Lilith

Sunny and Alison were on the couch. Claire sat in the recliner. They all listened to Cassie tell the story of what she got into before Sunny arrived. She sat on a blanket suspended in the air, her legs dangling over it as it gently swayed and bobbed in the air. She spared some details about her self-play, though she made it clear when she did it and mentioned the things involved. It was a little embarrassing with Claire there, but she figured coming clean was better…so long as she could leave out the fact that she smoked pot.

“And you drank,” Claire said, raising an eyebrow.

“Come on, Claire...I’m twenty. You know you were drinking with your buddies after you graduated high school.” Claire looked at Sunny, who shrugged.

“I just...I need to know we’re all taking this seriously,” Claire said. “I don’t want to be a downer about this, okay? It’s easily the most amazing thing that’s happened to any of us, but this is seriously a dangerous level of power that we have over the world around us. Alison gave you a warning, and you went ahead and did it anyway.” Alison gritted her teeth and jumped in.

“I didn’t...exactly tell her what would happen if she did it, though,” Alison admitted. “I mean, I told you not to,” Alison said to Cassie, “But in hindsight I guess I could have been clearer about what the issue was.” Claire laughed.

“Okay, so...maybe I get that it’s a little sensitive to be talking about the…sexually exploitable aspect of this thing, but it’s probably a good thing we figured that part of it out,” she said. “I’m just glad nobody got hurt.” Claire thought about it, taking a deep breath when she realized something. “Wait, this means I’m the only one who doesn’t have this ability without the necklace, doesn’t it?” Sunny smiled, nodding a little. Claire turned red.

“So…you should...take care of that,” Cassie said. “To be on level ground, I mean.” Claire nodded.

“Let’s not worry about the details, but yeah. I agree.” She squinted her eyes, thinking about something. “On the other hand, let’s dig a little here, since we’re on the subject. Does everyone feel like—there’s some…” Claire shook her head, trying to get through her slightly embarrassing thought. “...some direction the things we animate tend to take—in the way of...god help me...sensuality?” Cassie smirked a little, and Sunny and Alison exchanged knowing looks.

“I know you don’t wanna hear details, Claire, but—just to be totally blunt—it’s kinda one of the first things I thought of,” Cassie admitted. “And really tried not to think of, but thought of anyway.”

“Seconded,” Alison said, putting her hand to her mouth—clearly a little embarrassed. “I mean, obviously these things take leads from us, but like, we started on the clothes, right? Clothes are literally the closest things to our bodies. They...I dunno, they have personality.”

“We apply a personality to certain things,” Claire corrected.

“But that’s all that matters,” Sunny said. They follow expectations. “Sexy things...act sexy. Our application of that personality is literally what the necklace seems to function on, right? It’s our expectation.”

“But when the things acted on their own,” Claire said, “Where was that coming from? Did you two want to be restrained? Did you want things out of control? All three girls looked a little sheepish now—even Alison. “Oh my god, you guys!” Claire exclaimed.

“Claire, it’s...I don’t know...I mean, it was a little exciting,” Alison smirked. “Maybe not the effect afterward, which was pretty annoying to have to figure out, but at the time of...you know…”

“I don’t know,” Claire said, shaking her head. “I don’t really think I ever want my belongings forcing themselves on me.”

“It was more than that,” Cassie said—trying to break the conversation out of a condensing conflict. “I mean, if my things wanted to just violate us—they probably could have done it, but…”

“No, it was like they had some kind of plan beyond that,” Sunny said. Cassie nodded agreement. “They had us separated. Cassie’s toy didn’t go for her again. It went for me.” Alison realized something from that morning.

“And the, um—thing...didn’t go for me, Claire. It kind of went for you.” Claire rolled her eyes, shaking her head.

“Someone get me a refill here—since I’m like the only one who can’t do it without getting up,” She huffed. Cassie smiled, and with a gesture, Claire’s glass lifted out of her hand and drifted toward the kitchen.

“You still pile the sugar in?” Cassie asked.

“Two and a little cream,” Claire said. “So...do you need line of sight to do things?”

“It’s like…I have to know where things are, but that seems to be about it,” Cassie said. Alison nodded.

“That’s kinda my experience too,” Alison said. “When I was doing things in the back room at work, I didn’t have to know exactly what was what.”

“You had to know what you wanted to do with it,” Sunny said. “You only had to know what’s there, and what you want to do with it.” Claire’s coffee came back through the door, along with a soda, which hovered over to Cassie.

“So...in light of all these developments,” Claire said, sipping her coffee, “We should all...practice.” Cassie beamed at the suggestion. “I don’t want anything to get crazy out-of-hand or anything, but we really should figure out the extent of what we can do with these abilities.”

“Did you have anything specific in mind?” Sunny asked. “I played around with a bunch of things in my apartment, and it seems like everything just responds.”

Claire looked at the necklace on the table. She knew she wasn’t on par with everyone else’s abilities, and she knew exactly what it would take to get her there, but it bothered her. Something about Sunny’s mention of the sexually-enchanted objects having a ‘plan beyond’ bothered her, and something about her sister’s headlong dive into the abilities of the necklace—particularly after her incident being kicked out of college—bothered her.

