Nigkala Tales Pt. 35: League of Legends

"You are so bad."

"Yeah, I know. Tell me all about what they say. You know I like hearing sexy stories."

"Okay, mom." She hugged me, and left, no doubt to install the expansion.

Isis appeared, apparently invisible for some time, listening.

"I agree, you are so bad. But then, one of Inanna's should be. One of mine isn't, and when you actively were my priestess, you weren't. For that, I thank you for your forbearance."

"So, you heard?"

"Yeah. I also see your love for her. While they call me mom, and love me also, I come second in their thoughts to you. I don't mind, because I know you accept me as I am, and want me to be their mother also. I see nothing selfish, or otherwise objectionable in how you deal with her. I am far more powerful than you, yet I am humbled by your love for them all. You were even willing to challenge the gods to protect them, knowing full well you would die. Not something many would do, yet something all mothers feel. Despite your wanton ways, I am proud to call you mine, even as you serve others ahead of me."

"Will the game sex be a problem for you?"

"No. Learning the customs of this time, we've also learned the sexuality embraced by this time. While I continue to be far more conservative about sex than Inanna, I have embraced today's culture, and now see sex as a way to get to know one another. My little cult has been transformed into a truer faith of Isis, and as Celeste, I lead it. I am also expanding it. While we don't do orgies, like some do, sex is now allowed, but it is a serious step to take. Casual sex is right out, but with someone you are close to and care for, it is allowed."

"What of Osiris?"

"His consulting firm for agriculture is growing quickly, with plenty of successes. He's even branching out to livestock, and other such things."

"I thought he would be more into regenerating his faith?"

"Oh, he is, but he took a page from Inanna's book, and has his employees say a prayer to Osiris before doing work. If they do, he gives them some divine help, and their results are above average. Those who don't, get a little divine hindrance. So, when they're let go, the company can show it is because they have poor performance. Some have figured out that something is happening, and even if they don't believe in him, they still pray to him. When they leave, they take that knowledge with them, and he blesses those who continue to pray to him."

"Sneaky."

"He is a canny one, when he wants to be. This little corner of the world has become a new beginning for the older gods, and we intend to make it last. Inanna has the largest impact, because she started rebuilding before us, but we have patience."

"I imagine patience is required for an immortal."

"Required, but not always present. Those who don't learn it soon find their ends. By their own hand, or by another. A hard lesson for our children to learn, because they are so young."

"Just as I asked for your help to raise them, I offer my help for what you teach them."

She bowed to me, and said, "I shall. Thank you. Osiris and I have decided to name you our sister of the heart. For you truly are family." She then turned and rushed away. I had the distinct feeling she was about to tear up.

Heading home, I told Filipe of the conversation with Isis.

"Becky Sue, I am a lucky man. I found a woman so wise that even goddesses listen to her."

"All gods listen to their priestesses."

"True, but listening and heeding are two different things. To me, you are a goddess. And a sexy one at that. What say we enjoy ourselves with a little sex."

We retired to the bedroom, but didn't go to sleep for hours.

With the blockbuster success of the first film, and the marked success of the trilogy, Red Horizons made me their Hollywood rep, at least as far as concept. They said to keep the stuff I already had for demos. For several years, I would consult for Red Horizons in the movie industry, and get to know the people in special effects for all of the studios. I also would work with Red Horizons in developing control systems for the industry.

While there were a number of people who helped develop new characters with the technology, I could charge a premium because my characters were significantly more realistic, and able to emote with movement. I added all the subtle touches that showed experiencing life, and also the tiny flaws that real things had. When others ran into problems making a character, I often was hired to help.

Meanwhile, Cleopatra installed the expansion, and she showed them off to her friends. She even asked me to briefly show up at her birthday party, so her friends could drool at me as Ahri.

"Thanks, mom. My friends really loved seeing you as Ahri, yesterday."

"I know. I could feel their lust. I take it you let them play with the sex expansion?"

"Oh yeah. Once they knew I had it, they pestered me to let them play it. I'm sorry if they pestered you about having sex."

"I don't mind their young enthusiasm. In fact, after I left, two of them followed me, and asked to have sex."

"What!? Who?"

"You know I like to be discreet. At least about who. Still, they left quite satisfied."

"You didn't."

"I did."

"Mom. Now they will all want to have sex with you."

"And this is a problem, because...?"

"Mother. Stop being bad."

"I'm just yanking your chain. While I did those two, the others didn't have quite the fixation. I don't think they will take action anytime soon. They may want to do me, but they would rather spend time with you."

"Yeah. I suppose you're right."

"How about you? You got any boyfriends out there?"

"A few."

"Anything serious?"

"Well, I've had sex with most of them, which is why they are still boyfriends. If they suck at sex, then I'm not too interested."

"Doesn't Isis say you should have less casual sex?"

"Well, I am on my own, mostly, as a human, and she says I should act that way most of the time. I have less sex than my friends, and way less than you."

