The Artifact Ch. 02

"That's perfect," I said as I walked up to her smiling, "This way, you get to sit down and have other people wait on you; hand and foot, while you enjoy your meal." I worked on her mind while my smile radiated harmlessness.

Janet looked back and forth between Lance and me and finally said, "Oh, alright but we need to go right away so that we'll be home early."

I climbed into the back seat of the car. It was a '65 or '66 Mustang convertible; a really nice car for two people, but the back seat was little more than a storage shelf. I stuffed myself in sideways as Janet asked, "So, where to?"

I knew that I'd have to eat with them to ally her apprehension, so I removed the food from my stomach that I'd eaten earlier and gave myself a little bit of an appetite. I thought about what she'd asked for a moment and then I said, "I really don't know the area, just pick the nicest restaurant nearby where you'd feel comfortable and we can talk."

I could tell that Janet was a little puzzled about me as she drove to a diner nearby. "I don't want to go to anywhere real nice. I'd hate for you to spend too much on us." Janet said with a smile.

I smiled and said, "I'm not worried about the money, I've got more than enough."

"Are you a gambler?" Janet asked me suspiciously.

"Not really," I told her as she parked the car, "This is my first trip to Las Vegas. There seems to be a lot of other things to do other than just gamble. There are a lot of shows playing around town too." I concluded as I pulled myself from the car.

Janet smiled as Lance put his arm around her. She looked at me and smiled saying, "Don't forget to check out some of the smaller shows too. Many of the hotel bars have stages that put on small shows and acts that are worth watching." She looked at her husband and then continued, "Lance and I used to go to see those shows often. They're sometimes very good and you can sit close enough to see them. Sometimes they're free, or just the price of a couple of drinks."

We were seated and ordered our meal. We made inconsequential small talk until our meal came. I could tell that she sensed the changes I'd made in Lance, and was cautiously happy. I reached into her mind and released her apprehension and intensifying her love for her husband. By the time we were finished with our meal, I was watching two people once again happy and in love.

"Did you meet Lance over there?" Janet asked when she found out that I just got back from Viet Nam.

"No, I just recognized the look in his eyes. I've seen it before." I told her quietly.

"Jack here was a Lieutenant in the infantry honey." Lance interjected.

"But, I'm still not ready to talk about it. Let's talk about something more pleasant." I turned to Lance and asked, "When did you and Janet meet?"

I knew the answer already from my previous look into his mind, but I wanted him to tell me and I wanted Janet to hear the answer. Lance took a deep breath and began talking. "I met Janet in grade school right here in Las Vegas. Our parents both worked for the casino. When her parents moved to a larger house, she went to a different grade school."

"When I was going to eighth grade, my parents moved us just down the street from her. By ninth grade, we were going out. We married right after high school. I went to work and Jan went to UNLV to get her degree in hotel management. We were happy, but I got drafted after a couple of years. When I got back from overseas, I was the only one I knew that still had my wife or girlfriend waiting for him. All the others were single again, or their girlfriends had left them."

I looked at Janet smiling and said to Lance, "I envy you, to have the woman you love, love you back so much; it's very unique and beautiful."

By this time Lance and Janet were barely aware that I was there. When we got up to leave, I left the tip and took the check. I sent Lance and Janet out to the car while I paid for our meal. I was alerted that someone was in pain nearby.

I saw a woman in tears, sitting near the register and went over to her as soon as I paid for our meal. I smiled at her and asked, "Do you mind if I sit here with you for a moment?" I ensured her consent with the power of the artifact.

She surprised herself by agreeing and I read her mind as I sat down. Wendy was in her mid thirties and married. She'd just discovered the depth of her problem with gambling, having just lost the last six years of savings that she and her husband had saved for the down payment on their own house. She didn't even have the money to pay for the meal she'd just eaten. I let her tell me her story briefly as she cried openly in front of me. I took her hand, and told her, "I'll help you."

I pulled her along with me as I paid her check and took her out to the parking lot with me. Lance and Janet were leaning against the car kissing like honeymooners. I heard the word loudly in my head, "TRIPWIRE."

I gave them mental instructions to give me a call if someone came looking for me, and disguised it heavily so that no one would be able to find it if they were scanned. They wouldn't even know that I'd given them these instructions.

I told them, "I'm going to walk back to the hotel, why don't you kids go home and finish what you've started."

Janet blushed furiously and Lance smiled. Janet walked over to me and kissed my cheek as she said, "Thank you Jack. I don't know how you did it but I have my husband back again."

I reached into her and ramped up her sexual response. She would be able to have multiple orgasms, and being with her husband would always be her greatest desire. I kissed her cheek and shook Jack's hand, ramping up his desire for his wife as well. When they left, I knew that they would probably be the happiest couple in Las Vegas for the rest of their lives.

Wendy looked at me curiously and asked, "You seem to have some very good friends."

I smiled at her as I told her, "I just met them today."

She stared at me mutely. When she finally recovered her voice she asked me, "But, they seemed so comfortable with you." Her voice trailed off.

"I'm easy to talk to," I said with a smile.

