Chapter 23 - Disenchantment
Bianca was feeling very pleasant. Margery was telling her something important.
Suddenly there was a crash of dishes. Something had gone wrong in the automated kitchen. Things were smashing. People were running. It was very loud.
Bianca was startled. "Go on with your story," she said, realising that her attention had drifted. Had she dropped off to sleep? She had recollections of an erotic dream and was certainly feeling as if she'd just come out of one. She hoped that it hadn't been obvious. How embarrassing!
"Damn!" Margery exclaimed, as if complaining about the noise. She quickly slid back into her seat across the table. Bianca was confused. What had Margery been doing before sitting down? Had she been to the loo when Bianca had dropped off? It seemed very late. Was it darker?
Margery resumed her lecture in her usual voice. She hadn't had time to suggest to Bianca that she'd forgotten everything about the amulet or that she had experienced its hallucinogenic spray. Bianca's rational brain would tell her that everything she experienced was so bizarre that she'd been dreaming. Margery was not to be daunted by the opportunity lost. Another would present itself very soon. The girl was still half enchanted. Once you had them this far, they were easy to get back. This evening she would go home with Bianca and begin stage one of the female training processes, which she herself had gone through under Morag. Although it was Wednesday Mohandas would have to wait until tomorrow. This was proving to be more delicious. He might have two mistresses to service soon.
"Men are special," she said, as if continuing her lecture. "The young ones are already awash with the drugs that nature provides. It's a woman's job to understand all these and then use them to best effect. Men are like the male of any species, driven by nature to copulate; to perpetuate their kind. They are just as driven as those male insects that mate once and then die. But with humans there is an added dimension. We women are unique among primates in that we are continuously in heat and able to have sex. This gives us a power over men that we should all learn to use. Before feminism there was 'the woman behind the man'. A good control technique is to assume that he is totally perverse in every way and will potentially enjoy, or at least provide you with, everything you suggest."
Bianca was concerned that she seemed to have 'lost the plot' a bit and was still wondering what it was that they had been talking about before she dropped off. She had faint recollections of a very erotic dream involving of all people, Margery. She felt as if she was still recovering. Margery seemed to be talking of feminism and saying that men were naturally perverse.
"But most men aren't perverse, are they? How do you know which are?"
"All men have a degree of perversion and that's your starting point. If you start as conventionally as possible asking if each new step is something he would like to try with you, the strength of his denial or objection will give you a good idea of how cautious you need to be. If he seems alarmed you back off and say that it's just something you've heard of. Some people think that in life everyone should try everything once. The goal is to take him as far as possible. It's where the expression the thin end of the wedge comes from. The more you push, the more perverse his behaviour will become, and the stronger will be your hold over him."
Bianca's faculties were returning and she doubted Margery that that expression had anything to do with unnatural acts.
"I don't understand. How does his perverse behaviour benefit you? You might find it disgusting."
"A man's perverse behaviour is useful to a woman in three ways:
First, all those arousal and pain related endorphins surging around his body do the work of physiological and psychological addiction for you.
Second, it ruins him for other women. You're the only woman he knows who will do whatever disgusting thing it is with him and he imagines, probably correctly, that if he tries the same thing with another woman, she'll scream it from the rooftops and he'll never see her again.
Third, I always insist that we talk-dirty about what we're doing and insist that he ask for it explicitly; no euphemisms. Then I have it all recorded illuminated by the usual yells and other vocalisations, to enjoy later and to use to bring him back if he tries to stray. And there are very few things I find disgusting; most perversions are rather amusing. Harnessed correctly their lust is a drug," she said, as if she was giving a lecture.
"But what if he wants to hurt you badly?"
"Ah, but once a woman is skilled in The Craft a man can't hurt her more than she likes. But she can certainly hurt him; and make him keep coming back for more."
"By The Craft, do you mean witchcraft? Do you have potions and secret knowledge handed down?" asked Bianca. Somehow Margery's consistent lewdness made her seem even sexier sitting there with her arms and shoulders bare, except for that wonderful jewellery, and her lovely breasts quite well defined. That dream had somehow, put her in a new light. She was actually feeling a bit turned on by the older woman.
"The Craft is a modern version. In medieval times women who exercised power over men were known as witches and their seductive art was known as The Craft. The 'dark arts' were passed on secretly and were often little more than alternative medicine based on substances of dubious affect. Now we have modern science. We can dispense with 'eye of newt, and toe of frog or adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting'. My teacher, Morag, was a trained scientist and always said that witchcraft that works is medicine."
"But it can't be medicine if its goal is malicious. What about the Hippocratic Oath?"
Margery had learned about this useful 'Hypocritical' Oath when it turned out to be helpful in gaining control over Phillip. So, for once she knew what Bianca was talking about when she alluded to ancient history. Instead of just smiling knowingly she was able to respond.
"But most of that is now redundant. Do no harm! Save lives! In our world it's illegal to purvey life extending medicine and we encourage suicide."
"My teacher simply put the drugs to other uses. A little rub over with 'cream of testosterone'; a blue pill and a little yellow pill, have replaced toe of frog."
