The Last Sunset for a Flat Earth
Chapter 6
What The Truth Sets Free
 
 
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"If one counts the Global Civil War as World War IV, then one must conclude that Einstein was quite wrong. We didn't fight with sticks and stones. We fought that war with the power of the mind and the power of magic. Perhaps this is because World War III was not fought with nukes... what with China and Russia being threatened with American mass drivers orbiting in space." - Unknown
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"The Ishtar-Six probe is drilling to the core of Venus. But it's just a probe... which is what's spooking Cerulean Space Command. What in the hell are they doing out there?"
 
Mark Caston sat next to his wife Stacy in their room at the underground research base in Los Angeles, him in his gray bathrobe, and her in her white lab coat.
 
"And Ishtar-Seven hooked up with some strange module beyond Mars and veered off into the asteroid belt," Stacy nodded.
 
"I can see why Cerulean Space Command wants to investigate that probe," Mark studied diagrams of the missile-shaped vessel Ishtar-Seven on his tablet computer screen. "Ishtar-Seven is ten times larger than number Six, large enough to hold a crew. The thing appears to be scan-proof. We don't know what it's got inside... much less what's in that mod-"
 
Stacy sighed, causing her husband to stop in mid-sentence. "Honey... I came by today to talk about something totally different... before Clarice and Oliver wake up," She looked at him with pleading eyes, then reached over to take his hand. Her husband put down his tablet and held her hand in his.
 
"The news is worse than we thought," she said with a sense of urgency creeping into her voice. "We ran tests on the handful of others who survived interrogations like we went through at the Maverick Mountain facility."
 
Mark sighed. "All infertile?"
 
She nodded. "Just like us. We have no idea what they did. Everything inside us works just fine... it's just that... fertilization never seems to happen."
 
Mark bowed his head, shaking it slowly, his hand squeezing hers. "Damn them..."
 
Just then, the buzzer went off. It was the door.
 
"Lucien Knowles," a voice announced.
 
The two of them separated and stood up. Mark drew his bathrobe closed and its nanofibers changed to the dark blue hue of a Cerulean Dawn agent's cloak.
 
"Come in."
 
The door slid open and Knowles entered. He gestured to them and said, "There have been some... developments in our search for the Silurheans."
 
Mark and Stacy looked at each other briefly, then at Knowles. "You found them?"
 
Knowles nodded, stunning them with his announcement: "There was a major battle in the Angeles National Forest where several of her kind were killed. We just brought in the only surviving live one to our auxiliary research base at Big Bear Lake."
 
Mark and Stacy shuddered, then huddled close to each other. "I didn't know this facility had the space to hold a giantess..."
 
"She's not a giantess. Not now. She's conserving her magic energy, it seems. She's the same size as you or me now. But she is extremely dangerous. This alien has already devoured three humans since she's arrived."
 
Stacy put her hands to her mouth; Mark threw his hands up. "Aw, hell. And she's *here*?" He glanced at his wife. "Oh, yeah, I'm gonna sleep at night now."
 
Lucien chuckled. "Oh, but this story goes far deeper. We have also brought along her enemies."
 
That got them both focused back on him.
 
"Siluvarans, that's what they call themselves. They are a growing interstellar empire whose society is a strong blend of magic and technology. They're aliens... winged female fairies... just like the man-eater that we captured. However..." he paused to think, "I'm not sure how to put this... but they are... mirror opposites of the Silurhean fairies."
 
"How so? Are they vegetarians or something?" Mark chuckled.
 
"That, and much more." Lucien gestured. "You'll find out more when we reach the Big Bear lab. There's something incredible about these Siluvarans, in particular, that you need to see."
 
Stacy held up her hands defensively. "Woah, woah, woah... this is a bit much... what was this battle that you were referring to?"
 
Lucien chuckled. "Oh, that. Several other Silurheans were killed - some by the two Siluvarans we brought in, but some were also killed by a human psi-mage who joined the fight."
 
"A psi-mage?!" the two of them gasped at once.
 
"Yes, he's there as well."
 
Mark whistled. "Boy... when it rains, it pours."
 
Smirking, Lucien said, "You don't even know the half of it."
 
 
 
"Mother of God..." Felecia Cruz made the sign of the cross as she stared at the wall-spanning computer screen.
 
"BOOYAHHHHHHHH!" Dominic's cheering voice boomed, startling his mother as he pumped his fist triumphantly. "Take that, you commie freaks!"
 
Felecia whirled about to see her son Dominic watching combat footage of US troops engaged in an all-out battle with the Chinese People's Liberation Army on his computer. U.S. Marines in gray, knightly power armor marched in a broad human wall, all firing dual, shoulder-mounted Howitzer-type cannons at the enemy. A tank shell struck one soldier, the explosion sending him tumbling back; the others concentrated fire on the offending combat vehicle, a war machine as tall as an elephant and twice as long, bristling with two massive 8-inch cannon barrels of the type usually seen on warships. The imposing, beastly-grilled machine nonetheless shared the fate of the tank right behind it, and was torn to shreds; however, this one exploded, killing many Chinese troops marching next to it. The previous tank popped with several minor explosions before it, too, erupted in a ball of fire and a hail of deadly shrapnel. The camera made sure to accentuate the scene of the power armored soldier stumbling onto his hands and knees in the rain-soaked mud after being hit by the massive tank shell.
 
"Dominic!" Felecia hissed, narrowing her eyes. "Those are people dying out there. Have you no respect for human life?"
 
Her son's face fell. "Oh... sorry mom. I didn't mean..."
 
She sighed. "Oh, it doesn't matter," she bowed her head, shaking it slowly. Turning back to her screen, she gestured, "It's just that... on top of all the ungodly things you and I have been through... there's... this... this... San Bernardino... dear Lord..."
 
When Dominic turned fully around to see what his mother was talking about, his eyes widened. "Woah..."
 
He'd seen the San Bernardino wasteland many times before, but only in pictures. Photos of the impossibly thick, gloomy clouds hanging over a vast graveyard of giant office and factory buildings whose flesh of concrete and glass had been burnt and peeled back to reveal their jagged metal bones beneath, were haunting enough. But now, via live footage, he watched the soot and debris blowing to and fro in the sporadic winds, the swaying of decaying bridges and highway overpasses, and the slimy lakes of bubbling, gurgling toxic sludge stagnating in the crumbling streets below. Only the closing of Interstates 10 and 215 and the natural barriers of the San Bernardino Valley - the San Bernardino Mountains that overlooked the hellish valley - prevented most of San Bernardino and Riverside county's pollution from escaping "The Valley of the Cupped Hand of God" to pollute the rest of the southland.
 
"I'd rather look at Big Bear Lake," he sighed. "Our base is on the other side of the mountain for a reason."
 
Felecia gestured back at the display. "Dominic, I'm sure you saw that half the trees on this side of the mountain dead or dying, right?" Sighing at his blank look, she explained frustratedly, "They're dying because of the toxic clouds that sometimes pass over this area! The whole region has been poisoned by the toxic waste from there. It's probably seeped into the soil. I'm surprised we got in here without inhaling that crap."
 
He scratched his head. "So why would the Cerulean Dawn be stationed here?"
 
Her answer came quickly: "Because no one would dare come here?"
 
Dominic shrugged. "I guess that's as good a justification as any," he said, turning to sit on his bed. Looking around at his room, he changed the subject, commenting, "You know, mom, even so, I mean... look at this place. It's way cooler than our apartment."
 
