After they had finished their meals, Liz volunteered to do the dishes and Black said she was going for a walk to check the other houses. Lotus lit a cigarette and offered one to Kim, who accepted it, smiling at her. Kim got up from the couch and opened another bottle, this time making sure the cork wouldn't hit her. She poured herself and Lotus another drink. She sat down next to Lotus and handed her her drink. "Thanks." Lotus said.

"You're welcome," Kim replied.

Lotus looked at Kim; she was a beautiful young woman with a gentle face, long blonde hair, green eyes, gorgeous breasts, a beautiful waistline and long legs.

"What are you looking at?" asked Kim innocently. "Did I spill some beans?" She started examining her clothes.

"No, no." Lotus said. "I was…I was just guessing your age."

"Oh!" said Kim, noticeably relieved. "And what do you think?"

"About 24?"

Kim let out a small, teasing laugh. "Nooo, guess again!"

"23?"

"Yes!" Kim said and embraced her.

"Why'd you do that?" Lotus asked.

"Do what?" Kim replied with a puzzled look on her face.

"Why'd you embrace me?"

"Well…I didn't…. I didn't believe you when you said you were guessing my age, and….and…" Kim said, nearly starting to cry.

"Then you were right." Lotus said, embracing Kim again.

Liz, who had finished the dishes, suddenly walked into the room. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"N-nothing." Lotus replied, quickly letting Kim go. "Kim was sad, so I comforted her."

Kim stood up and quickly walked out of the room. "You know, you have a certain effect on other women." said Liz.

Lotus was shocked by this remark, and the room started turning in front of her eyes. Could Liz be right? She went back in her mind and remembered Brianna, Sharon and Venus, then went back even further, realizing some women always reacted differently to her then on others, but she had never sought the blame by herself. Slowly her mind came to rest. "I didn't realize….. I never thought it was my fault." she said softly, feeling ashamed of herself.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Liz said, to her surprise. "It's just, when…. when I saw you with Kim, I thought you were taking advantage of her…"

"I would never!" Lotus replied. She saw Liz was staring at her. "What are you looking at?"

"You…I…I can't help it!" said Liz. "You're so beautiful."

"Why are all the women I meet always attracted to the same gender?" Lotus cried out. "I just want to be normal, like everybody else…."

"I never thought about women in the way I think about you…" said Liz mysteriously.

She slowly got up and walked over to Lotus, sitting down next to her and staring straight into her eyes. She stroked Lotus' cheek, but Lotus quickly turned her head away. How could this be? Why did she have that effect on other women? She quickly got and grabbed two bottles of cider, ran out of the room, out of the house and into the forest. She ran a couple of hundred feet into the forest before she stopped.

Lotus sat down against a tree and opened a bottle. She took a long swig and started crying. Why was she doomed with this infernal gift? Because of her, Brianna's life was in ruins; without her, Brianna would still be with the clan, probably married to Jake. Suddenly she realized Jake was dead; dead because of her! And now, now she was in a house with three women, who had all shown her some sort of affection. This saddened her even more and she quickly drank the entire bottle, focusing on it instead of on her feelings.

Could she even return to the house? Of course she could, she would publicly announce her diabolical talents and that would be the end of it. She'd sleep on the couch or something. Yeah, on the couch, where it was safe. She drank the other bottle of cider without thinking, simply because she was too drunk to think. When she had finished, it was dark. She got up and focused on the lights she could see shining out of the windows of the house she had fled a couple of hours ago. She slowly staggered back to the house, bumping into trees from time to time. Finally, she reached the house; she opened the door and staggered into the living-room. It was empty. She sat down on one of the couches and lit a cigarette.

Black entered the room. "Where've you been?"

"Out…..forest…" she mumbled in reply.

"You're drunk!" said Black and sat down next to her. "Come on, let's get you to bed."

Black slowly lifted her and supported her a they walked to the bedroom. Black gently laid her down on her bed and covered her with a thin blanket. She fell asleep almost immediately.

