The Pygmalion Syndrome: Female Stories: Jaskri’s Story Omnibus

Author’s note: this page started out as an omnibus of two stories I wrote (and compulsively revised and re-revised) between April 1999 and March 2000. The third part was added in August 2000 and I began a fourth in September. There is some erotic description, but nothing I would classify as hardcore. First and foremost these are meant to be entertaining science fiction stories, and I hope you enjoy them.

The fact that “Jaskri’s Story” is based on a time paradox means that establishing the exact order of events can be a bit confusing. At least I find it confusing, and I wrote the blasted thing!!!
So in order to try to straighten things out I have now added a timeline at the end of the story listing events in chronological order from the viewpoints of a) Jaskri and Diann; b) Viréni and Jeruvin; and c) The Maiden herself. So now there’s no excuse. If the story confuses you just check out the Timeline ...and you’ll soon be totally bewildered!

Each morning, before she went to help her mother pick zalberries and dewfruit in the fields, Jaskri would kiss the Maiden and ask her to bless the day’s labours. Each evening when she returned she would kiss her stone lips once more to thank her for those blessings. To Jaskri, of course, as to all her fellow villagers, the statue was always “she,” never “it.” She stood upon a broad pedestal in a small grassy square near the well at the centre of the village, looking a little out of place amidst its modest wooden dwellings.

The villagers had not gone so far as to give the statue a name, perhaps because they were unable to think of one that would do justice to her charm and grace. Yet for some strange reason none of the villagers could regard the statue as a mere object, and so “the Maiden” she had become. Indeed, to the villagers she almost seemed like another member of the community. They would sit upon the edge of her pedestal as they would sit with a friend, and tell her the latest gossip without feeling the least bit foolish for doing so. Late at night, by the light of Silvermoon or Goldmoon, lovers would lie upon the winegrass knoll before her pedestal and ask her to bless their unions. Some of them were shyly exploring each other’s bodies for the first time. Some were fully experienced. Some were of the same gender. Some, indeed, were more than couples. Yet all had one thing in common: they were seldom disappointed by the Maiden’s blessings. Indeed, it was common for lovers to climb upon her pedestal and thank her by making her a part of their lovemaking. Curiously, this treatment never caused the statue to become stained or worn. Her marble surface, if indeed it was marble, always remained as clean and smooth as the day she had first appeared.

Nobody knew where the statue had come from. She had simply been found one morning, standing on a hill overlooking the village, the marble or alabaster image of a beautiful maiden of perhaps twenty years. She was poised gracefully upon a pedestal, naked and dignified, with a beatific smile upon her face. The villagers, seeing her for the first time, had been enchanted by her beauty - perhaps, some suggested, literally.

How she came to be there was a mystery. One man suggested that a merchant with more wealth than sense had discarded her. “If so,” another replied, “the man’s a blind, or a fool, or he really hates women. Who could possibly want to throw out such a treasure? Why, I’ll wager there are royal palaces that don’t house such wonders as her.”

Already they were unconsciously thinking of the statue as a person rather than an object.

“Anyway, she couldn’t have been thrown out of a coach or whatever. We’re on a hill, a good hundred strides from the road. Can’t imagine anyone being daft enough to cart a heavy statue all the way up here in the middle of the night.”

“Me neither. And it would have taken at least two men to lug her up here. Surely someone would have seen ’em or heard ’em.”

“Well, she got here somehow, and now we have to figure out what to do with her.”

The villagers had debated the matter for some time. “We can hardly keep her, can we? Like you said, she’s worth an emperor’s ransom. She must belong to someone.”

“Well, what are we supposed to do then? Cart her off to City Dravinye and sit in the market square until the owner comes looking for her?”

Three people who were unavoidably absent from that gathering were Jaskri’s expectant parents and the town midwife. That morning as the villagers were waking up and preparing for their daily tasks, they had heard two cries simultaneously. One was the astonished cry of the farmer who had risen early to feed his vorniks and discovered the statue. The other was the lusty bellowing of a newborn girl.

In the end it was decided to keep the statue until such time as her rightful owner might be found. This was hardly stealing, after all, they told themselves. They were merely holding her in trust, as it were. And surely no one would object to the statue being given pride of place in the village square until then. Yet despite discreet enquiries as to who might have lost or had stolen such a treasure, no owner could be found. The discreet enquiries were eventually abandoned and the villagers came to think of the statue as their own. Surely after the passage of so many years no one would come looking for her.

From as early an age as she could recall, the Maiden had held a particular fascination for Jaskri. Once while she was learning to talk, her mother held her up before the pedestal and told her, “Say hello, Jaskri. This is the Maiden. She’s our own very special statue. In a sense, she’s the same age as you.” Her mother smiled. “I suppose that more or less makes you sisters.” She turned toward the Maiden. “What do you think?” she asked. “Will you accept her as your sister, and guide and protect her?” It was surely just her imagination that made the statue seem, for a moment, to smile even more sweetly than usual. But little Jaskri had reached out a hand to the statue’s face and shyly murmured, “Mai’en.”

Jaskri grew to be an exceptionally pretty and intelligent young girl. Fortunately she also had the knack of making friends easily. Unlike many who consider themselves beautiful and intelligent she never felt the need to make others feel ugly and stupid. Some years earlier, when the improved harvests began to yield surplus revenue for the village, it had been decreed by the council that extra funding should be allocated to school teaching. As a result Jaskri learned to read and write. Although some of the older villagers still considered these to be useless skills, the general consensus was that they would come in useful. Why, if she was really as bright as she seemed she might even be enrolled in Dravinye College one day, and that would surely be a first for their little village.

When Jaskri was about thirteen, a newcomer moved into the village, a single woman of about thirty summers. The villagers treated her warily at first, like any small community encountering a stranger, but she seemed harmless enough and they gradually warmed to her presence. It seemed she was called Diann - a strange-sounding name whose origin nobody could identify. She also claimed to have healing skills, which helped soften the villagers’ attitudes toward her. Their village was generally a healthy place, but accidents can always happen. Meanwhile Jaskri, with her characteristic extrasense, believed that Diann’s arrival was significant both for her and for the Maiden. Some day, somehow, the destiny of all three would be woven together.

So she was not surprised when one day she and her parents encountered Diann as they were walking by the Maiden. The healer was studying the statue with a curious expression. “Good morning to you,” said Jaskri’s mother. “I see you’re admiring our most honoured resident.”

The healer turned toward her. “Oh...yes,” she replied. “It’s a...fascinating work of art.”

Jaskri’s parents laughed at this. “Yes, but you didn’t appear from nowhere,” said her mother. “You spent three seasons growing in me. Although,” she told Diann, “she didn’t make too much of a fuss about entering the world. Say hello properly, Jaskri.”

Jaskri curtseyed as politely as you please and said, “Good morning to you, lady. My name is Jaskri. The Maiden’s blessing be upon you.”

“Good morning to you too, Jaskri,” replied Diann, studying Jaskri’s face almost as intently as she had studied the statue’s.

“We were just taking some torva-fruit to my grandmother,” said Jaskri. “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if you had one.”

Diann smiled. “Well, if you’re sure...” Jaskri’s mother nodded in confirmation. “Then I should like it very much. You grow some marvellous produce in this district.”

“Well, no not a goddess, exactly...,” her father spoke hesitantly, stumbling as he searched for the proper words, “... I mean, that would be idolatry, wouldn’t it...but we’ve always had the feeling that she’s watching over us...looking after us somehow...it’s hard to explain.”

Jaskri joined in. “It’s true. She’s not a goddess, and she’s not a woman, but somehow she does look after us. I can feel it.”

The healer looked thoughtful. “Well,” she said, “whoever or whatever your Maiden is, she certainly seems to be...unique.” She paused as if about to say more, but seemed unable to find the right words. Finally she muttered, “Well, then. I must be getting along now. Thank you for the fruit. I’m sure we will talk again soon.”

Jaskri and her parents nodded politely and turned away. As they departed, Diann took another lingering glance at the statue. This is bizarre, she thought, unprecedented. In all my experience I’ve never heard of such a thing. And yet the evidence is incontrovertible. As for what it means for the girl...Diann scarcely knew what to think. After another searching look at the Maiden she shook her head and walked away.

The healer’s arrival came to seem fortuitous less than a moon later. One warm spring afternoon Jaskri was out harvesting when, reaching beneath a zalberry bush to pick some particularly large and ripe berries, she was bitten by a jalga that had been sheltering there. Ironically the weather that brought the village’s good harvests had also brought the poisonous lizards that normally would not venture so far north. Jaskri’s screams brought her mother and a dozen other harvesters rushing to her aid, but when they saw what had happened some of them exchanged despairing glances. A jalga’s venom was quite potent enough to kill a fully-grown man, let alone an adolescent girl. It seemed as if the Maiden had withdrawn her blessings from the village.

By the time the harvesters had carried Jaskri to the healer’s house she was already in a high fever. When Diann heard what had happened, her face became grim.

“Please, healer, you must save her,” her mother sobbed. “She is everything to me. She cannot die.”

Diann’s expression was unreadable. “No,” she muttered. “That would be...unthinkable.” She placed a hand upon Jaskri’s forehead, as if she needed proof of the girl’s condition. Then she took Jaskri’s mother by the hand and looked her in the eye. “You must trust me now. Leave your daughter with me and I will do everything that can be done for her. I swear it upon my life.”

Jaskri’s mother swallowed. Then, wiping ineffectually at her tear-stained face, she nodded. “Yes,” she whispered. “I trust you, healer. May the Maiden’s blessing be upon her, and upon your healing skills.”

“Yes,” said Diann. “Somehow, I believe it will. Go home now and try to rest. I must get to work immediately.”

Jaskri scarcely saw or heard any of this. She was aware, when she was aware of anything, only of the fever raging within her and the aching in her bones. In her delirium she seemed to hear Diann conversing in an unknown tongue with somebody whose voice could be heard clearly, yet who was nowhere to be seen.

“Subject is class six-three humanoid female, age approximately equivalent to fourteen Earth years, bitten by class one-four-seven venomous reptilian. Uploading subject’s DNA sample and specimen of poison for immediate analysis. Administering broad-spectrum anti-inflammatory nanos to combat immediate threat from fever and tissue damage. Priority Alpha download full repair nanoprogram.”

“Subject is focus of Quadrant Seven temporal anomaly. Temporal vortex is destabilising rapidly. Imperative, repeat, imperative this be prevented. High probability death of subject would create catastrophic temporal collapse, extent potentially infinite. Therefore subject must be healed. Failure not, repeat not, option. Download nanoprogram immediately.”

