"You like what you see, my King?"
Her exposed stomach raised slightly as she breathed. Midas did not respond and continued to look at her figure. Her fingers once again traced every part of her that his eyes drifted towards.
Tattoos and markings covered her thighs and arms. The tattoos were glyphs and diefic symbols representing the Pagan Gods.
Midas frowned. He was able to recognize two distinct repeating characters, each representing a God.
One was a cornucopia on her left thigh, which was filled with fruit and clovers.
The other was a large serpent gorging itself on its tail, wrapped around an hourglass. The neck of the hourglass was positioned in the void of her navel.
"Tchye and Ophis"
Both Param and Visah had turned around, not daring to look at the body of the High Visionary. Midas, however, did not care and stepped closer to her.
"I did not think someone claiming to be a Visionary would do so using the Powers of the Pagan Dieties. Tell me, woman, do you see the future with your own eyes or through the tainted lens of Gods…? "
Midas would soon receive an answer. This woman was not one but three. Vwosh!
The first voice to speak had the voice of a seductive young lady. The young lady sprung up from her seat and gave Midas a hug from behind. She trailed her fingers up to his wired chest before whispering in his ear.
Midas did not see when or how she moved.
"Don't worry, Young King, I can see all kinds of things about you." She fondled his breasts lightly before letting go.
Midas, unwilling to let her out of his sight, turned his back to nothing. However, from behind, the voice of a small child spoke, her voice devoid of all sin and full of innocence, as if she had never experienced a hard day in life.
"You came here from far away looking for answers."
Midas turned again; there was no one, but the voice returned from behind him. This time the voice was of an elderly woman.
"But unfortunately this is only the beginning of your end, My King. "
Midas quickly shifted his feet once again, staring at the young lady whose allure remained but whose soul seemed to have aged nearly 100 years. Her eyes were filled with countless wisdom, proverbs, and cautionary tales.
Even as the aged voice seeped from her lips, her seductive body continued to sway and draw Midas' attention. Param and Visah had already exited the tent fearing the consequences of hearing the words spoken by the High Visionary.
As she danced and circled Midas, the flickering candles illuminating the tent each went out one by one. The world of Midas quickly darkened to an inky void. His eyes could only peer as far as his fingertips, but he held no fear in his heart.
Someone of his mind knew that the answers he sought would never come from a human's lips; he had just never expected such a fate.
At least that's what he had said to himself in the moment. Even composed, his only anchor was that in this darkness he could still feel the light grains of sand beneath his feet. Midas lightly shifted his attention around himself.
He spoke into the emptiness. "It seems as though you do not see through your own eyes after all, Visionary; your body is a vessel for Fortune and Eternity. You are the first I have witnessed, and If I live past tomorrow, then you will be the last remembered."
Hehe~
A laugh filled with feminine charm engulfed the emptiness. "As wise as you are, my King, You are not wise enough to see us for what we truly are...But that is okay…I love a stupid man. They dance so beautifully for me."
The voice alternated once again to the child's. "Fortune favors the bold—"
The voice shifted to that of the elderly woman. "And Unlike my Brother Father Time, I have all the time in the world…"
Midas frowned, his golden pupils scanning the emptiness. He remained silent, but his thoughts were filling up the blank spaces of emptiness.
'Hmm… What does she mean by "what we truly are"? Is that young lady not a vessel for their descent? Hmm. What could she be then? I have only heard of rumors of Pagans using humans as vessels from the scattered lips of dead men. If she's not a vessel... hmm?'
CLAP! It was as if thunder struck the surface of his mind, turning it into glass. 'If she is not a vessel, then what is she?'
Midas did not dare finish his thoughts. His bravery and cunning only worked on the likes of his kind. It seemed that he had forgotten a staple tenant of this waning time period, It was the Age of Pagan Gods and Monsters.
Gods still roamed the Earth.
After coming to this realization, Midas felt his body lighten, and as he blinked, he was standing in the tent. The candlelights once again flickered on her illuminated figure. She smiled at him and picked up a glass of wine.
She looked towards Midas and gestured for him to come forward. Midas stepped, but this time his feet were hesitant. In this time period all though Gods roamed the Earth, it did not mean they were well known or documented; only their vague Titles and effigies littered the scattered plots of land that humans inhabited.
Midas' footsteps paused as a flash of curiosity filled his eyes as he questioned two deities at once. "Why do you share this body?"
The High Visionary twirled her glass and took a sip. Purple liquid spilled from her lips, tracing down her cheeks before soaking into the bedding of her chair.
Both the young and elderly voices spoke simultaneously from one mouth. It was disorienting hearing the overlap, and Midas' head buzzed. Their words felt heavy as if they were weighted by something…Divine.
"We find her attractive."
Midas' expression nearly cracked as one of his golden eyes twitched for a second.
"Hehe~"
The High Visionary once again beckoned for him. Midas inched closer. She pointed to a spot beneath her feet and smiled.
Midas blinked rapidly before smiling and falling to his knees. She gestured for him to come closer. Midas inched forward between her thighs. His thick locks were parting like curtains against her skin. Midas could feel the heat radiating from her body.
Midas looked up at her from below, and her eyes never left his. The young woman's voice spoke in earnest.
"It seems you do know your place My King."
Midas smiled, his golden eyes seemingly piercing through the layers of skin, muscle, and bone to gaze at something deeper and vast.
"I am no King. I'm merely a wanderer seeking answers. " Midas bowed his head.
"Yet as a wanderer, you dare feel it is your place between my thighs?" The high visionary mocked Midas sarcastically.
Midas' unyielding gaze met her own. The High Visionary's pupils dilated slightly as if seeing something that was not there before.
"It seems you are the Chosen son of heaven… A vast golden sea already lies within you waiting to be unleashed…"
Not allowing Midas to ask, the High Visionary suddenly poured the purple wine down her bosom. As it flowed down her frame, the liquid separated and meandered into different paths. It was like a network of blood vessels that branched endlessly into infinite paths.
Midas watched as some of the path's drawn by the wine on her skin stopped abruptly, never retreating or moving forward.
Midas kept his gaze on as many as he could. First it was thousands, then it was hundreds, then it was ten, and at last there was only ONE.
One thick droplet of wine flowed down her stomach into her navel. Before midas could ask the meaning, he heard all three voices overlap.
"Drink…It will show you the path you seek."
Midas, without hesitation, placed his lips against her navel and drank the wine that flowed down the single path.
In his mind were images of a river whose shore was washed with fragments of bones and men who were shackled by their ankles, carrying cinderblocks, and wandered the edges of its shores, glancing at the turbid waters, searching for the perfect place to rest. He then saw himself by the riverside with a skull drinking of the water.
He then found himself at the apex of a mountain, stealing a feather from a golden Roc the size of a small courtyard.
And at last, a pumpkin patch filled with jack-o'-lanterns under a black sky flashed within his vision.
Midas blinked rapidly as all of this faded from his gaze. He looked up, and instead of kneeling in front of The High Visionary, he was standing at the exit of the canyon. In his palm was the skull of an infant, with directions towarda the Northernmost border of the Northern Sahara.
From an unknown distance words drifted into his ears. "What will you do when you find something more valuable than the answer you seek, oh King of Gold? Will you still choose a friend?"
Midas glanced at the desert expanse. He quickly felt up his supplies, finding that all his flasks were full of spring water.
He glanced back at the canyon before stepping forward unwavering. His contemplative voice drifting off into the dunes. "What is karma?"
And so—
Bang!
Both Ziggy and James found their attention drawn to the doorway of his store, which had been violently opened. The items on the loose shelving rattled lightly before coming to a stop.