Lost in Eros 3: The Return 06

NOTE: I don't know any Stephanie Ayers, and no reference to any actual person is intended by the use of that name in this chapter or any future ones that I may write.

The Sage & a Kind of Good-Bye

"The Sage is ready to see you now," said Wei, the tall Asian man who they had learned was the Abbot of the brown-robed monks – or the Order of Record Keepers, as they called themselves.

Don gently urged Nicole to release his cock from her mouth and promised they would get back to playing soon. As he tied his grey robe about himself, Don saw that Tascha, who had been riding up and down on Alan's lap only a moment before was also hurrying to make herself "presentable". After waking up hours ago, and the following, almost routine, morning sex (Well, that's definitely the right way to start the day, particularly when you wake up sandwiched between two naked, sexy women! Don thought to himself with a happy smile), they had had a bite of breakfast and been asked to wait until they were called for. While they learned a little bit more about the Order, most of the morning was spent in lazy sexual play. It was now shortly after midday, and at least two of them were quite eager to meet this person whom they had been awaiting, and had gone to such lengths to find.

They followed Wei to the foot of a winding staircase and proceeded up. At the top, behind a modest door, they were admitted to a good sized study, complete with shelves filled with row upon row of books. Windows all around the room let bright sunlight in. There were a few comfortable chairs, and a nice desk, behind which, in a brown robe, sat a middle aged woman with thick, dark brown hair falling down around her shoulders. She was apparently reading the last page of a stack of typed material.

Wei gestured to a set of chairs that had been drawn into a circle of four, and said, "Please, make yourself comfortable, she will be right with you."

Sure enough, right after he had closed the door behind himself but before they could get comfortable in their chairs, the woman looked up at them and smiled. "Hello," she said as she stood up and came around the desk. "You're obviously Don, and I'm guessing you're Tascha and you're Nicole."

"That's right, and you're 'the Sage'?" Tascha asked.

"That's what they call me," she smiled as she sat down in a high-backed chair.

"I admit, I was expecting someone a bit ... more wizened," Don smiled.

"Well, it's really just a title, like 'the Crone', though I suspect the similarities end about there. You can call me Charlotte if you prefer."

"Pleased to meet you, Charlotte," Tascha said.

"Likewise," Charlotte smiled again. "I know you must have many questions, but let me just say, I've just finished reading your various reports, and I've enjoyed them very much. Our scribes are chosen for their skill at asking the right sorts of questions and their ability to flesh out the stories they're given, but in this case they've had very good material to work with. The three of you have had some very interesting adventures. I particularly enjoyed reading about your encounter with the Bull, Tascha."

"So, everyone who comes here looking for you tells their story and you read it?" Nicole asked.

"Yes, that's right. I confess, my personal 'kink' is to get off reading about, and sometimes watching, the exploits of others. I would have finished reading your reports earlier, but I had to keep stopping to masturbate."

"Wouldn't it have been more efficient for us to just tell you directly?" Nicole asked with a twinkle in her eye that the Sage seemed to miss.

"Well, yes, but there are two problems with that," Charlotte answered. "One, we keep all the stories, as a record and a source of study..."

"You could just have someone type it up as we told you," Tascha pointed out.

Charlotte nodded, "That's quite true, but then the narrator would be bristling with questions for me, which would slow things down and cause all kinds of complications."

"Is that the second problem?" Don asked.

"No, the second one is that there seems to be some benefit to having each person tell his or her own story, and then comparing them."

"How have our stories diverged?" Don wanted to know.

"Well, I've only just read the three of them, and haven't had hardly any time to think about them, but Don's way of looking at your time here in Eros involves a lot of digressions and interconnections, while Tascha's is more straight-forward. Nicole's is actually rather journalistic."

Don could see that Nicole had half a mind to object to this, but he cut in with, "OK, but what's the point of all this anyway?"

Charlotte the Sage frowned slightly and said, "I assume you mean the record-keeping?"

"Well, for now, yes."

"At some point, long ago, the first Sage decided that one way of trying to make sense of the whys and wherefores of Eros was to start recording the experiences of people who, like him, remembered their lives before waking up here."

