"I am First Priestess Tais, of whom Lorraine `wrote'," she suddenly spoke to me, her eyes burning
down into mine with azure flame. I knew there could be just one "Lorraine" of which she spoke. But
everyone believed that she had died at sea in a plane crash years three years ago! Yet "Tais" had just
spoken as if Lorraine yet lived! "And soon it will be `time' now," she spoke in tones that made a chill go
down my back at their very implica- tion! Lorraine had written of Tais, the First Priestess! A wom- an
who lived in the 26th Century, the head of the Priestesses of Lys, who also had appeared to be the world
religion of that era! The Priestesses of Lys had also served the "GUARDIANS", beings so powerful that
they controlled the destinies of intelligent races through the entire Universe! Serving too the wishes of
"SHE", who is "Mistress of All", who Lorraine once "spoke with" on Mars. That "BEING" that mortal
men have for centuries now called "GOD"!
My first impulse was to reach out and grab her. To shake the "truth", whatever it was, from her! I
know now how "futile" that would have been. I think she could have stood up against the entire armed
forces of the whole world had she so wished and crushed them, so great was the powers that she
commanded! Powers that allowed her to travel through time, back to an era that even to her is I believe
still partly "myth". "I will be waiting," she said, strolling off, and leaving me sitting there so stunned that
I could only watch her walking through the crowd! A few of the "HUTCH's" male patrons, "drunker"
than the others, now trying to "pick her up" without any success. I saw her roughly "shove" one back
down into his seat, and thought that it was just as well that she was leaving, as she didn't appear to be the
sort you'd want to get into any sort of a "fight" with! The band now start- ing up, introducing the next
strip dancer, Chris, the last dancer of the night. It was Saturday night, the end of the week. And the
"end" of far more than Carol and I ever realized then! The "end" of a peaceful life we'd lived for the last
fifteen years. And the beginning of an incredible adventure in a future world!
"Strange bitch, that one," the waitress commented, stopping by my table there in the back, the blonde
now gone from sight, but not from my thoughts. I ordered for Carol, knowing she'd be with me shortly
as soon as she got dressed. We usually had a last drink together before leaving. Carol usually being the
one to drive us home as after a night of watching her doing her strip dances I often wasn't really in a
condition to drive home safely.
I watched Carol come through the crowd, moving around the closely set tables with that "confident"
stride that she has, the provocative sensual curves of her firm muscular body so beauti- fully displayed
there beneath the clinging soft oiled leather of her fitted jumpsuit. The "jut" of her still firm breasts
denying the "fact" that she was now in her late thirties. An age when most women, but not yet my Carol,
often started "showing their age". I was well "aware" too of the fact that she had nothing on underneath
her outer clothing. Strapped around her hard muscular waist a broad leather belt that now supported a
long slim dagger on the right hip and a short lightweight sword with a two foot blade on her left. Attire
that made her look really "dom" as all get out! Attire that said, "LOOK, BUT DON'T YOU DARE
TOUCH ME"!* * This was of course a "costume", not something that she wore on the "street" back in
the 20th Century as she probably would have gotten arrested for "disturbing the peace" or something.
Now, of course, things are a bit "different" and my beloved "Warlady" of- ten does go so "attired" here
on the streets of Arsana. (R.S.)
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