Pamela embraced Penn, and kissed his cheek.
“Penn, I think we have done it. I think we have saved the world. Come with me now. You need a feed, and we all need sleep. Come with me now and rest.”
Madeleine looked to her mother, giving her a quizzical look, and reached towards Penn, and gave his hand a squeeze, kissed his fingers, kissed him on the cheek.
Penn walked with Pamela into the shadows, and he soon lost sight of the light from the mirror. The light from his lantern only illuminated himself and Pamela. The soft sound of their footfalls changed, and he had the impression of being in a smaller space, and the ground here was very soft, and his feet sank into warmth.
Pamela sat down and leant against the shadows. She freed a breast, and motioned for him to come closer.
Penn felt the familiar hunger, and desire, rise within him. He lay beside Pamela, and suckled. As he feasted on her milk, impressions of the villagers arose within him, but they were dream images, and fled as quickly as he noted them.
“Penn, take off your charm. Really, Penn, you have nothing to fear. Please, just take off your charm, give Lilith a small taste of you.”
Penn was uncertain. Lilith had tried to take him before, and Pamela had told him that he was not safe. That was before she had removed her own protection. Now the demon was a part of her, and she might be under its influence.
Pamela reached down to his trousers, and loosened his belt.
“It doesn't matter, Penn, I can just feel you, as we have done before. That will be nice, Penn, just let me feel your warmth.”
Pamela lay him down, and covered him. He felt the familiar feeling surrounding him, and he relaxed himself into the pleasure she offered. She moved against him, and he responded.
It was frustrating. He could not attain release. Pamela held him, and gazed into his eyes, calculating. He was in love with her, but the feelings of warmth withdrew from him each time he grew close to coming.
“Darling boy, please, take off your charm. Let me touch you. Just let me have a little taste, Penn, just let me taste you. Don't be afraid”
Penn was desperate to achieve release. Pamela held him, and waited, denying him.
“I can wait forever, Penn. There are no choices for you now. Trust me, Penn, please, trust me. It will be the sweetest thing you have ever felt”
Shadows moved around him, and crowded in. He was surrounded, he was engulfed, he was in Lilith's heart.
Pamela was right.
He was trapped.
Nobody would save him now.
He reached behind himself, and released the charm.
The relief he felt was palpable. A sensation of warm, moist flesh engulfed his body, and he finally was inside Pamela, and inside Lilith. A gush of memories returned to him, and he thought again of all the people who had been taken by Lilith, just as he knew he himself would be.
He came, gushing inside her warm flesh, and revelled in the feeling as he was stroked and sucked, and tendrils began to play along his body.
He lay with Pamela for some time, feeling warm, and loved, and she stroked his hair. Lilith still played with his softening penis, and his midriff, and the delicious, pulsing feeling of life did not stop.
Penn let himself be held as Lilith surrounded him, and he drifted off into sleep.
He dreamed of myths, and the kings of old, and battles, and war, and of rebuilding, and new life, and restoration. He dreamed of families, gathered together in warmth, while winter storms raged around them. He dreamed of being old, proud of a life well lived, gazing upon generations much younger, and closing ones eyes as death offered its consummate fulfilment.
A nipple was placed into his mouth, and he suckled, and the formless visions cleared.
He was drawn into another vision of the past. He was back at his Auntie Helen's house, in Toridé, and felt himself merging with her soul.
How much he had loved loved family holidays with her.
The three had been solicitous of her, and encouraged her to talk. They wanted to hear everything about her family and her friends, and were especially interested in those she knew in Gynt: her sister, Magda, her talented niece and nephew, Dee and Penn, and Gynt's healer, and teacher, Jennifer and Tsanja Beale.
Pamela was sitting at the kitchen table as Helen arrived home from her research at the Archives. She had some documents in her hand, and was obviously excited, and she kissed Pamela on the cheek with some familiarity, and hurriedly.
Penn saw this tableau, as if through Helen's eyes, and felt it, as if in Helen's skin, and heard her talk,
“Pamela, I know you've been badgering at me for weeks now, but I have finally found it. I have found what you seek. You and Poe were right all along.”
Pamela smiled, and reached up to Helen, and kissed her in return, waiting for Helen to continue.
“My sister's children, Penn and Dee, are indeed very special. They are both the direct descendants of the King.”
Helen proudly placed one of the documents, a family register, in front of Pamela. When the Sisters of the Trinity had overthrown the monarchy two hundred years ago, the King's family had been scattered, the throne abandoned, but the Sisters conscientiously maintained records of all who had lived in the land.
“Penn's father, and Penn, are the only living descendants of King Pendragon through the male line. Penn's father is married, so, obviously, he is no longer capable of taking the crown. If the Monarchy were still in existence, Pendragon Fillis would be king, and Deepankar Fillis would be a Princess.”
