463 & 463a - Unnaturally Natural & A Mahid's Request

I was certain I was dreaming.  I sat upon the Imperial litter with the Regent’s Robe upon my shoulders.  My hands were both too naked and too heavy all at the same time.  Chevenga had taken my place behind and I could not see him.  We were in the procession with the Marble Palace looming in front of us.  He would be walking upon the ground.  He will be so happy to not have to be carried everywhere outside. 

He was smiling wide inside the Temple when the ritual did not call for a somber face and I could imagine the wide grin on his face now.  I was swallowed up in crowd noise, and sunlight and I floated on the noise.  The Gods… were not offended.  Aras… Muunas… Gods of my fathers’ help me. The boy was still only nineteen.  I was born solas.  What am I to do?

The robe was certainly splendid but the gold and silver lace at the neck dug into my skin.  I endured as if it were a full armoured parade in full sun. I have been learning.  Chevenga would be here for another moon… or most of one… whichever came first with passing over power.

Power.

I am not supposed to have power.

The responsibility… Cheng says they are one and the same.

I… was uncomfortable when I was centurion for five separate units of one hundred.  That was how the General managed to hide the fact that it was just me… just a solas commanding five hundred.  And after Anoseth there were no wars that Cheng deemed important enough to send me, so my commanding anyone… was stopped there. Until now.

The litter was set down safely in the Main Hall and the procession, like a military march, fell out of order.

Cheng was right there, laughing and thumping me upon the back. Minis was right there, smiling as if he wasn’t worried.  “Come along, Regent Imperator Elect,” Cheng said.

“Sheng!  Don’t call me that.”  I was suddenly blushing again. Would I never, ever grow out of such things?  It allowed me to hide nothing.

“One more little ritual.  Then we can sit down and have you two go over the next batch of letters.  Since they are mostly congratulations it will be fairly easy.  We’ll get into the constitutional stuff that Assembly is arguing later tonight.”  He was teasing me.

Rather than attempt to punch him… which would be both rude and vulgar in the extreme… and doubly so when he’d block me, I raised my left hand intending to cross fingers with him, but I froze.  My hand was weighted and covered in gold and naked at the same time.  My every gesture would mean something intensely different from now on. Cheng matched me, completing our loving little ritual of duel and love without saying a thing about my hesitation, my mind not being right there with him as it should be.

The instant his fingers touched mine the gold on my hands faded to what it was.  A mere symbol.  It was as if I could breathe once more. I smiled at him, our fingers warm together.

Minis excused himself to rid himself of his ritual finery and would join us after whatever private thing Cheng just needed me to do and the two of us went up to the Highest Office.  I tried not to show that I was still not comfortable with the clear drop under my feet and Cheng insisted I sit in THE office chair.  My chair… the study chair went to Chevenga.

He handed me the Imperial Book and I tried to be prepared just in case it made some kind of noise, since Cheng had said, when Minis had come in, that the Book had sung to him, but I was still startled when it did.

And on the twelfth page, was a startled looking image of me, an unnaturally natural depiction.

**
All of my things had already been moved into the Imperial Section, the Young Sun suite.  Ilesias would have been moved into the Heir’s suite and Kallijas would stay in the Imperial, of course.

I thought I had accumulated a lot of things but it was only enough to fill one side of one of the closets and I found that the bulk of what I had bought was books, which I passed on to the Imperial Library should they find them useful. 

Through some weird cat sense, the big white cat was already upon the bed, shedding his hairs onto the pillows.  I should name him one day… and then I thought of an apocryphal story cut from the Holy Book centuries ago.  The one about Muunas’s cat.  The priests had decided that the High God could not possibly have a cat and removed it from the book but that cat had been named Altras.

One of the stars in the sky was named Altras and none of the books could tell me which one was named for the other.

“Would you like the name Altras?” I asked the cat as several of the servants… their names I hadn’t learned yet – were disrobing me.  It was worse than armour.  He didn’t respond but it seemed like a good name.

“Thank you, all,” I said after they’d lifted the last heavy piece of gem and cloth of gold encrusted clothing off.  “May I request a half tenth before I re-dressed to begin my work?”

They were surprised, either at the request for privacy or for me intending to actually do Imperial work. “Of course, Spark of the Sun’s Ray, Elect.”

“Thank you, but if you like you may call me by name,” I said.
They genuflected, confused, but less so after years of Yeolis.

The suite wasn’t anything like the Heir’s suite.  It wasn’t covered in silver for one thing.  More like the Imperial chambers but a more subdued version with a green and gold hallway leading to the Lesser Baths rather than just a set of double doors.

“Is there a chapel in this suite?” I asked one of the servants before he left.

“Exalted… Minis… it is there.” He pointed with his chin, to a door tucked discretely behind a carved screen with a fountain before it.

“Thank you.”

I was in my underclothing and nothing else and that seemed appropriate.  I let myself into the little chapel room that was just big enough for a tiny altar and space to lie down.  It was old enough that the Ten were all there, the mosaic depicting them behind the Table of Judgment.  Also an old idea, that all Ten had some say in a man’s life.
 
I laid myself down upon the stone and stretched my fingertips up to just short of the altar.  I wasn’t sure what to say.
 
I had… sinned.  I had given in to fleshly desires and in the process perhaps corrupted an innocent soul.  Kyriala wouldn’t have known about any of the things that Gannara and Farasha and I were doing if… well, Farasha had told her.  It wasn’t my fault, but I didn’t think the Gods truly cared about that.