There was a brief pause before the bodiless voice replied. “Downloading as requested.” Another pause. “Tell me, Diane, what makes you so certain she’s the one?”

“The statue is emitting kilo-electron-volt neutrinos. This entire village is bathed in them. They’re interacting with the environment somehow, enhancing growth and fertility and even affecting the climate. And the local people can feel them. They call them the ’Maiden’s blessing’. Do you know what that means? KeV-neutrinos are the only things that can penetrate a temporal stasis field! What more proof do you need?”

“I’ve been over the figures dozens of times. I couldn’t believe it myself, but it’s true. She’s just a teenage farmer’s daughter, yet she could save the entire universe! As to what that will do to her....” Diann sighed. “Well, it’s unavoidable. But if she knew what I was saving her for....”

Jaskri was convinced that Diann and the invisible speaker had been discussing her fate. Jaskri was certain that Diann knew what her destiny was, and she was convinced that it was not to die from a lizard bite. What, then? Perhaps the Maiden knew...

As she was lapsing into unconsciousness once more she seemed to feel something sting her arm. No, she thought, not another jalga! But then she thought: Oh, well, one jalga bite’s so bad that a second can hardly do any more damage...in her delirium the thought was highly amusing, and she would have laughed if she had not felt so tired...so very tired....

Just before her consciousness departed, Jaskri seemed to hear Diann speaking more incomprehensible words: “Temporal vortex beginning to stabilise. Thank God. We were just in time. If you’ll pardon the expression.” And then she heard no more.

As dawn broke, so did Jaskri’s fever. She woke feeling cold and damp with sweat, but though she was still weak her bones no longer ached. Diann was sitting beside the bed. Had she been keeping watch all night? Jaskri tried to sit up, but lacked the strength. “Would you fetch me some water, please?” She croaked. The healer did so, raising Jaskri’s head to help her drink.

Remembering the strange stinging sensation she had felt the night before, Jaskri felt her arm. There was a sore spot there. An insect bite, perhaps? But Jaskri suspected it had something to do with Diann’s healing sorcery. The healer had given her nothing to eat or drink - she had been far too ill - let alone anything that might have had medicinal powers. So just how had Diann cured Jaskri from an incurable bite? Her instincts told her that asking Diann would not elicit an answer. And the healer surely knew other secrets concerning Jaskri, and the Maiden as well....

“I’ll go and tell your parents you’re awake,” said Diann. “Meanwhile you just lie here and rest a while. It’ll be a moon or two before you’re fully recovered.”

“Wait. Before you go...I thought I heard you talking to someone last night.”

For the briefest of instants, a guilty look seemed to cross the healer’s face. “There was no one. How could there have been? I’ve been alone looking after you all night. It was just a fever-dream, that’s all.”

Jaskri was unconvinced, but decided to let it go. What could be gained by calling the woman who had saved her life a liar? Nonetheless, as Diann made for the door, Jaskri said: “Diann, what is it that you know? I know that you are somehow bound up with my destiny, and so is the Maiden. But what is my destiny? What is it that connects us? Please, healer, I have to know.”

Diann sighed. So perceptive for one so young...finally she said, “Jaskri...you are right. You do have a destiny, but I cannot tell you what it is. Not yet. The time is not right. I promise you that when the time comes you will know everything you need to know. Please, Jaskri, I only ask you to be patient until then.” And before Jaskri could argue Diann left, returning shortly afterward with Jaskri’s rejoicing family and friends.

It was generally agreed that Jaskri’s recovery was a miracle, one that was attributed in roughly equal parts to Diann and to the Maiden.

“The Maiden couldn’t have healed her without Diann’s help,” one villager was heard to remark.

“Well, that’s as may be,” another replied. “But I reckon Diann couldn’t have saved her without the Maiden’s help, so that makes them even.”

Jaskri’s grateful family had offered to reward her, of course, but the healer had asked for nothing but their friendship, and some of their wonderful fruit. Jaskri of course made a full recovery and within two moons was back with the harvesters in the fields. The village now employed beaters to spot and drive off any jalgas or other pests that might be lurking in wait for the pickers, but many of them in spite of this had taken to wearing thick gloves while harvesting. Sweaty hands were a small, if conspicuous, price to pay for safety. The only reminders of Jaskri’s ordeal were a small scar above her left hand where the jalga had bitten her, and a smaller, circular blemish just below her right shoulder where the mysterious sting had occurred.

So village life returned to normal. The healer became accepted as a member of the community, though Jaskri wondered if she still spoke to her invisible friend when there was no one to hear.

As the moons turned to years, the pretty girl that Jaskri had been turned into an exceptionally beautiful young woman. It was whispered that all the young men in the village were in love with her, and half the young women too. Since their early childhood, Jaskri’s closest friend and confidante had been Viréni, the wool-merchant’s daughter. The two of them often slept over at each other’s parents’ homes, and it was not entirely surprising that on one such night, Viréni leant across the bed, kissed Jaskri and whispered, “Come on. I know you’re ready for it.”

They both did their best to find out. But somehow, although Jaskri thought she was making the right movements, the experience was not as exciting as she had expected. She sighed. It must be her fault. She could not blame Viréni, who had been hinting at her feelings toward Jaskri for several moons.

“No...I mean, yes, I’d like to try it with boys, but I do love you and I want to make you happy. I just...I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“Is it me? Is there something I’m not doing to please you? Come on, you can tell me, I’m not made of stone.”

Jaskri made a sound that was halfway between a sigh and a laugh. “To be truthful...I think that might be the problem.”

“Quiet,” said Jaskri, “you’ll wake your parents! Anyway, what’s so funny?”

“I think you’ve just solved your problem. Come on!” And grasping Jaskri by the forearm, Viréni dragged her out of the room.

“What are you doing?” Jaskri demanded as Viréni led her to the outer door. “Viréni! We can’t go outside! We’re both naked!”

“So what? It’s a warm night. And she certainly won’t mind. Honestly, Jaskri, I don’t know why you didn’t think of this yourself!”

And so Jaskri’s friend led her down the lane toward the village square where the Maiden stood. They were in no danger from jalgas. At night any that might be lurking in the village would be sleeping under rocks or trees.

“They’ll think we’re having sex! After all, we’re hardly the first, are we? Now do come on, Jaskri. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

It was a fine night for love. Goldmoon was a narrow crescent low in the west, but Silvermoon was full and cast its pale light over the square. “Perfect,” said Viréni. “She doesn’t have any other visitors tonight. Well, you’re the one who’s always saying how much she loves us. It’s time we thanked her properly.” And without further ado she stepped onto the pedestal. Jaskri hesitated but saw that she had no choice but to follow.

The idea of embracing the statue seemed strange and embarrassing at first, although Jaskri knew that almost all of the adults in the village had done so at one time or another. Of course she had often fantasised about giving her love to the Maiden, but somehow had never expected to actually do so. When she finally wrapped her arms around the Maiden’s stone torso there was a brief moment when her marble surface almost felt like warm, living flesh. Viréni was already rubbing her genitalia against one of the statue’s buttocks and gasping quietly with pleasure. As Jaskri began to caress the marble body she began to feel a kind of excitement that she had not experienced with Viréni - nor indeed when giving herself pleasure. As the girls continued to make love to the statue and each other, Jaskri felt astonishing sensations growing within her, slowly but inexorably. This truly was the Maiden’s blessing, and Viréni was feeling it too. When Jaskri finally achieved orgasm it was as if golden lightning flashed from the Maiden into her body and then leapt into Viréni’s, paralysing them both in an ecstasy so intense it was almost unbearable. For several long minutes three statues stood upon the pedestal, but two of them were moaning quietly.

When at long last it was over the girls leant against the Maiden, exhausted but euphoric. “Thank you, sister,” Jaskri muttered.

Jaskri grinned sheepishly. “Oh...yes. The Maiden appeared the day I was born, you know, so I’ve always thought of her as a kind of sister.”

Viréni chuckled. “Well, considering what we just did it’s probably just as well you’re not a boy!”

“No, just stay there for a moment.” Viréni had stepped down from the pedestal and walked back several paces to get a good look at Jaskri and the Maiden. In the silvery moonlight Jaskri’s flesh had taken on an almost marble-like appearance, allowing Viréni to see what only her subconscious had known until then. “Jaskri...it’s true. She really is your sister.”

Jaskri could hardly believe what Viréni was telling her. The thought made her dizzy, and she leant against the Maiden for support...and was even more stunned when her hand encountered a small circular flaw just below the statue’s right shoulder. It was identical to the mysterious blemish upon her own arm. Scarcely daring to believe it, she gingerly reached for the statue’s left wrist. And there it was: another flaw in the marble, twin to the jalga-bite scar on Jaskri’s own wrist.

“What does it mean, Viréni? What does it all mean? She doesn’t just look like me, she even has the same scars as me. How is that possible, Viréni? How?” Jaskri seemed close to tears. Perhaps, thought Viréni, she was just emotionally drained after their strenuous lovemaking. But the girl’s perfect resemblance to the statue was both wondrous and yet somehow almost frightening. “Oh, Maiden,” said Jaskri, “If only you could tell me. If only Diann would tell me! I’m sure she knows what it all means. Oh, why won’t she TELL me? Why?” By now Jaskri was indeed in tears.

“Hey, now, come on, love,” said Viréni, stepping upon the pedestal once more and taking Jaskri by the arm. “It’s been a long night, and it’s been full of surprises for both of us. Haven’t you always said that whatever the Maiden means to you it can’t be a bad thing?” Jaskri nodded, wiping her eyes. “Well, then. Accept it as a blessing. The Maiden has not only favoured you with her beauty but has also tutored you in the ways of love. I’m willing to bet you won’t forget her lesson in a hurry!” At this, Jaskri laughed. “There,” said Viréni, “that’s better. Now come on. Say goodnight to your twin sister and let’s go back inside.”

And so they returned to Viréni’s home and went back to bed. Later that night Jaskri embraced Viréni once more, and though their lovemaking was slower and less intense it was clear that indeed Jaskri had not forgotten the Maiden’s lesson. Afterward, before they fell asleep, Jaskri muttered, “I wish I could go back.”

“Back to the day the Maiden first appeared. The day I was born. I’d go back and stand on that very hill so I could see where she came from.”

“Tha’s crazy,” yawned Viréni. “Ev’one knows you can’t go back t’ what was. ’Less that Diann’s go’ some sorc’ry that c’n do it...”