Pamela nodded, and smiled,
“Yes, I suspected as much.”
Helen continued, excited to show her other findings.
“I have also found James Beale. He is descended from the first Holy Sister, Mary, in Solveig.”
“The Sisters of the Trinity must remain virgins while they serve, but they are released from their vows at forty years of age. Mary had three children, late in life, with her husband, Henry Beale.”
Helen placed another register in front of Pamela.
“As Henry Beale's direct descendent, Tsanja Beale would have the greatest claim of anyone alive today of taking up a high-ranking position in the Church. As Jennifer Beale's daughter, she is also a direct descendent of the first Healer in the land.”
Pamela looked very pleased.
“Helen, thank you so much. You know, my mother always suspected that your sister's village was special, that Gynt had more than its fair share of important personages. I would very much like to meet your sister, and your nephew, and your niece, and I have already been in contact with Mrs Beale. She has graciously invited us to stay with her. You might like to come with us, and pay your sister a visit, if you have some time.”
Helen pulled out a third sheet, and looked a little uncertain.
“Pamela, I have also done a little more digging, and I have gone a little beyond what you asked me to find. However, I cannot make head nor tail of it.”
“Pamela, you told me that you had been born here in Toridé, is that right?”
Pamela answered, very carefully,
“Yes, Helen, but as I have told you before, we have been travelling, for Madeleine's education. We have not lived here for some years now.”
Helen laid the sheet down in front of Pamela.
“Pamela Andersen. A very prestigious family register, with many great figures in her past. She was born years before the Monarchy fell, years before the Sisters of the Trinity took control of the land. Pamela, your namesake was born in Toridé more than two hundred years ago, and her mother, Palomina Gustafsen, was healer to the King, and one of his favourites.
“There is no record of their deaths, and no record of what became of them after leaving Toridé. It is as if they simply disappeared from the land.”
Pamela smiled.
“This is a wonderful coincidence, Helen. Who would have known that a mother and a daughter lived such a long time ago, and had such similar names to me and Poe?”
Helen sat down next to Pamela, and held her hand.
“Oh, Pamela, you must explain. You must help me. There was no record of anyone born with your names since then, and, as you know, in Toridé especially, the Church is scrupulous about such documentation.
“Pamela, what are you doing? You have taken these names for yourself, but to what advantage? These women are long dead. They must have had influence in their time, but who remembers them now? Why would you do such a thing? Who are you, really?”
Pamela looked on Helen as she would a child.
“Helen, all will become clear to you.
“Firstly, Helen, thank you so much. You have excelled yourself. We would never have been capable of finding these proofs without your help, and the documentation you have found is perfect for our purposes.
“If the Church were to fall, then your family would have an admirable claim to restore the monarchy.”
Helen replied quietly,
“That is sedition. Your lives would be forfeit if the Church were to discover your plans.”
Pamela made the sign of the Trinity over her chest, and continued with the familiar slogan,
“Do not misunderstand me. We are not royalists. In any case, it is of course not possible. The King is gone. The Church will endure for ten thousand years.”
Helen detected more than a hint of disrespect, and looked a little exasperated. Why were these women using her so? She had come to love them all, with all her heart, in the weeks they had stayed with her, but what was the meaning of this gross deception? Who were they, and what did they want with her, and her family?
“Helen, it would be better if you were not to know this, but Pamela Andersen is my name, and Palomina is my mother, and we are the self same women as you found in your registers. Oh, Helen, I did so wish to take you with me, to love you, to help you find a good husband, to take care of you, to be healer to your children.
“But that, Helen, that is no longer possible.
“My name is Pamela Andersen, and I have been waiting, for so long, to find a mate for my smart, beautiful, talented daughter. Madeleine, at least, is innocent in all of this. She knows nothing of the intriguing route her life has taken. I love you, Helen, and I know that when I meet them I will love all of your family. Remember this, Helen, no matter what may come, remember that I love you, and yours, with all my heart.
“You may see our purpose as mercenary, as shallow, but that is far from the case. Our reasons are selfless, and I hope that you will see that in the fullness of time.
Pamela walked up to Helen's bookshelves, and pulled out a copy of “Debauchery and Debasement in the court of King Pendragon VI”, the standard text referred to in matters concerning the final Monarchy. She knew the work well, and flicked to the section containing a page describing every member of the Court.
She put it in front of Helen, with her finger on an engraving of Palomina Gustafsen, Healer to the King, wife to the King's Astrologer.
It was Poe.
She looked a little younger in the engraving, but nobody could mistake those mischievous eyes, those fine cheekbones.