She nodded; although her son's new living quarters were somewhat smaller than their previous place, it was much bigger than what he would have had if their abode had been divided amongst them. The wall separating the bedroom from the kitchen and dining area was retractable; based on cutting edge nanotechnology, the wall could easily go away. While they were currently using it as a giant television display, any wall in the apartment could be so used. There was a powerful personal laptop in a high tech docking station by the bed for Dominic to use, and the bathroom's water was far more reliable than at their old apartment.
 
His mother wagged a finger at him. "Don't get too comfortable, Dominic. What's been given to you can be easily taken away."
 
"Yeah, I know, mom..." he sighed, sitting on the side of his bed. "Even the things you worked so hard for, was taken away from us."
 
His mother shuddered. "Don't remind me," she clasped her hands insecurely in front of her, turning back to the television screen. "We're here because of that alien..." she shuddered visibly, "abomination."
 
Dominic's lip curled. A toxic mix of anger. fear and frustration burned in his veins as he started to reflect on his experiences over the last two days. "Her and her hellspawn friends..." he shuddered as well, as goosebumps crawled all over his skin. He took a deep breath, then turned to his mother: "Mom... do you think that was just a nasty psychic trick foisted on us by someone?"
 
Felecia shot him a hopeful look. "Um... well..." she rubbed her chin. "Maybe?" She shook her head. "If only... if only that were true..." She threw her hands down and came to sit next to him. "God, I hope it's true..."
 
A moment of silence followed as they sat there and stared at their laps, before the door chimed and interrupted their thoughts.
 
A woman's voice announced over the ceiling speakers, "Housekeeping for Ms. Cruz."
 
Felecia raised her head sharply. "Housekeeping? What for?"
 
She got up and walked to the door.
 
On the other side stood a bubbly young blonde Hispanic woman in a blue maid's outfit, her hands clasped in front of her.
 
Felecia cocked her head back.
 
"You haven't picked out the layout of your apartment, ma'am."
 
Felecia rolled her eyes. Couldn't this wait?
 
"That's Mrs. Cruz..."
 
"Dulcea Garcia at your service, Mrs. Cruz."
 
Felecia frowned; then she gestured to the hallway. "Fine. Let's see what you can do with my apartment."
 
Glancing back at Dominic, who was standing at the doorway to his bedroom, she said, "Dom... I gotta go for a moment. Don't run too far off, okay?"
 
He laughed. "I'm staying right here until I know where I'm authorized to go," he said, straining to get a look at the busty maid that was escorting his mother to the apartment next door.
 
She nodded. "Good idea. See ya in a few, son."
 
"See ya, mom."
 
A moment after the door closed, as he was sitting down at his desk to check out his computer as his first act now that his mother wasn't all up in his business, a thought suddenly struck him, smiting him to the bone with a sickening sense of concern.
 
If he didn't know better, he might have called it fear.
 
Why did his mother get asked about the layout of her place... but yet no one came to ask him about his?
 
As soon as the question formed in his head, he whipped around to see the jet black haired woman from his darkest waking nightmares, as naked as the moment she was born, now calmly walking into his bedroom, as if the place belonged to her.
 
His mouth fell open and his heart leapt into his throat as Narissa casually approached him.
 
"Your mother will fall asleep after she gets done talking to Dulcea," she held her hands up defensively as he jumped to his feet, pushing the high-back synthetic leather desk chair between them. "We need to talk, Dominic." She breathed deeply, then explained, "We've both been through a lot in the last day and... and..." She sighed, glancing down at her feet before looking him in the eye again. "Look, I'm sorry about the all the horrible ways I treated you."
 
Dominic jerked his head back. "Sorry? What do you mean... 'sorry'?"
 
"I mean..." she crawled up onto his bed and then sat on her knees. "I was an idiot to look at you as food. I've been treated as food myself..." She shuddered with revulsion. "In fact, I had a few moments to think things over... you know... while trapped in the stomach of another of my... um, my kind."
 
He raised an eyebrow at her. "You were eaten by one of those fairies?"
 
She nodded. "Kind of. The one that did it became a pile of ash. But still... I'll never forget how horrible that was."
 
Now it was Dominic's turn to shudder as terrifying recollection of himself being massaged and squeezed down a fairy woman's tight, slick throat into her swampy hot, churning stomach, started to make his skin crawl all over again. Even the fact that she'd died specifically because her digestive system went to work on him, wasn't enough to coax his own appetite to come back.
 
For the time being, he couldn't even envision looking straight at a hamburger, much less a steak.
 
"Yeah..." he said, his voice suddenly vacant of emotion as he slumped into his chair. "Well, you know, let's not talk about that, okay?"
 
"Yeah... I'm sorry..." She gestured to him, "I only meant to bring it up to explain part of why I feel so bad about what happened."
 
Swiveling in his seat toward her, he gestured back. "But why did you lure my mother away... and why are you naked?"
 
She pointed toward the door with frustration. "I doubt I could come within a hundred feet of her. Remember, I absorbed your memories, Dominic. I know you're Catholic. I'm an abomination to you and your mother." She looked at her own hands. "And... what I was when I met you, was an abomination to what I am now."
 
Dominic's eyes shifted. "Huh?"
 
She looked up sharply at him. "I'll come clean with you, Dominic. I was part of a major expedition to this planet in search of animal proteins... meat, as you'd say. You were to us what cows are to you."
 
He snorted. "As cows WERE to me, if this keeps up."
 
She laughed with him. "Were may be the operative word for the both of us, dear... it certainly is for me now. But... when I first came to Earth, our mission was to harvest humans as food. On our world, animal life is almost extinct. We needed plant-eating creatures both as food and to save what remained of the food chain. I hadn't been allowed any meat rations in many years. Apparently I went into what they call a purple aura stage between when I was awakened in Earth orbit and when I woke up in the morgue after we were shot down. Or maybe I had just gone into that stage as I met you."
 
He tilted his head. "Purple aura stage? Meat rations?"
 
She nodded. "No burgers for nineteen years, honey. Not even a boiled egg. And the purple aura thing... it's what happens when a Silurhean has gone without meat for too long. Our bodies go nuts. We go into a critical meat craze that... well..." She threw up her hands, "It drives some of us to attack our neighbors in an attempt to devour them. Typically... a battle of magic skills ensues, until one is depleted. Unable to struggle, they're shrunken down and swallowed and digested. That replenishes the fairy that eats them, restoring their sanity, but it sucks to be the one that got eaten."
 
Dominic shook his head with disgust. "Wow. Y'all become friggin zombies... or cannibals."
 
"Yup. That's what happened to my people there in the forest. They all forgot themselves and tried to eat each other. I wound up in some guy's stomach... and fairies in his state digest their prey very quickly. But..." she snorted a laugh, "sadly for him, I was already this... um... child of Gaia, or whatever. Maybe it was that I was fed to another Gaia child's womb and my body was made impervious to digestion? Either way... it cost him his life. Very quickly." She sighed, looking away from Dominic. "Maybe it was better that I was the victim and not someone else who wasn't immune."
 
"Now there's an optimistic point of view..."
 
"Yeah..." she clasped her hands on her lap. "Well... by the time I saw you, Dominic, I was quite horny. I'm sure I was in my... I guess I swung into my Thalia stage at that moment."
 
"Thalia?"
 
She nodded. "They say Thalias are fairies who hate eating meat, and go willingly into what we call a state of flux... their aura turns purple, and, well, they do exactly what I did to you... except in my case, I still wanted meat but I was just horny, and my horniness got the best of me. Another Thalia trait, they say."
 
Dominic rubbed his chin. "Hey... are you naked now because you're planning on doing that again, Narissa?"
 
He was taken aback by her swift, honest reply: "Yes, but only if you'll allow me to."
 
He jerked his head back. "Are you kidding me?"
 
