Mistress of Siren Cove Ch. 06-07

This is a romance/fantasy about women who have the power of the siren and use it to control and take pleasure from men. It is set in the real world of today. It focuses on one of these women, who seeks to find a man who can see past her siren allure and love the real woman he finds inside. It is an allegory of modern love, which often focuses too much on the superficial. There is sexual activity in this story, but none of it is explicit. The story is being published in chapters as it is being written. Everyone is over 18.

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Chapter 6: Going Home

Miriam led Elysia back to her room, which was not in the same state as when she had left it. The clothing had been neatly put away, the bed made, and a vase of tropical flowers had been placed near the bed.

"The Mistress is now meeting with Antoinette, and when that meeting is over, Antoinette will come to see you. I will arrange for a meal to be sent to you both here. We think it is best that few people on the island know of you until you get back. Already, there is talk of the Mistress receiving an important visitor, and we would prefer that talk to quiet down until you return from the States."

"There seems to be a lot of secrets here, Miriam," Elysia said.

"You learn quickly. This is a place of great power, and where there is great power, there are many who would seek it, by any means. You are the daughter of the Mistress and the direct inheritor of many of her abilities. This means that you may be more powerful than anyone except the Mistress. But we do not know the extent of your gifts, and more importantly, you do not know how to use them. The Mistress has told me that you have used power unconsciously, intuitively, but others with less inherent abilities can do far more than you. Before you reveal yourself, you must learn, and you must practice. That is why, when you go back to the States, Antoinette will go with you."

"Antoinette does not know who you are, and she must not know. She is aware that you are important, however, and the Mistress will tell her you have the power but have never learned to use it. She is also being told that you have access, through your husband, to a substantial fortune. This should satisfy her curiosity about your importance."

Elysia sat pondering her new life. She laughed at herself about all the possible outcomes she and Andrew had imagined during the long hours on the boat, and how none of them had come close. Her new reality was beyond anything they could have guessed. She told herself that, in the future, she should try to keep her eyes and ears open and learn to understand. She realized that she had no basis for navigating this new world by herself and must depend on the three women she knew here, even Antoinette, for guidance.

Half an hour later, there was a knock on the door. Elysia opened it to find Antoinette, who stood looking back uncertainly. Elysia's first reaction was anger, but she pushed it down and hoped it did not show in her eyes. She knew that she had to work with this woman and did not want anything getting between them.

She let her training as a lawyer come to the surface and said, "Hello, Antoinette. I understand we will be working together for a while. Let me apologize for how I treated you last night. I was exhausted and frightened, and I know now that you were only following the orders of the Mistress. Can you forgive me?"

Looking surprised and relieved, Antoinette said, "I understand how it was for you, and of course I forgive you."

"Thank you. And I noticed some of the others called you Annie. Can I call you that? Do you prefer it?"

"Yes, all my friends call me Annie. Maybe we can learn to be friends as well."

"I hope so, since we may be working closely for a while."

"Now, Elysia, I need to tell you about the plan we have developed to get you back to the States. This is a plan we have been working on along with the piracy of the sailboat."

The idea was based on a lie that she would tell about the sailboat being struck in the night by a large ship. This story would be plausible because such things did happen in the general area they would select. Elysia would say that she was on deck, with her husband, sleeping, when their sailboat was struck and cut in half. She saw that the boat was sinking and grabbed a life preserver. She looked for her husband but did not see him. She then jumped into the sea, and floated there as the sailboat sank and the big ship passed by.

She would say that it was very dark, but that she paddled around looking for survivors, and did not find any. Not knowing where she was, she found other floating debris, and cobbled together a sort of raft. She floated for nearly a day, covering herself with her robe so that she could avoid the sun. As evening approached, she saw an island and paddled toward it. Once on the beach, she was spotted by a young woman who took her into her home.

Before boarding the plane that night, she visited Andrew, who seemed cheerful, but guilty. He admitted to Elysia that he had slept with Antoinette three different times, twice on the boat. He said he did not know why he could not resist and begged Elysia for forgiveness. They talked for an hour, and Elysia repeatedly told him that everything was alright.

"Andrew, I know this may sound strange, but you did nothing wrong by sleeping with her. I can't tell you why right now. We'll talk later. But I still love you, and I want to return and enjoy sleeping with you again, but not now. I have to leave this island and may not be back for weeks. In the meantime, enjoy your life here. The women on the island will want to make love with you, and you'll want to make love with them. You have my blessing to do it. Some you'll fall in love with. I know it sounds strange, maybe unbelievable, but I want you to do this. Enjoy all the lovely things this place has to offer."

Then she kissed him lovingly, said farewell, and left to get on the plane. It was a seaplane and would take her to the island where her rescue would supposedly take place. It was her and two men in the plane. The men talked little, and Elysia said nothing beyond hello. It was a long flight, crossing over long expanses of empty sea, and a number of small islands, some barely visible against the dark water.

She tried not to think beyond what she was required to do next. Things were happening too fast. Only twenty-four hours before, she had come to Siren Cove, and there her life was upended with the knowledge of who she was and what she was. This was another strange trip, and she wondered what she would face when she got to their destination.