"An inhibition lowering substance can be beneficial in taking control of a person's actions. In the right circumstances, like in bed after sex, smoking a joint or with a suitable alternative pharmaceutical like rohypnol, you can more easily get control of a reluctant subject's mind."
"There are several hundred other prescription and restricted drugs that are properly evidence-based to: lift them up; or pull them down; addict them; wrack them with pain or the sweats; or send them on a trip."
"I find it fun to experiment, mixing my own creams and lotions and with different pills ground together and then remade with a pentagram pressed in."
"Every girl should own a pill-press and a supply of empty gelatine capsules. You know: 'Like elves and fairies in a ring, Enchanting all that you put in'. If you like I can give you some pre-tested recipes that were handed down to me by Morag."
You said that you can make a man become addicted to you without resorting to drugs. How do you do that?"
"Pain is best, it releases endorphins and a range of other hormones that managed properly can become highly addictive. Sex is also addictive if you can provide it often enough at the beginning."
"Strangely, gambling is also addictive because of the changes it causes in the brain when it's rewarded. Gambling is closely related to sex and in some individuals is a substitute. Some Christian churches actually encourage it for that reason, although others believe it to be a sin. The lesson that gambling teaches us is that rewards are best delivered periodically; unexpectedly and with varying intensity. The goal is to take control of the autonomic nervous system that also governs sexual response so that arousal becomes automatic in your presence; to withhold the actual sexual experience most of the time; and provide it unexpectedly."
"If you can also discover their secret fantasies, you can periodically enhance the intensity of the experience, to hit the jackpot as it were, and thus their desperation to keep coming back; and your control over them."
"How do you discover a man's secret fantasies?"
"Generally, by the time I'm ready to discover his fantasies his mind's already mine for the taking. I simply enchant him yet again and ask him."
"Are you experimenting on Mohandas too?"
"There's little point in knowing how to make vichyssoise if you never make it for anyone is there? That's where your 'cream of newt' comes in. Just a little tweak here and there. He's a little low on libido for my liking. His supplement's all based around one of my 'testosterone and a little something extra' creams. When something's not up to scratch one just has to resort to mummy's little helper."
Bianca giggled. It must be fun doing that to a man. A woman might be fun too.
"Do you ever practice your art on women?"
"The world's not just about men my dear. The Craft, is about women too."
"Women are not as driven to copulate as men are, so we must be harder to seduce," Bianca suggested.
She was wondering if that was true as she spoke. Something about Margery was very seductive. Margery seemed to be very pleased with her and that felt good for some reason. Normally she couldn't care less what Margery thought. Now Margery was telling her something important. She wished she could remember what it was.
"As I was telling you earlier the power of suggestion is amazingly effective. Would you like me to give you a demonstration?"
She withdrew an interesting gold amulet that she was wearing suspended from a gold chain around her neck.
***
This time, Bianca's hand-held buzzed before she could reach out. It was Isis with an urgent message. They had a buzz code. This message was both urgent and top secret.
"Excuse me Margery," she said and looked at her screen so that Margery couldn't oversee it or eavesdrop.
Isis mimed that she should not say anything and printed across the screen DO NOT REACT. Then a series of still pictures flashed one by one on her screen, each obviously, a feed from one of the vidi cameras in this room. The first was Margery proffering the pendant, the second the puff of vapour directed into her face, the third her fixated on the spinning cylinder. In the still image it was clearly nothing more than a mechanical device with small arms dotted with tiny LEDs projecting as it spun. The image could be anything that had been stored in its memory. The fourth and fifth showed Margery moving to sit beside her and her ecstatic expression. The next two dozen flashed past so fast it was like a speeded-up movie. But it was what a porn site would describe as: 'hot lesbian action in a restaurant'. My god! The final sequence was of Margery dashing back to her seat.
"Can you wait to go on with the explanation? I have to pee," she told Margery and made a run for the loo.
Once there she stared at herself in the mirror in horror. Yes, her lipstick, which was the only makeup she wore, was all over the place and what was there was the colour of Margery's. She washed her face. Someone was coming. Probably Margery come to check up on her. She went into a cubical and locked the door. Whoever it was went into another. She said nothing. It was all coming back to her. My God. My God! She thought.
What were her options? Leave here and go straight to work. Go back as if nothing had happened. The first would resolve nothing. She had set up this meeting to find out about The Craft. She would pretend that the message was someone sending her a silly text. Margery hated text messages. Bianca and Isis had secret ways too. It was going to be a battle. She managed to pee and wiped those traces of Margery away; flushed; then went out and put on some lipstick. Margery flushed too and emerged from her cubicle.
"This is a nice colour," Bianca said. "But it doesn't stay on when you eat." It wasn't a deliberate double entendre but bit her tongue, worried that Margery might think she knew.
Margery was watching her carefully. She hadn't been able to properly conclude the session, and would have to start from scratch again soon. But clearly Bianca remembered nothing of the session or she would have run. Then Margery would need to use pharmaceuticals to bring Bianca back and finish the job. The outcome was quite unpredictable when a session was interrupted like that.