“Muunas… Ten Gods… forgive me for allowing myself to spread this licentiousness to someone else.  Forgive me for having succumbed to it before marriage in Your sight. I’m sorry, Gods.  I’m sorry.  I… I… realize… I know that other races do these things, the Yeolis and the Gybir and even the Haians in a way… I.  They.  Gods forgive me.  I cannot see them as lesser people even if they are the colour of dirt or have hair and eyes the colour of dirt.

“Forgive me, but Haians have always been my physical salvation and Ch’venga was my salvation as a child… You accepted him as Imperator so he cannot be a lesser man.  Forgive me please, if I have sinned… Gods, please guide me, please.  I am afraid I have re-opened my road to Hayel.  Gods, let Kyriala be all right.  Let Kyriala be held innocent of any wrong doing.  She does not deserve to be dragged to Hayel by the urges of my vile organs.  Let me take on any sin involved, if evil was done, let me pay.”

I lay until a servant tapped upon the chapel door.  Unlike the Imperial chapel or the Great Temple the small chapels in the Marble Palace or in other manor houses were not nearly as uncanny or dangerous.
 
It was Mikras, the one servant I recognized. “Serin?  Is the exalted ready to be dressed?”
 
I dragged myself to my knees and said ‘One moment, please.”

I had asked for guidance and had felt nothing but cold stone. Perhaps the holy book resting upon the altar would have more answers for me.  I flipped open the book and it fell opened to the once blank ones. One page stood vertical for a moment, then fell to the side, revealing its face.

On that page, in coloured pencil, someone had drawn their idea of the Holy Marriage between Muunas and Selinae, in loving detail.

463a - A Mahid's Request

The menagerie of Creatures most Toxic and Most Elegantly Venomous was just off the Mahid quarters.  The other sun-tunnel in this area, deep in the Marble Palace was in one room, to nurture those noxious things that craved the sun.  The front room was dim and cool.  The glass tanks and terrariums glistened bluish in the artificial night and First Amitzas’s white robe shone as the brightest thing within.

Inensa stood between the double set of doors that protected the rest of the Marble Palace should any of the specialized and deadly beasts inside escape, or hatch outside the protection of their glass prisons.  The inner door was a clear glass sheet, letting anyone see that all was well before opening it.

Her father was one of the only people willing, indeed happy to enter, though it was unlikely that anything dangerous would get loose.  She touched rod in the wall that rang the bell inside and he looked up.  He nodded her in.

The door opened with a stiff hiss releasing the scent of cool moisture, green damp, rotting wood.  Most of the creatures in this room were the sorts found in the dark, moist places under logs and rocks, deep in caves or hidden in leaf mold.  She paced forward to stand just to one side as her father gently placed a drop of water on a leaf, placed it delicately in the open tank next to him, held out his hand, flat against the table.

On his glove a striped grub quivered and the enormous silvery spider loose on the table froze before lunging to seize the writhing orange and black worm, with fangs and the pointed tips of all eight feet.

Amitzas gently tipped the spider and the grub into the tank and closed the lid neatly, then slid it back into its niche in the wall, turned and replaced the cloth over his gloves.

“Honourable father.” Inensa dipped her knee.

“It is pleasant to see you out of your confinement, cherished daughter.”

“How are the creatures belonging to Arko?”

“Nicely, daughter.  As you can see I’ve finally gotten my Tiger worm to eat in captivity.”

She peered into the tank and saw the spider quivering in a folded ball, the stripped grub on the upturned abdomen.  “It is the worm that is valuable, not the spider?”

“Quite.  Once the worm pupates, the moth is the source of a very rare and peculiar toxin.  The silver hunting spider… is more common and I have sufficient.”

“I have a question, my father.”  She smoothed out her breath.  “A request.  And a concern, if I am the woman’s Senior.”

“You most certainly are, my dear.  I suggest the concern first, followed by the question, and the request finally.”

“Yes, father.  The concern... how are the next generation of Mahid to be raised?”  Her hands, clasped on her middle, flattened for a moment.  “Who are we to be?”

“That is two questions, not a concern; what is your concern?”

“Are we to cease to exist as an institution?  My concern is about the family.”

“We already have ceased to exist as an institution.  The fate of those of us who remains lies with the Imperator... or perhaps Assembly.”  But his voice slowed as he answered, considering.  “Indeed, it might be the Assembly who decides our continued fate.  However concerned you may be, you will have to accept our fate, whatever it is.”

She nodded.  "It... seems to me that we... as we were... were vulnerable to abuse and misuse when reflecting only the Imperator.”  It was tremendously daring for her to say such things and he stood for a long moment, the dim blue light shining in the folds of his robe and from his spectacles.

Inensa drew breath and continued.  “Mahid... have always served.  The Yeoli Imperator and I spoke of this on election night.”

“We lived only the will of the Imperator.  If it was His will we suffer, we suffered... if you are asking something, I don’t understand it... what was this conversation, with Shefen-kas?”

“I... mentioned how we... as Mahid... served the Empire... rather like the Yeoli semanakraseye serves his people, when we were allowed to.”  The faint shift of his brows, the twitch of lip displayed his puzzlement.  “ When we were allowed to be the best of ourselves.”

He considered, then stepped over to another tank and checked the occupant before answering her.  “He and we are the same in that we have ultimate loyalty, yes... for him to the people of Yeola-e, for us, to the Imperator.”

“Yes.  Shefenkas and I spoke of how the Imperator now serves all of Arko... in a sense we may serve all of Arko.  A higher purpose, perhaps?  He said, “May the Mahid be allowed to be their best and leave the worst of themselves behind.””