The walk was only about ten minutes. In that time I let her retell me the story, adding the details she'd skipped before, in her own way. She and her husband lived in Red Rock Arizona. They both had good jobs with the municipal government and had saved for the last six years to get together a large down payment for a house. They had been married for nearly seven years, and had managed to make all the adjustments they needed to remain happy. They'd won a trip to Las Vegas and she decided to visit her sister who lived here.

Everything was going well for her until her friend came over with a book on how to play blackjack a couple of weeks earlier. They practiced several times, and she thought that she'd win the four thousand they had left to reach their goal. She withdrew all their savings except $1 hundred without telling her husband. Wendy didn't want to wait the year and a half she figured that it'd take to get into her new house. Her husband, Bill didn't want to start having kids until they had moved into the house, and she felt her biological clock ticking.

Wendy went to visit her sister after lunch, and was going to stay with her until late; but she decided to come back early and try the casino. She started out with the sixteen thousand dollars, and thought that she was doing okay until she counted her chips and she was down three thousand. Within four hours she had lost the entire $16 thousand. She just couldn't make herself stop. She knew that her marriage and her life were over because she couldn't stop gambling, but mostly that she had deceived her husband.

I didn't condone deception, but I could understand her not knowing how to control an addiction that she didn't know that she had. Since I had fixed her problem with gambling, I knew that if I helped her recover the money she could explain to her husband in her own time what happened.

We were nearing the hotel when I told Wendy, "I'm usually pretty lucky when I gamble. I'll start with a hundred... "

I stopped in the middle of what I was telling her. I felt the presence of something so evil that there were no words to describe it. My eyes were drawn to the limousine opening in front of the hotel. Two women exited the door and waited for the third passenger. I carefully masked my expression and watched the tall man exit from rear door.

He looked around as if he was startled and scanned the crowd with his dark piercing eyes. I was with Wendy, who was nothing special as far as looks went, so he just bypassed me.

I tried to read his mind, but it was like trying to push a soap bubble under water. I decided to look into the minds of the two women with him. It was an interesting mixture of excitement and terror. The more I looked into their lives, the more I realized that this must be the most evil man I'd ever seen; and I'd seen men acting without the restraining influence of civilization. War can bring out the worst in men; however this man didn't have this excuse.

Wendy was looking at me, puzzled as I resumed talking, "I'll take a hundred dollars of my own money and try to win back enough to cover your losses. Meet me in the bar tomorrow night at eight and I'll give enough to cover your loss if I win."

Wendy looked at me hopefully and then hugged me as she said, "Thank you Jack." As she turned to go, I made sure that she would sexually wear out her husband. No matter what happened, they would both enjoy their Vegas vacation.

Wendy left to rejoin her husband and I went to a quiet area to query the artifact about what I'd seen. I decided to go to my room and make sure that Julie and Kathy remained asleep.

I went into the room and saw the women spooned together, sleeping happily. I quietly went into the restroom, sat on the edge of the tub, closed my eyes and began my enquiry.

"That man had an artifact of his own, didn't he?" I asked.

I began seeing visions, as the old oriental man walked slowly toward me with all of his previous dignity. When he reached me he got down on his knees and bowed. When he looked up, he smiled and said, "It is good to see you again my Lord."

I breathed deeply and tried to control my impatience for answers as I, once again asked, "That man had his own artifact didn't he?"

The man smiled kindly as he set about answering my question, "It is time for you to understand the mission that you are on. Have you never contemplated the origin of language of magic? I suppose not, Americans seem far too busy with their own lives to think about things outside of their selves. You seem to be an interesting exception. It is time for you to know about the struggle you've entered."

The old man continued with his interesting tale. "Many years ago, we came to your earth as a gift to your emerging planet. Long before your recorded history we were here to help you develop into a harmonious, industrious and peaceful world; but something went wrong."

"We shattered; greed was a foreign concept that we absorbed from your race. When the contamination got too bad, we broke apart into thousands of pieces. Do you know how many languages there are of have been in your world?"

I was fascinated by the story and guessed, "I would guess more than a thousand now, but there have been many that are extinct."

The old man looked at me with surprise and then smiled saying, "I'm impressed with you every time I'm allowed to talk to you. You didn't know the answer; but you stepped out with an intelligent guess that you were sure to let me know was a guess. Most people would simply say with a blank look, I don't know."

The old man smiled, took a deep breath and continued, "When we broke apart it was into ten thousand six hundred and forty pieces. Each piece had its own personality, language and magic. All humanity was gathered together and the pieces were taken by the strongest men. Whole clans, families and tribes began speaking different languages according to their allegiance. I believe that this is the origin of your legend of the tower of babble."

I was absorbing this information as the old man continued, "Suspicions grew between peoples of differing languages. Tempers flared and hatreds began. The smaller and weaker tribes moved away for self preservation. Over the next five hundred years, the entire earth was populated."

"The memory of the gift was lost to all but holders of the pieces of power. To disguise the pieces they were enclosed in various ways: scepters, rings, crowns, seals necklaces medallions and a few more unusual things."

"Wars began to break out. The real reason for the war is nearly always the quest to recombine the gift. When two holders of the pieces of power come together, the one that prevails wins the piece or pieces of power from the loser."