She was losing control of this situation.

“I guess...it’s not so much the objects. We know that anything we think about with the necklace on will respond. We know that...there’s something about the act of…”

“Orgasm,” Cassie spouted, shrugging. Sunny bit her lip a little while Alison chuckled.

“We know there’s something about that which ties the necklace’s ability to the wearer IF it happens while they’re wearing it. But the, um, effect of the...”

“Vaginal fluid,” Cassie spat out again.

“God, would you—I was about to say it,” Claire said. “It ties those things to its power as well, in terms of them being out of control. So. I have a weird question.” There was silence around the room for a few seconds, and Claire looked at Cassie.

“I don’t know what you’re about to say this time. Up to you,” Cassie grinned, leaning back on her hovering blanket.

“The things that got out of control...they were in contact with your—ugh—your fluid when you were wearing the necklace. So, now we need to know—”

“If what we touch NOW without the necklace does the same thing!” Cassie shouted. She let go of her soda can, which hovered in front of her. Claire stared at it, thinking again about how casually her sister was using her newfound power.

“Yeah,” Claire shrugged. “Pretty much.”

“I mean...I don’t want to be like ‘Ooh, I volunteer’, but,” Alison rocked her head a little bit, “Claire’s right. The closest we got to not being in control of this thing was when there was some kind of self-play involved. It’s worth figuring out to what extent that works so that we don’t have another issue where our stuff tries to…” Alison trailed off, looking at Sunny. “What were they trying to do?”

“We didn’t really let them get that far,” Sunny said. “Cassie’s bedspread kept her away from me,  and her toy and her panties, well — if I didn’t know any better, they clearly wanted to party.

 Claire swallowed her pride.

“Well, we’re going to experiment, then,” She said. “All of us.” She grabbed the necklace off the table. “I’m going to…go, for a few minutes,” she rolled her eyes, giving a nervous laugh, “And you three just, play cards, reorganize the living room — whatever. Just…do me a favor and play some music or something?” Sunny nodded as Allison tried to hide her smile.

“How long you think it’s gonna take?” Cassie asked, feeling obnoxious as her floating blanket hovered toward Claire.

“Longer now, you weirdo,” Claire said, playfully shoving her away. “I don’t want to think about you…thinking about it!” Claire huffed, getting off the couch and throwing back the rest of her mug of coffee.

“Did you EVER think you’d have to diddle yourself in order to become my equal?” Cassie laughed, wrinkling her nose as a frustrated Claire put on the necklace, clasping it around her. She turned around to face Cassie with a level palm, then tilted it at a forty-five degree angle. “Hey!” Cassie cried, sliding toward the floor. Her soda stayed levitating in mid-air as she caught herself just above the ground — feeling her jeans and T-shirt suspending her in the air.

“Whoa,” Alison said.

“Right!? I almost didn’t think about it, but…” Cassie rotated herself upright without touching the ground, slowly settling her feet against it and waving off the blanket. It folded in half and draped itself on the back of the couch.

“So, like that, I guess,” Claire said. “Mess around. Practice. I’ll be back.”

As Claire headed up the stairs, a million things crashed down on her at once. The necklace. The fact that it was sent to her. The fact that her sister was kicked out of college at an age where more people decide between happy productivity, or bitter unhealthiness. The fact that she was still responsible for her sister, and the fact that Cassie was more attuned to this necklace’s power than she was. Alison’s carelessness. Sunny…being around again.

Things were normal last week. As far as she knew, things were going well. Now it seemed like the weight of the world was on her shoulders. She’d been holding onto tension all day, and it only got worse when she heard about Sunny and Cassie’s ‘fight’ with the magic.

Tension. What was she going to do about this necklace? She couldn’t hide it now. Three people had lasting supernatural abilities from its effects. Some objects that took on a life of their own…could really be dangerous if the wrong person’s mind were attached to them. To top it all off, now Claire was the one left behind. She looked down at the dangling jewel in her hands. She wanted to cry.

Why her? Why was this given to her? It was a thing of myth. It shouldn’t exist—and since it did, shouldn’t it be in the hands of some ancient scion-level family? A secret government facility? A tomb of some forgotten emperor?

“Why?” Claire asked aloud. “Why did you come to me? Who sent you?” She took a deep breath and put it back on. It was almost reluctant. She sat on her bed and tried not to think of anything…but the worries of the last 15 minutes simply looped in her mind.

There was no way she was going to be able to just…do what it took to make the power stay with her. She wasn’t in the mood to play. After the things she heard, she didn’t want anything touching her. Groping her. There had to be things buried in the rules of this insane thing that they didn’t know. Maybe it was aging them. Maybe using their powers was adding to some eldritch force they weren’t aware of. Maybe—

Claire gasped when she saw it. The plush had hovered off her chair in the corner, slowly approaching her…but it didn’t make contact.

She was building herself up toward crying, and here was Mr. Maple, the stuffed black-bear plushie her father got for her when he was settling a deal in Burlington years ago.

