Master of Elements Ch. 11: Theia

Note: all characters are over 18, as established in previous chapters.

*****

Master of Elements: Chapter 11 - The Temple of Theia

"Love is all we have, the only way that each can help the other." - Euripides.

Athena wanted to come with me in the search for the meteorite which we reasoned and hoped would be found somewhere in this region. She certainly deserved the chance, given she had done all the research including providing me with a list of ancient temple sites in the area. Despite this, I said no. She was the one who could quickly transit the others in and out of the Aether world and that was too important not to have her full concentration.

It would have been helpful to send Brigit, Matsu and I out with a list of locations to visit each and we could have covered the possibilities in a day. This had always been a remote part of Greece and, despite the long history of this country, had never attracted much in the way of building projects in any era. However, we only had one car, so I decided it would have to be me and one other. Since both Brigit and Matsu claimed the honour, I let them settle it with 'rock, paper, scissors', a contest that the Irish redhead, to her great satisfaction, won on the second round, her scissors slicing Matsu's paper.

So it was that Brigit and I went in search of a rock that we couldn't even be sure existed. Typically, when looking for something you usually find it in the last place you try, but not this time. We established its location at only the second attempt. This was not entirely coincidence, as I had a suspicion that this particular place might be the right one.

I had chosen our first stop on the basis that it was only just down the road from the hotel, no more than five miles away. It had been a washout, nothing more than a patch of flat ground next to the road, with nothing to see. Apparently, there had once been a small trackside shrine to some nature deity on the site, now long gone. Neither Brigit nor I felt anything special about the place and we had soon moved on.

In contrast my second choice was deliberate, because I felt the location was significant. It was not in any of the obvious passes through the mountains, instead being a little away from the beaten track halfway up a steep hill. I had concluded from a study of the maps of the area that whoever chose to build a temple there must have had a very good reason for doing so. It proved impossible to get a car up to it. I parked as close as I could and then we had a fifteen-minute walk up a steep and winding path on the tree covered hillside.

Our destination was a flat space that seemed to have been blasted out of the hill, since to our right was a shear rock face, while to our left the slope fell away sharply. I thought, hopefully, that it might be what you would get if a meteorite had struck the hillside gouging a crater, and later people had flattened the ground somewhat as the site for their temple.

Unlike the first place we had visited, there was something to see, albeit not much. There were a few stumps of pillars above ground, much weathered by the centuries, and it was possible to see on the ground the rectangular footprint of where the temple had once stood. This was helpful, as I had done my research and could make an educated guess as to where the most holy spot inside would once have been and I had a feeling that if the meteorite we sought was here at all, that was where we would find it.

I had been worried that there might be people here, officials or tourists, but the place was completely deserted, with little sign that anyone visited. I had two spades in the boot of my car, borrowed from the hotel's gardeners, in case we needed to do any digging, but I had left them behind in case anyone was present - the Greek authorities take a dim view of the looting of antiquities and spades would have been hard to explain. Now I wished I had brought them, as I didn't fancy trekking back down the narrow path and up again. Therefore, it made sense to check whether there was anything here before we took the trouble to do so.

Brigit seemed sure as soon as with reached the top of the path and stepped out into the sunshine of the flat terrace sliced into the hillside long ago. She stopped and gave a sort of shiver, not of fear it seemed but excitement. "Ooooh.... Chris, can you feel it?" she asked.

"Umm, no," I said quizzically, "What do you feel?"

"Power. It feels good, running through my body like electricity."

This sounded promising, so I advanced into the clearing, pointing out probable features of the site as I went. "Assuming the temple was approached up the same path we have just used, which given the geography of the hill seems likely, then the first thing you would have seen is an open air altar, as worship took place outside the temple not inside. That would have been about... here. Rounding the altar, we would have gone up some steps and encountered a colonnade of pillars supporting the roof of the place - it took the Romans to discover the self-supporting arch - and seen the doors to the temple proper."