"I would hope you have less that me." I smiled. "But it's good that you are aware of your choice. So, anything serious, or are they just a phase?"

"Kind of both. Isis says I need experience, and to see things from other people's points of view. So, while they are seasonal flings, I am also using them to understand who they are and what is important to them."

"How are you using them? Most people don't like to be used."

"Not like that. More of an observational use. Although, I admit I chose some because of what I could observe. Also, I understand the implied contract with a boyfriend. So I try to give them what they are looking for in a girlfriend, but not commitment. Given what I am, commitment is not something most can handle. And understanding what I am is more than most are willing to believe, and needed for such commitment."

"Good. I understand using your power over others, but it should be used sparingly and in ways that won't hurt others. Or at least, that's the way I try to use my own power, when I do so. Of course, when Inanna says jump, I usually jump, but that's on her."

"So, how do I know what is right?"

"I, and your other parents, have tried to teach you right from wrong. Not only that, but why it is right or wrong. You are young, and will make mistakes. Learn from them. Use what we've taught you, and consider your actions from the point of view of the one acted upon. Most people think a married woman having sex outside of marriage should ruin a marriage. Yet, Filipe and I have been happily married for decades. From our viewpoint, our activities are acceptable to us, and we use it to enhance our relationship. What breaks others, enhances ours. That is why you need to consider their viewpoint. Yet, there are things that are wrong no matter what the viewpoint."

"That's a lot to process."

"You have the time. You also have others to advise you, not just your parents. While humans are not perfect, we have a lot of experience, and much of that is recorded. Learn to research it. It ain't perfect, but can give you some ideas. I have less to worry about, but I routinely do research to answer questions."

"I recall. I hadn't realized you did it routinely."

"I do. I even looked up how to raise goddesses."

"Huh?"

"Yep. Not much there, and mostly guesswork, but there were a lot of ideas for me to consider. Many were easy to skip as nonsense, but others had merit. We think up all sorts of impossible things, and then figure out what would happen if the impossible happened. As long as you know reality from imagination, these ideas can prove useful."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"What of Layla? Has she been able to deal with her life?"

"Yeah. We text each other several times a day."

"Be careful not to leave evidence others might see."

"We use the special glasses you gave us for that. Isis enhanced them so we can also talk to each other. We're careful about that."

"Good. I think you'll be a worthy goddess someday. Now give me a hug, and let's see what Tammy's making for lunch."

"Something good, I expect."

It was something good. She left afterwards, and I went downstairs to exercise and meditate. I sensed some sort of attention on me, but was having a hard time pinning it down. I first noticed it months ago, but haven't had a chance to look into it until now. Unfortunately, none of the detection magic I knew was showing anything. After an hour, I put that on hold, and decided to work on my rune training.

Heading out back to the magic training area, I began my air rune practice. I had already mastered the Viking runes, but I was working on accessing other magics with other symbols. I used Sanskrit, hieroglyphs, and cuneiform. I found Sanskrit was well suited to illusion magic, and that by using it, I was able to generate more complex illusions. The hieroglyphs worked well with Nile magic like telekinesis and dimensional manipulation. Finally, cuneiform worked well for combat and sex.

This day's work was generating many symbols all at once. My plan was to be able to cast magic faster. Using my virtual arms, I was able to move my 'finger' extremely fast. I was taking the lesson of using the finger as a reference rather than a scribing tool to an extreme. This let me use less and less movement to draw a symbol, and instead just think a complete symbol. To get all the symbols at once, I was letting each finger place a symbol. This let me do five on each virtual and real hand. I had yet to determine a need for more than eight at once, but I practiced, going as high as all twenty. Doing the higher numbers took a lot of focus, but allowed a lot of spells at once.

I was alternating days with generating symbols from multiple sources. This would mix the traditions, and allow very different spells to happen at once. Again, I tried up to twenty symbols at once. Since most spells used at least two symbols, being able to fire off more symbols meant more spells. One combination I perfected was my 'Tasmanian Devil' spell. It would summon fine sand, a whirlwind, and some lightning. I would then spin and embrace the whirlwind, ready to attack many.

While practicing one day, I noticed something odd with the symbols. They seemed to affect the other symbols near them. So I decided to meditate on it the next day. I also paid more attention to what actually was happening. I wanted to be sure it was repeatable. It was. Eventually, I felt I had done sufficient for the day.

The next morning, I began rune practice, but at a very slow pace. With all my senses opened, I focused on the magical effect of each rune, and how it affected everything nearby. As I did, I considered it under both Inanna's and Isis's magical knowledge. I had spent three hours at it before I found out the reason. The symbol, when invested with power, was like a magnet, and affected other magic nearby. However, while a magnet has two poles, magic has many many more. I added this to my magic notebook.

In the afternoon, I tried to characterize the changes by spell and the spell's effect. I wanted to amass a lot of data, and I was adding it all into a spreadsheet for later analysis. When I finished collecting data in the afternoon, I asked Alec to see what he could find out about the relationships. I figured he didn't really sleep as a talisman, he could work through the night. He thought it was a good idea, as it was something productive and interesting for him to do.