The plane landed a mile offshore of an island located a few hundred miles away from Siren Cove. They came to the island by boat, making sure that nobody was there to observe them. She was then taken to a modest house nestled near the beach, where she was greeted by a woman with kind eyes and a gentle smile. This woman, whose name Elysia would come to know as Amelia, would tell authorities that she had found her washed up on the shore, exhausted and ill. It was four days now since the ordeal on the sailboat.

The next morning, Amelia drove Elysia to a small town, where Elysia told her story to the police. Amelia said she found her on the beach three days before, but Elysia had been ill and needed rest before she could make the two-hour journey to town. The police took note of their stories, promising to investigate the incident further.

From there, Elysia made contact with her old law firm and told them what happened. She asked for their assistance in getting her the necessary paperwork, new identification, credit cards, and cash, to return to the States. A few days later, she was back in Chicago, walking through the front door of Andrew's home in Highland Park.

Chapter 7: Learning and Using the Power

The day after arriving in Chicago, she met with a partner in her old firm, told her story, and engaged the firm to represent both her and Andrew's estate. After this, she met with Andrew's family, who had gathered in Chicago on hearing the news of his death. Andrew's death was not official, but they all believed he was dead, and were demanding an immediate reading of his will.

After the reading, Elysia was met by hostile eyes. They would all get something, but only a fraction of what she would receive. As an attorney, with some experience with the estates and families of people who had passed, she had expected this. She was sympathetic, but firm. She had to be firm because she was to inherit most of his estate, despite their knowing each other for only three months.

"I'm not the cause of your pain," Elysia said, calmly, "it was a tragic accident, and I have to bear the loss of the man I love." The room, where she stood with her attorneys, amid ten of his relatives, was silent, save for the soft murmur of a clock ticking away the seconds, marking the passage of time, as they all grappled with the fact that the world had irrevocably changed for all of them.

Elysia saw the struggle in their eyes, and the hostility in some, especially Andrew's brother. She did not blame them. She silently agreed that she did not deserve all of his money, but she knew something that they did not: he was still alive, and it was his money to do with as he would. She was merely here to bring it back to him. She understood their pain, for she shared it too, missing Andrew and the life they could have had if they had not gone on that trip.

As the meeting came to a close, with no words of comfort left to offer, Elysia left the attorney's office. She was concerned with the struggle before her, to bring Andrew's money back to him. She had talked to her firm and requested a bereavement leave of absence for at least three months. This was granted, and she was free to do what she wanted. The only thing she wanted was to settle all the legal matters and get back to the island.

She was convinced that Andrew had found happiness, at least for now, teaching tennis to the islanders and finding companionship among the siren women, so she did not worry about him. She was able to focus entirely on her first task, which was the process of having Andrew officially declared dead.

This process could wait until tomorrow, however. She decided she'd had enough for the day and went home. She was alone in the big house, which she had visited only a few times before she and Andrew were married, and she was fascinated poking around in the closets and his study. She wandered through the large garden. She found two expensive cars in the garage but had no idea where the keys might be. So far, she had relied on taxis.

Late in the afternoon, as she sat in the kitchen, wine glass in hand and eating a sandwich she ordered for delivery, the doorbell rang. She was expecting this. It was Antoinette.

"Hi Annie, welcome to Andrew's home."

Antoinette looked around, clearly impressed by the opulent surroundings.

"I ordered a sandwich for you, if you're hungry."

Antoinette was, and ate with Elysia at the kitchen table, sharing the wine. They chatted about their trips. Antoinette's was mundane. She already had a passport and had visited the United States a number of times, though never Chicago. She was far more interested in the details of Elysia's more unusual trip home.

"It will take some time to finish our business here," said Elysia. "Andrew must be declared dead, I'll have to arrange a memorial service, and then I must begin the paperwork to settle his estate. I'm his primary beneficiary, but there are others. I believe it's a rather large amount."

"And you can do all that?"

"A lot of it. I was trained as a lawyer. However, most of it will be done by my old firm. Maybe we'll be here a month. It will be nice for you, seeing what life is like here. Even before the estate is settled, as the widow I'll have enough money to show you the sights. This can be fun Annie, especially since we know Andrew is enjoying life on the island, playing tennis, and playing with all the women who want him."

"Does that bother you," asked Antoinette, "that he may end up having sex with a dozen or more women before you return?"

"No, I understand now," Elysia replied, thoughtfully. "Now that I begin to understand my power, I can see that he loved me mostly for that, not myself, and I loved him because of what my abilities made him do for me."

"But you do not understand everything about your power, and the Mistress says that I am to teach you while we are here."

"I'm glad, Annie. I don't yet know what I really am, but I'm eager to learn."

She told her story to the coroner's office, with Antoinette sitting beside her, who Elysia said was there to provide emotional support. She feared some kind of challenge to her story, and a demand for proofs, but surprisingly the person she talked to, a man, did not question her tale. After two weeks he would officially declare Andrew dead as the result of an accident. After the meeting with the coroner, Elysia expressed surprise to Antoinette.

"You saw a demonstration of what the power we hold can do," Antoinette said. "He knew I was your friend and I made him want to please me. He could either ask questions or no questions, it was his decision. He decided not to ask."