“Daddy?” She whispered. Claire reached toward it, then shook her head, stopping before she touched it. She frowned at the thing, ashamed of her own weakness. No, this wasn’t dad speaking to her. This was her own mind, trying to comfort her. She scowled and swiped a hand at it now, sending it tumbling toward the far wall.

Claire softened and began to sob, reaching behind her to unclasp the necklace again.

They need you more than ever, came a barely audible voice. She wasn’t even sure she really heard it.

Claire sat up and blinked, looking around the room. She looked down at the necklace. Was it faintly glowing? Just like it had before?

“Wh-who needs me?” Claire whispered back, rolling with the situation.

All of them. The voice was feminine. She didn’t recognize it.

“Cassie? My friends?” Claire whispered again, staring at the necklace now.

Every sister of Eve. The voice had a resonance. A hum…almost like the hum of the necklace. Was it…the necklace?

“Who…are the sisters of Eve?” Claire demanded, hissing her question.

All of them. All of you. The winds shift. The storm comes; for the good of every sister of Eve, you must prepare. The glow dissipated, and somehow Claire knew she wouldn’t hear another word from the voice. It didn’t stop her from asking anyway.

“But…why me? Why did you--what do you want from me?” Claire’s tiny voice whispered to the stone. On top of everything else, now she was hearing things…and she couldn’t deny the reality of the words. Something had spoken to her.

The bear in the corner lifted into the air again when Claire glanced at it. She pulled it closer with her mind, wrapping her arms around it and squeezing when it floated near her. She had just gotten a message…real as the necklace, real as the powers they’d been dealing with.

There was music downstairs, just like Claire requested. Maybe Claire didn’t feel sexy at the moment. Maybe she wasn’t as carefree about these literal superpowers as Alison and Sunny were…but if Cassie needed guidance at college, she sure as hell needed guidance through something like this.

Claire received a message. She waited a minute so see if one of the others would run upstairs to say they’d gotten the same, but she could only hear fits of laughter and a couple of exclamations over the din of the first floor. It meant, perhaps, that she was the only one to hear the voice, a voice every bit as real as these strange abilities.

She didn’t have time to waste. She had to jump in with both feet.

-

Elise was levitating in her livingroom, balanced by Sunny’s living outfit. She was wearing the hose, the black tee, and the gloves. Holding herself steady in a meditative pose was easy when the clothes were doing most of the hard work—namely keeping her off the ground.

She watched Sunny’s boots, bra and skirt across the room from her. She’d been projecting commands to them for the last hour or so, saying things at first until she realized she only needed to think them.

That’s where meditation came in. Focusing on extending one’s will to reach out to some extraordinary ability actually came easier when she could literally remove all the points of pressure tying her to the ground.

With the hose, the t-shirt and the gloves on, she could effectively fly. The more she practiced, the better she could will herself higher and lower at just the speed and distance she wanted. She could make Sunny’s boots kick, tip-toe, and strut. She could send them off in one direction while the levitating skirt and bra danced in another. She could make the empty clothes coordinate like one outfit, as if an invisible Sunny was in them—or she could warp their forms and send them into flight.

The more specific her will, the more specifically her command was followed. The broader she was in her direction, the more creative the things were in their interpretation of the command.

Her ‘Bailen’ command was left to all sorts of things. They surprised her a little with quite a bit of swiveling and heel stomping, and not much else. It left Elise to wonder if they were emulating Sunny in some way. Did objects have memories?

There was an a-ha moment in Elise when she watched a dance video and imagined the outfit doing the same. It was matching the motions Elise was seeing in no time, and she wondered if it had anything to do with her own dance skill. Did she have to understand it herself to make the outfit do it right?

“No es cómo si supiera levitar,” Elise said to herself, gently pushing herself higher with her gloved palms to the ground.

She had to know more about the necklace. She had to see the thing that was the source of this insane power. She didn’t have any silly thoughts of simply stealing it and running away with it. She didn’t want to be a target of Sunny or her other friends, who would obviously have access to the same abilities.

But if she had it to herself for a little while…maybe she could animate a giant group of things. Say…the entire stock of her shop? If she put the entire stock of her specialty boutique together with some kind of big-box department store, she’d have an absolutely formidable army.

But then what? She was getting ahead of herself.

Still, to think of the prices she could charge clients to let them experience the kind of things she could do to them with this power…she could put some very wealthy guys in her debt. She could eventually have very powerful people begging her for mercy.

“I need to know what they know,” Elise said. “Quiza ellas saben más que yo.”

She imagined fingers tracing down her thighs, and there they were on the pantyhose. Gentle, sliding indents down her thighs, behind her knees and down her calves. The tickle from behind her knee suddenly gave her an idea.

Mis pies. Cosquilleame los pies.

Elise began wiggling in mid-air as the pantyhose followed their new direction. Elise bit her lip, driving them to go harder. Her plan was a little melodramatic, but it would probably work.

-

Downstairs, there was no ethereal message permeating the girls’ minds. No mention of the Sisters of Eve to Cassie, Alison or Sunny. The three each engaged with their abilities, practicing as Claire said they should.

Sunny used Cassie’s make-up kit to paint up Cassie’s face. Cassie kept mostly still except to look at her phone, which was spinning through menus and typing things all on its own.

