Chapter 1

It was cold and pitch black, the stone slab hard against Her shoulders, buttocks, heels and head. Her eyes blinked and gradually the room was filled with soft white illumination almost as if the bare rock walls of the tomb were glowing; as indeed they were, revealing, or possibly reflecting Her in all her magnificence.

This was only the 3rd time in the last 800 years that she had returned to her corporeal body. In the time between, her essence, sentient and powerful, was free to roam the world of woman occasionally taking residence in another body to guide them as she knew they must be to fulfil Her own destiny.

The previous 2 times, the last over 500 years ago had been at her own volition but this time she had been called. Not by name of course, that had passed even from the annals of herstory many years ago as She had decreed. Apart from Carol, the current MotherSister, leader of the Sisterhood of the Stones, no one had even heard the name Sara Gwefusau in well over 500 years, and even Carol had only heard it spoken in her head when she ascended to the office, suddenly receiving all the knowledge she had been promised. Sara had not tarried long in Carol's mind, simply enlightening her and then departing.

Had Sara simply been slumbering in her magical chamber, even protected as she was by the Sisterhood and the Stones, she would have awakened to a strange world indeed and no one, even modern day Gaelic or Welsh speakers, would have understood a word she was speaking. However Her essence, the thing that defined Her, had spent long in the world of woman and knew more than any one living Soul. That is not to say that Sara was bereft of either Life or Soul, for such is an anachronism too strange to comprehend, it is simply that as one of the 'First' she did not require to keep body and soul together, either literally or figuratively. However when the need arose she could slip back into Her own flesh at will and needed not even a stretch before she climbed down from her bed of stone and walked towards the source of her call.

The wall in front of her glowed brighter as she approached, as bright as the midday sun that blazed down upon the green meadow whose small flowers were crushed beneath Sara's bare feet. Sara had almost forgotten the delight of touch and sound, smell and sight and of course taste. In her essential form she was aware of the world but not a part of it, unable, except by the light touch in some ones mind, of affecting it. Even when she was residing within another all sensation was filtered; like seeing through early morning mist. In spite of her mission she allowed herself a moment to simply be Woman again, to feel the soft cloth of her dress and the all covering white cloak with its Celtic ribbon patterned edge still as bright as the day the then MotherSister had finished sewing it with pure gold thread.

She sensed the caller just the other side of the henge, leaning against the southstone, sobbing quietly. Sara considered a glamour to hide her true nature but decided that whoever had called Her wanted Her to be special and so refrained and started to walk, sun wise, around Her protecting stone circle. She greeted each guardian stone by name as she passed, recalling them in their original virgin female form before they had willingly sacrificed, or more accurately allowed themselves to be sacrificed to Her and by Her.

Sara stood between the young girl and the sun, Her shadow falling across the girls face, startling her. The girl looked up at Sara whose form was haloed by the sun, shining through the thin material of Her clothes and setting Her red hair on fire. The gentle summer breeze, heavy with pollen moved Her cloak in soft waves. "What ails you, child?"

"Who are you?" The young girl asked trying to get a look at Sara's face but with the sun behind Sara, and the salty tears in her eyes she found it impossible.

Sara decided to indulge the girl and said. "I am the one you called for."

"I didn't call for anyone." The girl said sounding a little disturbed and started to get to her feet but stopped as Sara moved her hand palm down in a small sweeping gesture.

"Did you not walk around my circle 3 times sun wise, your heart wishing for me to appear?" Sara asked already knowing the answer for were it not so she would still be incorporeally across the other side of the globe, Her body motionless, timeless, ageless on its stone bed.

"I suppose so." The girl admitted tentatively.

"Are you a, a Fairy?" The girl asked blushing as she did so.

"I am many things and have definitely been described as belonging to the Fair Ones. Although our lineages are different we have a lot in common, or I should say did, for the last of the Fair Ones left this world of woman many ages ago now. It is simplest to say that I am Woman. Now tell me child why did you call me from my rest?"

Again the girl blushed but under Sara's gaze started to relate her tale of woe. It turned out the girl was 18 although to Sara she looked younger and had been out with her boyfriend who had 'tried to go too far' and Jenny, for that was the girl's name, had run off alone and distraught coming to 'Barrow Hill' quite by chance and, remembering a story she had read, 'walked the circle'.

"So child what would you have me do to this pig who attempted to violate you." Sara asked in a voice that made the hairs on Jenny's neck prickle.