Lotus awakened. She looked around the room and saw that Black was still asleep. She got up and automatically wanted to walk to the bathroom, but there wasn't any.

"What kind of idiot builds a house without a bathroom?" she said to herself angrily.

She walked outside and saw a small burned-down building, which had probably been some sort of outhouse. She walked into the forest and did her business au naturelle. When she was done, she walked around the village for a bit. It was early in the morning, as the sun was still low. Dew hung from leaves and grass, which made the scenery look beautiful because the small drops reflected the sunlight. She decided to go back to the house, but she didn't go inside; instead, she sat down in front of the open door and lit a cigarette. She knew she couldn't stay with the other women anymore; at least, not for long. Thoughts of Brianna entered her mind; this time it didn't make her sad, but angry. She knew then and there it was her duty to free her one true friend from Sharon. She got up, feeling very confident in herself.

She walked into the house and into her room. She looked through a closet and found a small brown backpack. She took the backpack with her to the kitchen and put a few cans of beans in it, then went down to the cellar and put three bottles of cider in it. She would have taken more, but the small backpack was filled more quickly then she had anticipated. She walked back to her room and picked up her gun.

"What are you doing?" she heard a sleepy Black mumble.

"I'm going away." she said resolutely.

Black immediately sat up straight in her bed. "You can't leave!" she said, shocked and suddenly wide awake.

"Why not?" Lotus asked.

"But…..but what about me?"

"What about you?"

"I….I want to come with you…." Black said, softly.

"If you really want to, but I must say that the chances you survive are at the most slim."

"I don't care!" Black said, getting up from her bed and putting on her clothes. "I'm coming with you, whether you like it or not!"

Lotus reached into one of the closets and produced an even smaller backpack. "Here." she said, handing Black the small orange sack. "Put two bottles of cider in it and see if you can stuff some cans in it, too."

Black did as she was told, while Lotus picked up her weapon and walked outside. To her shock, she saw shady figures moving through the forest. She quickly ran inside and pulled Black, who was just coming up the stairs again, into Liz and Kim's bedroom, waking them quickly.

"What….what?" said Kim drowsily. Liz just moaned.

"I saw people outside!" Lotus whispered as loud as she could.

Liz immediately sat up straight in her bed. "Really?" she said, startled.

Lotus just nodded, but that was enough. Liz quickly got up and started to get dressed. "Get your gun." Lotus said to Black.

Kim, who had finally realized what was going on, sat in her bed and looked stunned. Lotus pushed her to snap her out of it. "Get dressed!" she whispered.

Black came back into the room; Liz was dressed and loading her gun. They waited a moment for Kim, then they walked outside.

Lotus saw about five men standing in a circle; they were dressed in black clothes and all had long black hair. She also noticed they were armed and talking about something. One of the men suddenly realized they had company and looked at them. When the other men saw he was looking at something, they all turned and looked at them. "Who….who are you?" asked the man who saw them first.

"We are, I mean were soldiers to Lord Arkham." Lotus said.

"Why'd you tell them that?" Kim whispered to her. "Maybe they're…"

"Shhhh!" Lotus interrupted her. "And who are you?" she asked the men.

"We are soldiers of the Black God." replied the man, with pride in his voice.

"What are you doing here?" Lotus asked.

"We came to help Lord Arkham with his struggle against the empress, but we only found a corpse-ridden castle."

Lotus had heard tales about a small band of so-called rebels, who fought the empress whenever and however they could, and how they would paint their faces black and white before a battle and screamed unintelligible unholy prayers. Apparently they blamed God for what had happened on the earth and figured if he would allow such things, he wasn't worth praying to, so they directed their prayers at his arch-enemy. She wasn't sure if that was the way to go; hell, she wasn't even sure there was a God, but she admired their spirit. "Do you need any good soldiers?" she boldly asked.