Diann again, thought Jaskri. It always comes back to Diann. Why? And then, exhausted by the night’s activity, she too fell into a blissful slumber.

The next day, tongues were wagging in the village. The lovers’ tryst with the Maiden had indeed been seen, and had aroused a great deal of comment. As a result Jaskri found herself engaged in frank discussions with her parents concerning responsibility and safety and the proper way for a young lady to behave (although in truth they were proud that their girl had become a woman, and happy that she had found love). These talks also brought her into contact with Diann once more, as her parents felt the healer could give her the best advice on protecting herself from disease or unwanted pregnancy. And so she did, in an efficient, businesslike manner, as she had done for tens of other village girls and boys. She even gave Jaskri a canister containing a substance she claimed would deter any unwanted male advances. “Throw some in his face and he’ll be in too much pain to even think about rape. Throw it in his crotch and he’ll be limp for a tenday! Be careful with it, now.”

Jaskri eyed the container as if afraid it would explode in her own face. “Have you...ever had to use it?”

“A few times, in my travels. Some of the places I’ve been...” the healer’s face darkened. “Let’s just say, there are places where women are not treated with the respect they deserve. Well...there are a lot of places where people don’t get treated as they deserve. Not like here. You villagers really don’t know how lucky you are. Anyway, here and there I’ve had to teach people some respect, and the stuff in your little tin was only a part of it.” She spoke so earnestly that Jaskri could not help but believe her.

Not a word passed between them concerning Jaskri’s destiny, or her mysterious resemblance to the Maiden. Jaskri felt certain that Diann must have noticed it, but as always the healer said nothing. “When the time comes,” she had said. Jaskri wished the time would hurry up and come.

It was not surprising once the news of Jaskri and Viréni’s liaison got about that both of them would attract the interest of potential suitors. Jaskri’s miraculous resemblance to the Maiden had also attracted attention. Jaskri did find herself politely refusing numerous requests, some of them from married men older than her father, who really should have known better. At least she never had to resort to Diann’s canister. But there were some boys, and one or two girls, that Jaskri liked, and over the course of several moons she engaged in sexual experiments with all of them. To her delight, Jaskri found she was able to summon the Maiden’s gift - the “golden lightning”, as she still called it - and confer ecstasy upon her lovers in whatever degree she chose. As a result, and somewhat to her chagrin, she gained a reputation as the best lover in the village, which only served to attract even more unwelcome advances. It was not quite how she would have chosen to be known, however enjoyable her experiences. After all, she could also sing and dance and recite poetry, but for some reason those were not the talents her friends and neighbours chose to discuss....

Despite her embarrassment, however, Jaskri was convinced that by unleashing the golden lightning she was doing the Maiden’s work. The ecstasy that the lightning conveyed was somehow akin to the Maiden’s blessing upon the harvests. In the long run she knew that somehow the whole village would benefit from it.

Jaskri, of course, found no shortage of baby-minding opportunities, and while she played and sang to her friends’ toddlers, she tried not to be too jealous that they were not her own. Perhaps, she mused, her destiny did not involve having children. For a moment she was chilled by a thought. Perhaps it was her fate to die young. Perhaps the statue’s looks predicted the way Jaskri would appear on the day of her death - and just now she and Jaskri looked to be of an age.

No, she thought. It could not be. The Maiden’s gifts brought life, not death. Whatever Jaskri felt from the Maiden, death was not a part of it. But the time was drawing near when she would finally understand. She could feel it.

One evening in her twenty-first year, after spending an afternoon singing and dancing to entertain Viréni and Jeruvin’s little daughter Jevríni, Jaskri found herself becoming especially restless. (She had long since forgiven her errant lovers in the best way she knew, by embracing them both in the company of the Maiden.) She felt almost as if a storm were approaching, but a benign storm, if such a thing could exist. The sun was setting and Goldmoon rising as her footsteps carried her through the village, past the Maiden’s pedestal, to Diann’s house. She hesitated before knocking, but some instinct told her the time was finally right. It was now. And when Diann opened the door she showed no surprise at Jaskri’s arrival, but merely invited her in. Diann was dressed in a belted robe, and to Jaskri’s surprise was barefoot. For some moments no words passed between them. The healer merely beckoned Jaskri to sit at her table while she brought mugs of herbal tea for both of them. Finally Jaskri almost whispered, “Diann...it is time. I can feel it.”

The healer’s response was astonishing. Loosening her belt, she let the robe slip to the floor and stood naked before Jaskri. “Show me, Jaskri,” she said quietly. “Make love to me. Let me feel the golden lightning. That is the price. Do this and I will tell you everything I know about your destiny, and why the Maiden is so important, not only to the village but to all the worlds.”

Jaskri was momentarily taken aback. In all the years she had known Diann, the healer had never been known to show any interest in lovemaking. There had been offers, of course. She was a very attractive woman. But she had always refused, politely but firmly, and Jaskri had no doubt that if anyone had become too persistent Diann would have used her canister of noxious liquid against them. The reason for her celibacy was a matter for speculation. Some suggested that she had taken holy vows, though unlike a nun or priestess she never spoke of religious matters. Others wondered if some illness or injury might have damaged her sexually. Many believed she had had a bad experience and did not wish to be reminded of it. Considering what she had told Jaskri of her travels in lands where women were not respected, this seemed the most likely explanation. Yet Jaskri had sometimes wondered if Diann’s invisible companion might not also be an invisible lover. How would it feel to be embraced and caressed by someone you could not see?

But here was Diann, standing naked and inviting before Jaskri. Curiously, she seemed no older than when she had first arrived in the village. And she was indeed an attractive woman. Sometimes when Jaskri was with a lover, the image of Diann’s face would apear in her mind’s eye, and she would find herself wondering....

Answers or no answers, Jaskri realised she did want to make love to Diann. She wanted it very much. And so she disrobed, and allowed Diann to lead her to her bed, and embraced her. And slowly, gently, and with infinite patience, she allowed the golden lightning to well up within her and spill over to her lover as she had done so many times in the past. If Diann had indeed been celibate for so many years, she was more than making up for lost time, if her sighs and gasps of pleasure were anything to judge by. Very well, thought Jaskri. It was what she asked for....

Over the course of what seemed like hours Jaskri repeatedly brought Diann close to the peak of ecstasy but drew back at the last moment. Finally, when Diann had reached a state of almost frenzied anticipation, Jaskri began to unleash the golden lightning to its fullest extent. It was like that first night with Viréni all over again. Jaskri and Diann simultaneously climaxed again and again, each orgasm seeming more intense than the last. Diann’s eyes repeatedly grew wide with astonishment before spasming shut. Celibate or not, it was clear that she had never experienced anything like it before. Their final, stupendous climax froze them both into statues, honouring the Maiden’s perfect immobility, for several endless minutes.

Jaskri woke feeling light-headed and euphoric. Golden moonlight streamed in through the window onto her naked body. It took her a moment to remember where she was. Diann was no longer beside her. Gone to tell her invisible friend, perhaps?

Soon, Jaskri thought dreamily. Soon I will have the answers I have waited a lifetime to hear. I have paid Diann’s price, and she can scarcely claim I have not paid her in full. Whatever else she may be, she is a woman of her word. Now she will tell me my destiny. She must.

At length Diann returned, wearing her robe once more, and sat on a stool opposite Jaskri, who felt no embarrassment at still being naked. Jaskri glanced out at the moon and muttered, “That’s appropriate, I guess. Golden moonlight, golden lightning...is it real gold, I wonder?”

Diann smiled. “The moon? No. If it were it would be much brighter. It’s actually quite dark, but it looks bright because it shines with reflected sunlight. It’s covered with red and grey dust, and that’s what gives it its gold colour. It’s the same with Silvermoon, only its dust is dark grey. One day I suppose your people will have mines and observatories up there.”

Jaskri chuckled. “I don’t know whether to believe you,” she said, “but at least it makes for a good story. I’m beginning to think you know everything there is to know about everything.”

“Not quite,” said Diann. “I’d heard about the golden lightning, but I never really knew about it until just now. I haven’t always been celibate, you know. I confess I’ve been keeping myself apart from you and your people for fear of...becoming too involved, I suppose. But I’ve always watched you from afar, Jaskri. You’re very beautiful. But of course I don’t need to tell you that.”

“The truth is that you remind me of someone I once loved, a long time ago. She was kind and generous and honest like you, and I...” Diann sighed. “Well, I...I lost her. That’s all.”

“I’m sorry,” said Jaskri, reaching up to place a hand on Diann’s shoulder.

“Thank you, Jaskri. I’m sorry now that I never approached you earlier. When we made love tonight...I never would have believed I could feel so...” She shook her head. “At last I understand. It’s ironic, isn’t it? In all the years I’ve lived here I never truly understood what the Maiden’s blessing meant to you villagers.”

“Any of us would have been happy to show you, if only you’d asked,” said Jaskri. “But what does the Maiden mean to me, Diann? You cannot keep it from me any longer.”

“No,” sighed Diann. “You’re right. I will tell you all I know, Jaskri, although I’m not sure you’ll understand all of it. I’m still not sure I entirely understand it myself.” She took a deep breath, as if composing herself, then continued. “The first thing you need to know is that this is not the only world. There are countless other worlds in this universe, and I came from one of them.”

Jaskri was not sure whether to believe this, but she still felt lethargic and euphoric and in no state to argue. “Does your invisible friend come from another world as well?” she said.

“Invisible...? Oh...that. Yes, but actually he never left his world. We simply have devices that can project our voices and images across space and time. What you heard that night was me discussing your condition with him...and yes, your destiny as well.” Jaskri was a little disappointed to learn that Diann did not have an invisible lover. But the healer continued: “You see, the world where I come from is one that has devoted itself to the study of other worlds, and the universe in general. We have devices that can show us the nature of time and space themselves. Your world had attracted very little attention because it had no great machines as we do, but about twenty years ago - yes, about the time you were born and the Maiden was discovered - we noticed that time was beginning to behave strangely in this part of the universe.”

Jaskri was puzzled. “Time? But time just...is. Today will become yesterday and then the day before yesterday. How can time change its behaviour?”

“Ah, but the reason we perceive time as unchanging is that we exist within it. Within its warp and woof, do you see?”

“Except that my people had found a way to view the fabric of time from outside, and what we saw disturbed us greatly. That fabric was beginning to fray, and if it had torn completely then we - that is everyone in the whole universe, woven into the fabric as we were - would have ceased to exist as living beings. When we investigated more closely we found that the disturbance was coming from this very village. We were puzzled. A major change to the nature of reality was taking place in a small village of farmers and growers on an unremarkable little world. It soon became clear that matters would come to a head in thirteen years’ time. I don’t have to remind you what happened when you were thirteen.”

