Chapter 22

The tent was set in the field of my new property. It was surrounded by cars, as I held a solstice celebration with my new friends. Karl, Christian, Doris, Frederick, Angelina, Nora, and Boris. Boris was uncomfortable. The reformed duplicate of Nora wasn’t used to being a man yet.

There were my friends, lovers, companions, and brotherhood. I called them to attention as it was time. The sun had long set, everyone had enjoyed the meal provided as they sat around the big table. I had dismissed the wait staff for the night, tipping them well.

The ringing sound of my wine glass as I tapped it with my ring brought the conversation to a stop.

“On this night, you my chosen brothers will experience your first grand ritual,” I spoke, standing at the end of the table.

A few glanced at their rings, or at each other in excitement. “We will need to descend into the temple for the ritual.”

That got curious looks, until the carpet in one corner of the tent rolled back revealing a set of stone steps leading down into the earth. I walked to the stairs, and looked behind. “Well come on!” I said, to nervous laughter.

A few steps down they glowed softly, lighting the way. We went down about 20 meters before it opened into a hall. There were red silk robes with hoods hanging up in alcoves that were labeled with their secret names. Odin, Tammuz, Ishtar, Thor, Isis, Venus, Apollo, and Poseidon.

I went to mine, and started to undress, placing my clothing and items into the stone box in the stone alcove. “Ok everyone, take off everything but your ring, and put on a robe,” I instructed.

They moved to comply, there was some minor body shyness, but they quickly stripped. Odin was oldest, but my healing had increased his strength, and he had regained an inch of height, along with hair again. He looked as good as any of us.

Apollo was next to me, and was getting aroused again. I flicked his penis, and it dropped back down. “Ow, why are you so mean?”

“I’ll make it up to you later,” I promised.

Dressed in our robes and sandals, a quick scan showed that they had followed instructions. I opened the door to the next chamber, and we passed a heated pool, surrounded by a colonnade of marble pillars. It was lit from within, casting moving light onto the ceiling. “The healing pool, we will come back here later.”

We passed a pillar made of multicolored diamonds on our left, and a clear pillar on the right filled with several thousand rings. “A piece of the bifrost bridge on our left, and the remains of our brothers over the millennia on the right.”

I brought them thru another doorway, into a great round hemisphere of a chamber covered in gold. It was empty of furniture, a seven pointed star in platinum covered the floor, the rest was gold. A faint light shined down on each point of the star, and an eighth light down on the center. The down lights for the star points were embedded in the hemisphere ceiling opposite the point, so the lights crisscrossed each other, but did not overlap.

“The Chamber of the Stars,” I announced. “Please take a place at one of the points, feet comfortably on both sides of an arm of the star on the floor.”

I watched them settle in, and walked in a circle around them. I corrected Thor’s positioning, and then stepped into the middle. My power reached out transforming my robe to white. The robes were so thin that they were translucent.

“Now we recite together our sacred verse. Follow my lead, and speed. We will recite it three times. I have other verses to speak, if I say a line twice, then repeat it with me on the third time.”

I began and they followed with me. After each recitation the lights dimmed until it was completely dark. I continued, “I am the Sea of Stars. Tonight on the longest night, the earth and the stars commune in harmony.”

I began to glow with sparkles, lighting the entire chamber. I had stored my robe in a conjuring slot, and stood naked before them, but cloaked in a skin tight light absorbing field. The light came from a pattern of lights that slowly moved across me. I looked like a moving piece of night sky in man shape, a three dimensional hole in the earth that looked out at the stars.