“I was sixteen when this portrait was taken of my mother. Oh, the rich life I could have lived if the Sisters had not used their virgin magic to overwhelm the King, to take control of the Land, to enslave all Men! Sister Mary understood the role of the Healers in the land, and left them be, but Sister Hypatia from Solveig now wants to cast them out into the darkness. Helen, I must stop her, and your family is important to this task.”
Helen looked at Pamela with awe. She had thought that she knew what kind of magic existed throughout the land, but she had never seen anything like this. How had Pamela and her family avoided the ravages of time? Had she spent the years travelling, or had she simply been asleep for two centuries? Why would the Church challenge the Healers? The whole thing seemed nonsense, but, Helen could not deny the evidence, and it was the kind of nonsense that might turn out to be true.
Pamela held Helen's face in her hands, and held her gaze steady. Oh, how Helen loved Pamela, and how beautiful were her features.
Pamela kissed Helen then, and, with some strength, raised her by the hips, and sat her on her lap. Helen felt the familiar heat between Pamela's legs, and was falling once again into lust for this miraculous woman.
And, a dangerous woman. She had waited almost two hundred years to find her seditious proofs. Why did she want to know? Would she use them in an attempt to restore the monarchy? What would she do to ensure that her plans remained secret from the Sisters? What would she not?
Pamela reached between them, and, lifting Helen again, smoothed their skirts out of the way.
How many evenings of pleasure had started like this?
Helen's thighs felt the cool skin of Pamela's, and, in between her legs was that strange, fierce pleasure that could not be touched.
“I'm sorry, Helen, that you have discovered so much, that you have been so competent at the task we set you. I suppose you are lucky to find your end now.
“Helen, please, trust me.
“Untie my charm, free my flesh. Then you will understand, you will know all of my mysteries, you will feel all the pleasure that I have in store for you. Until you untie me, you will not understand.”
Helen knew the pleasure of her times with Pamela in bed at night, and she could only guess at its final completion, its ultimate fulfilment. Oh, how she wanted it, she wanted to give herself to it, body and soul.
But it was not mere pleasure for which Helen would untie the choker.
Helen wanted to see how this mystery ended. It was the secret knowledge which tempted her, wanting to know more of this remarkable woman, wanting to understand how she had lived for so long, wanted to know what she planned for her nephew and niece, and, she guessed, for all the land.
She reached behind Pamela's head, and removed her choker charm.
Helen felt Pamela's protection fade away, and the demon flesh crept between her legs.
Penn and Helen would both learn now. He looked on, and would soon know what it was like to be taken by the demon.
All cried in ecstasy and pleasure as Helen learned the truth, as Penn learned the truth, and Lilith did her work. Helen's time as mistress of her own body was at an end.
The cave was quiet, and Penn thought it deserted.
“Penn, my love. I am glad you are awake.”
It was not Pamela who spoke.
“I have been waiting for a long time to feel you, to really feel you, Penn. It is a memory I shall treasure forever. You are a beautiful boy, Penn, and I am so looking forward to meeting your children.”
Penn pulled himself upright, and stretched.
He felt magnificent. He had never felt so strong, so healthy, so happy, in all of his life.
Penn could see now, could see the walls of the alcove in which he found himself. They were adorned with the physical manifestation of Lilith, her pink, ever-changing flesh, and she glowed with an eerie light.
Jane was standing there, in the clothes she wanted to wear for him on that summer afternoon, so many months ago, when she had been taken. It was a summer dress, white, and light, and she wore her open-toed sandals, simple, and elegant.
Penn realised then how much he had missed her.
She simply smiled, and held out her arms.
Penn embraced her, and she still felt like Jane, she still smelled like Jane, and she was still the one true love of his life. He knew that he was finally home. Madeleine, Madeleine … what was Madeleine to him? He simply did not know, but he could not deny that there was a hint of melancholy in his reunion.
“Come, Penn, let me show you around.”
They left the alcove, holding hands, and Penn was in awe at what he saw. They were in a great cathedral of a cave, and Lilith had extended herself in glowing rivers over its walls.
Mighty stalactites descended from the ceiling, and Lilith coiled around them, and had obviously been a part of them since they were formed, as she had trained them into baroque shapes, all twists, and curlicues, and fiery colours.
She flowed in great trails over the floor, and Penn was surprised the first time he stepped on her. She was fleshy, and, as he stooped to examine her, warm, and moist. She throbbed gently, and dark liquids appeared to be contained within her gentle glow, moving sluggishly.
The cave was ragged, and there were many nooks and crannies.
Penn saw his Aunty Helen first.
She was tucked into a depression in the wall. She was standing, leaning against the wall of her enclosure. Pink veins were trailed up her legs, around her waist, up her chest and her back. Their moisture was smeared across her skin, and their tips caressed her face, and pulsed, ever so slightly, with Helen's evident heartbeat, and with every breath she was still, mercifully, taking.