“That’s working, huh?” Sunny asked, motioning to Cassie’s phone. Cassie stared at the glare and nodded, never breaking away from it. She was doing her best to keep still “I didn’t even think about trying that much with it.”

“So I don’t mean to sound like a nerd,” Cassie said, “but I can sort of feel the limitations of the hardware at certain points.” Sunny squinted at her, and the brushes backed off as Cassie laughed. “I mean…you know how like your phone can only be as fast as your fingers? Well, now it’s as fast as you thinking about stuff, but like…it still takes time to load apps.”

Sunny’s hip buzzed.

“Are you serious, Cassie?”

“Just read it! You don’t even have to use your hands,” Cassie said. Without even looking at her, she made Sunny’s phone dig its way out of her pocket and show it to her.

“How’d you know my unlock pattern?” Sunny asked.

“I don’t…” Cassie whispered, smirking. Sunny’s phone drifted in front of her, glowing.

I don’t have to think about where things are or how to do them—I just imagine what I want done, and it happens…almost as fast as I think it.

“Holy shit, Cassie, are you in my phone?” At this point, all of the makeup brushes, puffs and liners paused. Cassie shook her head at Sunny.

“No, like…I’m not hacking your phone or anything. It’s not like I can see what’s on it any more than I can read my jeans’ thoughts.” Sunny laughed at the idea of object telepathy working the other way. “I just tell it to do something and it finds a way.”

A text began typing on Sunny’s own phone.

Do you realize what this means?

The phone sent the message back to Cassie on its own. Cassie finally broke her gaze from her screen to grin at Sunny.

“If you didn’t know my unlock pattern, it means that you can get into any phone you want.”

“Any phone I know about,” Cassie said. “I don’t think I can give like, a verbal command to make every smartphone in the world take a picture and send it to my number or anything.” She gritted her teeth, waiting for the eruption of notifications. It never came.

“What did Claire say about being careful?” Sunny said.

“I knew it wouldn’t work, and I even told you why,” Cassie responded. She continued in a text back to Sunny.

Besides, you know we both would have flipped shit if it actually worked.

“But damn, Cassie…what about cars?” Sunny asked, smirking. Cassie was impressed. Door locks were obvious from the moment she saw this ability in action, but didn’t this mean security systems were pointless too? “Doors, locks, vaults…maybe anything with a password…”

“Sunny, that’s a little crazy,” Cassie said. Sunny nodded.

“Let me finish, I was almost done,” Sunny said, motioning to the applicators and brushes in the air. Cassie held her chin up again, waiting for Sunny’s appliqué. The make-up tools started in on Cassie once more.

Hey, check this out.

The message appeared on Sunny’s phone. Suddenly, it accepted a video call from Alison, who glanced up at her hovering phone to see Sunny staring at her in awe.

“Holy shit, Sunny—did you just do that with my phone?” The pair could hear Alison over the phone and in the kitchen behind them at the same time.

“No, I did it,” Cassie said, making Sunny’s phone point back at her as the paused lipliner went back to its job. “And check this out.” Cassie’s own phone entered the frame from behind, its video recording the fruit of Alison’s labor.

“That’s—are you recording me?” Alison said, turning around to try to grab Cassie’s hovering phone. It dodged her. “This was going to be a surprise!”

“It’s still a surprise, my phone is in there with you!” Cassie laughed. “All I can see is what I’m pointed at here, and…whoa.” At the bottom of the frame, she saw a glimmering that she couldn’t make out until she willed Alison’s own phone to tip back and show it to her.

“Go ahead, look around. It’s crazy,” Alison said. “Apparently I wasn’t going to find a limit that easily anyway. Have you tried multitasking with this stuff? It’s…unbelievable.”

It was a star made of spoons, each of them spinning on their long axis at the same rate, in perfect flow with the others. They were also hovering in tandem with each other, making the entire star rotate in the air.

“That’s crazy,” Cassie said, spotting something else in motion at the edge of the frame. “Al, did you make that—” Cassie stopped when she saw motion at the doorway. Whole place settings came hovering out, with the placemats gliding gracefully through the air like miniature flying carpets. Silverware, dinner napkins, glasses, wineglasses and appetizer plates came out with each one, heading for the dining room table.

“You know what?” Alison said, stepping into the room. “I bet we don’t need a table. We probably don’t even need chairs.” She stared at the heavy formal dining room set. The table rose into the air first, clearing the seats of the chairs around it with its pedestal before inverting itself and hovering up next to the ceiling. Cassie and Sunny both visibly pulled away from the heavy, suspended furniture.

“Careful, Al—that’s my grandparents’ table!” Cassie said. Alison nodded, holding her hand up. Her phone ended the faint feedback of the pointless video call and slid into her hand.

“Have you been playing with the phones, then?” Alison asked Cassie. Cassie watched as each of the chairs jumped from their rough rectangle that used to outline the table. They faced each other seat-to-seat, and hovered just beneath the table in a 4 x 2 line.

“The phones?” Cassie asked, a little overwhelmed by what she was seeing Alison do. She barely heard the question. She’d done a lot with these abilities, but Alison had to be commanding maybe 100 objects at once now…some of them very acrobatically.

