My name is Fiona Tyler. Until recently, I never really believed in the divine, in beings or people so powerful you had nothing else to call them but a god. I knew family and friends who were somewhat religious. They never pushed their ideas onto me and they were kind enough to answer my questions. I believed that the universe is bigger than we know and that we're probably never going to know absolutely everything that there is to know about...well...the universe.

But as I hand over the box of power cells I was ordered to deliver to this sublevel, and another woman in a bodysuit like mine takes it after checking off that it was received, I'm reminded of something.

I do believe in a god now. My master. The master of the girl in front of me. The master of every woman in this complex and soon the master of all New Houston's women.

King Kortex.

I witnessed his glorious form the day I was put into his service. I felt his power in my mind as he stripped away all my fear, my anger, my sadness. All that was left behind was a desire to serve, and to please. I felt so clean that day, so light, so joyous.

I felt like a lamb who found her shepherd at last. And like a good little lamb, I have followed him every day since.

I first met King Kortex after a very bad breakup with my ex-boyfriend. I found out he was cheating on me and we argued about it at a restaurant. Looking back, I don't feel any of the anger and humiliation I did over the next few hours. It was late at night, and I had a few drinks in me. Instead of taking the hoverbus back to my place, I decided I needed a walk to clear my head.

That's when the van pulled up beside me. The back doors opened and two women grabbed me, pulling me in and putting a patch on me that made me feel really sleepy.
I woke up in a large, brightly lit room full of women. All ages, all ethnicities, all from every stratum of society. Forty of us in total, I was later told. We were all confused. We were restrained to this chairs arranged in a circle. Then we started to scream when we saw what was in front of us. 

When the lights came on, we saw that there was a massive brain in a green tank of liquid in the center of the room. And I mean massive. The brain itself was maybe the size of a small bus. It had wires coming out of it, and there were women in black full body suits standing near us, looking at the brain with devotion.

That's when a voice boomed over the speakers. 

"Do not be afraid."

We all were terrified, naturally. Some screamed. Others tried to squirm away. I did both. But it was the voice again that brought me out of it. I felt like there was this enormous tentacle entering my mind, engulfing me, washing away my fear and anger. 

It was a voice that was speaking to the most intimate parts of me. Not just my mind, but...my soul, in a matter of speaking.

I knew with all my being that...I could trust this voice.

"I am King Cortex," the voice said. "I wish to give you a gift. You will have new lives, lives free of worry, anger, pain, and weariness. You will serve me, and I will care for you."

I still couldn't think but I felt so warm inside, so tranquil. I could almost feel King Cortex's voice wrapping itself around my body and holding me.

"I will give you peace, simplicity, sisterhood, purpose. Your lives will be so much easier now. You will live for me. You will work for me. Your every day will be for my glory and your happiness."

As the tentacles slithered through my mind, I felt so good, so loved. Like nothing mattered but him.

"You will be my brain-slaves," he told us. "You will remember your lives before this, but they will not matter. What matters is serving me, and only me. I will be your king, and you will be my loyal slaves."

As his tentacles moved deeper, I felt my whole life before that moment becoming irrelevant. My parents, my education, my friends, my ex-boyfriend...

He was the only thing that mattered.

After he was finished, he released us from our restraints and we were given the same uniforms the other brain slaves were wearing. Putting mine on for the first time felt like a baptism. It was a new life. My old life didn't matter.

"Who do you serve?" he asked us.

"We serve you, King Kortex!" we all shouted joyously.

We were taken to the dormatories after that, huge multilevel areas with different rooms filled with over a hundred bunk beds. Each level had its own bathrooms, cafeteria, and recreational space. All the doors to these places were unlocked. The king did not need locks. We would not go where we weren't allowed.

That was two weeks ago. I awake every morning in the bunkroom, bath in a large communal shower, and have my meals in a vast dining hall. 

And while I go about my duties, I find myself wondering about the nature of my master. I would never question or defy King Kortex, but I still find myself wondering where he came from.

Was he human at some point? A genius above all others? How did he wind up in a giant tank of liquid, how did his brain get so big?

Where did his powers come from?

I've seen him speak to people through his telepathy, even though he's miles away from them. How does that work?

As I carry a box filled with bottles of pills, I also ask myself if he was even born naturally or if he was the creation of someone else.

Maybe his creators didn't realize what they created. Perhaps he was just a regular human once, and something happened to him that made him evolve into something greater.  

But how?

How did my master come to be?