The Curtain Ripp'd

The Curtain Rippd Chapter 2

The Curtain Ripp'd

By Vic James

Copyright 2016, 2018 by vicjames2@hotmail.com

This story is copyrighted 2016 and 2018 by Vic James. All rights reserved.

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This story is fiction. None of the characters are based on real people.

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Two ===

I looked at Dan. He looked very uncomfortable. I smiled at him.

"Why is a man who looks as good as you, unmarried?" I asked him.

That made him smile.

"Have you been saving yourself for a wizard?" I asked him, hoping to lighten the mood.

He chuckled and then belly-laughed. Jim laughed, too.

"Should I say yes?" Dan asked Jim.

"Hmmm. Maybe."

I laughed.

Jessica looked around the one room house.

"I don't suppose you can magically give us plumbing and decent furniture..." Jessica said to me.

I could see how angry her comment made Jim. Jim had already told her he made the furniture. Why didn't Jessica see? Maybe she didn't think it was real and she didn't need to worry about being polite.

"Do you still think this is a dream?" I asked her.

"I don't know. It has way too much detail to be a dream. But how can reality be stranger than a dream?"

I shrugged.

I didn't think it would make Jim happy if I replaced any of his furniture, so I decided to add something he hadn't made. I imagined a comfortable recliner like the one my father loved, and spoke a spell. Jessica screamed as it appeared next to her. Jim and Dan actually jumped away from it. I grinned. Magic was amazing!

"Damn! Warn me next time. But thank you."

She sat down. "Oh, nice!"

"Do you want to try it?" I asked Jim.

Jessica got up and Jim sat down. He grinned, immediately. Then he leaned back, stretched out his legs and sighed. I looked at the lump in his crotch and heard him chuckle.

"I think the wizard needs my cock," Jim said to Dan.

Jessica got furious.

"Do you think I want to hear that? Did you really think that?" Jessica asked, looking disgusted.

Jim apologized, and looked sincere.

"I'm sorry. My Jessie was used to it. I keep forgetting you aren't her."

Jessica rolled her eyes.

"Well, if she was anything like me, I don't think she enjoyed hearing you say things like that!"

"Are you going to want to wait until you marry Jim to have sex with him?" I asked her.

"Well, yes. Of course."

"But we are married!" Jim said. "I married you two years ago."

"Jim, I don't even know you," she said. "You don't even look that much like my Jim."

I could feel Jim's anger without looking at him. But unfortunately for him, it was true. They had never met. They just knew someone who looked the same.

"And I suppose you will end our relationship the way you did your last. Well, I won't grieve. In fact, I'd like you to leave my house," Jim said. "It's obviously not good enough for you."

Jessica looked frightened.

"I don't know where to go. Oh, dear lord! What am I doing here?"

She looked so miserable, I felt very sorry for her. I was stuck here, too, but I had magic. That compensated for a lot. In fact, being here was a vast improvement over my old life. But Jessica, she came from a wealthy family and had a big family and lots of friends. Now she owned nothing and knew no one but me. And it was my fault she was here.

"I don't understand what you want. Love and marriage is being offered to you. You say you want marriage and kids. Well, you have a husband, but you still put up roadblocks. Why, Jessica? "

A series of emotions crossed her face. The last expression was one of resignation.

"When I was eleven, I dreamt I died giving birth," she said.

I was shocked.

"It was a very realistic dream," she continued. "The doctor in the dream said I had eclampsia. I don't think I ever heard the term before. I don't know. Maybe I had. When I woke up, I looked it up and found it was one of the most common causes of death during delivery. In the dream, my mother was holding my hand in the dream and I knew that my husband was dead. Part of me says it was just a dream, but another part of me thinks that I'll die giving birth. And I thought it was just possible that my husband might die before me, like he had in the dream. I broke up with Jim because I wasn't sure I would ever get over this fear. I was also a little afraid Jim would die if he married me. I have never had a dream like it. Since it was so unique, I couldn't help thinking it might be more than a dream."

I looked at Jim. He wasn't angry any more. He was taking the dream seriously. As a matter of fact, I was, too. Magic was real. This dream could come true. Then I had a scary thought. Was it Jessica's destiny to die young? In this world she was hit by a tree branch. In our old world, she died in a car accident. In our world, if she'd married Jim, there wouldn't have been a car accident that killed her. But would she have just died another way, like during child birth? I told myself I was being ridiculous, but was it possible?

"Even if your dream foretold the future, you have a wizard for a friend. He brought you back to life. Why worry about giving birth?"

Jessica frowned.

"I don't believe in wizards," she said.

"What?" Jim asked.

I laughed.

"I can't say I do, either," I said.

Jessica and I both laughed. Jim clearly did not understand.

"This is all brand-new," I said.

"Jim, will you give me a chance to adjust to this before you make me leave?" she asked him. "I saw the chair appear, but I need more confidence that he really can save me if the dream comes true. Having a medical crisis and making a chair aren't exactly similar."

Jim nodded.

"I will do that. I understand why you are afraid. I don't think your dream should be ignored."

Jim looked at me.

"How can you not believe in wizards?"

"Because in our world, there is no magic. I appeared here accidentally and found I have magic here but not there. I told you when I met you that I wasn't a wizard. I've only had magic for a day or so. It really hasn't sunk in."

Jim looked confused.

"In my world, our world, I'm a nobody," I said.

"That is not true!" Jessica said to me. "You may not have been a wizard, but you were a good guy. I had every intention of finding someone for you. I was really hoping Dan would like you. You are so much better than Steve, the jerk he is dating. Steve is only after Dan's money. I still think you should try to meet someone at an epilepsy support group. The chances of you both having seizures at the same time as very slim. I asked my doctor about that."

I smiled at her. I was touched. She really was a good friend. "Thank you, but I don't think there are any support groups here."

Jessica chuckled, nervously.

"Is that why you don't act like a wizard?" Dan asked me.

"Yes. But I'm never going to act like a wizard, because they are evil, and I don't want to be evil." I turned to Jim. "I've been a wizard since the first time you saw me. How long ago was that?"

"About two hours," Jim said.

I laughed.

"See? Could you convince yourself you are someone completely different than you thought, in only two hours?" I asked.

"But how did you learn magic?" Jim asked.

"I suddenly went back to the other world. My old world. It just happened. I wasn't controlling it. The same thing happened when I arrived here. I suddenly found myself in another location. I wasn't doing it. It was being done to me, I guess by my evil twin..." Jessica burst out laughing. It felt indecent for her to speak about him lightly. But why not laugh at him? He would hate it. "Um, the other, evil me wanted me to know enough magic to protect my body. I went to the library and looked for books about magic. I found books the other...me put there for me."

They all looked confused.

"What is a library?"

"A place where you keep books on all subjects," Jessica said. "I guess you don't have them."

"Books are rare," Jim said. "Few have the time and skill to write them. The village has three."

"Do you think magic can keep me safe during childbirth?" Jessica asked me.

"Yes. I know several spells that could help, if there's a problem. I don't need to know medically what is wrong. I can just give you good health, if something goes wrong. Like the way I straightened their teeth. I didn't know why they were crooked. I just wanted them back to normal."

Jessica shook her head. "I want to say I don't believe in magic, but I want Jim to get up so I can sit in the magic chair. After all, I'm the one who asked for it!"

We all laughed.

"Would you like another chair?" I asked her.

"We need at least two," she said. "And if my parents..." She trailed off. I could see she was wondering if she'd ever see them again. The answer was 'no', since I could no longer open or travel through curtains between worlds.

I created a second chair, identical to the first. Jessica sat down and sighed.

"Well, I can't deny you have magical power. Now, if you don't mind, I want modern plumbing, electricity, an oven..."

"There's an oven right there," Jim said, pointing.

"Does it use wood?" she asked.

"Of course," Jim said.

"I don't know how to cook with wood."

I didn't either. How did you get the temperature right?

"How else would you cook?" Jim asked.

"There are better alternatives. I especially want an indoor toilet," she added.

"Why would you want a toilet in the house?" Jim asked. "It would smell so bad you would want to live outside!"

"Pipes carry the stuff outside, away from the house. Then the toilet is rinsed with water. We have them in our world," I told him.

"Hey! That's a good idea!" Jim said.

I held out my hand and said a food spell while wishing for a loaf of bread. I smiled as a loaf appeared.

"Magical food!" Jessica said.

"The other Jessica was a great cook," Jim said.

"Jim, in our world, ovens are very different," Jessica said. "You set it for what temperature you want and it stays there. You don't worry about wood or any other kind of fuel. They just work. I can cook on one of those, but not with wood. The recipes I know require the temperature to remain the same. That oven is like a campfire. I would just burn everything. Or more likely, it would be raw on top and burned on the bottom."

"She's absolutely right, Jim," I said.

There was a table next to a window on the opposite side of the room. I put the bread on it. I pictured butter next to it. The butter appeared. It appeared in unwrapped sticks.

"I love it!" Jessica said.

I tried to produce strawberry jam and succeeded.

Jessica clapped her hands.

"You're hired. You get every Tuesday off," she said.

I laughed.

I looked at Jim and Dan. They didn't look happy. They looked scared.

"Is there someone who can teach me how to cook?" Jessica asked. "For when..." She turned to me. "I can't remember your name! That's weird."

I'd removed my name from their memories for my own protection.

"Call me Joe," I told Jim. Joe was what my sister Katy called me when she was very young. She still called me it, sometimes. Thinking about her and the rest of my family depressed me. I knew Jessica would be really depressed when she realized she would never see anyone she knew, again.

"Right. As I was saying, can someone teach me to cook for when Joe isn't around?"

Jim smiled.

"Of course. I know just the woman."

"She's going to wonder why Jessie forgot how to cook," Dan said.

Jessica frowned. "That's true. And I don't know anyone in this town."

"You better say your memory is bad," I said.

"Say dying did it," Jim said.

Jessica nodded. "That will work! I think... How many formerly dead people do they know?"

Jim nodded his head.

"No. I'm serious. How many? Is it common?" Jessica asked.

Dan chuckled.

"No, none," Jim said.

Jessica nodded.

"I need to use the bathroom," she said.

"We bathe in here," Jim said.

"I need to...shit!"

"Oh," Jim said. "The shitter is in the back."

"Well, actually I need to...uh...do the other." She sighed. "So it's outside. Is it raining? Snowing? What? How primitive is this place?" she asked.

I realized then that all she'd seen was the cellar and this room. She had no idea what the village was like.

"It's like the middle ages," I told her.

She looked stricken. "And I was worried about giving birth in a hospital! I'm in hell!"

I almost laughed, but she started crying. Jim took her in his arms and held her.

"I'll figure something out, Jessica," I told her. "I don't want to use an outhouse either. But let's go see what is out there."

"I'll show you," Jim said.

We walked outside and he showed us. It was small wood shack, similar to outhouses I'd seen in movies. As we got about thirty feet from it, I started to smell it. The smell grew in intensity quickly. When we were close, the smell was just about unbearable. I cast a spell I hoped would remove the smell. It worked. Jim opened the door and showed her.

"It doesn't smell anymore. Did you do that?" he asked me.

"Yes."

