay mind to most passersby. In fact, she rarely paid mind to anything, unless the distraction might be pleasurable or fun. With her little jade pendant around her neck, gleaming green in the sun, she didn't have to be trifled by the dull inconveniences that dragged most people down. She'd been its bearer for a while now, and it never left her neck. Why should it, when it all but rigged the universe in her favor?

She knew well what the charm granted her. It was an embodiment of a power from beyond the material plane. A direct conduit for a deep and primal force of the cosmos.

The power of chaos.

Jianjun had conducted her fair share of research into the matter -- not in the stuffy academic sense, but rather by doing. By kicking over little dominoes of her world and seeing just how big the resulting impacts got to be. She knew the magical nature of the charm, and how beautifully subversive its power could be. As long as Jianjun wore it, she could inspire chaos around her wherever she went.

Strolling down the crowded street, Jianjun smiled to herself. As always, she could feel the power flowing through her, pulsing in time with the charm's own subtle vibrations. A snap of her fingers; a thought; a will -- and the world around her could implode to any degree she wanted. And she could steer that chaos. She could control what it did and where it went.

She could make that man pushing crates on a dolly trip over the tiniest crack in the pavement and come crashing down, sending splintered boxes and fragile wares tumbling everywhere. Or she could make that passing woman in that oh-so-short skirt drop her purse and bend over, giving the whole sidewalk a gander at her lace panties, free of charge. The possibilities were endless -- and the longer she kept pushing her power, the worse the chaos in any situation would get.

"Goddess," Jianjun thought to herself, smirking a little even now. "It's good to be me."

Of all the little quirks in the world that brought magic into people's hands, this one was just so perfect for her. Straight-laced order and rigidity weren't her style. She was a punk. An anarchist. A rebel till she died. She liked to disrupt; to throw things out of balance. And with her pendant, she could do that to bombastic effect. "All thanks to you --" and she mouthed the sacred name of her patron goddess, progenitor of discord, mistress of chaos.

Eris.

Cultures could have a funny way of leaking. So could the veneration of certain Living Goddesses. In China, Eris had made her way into a few scattered, obscure apocrypha and circles of worship as

Jian Qi.

In fact, she was revered in small circles across the globe under different names and guises. Enyo; Discordia; Mummu; Abeloth. But she was always one and the same. The goddess of chaos. The spanner that had its way of falling into any unattended works. And Jianjun knew her well. Her patroness was the source of the magic in her necklace; the eyes that watched from behind it with delight.

Maybe it was all by chance that they'd forged this partnership. Eris hadn't exactly nominated Jianjun, as though Jianjun were some cosmic Chosen One. All the same, like many around the world, she'd ended up with a trinket that bound her to a Living Goddess. That was how these partnerships worked -- and they tended to work out, no matter the goddess.

Jianjun had learned about more than a few others. Zawadi, for instance. The Goddess of Love and Fortune. She was from... where was it? Kenya? Yet her worship seemed to spread farther than that. Par for the course, for a goody-goody patroness like Zawadi, Jianjun surmised. Being her devotee was an easy sell. Who wouldn't want to get lucky? Then there was Artemis, an age-old enemy of Eris with a sharp mind and a whole legion of sharp devotees. And there were others, too. More than she knew; probably more than anyone did.

In a cold and cynical and sometimes downright depressing world, Living Goddesses were something Jianjun was glad to know existed. They were better than the typical religions that ordinary people kept trying to peddle. No looming doomsdays, no strict doctrines, and best of all, no celibacy. Just energy. Spreading it, using it, and reaping the best of rewards.

But not all Goddesses were created equal. Or, at least, they weren't all understood equally. Most who knew of Eris weren't even aware of her status as a Living Goddess, or the power she could bestow. Though more broadly written about than, say, Zawadi, she lacked greatly in true devotees. A few sages here, far eastward from Eris's land of origin, had forged the jade charm Jianjun now wore, imbuing it with the connection to the being they venerated as Jian Qi. And as far as Jianjun knew, it was the only such charm left in the world.

Jianjun didn't mind being a loner. The power helped; maybe even went hand in hand with it. Discord and chaos didn't jibe with crowds and conformity. As an outlier, a lone wolf, she didn't have to share this intoxicating power with anyone. It could be all hers.