"Not really." She lifted her hand slowly to cup her belly. "I have a lot that I want to tell you while you're inside me. And I promise you'll enjoy it this time."
 
Dominic sat upright in his chair. "Hey, come on, Narissa, you're good looking and all that, but seriously! You can't expect me to want to go through..." He gestured at her, "That!"
 
"Did you notice your head wound was gone after your first trip into me?" she responded.
 
He paused; after a moment of thought, he put his hand to his head. Indeed, his injury was still quite gone; it wasn't his imagination. "What the..." his eyes shifted upward.
 
"That's the benefit of what they call Gaia's Blessing," she explained. "My womb takes your soul's mortal shell from you, absorbs it into me, and restores you to a new body, free of all your injuries and diseases and all that stuff... I think you'd call it a clean slate kind of thing, right?"
 
Dominic slowly turned to look at her again. "That... that's crazy. You devour someone and return them to life?"
 
Narissa exhaled deeply with frustration, sagging her shoulders. "No! You aren't devoured, for crying out loud, Dominic! My body rejuvenated you."
 
"And what does it do with my... um... mortal shell, is it?"
 
She rolled her eyes. "Okay... your body is converted to magic energy to replenish me. But you didn't need food for several hours afterwards, did you?"
 
He lifted his finger with the intent to condemn her, but then her last comment silenced him with his jaw hanging open. He paused to think, and then sighed. "Okay... fine... what is that supposed to mean?"
 
"It means I nourished and replenished you as well."
 
"Lemme guess... Sarella and her best-friend-forever told you all this?"
 
"Well, yes," she nodded defiantly, "but you tell me. Aside from me being such an asshole with you about it, how would you say you feel?"
 
Dominic thought about it for a moment, and could not help but realize she had a point. Years of eating food of questionable quality and breathing the the nasty undercity air had left him constantly feeling under the weather even after moving up into the middle class sections of Los Angeles. Yet, now, after whatever Narissa had done to him, he felt healthier and downright cleaner inside than he'd ever felt in his entire life.
 
For once, he was actually feeling comfortable in his own skin.
 
He shrugged with resignation. "I feel a heck of a lot better, really."
 
She nodded. "And one other thing," she smiled crookedly at him, "I couldn't have made you scoot under me like that in your apartment without tapping a little into your own existing desires."
 
Dominic's mouth fell wide open. She'd absorbed his memories! She knew about that! "Hey!" he protested. "You... damn, you know I like... aw fuck."
 
She breathed deeply, letting her breasts swell before his eyes. "The Cerulean Dawn agreed to let me approach you, Dominic. But only with your permission. I know you like to behold the female sex and worship a woman with your lips. You fantasize about it a lot." She gestured to the bed and offered, "Come here and lay on your back and I'll give you all the time you want to indulge yourself. And this time I'll share memories with you..." She smiled. "The good ones."
 
Dominic groaned and turned slightly, toward his computer. Narissa had hit him right where she knew he was weak.
 
Putting her previously nasty attitude aside, Narissa was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen in his life. Well, at least, she was right up there with Sarella and Inessa. If she were any normal human female, he would have leapt out of his chair and onto his back in bed in a single move by now.
 
But perhaps it was even better that she was a fairy. She would make sure he wasn't hungry for a while longer, allowing him more time to spend away from looking at food. The last thing he wanted right now was to look at food, right after having been in someone's stomach.
 
Suddenly, being rejuvenated in Narissa's womb wasn't so horrible, when he looked at the dire alternatives presented to him just a day ago.
 
He turned to her and nodded. "And after I'm, eh, indulged?"
 
She spread her knees slightly. "On the way here to this facility, I spent a few moments inside Sarella... learning a few ways to make your trip into me a sweet and memorable experience." She circled her belly button slowly. "And maybe at the same time... we can both heal ourselves of our... unpleasant memories."
 
He got up and eased himself into bed, turning over on his back. "I guess we can try."
 
Narissa bent over and kissed him; the warmth and fullness of his lips made her insides flutter. "Now I can make up for all the hell I put you through..." she promised, swinging her leg over to straddle his belly.
 
 
 
Stacy Caston stood with her hand over her mouth as she and her husband Mark watched close-up footage of Nelenia's feet disappearing into Inessa's pink, throbbing vagina, and Inessa gently massaging her mound to make sure her prey was safely inside her before she slipped under her bed's covers. Standing behind them, Bernard Sabick stood, staring intensely, his arms clasped behind his back.
 
"This process you're looking at is what she calls Gaia's Blessing," Lucien Knowles explained, gesturing at the wall screen. "That woman... her name is Inessa... is trying to convince the woman now inside her... Nelenia... to forget her life as a Silurhean."
 
Mark rubbed his chin. "So how did she... I mean, how does she... forget her life as one of those things?"
 
Lucien was more than happy to answer. "Because, due to a complicated chain of events, she can no longer eat meat, even though in the past, she used to. She can, in fact, only receive sustainance by eating plants. Or maybe through this process you're seeing done to her here. Although I'm not sure about that, because it seems that when you enter her through Inessa's vagina... you come back, alive and in the same body you had before."
 
"My God..." Stacy spoke with her hand on her mouth. "What kind of... things... are these..." She then gestured frantically at the screen. "Things?"
 
Mark nodded. "Yeah, what are they?" He chuckled. "Man, this has got to be some kind of sick joke..." He turned to Lucien. "Not by you, I mean... I mean, someone designed these... things... with a sick sense of humor."
 
Lucien snorted. "That's entirely possible. But if you look here..."
 
The screen zoomed in on the cocoa toned skin of Inessa's lower belly, beneath her belly button, showing a form outlined in blue moving through a tight channel of flesh within - Nelenia, undulating as Inessa's vaginal muscles worked her inward, squeezing, massaging and gulping, carrying her deeper into her body.
 
Stacy gasped and stepped back. Mark's mouth fell open.
 
"Her physical body exists only until she gets here..."
 
The video fast forwarded until the humanoid form is squeezed through an invisible but resistant ring of flesh, to settle inside another chamber within Inessa.
 
"That's her womb," Lucien said. "We're not sure what happens here, but being consumed is not one of the viable answers that we have for this. What happens here is way too fast to fall under any credible definition of digestion."
 
A heartbeat after he spoke, the body within disappeared off the sensor display, and faint tendrils of light began to shoot out from the area of Inessa's womb, dispersing throughout her body.
 
Lucien tapped the screen and hit an icon. Suddenly, Inessa's body became a black silhouette ensconsed in an azure aura.
 
"See that? That's our Barrett-Takashi readout right before."
 
Then her aura flashed a bright, sky blue.
 
"And that is her soul aura after the woman inside her has been absorbed and has apparently ceased to exist."
 
"Her magic energy levels skyrocketed," Mark noted, now having settled into an analytical mindset.
 
Stacy cleared her throat, trying to reclaim her rationality as well. "So... um... she does consume her prey... she just does it really fast. Like absorption. Instantaneous absorption." She gestured to the screen. "I mean, it could be possible with magic."
 
"Yes, but then there's this..." Lucien added. "That woman inside Inessa comes back..."
 
The video display fast-forwarded past the arrival of another robed woman, then her departure, ultimately stopping right as another woman appeared next to Inessa in a flash of light.
 
"Now, as you can see, she's returned."
 
Stacy blinked. "Wow. Just... wow." She turned to look at Lucien with wide, disbelieving eyes. "Is that really the same woman who... you know... went into her?"
 
Lucien nodded. "We are in the process of preparing to determine that for sure."
 
Mark eyed Lucien suspiciously. "How can you do that?"
 
Lucien rubbed his chin. "We're working on that. We should have a plan within the day."
 
