Vestal Phases

After The Passing of the Veil, humanity retreats into the Maya because everyone knows a hyper-realistic virtual universe is more appealing than a barren nuclear wasteland. In the Maya, you can "phase" any place or any time, real or imagined. All physical senses are present, but biological urges (hunger, thirst, sleep, lust) are optional, and death itself has been rendered obsolete. It's reality, but better. Lawrence Padd is our witness to this new world, a regular Immersant who has received a strange message summoning him to The Auburn Palace, greatest brothel in the history of personkind. The Palace is home to the Dreamspeak Damsels-- ordinary women and girls bestowed with great powers of seduction and sensation. Veritable demigods, they are renowned not only for their bodies but their singing voices, which give the listener an opiate-like, hallucinogenic high. However, the epic pleasures of the Palace will not be easily obtained. Padd is a Repentant-- a cishet white male, lowliest of all demographics, forced to atone for his ancestors' sins through enforced social isolation. As he navigates the fantastical, strangely sinister vistas of humanity's true final frontier, he begins to have dreams featuring a deceptively familiar girl who preaches the end of all things. Though all Padd wants is to live his new eternity in peace, he soon finds himself caught between infinitely powerful forces that threaten existence itself.