"Ladies!" Matthias cried, holding his arms open wide. "This way, please!"
The Noh sisters were a set of identical triplets that had the haggard sort of look common to anyone who'd spent the last eight hours flying. Gears hurried forward to take their bags.
"My name is Matthias Conway; I am Charles Offdensen's personal assistant. He sends his regrets. He was on the way here to greet you himself but Toki was in an accident and needed to be taken to a decompression chamber."
"Oh my gosh! Is Toki going to be okay?" The sister in red gasped.
"We think he'll be just fine," Matthias said.
"Oh good," the red-clad woman sighed.
"That's a relief," said the one in green.
"Very fortuitous," said the one in blue, stretching. "It will give us a chance to take a shower and change."
"Everything worked out!" The red sister agreed.
"You . . . you haven't seen Mr. Offdensen in three months, he splits to babysit one of the band and you say it all works out?" Matthias echoed in disbelief.
"He's in the hospital," The sister in red stressed, getting into the limo. "That changes things just a little. Oh! Roses!"
"The band is like Charles' other family," The sister in green said, climbing into the car. "What kind of heartless bitches would we be if we got mad because his other family needed him? Oh, he remembered our favorite colors!"
"That's a very expansive view," Matthias said, noting the 'heartless bitches'. Charles' ladies never swore, huh?
"If we got mad about things like that, our relationship never would have lasted this long. When you have an unorthodox situation like ours, you have to be practical," the blue clad sister informed him coolly. She followed her sisters into the limo.
"Good point," Matthias said, climbing in behind them.
The triplets were gushing over the bouquets of roses procured earlier. Let's see, the red ones were for Faith, the white ones were for Mercy and the pink ones were for Hope. If everyone had their favorite color of roses, that put Faith in the blue dress, Mercy in red and Hope in green. Shouldn't Mercy have red roses . . ? Never mind; it wasn't important.
"Oh how nice . . . I totally needed this. It will be such a great break!" Mercy was saying. "Wish I had more time to prep for a swimsuit, though."
She squeezed her love handle to illustrate.
"Oh me too!" Hope agreed.
"Oh shut up!" Mercy and Faith said in the same voice.
"You're always skinny," Mercy groused.
"You're too skinny; it's not healthy," Faith offered.
At first Matthias wanted to roll his eyes and stress that they were all identical, but now that he looked at them, Hope was noticeably thinner than the other two. She looked younger, too. Odd.
Mercy was padded a little better, but most of it was in her breasts and hips, like some old-timey pinup from an era when models were still allowed to eat.
Faith was a happy medium between the two, a little curvier than Hope, but thinner than Mercy.
Well, even identical siblings weren't completely identical. There were bound to be some differences, though . . . actually it was kind of funny to think of Charles with bubbly little Hope. He'd look like every sad middle-aged man fighting against time with a woman half his age.
"I can't wait to meet Charles' boys," Mercy said. "I've heard so much about them. I hope they appreciate how much he dotes on them."
Charles doting on Dethklok? That was . . . .well, actually he did, but it was just a very motherly way to say it. It was doubly funny to hear Mercy say because half the band was probably older than her.
"Mr. Conway? Has Charles been doing well?" Faith asked. "It's not like him to take last-minute vacations."
Faith was the sort to notice little things and worry about them. She seemed like a perfect match for Charles . . . oh now Matty could see it: Every sister matched a side of Charles' personality. Faith was analytical and pragmatic, Mercy was the motherly type to Charles' paternal leanings and Hope . . . well Hope probably meshed up with some side of Charles Matthias wasn't privy to.
"He actually started having heart palpitations a couple of weeks ago," Matthias admitted. "Doctor's orders were no stress, booze, or coffee so Dethklok dragged him along on vacation."
"And how's that going?" Faith asked sharply.
Matthias considered the situations his boss had been exposed to in the last few days.
"I don't think I've seen him drinking coffee."
Faith sighed through her nose.
"Don't worry; I'm sure we can work the kinks out of him," Hope said with a wicked grin.
"I think I'd be stressed if a doctor told me I couldn't drink on vacation," Mercy offered. "Oh hey, look; wine!"
"Mercy, take it easy," Faith ordered.
Matthias snorted. The triplets were like a whole family all on their own: Mercy the sweet mom, Hope the wild kid and . . . Faith . . . the . . .
Matthias straightened slightly as another pattern appeared to him. Wild Kid, Sweet Mom, Stern Matriarch.
Maiden, Mother, and Crone.
Holy shit. Did Charles do that on – no, no you'd have to have an eye out for these things to notice, but damn, it was right there. And for the four of them to hook up together? That was . . . he couldn't let this go.
"Mr. Offdensen will be really happy to see you," Matthias announced. "You three mean a lot to him. He was just talking with the boys yesterday about how serious things were between you four."
"Really?" Hope said with a big grin.
"I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but there was talk of babies . . ." The assistant offered in a singsong voice. That wasn't a total lie. Children were mentioned.
Mercy sucked in a deep, excited breath.
"Mr. Offdensen's just over the moon that he's finally found a family. Well . . . as 'over the moon' as he gets," Matthias continued.
This coaxed a small smile from Faith.