"Thank you," Jim said.

"Yes! Joe! Thank you! That makes a big difference!"

"I agree."

"Will you do it to mine?" Dan asked.

"Absolutely," I said.

Even with the door open, there was no smell.

Jessica went inside and closed the door.

"Oh, great!" she said. I didn't know why. But I doubted it had a porcelain commode.

"We could move it close to the house, since it doesn't smell," she called out.

I nodded my head.

"Would you prefer I not do magic? You two didn't look happy when I made the butter," I asked Dan and Jim.

Jim walked up to me and kissed me. He pulled away.

"Now that makes you seem like a man. I'll get used to it."

Then he took my hand and placed it on Dan's crotch. I felt Dan get hard. It felt like Dan was a little bigger than Jim. Jim put my other hand on his crotch. I began rubbing and squeezing both erections. Dan let his head fall back and sighed. Then he bent down a little and kissed me. It was tentative, at first. But then the kiss became passionate. I slid my hand inside Dan's pants and felt his erection.

"The wizard loves the taste of my cum," Jim said softly to Dan.

Dan jerked back from the kiss and grinned at me.

"Will you taste mine?"

"If it tastes as good as Jim's, I'll want it several times a day," I said, quietly.

Dan looked very happy.

"You are definitely not like other wizards," Dan said, shaking his head.

"I sure hope not. The two I met were awful," I said, although all I knew about wizard Bill was the fact that he cursed a village for no reason.

"I want to suck you, right now, Dan," I said.

"Hey! I heard that!" Jessica said. I was embarrassed.

He took my hand. "Let's go."

"I need to introduce you to the town and show them my Jessie is alive again. I'll get the baker's wife to teach Jessie how to cook while we have sex at Dan's house," Jim said, softly.

I couldn't help wondering how much I would see of Jim, now that he had his wife back. Or another Jessica, anyway. Of course, they were not getting off to a good start, together. Would things eventually work out? I hated to admit it, but I was jealous of her, and I hoped they didn't.

"I'm going to live with Jessica, Joe. I want kids. But I do want to be your lover," he whispered.

I sighed.

"I want to be your lover, too," I whispered back.

"Good. What I'm hoping for is for me to sleep with Jessica, you with Dan, and then I'll come to Dan's for sex with you," he whispered. The words of the evil version of me came to mind. 'He was using you and admitted he was using you.' The evil wizard was talking about the other Jim, of course. But was this Jim using me? If he was, did I mind? Should I mind? As if Jim could read my mind, he moved behind me and wrapped his arms around me. I was pretty sure the other Jim wouldn't have done that.

"That sounds good to me, as long as Dan agrees," I said.

Dan looked a little worried.

"I can see Dan doesn't want to fuck you. He's an idiot," Jim said.

"I heard that! Can you talk about that somewhere else?" Jessica said, loudly.

Jim looked annoyed.

We walked further away from the outhouse.

"I'm just not sure I want to share!" Dan said.

"The people here are going to want to repay you somehow," Jim said to me, changing the subject.

"I might need a little money. I don't know if I can make everything."

"I make a good wage," Dan said. "And you'll be living with me. I would like to buy you things."

I smiled at him.

Jessica walked out of the outhouse.

"It wasn't too bad," she said. "Can you create toilet paper?"

I wasn't sure. I pictured it and held out my hand. Pieces of irregularly shaped paper appeared. I knew what was wrong. I was worrying about Jim's feelings and not concentrating on toilet paper.

"Paper!" Jim said, excitedly. "The village always needs paper."

"This is for our butts," Jessica said.

"Are you insane? It's too valuable!" Jim said.

I concentrated on a store-bought roll of toilet paper. It appeared as I pictured it.

"Hey! Thanks!" Jessica said.

"What is that?" Dan asked.

"It's toilet paper. You use it to wipe yourself clean," Jessica said.

"Use leaves!" Jim said.

Jessica shook her head. "This works much better."

"But we can sell the paper you make," Jim said.

"He can make both kinds of paper. Can we move the outhouse closer to the house?" Jessica asked Jim.

Jim looked uncertain.

"We don't have to decide that right now," I said. "Jessica, can I speak to you privately for a minute?"

"Sure."

We walked away from Jim and Dan.

"Are you in love with Jim? I mean, you broke up with the other one and this one you don't really know," I said, softly.

She looked annoyed, very briefly. But then I could see she was giving it thought.

"I loved the other Jim. I didn't break up with him because I didn't love him." I nodded. "This one...he's all I have. Or do I know other people in the village? Never mind. Even if I recognize them, I won't know them."

"I don't know if anyone you know is here. But none of the men I saw looked familiar to me. I wouldn't count on it."

"The thing is, I don't know how different this Jim is," she said. I nodded. "He seems to want you, and that really disturbs me. He seems to think that I'm willing to share him with whoever he wants to have sex with. That's not me, and it never will be. I have to get to know him before we have sex. I don't know. Maybe we aren't compatible.

"I can tell you he has every intention of having sex with...people besides you," I said.

"Well, that will have to change. Anyway, you have Dan, and you seem to like him. Maybe you two are meant to be together," she said. I knew she meant 'hands off Jim', but I wasn't going to let her make all the decisions. The other Jim was dead because of her. I didn't really blame her for his death, but her judgement seemed questionable. How could she not know how much the other Jim loved her. He talked about her constantly. Had she really thought he would be happy she broke up with him? And after six years of waiting? I shook my head.

"If I asked you not to have sex with Jim, would you? You have Dan. I won't share my husband with anyone else."

"Oh, Jessica. It's Jim you need to speak to."

"Why? You can say no to him," she said.

"I'm in love with him. I love this Jim much more than you do."

She sighed.

"Besides, if he's having sex with me, he's less likely to pressure you for it," I said. "If he's not having sex at all...it's your other Jim, all over, again."

She groaned. "I hate that that is so logical," she said.

I chuckled.

"Do you really love him?" she asked me. "He's not much like our other Jim."

"That's why I love him."

She looked sad.

I took her hand and we walked back over to Jim and Dan.

"Is there water...a pump inside the house?" Jessica asked Jim.

Jim showed Jessica their well. It was a couple of hundred feet from the house. "This is where we get our water for cooking and cleaning. There's the bathtub," he said, pointing. A round metal tub was hanging on the back wall of the house.

"A bucket. That's the plumbing system, Joe," she said to me. She turned to Jim. "How long does it take to fill the bathtub with a bucket?"

"It depends on how fast you fill the buckets."

"Of course!" she said, sarcastically. "And how fast you run with a full bucket!"

I laughed.

"And whether it all sloshes out before you get to the house, or whether you trip and fall in the mud or snow!" I said.

"Waaaaaa," Jessica said. I laughed.

"No wonder I reek! And then after you finish your bath, you have to empty the tub, a bucketful at the time."

"In the summer, it is easier to wash at the river or in the lake," Jim said.

"That's a relief!"

"Outdoor showers shouldn't be too hard to make," I said. "If the village had a water tower."

"It will soon be too cold to wash outside," Jim said.

"Can you move water with magic?" Jessica asked me.

"We can't use magic for everything," Jim said. "If Joe uses all his power for little things, what will we do if he needs to do something big?"

"Is your magic limited?" Jessica asked me.

"Yes. It always is. That is why wizards try to kill each other. They can steal the other wizard's magic. A wizard dies when he runs out of magic. That's what happened to the wizard in Jim's cellar."

Of course, I was fairly sure I could get magic from semen, but I didn't know if I should admit that to Jessica...or anyone else.

"Usually they just kill people for power," Dan said.

I shook my head. Was that why this world seemed underpopulated? How many people had wizards killed on this world? Or did the fact that there was no farm machinery mean that the land couldn't support more people?

"Is someone going to try to kill you?" she asked me.

"Yes. I have much more magic than an ordinary person. That makes me a target."

"Oh, great!" she said.

"From what I read, our bodies absorb magic from the environment slowly while we sleep. If a wizard used up most of his magic, after a couple of weeks, he would regain most of it, assuming he didn't use any during that time," I said.

"But some is gone, permanently?"

I nodded.

"But it can be taken from plants, animals, and people. I could suck all the life out of the people or animals in the village and would become more powerful. That is how the evil version of me got his power. But that is dark magic. And I will never do that. I don't want to hurt plants or animals, much less people."

Jim changed the subject, which was a good thing.

"I will introduce you to a woman who can teach you to cook," Jim said to Jessica.

She sighed. "I might as well get started."

Jim led us to the front of his house. There was a bell hanging under the eaves of his house. He began ringing it. People began walking out of houses. I saw shock on some faces when they saw Jessica. Jim waited a couple of minutes. A crowd of about twenty stood near us.

"Hello! It is a wonderful day!" Jim said.

"It sure is!" a man said.

"Not only has the wizard removed our curse, but as you can see, he brought Jessie back, as well."

"Excuse me, Wizard. Are you a white necromancer?" a woman asked.

"I'm not a necromancer, however I was able to bring Jessica back. Necromancy requires a death for a life. I used the life of the wizard who cursed you. I'm not happy about that and I won't do it, again. If anyone else loses a loved one, even if you are willing to die in their place, I won't do it. Necromancy must be black magic, and black magic seems to be addictive. I'm not going down that path."

A few people nodded.

More people joined the group.

"He deserved it," a woman said.

I shrugged. "I'm not going to be anyone's executioner."

"I have something strange to tell you about Jessie, here," Jim said. "She doesn't remember ever being here with us before. She remembers a very different life. I suppose it's too much to ask for someone to not be affected by being dead."

I was surprised Jim was saying this. But I saw many people nod their heads. I decided it was a good idea. A good, simple explanation for something that wasn't simple.

"How long will you be with us, Wizard?" a man asked.

"I would like to live here."

People looked shocked. I watched them look at each other uncertainly.

"Joe is going to live with Dan," Jim said.

"Who is Joe?" a man asked.

"That's my name," I said.

People looked shocked, again. Maybe they knew wizards didn't give their names.

"It is a nickname."

"Oh."

I looked out at the crowd. There were over thirty people and three more were just joining the group. I didn't see anyone who looked over sixty. Was life too hard, here?

"I've never heard of a white wizard. What do they do?" a woman asked.

Jim looked at me.

"Personally, I plan to use my magic to help people. I don't know any other white wizards, so I can't speak for them. I can cure sick people, sick animals, sick crops. I can cure deformities, which is what I did to you. I can make a lot of food from a little food. I can make it rain. I can make it stop raining."

"What do you want for it?"

"We are still discussing that," Jim said.

"I just need enough for living expenses," I told them. "I'm not going to be helping you in order to become wealthy. I have very little interest in money." I smiled. "But I must have enough to buy beer at the very least!"

Jim and Dan laughed along with some the other villagers.

"Things that sound too good to be true usually are," a woman said. Others hushed her. She shrugged. I said a spell and placed a peach in her hand. She gasped and dropped it. Everyone who saw it appear was startled. A man next to her picked it up and bit into it.

"Delicious!"

The woman wanted the peach back, then.

"It looks like you can make your own beer," a man said.

"I don't want to waste my magic making beer for myself. There are a lot more useful things I can do with it."