“Shefenkas... did give me that,” he said.  She followed behind him and gazed at the lizard inside in silence.   “He...”  Amitzas paused to collect his thoughts rather than to make a point - very unlike him.  “He did not order me to work with Haians to formulate new medicines.”  This time the silence between them was filled by a long, drawn out buzz from somewhere in the room, followed by a ‘zikking’ noise and then a deep, almost chest rattling hum.  She waited for a moment more, when quiet fell once more.

“I... am not sure I understand, Honoured Father.”  She said and turned her head to look at him.  Shall I ask?  “Did he give you the choice?”

“You do not understand because I am shy to give you all the information... pardon me, dear daughter.  Yes.  He did.  He asked me... what I... wished... to do.”

She straightened and rather than display any kind of startlement, turned to look a jar with a slowly moving glowing reddish paste on one of the walls.

“It is... a higher purpose.” Her father continued, very, very quietly.  “The medicines that Haians use benefit the whole world, not even just Arko.  And it is...”  He paused for four or five more breaths. “…a blessing.”   He wishes to do this.  More than anything he was required to do before.  He is happy doing this.

Is happiness allowed for all Mahid? “Might... might the Mahid be allowed... as a whole... to pursue such a greater good?  We, as a family, have been very good at pursuing excellence.”

It was less a motion, or lack thereof, but her impression was that she had surprised him.  She had not though she could.  I have given him a new idea to think about, she thought, even as the faint shadow of expression faded.

“The Mahid as a whole is but three men.  We might each ask... young Ilesias is a guard in training, and Joras... is half fessas glassblower.  It is almost not worth speaking of the Mahid as a whole.  Perhaps just as well; he who would let us choose is gone now.”

“My... son...” She touched the motherstone she now openly wore.  “Is subject to Assembly... thus, are not the Mahid subject to Assembly?  As we were, we would be entirely unacceptable and thus could not request … redemption... shall we say.  We... do we not... may we not... request permission to pursue our greater selves?  For the Empire?”

“I believe all is subject to Assembly, now,”  He was still confused, she could tell.  “But I would think the Imperator... would expect us to ask for any permissions of... or perhaps more correctly through... him.”

She nodded.  “Would it be right for us to ask?”

“I think we may ask anything, but I will not do so until I understand what I am asking.  Redemption is available only through the Gods.  To pursue our greater selves for the Empire... what thoughts are in your mind, my daughter?”

“As we were... we were a reflection of an insane person, forgive me for speaking so of the dead...”

“You are forgiven,” he said drily.  He understands what I do not wish to say.

“Thank you... but we were all made insane... we had no choices... we had no responsibility for our obedience... as such we should not continue... and I doubt that Arko... the Assembly... would want us.”

The heat in the room was intense, the sun glittering off similar glass cages, the scent in the enclosed space that of dry and dust and desert.

“No.  They do not.”  He gestured for her to accompany him through the door into the sun-room.  “My daughter, do you consider yourself insane, and without choices?”

“If my silence in the face of what is right, is insanity... then I was for a long time.  I do not know if I might be considered so now.  I do not know, and have not been trained, in how to choose, with wholeness, and with correct thought.”  She turned to look at an oddly spiraled glass cage directly under the sun-tunnel rather than look at him as she struggled to explain herself.  “I... find myself desiring things... like the knowledge that this child....”  Her hand flattened once more, as she went on.  “That this child will be raised as a Mahid but as a sane one.... one allowed to choose... one allowed to serve... all Arko if that child wills.”

He stopped where he had been adjusting the sun louvers.  His hands dropped and his head tilted forward thoughtfully.  The two of them stood for long moments while he thought of what she said.  A trickle of sweat ran down her back and she ignored it, waiting his response.

“My daughter,” he said finally, turning to look straight at her. “I can train you how to be one who chooses, in one sentence.”  She waited.  “It is this: for sentient creatures at least, the idea that we have no choices is a delusion.  They may be harsh, but they are always there.  Even for Mahid, when Kurkas was alive.”

The idea was like knife driven into flesh. “How can this be true?  If I believe this. we are condemned and doomed before the Ten, because I obeyed, despite all pain and suffering I might have felt and suppressed.  My correctness, was my condemnation.  So my choice is to do either.  I... we... are forzak either way.  So it does not matter what I choose…”  The only sign of her distress was a slight quiver along her hem and that could have been her mere breath, rather than unseemly emotion of any kind.

“Except to the other, whom your choice affects.”  His voice was intent.  The voice of a Senior, instructing.  She considered and it was his turn to stand in silence while she absorbed an idea.

She gazed at him, calmly, drew breath and dared say what was always unsaid. “Our actions always affect others.”

“Precisely.”  He turned away from her.  “Hand me that dipper, if you would, daughter.”  She unknotted her hands and picked a glass dipper out of a jar of a clear solution and proffered it to him. “Until we can think and speak that freely,” he continued as he took it, wiped it carefully on a clean towel.  “We are Kurkas’s Mahid, and it is just as well that we disappear.”

“But what if we can speak and think that freely?”

“Then we deserve to live, and we can fulfill a higher purpose for the Empire.”  At his explanation her abdominal muscles relaxed a fraction.  She had not been holding her breath but had been very tempted to do so.

“Then we come to my request, Honoured Father.”  He dipped the utensil into a web suspended above the sand in a round glass jar, scooped a white, fuzzy pod the size of a thumbnail into it.  Closed the tank and transferred it to a darkened wooden box to one side.  “With this thought in mind,” she began.  “I request access to the sealed and forbidden archive of the Mahid.  That I may find the best of the ancient Mahid.  Should anyone be interested.”

This time she did hold her breath, like an apprentice, like a beginner in self control.  He turned to her, one eyebrow going up a fraction, implying several things at once. You know about the forbidden archives? You wish to find something in them concerning the family?  But his face smoothed out with so much as an approving or disapproving twitch of lip. 

