18 Feb 2012
Evening
Niobe Thursby's flat

“This is pure stupidity,” Niobe Thursby said sinking down into her chair. Her girlfriend Foy was at the kitchen island, smiling. Their old school chum Athena Marrowbone walked back from where she’d hung her purse, she carried three small glass vials clinking together in her palm.[1]

“Well, that’s a laugh,” Athena grinned, head and shoulders taller than Foy. “Niobe Thursby, the voice of reason.”

Niobe, who had a well-documented history of being completely out of her nut with the risk-taking, lolled her head over with a groan. “You don’t know what it is.”

“She’s a healer, lovely,” Foy said. “Think of it as medicine.”

Athena laughed, “aye, no. No one’s said that! Muse has not been approved by the St. Mungo’s safety board. Just my cousin.”

“Her cousin! Grand!” Niobe threw her hands up.

“I’ve met her, yeah, she’s very sane,” Foy said as she got settled cross-legged on the lush shag rug.

“Oh, well sane. Sane as I am,” Athena said, altogether not reassuring. She moved to the chair opposite Niobe, bringing over the vials and a water pipe.

“You don’t have to join us,” Foy said to Niobe a little more seriously.

“We’re not pushers,” Athen added as she set to work preparing the kit.

“Meant to be an amazing trip,” Foy added. Even Foy’s jumpy business parter Giuseppe Stride had tried it.

Niobe wasn’t convinced. “They’re all different. You could get something weird.”

Foy looked to Athena for confirmation. “It’s meant to be unique to you, right? It’s pulling from the individual, yeah?”

Athena shook her head. “Probably? Benny said it reminded her of her Divination course. Like a vision.”

Foy shrugged, “right, whatever gives you pleasure. Like Amortentia. C’mon love, will you try?”

“I will bloody not,” Niobe said.

…

Athena was laid out long in the chaise, Foy kept her meditative pose on the rug and between them, the violet water pipe. Two empty vials lay nearby. Niobe held the third, still filled, in her hand. She’d watched them draw from the pipe and slowly drift off. They were still and quiet like they were asleep and dreaming.

Niobe had heard of Muse separate from Athena’s daring recommendation, as had Foy. It was expensive and concealed with a tense secrecy, not like gillyweed which passed freely from hand to hand. But everyone who’d heard of it said the same thing - there was nothing like it, they’ve never had better.

Behind Foy’s eyes a scene was filling in. It began as a smell - the salty smell of the sea. Then a chill wind hit her face. When she opened her eyes she gasped. She was flying and her first feeling wasn’t fear but joy and serenity. She was suspended by a kite-like wing and was soaring gently, must be a thousand feet up. She flew above a dark blue sea along  a jagged pine-forest coastline lined in white granite flecked with mica. A lobster trawler was a tiny dot below her. Out in the sea was a protective string of small islands. Little cottages and cabins peeked out of the thick forests. She flew this way for what felt hours, the natural scenery never ending. She shifted her weight to change direction but there was no urgency and the sea never came closer. Foy had never felt such calm.

Meanwhile, Athena was one of thousands in a pressed crowd.  The ground throbbed with a deep, beating bass and sweeping the throngs bright spinning spotlights in pink, green, and blue. Athena instantly noticed she didn't tower over everyone else, but swam shoulder to shoulder. The crowd moved like waves in synch to a driving music. At the front on a raised electric alter, a man in a grinning rabbit mask conjuring music from turntable. Athena danced, twisting and bouncing with her hands in the air, chest to someone, back to another. Eyes closed, she let herself go, sinking in and becoming one with everyone.

---

Later that night, Niobe lay awake watching her Foy toss and turn, muttering names Niobe had never heard before. In the morning, neither mentioned it.

1.

Muse