"And, has it helped?" Tascha asked.

"Well, it certainly makes for some stimulating reading," Charlotte laughed. Then she added, "It definitely has served to build up some generalizations that seem to be helpful."

"Such as?" Don prodded.

"Every single person who has come here, to this Abbey, and this goes back for 450 Erosian years, has spoken English rather fluently. Now, the only people who we interview are those who remember their lives prior to waking up here, but none of them has ever reported meeting anyone who doesn't speak English. This suggests that either the people who don't remember spoke English before they arrived here, were somehow rewired to speak English upon being brought over, or are native Erosians. This all seems to strongly suggest that whomever or whatever is responsible for selecting people for Eros speaks English, and that seems quite surprising and noteworthy to me."

"So, which is it, were they brought here or are they natives?" Nicole asked.

"They were brought," Don said quietly, remembering his and Tascha's visit to the Library in the Manor.

"Well, the evidence does suggest that," Charlotte nodded. "They seem to have various personality traits and interests that wouldn't make sense for native Erosians, for one thing."

"That's what I was thinking," Don added.

"Also, some people have actually met people they recognized or even knew quite well from Earth, but who seemed to have no memory of that other life."

"That must have been bizarre," Tascha said.

"It has sometimes been ... awkward, to say the least," nodded Charlotte.

"All of this is very interesting, but you mentioned whomever, or whatever, is selecting people from Earth – English speaking people from Earth," Don said as he leaned forward. "Who or what is doing this, and why? What's the point of it all?"

Charlotte smiled again, "I honestly can't say. I admit that the question puts me in a philosophical frame of mind. Imagine if I asked you what the point of it all was on Earth. Anyway, there are theories, of course. Some Sages have thought that we were being held prisoner here as lab rats, running countless experiments on human sexuality, others that there is some power, or powers, who feed off human eroticism, or who have lost the ability to generate it for themselves – the ultimate voyeurs. There seems no question that there's some intelligence behind it, though."

"Why do you think so?" Tascha asked.

"Well, it only selects people who are quite dissatisfied with their Earthly sex lives." Charlotte held up her hand to forestall Tascha's objection. "The fact that it is very hard to sort out exactly what counts as such dissatisfaction seems to lend weight to this consideration. No doubt, Tascha would hesitate to say that she was dissatisfied in any way with Sarah, but it seems clear from reading her story that she would hardly think of the sex life she was having before as being satisfying now. Almost every single person who has found his or her way here has thought that being brought to Eros was a wonderful gift, which has led some to speculate that this was some kind of heaven."

Don couldn't resist scowling at this notion, and Charlotte noticed. "I don't buy that either," she said with a smile. "On the other hand, it's the best afterlife I've ever heard of. Going back to the question of intelligence, one of the most telling bits of evidence is the two of you, Don and Tascha."

After taking a moment to scowl thoughtfully at this suggestion, Tascha asked, "What do you mean?"

"As far as our records indicate, the two of you are unique. No pair of friends has ever woken up together like you have. Before you ask, I have absolutely no idea what that might mean. Perhaps it's for the purposes of one of those psycho-sexual experiments."

There was a moment of silence before Don decided to ask, "What's up with the black robed figures?"

"The Watchers," Charlotte nodded. "Another indication that there is some kind of intelligent process going on. After 450 years of accumulating data, there has never been anyone – anyone recorded, anyway – who has managed to talk to, or even catch hold of, one of those bastards. They watch for a bit; then, when you think you're going to get your hands on one, they're gone."

"Is it science or magic?" Tascha asked.

"I'm inclined to follow Arthur C. Clarke on this one and say I don't really know that there's a difference in this context."

"There are so many questions," Don muttered, shaking his head. "How many people remember their lives? What's the distribution of their wheres and whens? Is there anything they all have in common besides being sexually frustrated?"

"Is there a way to get home again?" Tascha asked resolutely.