Jane moved beside Penn, and reached down to Helen's hips.
“Look, she's attached”.
A cluster of tendrils, wrapped around Helen's hips, disappeared between her legs. Jane stroked them gently, and pulled at them, and they resisted, immediately inching back after each attempt to pull them back. Helen parted her legs, gave a gentle sigh, and her back arched. Her eyes opened in sleepy pleasure, and she smiled as she saw Penn, then they closed as the veins pulsed more strongly, and she slumped, the smile becoming one of relief.
Jane regarded him curiously, then she languidly reached into her shift, and pulled out a pendulous breast.
“She's food now”, she stated simply, and, as she held her breast, she began to let down, and white droplets of milk pulsed from her nipple. The veins pulsed more strongly into Helen, and she tilted her head back, arched her back, and the veins supported her as she lifted her feet from the ground.
“Tasty, delicious, flesh, she will last many years, feeding us all, feeling only pleasure”,
“Come here, boyfriend.”
Jane offered her breast, and pulled Penn to herself. He was forced to suckle.
As he drew the warm milk into his mouth, her hands reached behind him, and stroked his scalp, and stroked his hair.
Along with the rich, warm, milk, images arose, unbidden, into his mind.
Everything that was Helen, her fine intelligence, her knowledge of history, her love for her Penn and Dee, her love of Pamela, her soft skin, her smell, seemed to swirl into Penn along with the milk. It was delicious, feeling this close to someone, and he could feel her pleasure, her joy, her bounteous thrusting against the tentacle which drew from her.
Jane spurted milk into his mouth as Helen cried out, her back arched in orgasm. Penn swallowed, and detached, and gazed at Helen's form. Her muscles were taut, and her mouth stayed open in a rictus of pleasure, unable to move, eyes unseeing, the tentacles which held her pulled taut.
“This is what you are to us, my love. You are food, and pleasure, and we will look after you. Helen is content now, we have taken her, she has her heaven in us.”
The veins were still holding her aloft and spread. Their tips were many, and each gently caressed a part of her body, leaving sticky secretions, and her thighs were slippery with her own. A strange feeling passed up his spine. Penn knew that he should be feeling horrified at the state of his beloved aunt, but he could not. Her imprisoned form inspired strong feelings in him, yes, but they were of love, of hunger, of lust. He looked upon his Aunt as Jane had described: she was delicious, and he wanted to taste more of her.
The cave was full of that Lilith's strange radiation. He had felt it before, while he had been protected, in the tiny antechamber of the cave with Tsanja. Without his charm, and with the tonnes of flesh which surrounded him, it was like standing in the sun on a summer's day.
Nobody could resist pleasure here. It shone down from all of the walls, and warmed his body, and it would be so simple just to lean into a wall and let oneself be taken. Penn roused himself from his short reverie.
Who else was in here? He shifted his gaze from Helen's forlorn form, and, leaving Jane, began to work his way around the cavern.
There were many depressions, and other paths leading from this main one. In each there was a figure, covered in those strange veins. All were naked, and all the veins pulsed with that same weird heartbeat.
He recognised many people from the village, and some of the older children from his year.
Jane led Penn into another alcove, and more shapes loomed in the darkness.
“Penn, always remember these poor souls.”
“Spare a thought for those that have given up so much for my love. They have died for their loyalty to me, and I could not save them.”
Eleven women rested against the walls of the cave, naked, held up by red streams of flesh. Their pale, crippled bodies were quiet now, and their faces at peace, their lips black, no longer vermilion. No heartbeat or breath interrupted their stillness.
“I have given them the only peace that was possible. Their souls, and their memories, reside within me. Only one remains of the Felthings which Hypatia brought to Gynt, and she has all of my tears, enough to save her sisters. It is only a matter of time now. All shall return to me, and I shall give them peace, and they shall live again as part of me. Life is pain, Penn, but love is eternal. My love is true, Penn, it takes all that is given, all that is not, but gives an eternity of pleasure in return.
“It is more than enough.”
Jane led Penn by the hand into yet another cavern. Lilith was strong here, the space was twenty feet on a side, but she covered all the walls, all the floor, all the ceiling. Her tendrils rose up, questing, and stroked his flesh. They radiated warmth, they radiated lust. He found himself gazing at the pink, viscous flesh with desire, and felt the stirrings of love within him. So horrible, so ugly, so primitive, but he wanted, so much, just to lie down and become a part of her, to give his flesh to her, to bask in her pleasure and her company, to join his soul to those in Gynt who had already been taken, as he let himself be consumed.
There were dozens of knots against the walls, and Lilith's tendrils moved ceaselessly around them, like eels in a horses head, striking into them, withdrawing, and reforming to entwine them again. Jane reached over, and let the tendrils of flesh twine around her hand, and she let them slide up her arm, leaving trails of moisture on her skin.