Several people nodded.

"Will you be able to protect us against marauders?" a man asked.

"Yes. And I intend to."

"What would you do, if you don't want to kill?"

I thought about that.

"I could make them forgetful or terrify them or force them to be honest. I could change them so that they get physically ill when they steal anything. I'm sure I could think of a dozen other ways. Frightening them would be easiest."

People nodded. Some of them smiled.

"If you people don't mind, I would like to try something. Don't forget that it can't hurt you. It's just an image, not a real thing."

I concentrated on King Kong and placed him about a block away. He appeared and roared. People screamed. Then I had him disappear. People turned and looked at me. Someone clapped their hands and a few others joined it. I smiled at them.

"That wouldn't actually hurt marauders, but I could make it ten times larger. They won't want to try to get closer."

"I agree!" someone said.

"Will we be in danger if and when another wizard tries to kill you?"

I said a defensive spell and intended it to protect the town. Suddenly a glowing shield appeared over the town. It looked like a force field you'd see in a science fiction movie.

"That's to protect us."

People looked up and then at me. They looked terrified. I sighed.

"Why do you want to live here?" a woman asked.

"Because I asked him to," Jim said. I took Dan's hand and held it. He smiled at me. "You heard what he wants to do," Jim continued. "If you doubt it, remember that he removed the curse and expects nothing in return. He wants nothing for returning Jessie. I like Joe a lot, and not just because of what he's done for us.

"I've got to warn you folks about something. Joe here glows when he's happy. He gives off a while light. I've seen him do it once and it's something to see."

The people seemed to like that. They smiled and whispered to each other. I heard one woman say, "If he gives off white light, he must be a white wizard." I didn't know if that was true, but I liked the idea.

"Joe, on behalf of the village, I want to thank you for removing the curse," Jim said.

Jim started clapping and the villagers joined in. I smiled at everyone.

"That's all for now, folks," Jim said.

I wondered what Jim's role in the village was. He seemed in charge.

As most of the people walked away, Jim took Jessica's hand. They walked over to a plump middle-aged woman with reddish-brown hair beginning to gray.

I turned to Dan.

"Who is she?"

"Annabeth, the baker's wife."

I nodded.

"Jim sort of told you I'd be living with you. What is it you want?" I asked.

"Jim told you that you were going to be my lover," he said.

I laughed.

"I think you are the hottest, sexiest man I ever saw," I said.

He grinned at me.

"I want you," he said.

I smiled.

"My home is small. It isn't as big as Jim's."

"That's OK. I mean that's fine."

Annabeth and Jessica walked away. Jessica turned and waved. I waved back. Jim headed back over to us.

"What year is it?" I asked Jim, as I looked at the village. Everything looked vaguely medieval.

"It is Stephen Seven, seventeen."

"It's what?"

"It is the seventeenth year of the reign of Stephen the Seventh. Is that the same as your year?"

"No. We count from the date of Jesus Christ's birth. That was two thousand and seventeen years ago, more or less."

"That is how years used to be counted," Dan said.

"Before the Porfirio dynasty," Jim added. "You said you had machines in your world. You must not have Porfirios. They banned machines over three hundred years ago. They claimed they had seen the future and machines would destroy the world."

"The story goes, that once machines were no longer used, magic became stronger," Dan said. "That didn't do commoners any good, but the Porfirios have wizards working for them. They became even more powerful."

"We never believed that or anything else the Porfirios said," Jim said. "But if your world has a lot of machines, maybe that is why you aren't a wizard in your world."

That sounded like nonsense to me. How could the existence of a machine destroy magic? But what did I know?

"Let's get our cocks into this handsome, young wizard," Jim said to Dan. "It's been a while since we shared a man."

"Almost a year," Dan said.

"I'm going to fuck him, first," Jim said.

"He's going to be my lover. I should be first," Dan said.

I couldn't believe they were arguing about it.

"Whoever is willing to marry me will be first," I said.

"If Jessie doesn't want to be my wife, I'll marry you," Jim said, winking. "I could argue that the marriage ended when she died. She's a different person, after all."

Dan looked hurt. I also wasn't sure Jim was serious. The wink made it seem like a joke.

"As happy as it would make me to marry you, maybe you and Jessica are meant to be together," I said. "There are two, or maybe three worlds where that is how things are."

"Yes, but is she the Jessica I'm meant to be with?" Jim asked.

I couldn't answer that. Did I believe he was meant to be with any and every Jessica? I decided I didn't. He was meant to be with Jessica and he was, until she died.

Dan picked me up like I weighed nothing and grinned at me.

"He wants the hottest, sexiest man he ever saw to be first," Dan said. "What does 'hottest' mean?"

"Drool-worthy," I said.

"Drool all you like on my pole before I fuck you," Dan said.

"I won't be a virgin, anymore!" I said.

Dan and Jim chuckled.

Dan led us into his small house. His workspace, next to it was much larger. His single room contained a bed and a table with two chairs. That was all.

"No stove?" I asked.

"I don't cook," Dan said. "I go to the inn for my meals."

"Do you mind if I make some changes?" I asked him.

Dan frowned. "No. I suppose not."

"What's behind the house?" I asked.

Dan led me to the second door. The outhouse was all that was behind him. I said the same spell I'd used on Jim's outhouse to remove the smell.

I began enlarging the house. Dan and Jim gasped.

"Is that OK?" I asked. "I mean, are you upset?"

Dan looked stunned.

"No. He's not upset. He just thinks he's losing his mind," Jim said.

Dan nodded his head. I made a small room in the new extension. I walked into it and created a toilet bowl. Under it, I made a very deep hole.

"What is that?"

"It's for peeing and shitting. I'll make sure it doesn't smell."

"Jessie is sure going to want the same thing," Jim said.

I nodded.

I created a bathtub.

"Do you need to rest?" Jim asked me.

I laughed.

"No."

Both Jim and Dan smelled sour from sweat. In was really noticeable in the small bathroom. I cast a cleaning smell. Instantly, the smell of sweat was gone.

I walked back into the main room. I made the bed larger and replaced the crude looking mattress with a good one. I changed the rough wooden floor to polished wood. I made two more chairs like the ones I'd put in Jim's house. I replaced the table with a larger one in the new extension. I made four chairs for the table.

I looked around. There was no stove and no fireplace.

"Is the house unheated?" I asked.

"The forge produces a lot of heat," Dan said, as he looked around at my changes.

"It gets cold in here," Jim said to me.

I nodded. I created a fireplace in the new extension. I put insulation on the wooden walls and then sheetrock over the insulation. I painted the walls. Then I sat down at the new table. I wanted a beer. I produced a mug with beer-looking liquid in it. I tasted it. It was good. I produced mugs for Dan and Jim.

"Sit. Let's take a break. I'm getting tired," I said. By that time, I could feel the loss of the magic. It felt like I was coming down with an illness. I ignored it, since I knew I would be getting semen from both of them.

Jim laughed.

"Yeah. I'm all worn out!" he said.

Dan had a stunned expression on his face.

Jim sat first. He took a drink of his beer. He frowned.

"There must be an awful lot of water in this," Jim said.

I shrugged.

"It's what I like. I don't know what your beer tastes like, so I can't make it."

"We don't even have beer in the village, just ale," Jim said.

Dan finally stopped looking around and sat with us. He downed his mug of beer in one, long swallow.

"I like it!" he said. Then he belched. I laughed.

My father had bought some Guinness stout, once, and I tasted it. I didn't really like it, but I figured it was probably closer to what they were used to than light beer.

I produced a mug of Guiness. They both looked startled. I took a sip. It tasted the way I remembered it.

"Here, try this," I said to Jim, handing him the mug.

He took a drink.

"Hmm." He finished off the mug.

"Now that's more like it!" Jim said. "Can you make one for Dan?"

I conjured up another mug. Dan liked it, too.

Jim shook his head.

"How do you feel?" Jim asked me.

"I feel weaker, but it doesn't feel like I've overexerted myself. It feels more like I'm sick. Not deathly ill, just a little sick."

"If you make yourself sick, then you've done too much," Jim said.

"I'll feel better, if I can convince you to have an orgasm."

"If I must, I guess I must," Jim said, winking at me.

"Will all this disappear?" Dan asked me.

"I don't think so." I thought about it. "Actually, I don't know. Maybe it will disappear. I guess we'll find out. Maybe we'll suddenly find ourselves sitting in the grass behind the house."

"I don't think it will," Jim said. "I've seen things created with magic. Jules Harper has a violin that was created magically by a white witch for his great-grandfather. His grandfather saved the witch from being killed by a black wizard for her magic. The witch took an acorn and turned it into the violin. It's still a violin to this day."

"That's interesting," I said.

"You said the government has wizards. Are they black wizards," I asked.

"The ones who work for the Porfirios are called red wizards. I don't know much about them," Jim said. "They must not be as bad as black wizards, because they do what they're told."

I wondered what they did for the government.

I refilled Dan's mug. He took a big gulp.

"How do you feel about all this?" Jim asked Dan.

"I don't know. I just don't know. I'm a little afraid," Dan said.

"Have more beer," Jim said.

"How come this doesn't bother you, any?" Dan asked Jim.

"Because I trust Joe completely," Jim said. "He's a good guy. You heard what Jessie said about him. He was a good man and now he's a good wizard. Plus, he sucked my cock and he loves it. How can a man who loves my meat be bad?"

Dan laughed.

"Yeah. And he's in love with you," Dan said.

Jim smiled at me.

"I know. But I've got Jessie. One of the Jessies, anyway. Joe wants to love and be loved. Right?" Jim asked me. I nodded.

"That's your job," Jim said to Dan. "You just get over being afraid and realize how lucky you are," Jim said. "I mean, he can do all this, and he looks like that!"

"Like what?" I asked.

"Cute. Very cute," Dan said.

I smiled at him.

I refilled all our beers.

"Do you really want me?" Dan asked me.

"Yes."

"Do you want me as much as you want Jim?"

I didn't say anything. The fact was, I wanted Jim much, much more.

"That means no," Dan said.

I looked at Jim. He frowned at me. But I didn't feel it was right to lie about it. My face would probably give me away, anyway.

I was hungry. I decided to try to make a hamburger. I said another food spell and concentrated on a hamburger. One appeared right on the table. I created a plate and put it on it. I didn't feel much worse after doing it, so I assumed it didn't take much power to make it.

"What is that?" Dan asked.

"It's called a hamburger. It's a beef sandwich."

I picked it up and took a bite. It was perfect.

"Do you want one?" I asked them.

"Sure!"

I created two more for them and created French fries for all of us.

Jim tried it, first.

"Damn! That's good!" he said, with his mouth full.

Dan tried it. I could tell he liked it.

"I'm going to want lots of these!" Jim said.

Dan nodded, while he chewed.

Jim watched me while he ate. He had a strange expression on his face. I wondered what he was thinking. Suddenly, his thoughts sounded in my mind. I knew it was my mind, because he was eating, not talking.