He held out the dipper that now was beginning to emit a greenish gray smoke in the sunlight reflected around the room.  “Place that back where it belongs.”

As she did, he nodded, the tiniest dip of his head.  “You have my permission for such access, respectable daughter” he said very formally.   

462 - Is it a Sin?

Dear Goddess, what have I done?  Selinae forgive me.  I’ve sinned in so many ways.  I was drunk, I was herbed, I have no excuses.  It felt so good.  It felt… I’ve never felt anything like that before.  She offered to show me... Fara… she… I’m supposed to be afraid of the dark races, did she corrupt me? Set my feet on the road to Hayel?

The Haian… the Haian is dark but the Fenjitza said that what the Haian did… as painful as it was, as debilitating as it was… it hurt when I woke up but only a tiny bit compared to when… when I was purified.  Purified.  The Fenjitza said… she even said the Fenjitzas used to not do purifications properly because it hurt girls too much… she said I needed to speak to him.

Goddess.  Goddess.  It felt so good.  It felt like a wave washed over me and it was wonderful and warm and lifted me out of myself.  How can that be sinful?  How can that be wrong?  Do men feel that too?  No wonder they do it so much and think about it so much.

I don’t understand why they would want that feeling while ugly things are happening in front of them, like the sex boys in the Mezem, or like what the old Imperator did.  If he felt that when he executed someone… ew.  That… that would be a sin.

Gannara is nice even though his hair and eyes are dark… I like him, he likes me.  He would never hurt me. He likes… even loves Minis.  I didn’t realize he loved him quite that way but… Minis liked it.  Gannara had this look on his face as though he were seeing something amazing… then Farasha had her fingers on me…

On my nipples and we were kissing and watching the boys and then she touched me right between the legs and I was able to feel her touch me, deep inside the folds that the Haian opened.  And then the wave came just before the boys cried out.

I stood in the Temple, watching the seals being transferred to Kallijas’s hands.  If there are no paintings of this afterwards, Arko has no imagination. My fan wafted slightly cooler air before my face.  I could feel myself blush and pale alternately even as the ceremony continued, wanting desperately to hide from the Goddess’s stone gaze but I couldn’t or mama would realize something was wrong, something was bothering me.

Today I was not flouting the old dress style and the layers of dress and under dress and petticoats and underthings hung as oppressively hard on my shoulders as my thoughts and my worries hung on my mind.  The difference was that I was suddenly aware of the feeling between my legs, the slipperiness and heat there.  Not just sweat.  I found herself wondering what uncut women felt.

How can they get anything done if they are more sensitive than I am here?  They’d rub themselves at every step!  Oh, Goddess I’m sorry.  I’m sorry.  Is that wrong?  The herb made me relax… and I breathed it in of my own will.

The pehaka… tasted so good and I went… there.  Where sex was not only possible but easy.  Fun.  Goddess why am I made that way if it is wrong, or a sin?

I always liked that hymn. My Refuge… Are women supposed to deny themselves those feelings?  Is it a temptation?  Is that why it is sinful?  But that is so cruel. Farasha is so free.  She’s dark… she’s not fair like an Arkan… but she’s one of my best friends.  She’s easy to work with.  She’s very practical.  Goddess…

I closed my fan and there was no room for the crowd to kneel for the prayer so I raised my hands to my temples, pressed hard against Mama on the one side and trying not to elbow Nuninibas in the head on the other.

“… For Thine is the Power
The Glory and the Dominion.
Today, Tomorrow, Forever and Ever. Amen.”

I found tears welling up and standing in my eyes.  Goddess. I… will try to speak to a dekina afterwards.  I have to.  I just have to speak to someone about this and mama would be horrified.  She’d probably lock me in my room with only water for a week, to fast for my sinfulness.

**

“Mama,” I said quietly as the crowd began streaming out of the Temple, the slow, conversational shuffle as the mass of people inched their way to the doors.  “I’d like to stay and pray a while.  I’m overcome with it all.”

“Oh, of course dear.  I’ll leave Kialli as your attendant.  May we go, my son?”

“I wanna go play with Ili, mama.  He said he wanted to… and Ailadas said he’d have an interesting project for us when the ceremony was done.  So, Bilabas can walk me over and you can go home.”

“Lovely idea.  Thank you.”

Kialli laid mama’s shawl upon her shoulders and moved to stand ready to hold my wrap or my fan should I wish it and we waited for the crowd to clear, though it would not entirely.  Others like me were staying behind to pray, or sing or stand in the light before the statue of their God or Goddess. A fair number of people were standing in the centre, or slowly walking the tile pattern in to the centre of the Kahara spot… the Espiritas Efa.

I waited until the floor was mostly clear and the sun was slanted throught the roof before I walked toward Selinae.  I couldn’t raise my eyes above her skirts, her knees.  I sank to my knees and put my hands up but when I did, my mind stopped working.  I sank back on my heels and just let the feeling of dread roar through me.  Perhaps this was my just punishment for having done… having enjoyed…

I sat, until a hand touched my shoulder.  “Serina Kyriala,” the Fenjitza, Narilla, said quietly. That was when the tears started running down my cheeks, though I set my teeth on a sob.  It just would not do to show unseemly emotion.

“Come…”  I got up blindly, wiped my wet face discretely with one of my handkerchiefs and just as blindly handed it to Kialli to tuck away to be washed later.  “You may stay here and pray while I speak privately to your mistress,” she said to Kialli. 