The process of probating Andrew's estate was a labyrinth of paperwork, legal proceedings, and bureaucratic hurdles. Yet, Elysia navigated it with the calmness of an attorney who had seen it all before. As the weeks passed, her efforts would bear fruit. The probate process, with all its complexities, was beginning, and the machinery of the legal system would slowly but surely move towards resolution.

Chapter 7: Learning the Power of the Siren

While not involved with the lawyers, the courts, or the family, Elysia devoted her time to understanding and learning to use her siren abilities. Her teacher was Antoinette. The day of Antoinette's arrival was the first day of her lessons.

"I have lived my whole life on the island," said Antoinette, "except for trips to different places for fun, or working for the Mistress. So, I have learned a lot about the power, from other women like me. We do not have a school or anything. I guess one woman just teaches another."

"Do some have more ability than others?"

"Mostly not, except they say the Mistress has more. I do not know about that."

"The Mistress says I've used my power without knowing it," said Elysia. "I never realized what was happening, but when I look back on it, it seems like I had a strong effect on men."

"You probably did. But you can increase the effectiveness of your power. You just need to be trained to control it. In addition to using it on men that you want, you can learn to use it on men you don't really want but that you want to control. Controlling men is what we do. It is our purpose."

"I don't understand, Annie, why control men you don't want?"

"Because they own most of the wealth, run the governments and businesses, and lead the armies. We try to control these things using our power over men. It started long ago, they say, in old Atlantis. Men were fighting amongst themselves for dominance and hurting everyone else in the process. The strength of men was needed, of course, but often their destructive desires made things worse for everyone. The priestesses prayed to the Goddess, and she granted the power of the siren to some of them. She changed these women, so that their daughters would also have the power. Through this ability, they were able to quiet the destructive tendencies of the men, and the Atlantean culture thrived, peacefully, beyond anything we have ever seen in this world."

"When Atlantis fell, the sirens who survived were scattered. The most powerful one of them found her way to our island, along with a small group of others. As the siren power died out in the rest of the world, they brought men to this island, using their strength to build a new Atlantis. From the island, women are sent to every corner of the world, using their power to direct the strength of men to more peaceful pursuits."

Elysia looked at Antoinette, surprised. This was not what she expected to hear. She was familiar only with sirens luring men to take pleasure from them, or destroy them, so she asked, "What about the stories, like the sirens that lured sailors with their songs, and caused their ships to crash on the rocks. Remember? The song Ulysses wanted to hear, so he had his men tie him to the mast of his ship, and made them stuff wax in their ears, so they could not hear them singing"

Antoinette smiled at this old legend, saying, "It's true, at least I've heard it was true. But these are some of the sirens that were scattered after Atlantis, and never came to our island. We believe that they died out after a while; although some may still exist. The sirens of our island were never like this."

"I see, so Andrew, he has money. You and I are going to use our power to get that money and take it back to the island."

"Sure, but this is small. Some of our women live in Washington and control congressmen and senators. Some are married to presidents of large corporations."

"How do I learn to control my power, Annie?"

"You start by learning to sing the siren song. I will teach you. There are no words, just a melody. As you sing it, you will feel the power within you. This is the first thing, to learn the song. We will start tonight at midnight when the power is strongest."

After talking for hours, they went to a local restaurant. Antoinette told Elysia she was going to direct power at a man sitting with his wife, and as Elysia watched, the man kept looking at Antoinette, and Elysia could sense how he was getting desperate to come over to our table. As we left, Antoinette said that his wife was going to get a lot of pleasant attention from him that night.

At midnight, Antoinette sang the song and Elysia tried to copy her. Over and over, Antoinette sang and Elysia repeated the melody.

"You are getting better," she said to Elysia.

"I can feel something, something familiar, like when I was trying to get a cute guy to like me."

"That is the feeling, but with the song, you feel it when no man is around, or the man is someone you are not interested in."

They ended at dawn, slept until noon, and had a long lunch in a café by the lake.

"While we are here," said Antoinette, "you will learn and practice the power. In order to settle this estate business, you will want to use the power to get what you want for Andrew, and make things go faster. So, you should try to deal mostly with men: male family members, attorneys, judges, whoever. If you have the chance, talk with the men. Your power will help, even untrained, but after you learn to use what I teach you, many of these men will want to do what you ask."

They practiced the song each night, from midnight until dawn. On the third night, Antoinette lit a fire in a darkened room, and Elysia stood naked before it. As Elysia sang the song, Antoinette, also naked, touched different parts of her body lightly with her fingers. The power seemed to grow beneath each touch, until, as she sang, Elysia's body was alive with feeling. This is how they practiced for a week, until touching was no longer needed, and Elysia could call up the power simply by silently hearing the song in her head, or softly humming it.

Focusing on the men worked. During a memorial service held for Andrew at Elysia's home, she directed all her power to the men, especially the men of Andrew's family who stood to inherit from his estate. She was able to quell any animosity they had toward her, while the women stood by, skeptical, resistant, and hostile. With nearly all the men on her side, the service ended on a positive note, and no recriminations were heard.