Very carefully, she cleared away Lilith's slime from one of the little knots. Some kind of fleshy bag emerged, criss-crossed with veins, and and Lilith's light brightened around it. There was a shadow within, and it moved, startled by the light.
It was a baby, still tiny, but as it moved, its tiny fingers and toes made an impression against the placenta in which it was cradled.
“Your child, Penn, Tsanja's child. She is for the world, Penn, she is one of my gifts to the world above. Tsanja will love her, and feed her, and she will grow strong as she suckles on you, Penn, on you, and your very soul. She will grow into such a beauty, Penn, and you will be so proud of her.”
“Sarah Fillis will be her name, although Tsanja does not yet know it.”
Jane smoothed away two other knots, to reveal two more babies.
“Your child with Madeleine, Penn, and Dee's with James Beale. They will be called Eleanor Fillis, and Hypatia Beale. Madeleine and Dee gave them up to me just now.
“James is still alive, Penn, I have kept him whole, and he has healed over time.
“Three beautiful girls, Penn, they shall travel the land, they shall proselytise, they shall tell all of my mercy, in my love. They shall show how life should be lived, how one should prepare oneself for my tenderness, how one can avoid being taken by the Trinity.”
As she moved her hand away, the tendrils covered the babies again, fondling them, and covering them.
“Be strong, Penn. I shall show you all.”
Jane moved to another knot, and caressed it, and pulled it gently away from the wall.
“You must know that Lilith has been hurt very badly. She needed to recuperate, to build herself up again, to replace that which has been lost.”
“She needs our flesh to replace her flesh, and virgin souls to replace her lost tears. There is only one left. I have kept her for you.”
Jane reached into the knot, and squeezed it with both hands. A young woman's face emerged, angelic, sleepy, and bandaged above the eyes. It was Caley Finn. She had been in Penn's year. Penn liked her a lot, but she had been so very shy, and kept to herself, and her books. Jane stroked her face, and her eyes, clearing Lilith away from her, and bent down to kiss her on the cheek. Caley's eyes opened, and she yawned, and smiled at Jane. Caley turned towards Penn, and lifted her face towards him.
Jane had found the end of the bandages, and commenced removing them from Caley's head.
As the last layer was removed, Penn saw a red gleam.
A red stone was embedded in her forehead, and it was glowing, with a light only just visible in the darkened cavern. Caley stared into him with some intensity, as if she could see within him, as if she knew his soul.
Jane reached up to the wall, and Penn noticed that a red ichor, clear and sticky, like sap, was weeping from a crack. She picked at it, and a small chunk came away into her fingers. Jane rolled it into a ball, and it soon seemed like a passing imitation of one of the stones from the choker charms.
Jane reached up to Penn's forehead.
“Hold still, Penn, this won't hurt. I will show you one of Lilith's tears … you might want to sit down.”
Penn sat, and Jane sat next to him in the darkness. She looked at his face, and held the stone gently against his head.
“Lilith's tears concentrate the soul, Penn. They entrance it, and seduce it, and then gently tease it out of one's body. They suck out one's soul, and hold it in stone.”
Penn felt the stone against his forehead, warm against the skin of Jane's fingers. That warmth spread throughout his body, and he felt himself thinking about the stone, directing his thoughts into the stone, focusing all of his energies on it. It was fascinating, he could not see it with his eyes, but he saw it with his mind, and found himself wondering what was inside. He wanted to see inside, to examine its curves, its colour, its warmth, and he tried to project himself inside it, just to know, just to feel what it was like.
He could not gain any purchase, he could only look in from without, and imagine how it would feel, letting himself slide into the stone and enjoy being held, to solve the mystery which it presented him, to fulfil the feelings it engendered in him.
“You won't be able to get in, Penn, only virgins may gain access. It takes a long time to lose oneself in its mysteries, one must solve them, push oneself into its comfort, work out how to fit within the infinity of its nooks and crannies.
“There is almost nothing left of her now, Penn.”
Jane gently stroked Caley's face, and stroked the stone. Her eyes closed, and her breathing slowed. Her head tilted back, and she sighed, and the stone began to glow. In that darkened cave, it seemed quite bright, and as the sigh completed, Caley was still.
She breathed no more.
Jane plucked the stone out, and handed it to Penn.
“Penn, your school friends, all of the young virgins in Gynt, this is their fate. They have been given into the tears of Lilith. Lilith holds their souls inside her infinite mystery, and keeps them safe, and they, in turn, keep others safe as well.”
“That is the true tragedy of the taking of the Healers, Penn. When the Healers are taken by the Felthings, the choker charms are burned. Those souls which I held in trust, in my tears, they are gone now. The Sisters burned all that they could find, and the poor souls in the tears were released into the air.
