Satyr Play

"Oh! I'm sorry! I- I think I'm a little drunk," he apologized.

"Where is he?" a voice shrieked down the hallway.

Stanley froze then pushed himself up onto his feet and stood there swaying. He turned his head as Yuko barged into the living room with Sandy right behind her. She was wearing his t-shirt over tights.

"You! It is your fault!" Yuko barked with tears in her eyes.

"What are you talking about?" he replied.

"I am to go back to Japan! They are cutting me off! Because of you!" Yuko raged.

In a moment of clarity, he took a step closer to her and spoke softly. "Can we talk about this privately?"

"No! My life is ruined because of you!" she yelled, ignoring his suggestion.

Stanley's frustration combined with the wine in his system knocked his restraint aside and his anger flared. "Hold on one second! None of this is my fault. You were the one who tried to trick me into marrying you and you were the one who told your father we were engaged. Then you told him I called off the wedding so he would call my boss and make threats?!? Explain to me how any of that was my fault," he yelled.

He saw her moving her hands and something in him screamed in alarm. She was going to use magic- right here in Sandy's apartment! He stepped forward and grabbed her hands in his. It was all he could think to do. The pain was excruciating as the incomplete spell broke free of her control and flashed outwards as a wave of light and energy. The electrical breakers popped and the condo was plunged into darkness as everyone collapsed.

Stanley felt a gentle touch on his forehead and opened his eyes. He found himself on the floor looking up into the eyes of an older Japanese woman. Very pretty but definitely older. He blinked and sat up. The room was dimly lit but he could see the others slumped on the chairs. Sandy was on the floor next to him. He saw she was breathing.

"Are they ok?"

"Yes, just stunned. Like a stun grenade. You can tell them Yuko had one. I detected the burst and came from my hiding place upstairs where I was waiting for her. I must take my disobedient daughter home. I will see you again in Japan in a couple of days. Thank you for doing this for my husband and please accept my apologies for allowing this to get so out of hand."

He nodded his acceptance and she rewarded him with a small smile. Then she stood in one smooth motion, lifting her daughter onto her shoulder. She moved down the hall and was gone.

Stanley shook the tingles out of his hands and gently touched Sandy's forehead like Yuko's mother had touched his. Eyelids fluttered and Sandy was looking up at him.

"What? What happened?"

Stanley couldn't think of a more reasonable response so he used the suggested one. "She had a stun grenade. I woke up and she was gone," he explained and stood up to move to the others. Once he'd woken them he made his way to the power panel and flipped the breakers to their on position. The lights came back on.

"What the fuck just happened?" Roger asked.

"Sorry, the housekeeper my company hired for me became fixated on me and when I didn't reciprocate she got a little... hostile. I'm terribly sorry you got involved in that!" he said apologetically as they all watched him with wide eyes. "I- I think I'd better just go home. I had a lovely night. Thank you so much for the invitation. It was very nice meeting you all."

With that, he made a hasty exit.

Roger stood up and looked at the others. "We are DEFINITELY inviting him back to the next party!"

Chapter 12

Monday morning Marisa had her first session with a professional seer. She'd be registering with her and getting her first assessment. Then the lessons could begin. The one skill she'd learned on her own, and she would have gone mad if she hadn't, was how to put her talent into a muted background state. That skill must have been a survival technique. Her seer vision was still active, it never really stopped, but she could mostly ignore the flashes of colors, auras, and hazy, superimposed alternate potentialities surrounding each person she looked at.

Her doorbell rang and she opened the door to see the smiling face of a woman with a frizzy mane of sandy blond hair. She wore a flowy, flowered sun dress, sandals, and many rings and necklaces. She was slim and stood about 5' 5" but even to Marisa's muted seer sight she shone as a beacon of calm and joyful light.

"Good morning! Marisa?" the woman asked with a cheerful voice.

"Yes, good morning."

"I'm Katrina. You're assigned teacher."

"Please come in!" Marisa said and stood aside to let the woman into her condo.

The woman walked in and closed her eyes with a wide smile. Marisa locked up and watched the woman reach the center of her living room and slowly turn in place with her arms outstretched, fingers moving like she was plucking the strings of a guitar.

