Chapter 41 - Circe
Zaire was getting to be famous. She was friends with that mega-Celeb Bosie. He had mentioned her several times on his fashion spot on morning MV as a person he had designed for.
Willow found this particularly galling as Zaire seemed to have little interest in fashion anymore.
More than that, Zaire had been promoted at work and is now the top resort specialist supporting numerous other Celebs including Aden Hitch and the whole Your Holliday Now team. There was hardly a place on the planet that she hadn't been. She would go on about this or that city or the different food or strange customs or religions still practiced. She even told Willow that had she been brought up in say India or Iran or Tibet Willow would have totally different, yet just as sincerely held, religious beliefs. As if!
Now she's 'writing' about some woman violently killed as a witch.
***
And it was true, Zaire has become intrigued by Margery's life story. When Margery was killed Zaire persuaded Claude to let her into Margery's apartment, when it was still a crime scene. Quite against the law she had gathered a lot of personal information by going through Margery's clothes and jewellery. She was fascinated and Claude had tried to stop her opening every draw and cupboard. Then she had wanted to go back several times. She kept asking him what possible difference it could make to the Coroner's verdict. Margery's only heir was her brother, Derrick, presently under permanent house arrest as a serial paedophile. Reasoning that none of this would be of any use to the inquest, or Derrick, Zaire 'borrowed' a number of items for later analysis, including silk underwear, a black suit, a pair of shoes, and her jewellery box, lest it disappear into other hands.
Bianca immediately suggested 'Witchcraft from a Feminist Perspective' as a thesis topic to get Zaire mature age entrance to the University. Bianca's seemingly free access to the BoganVillia data and a vast store of other facts and vidi would invaluable. At the root of Zaire's fascination with Margery is the Woodsman incident. She'd grown fond of her 'puppy', if only for a day or two, and wondered how Margery had done that to him. So, she agreed to take on the thesis project to improve her skills but not to get into University. She's proud of being Bogan and anyway she has a great job. Why would she want a degree?
Now that Margery's gone and she's seen something of her history, Zaire feels almost sorry for Margery. Hunting around among her things and seeing evidence of her lonely life, after Claude left her, Zaire has generally become more sympathetic to his ex-girlfriend. It seems that an uncle taught Margery about sex far too early, so she turned to Derrick, her older brother, for protection. Using what her uncle had taught her, she seduced Derrick and made him her willing accomplice in the uncle's demise. The uncle was drowned in a rip at the beach while supposedly supervising the two teenagers on a day out. They called for help as he was swept out and were not suspected of any part in it: '...as the terrible accident unfolded, while the two teenagers watched helpless as their beloved uncle was swept out to sea'.
But with Bianca's data Zaire now knows otherwise. Margery had searched The Cloud for dangerous beaches and was monitoring the surf conditions before they chose a particularly dangerous day. There's also an old-style text message in the archive, misspelled in 'Margery speak', to her uncle, suggesting a sexy beach party if he will bring the drugs; and another to Derrick saying: Unca Ron shouldn't swim on drugs. He could drown. He might need our help.
Zaire has been assembling evidence to support her hypothesis that Margery was a girl from difficult circumstances who struggled to the top by fair means or foul. She was clearly self-taught and was able to cover for her limited literacy with a good VPA and her bed-to-bed approach with men; and a woman or two. Zaire who's still learning to read at matriculation level is impressed that Margery had gone as far as she had. Her only formal education had been thanks to Morag, who had really messed with her head.
***
Zaire now has two regular reading and coding coaches: Bianca and Angela. Angela turned thirteen nearly ten months ago and is now officially a teenager. She often hangs out with Zaire and Bianca after school. She's teaching Zaire to read and to code in C++, PHP; and XML. She might have chosen a dozen other coding languages but these three are easily read by the Prospero Universal Translator (PTU).
To support Zaire's thesis Bianca and Angela have started to compile a Fascinating Witch applications library. It's based on Isis' earlier Margery's Book of Witchcraft and catalogues then codifies as many of Margery's seduction and domination skills as they have been able to uncover or observe. They've captured feeds from the various device cameras and microphones in the homes of her various victims, together with those from the haptic devices she liked to wear to record her touch sensations. Margery's habit of recording all her conquests has been invaluable. They have a blow-by-blow record of her conquest of Mohandas and earlier recordings of her conquest of her Bishop - unfortunately just from old sound recordings. Zaire has been amazed at the information that even young Angela has at her fingertips.
"Why does everyone store everything in The Cloud? Even their darkest secrets," Zaire asked rhetorically. "The idea that information is secure in The Cloud is like a religious faith in most people. Yet it's complete rubbish."
Angela with her 'born to code brain' soon saw patterns in their data and when she pointed them out Bianca saw them too. These amounted to rules or laws of behaviour and could be converted to into functions. What had started out as a kind of 'know your enemy' game, a light hearted pastime based on Sun Tzu's The Art of War, had become a real project and now all three were spending quite a bit of time on it. To Bianca's delight Zaire was proving to be a very fast learner and had even written some of the simpler code for the applications library.
"We need a shoe routine to add to the subjugation techniques library," Zaire suggested: "Initial variables should include shoe type and colour. We may have to overload it later."
Angela was supposed to be excluded from this 'adult stuff' but she is another coding prodigy and had already written nearly half of the code. So, there was little that she had not seen concerning Margery's Craft. They were effectively building a virtual Margery in code. The use of Prospero meant that they didn't have to get everything perfect from the outset. Prospero would evolve to find the best way of achieving the desired goals. Bianca had some artificial intelligence software to upgrade their hypothetical Margery's native capabilities.