“There are things that lie in wait, Penn, to catch free souls, to strip them clean, so they may be reborn, naked, into the world. Souls are shaped by their memories, Penn, but that is all.
“At least the souls and memories of the Felthings are still intact, held inside their ruined bodies by the Felthing's hood, waiting to be returned to me.
“You may think me cruel, Penn, when I take people into myself, when I take them from the bosom of their families, when I imprison their immortal soul. But they never lose who they are, their memories live on, to be shared by all who come to me. I only feed on the flesh, Penn, and on the pleasures of the flesh.
“I have been in this world forever, Penn, living on the meat of the creatures that die in the caves, accumulating their meagre consciousness, their simple pleasures. As I grew larger, I began to lure my prey, to give them something for their flesh, and they would offer themselves to me, giving themselves up for my unique fulfilment. Even then, I was careful, taking only those at the end of their lives, helping the young ones grow strong.
“It was only when I tasted my first human child that my consciousness was able to regard itself. I began to hunger for a higher consciousness, for my own intelligence. Oh, how blissful it was to take a creature with so much potential for pleasure, with so much power to plan, and reason, and take its wonder for my own. But I grew wary. I knew that with this intelligence came so much danger for me.
“Even as I took more souls, I knew that I would have to limit myself, and that I would need to cement my role in the land, gain acceptance. You humans have so much faith in your own wills, in your individuality, in your own self importance, but I let you keep them, Penn. I gave the Healers a great gift so that they could help humanity flourish, and I gave them my tears so they could keep their freedom.
“It is only when I have been badly injured that I use the tears to hide myself, Penn, and, as they hide my depredations, they also save those remaining sould from the pain of remembering those that have been lost, that I have taken into myself.
“Perhaps I am a parasite, stealing the food of memories out of the ravening black mouths of those who created you. But I think I am the kinder choice, Penn. Many have chosen my afterlife in preference to letting themselves leak into black darkness as they die, to be caught, to have their souls wiped clean.
“I cannot create, Penn, I can only comfort, and hold, and heal, and pleasure. But I love you all, Penn, and I am eternal, and I do not want to lose any of you. If you give yourself fully to me, you will not be a prisoner. You will be as free as a bird, able to do anything that you wish. I am sorry about your friends, Penn, but they have not been lost, not even those who have given themselves into my tears. They will all come back to me in time, they will return to me, I will allow all of them to escape from the endless fascination of the worlds I did create for them.
“It will be but the blink of an eye for them, Penn, when there is all of eternity to abide with me.”
Penn remembered all of the missing children, but it was not with sadness. A sort of giddy excitement had possessed him, with his new knowledge of the months he had spent, unknowing, as his friends disappeared, their memories slipping into blankness, with no time to grieve at their loss.
Except now.
Penn felt no grief. He began to understand the totality of Lilith's power, and it was fabulous.
“The tears of Lilith, Penn, they are of virgin flesh. They see all, they know all, and a virgin's magic can bind them to one's mind, to protect one from all that is me. As Caley has dwindled, my tear will soon be the only thing left of her in this physical world, just a seeing stone, a stone with a soul, trapped in contemplation of my infinite mysteries.
“Lilith carries her tears up to the healers, Penn.
“With my tears, I give a guarantee of safety. It is the only reason the Healers were allowed to work in peace for so long. Nobody need fear me when the world is aright, Penn, for I am no monster.
“The Sisters and the Felthings have destroyed so many stones, Penn, released so many souls to the dark.
“They were all burned as the Healers were taken.
“Dee, and Madeleine, and Tsanja, they have worked tirelessly to replace them, and Tsanja and Eleanor have shown us that my tears can be used to release the Felthings.
“When all of the Felthings have returned to me, the Church will be reformed, and the healers shall return to the land. There will be no need for my tears then, Penn, save to hold a soul in their body until they can return to me. All can return to me, nobody need lose themselves to our masters ever again.
“Without our memories, Penn, they will weaken. The Trinity will no longer hold sway, it will be the Pentagram that is ascendant.”
“Look upon your gods, Penn,”
Jane pointed upwards, and a bright, violet light emerged from her finger, and it formed a ball which rose to the ceiling. Ghostly, black figures became apparent in the violet light, where before there had been only bare rock. There were hundreds of them, black shapes against the rock ceiling.
They were night-wings, grown large. They were very like bats, consisting of membranous, black wings, but there were no bones in the things. Each one was like a crumpled yard of velvet, and moved, and rippled.
“This is what the Sisters in Solveig have been raising to create the accursed Felthing's hoods, Penn, they have been slaughtering their own gods to increase their mortal power.
“These are the creatures that created you, Penn, that created the race of humans. They are as old as I am, and we have always shared these caves.