The only thing was... goddess, it just made her horny all the time.

Oh, yes, chaos wasn't just about making mischief. It was about pleasure. The thrill of the unexpected; the rush of something new. And Jianjun's Goddess was no stranger to that. All the Living, in some way or another, wanted the same for their champions, after all. Positive energy. Great vibes. Pleasure-filled lives.

Didn't chaos and sex go hand in hand like nothing else? Wasn't there no greater, more beautiful chaos than two bodies entwining together and making sparks fly? Or three bodies. Or more. Eris wanted that in the world. She wanted it in Jianjun's world. And Jianjun was more than happy to oblige her.

The jade pendant's power could bring people together, beautifully and chaotically, in ways that the humdrum routines of an ordinary day could never allow. Goddess, could chaos be hot. Jianjun could look at the most conservative, buttoned-up girl on the street and, with a thought, have her bent over in an alleyway for a stranger's cock, or Jianjun's own fingers, or both. She could send any mind reeling with thoughts of lust -- strange and intrusive at first, until they built and swirled upon one another and became irresistible. She could blow away all the rational thoughts in a whole group of people's heads until all that remained were primal urges -- and then let things go from there.

She could turn any situation into an erotic one. She could make anything sexy. And how she loved to do it!

She'd once turned a whole floor of the city's dullest corporate office into a fuck-fest. Getting into the fancy building had been easy when distracting the security guards had been so simple. A thought, a push of chaos magic, and they'd turned from the door, their attention stolen by an imagined distraction elsewhere -- and Jianjun had simply walked inside, unhindered. She'd ridden the elevator up to a floor with a good, high number, and she'd walked right into the corporate purgatory that awaited. Women in pantsuits, men in ties -- all had been blathering about numbers, about profits, about stocks and trends and fiscal periods and... whatever it was, Jianjun knew it was nothing of value. Not to her. It had made her so eager to cause a stir.

She had let her power loose like a beast unchained. She had turned every dour person's mind toward more amusing and worthwhile things. Exhibition. Desire. Free love. She'd set a sexual frenzy loose among them. The effect had been immediate and powerful. Every man and woman in the room had gotten up from their seats and torn their clothes off, going for whoever was nearest. The result had been an orgy of chaos, a group fuck of epic proportions -- and all in the unlikeliest place. The sounds of pleasure had echoed throughout the whole floor of the office as pure sexual chaos kept spreading, taking over other rooms as it went. Roping in the cute secretary Jianjun had passed earlier at the desk. And some demure women answering phones. And the scrawny I.T. guy. And more and more.

And Jianjun? She had taken part wherever she pleased, for the better part of an afternoon. Basking in adoration at the center of a group of people she'd inspired into a primal frenzy, she'd spread her legs for everyone around her, letting them all take turns fucking her senseless. That kind of power was intoxicating. Addicting. She'd gotten off so many times, cumming over and over with different partners. She'd played with secretaries, and handsome executives, and even some of the security guards who had come by to see what the fuss was about. She had sampled whatever she wanted. Experienced the joys of every virile man and nubile woman there. Getting plowed by one while sucking another off. Kissing a hot, mature businesswoman while a little intern girl ate her out like a good slut.

Goddess, it had been good.

Jianjun had walked out of that building after hours of fun and left behind a whole host of satisfied people -- plenty who never would have known such pleasure without the goddess of chaos' influence. Whatever business had been in order at the office that day, it had been forgotten. But the company hadn't taken a hit, either -- in fact, for months after, they shot to new highs in profit and productivity, all thanks to the lingering high of their chaos-fueled orgy. Magic, of course, smoothed out the kinks and kept them from questioning a thing. It always did, when the Living were involved.

Jianjun grinned. Thinking about that fun afternoon always made her nethers throb. And she knew it would never be long before she found some other opportunity to use her charm for more fun. Chaos magic made it such a breeze to walk through life: to go where she pleased, do what she wanted.

But she had business today.

This would be less fun than that day at the office. Not that it couldn't lead to fun later, if she wanted. But first would come the uglier dealings. The truth was, wielding chaos magic, even Jianjun would have been remiss to use it only for idle amusement. Shanghai was full of crime and corruption -- plenty of which Jianjun was familiar with. Early days on the streets, time spent with biker gangs, had taught her a thing or two about trouble. She'd learned where crooks hung out; where triads and syndicates reigned.