"What shall we call it," asked Angela: "Margery?"
"No. I've a better idea," said Zaire. "Let's call it Circe, the name of her VPA, and of the witch in Greek mythology famed for her vast knowledge of herbs and potions and for turning men into pigs."
They all agreed.
***
A month later Bianca stayed late at Zaire's place. She'd come for a meal to try out the new, actually antique, dining room furniture that they had been shopping for together. As usual it was quite boozy and they retired to her still quite Spartan living room. Zaire got out the things that she had borrowed from Margery's apartment and scattered them on her large Persian rug. They both tried on the clothes and were surprised that they fitted almost perfectly.
From the jewellery box Bianca picked out the 'witching ring' Margery had tried to use on her. Margery wasn't wearing it when she died. Edmund had told her no metals were permitted in his lab. This was Bianca's idea to prevent Margery bringing in her hallucinogenic amulet or various pill and potion containing rings and broaches. They now knew that the ring had been used to re-enchant the Bishop. He found that he was obliged to kneel before her when she showed it to him. It was unfortunate for her that she wasn't wearing it. It might have been her only chance to prevent him slaughtering her.
"What better fetish could there be to enslave a Bishop?" Zaire had laughed. She found that she was often amused by Margery's little jokes.
Zaire tried the ring on and couldn't get it off again. "Oh well," she said, "it looks like I'll just have to wear it."
"In that case I'll borrow this gold amulet," Bianca said. "I want to find out who made it. That is, if the maker's still alive. Would you like a copy? They're a very useful toy, as you've seen in the database."
"And I'll keep all this other stuff safe for Derrick. If he ever gets out," Zaire concluded before they retired to bed.
***
The following day the two friends went to the hairdresser where Bianca had her hair darkened to a deep auburn-red. Bianca then took Zaire to Bergeroff Goodman and they bought new outfits: charcoal suits; half a dozen silk blouses and camisoles; a dozen silk French knickers, dark red lacy suspender belts; a dozen pairs of sheer dark stockings; a pairs of patent dark red shoes with stiletto heels; and a new scarlet lipstick.
Stepping out of the change room Zaire was amazed to see the image of Margery right there in the store. It took nearly a minute for her to recover, even after Bianca asked her what the matter was.
"Have you looked in a mirror," she asked.
"Yes of course, I have. I've decided that this will be my new business look. Do you like it?"
"Well, I think Claude might. I'm so pleased I've bought a similar outfit. I can't have you upstaging me."
"No of course, not. And we can hardly be identical so it'll be fun to have a dark fashion twin. These days, with your new fashion trendsetter status, we'll set a new fashion. Perhaps we need to corner the silk market before we wear these in public? "
***
When Claude turned up at Zaire's newly furnished apartment, intending to stay the night, he didn't know how to react. Yet he found that he was amazingly aroused by her new appearance. That evening she discovered what Margery had begun to teach him and gained new understandings into the subject of her thesis.
***
Angela is now deeply involved in the Circe project. So, Zaire decided to lend Angela one of Margery's witchy rings to wear for safe keeping and as a present for helping her with the supporting evidence for her thesis.
"So, am I now officially a witch too, like you and Bianca? In future we can be The Three Witches, like The Three Musketeers."
It was not what Zaire had intended but she was happy with the idea and told Bianca their group's new title.
"All for one," Bianca responded. "And one for all," all three responded.
***
With all the excitement at Phuket Bianca had never got around to telling Zaire, or anyone, about the Adán incident. So, Zaire was surprised when Bianca announced that she had distant Bogan cousins who wanted Bianca to be a godmother to their new baby girl. She was even more surprised to learn that Bianca had visited them on several occasions and stayed the night. What was going on?
This would require some explaining. So, Bianca invited Zaire and Angela to her place for dinner and Isis oversaw the creation of a delicious meal and got in some excellent wine. Angela was allowed a glass watered down, in preparation for full adulthood. Over desert Bianca explained what she'd done. They were amazed at her revelations.
"How long have you known how to enchant people?" Zaire demanded.
"I had an excellent teacher, I had my first demonstration not long after I knew Margery," she confessed.
She'd never told anyone what Margery had done to her and it had been deleted from The Cloud by Isis but now it was confession time.
"So, I thought I'd try it out," she concluded.
"I think that she may have actually preferred women romantically, after being made to love Morag," Zaire commented. Then she added: "I got quite turned on by your story. I sort of wish I'd known Margery better."
"Well so was I. At the time," admitted Bianca.
Her ankle touched the side of Zaire's under the table. Zaire didn't pull away.
"The thought of making someone else of either sex a willing servant, or even a slave, is a turn on," said Angela, "I have several boys and a girl who fetch and carry for me at school."
The stress on 'a girl' suggested that she knew perfectly well what was going on.
Bianca found that she was shocked, yet again, by Angela's adult insights. Maybe she shouldn't be involved in any of this? She understands a lot more than perhaps a thirteen-year-old should. She moved her foot away.
"Anyway, you can't accept the invitation to be a godmother, you're an atheist," said Angela, quickly changing the subject; realising that she'd both shocked and embarrassed her cousin.
"I told them that: I don't believe in the Trinity or the divinity of Christ or the great bulk of Judeo-Christian mythology. Yet I don't know how the Universe got here and I do believe that there are certain consistencies in the behaviour of energy, matter and the space-time continuum that are mysterious. I also believe that society needs rules to function and that children need to be taught appropriate behaviour. Collectively I'm happy to call these universal characteristics immanence and our evolving rules for living together, morality. But I stressed that this is a purely semantic position. To their intents and purposes, I'm an atheist."
"Right, so these Bogans understood every word!" replied Angela.