"He is so sweet. It would be so easy to fall in love with him. I'm halfway there, now," he thought, surprising me. "But marrying a man...that's just not me. He's amazing and so sexy. And good. Truly good. How many people have I met like that? My Jessie was like that, but this Jessie sure isn't. She only talks about what she wants. And he's so powerful. He would do anything I asked of him. I know that. Not that I want to use him. No, what I want is to bury my cock in that tight little ass of his. And I know he'll love it as much as I will. Damn! The way he looks at me with those big, brown eyes. And the way he kisses me! Not even Jessie kissed me like that. I almost wish he hadn't brought Jessie back. No. I do wish he hadn't brought this woman back. She isn't my Jessie. Not even close. This Jessie is a cold fish. Haughty. I hate haughty women, like that oh so fancy Joan. She thinks the world is lucky to have her. Meanwhile, no one but her husband can stand to be around her. This Jessie looks at me like I'm beneath her. Me! The mayor. If she thinks the mayor is nothing, how is she going to feel about the rest of the people in the town? They're going to hate her, if she acts like they're beneath her. Do I really want to spend the rest of my life with her? Everyone seems to think it's the right thing to do, but right by who? I don't think I'm really married to her. I never spoke vows to her and she never spoke them to me. I've got to face it, the only reason I want this Jessie at all, is the hope that somehow, she'll turn into my Jessie and give me kids. But she won't change. She grew up different than my girl. She was probably rich, the way she acts. I don't like the way she demands things of Joe, either. She's never once offered to do anything for him. She talked to him like he was her servant. My Jessie would have been grateful for what Joe's done, but this Jessie expects it. But shit! I've wanted a son my whole life. Jessie could give me a son. And she is so beautiful. Damn! I don't know what to do! I don't think I'll be happy married to this Jessie, and I don't think she'd be happy, either. Maybe I should make Joe happy and pick him. I think I'd be happier with him. I should never have brought Dan into it, but how would I know Jessie would turn out the way she did. Maybe Joe 'n me could find a foundling boy to raise together." His thoughts shocked and delighted me. I knew it wasn't right, spying on him, but I wanted him so much. I had the worst case of butterflies in my stomach I'd ever had. He was actually considering picking me over Jessica. His thoughts continued. "The way he's looking at me, I feel like a heel. When I sleep with Jessie, I am going to break his heart. And she'll probably complain. I am going to dump Joe, sweet, sexy Joe, who looks at me like me like I'm the most wonderful man in the world, for a woman who thinks I am nothing. My Jessie looked at me the way Joe does. I can hardly believe it, but Joe is more like my Jessie than this new one is. Can I do it? Can I leave Joe with Dan, who Joe doesn't love, and break his heart? Dan knows Joe loves me. How does that make Dan feel? And Dan is obviously afraid of Joe. Just how big a fool are you, Jim?"

I didn't want to know what he was thinking, anymore. The thoughts stopped. My heart was pounding in my chest. Pick me, Jim, please, I thought.

"I love you, Jim," I said.

He grinned at me.

"I love you, too, Joe," he said. "I'm just beginning to realize how much."

I smiled at him.

"You really are the most wonderful man in the world," I said.

Joe laughed. Dan made a rude noise.

"I want you to feel free to say that often, especially in front of other people. They need to be reminded of it," Jim said, chuckling.

"Just what are you doing, Jim? Do you want Jessie and Joe?" Dan asked.

Jim sighed.

"Dan, I'm pretty sure I'm in love with Joe. I'm not in love with this Jessie. I don't know what to do," Jim said. "This Jessie excites me, because she looks like mine, but things would only work out if she never spoke again." Dan laughed. "The minute she opens her mouth, I know she's a fake, and worse, someone I don't want to be around. But she can give me a son."

"Maybe it doesn't matter," Dan said. "She isn't in love with you. And you may not be meant to have kids. You've been married five years and you never got Jessie pregnant."

"If we had more sex, we might have," Jim said.

Dan shrugged.

"Are you ready to devote most of your time to a newborn?" Dan asked him.

"Hmm," Jim said.

I didn't think Jessica would ever be happy with this Jim. She said she would never share her husband. This Jim would insist on it, I was sure. He cheated on the Jessie he loved, deeply. Why wouldn't he cheat on Jessica?

"Will you marry me, Jim?" I asked. Jim looked shocked. "Please? I love you so much. And I don't think you'll be happy with this Jessica. I'm pretty sure she won't be happy with you, unless you are willing to make big changes to yourself. Do you want to do that, become who she wants? She told me she would never share her husband. That means you'd only be able to have sex with her."

"Oh, Joe..." Jim sighed. "We haven't known each other long." He was silent, for a minute. "If we wait a while, and our feelings for each other don't change, then, what the hell! Sure! I will! You're right about her. I don't meet her very high standards. And I make indecent furniture."

Dan laughed.

I ran over to Joe and hugged him. We kissed. I felt guilty, like I had betrayed a friend. But had I? If I'd stolen the Jim from our world from Jessica, it would be a betrayal. But Jessica wasn't in love with this Jim, and I was.

"Damn! I feel better!" Jim said. "Like a weight's been lifted from me."

Jim pulled me onto his lap and started feeding me French fries. His cock was hard underneath me. Dan was smiling, so I didn't have to worry about his feelings being hurt. I drank more beer and refilled Dan's and Jim's mugs. I started to feel a little tipsy. I tried to create ketchup for the fries. A big puddle of ketchup appeared on the table. I pictured a bottle for it. Suddenly I developed a headache. It passed, quickly. The ketchup stayed in a puddle, and no bottle appeared. I had begun to feel a sick, like I had the flu, but I didn't care. I was too happy to care.

"I think I used all my magic," I said. "Well, not all of it, I don't have enough left to make even a glass bottle."

"I'm not surprised," Dan said. "Look at all this!" he said, as he waved his hand around the house.

I wanted to find out if having sex really would give me more magic.

I put my hand on Jim's head. I wanted him to hear my thoughts.

"Since we're going to be married, should I not have sex with Dan?" I thought.

"What? I heard that!" Jim said, out loud.

"Heard what?" Dan asked.

"Just think your answer."

"You are amazing, baby. You can still have sex with Dan, if you want. I'm sure it will make him happy. The three of us can have fun together. Would you like that?"

"Yes, Jim, I would."

"I know other men who would enjoy joining us, too. You can decide if you think you'd like that."

"Can I suck you?" I asked Dan.

He grinned.

I crawled under the table. Jim and Dan laughed. Dan reached under and pulled me to my feet. He started undressing. I stared with awe at his body. He was hairy-chested, like Jim. Jim was muscular, but Dan's muscles would put most bodybuilders to shame. Jim started to undress. I did the same. Dan's dick was bigger than Jim's. When we were both naked, Dan took me in his arms and kissed me. After a while, Jim pulled me away from Dan and kissed me. I pulled away and knelt in front of Dan.

"I want you to shoot in my mouth. Will you?" I asked him.

"Did my last spouse ever ask you to do that?" Jim asked Dan.

Dan laughed.

"No. This one is a little different," he said.

We all laughed.

"Of course, he will," Jim said. "I will, too. I want to make you glow."

I smiled at him.

I spent a little while studying Dan's cock. I traced a vein with my fingertip. I licked the length of it, from the base to the head. Jim was standing close and he stroked himself. What I was doing obviously didn't upset him.

"He likes it," Jim said to Dan. I looked up and smiled.

"I love it. I love yours, too, Jim," I said.

"I know, baby. Look how hard I am. Look at how hard you make me," Jim said. He moved next to Dan. I looked at his stiff, dripping cock. "I want to make you glow with this two or three times a day."

I lapped up some of Jim's precum. Then I turned my attention back to Dan's dick. First, I kissed it. It began bouncing. I laughed with joy. I pulled the foreskin back and lapped at the wet head, tasting Dan's precum. Dan pushed it against my lips. I opened my mouth and he pushed the head into my mouth. Jim rubbed his wet cock on my cheek. I began sucking Dan. I reached up and felt the muscles on Dan's belly and chest. Wouldn't my evil twin be furious, I thought, cocksucking and getting fucked in his body. Dan groaned. I began stroking his hairy nuts while I sucked. After a couple of minutes, Dan cried out and began shooting in my mouth. He pumped a lot of cum into me. I felt intense warmth, power, and especially pleasure spread through me, as I swallowed his spunk. I shuddered. It was better than an orgasm. I'd never felt anything like it.

"Look at him glow!" Jim said.

"I did that?" Dan asked.

"You sure did!"

Dan shot a lot. Afterwards, I was glad to find that Dan didn't lose his erection after he came. When he was done, he pulled me to my feet.

"You're beautiful," he said to me.

"So are you," I said, smiling.

Dan shook his head in amazement. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me, again. I felt myself falling in love with Dan. That was bad. I wanted to know Jim's thoughts.

"I wonder if he kisses Dan the way he kisses me, putting all of himself into it. I'm glad he's going to try to make Dan happy," Jim thought.

I was happy, because Jim was happy.

While we kissed, I ran my hands over the parts of Dan I could reach. After a couple of minutes, the kiss ended.

I turned to the table and thought about how to get the ketchup into a bottle. It happened instantly. I didn't say any spell at all. I just wanted it to happen and it did. I didn't know enough about magic to know if that was normal. When were spells needed and when weren't they? Who could I ask?

"Being happy recharges you," Jim said.

"No. It was Dan's cum that did it. Semen gives me magic. Black wizards steal magic from other wizards, people, and animals. I get magic by giving pleasure."

"That is just amazing," Dan said. "I gave you that incredible glow."

"You gave me more than the glow. I felt sick when I was low on magic. Your orgasm made me feel wonderful. The more sex you have with me, the more sex any man has with me, the more powerful I become."

"You are the perfect spouse for me," Jim said. "You'll always want more sex from me!"

I laughed.

"It's true! Maybe you better not wear pants in the house," I said.

Jim laughed.

"Yeah!"

I was in a sort of frenzy. I knelt. I began kissing Jim's erection and rubbing my face on it.

"Oh, baby! That's the way to love your man's meat," Jim said.

He grabbed the shaft and rubbed the wet head all over my face. I shuddered. The anticipation of the ecstasy his spunk would give me fed my frenzy.

"Don't stop! Please don't stop!" I cried.

"Damn!" I heard Dan said.

Jim didn't stop. He kept it up, occasionally thumping his cock on my face. I found myself begging for more. I held my tongue out and Jim rubbed his cock on it. Then I began running my tongue all over it. His cock drooled freely, wetting my face. At one point, I saw that Dan stroked himself while he watched us.

"Jessie never wanted you that much, did she?" I heard Dan asked Jim.

"Hell, no! No one has!"

"Fuck me, please," I said, after a few minutes.

"You better believe I'm going to do that!" Jim said.

Jim picked me up and carried me to Dan's new bed. He put me on it, on my back. I couldn't take my eyes off his beautiful, dripping dick.

"Hold your legs up," he told me. I grabbed them and held onto them.

Dan handed him a ceramic jar. Jim stuck his fingers in it. It smelled like bacon grease, which I figured it probably was. No bottled lube in this world.

"Why don't you grease me up while I grease you," Jim said to me.

Dan held the jar out to me. I held my legs up with one arm, freeing one hand. I stuck my fingers in it. I got some and applied it to Jim's erection while he pushed a greasy finger inside me. I stroked Jim's cock while he put a second finger in me. I willed my ass to loosen a little.