Narilla led me to a tiny room behind the Goddess statue that I had never seen before and sat me down on an overstuffed chair and put a mug of kaf laced with cream and sugar, straight into my hands.  “What’s wrong?”

“I…I…” I started hiccupping and crying at once.  “I’m… frightened that… I’ve… sinned.”

“I will be able to tell you for sure if you have or have not, Kyriala.” Somehow her silver mask was easier to look at than a naked face and her eyes and mouth were warm, even with the edges of ruined skin showing. For her, the full face mask was not oppressive but a mercy.  “Drink your kaf and dry your face and tell me.”

So matter of fact.  So straight forward.  She had seen so much pain, and was the expert on sexuality in Arko, since the House of Masks had turned out to not be the brothels everyone thought they were… or not merely brothels.  I sipped and managed to catch my breath and sipped again. “I… well… Minis and Gannara and Farasha and I… well… we… last night...” She waited, quietly, hands folded in her lap.  “At the party Farasha and I talked and she said we women should probably take the initiative with the boys or they would be dancing around the idea of marriage until we all fell over dead…” She smiled at that, but didn’t interrupt me.  “I thought… since the three… um sleep together and have a healer helping the boys with… with their… sexuality…” I managed to spit that out and had another sip of kaf.

“And you were going to either watch or participate?”  She didn’t seem terribly surprised.  I nodded.

“I… well Farasha… so brown… so dark… and she had Minis… um...” I took a deep breath.  “He put his lips on her.”

“Between her legs you mean,” Narilla said.

I gasped a little but nodded.  “And then… well Gan started touching him while he was doing that and then…”

“The boys had sex?”

“And Farasha kissed me, and touched me while they did and I felt something I’ve never felt before and I’m frightened that it’s a sin and I KISSED Minis after he yelled out and…” I buried my face in the heavy mug, feeling the steam paint my fiery cheeks.

“I see,” she said.  “Kyriala… are you worried about Farasha being dark skinned and Gannara being dark haired?  Or are you more worried about the sex?”

I think I yelped at that, and covered my mouth with my one hand.  “Sorry… I… it’s the dark races that are supposed to be further away from Celestial purity and the foreigner who is the gate to Hayel through licentiousness…”

“This sensation you felt… you went to see a Haian about your purification?”  I nodded.  “And how did that go?”

“All right… I was only a week healing up and she said it was not nearly as bad as it could have been.  Mostly… covered up… inner scarring that she opened and my courses have been easier since… even using the garderobe doesn’t hurt any longer.”

“Excellent.  Now… what you felt.  I believe you have actually had a climax.  Women have them as well as men.  You all took care to get neither of the girls pregnant?”

“YES… well the boys had… Minis… gave himself to Gannara and Farasha kissed me… can I get with child from that?”

“No, Kyriala.  One of the boys would have had to climax inside you or just outside your womb-channel.  The Haians call that the vagina.”

My face surely would burn paper it was so hot.  I set the mug down and opened my fan to cool my flaming skin.  “Oh.”

“Selinae is most concerned with two things, once the question of whether children were engendered is past.  One, was everyone there by consent?”

I nodded.  “Yes.”

“And two, were anyone’s wishes violated?”

I was able to shake my head no.  “Everyone… I was afraid I had too much fun…”

She actually laughed a little and it eased my heart no end.  “Kyriala.  You needn’t worry.  You did not sin.  Your friends did not lead you into darkness.  Be careful of Selinae’s commandments.  Force no one.  Listen to your partner.  Love.  And I suggest you read Muunas’s song to His Wife and consider it.”

It was like an enormous weight lifted off my heart.  “I will.  Narilla… how do I deal with… these between the legs feelings?  I mean I cannot… Farasha and Gannara are going to be away all summer and Minis… I don’t want to shock him… He’d think less of me…”

“I truly don’t think he would, Kyriala.  But if you find yourself pre-occupied with those feelings… here.”  She handed me a tiny booklet that was so small it fit into one of my glove pockets, hidden in the palm of my hand.  “It will tell you what to do to bring on another climax and relieve the distracting thoughts.  You might want to buy some nice, light oil in the market on the way home.  Preferably lightly perfumed, if at all.”

“Oh? Oh.” I was suddenly on fire with curiosity about the contents of the little book.  “Thank you, Narilla.”

“Once you've read through it and thought about it for a bit, if you have any questions, either invite me for kaf and we can talk about it, or come and pray and we'll have a chat afterwards.”

She rose and held out her arms as if she were my mama and I much younger and I took her hug gratefully.  It was as if she were forgiving me, even if I’d truly done no wrong.
______________________


AN:  I will be trying to post tomorrow, but I cannot promise.  I will be at Ad Astra SF convention in Toronto.  Cheers!
 

461 - For Thine is the Power

If we do anything really well, it is extravagant ritual, I thought as I pulled at the bottom hem of the tunic I was wearing.  It was an ancient style, much shorter than I was used to. Skorsas and I had dug out the description of the last regency regalia, and I had been able to exactly describe it to the tailor from the image in the Imperial Book.

As an underage claimant to the Crystal Throne I was, technically, not the Imperator Elect but the Spark of the Sun’s Ray, Elect.  So I wore that tunic style and the Regent Imperator Elect’s robe had already been delivered to the Temple.  I understood that the tailors had been up, working all night.  I hoped they’d started before the vote... or somehow had a lot of the work done before hand.

We were all arranged in the Great Hall, behind the closed Steel Gate, Chevenga already sitting in the Imperial Litter hoisted up on the shoulders of eight Aitzas bearers.  The Imperial Robe looked a lot better on him than any time my father had worn it.  He looked thoughtful instead of hung over, with the true Imperial sword lying sheathed across his knees.