“Exactly. That was part of the reason I came here, Jaskri. To save you from the jalga.”

“But why? If, as you say, I was just one little girl, in one little world that was only one of many worlds...”

“The disturbance in time, Jaskri. It was centred on you! I could hardly believe it myself, but it was true. Jaskri, if you had died from that jalga bite, your death would have created what we call an unsustainable temporal paradox. Believe this or not, Jaskri, but on that day you were the most important person in the entire universe!”

“But it’s true, Jaskri. If you had died that day, time would have come to an end. Everywhere. Jaskri, your death would have meant the death of the entire universe!”

It was really too much. Jaskri began laughing hysterically. “Must...” she spluttered. “Must I live forever, then? I don’t want to be a goddess, with the fate of whole worlds hanging on me. That’s more like...like...”

She broke off. A sudden thought had struck her, and somehow Diann’s story did not seem quite so funny.

“More like the Maiden’s responsibility?” said Diann. “Yes. I was coming to her. You see, it’s all to do with time, Jaskri. You, the Maiden, her blessing...and my presence here. Time has played some strange tricks, and yet it will be my task, who should be working to protect the integrity of time itself, to set those tricks into motion.”

“I still don’t understand half of what you’re saying. What is the maiden? Why does she look like me? Diann, she even bears the same scars that I do. The Jalga bite, and the mark on my shoulder - that was your doing, wasn’t it? You knew about the scars, didn’t you?”

“Yes, Jaskri, to both questions. When I saw the needle mark on the statue’s arm I knew that was where I had to inject you. There was no conventional antidote to the poison, so I injected millions of tiny machines into your arm through a hollow needle. They sought out and absorbed every atom of poison within you and bound them to other atoms, rendering them harmless. Then, when they were finished, your body simply disposed of them in your urine.”

“This gets more fantastic by the minute,” muttered Jaskri. “Tiny machines?” Jaskri, like all her people, had never seen a machine more complex than a windmill. “Well: I can’t deny that you did heal me, but you still haven’t answered the most important question of all. Why does the Maiden look like me?”

By way of answer, Diann reached into her robe and pulled out a small silver tube, which she pointed at Jaskri.

Jaskri found herself becoming dreamy and light-headed once more. It was a pleasant sensation, almost like floating. She was vaguely aware that Diann was taking her by the arm and leading her from the bedchamber to her small living room.

“Just stand there for a moment,” said Diann, leading Jaskri onto a broad platform in the centre of the floor. Jaskri was happy to obey. In her euphoric state she would have gladly done anything Diann commanded. “You see, Jaskri,” the healer was saying, “had you died, the statue would never have been found, because it came from your future. Yet it was found, and was standing in the village at the moment you would have died. Thus it would have both existed and not existed simultaneously. And that is the paradox that would have destroyed the universe.”

Jaskri murmured, “Now that I really don’t understand.” But it didn’t seem important. There would be plenty of time to understand later.

“The poison-eating machines weren’t the only things I injected into you that day. There were also devices that would help to prepare you for your transformation.”

“Transformation?” said Jaskri. Had she been in a normal frame of mind the thought of being transformed would have alarmed her, but in her hypnagogic state she found the idea fascinating.

“Yes, Jaskri. It’s ironic, but we’ve had to use technology that was forbidden because of the potential danger, in order to save the universe. And my making love to you wasn’t for my pleasure, although it was better than I could have imagined. I did it to ensure that after your transformation the golden lightning will always cause you pleasure.”

Jaskri was beginning to feel a little cramped, so she adjusted her position slightly. It occurred to her that she was unconsciously mimicking the Maiden’s pose, and the thought brought a smile to her lips. But before she could comment on this, Diann pointed another device at her and she suddenly lost all sensation in her body. As her senses reeled, she heard Diann saying, “Jaskri, the reason the Maiden looks like you is that she is you. Jaskri...you are the Maiden!”

The woman the villagers called Diann looked around the empty room and sighed. It was done. Temporal stability was restored. At least until the next paradox...peering out of her shuttered window she could see two young men, painted gold by the moonlight, embracing the statue and each other. Another ordinary night in the village. But in the morning the village would find its favourite daughter gone.

Diann sighed again. How simple it would have been to replace Jaskri with a perfect android replica. A replica that could act and speak and sing and dance and embrace indistinguishably from the real Jaskri...that would in fact think of itself - of herself - as the real Jaskri. But no android could ever summon the golden lightning as Jaskri could. Besides, even if no one else could tell the difference, the Maiden...Jaskri...would know.

In the years she had dwelt in the village, she had come to love its people. They were good, simple, hard-working and honest folk, unaffected by the petty jealousies, rivalries and politics that beset her own world and so many others. It would be hard to leave, especially since she would be blamed - rightly in a sense, even though there was no alternative - for Jaskri’s disappearance.

Diann walked through the small house, making sure she had not left any of her devices behind, and picking up a few pieces of locally made cutlery as souvenirs. As an afterthought she also picked up a ripe torva-fruit from her bowl. With any luck she could clone it, and have an unlimited supply to remind her of the Maiden’s bountiful harvests. “Goodbye, Jaskri,” she whispered. “Goodbye, my beautiful Maiden. Or perhaps, farewell....”

Neither Diann nor Jaskri was ever seen in the village again. The following morning when the villagers came to ask Diann if she knew where Jaskri might be, they found no trace of either the girl or the healer, but they did find Jaskri’s neatly folded clothes lying upon Diann’s bed. The house was otherwise empty of everything except furniture and cutlery, and there was no sign of how Diann had managed to depart so quickly, with or without Jaskri.

Some villagers suggested that Diann had abducted Jaskri and sold her into slavery, but that hardly seemed like the Diann that they had known. Others believed that they had become lovers and run away together, but that too seemed unlikely, especially given Diann’s apparent celibacy. And just where could Jaskri have gone, naked? It was as if they had both been spirited into thin air.

“Oh, Maiden,” Jaskri’s mother said, “if only you could tell us where Jaskri has gone. But I know in my heart that she is alive, and that wherever she is, you will somehow see to it that no harm comes to her. And it is a great comfort to know that my daughter’s beauty will always live on in you.” With those words, she kissed the Maiden’s cool lips. And as she walked back to where her husband and Jeruvin and Viréni and little Jevríni were waiting for her, she looked back for a moment and seemed to see the statue’s smile brighten.

On the night of her disappearance, Jaskri had been enveloped by light. For a seemingly infinite time she could neither see nor hear nor think clearly. When at last the world came back to her, she seemed to be standing on a hill overlooking the village. She felt a curious tingling in her loins.

A figure was walking up the hill toward her. As he approached, Jaskri saw that the man looked like old Zalgren, the vornik farmer. But surely he had died four years earlier? When he paused for breath and saw Jaskri for the first time, the man gave an astonished cry and ran back down the hill. In the distance a baby was crying. No wonder he was startled, thought Jaskri with amusement. I’m naked! And even as she realised this, the golden lightning began to well up within her. The tingling in her loins was turning into a flood of pleasure.

Here she was standing outside, in broad - well, dawning - daylight, stark naked, and now she was having an orgasm! But this was unlike any orgasm she had ever felt. Waves of pleasure washed over her again and again and again, and each time she believed it could not go on any longer, it did. The energy flowing through her was too much for her body to contain. She could feel it radiating out of her, into the fields, the trees, the animals, even the people.

The people! No matter how much pleasure she might be experiencing, it was not seemly to remain naked in public. If she took the alley past the back of the wool merchant’s, she might make it home without being seen by anyone else.

She tried to run...and her legs refused to move. Once more she tried, but her feet seemed rooted to the spot. Nor could she move her arms or turn her head. When she tried to cry for help, her lips would not part. She could not even feel herself breathing. Several minutes of panicked effort were equally futile. No matter how she tried, she could do nothing but stand like....

And she realised she was still standing on the platform that had been in Diann’s room...the low, flat, pedestal....

Jaskri had once wished she could go back in time so she could see where the Maiden had come from. And Diann’s people were able to manipulate time.

Jaskri had gone back in time. Diann had sent her back, upon the pedestal with its hidden machinery that had caused time, for her, to stop. Forever. That was the transformation Diann had hinted at. And somehow the power of time had caused the Maiden’s blessing - the golden lightning - to begin radiating from her frozen body.

Diann had told her: “the reason the Maiden looks like you is that she is you”. That was why the Maiden bore Jaskri’s scars, of course. The man who looked like the lamented Zalgren was Zalgren. He was not dead yet, in this time. And the baby that Jaskri heard crying was Jaskri. She had been born and reborn simultaneously and was now in two places at once! In fact she had been in two places at once all her life, and had never suspected....

I’m the statue, she thought. I will never move again. Never move...never speak, or sing, or laugh, or cry, or walk, or run, or dance, or make love. It was a stranger and more terrible fate than anything she could have imagined. And yet, all the while the golden lightning welled up from within her, carrying wave after wave of physical and emotional pleasure through her and beyond her to all the surrounding countryside. The golden lightning would make her immobile state bearable, not only because of the pleasure it gave her, but because of the health and happiness it would bring to all the village. (All except one thirteen-year-old girl on the day she would encounter a jalga....)

“No, darling,” she said. “She had to go away, and I don’t think she will be coming back. But I’m glad you remember her. She was a very special friend of mine. Her name was Jaskri. And there was something else that was special about her. If you look at the statue of the Maiden in the village square you will see that the statue looks just like her. So tomorrow when I take you to the square, you can say hello to the Maiden and we can both remember how pretty Jaskri was. Would you like that?”

“Good night.” Viréni turned out the lamp, closed the bedroom door and went to her own bedroom where Jeruvin awaited her.

“She still remembers,” said Viréni. “It’s been a whole year and she still remembers Jaskri. Isn’t that amazing? Jevríni was only two years old last time she saw her.”

“She’s got your brains as well as your beauty,” said Jeruvin. “I just hope there’s something of me in her as well.”

Viréni considered this for a moment. “Your cool head and your common sense. Not to mention your superb judgement, which you demonstrated by marrying me, of course.”

“Not yet, Jeruvin,” said Viréni. “Tonight there’s something I have to do first.”

“Oh. You’re going to visit her. The Maiden. Can’t I come with you? You know she doesn’t mind sharing.”