Bernard tightened his lip, speaking up. "I can tell you it's true."
 
Mark and Stacy turned to look at him.
 
"That one sitting next to Inessa... she calls herself Sarella... she did that to me. I was sleeping when she sneaked up on me and apparently teleported me into her body." He tapped his toes as he explained, "I woke up after she was gone, and found my magic and psychic power reserves were utterly maxed out, much faster than normal."
 
Lucien nodded. "According to her, your old body is used to replenish both her and yourself, in your new body."
 
"Conservation of mass and energy suggest this isn't possible," Bernard said, "unless the theory of chi is a reality."
 
"Ch..uh.. what?" Stacy asked.
 
"Chi." Lucien explained. "Energy from the spiritual plane of existence. This is the fundamental energy of all living things. Barret's theory says that each of us has a soul with a measurable amount of spiritual energy. This energy, expended by the simple process of living, springs from the spiritual plane - a universe even more infinite than this one."
 
Bernard's eyes shifted from side to side. "I know I should be putting two and two together here..."
 
Lucien nodded. "That's because it's possible that these Siluvarans... this Gaia's Blessing... somehow uses the absorbed person's Chi to rejuvenate them."
 
"That would work." Bernard came closer to the screen. "Maybe the soul is removed from the old body, releasing a flood of Chi from the spirit realm... which the host fairy captures and makes use of?"
 
"This is crazy, Mark," Stacy said anxiously, watching as Nelenia backed into a corner while Inessa got to her feet and Sarella came over to grab the frightened former Silurhean. "This can't be real..."
 
"Oh, it's real," Bernard said with a hint of irritation. "I read their minds. It's quite real. Their whole culture is built around how to cope with this ability."
 
"As well it should be," Lucien explained. Gesturing at the two women pressing against Nelenia, he added, "According to them, when your soul is placed into a new body, you leave behind all the damage done to your previous mortal shell."
 
"Damage?" Mark turned.
 
Bernard looked at him as well. "Indeed. I felt incredibly clean and much healthier, after my experience. Even my thoughts are clearer now." He gestured at the screen. "I mean, approaching this from a scientific perspective, she did rejuvenate me." He then sighed. "From a personal perspective... I'm still... upset... that the body my mother and father gave me, is gone."
 
Mark hugged Stacy, who kissed his cheek and pressed tightly against his side. "Are you saying here..." he pointed, "that the soul never changes, but the body is recycled and replaced?"
 
Bernard and Lucien both snapped their fingers at him. "Exactly!"
 
Lucien further noted, to their astonishment, "We believe that if all of this is true... and we will conduct experiments... this may in fact solve your fertility problem."
 
 
 
Rihanna could hardly eat another bite.
 
She had a simple, tall bowl of red beans and rice sitting before her - the simplest vegetarian dish with the proper mix of proteins and amino acids that even a Silurhean such as her couldn't survive without - but even though they had cheerfully honored her request not to have any meat, there was no escape from the revulsion that had slowly risen within her over the past day at this human-built prison.
 
Part way through her late night dinner, her stomach had begun to churn, purring with the satisfaction of digesting her meal. At first, she didn't notice it, but in the silence of the solitude of her kitchen dining room, it intensified, becoming a powerful gurgling that was impossible to ignore. The bubbling noise of food melting into a nutritious soup, and the contractions of her stomach pushing the now liquefied lunch into her intestines, eventually made her too disgusted with eating any more. And with her stomach absolutely stretched half way through, the gurgling was only getting louder. Soon, her intestines joined the chorus, converting the flood of liquid food into nutrients and sending it into her bloodstream. Her mana then swelled within her as both digested and undigestible portions were converted into magic energy.
 
She got up and walked around, hoping that would drown out the noise. Unfortunately, her bare feet scuffling against the carpet, only made her steps extremely silent.
 
Meanwhile, her stomach worked diligently on the food she'd eaten, bubbling and gurgling intensely, filling her intestines until she felt slightly bloated.
 
It was enough to make her sit with her back to the island range door and put her hands over her ears as she fought the urge to scream out loud.
 
It suddenly occurred to her why so many Silurheans back home were rebelling against eating meat, and were choosing the path of Gaia. What guilt could one feel about absorbing a fairy - or a human, for that matter - in her womb, and rejuvenating their soul into a new body?
 
She used to laugh at the idea of Silurheans feeling bad about eating animals. That time she encountered a stray lizard family - a group of horned beasts seven times her size, fleeing with their offspring, toward the sea, just weeks before her deployment on this mission - she'd had no problem shrinking the father in the lizard pack down to half her size and then teleporting it into her stomach. The doomed lizard's mate and children did not even attempt to avenge the father, lest others of her kind might catch up to them; he was all alone, cramped tightly in her belly, unable to escape. Of course, she had to crawl away and hide, as these animals were being bred to produce more food and eating one not designated to her as a ration, was illegal; but she managed to stay hidden as her impossibly swollen stomach digested the terrified, struggling beast. She sat at the root of a tree most of the time, around reading magic tomes as her stomach slowly shrank, pumping liquefied portions of her meal into her delightfully bloated guts where it sat until her body got around to absorbing it. At some point along this time, the struggles of the animal within her, finally stopped, and after a day, the last of her prey oozed down and out of her stomach. A few hours later, she was no longer bloated; her meal was completely done, and she would not have had to eat again for quite a while.
 
Ah, the joy of eating live prey...
 
So the hell much for that.
 
She tried not to even think directly about what she had done almost two days ago, but the dark, awful thoughts still fought their way to the top, where she could not ignore the shame roiling within her.
 
That creature could have spoken to her. She'd even manipulated the woman sexually, devouring her after her climax; then the woman's paramour after having him rut inside her.
 
How could anyone mate with their food?
 
What was she thinking?
 
Perhaps society was wrong to ignore past proscriptions against such unnatural acts? Maybe it was this guilt that was creeping over her like a pair of warm, wet lips sucking her into the guts of self-loathing, that her people were so concerned about?
 
And even now, she couldn't help but wonder if there were worse things to worry about than how all of this was screwing up her mind...
 
 
 
Narissa sighed and gave one last happy jerk of her hips, savoring the wet, slippery noise of her dripping mound grinding across Dominic's face.
 
"You made me gush all over you again," she giggled, admiring his sloppy wet face as she caressed the back of his head with her slender fingers, gently holding him up against her crotch.
 
"Mmmm," he moaned, nursing at her labia.
 
The tugging pressure of his mouth suckling her, made her insides spasm again; another gentle orgasm rocked her body, and before she realized it, she was rocking back and forth again, slurping and squishing.
 
"Oh, Dominic!" she cried, gasping for breath as she pushed up, freeing his arms from his sides.
 
They chuckled for a moment, watching her juices drooling down on his chin. "See how wet you made me?" she moaned, gently massaging her crotch above him.
 
"Mom is going to fucking kill me if she finds out about this..." he whispered, licking at his chin as she eased off of him. She bent down and kissed his chin, then his sticky wet lips to share her taste.
 
"I know," she said, before planting her mouth back on his so their tongues could engage in a brief duel. Then she lifted her head. "That's why I made her good and drowsy." She looked back at the doorway. "We have time, honey. She's gonna be out for a while."
 
Dominic gulped as she touched his cheeks with her fingers and kissed him again, looking softly into his eyes. "God, Narissa... what happened to you? You're all miss nice now..."
 
She giggled and traced her finger down his glistening wet chin. "I'm horny, Dominic," she sucked her own juices off her finger before his eyes, "and you're a nice guy." She gave his chin a firm, sucking kiss. "You licked the hell out of me and let me cum nice and wet in your mouth... how can I not like you?"
 
