“The Inscrutable Rune,” she uttered with a smile, heading toward my companion.
“Ursula,” he said, stepping forward and giving the woman a quick hug.
“Who’s your friend?” Ursula asked, gesturing toward me. “He’s cute.”
She followed up her comment with a wink and a smile, making me blush.
“This is Jim,” Rune said. “Jim, say hello to Ursula.”
I stepped forward and extended my hand, saying, “Nice to meet you.”
“Bump that,” Ursula declared, playfully smacking my hand away. “I’m a hugger.”
With that, she stepped in close and gave me a firm embrace that probably straddled the line between platonic and something more. Caught flat-footed, I returned the gesture by putting my hands delicately on her shoulders.
After a few seconds, Ursula stepped back and eyed me critically.
“Your hugs are pathetic,” she declared. “We’re going to work on that.”
Unsure of how to respond, I reached out empathically and picked up on feelings of kindness and affability, as well as a highly sociable demeanor — but nothing overtly romantic. A moment later, the truth hit me, and I almost laughed: Ursula was just a big flirt.
“I look forward to it,” I said to her with a grin. “I could use the practice.”
She smiled back, and appeared to be on the verge of making an additional comment when Rune spoke up.
“So,” he droned, getting Ursula’s attention. “Is she around?”
Ursula nodded. “Yes. She stepped out for a moment, but should be back momentarily.” Without warning, Ursula then tilted her head to the side, as if listening for something. “In fact, right…about…now.”
Perfectly in sync with Ursula’s verbal cue, a woman appeared in the room, essentially out of nowhere. I found myself staring at her intently. She was the most alluring woman I’d ever seen.
Chapter 10
She was tall — at least my height, and maybe an inch or so taller (which would have put her at six-one). Her large, doe-like eyes were a mesmerizing violet in color, framed by long, thick lashes and punctuated by immaculately-manicured eyebrows. She had lips that were full and pouty, along with a flawless complexion that was bronze in color. In addition, she had a perfectly-proportioned hourglass figure, on which she currently sported a form-fitting, one-piece bodysuit.
As I continued looking her over, I kept finding more complimentary features: a too-cute nose, a graceful neckline, etcetera. Truth be told, the list of her attributes went on endlessly. It was as though every textbook indicator of feminine beauty and allure — from large eyes to glowing skin to long legs — had been wondrously combined into a single package. Her most striking feature, however, was the fact that she was completely and absolutely bald, without a single strand of hair on her head. Oddly enough, the lack thereof only made her that much more fascinating.
“Hey, you want to put your eyes back in your head?”
I blinked, snapping out of my reverie as I realized that Rune had just spoken to me.
“Huh?” I murmured, trying to get my thoughts organized.
“You’re practically drooling,” Rune chided.
The woman who had just appeared laughed, her mirth sounding absolutely melodic.
“Leave him alone, Rune,” she said, smiling as she walked toward us. “He’s not hurting anyone.”
Rune let out an annoyed groan in response, but didn’t say anything. A moment later, the new arrival stopped in front of us, then leaned forward to give my companion a hug, which he returned. A moment later, she stepped back and turned in my direction. After taking a quick glance at me, she looked back at Rune expectantly.
“Oh, sorry,” Rune muttered a few seconds later. Having realized what was expected of him, he quickly made introductions, giving the woman’s name as Endow.
“Endow is the leader of the Incarnates,” he explained.
“Not true,” Endow protested. “We don’t have a leader.”
“First among equals, then,” Rune countered, which Endow didn’t protest.
Looking at Rune, she then gestured toward me. “So, this is the one?” she asked.
Rune merely nodded in return.
“Well, let’s assess,” Endow said.
Now it was apparently the woman’s turn to look me over, because she suddenly gave me a piercing stare. However, what she did was a lot more than simply gazing. Her eyes began to sparkle, and I felt them boring into me, seeing things that weren’t just on the surface, but embedded deep within — things that were an intricate part of me.
After about thirty seconds (although it felt much longer), the sparkle in her eyes diminished. A moment later, she looked away with a pensive expression on her face.
“Hmmm,” she droned, then turned to Rune. “He’s not one of mine.”
“I didn’t say he was,” Rune shot back.
“Wait a minute,” I interjected. “One of your what?”
No one immediately answered. Instead, while Ursula stood off to the side, Rune and Endow exchanged a knowing look.
“Shall we show him?” Endow asked a moment later.
Rune gave an indifferent shrug.
Taking that as an affirmative, Endow began glancing around the room excitedly, as if she was looking for something. All of a sudden, her gaze seem to settle on one area. She pointed a finger, and that part of the room seemed to rush toward us. Or rather, one of the stars situated there came racing in our direction, expanding as it got closer. It stopped about a dozen paces from us, at which point the star had ballooned to the size of a basketball and sat there floating at about the height of my chest.
As I watched it, I quickly realized that it wasn’t just a star that was floating before us; it was an entire solar system. I spent a few moments staring in awe as I watched various worlds spinning on their axes while following their orbits around this particular sun.
I leaned toward Ursula and whispered, “Is this real?”
“You better believe it,” she whispered back while softly snickering (presumably at my ignorance).
Endow pointed at one of the planets circling the star — a blue-green bauble that looked fairly familiar; it immediately expanded while the rest of its solar system receded in size. Endow made a circular motion with her hand,