"You just do something?" Jim asked me.

"Yeah. Put your cock in me. Fuck me."

Jim grinned.

"I love an eager fuck-partner. I expect you'll always be eager."

"With you? Oh, yeah!"

Jim placed the head of his cock at my asshole. He pushed slowly. He slid inside me, groaning as he did it. I closed my eyes and threw my head back. It hurt, but I willed the pain away. It stopped instantly.

"I'm inside you, baby," Jim said. "I'm home, right where I belong."

I grinned at him and nodded.

Jim pulled out.

"No!" I cried. He just grinned, as he pushed back inside me.

Jim began a steady rhythm. Then he bent down and kissed me. I tried to speak to him mind-to-mind.

"Can you hear me?" I asked, mentally.

"Oh, yeah."

"I love the way you kiss. I love the way you fuck."

"Let's face it, Joe. You just love everything about me."

"Your balls are slapping on me."

"I know."

"I love your balls."

Jim laughed mentally, while still kissing me.

"Does it bother you that it's not just the two of us, for our first time?" he asked me.

"No. Should it?"

"No. But most women would think it wasn't romantic," he said.

"It seems very romantic to me, like the best man joined us in our wedding bed."

After I said that I wondered if they had 'best men' in weddings in this world. When Jim laughed, I knew they did.

"Good! I don't want to disappoint you. I don't think most women would appreciate the best man taking their turn with her. Of course, some women would love it!"

I chuckled.

"I love you to death, Joe. You're sweet, and sexy, and powerful. That must be a unique combination. But that's you, you are completely unique. And you're mine."

"Yeah!"

Jim pulled away from the kiss. While he continued fucking me, I saw Dan was on the bed next to my head. His cock was close. I watched him stroke it for a bit. I looked back at Jim.

"He wants your cock," Jim said to Dan.

"I know. I'm glad."

"You two can have sex as often as you like. I don't have to worry about losing Joe," Jim said.

"You don't," I said.

He sped up his thrusts.

"I'm going to breed you, baby. I'm going to fuck you full of my seed."

"Do it! Do it!"

Jim cried out. I felt his cum burn inside me. But it was accompanied by pure joy and pleasure. The intensity of the pleasure was so great that I lost track of my surroundings for a moment. My body shuddered and shook. I cried out several times. Gradually, I became aware, again. I looked up at Jim's face. He looked shocked and a little scared. There was something wrong with it. Then I realized what it was. It looked like a bright light was shining on it.

"Oh...shit! That was incredible!" I said.

"Damn! You're glowing so brightly, I can see Jim's shadow on the ceiling!" Dan said.

I lifted a hand and looked at it. Dan was right. It was really strange. It looked like nothing I'd ever seen. The texture of my skin seemed different, this time.

"I was worried you were having a fit, the way you were shaking," Jim said.

"No. It felt fabulous!"

Jim grinned.

He pulled out of me and fell onto the bed. Jim's cock was still stiff. I wanted to lick the cum off it, but didn't think it was safe. Then I remembered I could heal myself of just about anything. Jim cried out, again when I scooted down and swallowed his cock. I sucked it for a while and then licked it clean. I said a good health spell on myself.

"I can't believe you did that!" Jim said.

Something was wrong. I wondered what it was. Then I realized that the semen I licked off his cock didn't affect me the way it did when he shot inside me. There was no warmth as I swallowed. I wondered about that. But his stiff was in my mouth. I began sucking him. I wanted more of his cum.

"Ah, yeah!" Jim said. "Try to make me come, again, Joe. Work my cock until we both know I can't come, anymore. Then wait a couple of hours and try again." Jim was making me very hot, talking like that. "This is what I want from a spouse. I don't want a woman who, after I shoot, rolls over and thinks her duty is done for the week."

"You want Dan to fuck you, Joe?" he asked me. "He can do it while you try to make me come, again."

"Yeah."

"Your turn, Dan," Jim said.

Dan moved between my legs. He slowly pushed inside me. I thought it might hurt more, because Dan was bigger than Jim. But it didn't. It was easier.

Jim pulled out of my mouth. I lunged at his cock. Jim and Dan laughed.

"Don't worry, sweetheart. You'll get your treat back in just a minute."

Jim really surprised me when he got under me. He began sucking me, while Dan fucked me. It felt absolutely incredible. I looked at Jim's cock. After only about a minute, I came. It felt good, at first. Not nearly as good as the sensation I got from sucking and being fucked. Then it began to hurt. Not in my groin, the pain was everywhere. I gasped. I looked at my arm. The glow faded quickly and then was gone completely. By the time my orgasm ended, the pain ended. But I felt like I was dying. I tried to speak, but only a whisper came out. I tried to life my head and couldn't.

"This is bad," Dan said. "Oh, damn! Jim! Joe looks terrible! He's beginning to look like an old man."

"No. He looks like the black wizard in the cellar, right before he died!" Jim said. "Oh, shit! What do we do?"

I could see they were panicking. Oddly, I wasn't upset at all. Maybe I was too weak to be upset. Despite how I felt, I was happy. I had a chance to find love before I died. I felt myself drifting off. Then a thought occurred to me.

"You can make me glow," I tried to say.

Jim saw and placed his ear next to my mouth. "Make me glow," I said, but I didn't know if he heard me. Then I stopped caring. I closed my eyes. After that, I was unaware of my surroundings. I heard voices, but they were distant. Sometime later, I became aware of warmth in my mouth. I opened my eyes. Dan's cock was in my mouth, and he was ejaculating. I felt more and more alert, as I swallowed what he produced.

"That's done it!" Dan said.

I looked up at Jim and saw the relief on his face. I felt much better. When Dan pulled his softening erection out of my mouth, I said, "You save my life with your dick!"

Dan burst out laughing. Jim didn't. Jim fell onto the bed next to me. He wrapped his arms around me.

"I'm glad you can joke about it, but I was terrified," Jim said. "I thought I'd killed you."

I smiled at him.

"You didn't."

"I lost my Jessie. I can't lose you, too, Joe." I stroked his cheek. "You feel better?"

"Yes. I feel fine."

"You aren't glowing," he said.

"I guess I need more cream."

"I think we're out, for now," Jim said.

"I feel fine. Really."

I kissed him, briefly.

"Well, now we know why wizards don't have sex!" I said.

Jim looked frightened, again.

"Does that mean you can't..." he started to say. I knew what he meant.

"No. It doesn't mean that," I said to Jim. "But how many wizards just want to swallow spunk and get fucked in the ass?"

"Just one, I bet," Dan said.

I nodded. "A wizard who fucked a woman could find himself dying from his orgasm! It's a good thing I'm a cocksucker! The evil me seemed to think it was a bad thing!"

Both of them looked at me like I was crazy. I grinned.

I tested my magic by concentrating on a glass of water. It appeared in my hand. I drank it.

"Hey, a free glass with every drink!" I said. Dan had a free set of mugs, too, from the beer I magicked. "Well, it doesn't seem to have had a lasting effect. From now on, I better not come."

"That's not fair," Jim said.

"I don't know about fair, but I get a lot more pleasure from you shooting in me than I ever got from orgasms. This one didn't feel that good, and then it started to hurt. I don't want any more orgasms!"

Jim looked relieved.

"Let's go back to the house," Jim said.

We got out of bed.

The three of us got dressed. I put on the white clothes I'd made for myself when I first met this Jim.

"Can Dan sleep with us, if I make the bed big enough?" I asked.

"Not tonight. I want you to myself, tonight."

I smiled at Jim and hugged him.

"It makes me sad to think you can give us orgasms, but we can't give them to you," Dan said.

"Don't worry about it," I said. "Back in my world, the other Jim let me suck him twice in one evening. I didn't come. But it was the most fun I ever had. And like I said, I get a lot of pleasure from your orgasms. Jim almost made me blackout from pleasure when he shot in my ass."

"Does my cream taste like his, the other me?" Jim asked.

"Exactly like it."

"That's the one Jessica broke up with?" Jim asked.

"I think so. I was jumping from world to world, for a while. Not on purpose. So it was either the same Jim, or one from a world just like ours."

I remembered that the funeral dates for Jim and Jessica were different on some worlds than on others. I wondered why, but figured I would never know.

"Some time, you're going to have to explain all these worlds to me," Jim said.

I nodded.

"How do you think your Jessica will react to Jim choosing you over her?" Dan asked me.

"I think she'll be relieved that Jim isn't insisting she's married to him, just because her double was. But for the other...I don't know. Probably not well. I guess she'll hate me."

"Can you use magic to make her happy?" Dan asked.

"That's what I've been doing. The outhouse, the chairs—"

"No. I mean happy to not have Jim," Dan said.

"Why don't you just explain that you'll never be monogamous," I said to Jim. "She'll always have to share you with whoever else you want to have sex with," I said. "I don't think she could allow her husband to do that. We could wait to tell her we're getting married."

"I think I'll just tell her I don't love her. That I'm in love with you," Jim said. "You won't have to worry about whether she hates you. She needs you too much. Besides, you'll be looking at my family jewels. You won't notice she's mad."

I laughed. "True!"

Jim stood next to the door.

"Are you coming, Dan?"

"Are you going to have the talk with Jessie now?" Dan asked.

"Yeah."

"No. I have work I'd rather do."

Jim chuckled.

Jim took my hand and we left. Jim continued holding my hand, as we walked down the street.

"What do you say, why don't we have more sex, in a few minutes?" he asked me.

"I do miss seeing the family jewels and it's only been a couple of minutes."

He laughed.

I noticed that there were no signs up. Dan didn't have one for his smithing business. Of course, with a forge in view, he didn't need a sign.

"Why are there no signs?" I asked.

"Everyone knows where everything is. We don't get a lot of travelers. It's easy enough to point them in the right direction. This is the inn," Jim said, pointing at a building.

"And you're the mayor. Is it a lot of work?"

"No. Not a lot happens here.

"This is the bakery," he said, stopping. We looked in the window. We could see Jessica and her teacher, in front of a very large stove. Jim tapped on the window. The women turned. Jim motioned with his finger for Jessica to come. She left the building, wiping her hands on an apron.

"It isn't as difficult as I thought," Jessica said to us.

"Oh, good. I gave Dan a fully functional bathroom in his house," I said.

"That's terrific!" Jessica said. "You'll give us one, won't you?"

"Jess, Joe is going to be living with me," Jim said.

Jessica frowned.

"Why?"

"Because I'm in love with him," Jim said.

Jessica looked confused.

"Let's face it. You and me, we aren't married. You never said marriage vows to me and I never said them to you. Without those, we aren't married."

"Yes, but..."

Tears formed in Jessica's eyes.

"I don't love you, Jess."

"You're breaking up with me," she said.

Jim nodded.

"It's the reverse of what happened to you in your world, so it shouldn't take you by surprise," Jim said.

That was a little rough, I thought.

"What will I do?" she asked. She looked frightened.

"You'll live with us, if you want," I said. Jim squeezed my hand hard. I guess he didn't like the idea. "I'll make the house bigger, make separate bedrooms."