"We're always on the lookout." replied the man, smiling.

"I can't speak for my friends, but I would like to join you." Lotus said.

"If you go, I go." said Black.

"Me too!" said Kim cheerfully.

Liz was skeptical, but since Kim appeared eager to come along, she also said she'd like to go, although less enthusiastically than the others.

"I know I said we were always looking for soldiers," the soldier said. "but you have to understand we can't just take on everyone who bumps into us. If you want, you can come with us to our hide-out in the highlands, where your abilities will be tested. Not only your physical abilities, I feel it necessary to add."

"Sounds normal to me; I mean, only a fool would take on everybody who can carry a gun." Lotus replied.

"Like the Empress."

"Yes indeed," she replied, smiling. "like the Empress."

"Well, let's go." he said. "We left our horses by the castle."

"Just let us get some stuff from the house." Lotus said.

"If it's food or alcohol, there's no need; we have plenty of that."

Lotus smiled as she lit a cigarette; noticing it was her last, she threw the packet away.

"Don't worry." said the man with a grin. "We have plenty of that, too."

They walked up to the horses; there were eight of them. "We had only three horses when we arrived here, but we found five more in a small stable. Man, were those horses thirsty; you should have seen them running to the pond." said one of the men to Lotus. He offered his hand. "By the way, I'm Ister."

"Lotus." she replied, shaking his hand.

"You do know how to ride, don't you?" asked the first soldier.

Everybody nodded, except for Liz. The man decided that since there were nine of them and only eight horses that Liz would ride with Black, who was the smallest. They all agreed and mounted their horses.

"By the way," he said to Liz. "if you want to join us, you are going to have to learn how to ride."

Liz looked down, slightly embarrassed, and they went on their way.

As they rode, Lotus maneuvered her horse alongside the first soldier. "I never did catch your name." she shouted, to be heard over the noise the horses produced.

"I'm Sabathan." the man shouted back. "And you are Lotus, I overheard you saying."

"Where exactly are we going?" Lotus asked.

"Our hideout is at the edge of the highlands, about 40 miles from here, but because of the rough country it will take us about five hours to get there."

The rest of the journey was made in silence, simply because it was too great an effort to shout over the noise the horses made. This was made even more difficult when a raging thunderstorm decided to drop its load on them; only Sabathan shouted something every now and then, usually something like "Look out for that log!" or "Only such-and-such miles left to go."

Finally after six long hours they reached the hideout; it had stopped raining, but they were still soaked, not to mention cold. They left the horses by a stable and passed through a small wooden gate.

Lotus walked through a narrow cave about three feet across. Torches hung from the walls, lighting their way. They walked through the narrow cave for about two hundred feet until they came to another wooden gate, larger than the first. The cave area was wider here; Sabathan opened the gate, and they could immediately hear the sounds of guns being fired at paper targets. They entered a large cave, lit by great fires. This round cave had a diameter of about three hundred feet, and the center of the ceiling was about one hundred feet high.

"This is our training area." said Sabathan. "On the left are caves that lead to sleeping areas. The large gate on the left leads to the dining area and ultimately to the kitchen."

"Where is your leader?" asked Kim.

"We don't have a leader." he replied, smiling. "It's like this; I am the lord of my party and once a week I discuss our actions and future actions with the other lords. I presume this duty will befall you." he said looking at Lotus.

"Well, I don't know...maybe…."

"All in favor of Lotus being our lord," interrupted Kim. "raise your hand."

Kim and Black immediately rose their hands; Liz's soon followed, a little slower than the others. "Don't get too excited yet; you still have to be tested." said Sabathan. "But we'll do that tomorrow; today we'll eat and drink to our safe return."