I got the impression Brigit wasn't really listening to my research. She seemed increasingly distracted by what she was feeling. I was starting to experience it too, although, it seemed, in a more defuse and less intense way. There was a sort of tingling in my body and senses, a bit like static electricity but much nicer. In fact, it was quite erotic in its effect and if Brigit was getting a stronger dose I could understand why she wasn't that interested in my lecture on ancient Greek architecture, not that I let that stop me showing off.

"Once through the doors we would be in a sort of antechamber called the pronaos and from there we would pass into the main room called the cella or naos. At the far end of that was the holiest place - typically a statue of the god or goddess to whom the place was dedicated; so if we just walk to about there..."

We were about three quarters of the way along the length of the patch of roughened ground that marked the site of the temple and dead centre in width. I planned to stop here anyway but was left with no choice as Brigit suddenly sank to her knees and gave a gasping moan.

"Are you alright?" I asked crouching next to her, "where does it hurt?"

"It doesn't hurt," she said through gritted teeth, in a tone that conveyed frustration with my idiocy, "I just came."

"You did what?" I said in surprise.

"I came, I climaxed, I had a fucking orgasm!" Brigit said almost angrily, "Without even being touched! And... oh god... I'm so horny. Chris, please, you've got to fuck me, now, at once. I need it!"

"What here, in the open? What if someone saw us?"

"There's no one here; we're miles from anywhere!" she almost screamed. Then with an effort she calmed herself and tried a different approach. "Master, I beg you; please fuck your loyal and willing slut. I'll do anything you want." Quite how she managed to combine being quite so submissive and demanding at the same time was a mystery to me but it worked. I was starting to get more than a little interested, especially as I was also feeling the effect of this place. Oh well, if I was going to do this, might as well do it properly...

"Very well, since you ask so humbly... slave," I said, suddenly commanding. "Strip at once."

We didn't say much after that. Brigit already seemed in a sort of frenzy, practically tearing her clothes off. The sight of the redhead's wonderful curves was stimulating enough to me, but I was increasingly also feeling the same type of external passion she was obviously caught up in - sort of waves of lust sweeping over me. The temple site was covered in fairly long grass as it was well watered in this mountainous area and had no one to cut it. I threw my jacket down on it and that became our bed; not the most comfortable ever, but neither of us cared by that point.

Once naked, Brigit reached out a hand and stroked my cock a few times, until it was rock hard. That was to sum total of our foreplay; neither of us needed more. As Brigit lay down on the coat and spread her legs, I thought I had never seen her pussy so wet. It was glistening with moisture and a little dribble escaped and ran down her leg. That did it; I practically dived on top of her. My erect cock found its way to Brigit's waiting, needy pussy without much effort on our part and slid inside as if the most natural thing in the world, which at this moment it was.

I needed no great skill for fucking this hyper-aroused girl - I had been shafting Brigit for less than a minute when she had the first of what proved to be several orgasms - but I applied plenty of enthusiasm and energy, which she reciprocated, humping back at me just as hard as I thrust into her. We were both letting our bodies do the thinking, our minds lost in a world of sexual sensation, and really let go of all inhibitions.

This had one curious by-product. At first I didn't notice it as anything more than a pleasant warmth on my skin, like that of the sun. Then I realised that Brigit and I were enclosed in a thin film of scarlet fire. It came from her and had spread around me and yet it didn't hurt; in fact it wasn't even singing my jacket on which Brigit was lying. My own limited control of all the elements, including fire, might have given me some protection anyway, but obviously on some sub-conscious level Brigit had to be limiting this effect so it wasn't dangerous. I suppose I should have been scared - if she lost control I could get fried - but I wasn't. I trusted Brigit and the fire left tingly and sensual on my skin.

Then I forgot all about it as I lost myself once more in our frenzied love-making. Brigit had become multi-orgasmic in a way I never seen before in her or any other woman. She was hardly through coming down from one climax before the next hit, and they seemed to be getting stronger. I was shafting away enthusiastically on top of her, but I don't think it had a lot to do with me. It was this place. It was the thing I was seeking. It was Theia.