“Yeah, Cassie, the phones! You made mine dial out, and I didn’t use my fingerprint.” Alison smirked. “The tech just listens too, doesn’t it?”

“Oh! Yeah. I didn’t have to tell it anything but like ‘facetime Sunny’.”

“It’s like Claire and I said from the beginning. We don’t have to know how any of it works,” Alison said. “If we’re clear in our minds, what we want just happens,” Alison said.

It made sense to Sunny after hearing Cassie say the same thing. Intention was the core of the necklace’s power, but there was more to it than that.

“What we want doesn’t just happen,” Sunny said. “I can’t just wish for a slice of Pecan Pie, right?” Sunny seemed to exert visible effort at something. “I can’t just turn your neighbor’s house into a water park by visualizing it. It’s not warping all of reality for us, it’s just implicating whatever object we’re trying to influence.

“Right, but the number of objects…” Cassie stared at the placemats, all holding steady in the space where a table would be.

“Doesn’t seem to matter,” Alison said. “You set the command into motion, you let it go.” Alison snapped, and the hovering star made from finely-placed, levitating, whirling spoons flew out from behind her. Eight teacups and saucers swooped behind it, splitting themselves alternately into two lines of four that wrapped around each end of the would-be table until they met with every place setting, hovering just beyond the placemats. Each of the teaspoons spun off of the star and joined their teacup and saucer pair.

“Should I start singing ‘be our gue—' HEY!” Sunny cried out, reaching behind her when she felt a wedgie cleft into her from behind.

“The point is,” Alison said, “that just like Cassie experienced with the phones—we don’t need to worry about ‘how’ so much as the ‘if’. The placemats and silverware should lie as if there were an invisible table here, just like the one practically affixed to the ceiling.”

“That’s the crazier part,” Cassie said. “Isn’t any of this tiring you out?” Alison shrugged.

“I don’t think it comes from us,” Alison said. “Is doesn’t FEEL like exertion, does it?”

“But there has to be a limit to it, right?” Cassie asked.

“We should talk to Claire when she’s done,” Sunny said, walking to a placesetting and pressing against it with her fingertips. It had almost no give to it at all. The fabric was still soft, but there seemed to be a planar surface under it that the placemat refused to cross. Sunny bit her lip and tried to slide the placemat along the invisible plane, but it would only stretch as much as the fabric allowed without it leaving its designated place. It was as if some force was keeping Alison’s commands in place without her needing to focus on them. “We should talk about…bigger tests. Maybe finding some limits.” Sunny took a breath and sat down, clinching her teeth a little. “Oohph!” Sunny’s rear and the back of her thighs seemed to compress against an invisible surface, and she laughed a little as she steadied herself.

“You didn’t expect to fall, did you?” Cassie asked. She stood up and leapt into the air, arcing over to place herself in an invisible chair next to Sunny. Pressure swelled between Cassie’s thighs, and where Sunny’s contours made her looked like she was seated against a usual chair (except for its invisibility, of course), Cassie appeared to be straddling some dynamic ball-shaped object.

“It’s not the same as levitation!” Sunny wiggled her butt against her invisible seat, and imagined it pushing her in. She slowly slid toward the hovering placemat. “I had to like...believe I was going to hit, but I didn’t know where I was going to hit. What exactly is going on there?” Sunny pointed to Cassie’s hips.

“I wanted my chair to be a yoga ball,” Cassie smiled. “Seems like it worked.”

“Wait, how did you get it to do that?” Sunny asked.

“Like I said, it doesn’t matter how,” Alison clapped her hands together, and the rough rectangle became a circle of eight. Sunny hadn’t moved—Alison changed the shape of the invisible table around her. Cassie rocked a little as she shifted into place. “She told the layer of fabric to emulate a landing on a yoga ball, and they did it…no yoga ball needed. All that matters is that she knew what she was expecting. You only expected a chair. A chair like the ones up there is what you got.”

“Yeah, but doesn’t that mean that it’s…a sort of negative space that they’re acting on?” Cassie said, narrowing her eyes. “It’s the jeans, like, pretending that they’re sitting on something.” She crossed her eyes and looked at Alison. “I mean, that’s incredible, but the rules of this are confusing as fuck.”

“They’re starting to make a lot of sense to me,” Alison said. “The object obeys in whatever way it’s able,” Alison said.

“Yeah, expect for gravity!” Cassie said. “Things aren’t able to just float on their own.”

“But that’s a matter of the energy it takes for things to act, float, fold, grip, whatever it’s doing. Like I said, I get a sense that this energy is coming from somewhere else…not just our bodies.”

“You’re right,” Sunny said. “I didn’t feel any more overwhelmed from animating a dress than I did sort of ‘waking-up’ my whole apartment.” Sunny stood up out of the invisible chair and waved her hand over where she was just sitting, meeting with nothing at all.

“It’s like we’re antenna, and we’re sending some signal to a source to tune whatever it is we’re commanding,” Alison said. “But what’s the source?”

“I think we have a lot to tell Claire,” Sunny said. Her phone buzzed again, still in mid-air where it had been hanging. She looked at Cassie.