Viréni kissed him. “Not tonight, Jeruvin. As I said, it’s been a year. A year to the day since Jaskri disappeared. Something just tells me I have to see the Maiden tonight, alone.” Even as she spoke, Viréni was removing her clothing. When visiting the Maiden by night it was customary to undress rather than dress for the occasion. Once she was naked she turned to go. “I won’t be long, Jeruvin. And when I return I will be charged with the golden lightning.”

They kissed again for a long, sensual moment. Then, as she was leaving, Jeruvin said, “Give the Maiden my love. Tell her we’ll visit her together soon.”

Viréni smiled and walked into the night. It was rather cool for the time of year, but once she was close to the Maiden the statue’s aura would help fend off the cold. Naked and unashamed, Viréni walked down the short street to the square. If anyone happened to notice a nude woman passing by their window, they would be discreet about it. After all, that sort of thing had been going on ever since the Maiden had appeared more than twenty years before. Soon Viréni arrived at the square where the beautiful nude Maiden stood by the well, and warm flesh and blood embraced cool marble.

“A year,” said Viréni. “I can’t believe it has taken me a whole year to figure it out. But then I remembered that conversation about Jaskri wanting to travel back in time to see where the Maiden came from. Do you remember, I told her it was impossible to go backwards, unless Diann had some sorcery that could do it? Ah, but of course you remember. And that is just what happened, isn’t it...Jaskri?”

Was it Viréni’s imagination, or did she feel a sudden burst of warmth emanating from the statue?

“You see, it suddenly occurred to me. Twenty-one years ago, the Maiden appeared out of thin air on the day a baby was born. The baby, Jaskri, grew up to look just like the statue, even down to the small scars she acquired on her arms when she was bitten by a venomous Jalga and healed by Diann’s magic. You, Jaskri, disappeared into thin air at Diann’s house, a year ago this night. Diann disappeared too, and some people thought she’d captured you, but I think she just went home because her mission was done. I think her purpose was to make sure the Maiden would appear on schedule, twenty years before. So: the flesh and blood Jaskri vanishes, travels back twenty years, and is somehow transformed into the stone Maiden, who appears on the hill to be discovered by the villagers. And as soon as the Maiden appears, her aura begins to radiate into the village and its farms, enriching the crops and making the people happier and healthier.”

Viréni took a step back and looked at the statue. “Is that why she did it, Jaskri? To make sure the village was blessed by the Maiden’s gift of fertility? But then, if she hadn’t done it, and the Maiden had not appeared, would the last twenty-one years have not happened? Would the past have been changed? My head starts spinning whenever I try to figure it out.”

She took a deep breath and looked the statue in the eye. “And what about you, Jaskri? What can it be like for you? Never to speak or move...oh, my love, I can’t imagine how that must be for you. I could accuse Diann of doing this as some kind of malicious joke just so she could seduce you and abandon you. But somehow I can’t believe she was evil.” Viréni embraced the statue once more. “Oh, Jaskri, my friend, my lover...is it very lonely for you?”

As if in answer, a slow wave of pleasure began to radiate from the statue into Viréni’s body. Unlike the orgasmic energy the Maiden usually produced, this felt soothing and relaxing, and Viréni found herself slipping into a euphoric trance as she leant against the statue with her arms about her marble waist....

“It’s only a dream,” said Viréni, unable to conceal the disappointment in her voice.

“Yes,” replied Jaskri, kissing her gently, the taste of winegrass upon her lips, “but a true dream. You wanted to know what it’s like for me, being the Maiden. Well, the easiest way is for me to show you. Don’t be afraid.”

Viréni was standing upon a broad, flat pedestal by the well. Her pose was demure yet subtly erotic, and an enigmatic smile was carved upon her lips. She could not move or make a sound, try as she might. The thought of remaining in such a state forever seemed horrible, but then something else happened. A slow ripple of pleasure began to spread from her genitalia outward until it reached every part of her body. It was the most wonderful thing she had ever experienced. And then she felt the energy radiating out of her and into the village, the fields, the crops, the farm animals, the birds, the soil and the people. The pleasure she felt was giving life and fertility to the whole village. After a while the surge of orgasmic ecstasy began to fade, only to be followed by another, then another, then another. Each wave of sensation was subtly different from the last, new, fresh and exciting, and each one brought her untold physical ecstasy and emotional joy. And each one served to enhance the village’s health and well being a little more.

It was like making love to the whole world. Viréni would have wept with pleasure if she could.

And then the dream within the dream faded, and Viréni found herself sitting upon the dream hill once more with the dream Jaskri.

“Oh, Jaskri,” she breathed. “Is that what it’s like for you? All the time? Oh, my friend, I could never have imagined how strange and terrible and wonderful it could be.”

“Terrible, yes, and wonderful,” said Jaskri. “I do miss being able to dance, and I miss being able to embrace you and Jeruvin. But you mustn’t feel sorry for me, Viréni. This is what I am now. It is what I was always destined to become from the day the Maiden first appeared in our village.”

And Jaskri explained to Viréni, as best she could, the time paradox: that the Maiden was her future self, but her future lay in the past. Had she died - or even become slightly disfigured so that her appearance no longer matched the statue’s - the past that had already been (literally) set in stone would paradoxically have been changed. And had such a change occurred, time would have collapsed. The universe would have ceased to exist, or even to have existed. Because of this paradox, Jaskri had been, for the twenty years of her mortal existence, the most important being in the entire universe, and the stranger Diann had been sent from another world to ensure that the past was not changed.

“I’m not sure I can take this all in,” muttered Viréni. “My head’s reeling.”

“I know how you feel,” said Jaskri. “Even I still find it confusing, and I’ve had twenty-one years to think about it.”

“So that night when you disappeared - when you went back - it was Diann that sent you, as I suspected.”

“Yes. I thought I was visiting her of my own free will, but really I was just acting out my destiny. But before she sent me back, Diann made love to me.”

Viréni was astonished. “Diann? But we all thought she was celibate. Or frigid. She never had sex with anyone during her whole time in the village.”

Jaskri laughed. “Oh, believe me, my friend, she wasn’t frigid. Not after I was finished with her, anyway! But she did it for my sake. She did it to prepare me somehow, so that the sexual energy would begin flowing through me and out of me as soon as I was transformed into the statue.”

Jaskri took Viréni’s hands in hers and said, “Come with me, Viréni. Let me show you what it was like for me when I first became the Maiden. I have a few surprises for you.”

She couldn’t move. Nor, for the moment, could she see, because of the thick cloth that covered her almost from head to foot. It had been draped over her a little while before to serve as a veil. “Statues have to have unveiling ceremonies,” the village councillors had decided, “so we’ll hold one for the Maiden. It will take place just as soon as she’s moved to the market square.” And so four of the strongest men in the village had been chosen for the honour of moving the Maiden, and after tying the sheet in place about her had loaded her onto a vornik-drawn cart which proceeded at a leisurely pace into the centre of the village. Jaskri could hear the cheers of the villagers as the cart trundled into the square. The cloth covering Jaskri had been tied around her ankles to prevent it from slipping off while she was being moved. It seemed to be somebody’s winter bedsheet. But blind-hooded though she was, she could still feel movement and so knew when the cart came to a halt. Then she had felt herself being picked up and carried while one man gave instructions to the other three. It occurred to her that she really ought to enjoy the ride, since it was likely to be the last time she would ever experience movement. For that matter, it would also probably be the last time her body would be covered.

The workmen’s task was made slightly more difficult by the fact that the figure could not be separated from her pedestal. Oddly enough, the base seemed to be part or the original marble block from which the statue was carved. This meant that they had to move the statue by lifting the pedestal by its corners. Despite this handicap, however, it was not long before the Maiden had taken her place of honour in the village square, upon a cleared patch of ground not far from the well - a position whose symbolic importance was not lost upon the villagers. Beauty, it seemed to say, is almost as vital to life as water.

The Senior Elder gave a short speech extolling the statue’s beauty and chastity (Chastity? thought Jaskri. Hah! If only they knew!). And then the ropes were removed from the sheet and it was carefully removed. (The village was certainly not so wealthy that it could afford to waste good linen.) To ringing cheers and applause, the Maiden was unveiled in all her glorious nudity.

Jaskri was glad to be able to see what was going on. Part of the paradox of her existence as a statue was that to all outward appearances, the Maiden’s eyes were lifeless stone orbs, yet Jaskri could see as clearly as ever. She could even look up, down, left and right as if her eyes could still move. It was as though she no longer saw or heard with her real senses, but with ghostly replicas that worked independently of her inanimate body. There was probably no use trying to understand. Nobody had ever been turned into a statue before. Even if they had, she couldn’t have asked them what it was like and they couldn’t have answered! Well, perhaps Diann could have given her some idea of what to expect... but of course she had said nothing.

Jaskri turned her thoughts back to the present. Most of the village had turned out to see the statue unveiled, even though almost all of them had already seen her on the hill where she had originally appeared. Food and ale and even wine had been laid on. Some of the villagers made a kind of wine from zalberries, which was generally regarded as an acquired taste. Jaskri was one of many who had decided not to acquire it. But today somebody had brought bottles of wine with printed labels, a rare luxury in the village. Jaskri wondered who had supplied them. Probably some of the better-off villagers had pooled their resources to lay down a bottle or two for special occasions.

Jaskri had been a statue for less than a tenday, and she wasn’t sure she would ever get used to the experience. Here she was, naked in full view of the entire village, and incapable of covering herself. She could not help but feel slightly embarrassed, despite knowing that the villagers thought of her as nothing more than a fascinatingly shaped piece of stone.

And then there was the Golden Lightning. Long, slow waves of pleasure continued to well up inside her and radiate outward until every part of her body was aflame with ecstasy. She was able to moderate the sensation to some extent, so that she was not completely overwhelmed by it and could still think clearly, but it never stopped. Jaskri knew that the pleasure she was feeling represented only a tiny portion of the energy that her statue-body was radiating into the village. (Diann might have called it “the tip of the iceberg,” but Jaskri and her fellow villagers knew nothing of icebergs.) Because of the Maiden’s Blessing the villagers would enjoy better health, harmony and prosperity than they had ever known. All in all, being a statue had some compensation.

As if to make up for this, many of the villagers were dancing, and singing, in celebration of their newfound Maiden. Even though they believed the statue to have been lost by, or stolen from, some rich lord, they were glad of the opportunity to look after her until her rightful owner could be found. (Of course, in the event no one would ever claim the statue, and she would stand in the village square in perpetuity.)