Dominic shuddered as her lips caressed him. "Jeez..." he moaned, "but I'm not even a fairy..."
 
Narissa moved back up and kissed his lips. "Oh but your parts and mine go together just fine." Her hand slid down across his chest, under his sweat pants to find his throbbing erection.
 
He arched his back as she gently slid her fingers over his stiff, sensitive organ, eliciting waves of pleasure that rippled through his body. "Narissa... oh my God..."
 
She looked into his eyes as she slid her thumb up and down his sensitive cock-vein. "Mmm... I should make you cum in your boxers..."
 
Her lover squirmed, jerking up against her hand. "Oh yeah... that feels like heaven, Narissa..."
 
Narissa kissed his chest, sliding her hand up over his shorts to pull his sweats down. "Aw, you're so sweet..." She clenched his cock through the fabric and began to pump him slowly. "Don't hold back, Dominic... just go ahead and cum."
 
He nodded; cumming in his pants for a woman was, for all its weirdness, the least perverted thing about to happen to him. "Okay... oh God, I can't believe I'm doing this..."
 
"You'll be just fine," she encouraged him, stroking faster as she felt him swell up and stiffen like a rock between her fingers. "Now cum for me, I need to feed you to my womb now."
 
His teeth clenched as his pleasure burned in his loins until the loving caress of her thumb across his cock-vein finally drove him over the edge. "Oh God, Narissa... yes... YES! OH FUCK!"
 
His penis only gave her one strong warning twitch before she felt it lurch violently. His shorts became instantly soaked under her fingers with slippery cum as he lifted his butt off the bed and ejaculated mightily with a loud exultant groan.
 
Narissa slid one hand under Dominic's upper back, holding him while his hips gyrated and his cock flooded his shorts, creating an enormous, visible wet spot around his crotch. Then she bent her head and kissed him full on his lips, her tongue delving back into his mouth while his orgasm continued to rage within him, until he finally breathed through his nose and collapsed on his back.
 
As she lifted her head and watched the satiated, exhausted look on his face, all doubts about whether she could live with this man faded away.
 
For a moment, she dwelled on her first moments on this planet, scurrying around in search of a human to fill her belly and satisfy her need for meat. It almost made her physically ill. What kind of demon seed of a Silurhean would look at these humans - with faces and bodies exactly like that of a fairy, except only that they lacked antennae and wings - and see them as something to be devoured?
 
The very thought turned her stomach; but the fact that it did, brought her relief. She had, in pursuing the very lascivious desires that goddess Rhea would have condemned her to death for had she been there to observe her, sent this human into her womb instead. By becoming an abomination to Rhea, she became able to live with herself. And she might well gain a friend and lover in Dominic.
 
She smiled as he closed his eyes and moaned, his body relaxing and succumbing to exhaustion.
 
She would have a lot to share with him this time.
 
Her lips moved silently, and Dominic shrank down to fit almost entirely in her palm.
 
Dominic could hardly bring himself to move as he rested in her hand, now small enough to go into Narissa's vagina. His orgasm had left him completely spent and weak; her fingers eased him into the damp entrance to her womanhood, his head passing into the darkness first.
 
He sighed and relaxed, bringing his hands to his sides for the sake of comfort as her slippery muscles clenched his shoulders and contracted with a loud slurp, sucking him in until his feet slipped inside the warm embrace of her body and her womanhood had succeeded in swallowing him whole again.
 
It was time to go back into this beautiful fairy's belly - again, by way of her vagina. But this time, he was much more coherent, much more aware as her silky wet walls wrapped tightly around him, manipulating him with purpose, enveloping him in Narissa's living warmth.
 
Forget his mother's wrath... nothing in the world could possibly match the pleasure of this full body massage Narissa's vagina was giving him. The feeling of her thick, sticky wet juices soaking him from head to foot to prepare him for his journey into her molten center was incredible enough - but then there was the overwhelmingly yet delightful musky aroma that made him re-discover the benefits of deep breathing all over again, the awe inspiring chorus of her muscles slurping and squishing; and the most moving sensation of them all - the thing that made his heart swell with a most forbidden joy - the long, deep rumble of Narissa's ecstatic moans vibrating through her body all around him, followed by the ripple of her muscles carrying him on his back deeper toward his destination within her forbidden depths.
 
When her slippery walls finally collapsed tightly around him, squeezing him uncomfortably, then pulsated powerfully, sending a wave of hot creamy juices washing over his entire body, he knew suddenly why she'd become so nice to him, and why he forgave her so readily.
 
He was both causing and experiencing a woman's orgasm, from inside her!
 
 
As soon as Narissa felt Dominic's feet slip inside her, she sat upright against the headboard and started to recall the way her muscles worked before when she'd had him. Breathing deep, she intentionally tensed her belly, causing her vagina to clench and swallow her companion deeper, until a delicious tremor of pleasure shot through her body, causing her toes to curl, letting her know that he'd settled on her g-spot as she planned.
 
Then she lifted her butt off the bed and started to gyrate slowly, moving him around in her vagina, using his body to masturbate that hypersensitive nub inside her. Pleasant tingles rippled through her groin as her juices started to drip on the sheets, while her muscles gently kneaded and rippled around Dominic.
 
It wasn't long before she found her rhythm, and she was able to work her muscles steadily around the human now trapped in her pussy, until her insides burned with pleasure and she found herself racing toward the edge.
 
And just as she'd told Dominic to do, she gave herself over to ecstasy.
 
Stars shot around in her head as her breath came short and fast until she let out a long, exultant cry, her breath finally catching in her throat. She bucked hard in bed from the force of her release, pumping out waves of cum all over the sheets as Dominic slipped further inside her, stroking every inch of her womanhood all the way into her hot, hungry center.
 
By the time she let out another exhale and fell on her back, her butt landing in her wet spot with a light splat, she could feel the fresh, raw energy coursing through her.
 
Suddenly her senses came to her - she was absorbing him! She could blow up the entire base!
 
Frightened, she sat upright and looked down at her belly.
 
Her abdomen was already glowing with tendrils of light shooting up beyond her breasts and down her legs to illuminate veins and nerve endings in her delicate feet, until the excess energy that she could not find a way to store inside her, dripped upwards into the air from almost every pore in of her body.
 
Once she had that under control, she turned even deeper inward.
 
There, within the confines of her being, she found Dominic, floating blissfully in a sea of ecstasy, helpless and perhaps even unwilling to resist her hungry womb as her body greedily partook of his life force and even his thoughts.
 
Now fully sated, she smiled and caressed her belly as she caught her breath and settled on her back, resting her head on his pillow.
 
It was time to explain some things to him.
 
 
 
Bernard Sabick sat cross-legged on the sands of the north shore of Big Bear Lake, facing the long-abandoned, cracked dome of the Big Bear Solar Observatory, listening to the lonely, moaning winds and studying the rapid movement of the dark gray clouds passing overhead through the reflection of the murky waters lapping apathetically at the shoreline.
 
Recharging his magic and psychic powers - his manaki - took time. A considerable amount of time. It was a weakness that plagued all psionicists and mages.
 
How strangely fortuitous it was that these fairies had come bearing for him a solution to this.
 
But, in return, he had been deprived of his body. The mortal shell he was born in, was now a part of Sarella. No doubt as she used up her magic reserves, she was using up that which had once been him; eventually, his former body would be completely spent away into nonexistence.
 
His eyebrows furrowed.
 