"It won't work," Jim said. "Jessica won't want to watch us have sex. And I'm not going to hide while having sex in my own house."

"Did you do this?" Jessica asked me, bitterly. "Of course, you did. You used magic!"

"No. He didn't," Jim said. "He's a very special person, Jessie."

She closed her eyes.

"And I love him. I don't love you. You'll never be more than a poor copy of my Jessie, not because there is anything wrong with you, but because you are different," he said. "Does that make any sense?"

Jessica didn't answer. She was crying. I felt like shit. But I really did feel that this Jessica wasn't right for this Jim. Jim explained it well. But I thought she was too upset to listen. I was wrong.

"You're right, of course," she said. "You'd try to turn me into your Jessie and I'd try to turn you into my Jim. All we'd do is fight and be dissatisfied. But I have nothing here. Nothing!"

"That's not true. I consider you family," I said to her. "And maybe I can convince Jim to treat you as his wife's sister."

I could see I surprised Jim with that.

"That makes a lot of sense, Joe," Jim said.

"So you have us, Jessica. I'm going to do my best to make you happy. And somehow, I'll do it," I said.

She hugged me.

"Give me a toilet!" she said, laughing and sobbing. "And tampons. My period's starting!"

"Oh, shit," I said. "What exactly is a tampon? It's not like a tarpon, is it?"

She laughed.

"No! A tarpon is a fish!" she said.

She described tampons to me. I produced what she described, and she seemed relieved.

"So I guess you're bisexual," she said to Jim.

Jim frowned.

"That means you like sex with men and women," I said.

He nodded his head.

"That makes you very different from my Jim," she said.

"Jessica, the last time I saw him, your Jim told me that having sex with men didn't make him feel like he was cheating on you. He told me he had sex with two men," I said to Jessica. I didn't want to point out that I was one of them.

She froze. I could see she was stunned.

"It didn't mean he didn't love you," I told her. "He wanted sex with you, but it wasn't possible. He was very, very horny. Like this Jim, and like me, and like Dan."

She looked lost.

"How can I get back to my world?" she said to me. "There must be a way."

"Maybe there is, but I can't do it. What I think was a demon told me that. Otherwise, I would be there, with my family. I'd take you back, too, of course."

"And you would be dead," Jim added. "Don't forget you died, there."

Jessica began crying, again. We stood there, awkwardly. She stopped, after a minute.

"You're the only one who is coming out ahead in all this," Jessica said to me, wiping her eyes. "Maybe it's karma, because you had so much trouble in the real, I mean our world." She turned to Jim. "Maybe losing this Jim is karma for breaking up with my Jim."

"What's karma?" Jim asked.

Jessica explained it to him better than I could. Jim nodded, when she finished.

"Let's go improve Jim's house," I said.

I heard a child crying. A moment later, an older woman came around a corner, carrying a small, crying child. She was the oldest person I'd seen in the village, but she only looked like she was in her upper fifties. I guessed she was old for this world. The woman limped towards us. I could see she was in pain. I walked up to meet her. Jessica ran over to them.

"Oh. What's wrong, sweetheart?" Jessica asked, as she stroked the little girl's hair.

"Emmie burnt her hand," the old woman said. "Wizard, my grandchild burnt her hand, could you..."

I said a spell of healing. The little girl, who looked to be three or four, stopped crying.

"It's done," I said.

"It doesn't hurt mama," the girl said.

"Thank you!"

Jessica looked at me and clapped her hands. I laughed.

"Why are you limping?" I asked the old woman.

"My joints ache." She sighed. "I'm just getting old."

I didn't think there wasn't much I could do about getting old, although I wished I there was. But I could remove the pain. I said another healing spell.

"See if you feel better," I said.

The woman put her grandchild down. She took a step. A look of pleasant surprise appeared on her face.

"It doesn't hurt!"

She waved one arm around.

"I want to pay you, but I don't have much," she said to me.

"I don't want to be paid," I said.

"Wha...why? Why do you do it, them?" she asked me.

"Because I can. Wouldn't you heal someone, if you could?" I asked.

She looked confused.

"Joe here told me when I met him that he wanted to love and be loved," Jim said. "I think that's all he wants, Mary."

She shook her head in amazement.

"You aren't in league with the devil, are you?" she asked me.

"No. But what I think may have been a demon told me I couldn't leave this world. I don't know the difference between a devil and a demon."

"Is this demon a friend of yours?" she asked.

"No. I only saw him once, and I sure as heck hope I never see him, again. He was horrifying." I shuddered, remembering the insect face and the sense of incredible danger I experienced at the time.

"Demons!" the woman said, with a frown on her face.

"Joe, you better put Mary back the way she was," Jim said.

I looked at him in surprise.

"No! There's no need to do that!" Mary said. "Will the pain return?"

"If it does, let me know. I'll say the spell, again."

Mary shook her head, in disbelief.

"Would the people of the town feel better if I charged for things?" I asked her.

"Probably."

"But whatever price I set, you might not have been able to pay. If I set them too low, people will be..."

Jim laughed.

"You can't win, Joe. Don't charge them and they'll resent it. Set them too high, and they'll resent it, because they can't afford it. Set them too low and they'll resent it almost as much as when it was free."

Mary looked confused.

"I think you're right, Jim," Mary said. "I never thought it could be so hard to do good. It shouldn't be. It isn't your fault, Wizard, no matter how people feel. If you're doing good and you enjoy it, just keep doing it."

"She's right, Joe," Jessica said. "Be true to yourself. If ignorance prevents them from appreciating you, it's their loss. We can move to a new village."

"Don't do that, please," Mary said.

I smiled at her.

"If you really want to pay me, pay me with friendship and kindly thoughts. But I really enjoyed doing it, and if you never speak to me, again, it wouldn't take away the enjoyment."

I turned and headed for Jim's house. Jim and Jessica caught up with me.

"Boy, you left her with her mouth hanging open," Jessica said to me.

"You'd love being able to do it," I said to her. "It's completely effortless. I basically thought kind thoughts and they were both healed."

"I would! You made bread. You can make more. Instead of a Thanksgiving food drive, it would be terrific to use magic to put a feast in hungry people's homes," she said.

I nodded, excitedly.

"People are nicer on your world," Jim said.

Jessica and I both said, "No they're not," at the same time. We both laughed. I was glad to see she didn't seem to resent me.

We walked into Jim's house. It was depressingly small. I guessed the single room was about five hundred square feet.

"Do you mind if I get started on the house?" I asked Jim.

"Maybe you should wait. You almost died," Jim said.

"What? When?" Jessica asked, alarmed.

"At Dan's house," Jim said.

"What happened?"

"Well, it appears wizards can't have orgasms," I said.

Jessica acted like that was more than she wanted to know. But there was no other way to explain it.

"In spite of that, I plan to marry Joe," Jim said.

Jessica's mouth fell open.

"It's so primitive here. You can do that? Marry a man?" she asked.

"Yes," Jim said. "And I don't think it's primitive, do you?" Jim asked me.

"Uh. If you saw our world, you would think this is primitive, Jim. Machines are everywhere, doing things for people. No one makes clothes or bakes bread from scratch, except as a hobby. Your house stays the same comfortable temperature in summer and winter. You don't have to burn wood for heat, unless you want to. People bathe, pee, and poop without leaving the house and nothing and no one smells bad."

Jessica nodded her agreement.

Jim frowned.

"Is it a good life?" Jim asked.

"It can be," Jessica said. "But if people are happy here, they have enough, I suppose." I nodded my head. "Heaven knows there are an awful lot of unhappy people on our world."

"What we need most is indoor plumbing," Jessica said to me.

"I want to get that wizard out of my cellar," Jim said.

I forgot all about him.

"Will you help, Joe?"

"Of course."

Jim lifted the trap door that led to the cellar. We went down the stairs.

"I think I need more magic. There's a lot I want to do," I said to Jim.

"How?"

"Are there any men in town who would like to get sucked?" I asked.

Jim shook his head.

"That's a crazy way to get magic. I wish I'd gotten it every time I sucked Dan."

I laughed.

Jim kissed me and put my hand on his crotch. He got hard. He pulled away from the kiss.

"Your husband will give you what you need," he whispered in my ear. "We won't worry about you sucking others until I can't recharge."

I smiled.

I fell to my knees. I looked up at Jim. The cellar was dark, but I was glowing enough to see Jim was smiling. But Bill was standing right next to us. I shuddered to think what might happen if some of Jim's spunk got on Bill.

"We better get rid of the wizard, first," I said.

"I agree."

Jim picked the wizard up and carried him under his arm.

"Doesn't weigh much," Jim said. "But he's all dried out. I guess that's why."

We climbed the cellar stairs.

Jessica looked away, as she saw what Jim was carrying.

"Oh, lord," she said.

"Maybe we should chop him up," Jim said. "Seeing you return from near-death, has me worried about him."

I wanted to say that it wasn't necessary, but I had no idea whether it was possible he could be revived. I couldn't imagine anyone would do it deliberately. After all, wizards liked killing other wizards.

"I don't know anything about it," I said.

Jim took him out the back door. He dropped Bill on the ground and picked up and axe. He cut the head off the corpse. To my shock, the entire body exploded into dust, once the head was cutoff. A passing breeze blew a lot of the dust away.

"Do you..." Jim started to say. I shook my head.

"I've been a wizard a few hours. I have no idea what happened. I have a feeling he won't come back to life, though!"

Jim laughed, nodding his head.

"Now, about the house. I want to make it a lot bigger. Should we do it here, or pick out an empty piece of land for it?" I asked.

"First things first," he said.

Jim took my hand. He led me back into the house, and then down the cellar.

"Where were we?" he said, grinning.

I fell to my knees, again.

Jim untied the rope that held his pants up. They fell to his ankles. I watched his cock grow erect. I rubbed my cheek against it.

"Damn! That's why I know we're meant to be together," Jim said.

I grinned up at him.

"I do love it."

"I know! It not only pleasures the two of us, it makes you powerful, too. I may not be able to fuck you pregnant, but I can fuck you till you glow enough to make miracles!"

I began to feel that we were meant to be together. If things had been different, I would have been having sex every day with the other Jim, at Jim's request. And this Jim wanted to have sex with me, even marry me.

I began sucking Jim. After a couple of minutes, I turned him around and rimmed him. He pulled away and looked at me in shock. I told him I'd cleaned his whole body with magic at Dan's. He turned back around. I began, again. He obviously enjoyed it, and no one had ever done it to him, before.

"Oh, that shouldn't feel so damn good!" he said. "I don't know why you want to do it, but don't stop on my account."

I laughed.

I reached around and stroked his erection while I licked his hole. He groaned, continuously. After a few minutes, I turned him around and sucked his cock. A few minutes later, Jim shot in my mouth. My glow was bright enough to light up the cellar.

Jim kissed me and told me he loved me. We climbed the stairs hand-in-hand.

Jessica's eyes widened when she saw how brightly I was glowing.

"How big do you want to make the house?" Jim asked me.

"I don't know. Jessica will need her own bedroom and bathroom. Do we need two eating areas?" I asked.

"We can all eat together," Jim said.

"How does that sound to you?" I asked Jessica.