Among the villagers who were not dancing was a young couple with a newborn baby. The mother still looked a little tired, but her labour had not been especially long or strenuous and her daughter was a fine, healthy babe. The proud parents were younger than Jaskri remembered, but she had known and loved them all her life. Hello, Mother. Hello, Father, she thought. And hello, little Jaskri!

Baby Jaskri was looking in the direction of the statue, as if she could hear the Maiden’s thoughts. But of course a nine-day-old infant could not see distant objects clearly. It was probably just a coincidence. Oh, Jaskri, if only I could tell you what life has in store for you, thought Jaskri. Then she laughed to herself. There I go...talking to myself again!

The celebrations lasted well into the evening, until finally the villagers, having eaten their fill and danced until they could dance no more, began to drift back to their homes. A little after the last of the revellers had departed, two of them returned, a young man and woman. In the fading light Jaskri found it hard to make out their faces - the Maiden’s senses seemed no sharper than Jaskri’s mortal ones, and neither moon had yet risen - but she could tell from their silhouettes that they were naked. So, thought Jaskri wryly, these are to be the Maiden’s first lovers.

“Hello, Maiden,” said the woman shyly, and stepped up to kiss Jaskri’s marble lips and embrace her. “Some of the others say they can feel a power flowing from you, a kind of aura. They believe you can confer fertility to the soil.” The woman’s voice was eerily familiar. Viréni? thought Jaskri. No, that’s impossible. She hasn’t been born yet! She was three seasons younger than me.

Oh. Of course. It’s Viréni’s mother! And her father. Or rather, they will be her mother and father....

+Ah, I might have guessed that you’d ask me that. I am the Diann of the future. I’ve followed you back in time.+

+I’m not in the village, Jaskri. It wouldn’t do for anybody to see me thirteen years before I’m supposed to arrive. But as you know, I have the means to communicate over long distances. I’m actually in space, about one fifth of the distance between your world and Goldmoon.+

Oh. Of course. I suppose after everything else you’ve done that shouldn’t surprise me. I won’t ask why you don’t fall down from such a great height. I’m sure there’s a perfectly good explanation for that too.

Diann gave a mental chuckle. +Yes, Jaskri. Remind me to explain orbits to you if I get the chance. But I wanted to tell you the reason why I came back to talk to you. To be quite honest I wasn’t sure if I should do this - for one thing, it’s still technically illegal, even though I was granted special dispensation to resolve the time paradox. But I decided I should come back because I felt there were things I still had to say, things I shouldn’t have left unsaid before.+

+Jaskri...the first that I knew of your world was when my people became aware of a time paradox in this region of the galaxy. At first we weren’t sure what was causing it, but then we saw that something had become looped back in time and had entered stasis. The time loop was a kind of knot in time, and if it became unravelled then the rest of the fabric of time and space would go with it. My job looked simple enough at first. All I had to do was visit the relevant world, identify the object in question, make sure it didn’t get damaged, send it back in time and freeze it into stasis. No problem at all. Then when we began to get more detailed data we saw that the object was alive. I had a few qualms about putting a defenceless animal into stasis, but if it were necessary in order to save the universe I would simply have to harden my heart and do it. But then...+

But then you discovered that the “object” was a person. An innocent girl from a small farming village. In other words, me.

+Yes, Jaskri. You. Can you imagine how I felt about that? Sending a person into eternal paralysis...it seemed such a terrible price to pay even with the whole universe at stake. But I had no choice. The Maiden was already standing there, frozen forever. All I had to do was make sure you became the Maiden.+

Diann gave the mental equivalent of a sigh. +I did my best not to become emotionally involved. If I seemed cool or aloof while I lived in the village, that was the reason. But in the end it was no good. You reminded me so much of...someone I once knew. Her voice, her walk, the way she laughed. Every time I looked at you I’d be reminded of her, and then I’d remember what was in store for you. I’m not sure how to say this, Jaskri, but....+

Then perhaps you should let me say it, thought Jaskri. You fell in love with me. This person I reminded you of...she was your lover, wasn’t she? Every time you looked at me you were seeing her. And whenever you thought about the day when you’d have to turn me into the Maiden, you thought it would be like losing her again, didn’t you?

+Yes. Yes, it’s true, Jaskri, all of it. Oh, Jaskri, I’m not sure I deserve somebody as understanding as you.+

Hey, I’m not just Jaskri any more, remember? I’m the Maiden. And if the Maiden doesn’t understand you, who can? So...was that why you made love to me before sending me back, Diann? Because you felt guilty about my fate and wanted to atone for it? Or was it something to do with the golden lightning?

+Well...both, actually. You see, when I found out about the golden lightning - the energy field radiated by the statue - I realised you’d still have to be fully conscious while it was being generated. And there was another thing. You see, although the golden lightning can be perceived as sexual pleasure, there was no guarantee that the Maiden herself was actually feeling the same thing. My research suggested that the Maiden might perceive the golden lightning either as ecstasy or agony. If I hadn’t taken steps to prepare you, you might have been doomed to spend eternity in horrible, horrible pain, far worse than any Jalga bite.+

Oh, my...well, I’m glad you’re telling me this now rather than then. I can’t imagine how terrible that would have been.

+I would have allowed the universe to die rather than condemn you to such a fate. Fortunately that wasn’t necessary. When you came to my house that night I gave you herbal tea laced with drugs that would heighten your pleasure and make you insensitive to pain. Then I made love to you, not just for my benefit, but also to help prepare you for your new role as the Maiden. But I could never have guessed how much pleasure your lovemaking would give me, and I’m not just talking about physical pleasure. It’s helped me to come to terms with my loss. Now I can move on.+

+But there’s one thing I have to know, Jaskri. Are you angry with me? Do you blame me for turning you into a statue?

Angry? No, Diann. I understand why you had to do what you did. And being a statue really isn’t so terrible, considering the benefits the golden lightning will confer upon the village. Do you really want to know how I feel about you, Diann? Well, let me see: this mind-speech of yours works both ways, doesn’t it?

And without further warning, Jaskri summoned up the golden lightning and projected it directly into Diann’s mind. Consumed by physical and emotional ecstasy, Diann experienced the first in a long chain of spontaneous orgasms.

Of course you can’t, thought Jaskri. Neither can I! Whoever experiences the golden lightning also gets this little reminder that it comes from a living statue. You wanted to know how I really feel about you? I love you, Diann. Never doubt it. This is my gift to you, and you can pass on this gift of pleasure to anyone you choose, and they in turn can pass it on, in an endless chain. This is what the Maiden can do, Diann. By turning me into the Maiden you have given me a greater gift than you could possibly have imagined.

Inflamed with ecstasy, Diann could not answer. When at last her climaxes faded, she thought: +Thank you, Jaskri. I wasn’t sure whether to come back, but now that I have I’m glad I did. I know the village will be in safe hands with its Maiden. And you’ve helped me more than I can tell you. I’ll return from time to time and talk to you.+

You know, Diann, before you go...there is one thing I regret about being the Maiden, and that is the fact that I never had children. It didn’t really seem fair at the time. All of my friends were expecting thanks to the Maiden’s blessing of fertility, and yet no matter how I tried I couldn’t conceive.

The truth is that when you cured me from the Jalga’s bite, you also gave me something that would prevent me from conceiving.

+Yes, it’s true. I’m sorry, Jaskri. That was the only thing I ever lied to you about, and I regretted having to do it, but...+

...But you’d seen that the Maiden bore no signs of having borne a child, which meant that Jaskri could not be allowed to become pregnant. It’s all right, Diann. I don’t blame you. It’s just a shame, that’s all. Why couldn’t the Maiden have had a few stretch marks?

+You know, Jaskri, I’ve had an idea. Back home we have something called surrogate motherhood. If you can’t have children of your own, sometimes another woman can bear them for you.+

+True enough. Well, I’ll give you the short version for now. When I cured you of the Jalga’s venom I took samples of your blood and skin. I still have them preserved. Now, our scientists have learned that all plant and animal tissue is composed of millions of tiny cells - in the case of a person, there are skin cells, blood cells, brain cells and so forth - and each of those cells contains all of the information needed to create a complete body if only you have the skill to do so. It’s fairly easy with things like torva bushes - I grew a whole grove from one fruit - it’s just a lot more complicated with people.+

But of course your people do have the skill, thought Jaskri, not without irony.

+Yes. So it should be possible to use the information from your tissue samples to impregnate one of your friends, and there you have it. A child of your very own.+

Oh, Diann. Please? Thought Jaskri, simultaneously projecting another bolt of golden lightning at Diann.

+Oh...ohh, my...ohhhh my...I can’t moooove...ohhhhhhhhhh, God...all right, Jaskri. All right. Talk about emotional blackmail! It’s lucky this ship’s on autopilot. All right, I’ll do it. Just say where and when.+

Twenty-one years from now, thought Jaskri. Viréni. She should be the one. A brother or sister for Jevríni. The circle that was begun with Viréni’s conception in the presence of the Maiden will be completed by the growth of my child in Viréni’s womb.

+All right,+ thought Diann. +Now all I have to do is work out how to achieve the actual implantation without being seen....+

The vision within the vision ended. Viréni was once again lying in Jaskri’s arms upon the winegrass.

“Strange,” she muttered. “If it hadn’t been for the Maiden I wouldn’t even have been born. And now the Maiden is asking me to bear Jaskri’s child!”

Jaskri caressed Viréni sensuously. “Will you consent to this, Viréni? To bear a child that will be yours and Jeruvin’s, but who will bear my blood?”

“Oh, Jaskri, my love, of course I will. That would be wonderful. So the child will really be yours and Jeruvin’s?”

Jaskri chuckled. “Oh, no. Jeruvin was only my second lover. You were my first. The child will be ours, Viréni, yours and mine.”

Jaskri laughed and began to caress Viréni even more intimately. “I know that well enough! But Diann said it was possible to create sperm cells containing my DNA...sorry, Viréni. Diann’s taught me a lot of science over the years, things you wouldn’t believe. I’ve had a lot of time on my hands, after all! Anyway, what I mean is that when Jeruvin makes love to you tonight his seed will contain my heredity and not his. Diann has assured me that it will work, just as long as she plays her part. Now all I need to do is make sure you’re prepared.”

And with that, Viréni moaned aloud with pleasure...and found herself frozen in orgasm, embracing the Maiden’s marble figure while the golden lightning coursed through her.

As soon as she was able to move once more Viréni kissed the Maiden’s firm breast and made her way back home.

Jeruvin stirred. He thought he had heard something. There was a figure silhouetted against the doorway.