Charlotte, knowing this was the issue that had motivated them in seeking her out, turned to Tascha with a serious expression and said, "Yes, or so it would seem anyway. There are apparently at least two ways. The first is to become bored with life in Eros. It seems that when that happens you will simply go missing, and it's presumed that you return to your Earthly life. As to the other, more proactive, way, the lake outside is the headwater of a river that runs several hundred kilometers to an ocean or a sea – we haven't been able to get anyone to engage in any kind of systematic exploration. Along the coastline to the left of mouth of river..."

"To the left facing the sea?" Don asked.

"Yes," Charlotte smiled again. "Go down the river, then turn left, and proceed along the coast, until you find a place called the Grotto of Ishtar, or just the Grotto. There, according to two people who have accompanied others seeking to leave, you'll find a way to return home."

Tascha looked like she was ready to head off immediately, but a couple of concerns occurred to Don. He said, "I'm troubled by something: how can anyone here know that people return home safely? And, now that I'm saying that, how did the Scholar know that time moves differently here in Eros? It doesn't seem to make sense that wecould know these things unless someone has been able to return home and thencome back."

"Very good, Don," Charlotte nodded, and Don found himself thinking that she must have been a teacher back on Earth. She explained, "There seems to be a way to go back and forth between Eros and Earth more or less at will. One of the more enterprising people who have visited the Abbey several times, a Stephanie Ayers, found someone with this ability and talked to him at great length. She then tracked down two more people, and in doing so was able to confirm these rumors and suppositions."

"How are they able to do it?" Don asked intently.

"Stephanie says they have 'magic rings' that allow them to 'decide' to wake up in either Eros or Earth; or, should that be 'on'?"

"Where do they get those rings, and what do they look like?"

"I cannot answer the first, Don, but apparently they are simple rings of a shiny black material, something like hematite."

Don sat back in his chair.That sounds familiar! After a moment of reflection, he smiled broadly and said, "I think I've seen someone with one of those, and I'm pretty sure I can find her again."

Charlotte gave Don a long look and said, "I can guess what you have in mind, Don, but I should warn you that these ring people are not only very possessive of their rings, but also very evasive about how they came to acquire them. Stephanie hasn't been able to get any useful information so far, and she's been at this a while."

Tascha brought the discussion back to the main topic with, "I wanted to ask another question – our flying carpet stopped working and several hundred kilometers is a long way – do you know of any way to make the trip quicker?"

"Well, yes," Charlotte answered, "I would take the riverboat."

"The riverboat?"

"Yes, there's a riverboat that goes from the Resort down to the city on the coast, Rendezvous, and back. You might have to wait for it sometime, it doesn't keep to a schedule very well, but it docks just outside of the Resort, through the gate opposite the one you used to come here."

"Wait," Don cut in, "there's a city?"

"Well, it's a town, really, but it's the biggest one in Eros as far as I know."

This prompted what felt like a dozen questions in Don's mind, starting with those of economics. He was still having a hard time coming to grips with the weirdness of how Eros worked.

"Thank you for your time, Charlotte," Tascha was saying.

Although Don wanted to interject with, "Are we leaving already?" he realized how important it was for Tascha to stay on the task of returning to Sarah, so he set aside the questions he was dying to ask and stood, saying, "Thank you very much." Nicole followed suit.

The Sage stood up as well, and said, "If you decide to stay longer in Eros, please feel welcome to return to the Abbey anytime."

Don smiled warmly at this suggestion, and thought it was a bit odd that he was leaving this attractive, intelligent woman without having had the pleasure of, well, pleasuring her. Eros had definitely altered his way of thinking.

At the foot of the winding staircase, Wei met them with one of his smiles and their clothing. Once they had changed, Wei led them back to the entrance-exit. The other "monks" seemed particularly scarce. Similarly, the huge guardian of the bridge was nowhere to be seen as they crossed it.

Tascha set the pace down the trail for the Resort. She was clearly in a hurry to get on the road, or river, as the case may be, to this Grotto of Ishtar. Don kept up with her easily, but also kept an eye on Nicole, who didn't walk as fast as Don and Tascha even when they weren't hurrying. He could tell that something was troubling the pretty young woman, but his own mind was still bustling with too many questions for him to ask her what was on her mind. Still, he wasn't surprised when, as they came around the last corner and saw the Resort's gate ahead, Nicole asked them to stop for a moment.