He walked up to the large gate and opened it; behind the gate was a wide short cave of about 20 feet wide and 40 feet long. At the end was another gate; behind this gate was another round cave, only much smaller than the first. It was about one hundred feet in diameter and about thirty feet high. In the cave stood a round U-shaped table. They were standing at the bottom end of the U; on the other side of the cave were more doors, which presumably led to the kitchen. The table was only about a quarter occupied; Lotus could see there was room for at least a hundred people. They all sat down. Lotus sat next to Sabathan. Black, Liz and Kim sat down to her left; Sabathan's men sat to his right. Soon after they had sat down, the men and women from the other cave started coming in; eventually, there were about fifty people in the room. "Where are all the others?" Lotus asked.

"On missions, I guess." Sabathan replied.

"So you don't know?"

"Not exactly, some are sneak-attacking the emperial forces where they least expect it; others are helping out other rebels, like Arkham."

"So basically, they're giving Sharon a hard time."

"You call her by her first name; why?" asked Sabathan, looking at her a bit suspiciously.

Lotus told her story about how she escaped from the Empress, how she ended up helping Arkham and finally ended up here. She never once mentioned Brianna or the escape from her clan though, fearing she might get emotional again. Sabathan was disgusted by the Empress' actions in the castle and stood up. "People!" he shouted. "Silence, please!"

Slowly the talk and laughter in the room died out. "I have an announcement to make. I have just received information from this woman." Sabathan said, pointing at Lotus. "She is my friend and fellow rebel, who will take the tests tomorrow. She has confirmed the rumors about the empress and has valuable information on the layout of her castle. If she passes the tests, which I'm sure she will, I suggest we have a meeting tomorrow in here after dinner."

About eight men and women got up; the other lords, Lotus assumed. All of them nodded their acceptance of the proposed meeting. Sabathan sat down again. "You have no idea how valuable that information can be." he said to Lotus.

"Why?" she asked.

"I can't tell you yet because you haven't passed the tests," he answered. "but it'll all become clear to you at the meeting tomorrow."

Some children and elderly people started to bring in food from the kitchen. "Children?" Lotus asked.

"Yes." said Sabathan. "People who belong to our group and are either too young or too old to fight get alternative tasks; in this case preparing and serving dinner, but they also clean the rooms and work the fields."

"I didn't see any fields."

"They are hidden in a dense forest half a mile from here."

Lotus received a plate with half a chicken and a lot of vegetables on it. The chicken was roasted and the vegetables cooked. A small boy filled her wooden mug with beer. She enjoyed the meal in silence. Afterwards she asked Sabathan for a cigarette. "Where do we get to sleep?" she asked after she had lit it.

"I will show you your quarters later on." he replied.

"Will I have a separate room?"

"No, you have one room with your party. Is that a problem?"

"No…no."

A silence fell between them and she couldn't think of anything to say, so she asked the small boy to refill her mug. The boy did what she had asked her. Suddenly she remembered what she had wondered about earlier that day. "Why do you put on paint before you go to battle?"

"Oh, that. Why do you think?"

"Well, the rumor is that you guys are, like, evil or something."

"That is exactly what we want them to think." Sabathan replied. "Of course, it is far from the truth; we do that to instill fear in our enemies, and I see it works."

"And what about screaming unholy things?"

"All just a show we put on; sometimes we just have to scream and look diabolical and the enemy starts running before we have even fired a single bullet."

"That's a load off my mind." Lotus said with relief.

"What, were you scared we'd sacrifice you or something?" Sabathan asked, starting to laugh.

"No, I just didn't know you. I just knew what I had heard, so I was kind of scared of you in the beginning."

Lotus ordered the boy to fill her mug again and asked Sabathan for another cigarette. "Here," he said. "keep the package; I'll show you where you can get your own supplies tomorrow if, no when you have passed the tests."

"So what do you fight for?" she asked, lighting a cigarette.

"We want to reunite the entire country and install a democracy." he said in a formal tone.

"Oh, I thought you wanted something big." She said in an ironic tone.

"It's just how we call it. We just want everybody to be free--like it used to be, only better."

"It all sounds very nice, but have you any idea of what lies south of the empire?"