I think I knew what was coming when I asked, "The artifact, or medallion disappeared, what happened to it?"

The old man was quiet for so long, I was unsure that he would answer me. When he finally began talking he told me what I somehow suspected. "We all evaluated you and decided that you were the one. We bonded with you totally. The artifact is gone, but the pieces of power are inside you."

In my vision, I looked at him and asked calmly, "So that means that for someone to take the gift from me, they have to kill me?" It wasn't really a question, since I knew the answer.

The old man looked at me, smiling sadly as he nodded.

I smiled widely as I told him, "Somehow, I knew the answer and I'm not afraid; maybe I should be, but I'm not."

Delight shown in the old man's face as he said, "You are very wise lord, not to waste fear on something over which you have no control. I knew the right decision was made when we chose you. You didn't understand at the time, but you chose your fate. You did it, knowing subconsciously you were the best chance for your world to survive. If the wrong person wins and puts the last pieces together; the world will suffer without end and all may perish. Until we found you, that is what we expected for the world. We now have hope."

I thought for a moment, considering the mission that I now knew was coming, and asked, "The pieces of the gift have been combining for many years; how many are left?"

"There are nearly a thousand left; however, there are only two who are stronger than you. We were the most powerful in the world when we were sealed into our artifact. The magician foolishly split us to give half to each sister, diluting our power. When the Trung sisters sacrificed themselves to keep us from being taken, we rejoined. We forced the magician to hide us and began our search for a warrior to champion our cause."

"We sensed you weeks before you found us, and set events in motion so that you could find us. We had your bombers destroy the road near the temple so that your enemies would travel on the other side of the river. When you finally came near enough, we turned on a light only you could see. We were pleased to see you choose the way you did, and bonded with you immediately. There was so little we had to fix, to make you into a leader of men that we remained mute during your tour of duty. We watched your decisions and actions saw how you suffered when you experienced loss. We knew that we had made the right choice."

"We began showing you tiny pieces of the power, and were pleased how you used them to unselfishly help others and your cause. We had to be careful because we didn't want you to become too well known for being invulnerable: that would have given you away to the other artifacts. We were careful to hide what we did to save your life. Do you remember feeling danger, and stopping your unit several times?"

I thought about it and answered, "Yeah, I'd get a feeling and stop, I'd usually figure another route to continue the mission. I never knew why, but I learned to trust my gut instincts."

The old man looked at me smiling and said, "Those times we saved your life. There were traps in the trail, or you avoided a planned artillery attack or an ambush that a member of your unit would have set off. We did allow your unit to enter some ambushes where you would be able to win, and a few times we had to interfere with the enemies aim to keep you alive. We tried to protect as many of your fellow warriors as possible, but could not save them all."

I thought about what the old man had told me and eventually said, "Thank you for saving those that you could. I always wondered why I lost so few compared to the other commanders."

As I thanked the old man, I began to wonder about the other members of the company who were left over there. How were they doing now that I was gone?

The old man looked at me and smiled saying, "The man we sent to take over your company is an excellent warrior. He'll take care of your men very well."

I once again thought about the task I had in front of me and asked, "Tell me about the man I saw tonight, what do I need to know to defeat him?"

The bright eyes of the old man watched me closely as he gave me the information that I needed to prepare for battle. "The ring he wears on the little finger of his right hand is his artifact. He was an evil man before he stole the ring, and is much more evil now. He has had the ring for many years and has killed once to add pieces of power to his artifact. He has twelve pieces of power in his artifact, we are nearly a thousand. There is danger; but you have many advantages. You have merged with us, he has not yet merged. It is much easier for you to disguise yourself from him."

"It seemed like he knew that I was nearby, but he couldn't tell who I was." I said as I replayed the incident in my mind.

The old man paused and then stated, "You've never tried to read your own mind. When you lay down later try it, I think you'll be surprised."

We talked for another hour, discussing specifics about artifact battle. The old man spoke about the darkness, and how to overcome it. Dark power is more powerful against people because it ignores social limits and the feelings of others; but the light power will usually win in a struggle between equals.

I learned to pierce the darkness with less possibility of being caught. The soap bubble analogy was a good one. You can't push a soap bubble under water, but you can push a thin straw into it and suck out all the air. I needed to be careful and not hurry so that it would be less likely to be noticed. I could also block their power to influence me or other people.

There were many more questions that I wanted to ask, but having visions is real tiring. The old man saw my fatigue and said, "You need your rest, so get some sleep; you will be busy tomorrow."

I left the bathroom and saw the girls snuggled together so contentedly and knew that I had a mission that needed doing. I felt as I did Vietnam, the mission needed to be done, and I was the best one to do it. It was the only way I could protect everyone else, so I would set aside my fear and Charlie Mike.

Julie gave a contented sigh in her sleep as I spooned in behind her. I thought about the evil that I was soon to face as I drifted off to sleep.

****

The plot will become more complex as the story continues. As you can see, I'm trying to put more than just sex into this tale. I hope it adds to your enjoyment. Take a minute and send me some feedback, either public or private to let me know what you think.

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