He turned a corner in the early-morning air and walked a straight path to an unassuming house and its well-decorated door.
And then he knocked.
Linda Gibson was having one of those mornings. The kids were all determined to sleep late, she and her husband had been sick for a week and were sluggish too, and now someone was knocking at the door at this hour. She was too old and too busy to care how she looked, so she walked over to the door, pulled her bathrobe tight, and opened it to give whoever it was a piece of her mind.
And then she looked right into the fair man's eyes. Her eyes went blank.
"Obey me," he said simply.
There was no question in her mind. "I obey you," she replied.
"I am your Master," he said, his voice carrying the power of command.
"You are my Master," Linda said. Obviously.
"You are Linana, and you always have been," he said, his voice booming with authority.
"I am Linana," the former Linda Gibson replied, her eyes blank but focused unerringly on her new master's lips. Linana now had no memory of being anyone other than Linana.
"You are the first of my servants, the Herald of the Shinging Way. All hail the Shining Way," the fair man pronounced.
Love and devotion filled Linana's eyes, joined quickly by fervor. "All hail the Shining Way," its new Herald breathed.
The man pulled a small book from his pocket, and removing the old-fashioned bookmark, opened it to a specific page. Linana's Master turned a page in the book. "You will need a Choir, O my Herald," he intoned. More runes and letters poured forth from the book, this time spiraling around Linana. Her graying brown hair turned a vibrant red and spilled down her shoulders to her mid-back. Her eyes went from brown to a blue so deep as to be purple. Her face and body shed years, her sagging breasts growing two sizes and regaining the pertness of youth. Her eyes themselves grew slightly as her lips filled out and her waist tucked in. She grew two inches as her legs regained and improved on their shapeliness from her youth. Finally, her fingernails grew out from their utilitarian length and gained the colors of fire.
Linana, Herald of the Shining Way, bowed before her Master. As she straightened, she held up her hands, cupped before her as if to receive water, and sang a single, high, sustained note. More runes poured forth as the book turned a page. Her bathrobe melted, reforming as a pure, white skirt, slit up to the thigh. Her slippers became sandals that glowed with a blue-white light. Her bra transformed, the cups becoming metal and taking on the shapes of uneven flames, the straps transforming into silk strings. Her hair braided down her back, bound with a single cord of white silk. Finally, a burst of runes fired into the small of her neck, lodging there and glowing.
She smiled at her Master. She was finally complete. Linana turned to the stairs behind her and singing in a voice of unearthly beauty and power, with no trace of Linda Gibson's voice left, began:
"Come to me, Songmistress."
Upstairs, the Songmistress heard the call and began to walk to the stairs, the song controlling every step and thought.