But the newcomer appeared to be clothed, and Viréni had been naked when she left the house. There would have been no point in her getting dressed again if she was coming back to bed. Unless she wanted him to undress her...but no, her clothes were still beside the bed where she had left them.

And now that he realised it, the doorway where the figure stood was not where the door should be.

“Who - ” he began, but at that moment the stranger seemed to point something at him and he became limp.

Jeruvin was vaguely aware of being carried through the doorway that shouldn’t have been there and laid naked upon what seemed to be a table of some sort. There was a sharp pain in his groin, and he would have cried out if he had not felt so lethargic, but after a while the pain faded and he found himself becoming aroused.

“Not yet, Jeruvin,” he seemed to hear someone say. “She’ll be home soon, and then you’ll both have the time of your lives. Till then, just...sleep. This has all been a dream.”

And sleep he did, until he really did hear the door open and woke in his own bed, and Viréni came to him, fully primed with the golden lightning, and they both felt incredibly aroused, and they made love as they had never made love before, so that when dawn finally arrived they were thoroughly exhausted.

Later that morning when her mother took her to see the Maiden, Jevríni noticed that she looked a little tired, but once Jevríni had said hello to the statue her mother also gave the Maiden a chaste kiss upon the cheeks and said, “Thank you, my friend.”

Then her mother knelt before Jevríni and asked, “Do you think you’d like a little brother or sister?” and Jevríni nodded.

+After all the effort I put into this,+ thought Diann, +it had better. Have you any idea how fiddly it is to convert an X chromosome into a Y?! I must admit I was a bit worried when Jeruvin woke up, but luckily I was able to convince him it was a dream. If he’d known I was going to operate on his testes in order to replace all of his semen with genetically modified super-sperm containing your DNA, he might not have taken too kindly to the idea. One thing about this operation, though - it did give me the chance to see what a fine figure of a man he is. Lucky Viréni.+

+True. Ah...yes, my instruments are getting a reading now. Wow, look at that...99.7% probability of conception!+

To all outward appearances the woman was no different from dozens of others strolling through the lakeside park on that bright summer afternoon. Casually dressed and carrying what appeared to be a small briefcase, she could have been a businesswoman out for a lunchtime break.

The woman was in fact from out of town. Just how far out of town (and how far away in time), nobody in the park that day could have guessed.

She had chosen this particular city for a number of reasons. It was colourful and picturesque, its architectural styles carefully chosen to blend in with the lake and the surrounding mountains and forests. It was cosmopolitan and liberal, and was home to a wide variety of races, cultures and beliefs. The city was dynamic, prosperous and self-confident, but not too smug about its achievements, although it was quick to stress those achievements to potential residents, visitors and customers.

But there was another, more important factor that had swayed her choice. The city was not located in any of the world’s richest or most powerful nations. It had no major strategic importance, no great mineral deposits, no gold reserves and no major government or military headquarters; nothing, in short, that would make it a target. Nor was it located on or near any major fault lines, volcanic ranges, hurricane or tornado alleys or avalanche zones.

The woman had lived in many unsafe places in her time. Though she looked (and felt) young, her apparent age belied her true years. During those years she had seen atrocities that had made her despair for humanity, but she had also seen acts of courage and sacrifice that shone as beacons of hope. And a woman she loved had sacrificed herself to save her life.

During peacetime she looked at people going about their ordinary lives, building, trading, creating works of art, studying their worlds and the universe around them, falling in love and raising families, and she had thought: Why can’t it always be this way? Why does it always have to fall apart?

She had had many names over the years. Most recently (“recently” meaning either a year or two hundred years ago, depending on how one looked at it) the inhabitants of a small, two-mooned planet had known her as Diann, which was close enough to the name her parents had given her. For several years she had lived and worked as a healer in a small farming village. Living a quiet life among decent hard-working folk had given her a chance to forget some of the horrors she had witnessed and mourn for her lover. It had almost been a working holiday for her, except that she was there to do a job and always had to bear in mind that she was on a timetable.

The woman called Diann had performed her task efficiently and on schedule, as a result of which the universe was saved from destruction, and a young woman called Jaskri found herself transformed into the statue that had appeared when she was born.

Diann’s mission was complicated by the fact that Jaskri was the living image of Diann’s lost lover. Despite her best efforts she had found herself falling in love with Jaskri, and on the night that Jaskri was unknowingly due to become the stony Maiden, Diann had made passionate love to her.

For Diann, turning Jaskri to a statue was almost like losing her lover again, except that Jaskri was far from dead. She was in fact experiencing a fantastic, never-ending series of orgasms. Belying its inanimate appearance, her stonelike body began to radiate her love, sexuality and joy of living into the surrounding countryside.

Diann’s people would have described this phenomenon as an anomalous kilo-electron-volt neutrino field generated as a side-effect of the temporal stasis in which Jaskri’s body was locked.

Jaskri’s villagers called it the Maiden’s Blessing. Because of it they enjoyed richer harvests, better health and more exciting sex than they had ever known.

Jaskri believed that conferring the Maiden’s Blessing upon the village was only the beginning. Given time - and she now had all the time in the universe - she could radiate her Blessing to the far corners of the galaxy and bring about an end to human sufering.

Diann might have felt sceptical about this if she had not seen the results for herself on Jaskri’s own world. Within two centuries war, murder, torture, rape, slavery and all but the most petty crime had almost been eliminated. In their place were democracy, trade, art, scientific research, sport, and an encouragingly liberal attitude toward sex and sexuality. It was a stable, peaceful and happy world, and thanks to Jaskri and her love of humanity, it was not going to fall apart.

Diann’s instruments confirmed that the neutrino field had spread throughout the planet’s entire solar system, and was growing at a fantastic rate. Even so, it would take several decades to reach the nearest inhabited planets.

In the centre of the park was a small hill. At the summit was a large flat-topped boulder, about six metres in diameter, that looked as if it had been put there deliberately, but which was in fact set in place by natural geological processes. Visitors regularly climbed the boulder to look out over the city. They were rewarded with a classic postcard view of the skyline, with the lake to its left and the snow-capped mountains beyond.

Diann clambered onto the rock, set the case down beside her and took a look. Several triangular sails could be seen gliding slowly across the water, while in the foreground a large blue kite provided a visual counterpoint to them.

She waited until a couple of joggers had gone past, then took a small device from her case and switched it on. The field it generated would prevent anyone from disturbing Diann while she went about her business. Anyone approaching within twenty metres of the device would simply feel a sudden urge to walk in a different direction. Anybody who looked toward Diann would see her only as a blurred, hazy figure, and would feel no further interest in looking. Diann herself was in the eye of the device’s field and therefore unaffected by it.

Diann then took out an object that might have been mistaken for a camera, especially when she set it up on a tripod and raised it to eye level. For some moments she simply stood and looked at the device, as if she were having second thoughts about what she was doing.

Then she shrugged, reached forward and began adjusting the device’s controls. When she was certain it was programmed correctly she began to undress, folding her clothes neatly as she packed them into the case.

Once she was naked, she closed the case and set it down beside her. Crouching, she pressed a hidden button and the case began to change shape, its memory plastic assuming the form of a low, flat, ornately-carved stone pedestal.

Well, this is it, thought Diann. After another moment’s brief hesitation, she reached forward and touched a control on the camera-like device. Then she stepped onto the pedestal and assumed a statue-like pose.

The moment she stepped on the pedestal her feet were locked in place. That had been her own idea, to prevent her from backing down at the last minute. Now there was nothing to do but wait. Thirty seconds. Diann’s mind went back several months....

On a cool autumn night on a distant planet, Jaskri had watched as a rectangular hole appeared in space, and Diann had stepped through, naked, and embraced her.

By that time Jaskri had been a statue for about two hundred years, although from Diann’s point of view only a few months had passed. Jaskri’s tiny farm village had grown into a small, bustling town, and from where Jaskri stood she could watch steam trains hauling passengers, coal and iron toward the great city of Dravinye, over the viaduct that ran past the hill where she had first become a statue. All of the village’s wooden houses had long since been replaced by stone and thatch, but the village square, its well and its stone Maiden had been preserved in their original state.

The tradition of embracing the Maiden by night for fun and fertility had also been preserved intact. Over the decades hundreds of couples had found themselves blessed with healthy children and incredible sex lives thanks to the “golden lightning” - the sexual component of the Maiden’s Blessing.

It had been two centuries since Diann had visited the village in person, although she had often conversed with Jaskri telepathically. But those who could have identified Diann were long gone, and she had something important to tell her old friend.

After an hour or two, Diann leant languidly against the statue, kissed her on the lips, and said huskily, “You know, Jaskri, I’ve been thinking about how to speed up the Blessing, and I’ve had an idea.”

And I bet you’re just dying to tell me about it, thought Jaskri, telepathically.

Diann nodded, tracing circles with her finger upon Jaskri’s cool, marble-like nipple. “I’ve talked to some friends of mine on various planets and they’ve agreed to help me perform a little...scientific experiment.”

“See? I knew you’d guess. You see, I estimate that it will take between ten and twenty years for your neutrino field to reach the nearest inhabited planets, so I’ve asked some people I trust to allow themselves to be frozen for between ten and twenty years - that way they’ll be radiating their own ‘blessings’ just long enough for the original field to catch up. Once they’re unfrozen they won’t have aged a day, so I’ll be able to send them back in time to the day after they became statues. That way they can resume their normal lives without anyone ever knowing they’ve been gone.”

And you persuaded them by showing them what it would be like to feel the golden lightning all the time. Like me.

“Exactly. I used one of my time devices to freeze each of them for one hour in an endless orgasm. Then I told them that if they volunteered they’d get to feel the same thing for years on end. They all jumped at the chance.”

“Just as soon as I...oh. You’ve guessed that too. Yes, Jaskri, I will be joining them. I couldn’t ask them to do something I wouldn’t do myself. Besides, I’ve always wondered what it’s really like for you.”

Well, I won’t spoil the surprise for you. Diann...I’m proud of you, and all of your volunteers. This is a marvellous thing you’re doing for all the worlds. Thank you.

“Well, they do say that virtue is its own reward - although I must admit that a prolonged multiple orgasm is a pretty strong incentive too.”

A small beep brought Diann back to the present. Five seconds to go. Just try to relax, she told herself. Eyes open and focused, don’t tense or your ‘casually erotic’ pose will look forced....

The camera-like object began to emit a cool blue radiance. Diann felt a slight tingle as her body was bathed in the light. And then it was done.

Diann tested her body. She could see, hear and feel normally, but could not move a muscle. Her body was completely rigid, harder than stone, frozen between one heartbeat and the next.