"You have a lovely home! Such good energy flow!" Katrina sighed. She opened her eyes and looked behind her at the sofa and sat. She patted the cushion beside her with a smile.

Marisa sat and smiled at the woman who took a small paper notepad and a pencil from her oversized purse.

"Let's get the official stuff out of the way first. I'll need your personal details to register you in our Seer Community," Katrina said.

Marisa answered a few questions that didn't dip too deeply into her personal life. Mostly just her Human system ID's. Privacy was still one of the most precious aspects of every member of the Hidden Races.

"How long have you had the seer ability?" Katrina asked.

"Since I was in my early teens but recently it became... much stronger."

Putting the notepad and pencil away with a sigh, Katrina smiled once more at Marisa. "Now, with your permission I would like to open my sight to take in your aura. Once I've got a good impression of that I'll begin outlining each step of my evaluation. We will also go over some basic do's and don'ts."

Marisa nodded nervously and the woman took her hand. "Relax. I'm here to help, not hurt."

Marisa's smile returned and she did her best to relax. She watched as Katrina relaxed and her eyelids closed slightly. Then they flew wide.

"Oh my! Your aura is beautiful! So bright and colorful!" the woman gushed.

"That's good, right?" Marisa asked.

"It's very good!" Katrina answered. "OK, may I assume you are able to control the activation of your abilities? You seem too calm to be continuously immersed in the flow," Katrina noted.

"Yes, thank goodness! It's never off but I can mute it to the point where I can ignore it," Marisa said with a relieved smile.

"It never goes away completely?" Katrina asked in surprise and a little concern.

"No, but it's much easier to push into the back of my perception when it's muted," Marisa assured the woman.

"OK, well, what I'd like to do now is do a reading, again with your permission." Katrina asked looking the younger woman in the eye. Marisa nodded.

Once more she relaxed and watched Katrina's eyelids relax. Her hazel eyes began to glow slightly and Marisa watched the seer's expression go from surprise to shock.

Katrina quickly closed her eyes and put her hands over them. She began muttering a mantra to center herself.

"Is... is something wrong?" Marisa asked nervously.

"No! No, it's... your energy levels are so... intense! I've never seen anything like it," Katrina said quietly. "You say you're currently muting your abilities?"

"Yes," Marisa answered in concern.

Katrina patted her hand. "Not to worry. All is good. I need to do another reading, with your permission, as you slowly open your seer sight."

"On you?"

Katrina gave her an impish smile. "Is there anyone else present?"

Marisa giggled nervously and shook her head.

"Then yes, on me. Do it as slowly as you can."

They faced each other and relaxed. Once more Katrina's eyes began to glow slightly.

Marisa released her hold on her vision and Katrina's aura exploded into brilliant gold and yellow. An almost overwhelming sense of calm flowed from the woman in every layer of her potential. The overlays ran deep and each was a similar flavor of joy and peace. The beauty of such a future drew tears to Marisa's eyes. One rolled down her cheek breaking her focus and she pushed her vision back into it's holding state. She blinked and saw Katrina slumped back against the cushions, unconscious.

She squeaked in fright, terrified she'd hurt the future she'd witnessed but Katrina began to stir.

"Katrina! Can you hear me? Are you alright?" Marisa said, patting the woman's hand.

"Wha... Oh... yes, I'm fine. Just... overloaded," Katrina said quietly as she struggled to resurface. She looked at Marisa with a puzzled expression. "Your abilities aren't- they don't behave like anything I've seen. The power. It feels chaotic. Wild. I'm afraid I won't be able to train you after all. Seers are taught by other seers who are able to synchronize their abilities and compare results. Your power levels are far beyond anything I've seen and they overwhelm my own."

"Couldn't you describe the methods..." She stopped when she saw the sad look in the woman's eye.

"It's not something that can be described. It's a new sense that can only be compared with its like. But your skill is unlike any other. You will have to be your own teacher. I'm so sorry," Katrina said and Marisa felt her compassion.

"What I can pass on is the most basic of rules. Never do a reading without explicit permission. I have no idea what you'd see when you do."

"Potentials. Possible future paths and the energies from them. I think," Marisa said quietly.