“They are the Pendragons. You are their namesake, Penn, your lineage goes back to the original race of humans they created in this land.
“They were once fine, beautiful, intelligent creatures, but they have grown debased as they have fed on us. They created a world which had bountiful food for themselves, and gorged on it, and have been reduced to foul, sucking things, surrounding corpses as they die, and feasting on their memories, letting the naked soul go free to be reborn.
“When they are fully grown, the Pendragons hide themselves from view with magic, they are everywhere, silent, invisible, waiting for sickness, waiting for death, so they can swoop in and take the memories from a soul. That is why they have become debased, they gorge on the experiences of others, but have none of their own. The Sisters trapped them with simple tricks, and they did not have the wit to fight back.
“They will feast on the living if they are hungry enough, if they are forced to do so. The Sisters have always raised them on the memories from those wretched people that they take into their church and imprison, fallen women, unmarried men, criminals. After the Pendragons take their memories, all these poor souls are fit for is being servants to the Church, held in the Grand Abbey. They are never allowed to recover, they are taken to their Pendragon, time and again, their memories to be eaten afresh.
“The Pendragons hold onto one's soul, they hold it fast in one's body while they feed. It can take hours, or days, to feed on a soul, to take its memories, before the soul is released, naked, for rebirth. The Sisters and the healers have always known that it is the Pendragon's skin which has this property, which can keep a soul trapped in a body, even when the body should be dead, when the heart has stopped, when there is no blood, even with horrible wounds.
“Even the Pendragons grow tired, Penn, and eventually give up their bodies to me. I give them peace, and I take their memories, and I take their skin, and bring it up to the Healers. The healers use the skin of a Pendragon to hold my tears, to make my charms, which can keep a soul in its body, to hold the Pendragons at bay, until that soul may join me, and find peace. Everyone can give themselves to me if they so wish it.”
“It was Sister Hypatia who first killed a fully grown Pendragon, it was tame, she killed it in cold blood. She took its skin to make a Felthing's hood, enchanting it to imprison and control a mind, and a soul, to make a poor woman's tongue into a weapon, to give it hunger for my own flesh. She shaped the Felthings to strip me from the Healers, and to create more of themselves.
“Hypatia is evil, Penn. I actually think she created these abominable creatures as much for her own perverted pleasure as anything else.
For a time, Penn could only stand and stare. He knew he should hate her, hate her for breaking his illusions, for destroying his village, for taking his friends, for he knew that all she said was true. How terrible it was to have the underlying order of the world opened up to one, like an open book, too many mysteries resolved at once. But what had the revelations changed, really? He was still just a pawn on this earth, created to satisfy the hunger of creatures outside himself. What worries did the Pendragons have in their own existences on this earth? Were those who created him also prey to hunger, and lust, and even love? Were these primal emotions all that mattered, really, in this universe?
And he did not hate Jane. He did not hate Lilith. He loved them both, fiercely, and wanted to join them in their strange crusade, to show mortal flesh the ecstasy of heaven on Earth, and to have it all. Even now, he could hear the murmur of the souls around him, and knew that he could let them into his own, to share himself, to join himself to everyone who had given themselves to Lilith, and it was a seductive idea.
Lilith's light shone on him, and he felt at ease. He looked again at the bundles, each containing a child, three at the start of their mortal lives, and the rest, no longer moving, at the end.
“I chose your village, Penn, to protect it, to immortalise it, to give your folk a guaranteed place in Heaven. Heaven is here, Penn, Heaven is with me. Flesh is weak, flesh is temporary. To know me is to love me, Penn, and you must love me, Penn, you will love me, for I am love. I am desire, I am your fulfilment, your Nirvana.”
Penn stared at Jane with a fierce intensity as she reached out to him, and with two hands she raised his gaze to meet her own. She smiled with love and affection at him. Gods, she was beautiful!
“Have faith in me, Penn, have some faith. Have I ever caused you pain? Have I given anyone pain since I came to you? Has not your existence been idyllic since I brought your loves to you, your true loves?”
Penn thought back on the strangeness of the last few months, and was incapable of gainsaying her. His cock began to rise as he thought of his first night at Beale's house, in Madeleine's bedroom, watching Mrs Beale's seduction. He never knew what that seduction would mean for her, and the village.
“Come now, Penn. Come with me, I shall show you to your place.”
His alcove was at the end of the cavern, with a view of all of the poor souls still here, and the remains of the children.
Several others were held against the walls, covered in pleasure.
Jane walked up to smooth away Lilith from the face of the first.
Hypatia.
“This was an evil one. She will take time.”
Jane reached up to her, and stroked the tendrils that entered between her legs.
Hypatia grunted, and thrust against Jane's hand, and moisture sprang from her, as she bucked, and came. Her eyes opened, sultry, and pleasured, but then, for a moment, rage spat from her. The tendrils surrounded her form, she was pulled back against the wall, and unconsciousness took her again.