Kallijas stood behind him, surrounded by... of all people... Dekinae of Dimae.  For some reason not in the text, the Regent was always protected by that particular Goddess.  But instead of ceremonial bows too small to draw, with golden arrows, these women were all armed with full sized single-shot bows, with gilt tips and gilded arrows as long as my arms, wearing the form-fitting ‘hunting’ garb usually worn by men, but in white.

Then it was my turn, I had on sandals that were covered in sun-stone chips and gold ribbons winding up my legs.  My kilt was white with the rigid panel in front showing a gold sunburst.  The flames from that sun proceeded up the black shirt I wore, to the shoulders, thinning out there. I had a train attached to my shoulders three times as long as I was tall, in various colours of gold with some silver in it... it flickered in sunlight when I moved and was very hard to look at.  I had pages in white to hold up my train so I wouldn’t strangle myself in the procession.  It was funny, every page had a skull-cap with a spinning wheel of crystals at the crown that threw off sparks of light.  Also blinding.

People were going to find it very hard to see me at all.  My guard were Dekinas of Mikas... specifically Fire Makers, Steam Wielders, Fire-works Masters.  I guessed it made an odd kind of sense... if I was a Spark they had to be there to control me, I suppose.

The following procession was all the other priests and priestesses of the other eight gods, in order, in their ranks, and full regalias.  Even the God and Goddess’s animals were there, ridden or led or held by their priestly handlers.  Everything from Muunas’s Golden Eagle held on a shoulder perch that must have weighed almost more than the bird, stretching out to a vertical rest that the priest could pick up, to the white oxen and white ferrets of the Freed Gods.

It was surprisingly quiet as we finally settled into our order. One of the God’s horses shat and it was quickly cleaned up, just as the Noon Chime sounded and the Gates were swung open to the sea-sound of the crowd outside.

Thank the Ten I wasn’t hung over myself, or the sun would have hammered in the Gate and just killed me stone dead.  I was feeling more than a little delicate, sore in odd places under my finery.  Worried.  Should I have done that last night?  I mean... it was wrong wasn’t it? I had no more time to think about that, it was time to move.

With a firm and swinging step, the litter bearers marched out of the Steel Gate where servants waited with the ceremonial umbrellas, all out of cloth of gold.  Someone had suggested to Skorsas that we borrown Itzan’s mammoka for Chevenga to ride on but he firmly nixed that... after considering it for long enough to make Chevenga squirm.

It was unreal, stepping out and down the Steel Gate steps... it would be Kallijas carried back on the litter.  I had another two years to go before I was no longer allowed to walk on the earth.  My sandals tapped on the bridge over the Presentation fountains.  The wind misted water from them, cool against my skin.

There was no sign of the raucous party that had held sway in the square last night, all swept away as if by magic.  Everyone in the crowd... they smelled of perfume and fresh sweat, not stale.  Everyone had come to this cleansed.  It was all new.  It was all different. I could hear the glass bells and the choir already, all the way across the square.  It was an ecstatic hymn of welcome and praise, the chorus picked up and repeated by the crowd already inside the Temple, waiting.

The litter bearers did not stop at the open Temple door, but carried Chevenga straight in.  As they stepped through the doorway the Fenjitzas came from the right and the Fenjitza from the left and  they flanked him on either side, all the way up the central aisle, over the Espiritas Efa, the ‘All Spirit’ mark Chevenga had left on the Temple floor in his last Ten Tens, up to the image of Muunas.

The choir held the high note, fading as though the singer were flying away, and we all managed to get ourselves stopped upon our tiny marks upon the floor.  Thank goodness we had to move slowly or we would never have managed it without all these people getting in each other’s way.

The Fenjita and Fenjitzas raised their hands to Chevenga.  “Will the Son of the Sun descend to us?”  Equal to equal.  I had to smile to myself.  Chevenga had to put up with a certain amount of ‘raising him up’ but when it came to public spectacle he could only take so much.

The litter was lowered with ponderous dignity, and Chevenga descended to stand between them.  He was moving carefully because of the sheer weight of the full, formal Imperial robe with the separate high, gem-encrusted collar and...well, it was almost a breast-plate of gems coming down over his shoulders.  Moving that slowly would bother him, I knew.  The train, attached to the collar, made mine look short.

“Ivaen Shefenkas Shae-Aranoi, have you heard the call of Arko to relinquish the Imperatorship and service to the people of Arko to another?”

“I have.”

“Are you willing to relinquish it?”

“The people wills.” He handed the Imperial sword to the Fenjitzas who reverently placed it in Muunas's right hand.

Chevenga raised his arms out to us, to the crowd and they cheered him, even as the choir began “My Refuge, Most High.”  He held his pose until the end and when the chimes began, lowered his arms.  The smile on his face was broad and wonderful to see.  His joy in this ritual just radiated from every part of him.

“Minis Kurkas Joras Amitzas Aan, come forward.”  The High priest and priestess must have practiced this between them; they spoke so smoothly together that they sounded like one person.

I stepped out to pace forward, to kneel before the three.  “I answer to Arko’s call, by the legal vote... but I am too young,” I said as clearly as I could.  Ancient, modified words.  At least one Imperator had been a babe in arms and his nurse had spoken them for him.

“Is there a trusted man to carry the burden of the Crystal Throne till your majority?”

“There is,” Kallijas answered from behind me.  There was a tiny shuffle as my pages managed to get my train lifted up with a minimum of clicking and scratching of gemstones on marble.  Then I was able to step back and let Kallijas take my place before Chevenga and the Fenjitzae under Muunas’s eyes.