"How far?" Katrina whispered. "NO! No, don't answer that!" She yelped as she shook with reaction. "Sorry. With the strength of your vision I was almost seduced with the idea of that knowledge. This is another basic rule. Don't speak of the future as they are only potential routes and knowing them does not guarantee their becoming true. The only way to live is to live each day as it comes." She looked away and centered herself once more. She looked into Marisa's eyes.

"I did pick up that the source of the energy is someone very important to you and that you are protecting him. I'm not going to pry or report this. I know genuine emotion when it clobbers me over the head." She smiled and got one from Marisa too. "I do hope one day you'll be able to fully disclose how you came to have this energy. Maybe then we could find you someone who might be able to train you."

She shook her head as she looked at her lap. "For now, I will indicate in my report that you aren't suitable for training. That's not as rare as you'd think. This will satisfy the Security Ministry who are such a pain in the ass for us seers." They shared a smile. "You're very fortunate that you are able to suppress the perception of your seer sight. With the levels you have, if it was always on your sanity would be at risk."

They stood and Katrina pulled Marisa into a warm embrace. "Good luck, Marisa!"

"Thank you!" Marisa had tears pooling in her lashes from relief and the intense compassion this woman was showing her. She followed the woman to the door and locked up once she was out.

She'd been so worried at the complications the Hidden Races Council was going to impose on her life and now that was no longer an issue. She'd completely lucked out with the woman assigned to be her teacher.

She glanced at the clock. She had time to get to work only a little bit late.

Chapter 13

Stanley was sitting in Sigrid's office looking at his new passport. He was even more impressed because he'd never applied for one.

"This is going to work?" he asked hesitantly.

Sigrid looked up at him from her desk with a slight smile on her lips. "Of course. Why wouldn't it?"

"Oh... I don't know. Because I never officially applied for one. Because I don't have any personal documentation like a birth record I could have supplied to get a real passport. Because I have no one who could vouch for knowing me long enough to qualify as a guarantor? Pick any one of those or all of them."

She smiled at him broadly. "It's as real as any passport issued directly from the US passport office. Obtaining a registered and accepted passport is just part of the service the Hidden Races have to offer. You aren't unique in not having documentation."

She looked at him fidgeting in his chair. "Do you have a suitcase?"

He shook his head with a frown.

"What's wrong, Stanley?" she said looking him in the eye.

He tried to look away but she was giving him an open and earnest expression. "I'm scared! I've never flown anywhere before. I've never been away from the States. I don't speak the language! I'm going to be completely dependent on Camila." He looked down at his hands. "I have to say something very embarrassing... humiliating in front of a bunch of strangers."

Sigrid sighed. It hurt her to see Stanley go through this. To lie to pay for someone else's mistakes. Just the thought made her skin crawl. She couldn't do it. "You know we have no right to ask you to do this Stanley. It isn't fair. I understand he is worth a lot of money but-"

"No. I'm going to do it. I said I would. But... that doesn't mean I'm happy about it," he said with a sigh. He pushed himself to his feet. "I don't even know if I should be sending the furniture back... to where it came from... which I don't know." He shook his head. "I'm starting to get used to sleeping on the sleep mat on the floor. It's very comfortable."

She smiled at him.

"Thanks for the passport. I'll pick up a small suitcase on the way home. I have to get back to it. So many more servers to get installed. Another reason I wish I wasn't going," he grumbled as he left her office.

He took the elevator down to the main floor and visited the security office. Mr. Duncan was out on the floor doing rounds as the large wall of CRT monitors was being replaced by the new higher resolution flat panel monitors. The workers had all of the old monitors removed and the support rack for the new screens was being bolted securely to the wall. Each of the mounts would have a labeled set of cables identifying which screen it was. These would be plugged into the back of the new, high resolution flat panel displays and the other ends would be connected to the video bus of the new control system waiting to be installed. The operators would be able to switch the new monitors to any camera in the building, group the displays, or use the entire array as one big monitor.