"Are you expecting me to cook for you?" she asked.

I shrugged. "I can make food magically for the two of us."

Jessica sighed.

"I'm going to be bored out of my mind. I guess I'll cook. I'd rather not clean, though. Not if I have to bring bucket after bucket of water into the house."

"I'll clean," I said.

"Are you absolutely sure you can't send me back?" Jessica asked me.

"Yes. A demon told me. If you ever see him, you'll understand why I don't want to ask, again."

"A demon? Shit!" Jessica said.

"OK. I'll do some of the cleaning," she said.

When Jim wasn't looking, I mouthed, "I'll do it magically."

She smiled at me.

"What did the demon look like?" she asked.

"I'm not sure it was a demon, but evil me said demons were after him, and this guy appeared."

"Describe him," Jessica said.

I tried to picture him in my mind. It was difficult. But finally, I got a clear mental picture.

Suddenly there was a horrible smell and I was pressed back against a wall by something hard. A roar filled the air: "DON'T EVER SUMMON ME, AGAIN!" It was the creature, demon or whatever. He filled the entire house, and his body pushed the two of us against a wall. When he turned his face to me, I peed in my pants and fell to my knees.

"I'm sorry! I wasn't trying to summon you! I swear! It was a mistake!"

"Don't make me regret letting you live! If you summon me, again, I will personally make you suffer for a thousand years!" Then I felt the most horrible pain I'd ever felt.

The next thing I knew, Jim's face was looking down at me. I was on the floor. The pain was gone.

"I've decided I want to move to a new house," he said, as he helped me to my feet.

"Are you OK?" I asked him.

He nodded his head.

"Jessie may not be, though."

She was seated in one of the chairs I'd made. It was up against a wall. Her mouth was open and her eyes were wide, although they didn't seem to be looking at anything. I hoped she wasn't catatonic. I said a healing spell. Fortunately, it worked. She closed her eyes, then reopened them. She looked at me.

"Did you ask him to send me back?" she asked me. Then she began laughing, a little hysterically. "I think I peed on myself," she said.

"We all did," Jim said.

I said a cleaning spell, and we were clean.

"Thank you," Jim said to me.

"Why did you bring him here?" Jim asked.

"I didn't mean to. All I did was picture him in my mind."

"You are very powerful," Jim said.

"I think it's the body I'm wearing. My evil twin created it somehow."

"Then where is your body?" Jessica asked.

"It died. I was there. I saw it die. My parents and sisters were there, too."

"You died, too?" she asked.

"I don't think I actually died, because I wasn't in my body, at the time. I was in his created body and he was hiding from the demons in my dying body. In fact, my body was dying because he destroyed my brain, the one in my real body. He planned to take over my body, I mean, his created body, when my body died."

"Uh huh," Jessica said. Jim laughed. "That's very clear. For some reason, things like that don't happen to me, Joe."

Jim laughed even harder. Jessica shook her head.

"So now we all know what a demon looks like," she said. "Very not nice."

I chuckled, nervously.

I willed myself to forget what the demon looked like. I didn't know if I succeeded. I couldn't really test it. If it didn't work, and I pictured him mentally I would suffer for a thousand years!

"I have an idea for the house. We can add a second and even third floor to this one," I said to Jim.

He nodded.

"Do that, if you can."

I got to work. I extended the rear of the house to the well.

"Oh, my god!" Jessica said, as it happened. It was amazing to see. Magic was very cool.

I thought about how many, and what rooms should be on the ground floor. I divided the space up into a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and living room. We were what was to be the living room. I created interior walls. I stopped and looked at my arm. The glow didn't seem to have lessened. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

Jim went to answer it.

"Come in David," I heard Jim say.

"I'll...I'll stay right here. I come to speak to the wizard."

I walked over to the door. A handsome man, who seemed about Jim's age, looked at the inside of Jim's house with his mouth open. He looked at me and gulped.

"The wizard has been improving my house," Jim said.

David seemed a little scared. I hoped people would stop fearing me, soon.

"Wizard, I wanted to thank you for healing my Emmie. And my mother says she feels young, again."

I smiled.

"You are quite welcome. But please call me Joe."

David nodded.

"Mother says you don't want payment, you want, uh, friends?"

"That's right."

Jessica joined us. David looked a little scared when he saw her. She was sort of a zombie.

"It's, uh, little enough to ask," David said. He held out his hand. After a moment, I took it and we shook hands. David didn't take his eyes off Jessica. The fear was gone, and replaced by desire, if I read him right.

"I heard you don't remember much, Jessie," David said to her.

"I know everyone was told I lost my memory, but the truth of the matter is stranger. I'm a different Jessica. I had a different life, and I remember it perfectly. Joe tells me there are many different worlds with the same people, living similar, but different lives. I never married Jim in my world. Joe and I come from the same world. We were friends there."

David looked confused. That was no surprise.

David looked at Jim.

"You were never married?"

"That's right," Jim said. "It seems I never married this Jessie. Jessie is single, again, David. And I've decided to marry Joe."

David's mouth fell open. His eyes flickered over each of us.

"I don't understand."

"I know. It's complicated," Jim said. "But the soul that entered Jessie's body when Joe resurrected her isn't my Jessie. It was another Jessie, who also died in an accident."

"Then where is our Jessie?" David asked.

"I guess she's in heaven," I said. "I think we got the wrong one, because when I brought her back, I was thinking of my friend, the Jessica I knew in the other world."

"I bet that's why!" Jim said. I nodded.

"You are going to marry the wizard?" David asked Jim.

"Yes, I am. This Jessie here never married me. She never married anyone. She ended the relationship with the Jim from her old world."

David's confused expression changed into a hopeful one.

"Jessie, I still...have feelings for you," David said to her. "Even my Juda, rest her soul, knew I still...loved you."

"Does that bother you, Jim?" David asked.

"No, David. Not a bit. I'm marrying Joe."

I looked at Jessica. She looked like she didn't know what to say.

"You have feelings for the other Jessica, David. We've never met," she said.

David frowned and seemed to be trying to straighten things out in his head. Then he held out his hand to Jessica. She stared at it for a moment. Then she took a step towards him and shook his hand.

"It's nice to meet you, David," she said.

"Would you take a walk with me, this evening?" David asked her.

"Can you make him smell better?" Jessica whispered in my ear. I almost laughed.

"It's a smelly world," I whispered back. I meant it.

She laughed.

I made David smell the way Jim had smelled when he was giving me a ride back to school, that last night.

"You dog!" she said to me, smiling. "That's the cologne I bought Jim."

"I smell funny," David said.

"You smell wonderful," Jessica said to him.

David was content, then.

"I'm still getting settled in," Jessica said to him. "Could we do it tomorrow?"

David nodded his head, excitedly. Then David turned back to me.

"Mother wants to invite you to supper," David said.

"I would like that, but not today. It's been very busy. And I want to spend time with Jim."

David nodded.

"Of course. Maybe all three of you can come for supper tomorrow. Maybe Jessica will walk with me, afterwards."

"I think we can do that," Jim said, looking at me.

"It's fine with me," Jessica said.

"I hadn't thanked you yet for removing the curse," David said to me.

"I was happy to do it, David. I mean that."

David nodded.

David was a hot man and, thanks to my spell, he smelled wonderful. He'd given me an erection. I wondered what he looked like without clothes. Suddenly, David was naked. Jessica gasped.

"Oh, shit! I'm sorry!" I said, before David even realized what happened. I quickly wished his clothes back on. But I'd found out what he looked like. He was a real hunk. He was hairy, but as he was blonde, his body hair was a light brown. I wondered if it was softer than the coarse, black hair on Jim's and Dan's chests. David had a larger cock than Jim's and it was half-hard. I guessed that was because of Jessica. That was too bad, because I would have loved to suck his big dick. I would have loved for him to fuck me, too. I found myself very erect. I thought about all the magic David could give me with each of his orgasms. I wanted that magic. When I glanced at Jim, I saw he was looking at my crotch. He looked up at me. His face was blank. I hoped he wasn't angry at me for wanting David. I suddenly felt ashamed. I had Jim and Dan. Why was I being so greedy? I decided I was still thinking of myself as single.

"Sorry for what?" David asked.

"Nothing, David," Jim said. "We'll see you tomorrow, if not sooner."

David turned around and left. Jim closed the door. I thought I heard Jim say, "Idiot," but he'd said it so softly, I wasn't sure.

"Let me guess. You were wondering what he looked like naked," Jessica said to me.

I nodded my head.

"He's hot!" I said.

"Hands off!" Jessica said.

I nodded my head.

Jim didn't seem happy. I mouthed, 'I love you." Then he grinned.

"I mean it, Joe," Jessica said. "You've got Jim and Dan. Isn't that enough?"

"OK. OK. But if it turns out you aren't interested, and of course, Jim doesn't mind..."

"Stop it!" she said to me. "Why wouldn't Jim mind? Jim, your fiancé is planning to cheat on you!"

"It's not cheating if I'm with him, if I'm participating, Jessie," Jim said. "Joe said, if you aren't interested. Are you interested at all?"

She didn't answer. She looked disgusted. Jessica turned away in a huff and sat in one of the recliners.

I created a second floor for the house. In it, I made two large rooms and a bathroom. I created a staircase. I climbed the staircase and furnished the rooms. I made one room a bedroom and the other a den. None of it required any effort on my part, I just thought about what I wanted. My glow did dim, however, with each thing I did. I walked into the space I set aside for a bathroom. I created a tub, a sink, and a toilet bowl. I thought about what to do about plumbing. I wondered if I could make them work by magic, rather than using water. I knew spells for making things disappear. There had been several in the books 'evil me' provided. I concentrated on giving the toilet the power to make what was in the bowl disappear, with no smell. I closed the bathroom door and tested it. I peed in the toilet. I grinned as the urine disappeared, just as soon as it hit the bowl. I didn't smell any urine. I wondered if I could do the same thing to the tub. I concentrated on giving the tub the ability to make dirt disappear on whatever was in it. I knew it worked when I suddenly stopped glowing and began feeling weak, again. I opened the bathroom door. Jim and Jessica stood there.

"Either of you need to use the bathroom?"

"I do," Jessica said. "Will you make toilet paper?"

I tried, but nothing happened.

"You aren't glowing," Jim said. "You look a little sick."

"I used up all my power."

"Shit!" Jessica said.

"Look. Try this. After you finish on the toilet, stand in the tub. It should clean you completely."

"Is there hot water?"

"There's no water. It should clean you magically, the way I did downstairs, after the demon."

Jessica grinned.

"Instantly?" she asked.

I nodded.

"Should I undress?"

"I think it will clean your clothes, if you're wearing them."

"Fantastic! No wonder you're out of magic! But if there's no water, how does the toilet work?" she asked me.

"Magically."

"That is so cool! Wow!" she said.

She walked into the bathroom and closed the door.

I groped Jim.

"How's your magical penis?" I whispered.

He laughed. "Let's see." He kissed me, while I rubbed his cock. It stiffened, some, but didn't get fully erect.

"I think it will be a while. Let's go see if Dan can make you glow."

We left Jim's house. We saw several people on the street. They all said hello to me and thanked me.