“Hey, it wasn’t me.” Cassie shrugged.

When Sunny called her phone to her, she went ghost white at her notification. It was Elise. Speaking of having a lot to tell Claire, Sunny thought. She prayed this new development wouldn’t sour what had been a pretty decent reunion with Claire so far. It had been trust that ruined them when Rob was in their lives. Claire had to be able to trust her, and now Sunny had no choice but to come clean about Elise.

-

Claire let her panties play with her, but it wasn’t long before the moist fabric playing against her made her feel silly. The touch was as nice as she wanted it to be, but the texture of her own underwear wasn’t doing it for her.

She let the magic guide the fulfillment of “I want the most comfortable sleepset to get myself off in,” finding herself face to face with satin shorts and a matching short-sleeve button down. The items fluttered out of her intimates drawer, and Claire smiled as she let her sheets peel back off of her.

Undress me. Slowly…like a lover would.

All she had on was a pair of tan panties and an oversized t-shirt. She let the magic surprise her as she felt her T-shirt peel back slowly, carefully passing over her stomach as she lifted herself to her elbows and let the shirt ride up her back. She felt the fabric press against her center of gravity, and realized it was supporting her.

She leaned back, lifting her arms from her bed and letting the T-shirt tumble over the front of her. The waist of the shirt gently caressed her chest, and Claire let out a sigh as the hem flicked over her nipples, hardening them. Her sleeves stretched to allow her to slide her elbows out, and now she was leaning against the back of the shirt until the pressure behind her began to slowly disappear. Claire held herself up again as her tee flopped to the ground. As her panties began stirring, Claire’s saffron yellow satin button-up opened, fluttering over her bed.

The panties peeled over her hips. They began to slide down her legs, but the fabric covering her pussy refused to let go. It nudged her once, and again…and Claire moaned, reaching down to hold the crotch of the panties still. The fabric dodged as soon as she reached for it, sliding over her and causing her to touch herself instead.

“Ooh…” Claire flicked her fingers away, and with her modified command, her panties shot away from her. The amulet was glowing now, and Claire pointed at the satin shorts. “Come on,” she growled. She touched herself again, lifting her legs and pointing her toes to let the satin shorts onto her. When she felt the button-up nudge her from behind, she held out her honey-glistened fingers and pulled her arm behind her to let the short sleeve slide over her hand.

It wasn’t just Alison’s own lack of control…Cassie’s own recklessness. This ability had a sexual charge to it, a force of will all its own. Claire had been reserved in all this, even though she noticed the attribute immediately when she first began to experiment with their clothes. It was almost as if the amulet wanted this from her—as if she was fulfilling something. Some link. She hoped to god it wasn’t some sort of ethereal contract she was making with forces unknown.

‘For the good of every sister of Eve.’

Wasn’t that the contract?

‘All of them. All of you.’

That was what the voice said to her. Yes, the amulet wanted something from her. But didn’t she believe that voice? There was something so blank-slate about the way the necklace interpreted commands. Claire couldn’t recognize it as holy or evil. There just wasn’t that sort of energy about it. She had no way to explain it…but to her it felt technological. A miracle of consciousness projection that could be used for good or evil.

And she was being told to prepare. That the winds were changing. For the good of who? Every sister of Eve? Every woman?

There was something about the way their sexual drives were tied to the objects they commanded, though. That much was clear from Alison’s accident the night before, and from whatever Sunny and Cassie experienced. They seemed to lose momentary control of what they were dealing with. Claire had to explore the same ground and find out why. To prepare, she had to know exactly what this strange thing was capable of. Maybe along the way, she’d find out how she ended up the recipient.

The panties she took off. The top. Once the slippery shorts slid up along her thighs, the shimmering spot between her legs met their fabric as well. When she came, these would be the items she’d lose control over if she wasn’t wearing the necklace—so the pattern said.

Like a doll, Claire thought silently, biting her lip a little at the certainty of her own naughty intentions. She knew she had to come, and she didn’t want to keep everyone waiting forever.  The shirt buttoned up her chest, and she thought about everything she wanted to feel. Everything a bath of satin and a plunge into fantasy could offer her. Like a delicate figurine caught up in a divine wind.

She gasped as the shirt sat her up straight.

“Ohhhh my god…that’s a pretty good start,” Claire whispered, giggling as she looked down at her sleepshirt flicking her already hardened nipples. Lines began to trace under the curve of her breasts, and it was like fingers tracing from her solar plexus and around her breasts, over her rib cage and to her back—one after the other. There were gentle folds of satin gently gliding against her skin like they were caught up in a breeze made of liquid; Claire’s ‘divine wind’ personified by the amulet’s power.

Claire squeaked when the shirt tensed around her rib cage and shoulders, throwing her up and forward. The shorts pulled back at the same time, throwing Claire’s legs under her and causing her to tense up. The landing she expected never happened. She was held over her bed by her satin shirt and shorts, the fabric suspending her in the air while rolling over her skin and caressing her like before.

Like a doll. A delicate figurine caught up in a divine wind. Claire bit her lip, grinding her levitating hips against the satin holding her up. It was putting just enough pressure between her legs to drive her mad—she could feel the rest of her weight distributed by her waistband in the grip of the shiny yellow shorts against her ass and thighs.