With power on her side, why not use it against some cruel bastards who deserved it?

The man she was on her way to meet was a mobster. A big one, too. A man with his hands in many dirty pots; a man who did terrible things and didn't face much in the way of consequences. Jianjun hadn't met him face to face yet, but she'd been up in his business for a while now -- nudging him, getting under his skin, making him squirm -- all without leaving any trace of herself. No paper trails, no witnesses; nothing. Just little notes written in golden ink, signed with a little glyph of a golden apple, slipped into his daily life.

They were little nags, mostly. Vague warnings. They came to him every which way: tacked to the windshield of his luxury car; tucked inside his shoe; dropped from above as he walked down the sidewalk. They always lurked somewhere obvious he would find them -- and as more had come his way, his paranoia of them had steadily grown. Idle threats were usually easy for a man like him to ignore. But these? They were persistent, and worse yet, much of what they promised had begun to come true. Operations disrupted. Henchmen gone missing. Hideouts raided by authorities out of nowhere.

Jianjun loved a good mindfuck operation. And this old favorite method of hers had been driving her latest target crazy. When her most recent note had plainly outlined a time and place for a meeting, she didn't have to fear that he wouldn't show. Not after all this time. She'd already taken enough from his mafia circles -- turned their resources against them, funneled away their cash, seduced and suckered away the people who worked under him. She knew he'd want to see who'd been tormenting him. He would want to know the face of his stalker. He would want to see it ruined.

He'd want it all too much to avoid taking her bait.

Jianjun's pace slowed as she got closer to the meeting spot: a shady lounge, its entrance disguised in the darkness of a back alley. Perfect for backroom deals and clandestine meetings, this place existed under the radar, both by necessity and by preference. Its clientele ranged from underworld types to crooked politicians to foreign businessmen with questionable ethics.

Jianjun hardly looked the part of any of these -- but thanks to her pendant, she had no problem getting in. The charm's influence easily clouded any doubt from the mind of the bouncer at the door. Her punkish clothes, young face, and all other unusual details were overlooked and forgotten. She walked into the lounge like she'd always belonged there. No other patrons paid her any mind, either, as she made her way through the dimly lit space -- its booths and tables arranged to obstruct lines of sight, illuminated by ornate lamp fixtures. Most were focused on their own business; others distracted by lush hostesses, waitresses, and dancing girls that sauntered by.

Soon she saw who she was looking for.

With a wolfish smirk, she closed in.

***

Li had never believed in boogeymen.

When the anonymous notes had started, he'd merely scoffed and ignored them. It was hardly uncommon for some cocky upstart or another to try to get under his skin. All they ever wanted was a reaction; the follow-up never came. But this time, things had been different. What started as vague threats turned to dire predictions; what started as simple pranks turned to intentional, baleful sabotage.

He wasn't sure how his tormentor was doing it. Or even if it was just one person. He'd held meetings among his associates to investigate; sent his sharpest men out to hunt for answers. So far, they'd all come back empty-handed and mystified. Whoever was leaving the notes, they knew what they were doing -- they kept their identity hidden, their trail covered, their connections dead.

It hadn't been long before he'd overheard the first whispers among the syndicate, gravely assessing that Li was in the sights of an enemy no one could beat.

A boogeyman.

Many in Shanghai's underworld had heard the tales as they'd spread through the last year. A fear-inspiring legend of a nameless vigilante, never quite directly seen, whose ruthless judgment had come hammering down on some of the biggest crooks in the city. One who'd done in triad bosses, sent corrupt cops to early graves, and broken up entire operations, always vanishing like a shadow without a trace when the bloody work was done.

Those who'd run in with the mystery vigilante, or claimed to, reported that they commanded a dangerous influence somehow. Something that could throw anyone off their balance like the hit of a very bad drug. A snap of the vigilante's fingers, and a room of stone-faced thugs would turn into stumbling idiots, falling on their faces, missing easy shots, firing rounds into the wrong targets. All without understanding why. The havoc that this stranger had wreaked in the underworld was enough to make anyone shudder -- and everyone knew the legend, if only vaguely, by now.