"No, I thought it was mostly deserted, like here in the highlands. The only thing we have around here are a few nomadic tribes who depend fully on sheep."

"I'm from the south." she said.

"You……you are?" He said, sounding a little doubtful.

She told him about the clans; how they worked and how she escaped. She even mentioned Brianna a couple of times. "I….I had no idea." he said afterwards,a look of respect and wonder in his eyes. "I had no idea you had been through so much."

She ordered the boy to fill her mug again. "So you could say," she went on. "Sharon protects you from the clans."

"Yes….you can. This is really pissing me off; this whole situation sucks. How many of these cursed clans are there?"

"Hundreds and hundreds, some big, others small, some benign, others plain evil."

"So why doesn't the Empress attack them?" he asked.

"I don't know, maybe she's scared or maybe she just doesn't give a fuck. You know, it's not all hatred between the clans; some smaller ones work together to fight the big ones. I think that if she was to attack a clan, the others would surely work together to kick her off the land again and they might even invade the Empire."

"But her armies are so big, how can a few clans….?"

"Have you ever seen the emperial forces?" she asked. "Just a bunch of untrained boys and overweight men. Soldiers from clans are battle-hardened to the extreme, ruthless in their ways and capable of doing things that would make you puke." she said, thinking of what Brianna had done to that man. "Believe me, I know. If you put on your little show in front of them, they'd probably laugh in your face."

Lotus was starting to get emotional and breathing heavily out of anger and hatred. She looked at Sabathan and saw she was scaring him. "I'm….I'm sorry, I get a little carried away when I talk about my past." she said as a tear rolled down her cheek.

"It's….it's OK, I didn't know...I…."

"No one knows, no one knows what pains I have endured." Lotus really started crying now.

Kim, who sat next to her, quickly started comforting her. "Now look what you have done, you brute." she said to Sabathan.

"I….I didn't know, how on earth…." he replied, but wisely stopped protesting after he saw the anger in Kim's eyes and seeing the other women were looking angrily at him too. He turned to Ister, who was sitting next to him, but Ister only laughed in his face when he tried to defend himself. "Can't I do anything right!" he said, hopelessly.

Lotus couldn't help but laugh at this remark, and slowly let go of Kim's comforting embrace. "It's not your fault," she said, laughing and sobbing at the same time. "You're right, you didn't know, but the fact that nobody does always saddens me. I'm sorry if I offended you."

"No, no of course not, it's just that everybody was either angry at me or laughing in my face." Sabathan replied, looking at Ister in mock-anger.

"It doesn't matter, but could you show me to my quarters?" Lotus asked. "I want to be alone for a while."

She looked at the other women. "Could you stay here for a few more hours? I'd really like some time for myself."

Black and Liz both nodded. "Are you sure you're going to be OK?" asked Kim.

"Yes," Lotus replied. "and thank you for comforting me."

Kim embraced her quickly, then Lotus stood up. Sabathan stood up as well and led the way. They walked across the training cave in silence and entered a small cave through the wooden gate on the left. They were now in a long narrow cave which curved slightly to the right with doors on both side. They walked for about a hundred feet until he suddenly stopped. "Here are your quarters." he said, pointing at a wooden door with a big 12 on it.

She thanked him and opened the door. It was dark in the room so she lit a few candles that were on a table near the door.

"Are you sure you're going to be alright?" Sabathan asked with concern.

She only nodded in reply and closed the door, telling him she would see him tomorrow. In the small room were four beds that sat next to each other in a row. There was one big closet and one small cabinet. She lit a cigarette and walked over to the cabinet and opened it. She found what she was looking for and grabbed a bottle of whisky. She took off all her clothes, except for her underwear, and sat down on the bed to the far left. She drank, thinking about her situation; sometimes crying, sometimes laughing. This went on until she was too drunk to do either. She laid down on the bed and pulled the covers up to her chin; it wasn't long before she fell asleep.