“Who have the people of Arko voted for to take up the Regency?”

“I, Kallijas Itrean, Aitzas, Champion of Arko.”

“It is good in the eyes of the Ten. Let us pray.” The Fenjitza, on Chevenga’s left, cupped her hands around Chevenga’s left hand, while the Fenjitzas did the same on his right.

“Oh Most High Father In Selestialis
Holy be Thy names
Ten, Thy Kingdom come
Thy Decree be done
On earth as it is in Selestialis
May we be purified
In Thy sight
For Thine is the Power
The Glory and the Dominion
Today, tomorrow, Forever and Ever.  Amen.”

“Kallijas Itrean, Aitzas, prepare to receive your power and your responsibility.”  I knew where that line came from.  He raised his hands to his temples and then held them up before Chevenga.  The Choir sang and held a note… an eerie, partially exaultant, partially frightened sound as Chevenga removed the seal from his left hand and placed it on Kallijas’s.

Silence.  And he lowered that hand back to his head, to the prayer position.

The sound from the choir for the right hand was, if anything, even more eerie and I realized there was a ringing from the glass instruments undercutting the voices.  When Kallijas’s right hand also touched his temple, completing the prayer gesture, they cut the sound off and in the quiet I could hear one man cough in the whole crowd.

The crowd and the choir began chanting ‘Yesterday, Tomorrow, Forever.” 
 
The Fenjitza helped him off with the Imperial collar and train and then the robe… which followed the sword.  They would remain there… in the Hands of God… until the day I attained my majority, did my Ten Tens and had them laid upon me.  Under the robe, the Arkan Imperium, Chevenga wore the black and white demarchic shirt and a Yeoli kilt, symbolizing his transformation from Arkan Imperator to Yeoli Semanakraseye once more.

“Yesterday…. Today… Tomorrow…” and… still faintly… ‘Forever,” from the Mahid in the guard around us. The Fenjitzas laid the Regent’s robe over Kallijas’s back, where he knelt in prayer, arranging the fringed points all around him in a pool of gold and red.

“Yesteday… TODAY… TOMORROW…. forever!”  Around and around the words flew, layers of sound building and building… Kallijas rose and turned, Chevenga put his hands upon his shoulders and he raised the seals to the crowd who burst into cheering in the midst of the chant.

It rang from the distant ceiling and the corbels above, it set the Imperator’s glass hands ringing on their wall.

And then at last people’s throats gave out and Kallijas gave everyone the bow of obedience, climbed into the Imperial litter and was raised up upon the shoulders of his people.  He wasn’t blushing.  Most people would think his pallor was normal.  Chevenga walked out next to him, one hand upon Kallijas’s knee… in support.

And we followed the new Regent Elect out into the sunshine once more, into the swelling roar of the crowd outside.  “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow!”

460 & 460a - Relations and We Deserve Not to Die

I tell yah, Nuni, life just doesn’t get much better for a writer, ‘less its workin’ for the Pages at their pay rates.  But the Donkey’s Mouth gets better n’ better with all the women and okas readers.  I got good stuff outa the new Imperator Regent and Imperator elect’s campaign... lots of odd and wild women there...  cross castes... cross jobs.  The conservative Aitzas are gonna be screamin’ that the world is coming to an end.  Dyers of all castes and glass ornaments pierced through lips and eyebrows and ears and noses. 

Just between you me n’ the button on the door, one boy showed me other piercings... privately. They... well... let’s say they are not painful even if they look it.

Anyway, Nuninian, I have to tell you... you need to buy the next two issues of The Mouth... I have a couple of really interesting stories in it.  The one about the Mahid horses... it got held till now, for some reason, ask the editor... it’s his choice...  And I got an exclusive talking to the Imperator Elect’s little brother.  Mostly about his exotic pet but he’s a talker that boy.

My strangest story... I swear on my best kaf pot... I got on the roof of the Marble Palace, with the Imperator Elect’s mother.  Yeah.  Her. AND her father... The White Snake himself.  The new Imperial family is going to be giving me fodder for the Mouth for YEARS and that’s without any word of scandal at all at all!

Take a creepy, weird Mahid or two and tell them they have to be normal, without head injury.  It’s like watching walls get smashed down and you’d expect to hear screaming and see burning... it’s like watching a city burn but all behind their eyes...  You don’t want to know why Mahid did’t usually keep pets.

The old man... the old white snake... he had a tiny gold kitten that sits on his neck or his lap, digging under the cloth he throws over his hands... very old school.  “A gift from young Ilesias... First Ilesias that is, not my titular grandson.”

See, the new Sparky... Ilesias Aan... was the throw from another line of Mahid... he’s really a fourth cousin or something... I’ll be checking.  His mom killed herself in the sack with the others.

Sorry about the kaf ring on this letter, I’m drinking a kind that I think only the Marble Palace gets.  Rho grows it, did you know?  Very exclusive stuff.

Anyway, the two black dogs of the Imperium, the new Imperator Elect’s acknowledged family... were just sitting there, drinking wine and even taking herb under the awning and under the flagstaff that announced to the city that Blusher and Sparky had won the election.  Being the shy, retiring person that I am – you know me, Nuni – I stomped right up and asked if the chair across from them was taken.  She gave me the fishy eyeball and very properly deferred to her father.

His face is very mobile for a Mahid, especially an old Mahid and one eyebrow went up at me, clearly questioning my sanity for approaching.  “No, the chair is unoccupied, should you care to sit.”

“This one thanks the exaulted Ser.”  I set my note pad down and in the midst of the party going on here there’s a servant right there offering me wine or other hard stuff... so I asked for kaf, of course.