“She will take time, but Lilith is patient. She will be pleasured, she will feel pleasure stronger than any she knew in her mortal life, and the blackness in her soul will fade, will be purified, until she becomes as meek as a lamb. Even the roughest stone becomes a pearl when it is held within an oyster, lovingly rubbed and coated, every blemish covered by layers of iridescent beauty, for years upon end.
Jane uncovered more faces.
Madeleine, Tsanja, Dee.
Poe, Pamela, and Mrs Beale were next.
And Magda, Penn's mother.
And men.
Several women had a companion at their side, a grown man to hold them, to love them, in an eternity of companionship.
Penn had never seen his father before, but he could see a resemblance to himself.
No questing tendrils penetrated nor consumed them.
They slumbered against the wall, beatific smiles on their faces.
“They wait, Penn. They wait for when I will need them again.”
“They will walk the world again, proudly, with their beautiful children, showing the world how life should be lived. Be proud of them, Penn, they are here to preserve our world as it should be, they will keep it safe for life, safe for loving, they will keep it green, and good.
Jane cleared Lilith away from a large lump, unnoticed.
It was Jane's face he saw through the red strings which gently caressed her, but the rest of her was covered.
Penn turned, and Jane was still standing next to him. She was radiantly beautiful, and healthy, and smiling. He turned back. This other Jane was insensate, and pale, and her hair and face were matted and slicked with slime, and she was only just breathing.
As the demon Jane cleared Lilith away from the real Jane's body, Penn could see that her limbs were horribly wasted, that she was but a shadow of her former self. She was being consumed by Lilith, absorbed, and it didn't look like there was much of her left.
Jane smiled as one more body was revealed, spooned against Jane's silent form, arms and legs wrapped around her, his face pressed into her neck.
His own face.
As he had felt Helen being taken, so had he.
He was no longer human. He had a human soul, cloaked in the flesh of a demon.
Demon Jane stroked the veins surrounding Jane's physical form, they became livelier, and slid across real Jane's flesh. Real Jane opened her eyes, gave a low moan, and this stick figure, all that remained of her, twisted as she experienced some terrible pleasure.
“We all last a very long time before we give up our mortal bodies.”
Demon Jane's expression was intense, and she stroked Penn's demon cheek, stroked herself, stroked real Penn's silent form, either with affection, or with some mad possessive hunger, it was hard to tell.
“Penn, you have found your fate. Isn't it sweet? Oh, my lovely child, I will cloak you in love, gentle love, for all of eternity.”
Penn could do nothing but stare at the sunken face of the real Jane, his first true love, and himself.
“Who are you? Who are you if you are not Jane? Who am I?”
“Oh, Penn. Of course I am Jane. I am her soul, and I own her body, and have won her love. Her flesh is dwindling, but she feels so much pleasure as she is consumed. All of us feel her pleasure. You must understand, Penn, your mind is sharp, your seed is strong, your body will not be wasted. I will keep you for a long, long time. I need you for my next generation.”
“Now, Penn. You may return to your own flesh, and lie with me for eternity.”
Jane turned to Penn, and slipped off her shift.
Penn had never seen his love in all of her glory.
She was beautiful.
Her face was smiling, and loving, and it was all for him.
Her breasts were young, and perfect, and perky, the nipples pink, their whiteness so fine, and the blue veins showed through.
Her cute little belly button was a small indentation in her tummy, and her hips flared down, her bounteous bottom supported by white, soft, fleshy thighs, her calves strong, her feet dainty.
The hair between her legs was brown, and red, and glowed in the reflected light of the cave. It preserved her modesty a little, and she was a picture of feminine perfection, turning, and pouting, a game played forever.
Penn disrobed, carefully, as she watched him, and waited.
They embraced, and his cock pressed painfully hard against her velvet skin.
“I love you, Penn,” Jane stated, and it was true.
“I love you too, my Jane,” and Penn accepted his place in the world.
Jane covered him, and kissed him, and they languidly explored each other, feeling the texture of each other's skin, trying to touch as much as they could.
Jane held him, and hugged him.
“Just relax, Penn. Remember, this is forever.”
Penn gazed into Jane's eyes, and he loved her so much, and kissed her. She surrounded him, and let herself become all suckers, and tendrils, and crevices, and warmth. Penn felt was ready to give in to her consuming softness, and prepared to let himself dissolve, let his soul return to his quiet body.
There was just one more thing he knew he had to do.
He knew that his life was still not complete.
He pushed against Lilith, against Jane, and shook his head,
“Jane, no, please, no ...”
Jane face returned,
“What is it, Penn,”
Penn surprised her then.
“Jane, please, will you marry me?”