“Stockings,” Claire huffed quietly. “Gloves.” She didn’t bother consciously picking; she was too involved in the moment to know anything other than that she wanted something that could support her limbs to their ends.

The room picked for her.

A pair of white, thigh-high stockings came from the drawer opposite her sleep drawer. Buried in her closet, a pair of silvery lycra costume gloves snaked their way out of the slit between the doors. Nothing hesitated to take their places on her body. Claire grinned, biting her lower lip as she wiggled her hips against her satin shorts. She stretched all her limbs, giving her magically-empowered accessories unfettered access.

Just as Claire fantasized, her newly-fitted additions lifted her higher into the air, face down and spread-eagle two feet from the ceiling. Her satin shorts responded to her bucking now, pushing back against her and clinching around her ass. The gusset of the shorts teased against her, and Claire looked down at her bed.

“You know what I really want?” Claire moaned, looking down at the glowing necklace. “I want to know how the relationship between our sex, our fluids, and this magic works.” She stared at the glow as she thought it. “Make me understand it,” she demanded, pulling her arms out in front of her. “I want you to make me come—and make me understand it!”

She was pulled higher—pinned against the ceiling as her satin shorts and nylons triggered all of Claire’s favorite points in a sequence no human could ever manipulate quite so quickly. A trace over the small of her back, slow fingertips from her toes to her heels, traces up her thighs and a heft of her breasts against glossy fabric that seemed to cling to her in every direction.

“Show me…” Claire moaned. “Open to me!”

She reached out and grabbed the glowing jewel with her silvery glove as she came, crossing her legs against her release as she bobbed in the air. “Open…” she murmured, taking in the power of her surrender and the things holding her aloft.

Claire’s closet opened. Her dresser drawers opened. Her bedroom door. Her foot locker. Her vanity drawers. Her tiny jewelry chest.

Claire stayed aloft, holding onto the jewel with one hand while the other went under the waistband of her shorts. She didn’t feel like she’d suddenly gained any knowledge. Maybe that was beyond the necklace’s capabilities. If she was going to prepare, she was going to have to learn to tame the effects of this necklace.

“Everything of mine that met with so much as a molecule of my…of me…will continue to obey my desires when I take this necklace off,” Claire said it aloud, like a mantra. She whispered it again and again, switching gloves to expose the pair to herself. “You’re going to be…my guide to answering my question. To…making me understand.” She slid her silver fingertips up the thighs of the stockings. “You’re going to open the amulet’s power to me.”

Sunny climbed two steps before realizing she should take every opportunity she could to get used to another way to ascend. She felt herself lift off the stairs as she headed for the second floor.

Some impulse in her told her that she needed to tell Claire everything before she came to Elise’s aid. She hovered silently down the hall, toward Claire’s door—when she realized that it was open.

“C-Claire?” Sunny called from around the corner. Claire gasped, reorienting herself as if by instinct. She tried clumsily to pull at the fingertips of the slippery lycra gloves, realizing how stupid she was for not doing the obvious. She held her hands out in front of her, and the silvery gloves stretched at every tensile fabric bottleneck to let her hands out. She shooed them away and whisked a finger at her stockings, which slightly inflated in much the same way before slipping off of her.

She looked around at her room, seeing that everything that could open was opened. She bit her lip and made a ‘close’ signal with her hand by clapping her fingers to her thumb, and everything in the room responded except for her closet, which waited for the gloves and stockings to drift inside with Claire’s discarded panties.

“I’m…I’m done, Sunny. I’m decent…ish. You can come in.”

Sunny touched down before turning the corner, only to find Claire reclining three feet over her bed in her satin separates.

“Oh, seriously? Then I’m not pretending it’s not awesome either.” Sunny levitated into the air again. “Claire, I’m really, really really sorry, but I have something else to explain. Something I was afraid to mention before, but now I feel like I can’t do anything good by trying to hide it. I have to be totally open with you.”

“Sure,” Claire said. “And it…is awesome. But, what’s so odd about it is that we don’t seem to fatigue, which…goes against like everything I know about magic.”

“What do you know about magic?” Sunny laughed.

“You know, everything in the stories. That it’s supposed to age you when you overuse it. Or like, you turn into a monster or wear yourself thin or something.” Claire frowned, placing herself on the bed in gravity’s full jurisdiction again. “Sunny, it forced itself on you…didn’t it? With Cassie, I mean?”

Sunny’s face reddened. She drifted into the room.

“Listen, there's something about not being totally in control that...you know, I wouldn't worry about that, Claire. I'm good. The real issue is, I told another person about all this. My friend Elise.”

“Sunny, it’s…" Claire was derailed entirely from her concern. "Wait, when would you have done that?”

“Like, right after Alison showed me. Before I knew better than to keep it a secret. After Alison let me wear it, but before Cassie and I had our little showdown with her things.”

More details Claire didn’t know. Keeping this thing a secret simply wasn’t going to be an option. Managing its effects and knowing how it worked might, but...