Finally, Brigit was engulfed by an orgasm so powerful that shivers ran through every part of her and as I looked down at her face I realised she passed out from an excess of pleasure. The fiery glow around us went out. She looked ok, well far better than ok actually, having a huge grin on her face, but fucking an unconscious woman, even one who had undoubtedly been consenting with great enthusiasm moments before, felt wrong, so I pulled out.

I realised my own orgasm was close and as I studied the beautiful redhead next to me, she reopened her eyes and smiled at me. She looked happy but tired, so I decided to finish myself off. I crouched between her legs and stroked my cock, faster and faster as I admired Brigit's sexy body with its pale, lightly freckled skin, her flaming red hair and beautiful face, still smiling at me as she contentedly watched me masturbate over her.

As I pumped away at my cock, my balls tightened and then I was cumming, but like never before. Strings of spunk erupted from my dick, firing across Brigit's stomach and up to her breasts before the final spurts hit her groin and pussy. The volume seemed more than usual but I wasn't in much position to judge, because as a glorious spasm of orgasm ripped through every part of me I gasped for breath and saw stars, only narrowly missing blacking out as Brigit had done. If my lover's climaxes had been anything like that, and she had had many of them one after another, it was no wonder she had fainted.

I sank down next to Brigit to recover, still watching her. Far from being upset by being covered with my sticky cum, she was grinning like a cat that had got the cream and was rubbing it into her breasts and belly as if it were the finest skin care product known to man.

"What just happened?" I asked.

"I don't know," sighed Brigit, "but it was amazing."

"I suppose it was this meteorite we are looking for. We've obviously found the right place." I was pretty certain it was the only explanation.

"Let's find it at once!" said Brigit, suddenly excited out of her dreamy lethargy. "We can take it back to the others and then..."

I think she had forgotten all about the Creature and this being a weapon against it. She was just thinking of a huge multi-orgasmic orgy. But regardless, Brigit was still right. We must recover the meteorite at once.

"We had better get dressed," I said, "and then I'll get the shovels from the car." But at that moment my mobile rang and our plans changed.

*****

Freya was looking out of the window of the room in the castle tower in the Aether world and idly practicing her skills. It amused her to create interesting and preferably rude cloud shapes by controlling air currents so as to blow the clouds around. It needed considerable accuracy to produce exactly the effect she wanted, which helped her practice control, and she was also striving for ever greater distance. Of course, her powers were greater here than on Earth but the principle was the same.

Jenny was in the room behind her, but she was busy controlling Jen, her soulless and mindless duplicate, who was our spy in the enemy camp. It took all her concentration, so she wasn't much company when she was working.

Therefore, when Jenny gave a sudden shriek and leaped to her feet, Freya was greatly startled, and even more so when the African girl ran over and grabbed her by the arm.

"This is it Freya, the enemy is coming. We've got to contact Athena immediately and get back to our own world - at once!"

"Slow down, what's happened?" Freya asked, still shocked.

"There's not much time," replied Jenny urgently. "The Creature has just told Jen that he is going to transfer her - that's to say my - consciousness back to my body on Earth and it will join her, that's to say me, there immediately after. The instant it tries to do so I will have to break the link with Jen and our enemy will know we have tricked it. But my body Freya! It's not with the rest of you and so it's not safe. I need to get back into it and get moving so I have some sort of chance!"

"Oh fuck," swore Freya, "you're right. I'll contact Athena now."

The procedure for doing this in an emergency had been well established. It was not a method that enabled long complex messages to be conveyed, only a sentence or two at most. But it was useful as a distress signal that Athena could send to others or them to her saying 'get me back home at once'. It was done via a mental link that Athena had used her mind controlling powers to plant in all our heads. Freya triggered that emergency mental beacon now. Two minutes later, Freya was waking up on a mattress in the hotel storeroom, Athena already by her side, keen to know why the urgent recall had been requested.