"Is it true about Jessie?" a middle-aged woman asked Jim.

"What about?"

"That she isn't our Jessie?"

"Yes. It's true," I said. "It seems I brought back a Jessica from where I come from, by mistake. It's impossible to fix it, now."

"That is such a shame," she said to Jim.

"It is, Patty, but I have Joe, and I've fallen for him," Jim said.

The woman looked surprised.

"There was no love spell," I said. "I give my solemn oath about that."

"But wizards can't..."

"Joe can. White wizards are different," Jim said.

"But even white witches don't marry," she said.

"In case you haven't figured it out, Joe is not like anyone you've ever known or heard about," Jim said. "It's one of the reasons I love him. He wants to help people. He wants to make them happy, even if he's never met them."

Pat shook her head.

"If the two of you are happy, I guess I'm happy," she said.

Jim took my arm and we continued towards Dan's.

I felt nervous and irritable, and I felt like I had the flu. The sensations increased with each step. I wanted magic. I needed it. The lack of it was quickly becoming unbearable.

"Aaaaccckkk!" I said.

"What was that?" Jim asked me. He frowned as he looked at me. "Shit! You look terrible, Joe!"

The Red Wizard of Elmland appeared in an alley behind the provincial jail. His ceremonial red robes were brilliant in the afternoon sunshine. He walked around to the front of the jail and looked at the shabby jail in a shabby town. He sighed. It was a reminder of how far he had fallen. He entered the jail house. The jailer, a middle-aged man jumped to his feet. It was clear he wasn't expecting a wizard as the judge.

"Welcome, your, your highness!"

The jailer tried to straighten his clothes.

"Thank you. Have the prisoner and the accusers brought into the courtroom."

"Yes, highness."

The jailer left the jail house, at a run to get the accuser. The red wizard walked over to the cell. Before he even looked at the prisoner, he was certain the man was innocent. He had been sent here because there had been a series of very similar murders in this small town, victims garroted with bruise marks on the back. People had been convicted and executed for the murders, but the garroting continued. The new chancellor was determined to improve the standard of living in these backwaters, and reducing crime was now a higher priority. His superior was convinced innocent people had been executed and the real murderer protected. It seemed very likely. This was also a test, he was certain. Would his conditioning to the Red Way hold, or would he lose the title of Red Wizard and possibly lose his life? His superiors knew his true name. If he went black, his life was subject to their power. The government never used or tolerated black wizards. I will not go black, he promised to himself. The red wizard looked at the prisoner. He sensed fear and confusion, but an honest man with no deceit.

"How did you end up in here?"

The man was terrified. He closed his eyes and said, "Highness, I was...I am falsely accused of murdering a child. I never would! Never!"

"Is there someone claiming to be a witness to it?"

"Yes. But it was not me! I was at home."

"Would this person have some power in this town?" the wizard asked.

The prisoner grew wide-eyed.

"Yes. That is why they don't believe me."

"I can see guilt," the wizard said. "Deception is impossible since I can read souls."

The prisoner suddenly looked hopeful.

"Do you...see guilt?"

"Not at the present time," the wizard said.

The prisoner sat on the bed. He put his head down and tried not to be too hopeful.

"They want my land," the prisoner said, after a minute.

"I am perfectly capable of discerning motives on my own," the wizard said.

"I apologize, your highness."

The red wizard turned and left the jail house. There was no telling how long the jailer would be gone. He closed his eyes and emptied his mind. He sensed power. He turned slowly around and stopped when he determined the direction. He opened his eyes. It was coming from the west, and it was peculiar. He sent his spirit westward. It was much, much easier to fly as a spirit than fly with a body. And the presence of his body would protect the prisoner, in the event the guilty party thought to kill the prisoner before the trial. A glowing dome covered a small town about a hundred leagues from his body. He'd never seen anything like it. It reflected most of his thoughts, preventing him from discerning much about it. He searched for the source, but saw nothing, although he did detect the remains of a black wizard. The body had dispirated, but he could see clearly where it had lain on the ground. A black wizard, no doubt killed by another black wizard. That was common enough. Killing each other seemed to be black wizards' favorite pastime. Had the wizard created the dome before being killed? Or had his killer created it? And why? The purpose of the dome was unknown. But it seemed one of the black wizards created it, which meant it was designed to benefit the black wizard. The people in the town were healthy, though and seemed to be in no distress. He saw children playing, attended by watchful parents. It was peculiar. No, it was unique. A unique, magical artifact, created by a uniquely powerful black wizard. Or was it created with black magic? Was it possible the dome was created to protect the town? Perhaps it was created by a powerful white witch. But he had never heard of a white witch powerful enough to kill a wizard. He was eager to learn more. But he would have to delay his investigation of the dome and its creator until his assignment was completed.

He returned to his body just as the jailer and two men approached him. Both seemed shocked at his presence. The one without a uniform was terrified.

"I'm the peaceman for the town," the man said, completely unnecessarily. He was wearing his uniform! Did the man think he was blind? He suppressed his irritation. The peaceman was corrupt. But he saw no signs of complicity in violent crimes.

The other was overweight and dressed like a noble, though he wasn't one. His aura revealed exactly what he was. Totally devoid of scruples, morals, or common decency, and consumed with lust for power and wealth. What was left of his soul would be toyed with by demons very soon. He didn't need to read his soul, though. The terror on his face was practically a confession of wrongdoing. Obviously, he would have no reason to be scared if he wasn't guilty. The wizard almost laughed when he saw the decorative necklace the man wore. It glowed as murder weapons often do. What a bold fool, to carry his murder weapon to the trial! But he expected an easily deceived or bribed human judge. The man had a forced grin on his face. When the red wizard reached out and touched the murder weapon, the grin disappeared.

"Join me with the prisoner in the courtroom," the red wizard said.

Ten minutes later, the red wizard sent the former prisoner home, as he stood with one foot on the shrunken, dried corpse of the accuser. He'd drained him slowly. The mad deserved to suffer a little. He had personally framed the innocents who'd been convicted of his own murders and then executed. The wizard had passed his own test. He did not crave another victim. The jailer and the peaceman seemed to be in shock. The wizard snapped his finger. They became alert.

"How is it you were unable to tell the difference between a man who has murdered eight people and a simple, honest farmer?" the wizard asked the peaceman.

"He was the most important man in town," the peaceman said. "I trusted him."

The red wizard knew the peaceman had been shocked by the revelation of the murderer.

"So you never suspected a greedy, unscrupulous man. You suspected a minister's son. Your lords expect more of you. I saw in his mind that he has paid bribes to you, but not for any of the murders. My superiors will have to be informed of the bribes. I have not been authorized to judge you. Yet."

The peaceman looked shocked and terrified. He got on his knees and bowed his head.

"Stand up. Use your brain, from now on. And remember, you are supposed to uphold the law, not financially benefit from your position. If wealth is the most important thing to you, resign and find a new profession."

The peaceman nodded his head, many times.

"Yes, your highness. Is...is there a death sentence for accepting...bribes?"

"Normally, no. Years are taken from your life. The amount of the bribes and the circumstances determine how many."

The peaceman moaned and the smell of urine filled the air.

The red wizard disappeared, reappeared in front of his superior, the Red Wizard of Parville and gave a brief description of the trial and verdict.

"How dishonest was the peaceman?"

"Average. I scared him the usual way. I doubt he will dare break any laws, again."

Parville examined his aura. The Red Wizard of Elmland was not worried. He knew he had not broken his conditioning.

"Well done. The incident doesn't seem to have affected you," the elder red wizard said.

"My conditioning will hold. I will not go black."

"Good. You've always held potential, having more than a bit of Porfirio blood. I hope you realize that potential."

The Red Wizard of Elmland nodded. He disappeared. He most definitely did not mention the dome.

"Oh. That was incredible," Jim said, panting. I'd pulled him off the street, behind a large shrub. I'd gone a little crazy. I sucked him, I rimmed him, I chewed on his nipples and sucked on his balls. I'd had just enough magic left to intensify his orgasm. His semen had replaced my black mood with a stunning amount of pleasure and sense of complete well-being.

"Sex was never like this, before!" Jim said, breathlessly, as I nuzzled his semi-soft cock.

I was delighted to hear that.

"Do you really want to get married?" I asked him. 'You didn't say you would, just so you wouldn't feel compelled to marry this Jessica, did you?"

Jim smiled.

"You're worried I still love Jessie," he said.

"I'm sure she has a lot in common with your Jessie, and she is beautiful. Also, I'm worried how you will feel when I need to get magic from other men. I have a feeling just drinking man cream isn't enough."

"Why do you say that?"

"After you fucked me, when I licked the spunk off your dick, it didn't affect me at all. Even your precum does, when your dick is in my mouth."

Jim sighed. "Hmm. I can't say I will like it, but I had sex with other men while married to Jessie. It would be very hypocritical of me to say you can't. And you looked terrible just now. You still aren't glowing, which to my mind, means you need more cream. If Dan and I weren't able to help you when you get that way, you wouldn't have any choice. As to your other question, yes. I really do want to marry you. If I don't, someone else will. And they won't wait. I know this Jessica is your friend, but I'm not fond of her. I wouldn't have fallen in love with my Jessie, if she'd been like this one."

"I'm glad you feel that way. I think I need more magic that I can get from you and Dan," I said. "A lot more. I shouldn't allow myself to get weak several times a day, like I did, today. I have a feeling that's not healthy. And what if I encounter another wizard, during one of those weak moments?"

"Oh, Joe. I hadn't thought of that," Jim said. He hugged me.

"I love you so much, Jim."

"Oh, baby! I love you, too. You're right, and I'll get used to the idea. I'll figure out a way to enjoy it. If I'm fucking you while you are sucking someone else, I don't think it will bother me at all. I'll think of ways we can do it together."

I hugged him, tightly.

"I have an idea. David wants to pay you back," Jim said. "Why don't we let him?"

"You mean it?"

"Yes. You want him with Jessie, don't you?" Jim asked me.

"Yes, very much."

"Then you won't allow yourself to get too attached to him," Jim said.

I nodded.

"And you really want David's cock, don't you?" Jim asked. "Be honest with me, always."

"I want to suck his cock until he pumps jizz and magic into my mouth. I don't want a relationship with him. I want him to marry Jessica."

Jim nodded his head, slowly.

"I'll tell him that for curing his daughter and mother, you want his semen. I don't know how he'll react, he's kind of an idiot, but it's a small enough payment. Hell, he may feel better for giving you something for curing them."

"Let's go see David," Jim said. "He's bound to give you more milk than Dan can, right now.

"OK!"

Jim had us turnaround and turn down a side street.

"What are these streets like when it rains?" I asked.

Jim laughed.

"They're wet."

"I mean, are they a mess? Don't they turn into mud."

"Yes. That's what wet dirt does."

"Seems very messy."

"The town isn't big enough to afford cobblestones," Jim said.

"If a lot of men are...contributing, I could create them."

"I like that word. Contributing. We won't pay taxes for the streets, we'll empty our nuts."

I laughed.

"I hope the men of this town are up to it," I said.

Jim laughed hysterically.

If you enjoyed the story, please let me know.