“Claire, I’m really sorry, it’s just that—”

“No, no...Sunny, it’s really fine,” Claire smiled. “What’s done is done, we just need a handle on it. How much does she know?”

“Um, enough that she might have played around with some stuff I brought to life when I was wearing the necklace that first time.” Claire’s eyes went wide. Was this situation not exactly what she’d just asked the necklace for? She needed a way to understand, and here was another test case.

“Oh, shit. You mean…like I just played around?” Claire asked.

“Yeah, and—the real thing is that she needs our help right now because the things I lent her are—”

“Out of her control now because she did that!” Claire shouted, clapping her hands together. Sunny was a little confused about the reaction.

“She said they’re not being unsafe, but they’re…not listening.”

“No, of course not. They want her to, um…play around even more, right?” Claire asked, interested.

“She said they were being inappropriate…or whatever ‘traviesas’ means,” Sunny said, looking at her texts.

“That’s great!” Claire said. “Um, here, put on the necklace and tell your things to safely get her over here!” She willed the clasp off of her neck and handed the thing to Sunny. “You have to tell her to just let them do their job. Work with them. They won’t hurt her.”

“She already knows that much, but…hey, you’re…um. You’re really okay that I did this?” Sunny asked.

“Okay, so it was a reaction to seeing the necklace’s power in action, right? If I saw things moving on their own, the first thing I would want is outside confirmation,” Claire reassured her. “No one swore you to secrecy.” That was Alison’s job, Claire thought to herself. “The important thing is that you wear the necklace and issue the command. Now that they’re ‘treated’, they won’t listen to anyone else…that’s why you came for the necklace, right?”

“I mean, I came to beg your forgiveness for spreading this secret farther than you wanted it,” Sunny said. “But I will…totally take this other thing, for sure.” Sunny draped the chain over her neck and felt the thing clasp itself under her command.

“Get Elise here safely and inconspicuously,” Sunny said aloud for good measure, even though she knew that was more or less what Elise was already up to. She thought again about exactly what she loaned to Elise. “Claire…are there rules about whose fluid activates things?”

“It’s the magic,” Claire said. “Or the intention. The command. Whatever you want to call it. Whoever’s intention set it in motion—only that person can control the ‘treated’ things with the necklace. It seems as though any vaginal fluid will do to treat something.”

“And then it’s no longer in anyone’s control,” Sunny said.

“It gains like…another dimension of will or something, but Alison treated things she animated with the necklace on. Cassie treated things Cassie animated with the necklace on. I just treated these things with the necklace on,” Claire motioned to her own outfit, “Which, I told it to behave and we’ll see how that goes, but your friend…”

“Elise.”

“Your friend Elise treated animated things you left with her. Did you do anything to get them to obey her?”

“I mean, I told them to play nice and do as she said, I think.”

“So now we get to see this ability, this magic, whatever—misbehaving in a way that might have a different dimension than what we’ve experienced so far,” Claire said. “Hurry up and call her or something so that she gets the plan and doesn’t freak out when your clothes try to drag her here!”

Sunny showed Claire her phone.

“Actually, she’s…um—already on her way here,” Sunny said. “I told her to come before I could explain to you, because I just didn’t know how else to help her.”

“So, maybe they weren’t as out of control as the other things,” Claire was going to do everything she could to figure out the nuances of the rules. Sunny nodded at her.

“I mean, that’s what it sounds like…that they’re troublemakers, but not anything vicious.”

“So the things you loaned her are like you,” Claire said, sneering at her.

“That would make sense, right?” Sunny shrugged, smiling. "I'm glad you're not angry."

"This is all too crazy to get pissed about stupid shit, Sunny," Claire hovered up off the bed, gently colliding her shoulder with Sunny's in mid-air. "We just need to stick together and figure all of this out."

-

As soon as Elise parked in the driveway, the gloves dug into her sides like before. She howled laughter as they did, playing her role in begging them not to in precisely the way she explained she would. These things were smarter than terriers, and every bit as loyal. They were going to play out Elise’s plan and get her the glance she needed at the cause of all this magical chaos. They were going to force the girls to show off something about what they knew if they wanted to rescue Elise from Sunny’s “renegade clothing”.

They did, however, still have to obey Sunny’s newest directives. Safety wasn’t going to be an issue either way, but now that they had to move Elise inconspicuously, they muffled her laughter with a glove over her mouth even as the other glove kept tickling her as she approached the door, allowing Sunny’s pantyhose to guide her steps. Sunny’s boots waited in the car, effectively sticking to Elise’s plan while not disobeying any of Sunny’s directives.

Sunny’s friends’ house was impressive. She took it in as she approached the front door, not having to worry about where she was going thanks to the outfit guiding itself up the walk. She was being distracted by tickling just enough to keep her face red while not making her burst out laughing or fighting against it. She needed to look like she was completely at its mercy.

The glove at her side was about to ring Claire’s doorbell when a young woman opened the door and looked up at the muffled Elise. A glove was covering her mouth, and it looked like tears were streaming down her face, though she didn’t seem in pain at all.

“Oh! Oh my god. Uhm…obviously you’re Elise,” Cassie said. “I’m Claire’s sister, Cassie. Come inside...if those things are going to let you.”