"I don't know, nothing I guess I just felt so betrayed, so lonely." the girl explained.

"Tell me child where are your parents?"

"Oh their at home in Cornwall, I came to stay with some friends but they had to go back early so I'm staying on my own in the cottage down the road a bit."

"I see." Sara said and moved her hand so that the palm was facing upwards and raised her fingers so that they were pointing up at right angles to her palm. Jenny rose with them, standing a couple of inches shorter that Sara. Sara quite liked the girls tight vest top, displaying as it did her pierced navel, but the denim cut-off shorts were not to Sara's taste. "In that case maybe you called me for some other reason. Look into my eyes, child."

Jenny never had a chance to consider what was happening she looked into Sara's deep green eyes and the breeze seemed to die and the air became heavy. Jenny managed to catch the odd word that Sara was saying, 'Mother', 'sister', 'love', 'sleepy', 'submit'. It didn't matter to Jenny what the words were, she knew that she was now where she belonged and even as she stood her eye's flickered and closed leaving the entranced young woman swaying slightly.

Sara sealed the entrancement with a kiss, tasting for the first time lipstick and liking the taste immensely.

In her journeys she had seen many new developments and on several occasions had considered returning to her body to experience them but had always resisted but now she had been called back she intended to overdose on novelty.

"Come with me child." Sara said and turned and walked away from the summit of Barrow Hill towards the large house shielded by a dense barrier of trees.

There had been a house on that spot for over a thousand years, not the same house of course, but a succession of mansions that were gradually altered to accommodate the needs of the sisters. It had been one of the earliest MotherSisters who had decided that the sisterhood should be seen as a religious order to prevent the accusations of witchcraft that would otherwise surely have been made. The sisters however had never been subject to the will of the church and in these more enlightened times didn't even bother to pretend they were. Independently wealthy the sisterhood could, and in the past had, cut themselves off completely from the outside world. Their income came from investments in companies that had risen rapidly, the knowledge of which company to invest in coming to one of the sisters with a word of confirmation that was only known by the MotherSister. Such knowledge did not arrive often but always when needed, it was one advantage of being a spirit that could slip inside the minds of others finding out their deepest secrets or making them act against their own will.

It had been years since Sara had walked the path through the forest but with unwavering steps she easily followed the track with Jenny following obediently behind. As she neared the edge of the wooded area Sara removed her gold embroidered cloak, rolled it and passed it to Jenny to hold, completing the journey in her long white shift dress.

The woodland path opened onto a gravel driveway that swept up to the large redbrick building and despite Her bare feet Sara walked proudly up to the door and pressed the bell. Almost instantly the door was opened by a young blonde wearing a black maids uniform that would have been totally impractical for any normal duties a maid might be required to perform. Her dress was black satin with white lace trim, the neckline elasticated allowing the dress to be worn off the shoulder. Beneath the short skirt layers of lacy petticoats flared out displaying jet black stocking tops which were held up by suspenders and around her right thigh was a black and white garter.

Although only 5 foot 4 in her stocking feet the maid stood much taller due to the ballet boots that forced her constantly onto tip toes. Her makeup, although expertly done, was far too heavy for her pale complexion giving her the air of a whore, which incidentally she was before finding sanctuary with the sisters.

Sara smiled to Herself, assuming, quite correctly, that the sisterhood was currently constituted as a hierarchy. Sara had not stipulated how the sisterhood should function. Over the years the sisterhood had many forms, from classic Greek democracies through to absolute authoritarianism. Sara's only requirement was that they remain virgins giving the gift of pleasure only to their own kind, living as near to her place of rest as possible; their sexual energy sustaining her body through the long years. The only other stipulation was that their number must never drop below 15, 3 to continue the sisterhood and 12 available to become guardian stones should the need ever arise. Sara had only needed to stamp her physical authority on the sisterhood once and that was 500 years ago, the time of her last incorporation. At that time the MotherSister declared herself to be the embodiment of Sara Gwefusau and demanded the sisterhood's devotion denying them pleasures, keeping them constantly frustrated. Oh how she had quaked when the true Sara appeared before her; all Celtic fire and power, taking her to Barrow Hill and renewing the strength of the Southstone with her life energy. It was after that that Sara decided her name, and the power that went with it would become a secret; and part of the knowledge passed to all new MotherSisters was the fate of that unnamed travesty of a woman.