When I went to see him in the morning, he had done wonders with my data. He had found a number of correlations, but he also had suggested symbol pairs that would help get the effects more clearly defined. So, I took him with me into the backyard, so I could do the suggested pairs. He documented things, but I provided the details for the effects, the same as I did the previous day. When I had finished, Alec did more work on the data.

The next step was to determine the effect of these alterations. Alec searched the data to give me a series of spells to try, that should have a similar effect upon a second spell that was used in all the combos. I took a break for an early lunch before starting. I opened my senses, and focused, and did the spell Alec selected to determine exactly what it was doing. Then I began the combos and studied the common spell. When I noticed a difference, I told him, being as precise as I could.

Our study wound up taking several weeks, collecting all that data, and analyzing it. There was a lot there to learn, but I was more focused on eliminating bad effects, and encouraging good effects. A lot could be done by the symbol placement. Some was best done by placing the symbols on different hands to keep them from affecting each other. Other combos, however, were best done by putting the symbols next to each other. One curious effect, was that the system used, affected the amount of effect between spells. Sanskrit seemed to have the least effect on the other systems, but hieroglyphs had the most effects.

I decided to ask Alec to help design combos with more spells. I also added the results of the analysis to my magical notebook. Another two weeks were spent designing combos for many situations. At that point, I told Inanna. She was curious about it, so I shared my memories, and my thoughts on it. It was her opinion that the symbols were, in part, magical, and that their own magic was causing this. She suggested I see if other symbol sets had similar effects of the magic they represented.

So, I decided to invest some time into cosplay. The people that attend events often are really into the lore, and this includes the languages. Tolkien being the most well known, with several symbol sets to his credit, and Star Trek having a number as well. So I created outfits for these, and other settings, so I would be welcome to the people who knew the lore the best. I also found some local groups that were also into this kind of thing.

While fantasy symbols were more popular, the Star Trek ones were more accessible. I read up on them, and met the local groups to learn more about them. One costume I chose was the Orion Slave Girl. Green skin, but pure sexuality. A good fit for me, and I allowed the lore experts liberties with my body. While we had sex, somewhat privately, I would read their mind for their understanding of the languages.

Once I had a good grasp of a language, I considered the viewpoint of the speakers of that language, and how they saw reality. Then I came up with the way they would use symbols to describe reality. I felt Romulan would be more poetic, but Vulcan would be very precise. Then I determined some spells that showed the most effect on others or affected the most by others. I had a set of eight spells I chose, and chose their symbols in Romulan, Vulcan, Klingon, and the others I picked up.

Again, I enlisted Alec's help documenting. I then repeated the tests as before, and learned how the spells were affected by the symbols. I also added tests to do the same spell with the same effort, but in each of the symbol sets. The third day, I noticed Isis had come over and was watching me.

I said, "Hello. What brings you here?"

"A few months ago, I noted you were doing some serious practice with spell casting. I could tell you were getting better and faster. About a month ago, your practice changed. I could tell you were taking things real slow, nowhere near what you're capable of. So I looked, and saw you were doing research, and taking lots of notes. Yesterday, I noticed you were doing the same spell over and over, yet getting different levels of effects. Likewise, your combos repeated with that same variability. However, they weren't getting better, but instead, were all over the place. So, today, I came to see what you were doing. I don't recognize most of those symbols."

"I had noticed the spells affected each other when done at the same time. The symbol used also had an effect. I talked to Inanna, and she suggested I try other symbol sets. I am trying symbols from a popular television show called Star Trek. They came up with symbols sets for some of the aliens on the show, and that is what you are seeing. Alec is helping in the research by handling the record keeping and analysis."

"That is a very interesting idea. So, this show had aliens with magic?"

"Only one episode, I think. But they did have alien viewpoints with different ways of looking at reality. I feel magic is a feature of reality, and that these symbols are a way of looking at it, so I assigned symbols to a few spells to see if they would affect them."

"Hm... Have you tried hieroglyphs?"

"Yes."

"Those in my cult have used Celtic Ogham. Think it might be worth looking at?"

"Does it have a magical tradition?"

"Yes."

"Then I definitely will try, and sooner rather than later."

"What would you need?"

"Well, to learn the language, and the magic tradition of it. But also, I would like to learn how these people view reality, so I can understand their way of magic."

"In that case, as my priestess, I want you to come."

I raised an eyebrow, and said, "In Egyptian garb?"

That got a big smile, then a thoughtful grin. "Sure. But bring something to change into, as I don't expect they'll be able to handle your breasts well enough."

"In that case, let me know when you want me."

"I will. I also want you to teach them a little about me, since you are one of my priests." She then left, and I resumed my investigations. I also looked into the harem flower language, and the jewelry language. I thought adding color and transparency might also be useful.

A few weeks later, I made my appearance at Isis's cult, which proved to have some significant results.

But that is another story...

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