Jenny awoke in a bed in a care home thirty miles away, the one to which we had moved her from a hospital in Athens, so she was nearer to visit. The staff had taken good care of her body. She felt fed, watered and clean. But she had lain in a bed for weeks, her muscles wasting. When she tried to get up and walk, she found she felt more like she was eighty than eighteen. Jenny knew she would recover in time, but time was one thing she was sure she didn't have.

In the Aether world, as soon as Athena pulled Jenny's consciousness back to its body on Earth the simulacrum called Jen instantly became the lifeless construct it truly was. Jen fell to the ground and lay unmoving and the Creature at once knew it for what it was and realised it had been fooled and that its foes knew much of its plans, although not everything. It felt anger and an urge to destroy; it was time to return to the world of the humans and finish this.

*****

When I took the phone call at the temple it was Freya, telling me what she knew and most of all that Jenny was in danger. Brigit and I had the car, so we were the ones who would need to go to the rescue. There was no time to go back to the hotel and get the other as - perhaps fortunately - we were nearer to Jenny here than from the hotel. Brigit and I grabbed our clothes and, scrambling to put them on as we ran down the path, headed for the car.

Even as we were doing so, matters were developing at the care home. A polite middle aged African gentleman had entered reception and announced himself as Dr Okello. He inquired whether Kitaka was in residence and could he see her as he had messages from her family and had promised he would visit to deliver them. For a Ugandan the Doctor seemed to speak remarkably good Greek, although in a rather archaic fashion and laced with obsolete phrases. The receptionist wondered how he had learnt to speak like that.

After some momentary confusion over the Doctor not knowing the first name of the person he sought, the receptionist was able to confirm that a Miss Jennifer Kitaka was here, but she had been in a coma for some time and was in no state to receive visitors. She offered to ring through and check on her current status. Perhaps Dr Okello might be able to visit, even if just to see her sleeping, so he could report back to her family. More minutes passed while the receptionist made enquiries on the phone and finally reported that Miss Kitaka had recently and unexpectedly awoken and insisted on leaving at once. In short, she was no longer at the care home.

The Creature was not inclined to believe this. In its opinion these worthless humans were hiding the goddess. It considered there was no longer any real need for subtlety; the end game was approaching and it was time for open action. If these fools sought to conceal the whereabouts of Kitaka then it would rip the place apart until it found her.

Reaching this decision, the Creature dropped the guise of the Dr Okello and adopted an older favourite - that of an eight foot tall armoured demon like form with massive sharp claws in place of fingers. This was no more its true form than the previous one, but the Creature liked it as being an efficient one to kill with and also that it seemed to cause much fear and panic in the humans.

It certainly had that effect on the unfortunate receptionist, who screamed in shock and terror right up to the point where the Creature killed her with a single blow of its clawed hand. It headed for the area that led toward where the patients had their private rooms, smashing the security door asunder as though it were made of paper. Then it proceeded to tear the place apart.

Mercifully, casualties were lighter than might have been feared, for two reasons. One was that most people, staff and patients alike, fled if they could; the second that the Creature was focussed on finding Kitaka, rather than simply killing for the sake of it, so it ignored those that didn't have the misfortune to get in its way. Despite this, by the time the Creature had concluded that the goddess was indeed no longer present, another five staff and four patients had been killed and many more had suffered injuries.

The Creature finally smashed its way out through a wall just as the police were arriving, leaving devastation behind it. If Kitaka had escaped then it would track her down. It knew from past experience that sooner or later it would find her and the others near the temple, but for its plan to work it wanted to capture one or more of its enemies alive. It needed to move fast. With that in mind, the Creature switched form again and an oversized tawny eagle took to the skies.

*****

I pulled the car off the road onto a patch of grass running up to a wooded slope. Jenny was already there, accompanied by the two care home employees who had helped her escape for a couple of miles on paths through those same woods. Jenny had rung me, Brigit taking the call, to let us know where to find her and was delighted that I was closer than she had dared hope.