Right there; that spark of love in each of their hearts! Being who he was, Matthias could see it perfectly. He could see it and mold it to his own purposes.
"How could he resist you?" Matthias stated. "Faith, the very picture of fraternal love, watching over her sisters and keeping the family together . . . it's just what a Matriarch does. Even your name . . . Faith; the unwavering belief in a certain person. And what is that but love?"
"I . . guess you could look at it that way," Faith said, taken aback by the sudden intensity.
"Mercy: a disposition of kindness, forgiveness, and compassion. Everything you'd expect in motherly love. Everything you could want in a sweet lady. Everything that goes along with the ideal of femininity. Everything that goes with ideal love."
"Um . . . I'm not some perfect doll," Mercy said.
"And Hope," Matthias said, ignoring this. "A belief in promise for the future; optimism that the world is not as horrific as we all know it to be. A love of life. A goddamn incarnation of Persephone herself!"
Hope stared at Matthias for a long time.
"Mr. Conway, you're freaking us out," she announced.
"Oh, don't worry, ladies," Matthias said. "You won't remember any of this."
The small man suddenly reared back as if he were drawing a bow. Almost as an afterthought, a complicated compound bow flickered into existence in his hands. Three arrows that seemed to be put together from gold and light rested against the bow string.
The three mortal women barely had time tense before he released the bow.
A cenote was actually nothing more than a sinkhole.
Water eroded limestone caves from beneath and the rock collapsed down into the pool. The Ancient Maya had decided these natural wells were portals to the Other Side. Some of them were dedicated to certain gods and sacrifices, both living and inanimate objects, were thrown in to appease the gods.
First it should be said that every member of the Mayan pantheon was now dead. The South American gods demanded blood because that was what they ate. While other gods had received blood sacrifices because that was the ultimate price that could be paid, the Mayan gods had demanded blood because that was their sustenance. When Mexico was conquered by Spaniards and pagan sacrifices were outlawed, the gods of the Maya had starved to death.
The people remained and the ruins still existed, but the gods were gone.
However.
Like a house haunted by the memory of a horrid murder, the ruins of the ancient temples held onto the memory of power. To this day, people could feel the power that had once been present.
That was what brought Johnny Betty to the cenote that had once been devoted to the goddess Ixchel. Being a water elemental herself, a sacred water source of any kind would help her recharge. Ixchel had been goddess of many things, including water, so her cenote was especially helpful to a tired sea serpent-in-training.
JB lay in the shallow water at the bottom of the cenote, feeling the remnant power filter into her. She had stopped on her way to San Grevasio to grab a bite and change her clothes so her physical body was taken care of before she could tap into metaphysical sources. A white cotton dress floated in the clear water around her body.
Somehow, wearing white to San Grevasio just seemed . . . . right.
The water was cool and the sun filtered down from above. JB was nearly dozing when a flower floated down and landed on her cheek. The dark-skinned woman twitched, dislodging the bloom. She nearly went back to sleep when another flower landed in her lap. JB dragged her eyes open reluctantly. Flowers were floating down from above.
That was kind of . . . why would that happen?
Something more substantial than a flower splashed into the water next to her. Still groggy, JB felt around on the rock bottom of the pool and came up with a silver ring. Oh how pretty. It looked kind of small, but it would probably fit on her pinky. JB reached over and fitted the ring onto her opposite pinky finger. Nice! For some reason, this little ring made her feel better.
There was another splash next to her. JB rolled up onto one elbow and lifted a beautiful gold and silver necklace out of the water. Oh! Oh, that was even prettier! But where were these –
"Thish ish fucking shtupid!" A voice bellowed.
JB tilted her head back and stared up at the surface.
"Joo already comeses all de ways outs here! T'rows in dems in! I does its!" A second voice ordered.
Something glittered in the sunlight as it started to tumble down. JB leaned forward and caught it awkwardly. It was a thick silver bracelet.
"I'm not going to washte all thish shtuff! I paid good money for it!"
"Whats de fucks joo does wit' ladies' jewelries? Ixchel ams de only ones whats appreciated shits dat cheap!"
"Fucking fine!"
A bouquet of flowers and a handful of silver charms were hurled forcefully into the cenote. JB put up one arm to shield herself from being pelted by bracelet hangings.
"You're fucking crazy, Shkwisgaar!" The sound of someone stomping forcefully away was clearly heard even at the bottom of the sinkhole.
"Fines! Fucks off! All joos fucks off! I makeses de sacrifices myself!"
More shuffling and footsteps as more people moved away. JB looked down at the pieces of jewelry in her hands. Aside from how pretty they were, it actually felt good to touch them. They were kind of . . . tingly. They were sacrifices? To whom?
Johnny Betty gathered her powers and used the water in the cenote to propel herself up to the surface level. She settled in a sitting position on the edge of the rock, the lovely jewelry sacrifices cradled in her hands.
Standing across the cenote was a beautiful blond man – oh, it was Skwisgaar Skwigelf! He had a pile of jewelry boxes and bottles of liquor next to him. He was staring at JB with his mouth open.
The water elemental held out the jewelry pieces that had been so recently hurled into the pit.
"Are these for me?" she asked with a flirty smile.