He could not dare let his manaki drop so low again that anyone, especially a fairy, could sneak up on him like that. He'd seen the terror in Dominic and Felecia's hearts as they slid down the throats of hungry fairies to settle in their growling stomachs, helpless to avoid the horrifying agony of being digested and the tragic fate of becoming nutrients flowing into some alien women's guts. Even though Gaia's Blessing saved them, and would no doubt save him, he himself had dreamt about having suffered the same end - and despite his attempts at meditation and self-control, the thought of enduring that for real, fueled a primal revulsion that made him physically cringe - something he never imagined he would experience with the combined power of both psionics and magic at his disposal.
 
His fists clenched tightly.
 
And who were these fairies? Weren't fairies supposed to be flighty, playful things that frolicked around and, at worst, played funny little pranks? Why couldn't they at least come bearing some kind of sex drive? What from the depths of Hell could have twisted these unearthly beautiful creatures into monstrosities that sought to devour human beings? Sure, one would have to expect that if a fairy was what they appeared to be in all those depictions of their kind drawn over the ages, she have to eat to live. Anything with a mouth had to eat. But for God's sake... humans? How could... why would anything that beautiful bring to humanity the immediate threat of a horrifying, lonely, painful death in their bellies? And even the Siluvarans - those who couldn't eat any kind of meat - instead put humans in their wombs to absorb; they still took control of their prey's bodies and converted them into nutrients or magic energy. But at least the end result was their victim came back stronger and healthier - in a new body.
 
Regardless, any fairy one was to look at, was who she was because she had used someone for her sustenance.
 
Someone such as himself.
 
Bernard Sabick rose to his feet.
 
This was bullshit. These aliens were far beyond merely... alien. They were not meant for this reality. There was no place for their perversity or bizarre ways on Earth.
 
Or, as he pondered while looking up at the perpetually twilight sky, was Earth exactly how those Siluvarans secretly saw it - an oasis of bizarrely unexciting, oblivious reality in a universe far more alive and deadly than any human could ever fathom?
 
Then again, who cared how exotic the universe was? What mattered, deep down, was that whenever he looked at Sarella, he would know his body flowed through her veins and nervous system to nourish and recharge her.
 
His teeth clenched and his lips tightened.
 
He - Bernard Sabick, a psi-mage - had been some fairy's damned sustenance! And he would live to serve as vital resources for her again if she could just catch him off-guard; in her mind, he found she had developed a craving for him.
 
How dare she harvest him to recharge herself?
 
Rocks and droplets of water slowly drifted upward in the air around him as he pondered how he was going to deal with Sarella and her kind.
 
Bernard knew he had a bit of a temper control issue; he carried a mean grudge when wronged, and he had the power to settle it in blood. Many times he had to show restraint against those who crossed him, but those were humans, of whom God commanded, thou shalt not kill. Far too many times he had to, out of a fear for his immortal soul, fight down his burning desire to fry someone to death as a warning to others; even murderers, whom he handed to authorities who eventually did the same to them anyway.
 
But this was not a human he was dealing with now.
 
He smiled. He was free to deal with this offender as he pleased. They only needed one Siluvaran to survive.
 
Inessa could go back home and tell her people of the terrifying guardians of Earth who could reduce her kind to ashes with nary a thought.
 
But then again, what would such an act be but that of a wild animal lashing out?
 
Lightning sparked across his body, then whipped outwards, splitting rocks into pebbles and reducing droplets of water into a fine, steamy mist.
 
If he was going to put Sarella down, he was going to do so with his bare hands.
 
"You know, I've heard of symbiotic relationships before... but the Siluvarans... they are the pinnacle of symbiosis."
 
Rocks and water fell back to the shoreline with a loud splash; without turning his head, he waved away some of the warm mist created by his psychic powers. "Symbiosis, you say?"
 
Lucien Knowles came to stand next to him. "Yes, the Siluvarans are symbiotes of sorts. They can only function as such with their own kind - and, to their astonishment as much as ours, us as well."
 
Bernard nodded. "Symbiosis is a mutually beneficial relationship."
 
"Exactly." Before Bernard could respond, Lucien lifted a finger. "That is exactly what the Siluvarans offer to those that they take." Lucien turned to him and lifted his hood. "Tell me... do you not feel a bit stronger than before?"
 
"Angrier. That usually makes me stronger."
 
Lucien's snort made Bernard's lip twitch. "I imagine you would feel more like an engine cleansed of gunk." He folded his arms and stared out at the ruined observatory. "Of course, you could use the very benefits that Sarella has given you, to burn her to ashes."
 
Bernard lowered his trembling fists to his sides, as if throwing them down in slow motion. "Humans are nothing but sustenance to the likes of her. It just so happens we get something back in return."
 
"You're putting the chicken before the egg here."
 
"That depends. Why did she seek me out? To replenish me or herself?"
 
A moment of silence followed before Lucien replied, "She desired to replenish the both of you."
 
"Guard, she Let's put it this way. She needed to recharge her magic. If it weren't for that..."
 
"She was also looking for a mate."
 
Bernard responded emphatically, "Not interested. She's an alien. Far too alien for me."
 
"Is she really?"
 
Bernard's stomach turned in response to his words. Looking to his side at Lucien, he shuddered. "You know something, don't you? Spit it out. Before I have to... ask again."
 
Lucien remained unmoved. "It involves Rihanna. You will have to see this for yourself."
 
 
 
"Dominic."
 
Dominic could not glance around to find the source of that soft, gentle voice whispering inside his head.
 
Probably because his head didn't exist - at least, not in the physical sense.
 
He was floating in a sea of white, staring up at the black, starless void above, without his physical body to anchor him to any physical sensations - with the exception of the indescribable pleasure that was now somehow coursing through him.
 
At first, it was all-consuming, far too distracting for him to notice the voice calling out to him, or even care about it. Then, the euphoric feeling waned - not to the point of lacking, but just to where he could think about other things... like who was responsible for this.
 
"Narissa?"
 
"Well hello there, young man," she chimed. "I hope you're enjoying this as much as I am."
 
"So this is why you want me..."
 
"It's like sex, Dominic... but so much better. I can feel the magic energy that was once your physical form, flowing warmly through me... replenishing me, setting off millions of tiny little orgasms all over my body... especially in my private parts. My nipples are on fire... so stiff, so... mmm..."
 
So she wanted him because it made her feel good? How could he blame her? This had become a case of simple, uncontrollable lust. As he sank deeper into the ocean of Narissa's soul, the calm waves warming and relaxing him, he wondered how he didn't see this before.
 
"But that's just the icing on the cake. The fact is, because of you, I escaped the madness that's consumed my people..." she continued. "They have so little regard for life that they even devour each other! You turned me away from that, and you have no idea how grateful I am."
 
Dominic found her message hard to accept; sure, it was logical... but deep down he knew she no longer saw him as food because she saw him as a mate instead. "I... don't know what to say. I'm glad I helped change your life... I suppose."
 
"Dominic... I can understand your disbelief. You don't see me longing for a hamburger, do you?"
 
"Well, I don't know... do you?"
 
A brief pause followed, before her amused voice spoke in his mind, "Funny. I guess you can't tell my thoughts like I can tell yours."
 
"My thoughts? You're telepathic?"
 
"No... but while I'm absorbing you into me... I can also absorb your thoughts... and your memories."
 
"You're kidding me..."
 
He could sense her giggling at him; but what she said next did not have him laughing. "No, I'm not. I know you'd like to lose your virginity."
 
Even though his heart did not physically exist at the moment, he could still feel it sinking. "Oh my God..."
 
"Ummm... would you like to give it to me?"
 
"We don't have time for that."
 
"Sure we do. If you let go and cum when your body says to..."
 
"Are you saying you don't expect me to last?"
 
"I'm saying I don't want you to. Now relax, Dominic. Sarella taught me an ability I want to try out."
 