"I thought I should tell you this before we found the others," Nicole said, taking a moment to sit down on a nearby rock.

"What is it?" Tascha said with obvious and honest concern.

"I'm not going back," Nicole said. "Well, not yet. I'm going to wait until I'm tired of this place. I don't really have anybody back home to hurry back to, Tascha, and I fuckinglove it here. I'd come along to make sure you get to the Grotto safely, but it sounds like you and Don will be able to do that without me. I don't think you'll be able to shake Shelonda anyway, but you might want to consider leaving Victor and Amy here at the Resort. You know the rest of Eros isn't so nice and friendly, and this place is safe."

Don smiled at Nicole and said, "It's been great having you along with us for this long."

"If they're right about time, we'll all wake up 'tomorrow' and email each other," Nicole smiled with a bit of sadness. "Well, allowing for the date difference, that is. You better come visit me, Professor."

Don laughed, and said, "Of course! I'm already looking forward to it."

"You can come stay with us in Florida," Tascha smiled. Don could see a tear in her eye.

He decided to make things a bit easier on them all by changing the subject, "You know, she has a good point about the others."

Tascha seemed to fasten upon this line of thought, saying, "Well, Shelonda's going to be very hurt if we don't allow her to come with us, I think."

"I'm not sure we're in any position to allow or disallow her, actually," Don said.

"True," Tascha nodded. "So, the most we can do is encourage her to stay here. Probably that's the most we can do for all of them."

"We could suggest that they need to stay here to keep an eye on Nicole," Don mused.

Nicole laughed, and said, "Oh, I'm sure I'll be quite alright here."

"And, what happens if Nicole does eventually get tired of this place and goes missing?" Don nodded. "Do people who don't remember their past lives do that? Damn, I should have thought of asking that earlier."

"OK," Tascha said, "we find the others and have a talk with them, laying it all out and letting them decide."

"Makes sense," Don nodded. He was glad that Tascha wasn't so focused on getting home as quickly as possible that she thought of looking for the riverboat first. The thought of Shelonda waiting for them to return was heartbreaking, though he expected that after a couple more days she would take it upon herself to storm the Abbey looking for them.

As it turned out, their three friends were easy to find. They were right by the giant pool. Amy was down on her hands and knees on a lounge chair getting vigorously fucked from behind by Victor, while some new fellow had the honor of pushing his cock into her talented mouth and throat. Shelonda was on the next lounger, watching Amy and company, while a pale redheaded girl with a freckled back lay beneath her legs licking at her clit and pussy.

After spontaneously and unanimously deciding that they should strip down and rinse off in the pool first, Don, Tascha and Nicole joined their friends. Don smiled at Shelonda as he ran his wet hand over the redhead's back and gave her naked bottom a squeeze. This elicited a muffled groan of approval and the girl pushed her butt up, in what Don thought was a particularly feline movement. He slipped his hand around to move his fingers over her dewy outer lips before parting them and pushing two of his fingers up inside her. This earned him another approving groan from the girl. In another few moments, Don had his feet planted on the ground on either side of the lounge, as he pushed the head of his cock into the girl's very wet pussy. Meanwhile, Tascha, still dripping from the pool, had moved around to kiss Shelonda, and then Shelonda's pretty tits hello, and Nicole had gone to help Amy with her men.

After about half an hour of this, when everyone had climaxed at least once, and another trip into the pool had washed them all clean, Tascha managed to get their little group together and moving through the Resort for the gate opposite the one with which they had already become acquainted. Along the way, Don noted at least half a dozen other clubs they hadn't yet investigated.

The gate let them through without any attempt at conversation; and, a short downhill walk led them to a modest wooden building on a sturdy wooden dock at the riverside where they found what would normally be a ticket window, behind which sat a man in what looked to Don like a late 19th century shirt, vest and bowtie. When Don, Tascha and the others came up to his window, he smiled blandly and said, "Good evening, how may I be of service?"

"Can you tell us when the boat to Rendezvous is expected?" Tascha asked.

There was a momentary pause before the man said, "Tomorrow morning, ma'am."