Then the machine on the tripod generated a time doorway that quickly swallowed it up. Now the technology to unfreeze Diann no longer existed on this planet. Only when the device returned according to its program could her body be restored to mobility.

The time doorway also swallowed Diann’s privacy device before vanishing into itself. Now passers-by could once more approach and look at her.

What they would see was a life-size, sensuous, nude statue of a beautiful woman in her mid-twenties. Nobody could ever suspect that she was alive. The locals might wonder where she had come from, but one thing was certain: she wasn’t going anywhere. Not only were her feet fused to the pedestal, but the pedestal was fused to the rock and the rock definitely wasn’t about to be moved.

For twenty years Diann would stand as a statue in the park, generating a subliminal feeling of health, well-being, eroticism and non-aggression. Very soon that feeling would spread to the rest of the planet, and people in more dangerous cities would begin to feel safer. And the same thing would soon be happening on twenty other planets, as Diann’s friends also became statues.

The golden lightning was beginning to wash over her, filling her body and soul with pleasure. In Jaskri’s embrace Diann had experienced the golden lightning before, but only for minutes at a time. Now she was about to find out how it felt to exist in a state of ecstasy for decades.

There was just one nagging thought troubling Diann’s mind. She had programmed the device to return and unfreeze her after twenty years, and had checked and double-checked the program. Yet, just for a split-second before it disappeared, she could have sworn she had seen the words 200 YEARS appear on the timer....

Note: all right, so I already used the “timing error” plot device in my male story Naked to the World.
So sue me for self-plagiarism already!

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Return to Part I
Return to Part II
Return to Part III

TIMELINE

YEARS SINCE JASKRI’S BIRTH

JASKRI AND DIANN

VIRÉNI AND JERUVIN

THE MAIDEN

0 - 12

Jaskri is born. From a very early age she begins to recognise a bond between herself and the Maiden.

Jeruvin is born approximately one year earlier.

(+9 days) Viréni is conceived in the presence of the Maiden.

(+3 seasons) Viréni is born.

The Maiden statue is found and placed on display in the village.

The ‘Maiden’s blessing’ begins to enrich the village.

The villagers immediately begin to treat the statue as a friend, and sometimes as a lover.

Diann returns from the future (after year 20), unseen by the villagers, to speak to the Maiden. Between them they formulate a plan to give Jeruvin and Viréni, twenty-one years in the future, a child that will also have Jaskri’s blood.

13 - 15

Diann arrives in the village and meets Jaskri for the first time.

Jaskri is bitten by a jalga and healed by Diann. In the process Diann surreptitiously takes blood and DNA samples from Jaskri.

(8-15) Viréni befriends Jaskri and also Jeruvin.

(1-15) The village prospers thanks to the Maiden’s blessing.

16

Jaskri and Viréni make love for the first time. Jaskri reluctantly accepts Viréni’s suggestion that they include the Maiden in their lovemaking. In doing so they unleash the ‘golden lightning’ to its full extent for the first time, producing a wave of fertility that soon results in lots of new pregnancies.

Meanwhile Viréni notices that Jaskri has grown to look exactly like a flesh and blood version of the Maiden, and Jaskri realises she even has scars that match blemishes on the Maiden’s otherwise flawless marble surface. They both find this puzzling and more than a little frightening.

Jaskri and Viréni take other male and female lovers. Jaskri tries to conceive by Jeruvin, but only ends up wearing him out.

Jaskri’s attempts at conception are unsuccessful. Disappointed, she takes to baby-minding her friends’ children instead.

Once he has recovered from Jaskri’s lovemaking Jeruvin turns to Viréni and they conceive a daughter whom they name Jevríni.

Jaskri forgives Jeruvin and Viréni (and herself for being jealous of them) in the presence of the Maiden. Several times!

20 - 21

Jaskri finds herself drawn to Diann’s house, where she demands to know the truth about her resemblance to the Maiden. Diann replies that she will give Jaskri her answers in return for sex. Jaskri is taken aback but agrees. Their lovemaking is incredibly intense and sensuous.

Diann then explains that Jaskri is the focus of a disturbance in time and that the Maiden is the result of a temporal paradox involving Jaskri.

Diann sends Jaskri back in time to year 0, where she will become the Maiden, frozen in a perpetual orgasm, generating the golden lightning that will enrich the village - and eventually the entire universe - forever.

Her work completed, Diann vanishes.

21

Viréni marries Jeruvin in the Maiden’s presence.

(Not in the story): The villagers hold a ‘living wake’ for Jaskri in the Maiden’s presence, in recognition of the fact that they accept that Jaskri won’t be coming back but they refuse to believe she’s dead.

21 +

A year after Jaskri’s disappearance Viréni realises the truth about the Maiden. In a dream Jaskri shows Viréni what life is like for her as a statue. Then she tells Viréni of the plan she worked out with Diann twenty years earlier, and asks Viréni to bear her child. Viréni consents.

Diann briefly returns to the village, abducts Jeruvin and replaces his semen with genetically-modified semen containing some of the DNA which Diann sampled when she healed Jaskri’s jalga bite.

Next time Jeruvin and Viréni make love they conceive Jaskri’s child.

(Not in the story): It’s a boy and they name him Jenkíru.

200-220

Diann and her friends volunteer to be frozen like Jaskri in order to generate the golden lightning on other planets until Jaskri’s original blessing catches up to them.

YEARS SINCE JASKRI’S BIRTH

JASKRI AND DIANN

VIRÉNI AND JERUVIN

THE MAIDEN

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

20 - 100

Possible link to later story in “Ketrin” series:

The Maiden’s influence assists jungle boy Ketrin and his wolf-like lupinoid ‘brothers’.

2000 +

(Story in development: “Jaskri’s Legacy: Sondra and Vey”[currently delayed - sorry!]) The Maiden’s influence continues to grow, spreading peace and prosperity across the galaxy. Meanwhile an alien artifact may create another temporal paradox similar to the one that created the Maiden.

(Story concept) Possible link to the story “Flotsam” (X): the Maiden helps the paralysed humans and hermaphrodites to stay sane in the face of their overpowering sexual bondage.

TIMELINE
YEARS SINCE JASKRI’S BIRTH	JASKRI AND DIANN	VIRÉNI AND JERUVIN	THE MAIDEN
0 - 12	Jaskri is born. From a very early age she begins to recognise a bond between herself and the Maiden.	Jeruvin is born approximately one year earlier. (+9 days) Viréni is conceived in the presence of the Maiden. (+3 seasons) Viréni is born.	The Maiden statue is found and placed on display in the village. The ‘Maiden’s blessing’ begins to enrich the village. The villagers immediately begin to treat the statue as a friend, and sometimes as a lover.
	Diann returns from the future (after year 20), unseen by the villagers, to speak to the Maiden. Between them they formulate a plan to give Jeruvin and Viréni, twenty-one years in the future, a child that will also have Jaskri’s blood.
13 - 15	Diann arrives in the village and meets Jaskri for the first time. Jaskri is bitten by a jalga and healed by Diann. In the process Diann surreptitiously takes blood and DNA samples from Jaskri.	(8-15) Viréni befriends Jaskri and also Jeruvin.	(1-15) The village prospers thanks to the Maiden’s blessing.
16	Jaskri and Viréni make love for the first time. Jaskri reluctantly accepts Viréni’s suggestion that they include the Maiden in their lovemaking. In doing so they unleash the ‘golden lightning’ to its full extent for the first time, producing a wave of fertility that soon results in lots of new pregnancies. Meanwhile Viréni notices that Jaskri has grown to look exactly like a flesh and blood version of the Maiden, and Jaskri realises she even has scars that match blemishes on the Maiden’s otherwise flawless marble surface. They both find this puzzling and more than a little frightening.
	Jaskri and Viréni take other male and female lovers. Jaskri tries to conceive by Jeruvin, but only ends up wearing him out.
	Jaskri’s attempts at conception are unsuccessful. Disappointed, she takes to baby-minding her friends’ children instead.	Once he has recovered from Jaskri’s lovemaking Jeruvin turns to Viréni and they conceive a daughter whom they name Jevríni.
	Jaskri forgives Jeruvin and Viréni (and herself for being jealous of them) in the presence of the Maiden. Several times!
20 - 21	Jaskri finds herself drawn to Diann’s house, where she demands to know the truth about her resemblance to the Maiden. Diann replies that she will give Jaskri her answers in return for sex. Jaskri is taken aback but agrees. Their lovemaking is incredibly intense and sensuous. Diann then explains that Jaskri is the focus of a disturbance in time and that the Maiden is the result of a temporal paradox involving Jaskri. Diann sends Jaskri back in time to year 0, where she will become the Maiden, frozen in a perpetual orgasm, generating the golden lightning that will enrich the village - and eventually the entire universe - forever. Her work completed, Diann vanishes.
21		Viréni marries Jeruvin in the Maiden’s presence. (Not in the story): The villagers hold a ‘living wake’ for Jaskri in the Maiden’s presence, in recognition of the fact that they accept that Jaskri won’t be coming back but they refuse to believe she’s dead.
21 +	A year after Jaskri’s disappearance Viréni realises the truth about the Maiden. In a dream Jaskri shows Viréni what life is like for her as a statue. Then she tells Viréni of the plan she worked out with Diann twenty years earlier, and asks Viréni to bear her child. Viréni consents. Diann briefly returns to the village, abducts Jeruvin and replaces his semen with genetically-modified semen containing some of the DNA which Diann sampled when she healed Jaskri’s jalga bite. Next time Jeruvin and Viréni make love they conceive Jaskri’s child. (Not in the story): It’s a boy and they name him Jenkíru.
200-220	Diann and her friends volunteer to be frozen like Jaskri in order to generate the golden lightning on other planets until Jaskri’s original blessing catches up to them.
YEARS SINCE JASKRI’S BIRTH	JASKRI AND DIANN	VIRÉNI AND JERUVIN	THE MAIDEN
FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
20 - 100	Possible link to later story in “Ketrin” series: The Maiden’s influence assists jungle boy Ketrin and his wolf-like lupinoid ‘brothers’.
2000 +	(Story in development: “Jaskri’s Legacy: Sondra and Vey”[currently delayed - sorry!]) The Maiden’s influence continues to grow, spreading peace and prosperity across the galaxy. Meanwhile an alien artifact may create another temporal paradox similar to the one that created the Maiden. (Story concept) Possible link to the story “Flotsam” (X): the Maiden helps the paralysed humans and hermaphrodites to stay sane in the face of their overpowering sexual bondage.