The brilliant light of Narissa's being began to rise up over his head. "What ability?" he thought nervously.
 
"The ability to absorb some of your consciousness. It helps me reach deeper into your memories... and to share myself with you as well."
 
"My consciousness?"
 
"Yes... only temporarily, though. You'll feel my thoughts intrude on yours - for the most part. Sarella says it's impossible to completely replace your mind with mine, but this way I can share my life with you."
 
"Oh my God..." he said to himself as he sank completely beneath the motionless waves and everything turned white. "Narissa, are you sure about this?"
 
Memories of the world she'd left for Earth, began to nudge his thoughts aside as her voice reassured him, "Shhh, you'll be just fine. I went through this with Sarella earlier today..."
 
 
 
"...the thing that gets me is, where did the US Army get the information they needed to make their simulation?"
 
Thomas Johnson was a tall, gangly man with glasses, who was, judging by his choice of clothes, trying to make lab coats into a fashion statement. Today, he was wearing his navy blue camouflage theme, the only camouflage colors the Cerulean Dawn could stand to see in their midst. Camouflage colors - especially the forest green variant - reminded far too many of the military, and its revived legacy of forcing men into combat. But the navy blue theme paid homage to their organization's signature color. "Hell, I'd like to know how our guys knew 'bout those Silurheans."
 
Mark Caston sat back in his chair, his legs crossed as he smiled at his wife Stacy reading something on her console. "We've got a lot of questions to answer, Mr. Johnson, and that's definitely one of the top ten. We know of the Silurheans through our infiltration of their documents, but where they got it from? God only knows. We do know they'd be stupid to try and recruit the Silurheans as weapons."
 
Thomas nodded. "Well, thank God we have the Silurheans and Silvuarans here. What a stroke of luck that was."
 
"Yeah," Stacy turned, chipping in, "it's especially lucky that MJ-12 is busy studying the crashed Silurhean colony ship in the Pacific. We really lucked out that they didn't have the resources to pounce on that fight in the forest."
 
"What was really fortunate was the fact that Bernard was there in the mix," Mark pointed out. "His presence here will be invaluable if we're ever attacked."
 
"And here I was, thinking you just liked me for me," a man's voice joked.
 
The group turned to see Bernard Sabick striding into the room confidently, with Lucien Knowles close behind.
 
Mark turned and pointed at him with mock surprise. "Oh, hey, you weren't supposed to hear that, dude. Top secret stuff, man. Now I'm gonna have to have someone follow you around playing Naked Russian Clowns' latest album."
 
Stacy raised an eyebrow at her husband and whistled.
 
Bernard stopped in his tracks, holding his hands up. "Woah. Just shoot me in the head, okay?" he laughed nervously. "Why ya gotta go with the one hundred decibel cacophony exploding head maneuver?"
 
Thomas was quick to add, "Hey! What if we took their music and transmitted it into space and the Silurheans heard it?"
 
Lucien, meanwhile, came to the front of the room and leaned over one of the unoccupied computers on the wall-spanning console desk. Clearing his throat conspicuously, he called up the wall screen in front of him, making it glow a bright, featureless white. "Since I have all of you here at the same time, I won't have to call you to see this," he announced. Turning to the others, he gestured, "The first and most important experiment of all, the experiment carried out by Mother Nature herself, is underway as we speak."
 
Bernard shrugged at the curious glances shifting between him and Lucien. "Don't ask me. I'm just as curious as you."
 
Mark chuckled as Bernard took a seat between him and Thomas. "One hundred decibel cacophony exploding head maneuver? Damn, that was good."
 
The screen then changed to a side view of Rihanna sitting at her dining table, her crimson-hued body slumped over the bowl of salad she appeared to be staring into.
 
"Hmmm..." Lucien rubbed his chin, "she even more depressed than ever. I feared as much..."
 
Stacy cocked her head; then she leaned back in her chair and rubbed her chin. "Damn. She's been down in the dumps since she got here, but sheesh. Is that some kind of guilt salad you served her or what?"
 
Her husband chuckled. "Sure looks like it."
 
Thomas snickered, triggering laughter from the other three as he said, "Maybe she'll kill herself."
 
Lucien then zoomed in on her abdominal area, hidden under the sheets. "You may not be laughing if things have turned out the way I fear."
 
Bernard, Mark, Stacy and Thomas all turned their full attention to the screen. "What? What's going on?" Mark's eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?"
 
"We turned one of our base's BT scanners on this Silurhean woman," Lucien explained. "As you would expect, her aura is blood red, like that of one of her kind after they just ate animal proteins... I mean, Donald and Caralee... God rest their souls."
 
Bernard slowly eased himself out of his chair as he noticed the camera focusing in on faint blue glow down in her lower abdomen. Pointing at the screen, he cut in, "I'm confused. What's that faint blue aura?"
 
Lucien sighed. "It's just as I feared. That is much like the blue aura we see when we turn our BT scanners on the Siluvaran women." Bernard nearly staggered back into his chair as Lucien added, "I believe that right there is another soul inside her."
 
Thomas pointed at the screen uneasily while looking at Lucien. "She's doing that whole Gaia's thing on someone? But Sarella said that's imposs-"
 
"Son of a fucking bitch," Mark cringed. "That ain't Gaia's Blessing we're looking at..."
 
 
 
There was no hiding from a Silurhean. Neither the cover of walls or a hundred yards of dense forest could conceal prey from the searching eyes of a daughter or son of Rhea. An invisibility spell was, while great for ambushing food animals, quite useless for avoiding detection by other fairies, for it did not mask the presence one's soul, which was what fairies had the ability to see.
 
Once detected, one's aura determined one's fate. Silurheans were easily identified by their varying hues of crimson. Gray auras meant animals, which meant food. But then, recently, other auras had begun to appear in the world - unnatural auras that brought the plagues of madness and death.
 
She'd seen first hand the horrors of close contact with those Silurheans whose auras had turned purple. Both she and Nelenia had fought off purple-aura zombies back at home.
 
But those, apparently, weren't the worst of the lot. The blues - the worst ones were the ones that could, as Narissa had done, feed their prey to their wombs; those of her kind who then ate those prey, died. Burned to ash, just like Tenak.
 
As she sat there grabbing her head in her hands, the mere idea that such an act was possible, defied any hope of rationalization. How did parts of the body that were meant for reproduction and bearing life, become capable of so readily taking that life back and restoring it? What was the point? Besides, of course, altering that life so that none others could consume it?
 
Perhaps the question was moot anyway; Rihanna had already resolved, for the sake of her sanity, to never seek animal proteins again as long as she lived. Sure, animal proteins - particularly when gained from living things - rejuvenated her body, facilitated far faster healing, and recharged her magic reserves much faster than, say, the not so fresh black beans in the salad in the bowl in front of her. And the humans she'd consumed had provided her with far more magic, healing energy and nutrients than a month's worth of the food sitting on the table before her now. But now it was apparent to her that the level of nourishment was greatly proportional to the level of damnation she incurred upon herself. Dead or living plant matter was the least effective at replenishing her body and magic, but there was no evil done there. Humans, on the other hand...
 
The longer she stared at the salad, the more she realized, perhaps the question wasn't so moot after all. Didn't Inessa say she completely healed and recharged herself after one or two times feeding Dominic's mother to her womb? And her prey was still alive afterwards - although, according to her, that 'Felecia' woman now resided in a new version of her body.
 
Same soul, new body? Why... that would mean she could be consumed repeatedly.
 
Rihanna lifted her head. That couldn't be!
 
But what if it was true? This, and the danger of eating the prey of women like Inessa, would explain why the Silurhean Gvernment was so panicked, and so secretive, about these 'blues'.
 