The workers were doing a good job so he went back to his office upstairs to check on the three servers he had running a burn-in script. He felt comfortable working on three servers at a time. Any more and he felt the process went slower. They were looking good so he checked the backup software server and it had completed validating the first complete backup. He started the restore to the replacement server and watched that for a short period to ensure it was working. He was delighted with the throughput on the new servers and their fast storage. The restore would take significantly less time to perform than the backup from the old storage.

Speaking of the old storage, he began the differential backup to pick up any additions, changes and deletions since the complete backup. He set it to run over the next three days so when he got back from Japan... Shit. That thought derailed him every time.

He would restore the backed-up data to the new storage when he got back and put the database server and storage into production immediately. The start of the change-over. The other servers would rapidly be rolled out over the following two weeks.

He would be beyond the date they'd asked for but there really wasn't a faster way to do this with only one person controlling the server builds and deployments. And he was losing all this valuable time flying around the world.

He was watching the progress of the data restore when he felt a gentle touch on his shoulder. He looked back and saw Marisa's concerned expression. He hadn't seen her this morning so she must have just arrived.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I called out to you several times and I saw you staring off into space. Are you ok?" she asked.

"Sorry, my mind was miles away. Over 6,700 to be honest," he sighed.

"You're worried about the trip? Ms. Villamor told me all about it. I am very sorry you were put into this situation," she sighed.

Stanley took her hand and held it in his. "I feel better when I hold your hand. Can you come with us?" he said with a slight smile.

"I wish I could but my boss gave me this big list of steps I have to follow on a rigid time schedule to keep the installations on track. He's a real slave driver!" she said with a grin.

Stanley smiled up at her and nodded. He kissed her hand and released it when he realized what he'd done. He looked around but they were alone.

She smirked and waved her finger at him, hiding the fact that she was tingling madly from his kiss. "Ms. Villamor called to say you should head home soon to pack. She will pick you up tonight to take you to the airport. It's a private jet with a discrete bedroom to... let your hair down and get some sleep."

That eased one of his worries. "Thanks. Ok. I guess I'm off then." He stood up and she suddenly pulled him into a hug. God, she felt good in his arms!

She released him and slipped away. He watched her leave then gathered the stuff he'd need for the trip. He locked his office on the way out but Marisa was not at her desk. He headed home.

On the way he picked up a suitcase and a new toiletry bag to carry his grooming stuff.

He got inside his apartment and laid out his interview suit on the sleeping pad. He arranged which clothes he would bring and included a few spare pairs of underwear and socks. He folded everything neatly and packed it in his new suitcase. He put his toiletry items in the bag and packed it away too. He zipped it closed and wheeled it out to the hallway when his doorbell rang. He went to the door and looked out the peephole. It was Sandy!

He opened the door and she smiled cautiously at him. "Hi!" she began.

"Hello! How are you doing?" he responded.

"I'm fine. May I come in for a minute?" she asked.

"Oh, sorry! Of course, come in." Stanley said and moved aside.

She walked in and spotted the suitcase in the hall and paused for a second and walked into the living room to sit on the couch.

She ran her hands over the surface as she smiled. "I really like your furniture."

"Yeah, it's grown on me too. I don't know if I'll be keeping it though. It turns out it was a wedding present from Yuko's father. For a wedding I never agreed to or even knew about until it was too late.

"Are you going someplace?" she asked pointing to the suitcase.

"Yeah, I'm flying to Japan to clear up this whole mess so I can get back to a more normal life," he sighed.

She nodded and smiled at him. "My friends all really like you. Even Roger who is suspicious of everyone. But you fixed his phone and he got to experience a stun grenade so he was pretty excited when you left. He said he'd like to experience a stun grenade again. That man has never been quite right in his head."

Stanley just smiled and shook his head in amusement.

Sandy's expression became serious. "I just came by to let you know that you are always welcome to visit and hang out with us. You seemed a little nervous about upsetting us last time and you should know, none of us were upset. Surprised, yes, but not upset.

"Thanks! I'd like that! Maybe when I get back we can make plans for another movie night."

Sandy burst into a grin and Stanley couldn't help but smile back. His cell pinged with a text and he glanced at it.

"Oh! I'm sorry, my lift to the airport is here." He hammered out a quick response and put his cell away as they stood. They made their way out of his apartment and he locked up. Sandy smiled at him as they walked to the elevator.