Indeed, the question was not moot at all. The answer reached to the very heart of the difficulty of modern life in Siluria; these blue-aura Silurheans represented the total destruction of the Silurhean way of life!
 
And that, she realized as she looked down at her belly, was what had just come into existence inside her, not even a few hours ago.
 
But how did this happen? She was a red - a true, red aura Silurhean. What was this being with the azure aura growing inside her?
 
Her thoughts were interrupted by a rising sense of nausea as her stomach growled again.
 
Rihanna stirred her salad around apathetically. She couldn't even bring herself to eat so much as spinach greens. How did it come to this?
 
"Well, well, well," an amused voice gloated behind her.
 
Rihanna slowly turned to see a man in black combat boots, blue jeans, a black t-shirt and a blue cap, as he came over and took a seat across the small table from her, turned around, and sat down, gripping the back of the chair to study her face.
 
Bernard Sabick. The one who'd wanted to kill her and who eventually knocked her unconscious.
 
A smirk played across his lips as he asked insincerely, "What's got you down... Rihanna? Dinner didn't agree with you?"
 
Her lip curled slightly. "Leave me alone," she snarled.
 
Bernard tapped the crown of the chair's metal backing. "You know, I would have ripped your head off out there in the forest." Then he paused to rub his chin and reconsider. "No, wait, actually, I was cooking up a pretty mean fireball. Yeah. I'd have roasted you. Pity that Lucien intervened."
 
She slowly raised her head to glare at him. Then she shook her head and bowed again. It wasn't worth it. This one was toying with her; there was nothing she could say that would sway him from bothering her - and most anything she could say felt like empty words, anyway.
 
If she was so sorry about eating those humans, why wasn't she sorry ahead of time? Why didn't she just not do it? He had every right to say that to her. After all, her victims were members of his species. And, barring her nauseating revulsion toward that sickening act, she - or another of her kind - might devour him when if he could be caught off guard.
 
Regardless of her reasoning, the words, "Look, human... I'm sorry," managed to escape her lips, even though came mostly under her breath.
 
He rubbed his chin, squeezing his lips in a brief moment of thought. "Hmmmm. Really now. Did you, by any chance, tell Donald and Caralee you were sorry before you flushed what was left of them down the crapper?"
 
He could have done less to hurt her by planting his boot right in her face. A burning flash of psychic pain stabbed deep into her gut and ripped its way right up to her throat in a fiery condemnation of the every part of her whatsoever brought nourishment to her body. It hurt so bad her eyesight exploded with a blinding supernova of agony that no healing spell could ever cure.
 
It was not a physical pain. It was an agony she felt deep in her soul.
 
"Fairies... don't... crap..." she hissed, glaring defiantly at him.
 
"Oh, lucky for them," he threw up his hands sarcastically. "They and the human you ate later, still died screaming in indiscribable agony, their flesh melting off their bones, and all that time, you were sorry, I suppose?" He looked off into the air for a moment. "Oh wait," he turned sharply back toward her, "you weren't sorry then, were you? Did you at least chew before-"
 
Rihanna abruptly pushed herself away from the table, got to her feet and backed far away from him. "STOP IT!" she howled, a tear rolling down her cheek. "Please, stop! It hurts! I hate what I did, okay? I hate myself! Aren't you supposed to be a mind reader or something? Don't you KNOW this?!"
 
Bernard laughed out loud, standing up as well. "You hate yourself?! Oh now that's what I call atonement!" He shoved the chair aside, then the table, kicking her chair over on its side as he stomped toward her and got in her face, backing her up to the wall. "Well, where *I* come from, sorry just don't cut it! Hating yourself isn't what we call atonement!" He smacked his palm into her chin, bumping her head hard against the wall.
 
If Rihanna had any intent to strike back, that instinct was driven out of her by the two subsequent slaps he delivered to her face with such force that it sent her crumbling onto her side on the floor.
 
"Not even THAT's enough, where *I* come from!" he shouted, pointing stiffly at her. Then he flashed her a menacing, sadistic smile. "But you know what... I'm a gracious man. I'll let you live. I can't wait to tell your kid that you ate his father."
 
Rihanna's mouth fell open as she looked sideways, up at him, her hands covering her burning cheek. "You... you sick... evil bastard."
 
Bernard snickered, wagging his head at her, "Cha cha chaaa." Folding his arms, he added, "Every time he eats a grape he'll know his dad went down your throat the same way... except his daddy was alive when your stomach started to melt him into a nice nutritious puddle of-"
 
"OH FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR DIETY, STOP IT!!!" she screamed, turning away from him and curling into a ball. "Just stop it! Please!"
 
The front door slid open, but he paid that no mind. "Okay..." he shrugged. "Well, you could get rid of that abomination festering in you... or I could do it for you."
 
"That's enough, mister Sabick," Lucien stepped in between them.
 
Bernard lifted his hand and flicked his index finger to the left; helpless to resist Bernard's overwhelming psychic power, Lucien's feet slid aside, moving him out of the way.
 
"Say goodbye to your little kid, woman," Bernard then aimed his finger at the now wide-eyed, terrified Rihanna as she scrambled to move out of his field of vision.
 
"BERNARD! NO!" Lucien's eyes were equally as wide as he howled in protest.
 
Bernard rolled his eyes. "Aw, come on, people," he laughed, suddenly turning to walk away. "She, I can expect to be that ignorant, but you? If I wanted that little zygote gone, I would have ripped it out of her from all the way back in the observation room, for God's sake. And you'd have thought it was Mother Nature that did it." He threw up his arms and walked by Lucien. "I'm just fucking with her... rubbing her nose in the fact that she's helpless. She's my fucking bitch, FOR LIFE! And she better not ever forget it! She deserves it... after all, those three men that died being digested alive in her stomach were all once someone else's unborn babies."
 
Lucien sighed as Bernard snickered.
 
"Don't worry, Lucien... I intend to make sure this baby happens." Bernard said as he came to the door, stopped and looked back with a grin plastered on his face. Laughing, he explained, "I'm gonna be there to see her answer to her kid for what she did to her baby's father. And I bet you will be there, too. With popcorn and drinks."
 
Lucien shook his head as Bernard then walked out into the hall and was gone from sight. As the door slid shut, he turned back to Rihanna, who was now curled up into a little ball with her back to him, crying softly.
 
"Your story has been foretold, young lady," he said calmly, after taking a deep breath. "Bernard dwells upon the evil of your deeds. But what is done is done. The Rihanna that you were a few days ago, is dying," he pointed to her and added, "and the child that will soon implant in your womb, is the key to the birth of the new Rihanna."
 
With a respectful bow, Lucien then turned and departed as well.
 
Rihanna shuddered, sobbing more intensely as the humans left and the horrifying truth wrapped its cold wings around her.
 
The truth was, she hated herself for what she had done to those humans. Her soul had been tainted. She had committed the worst possible evil in Rhea's name, as Rhea had commanded her.
 
The souls of those whose bodies she had consumed were the same as her soul. The fertilized egg within her, even as nothing more than a group of dividing cells, had told her this, and she could not deny it from the first moment she glanced down and saw a hint of its life-aura twinkling faintly in her womb.
 
She was evil. She was a condemned being, an abomination. She had consumed the very father of her child. Because of her own actions, she would never be able to show him his baby.
 
But this was no longer about just her condemnation. She was lost - and she would have to find a way to come to peace with that.
 
This was about protecting the innocent, blameless life within her - and the only thing that remained of Donald - from not only these men in robes, but also Bernard Sabick, whose wrath she knew she would one day face.
 
And so the truth set her free. Or, at least, the last of her tears.