“You do not indulge in alcohol?  I must express my approval.”  The Imperial Pharmacist said this with a completely Mahid face as he raised an elegant little herb pipe to his lips.  Honest to the Ten, the welcomist wasn’t joking when she said he joked... I wasn't quite sure what to say to this.

“Ser... might this one ask for the exaulteds’ views on tonight’s happenings?” I made it clear I wished to hear her if she wanted to open her mouth.  You can see the resemblance between her and the Imperator Elect strongly, once you know to look.  The young man favoured his mother rather than his father.  It also seemed obvious that she had more going on behind her eyes than his dear old dad... I mean... she’s the White snake’s daughter and Sparky’s been showing that he can think better than the old anal wart on the Crystal Throne ever could, right?

They exchanged that creepy look that Mahid do where they communicate a ten or two of things without saying anything and she turned to me, smoother than a doll automaton.  “I, Ser Writer, am very happy that my son has won the Crystal Throne.  My deceased husband – Second Amitzas, had a mandate to see Minis upon that throne and this has now happened so his spirit may rest in Hayel  --“ Obviously no love lost there “—but I am even happier that my son achieved this in his own way and with minimum of bloodshed.”

A Mahid not wanting bloodshed? Was she nuts?  Or just saying what a normal person would say?  Because they’re supposed to be more normal now?  “Of course, Sera.”  She sipped the glass in front of her and her hand came up to touch her motherstone.  Sparky’s given it to her of course and it’s big enough to choke a horse.  Beautiful but still big.

That’s when this little kitten climbed down off the Imperial Pharmacist’s shoulder, sauntered across the table, stuck her nose into my kaf, sneezes and then stuffed her face up my nose practically so I had to rear back and nearly fell on my ass.  “Come back here, Aurum,” the old man said sternly, blowing out smoke.  The cat ignored him completely and lay down on my notepad so I couldn’t take a single thing down.

“A reason that Mahid are traditionally not enamoured of felines,” he says.  “The stunning lack of obedience.”

Nuni... the party was all being asked to go downstairs and continue in the Grand Hall behind the Steel Gate.... more later...

**

Farasha tasted... I didn’t know how to describe it.  Salt and hot and it was tangy and there was sweet there too and it made my mind just go away again it was so good.  So hot.  I kissed and felt the urge to suckle on her and when I did she made wonderful noises and got wetter. I licked and she moaned and it was like dancing with her.

I felt like she was riding my mouth and I had my eyes closed so when Gan touched me it was startling.  I jumped, Farasha jumped and I opened my eyes. I had my arms around Fara’s thighs so I was only holding myself up and his hand was between me and the wall and the bubbles...  I didn’t want to take my mouth away and ask him if it was all right...

I found myself taking his touches and rocking to them so she felt them off my tongue and it was as though they were making love through me.  I didn’t have time to be frightened and when she arched her back and leaned back on her arms, pushing her hips, rubbing herself against my mouth I could moan and feel her climax pulsing against my lips and tongue and the water and...

She slowly pulled back a little, sitting up, with this wonderful smile on her face, whisps of hair outlined in steam droplets like a Celestial messenger’s crown.  I was so hard I hurt but Gan hadn’t let go of me. I was quivering on the edge of coming.  “Please.”  I asked.  I wasn’t sure what I wanted what I needed... I needed to finish myself off and perhaps that shouldn’t be... in the pool...

Gan let go of me and stood up behind me.  He was going to be a big man once he filled out.  Fara scooted around and sank back into the pool. “Minis.” His whisper was right in my ear.  “I have an idea...”

“Please... yes... Yes... whatever you want, Gan...”  I was practically whimpering with need.  He laughed and hoisted me up onto the edge of the pool, standing on the stone bench.  My penis was pressed against the spot where Farasha had just sat and then I could feel Gan behind me, pressed against me.

“I don’t have any trouble taking pleasure, Minis,” he said, his voice husky.  “But... you...”

“Take me.”  I turned my head and saw Kyriala’s eyes locked on us.  “I give myself to you.”  It wasn’t a matter of who served whom... it was... it would make him happy and... me too.

I laid my hands out on either side, palms flat on the heated stone, my legs still in bubbles and I desperately wanted him.  “Please.”

He rubbed himself up and down against me and then I gasped.  He put his fingers into me first. I thought he would split me open with one but he was so slow and gentle I found myself wiggling on his hand and the stone demanding more... at least I think I was demanding.  Perhaps I was begging him... then I had no words, no objection, no fight.  I wanted...

Fara and Ky both had moved in front of us and were hugging each other close and Ky... Ky's eyes were closed and she had hold of Farasha with both bare hands... where had her gloves gone?

He slid himself into me slowly and I wiggled against him.  It didn’t matter that I was giving my self to him... in front of Farasha and Kyriala, except that I could show them... if they liked seeing it... if it... I gave up thinking anything, feeling him all the way inside me.

He was strong and put one hand on my shoulder to pull me closer to him and then half pulled me back into the pool so he had me on him and wrapped his one hand around my penis.  I heard a soft gasp, high, one of the girls... He pushed me so hard we were half out of the pool once more. “Yes! Yes! Oh yes, Gan... please... yes...”

I think I cried out but Farasha... no... it was Ky... it was Kyriala kneeling in front of us, and she was kissing me.  She was kissing me... and the world splintered into shards that had the scent of roses and the taste of the pehaka.

When I realized I was still in one piece, I was lying boneless, bundled up on the edge of the pool and I was holding someone in front of me... it was Ky I was hugging and she had a wild look in her eye, though she was relaxed and Gan was lying face down behind me with his face in Fara’s lap and her hands on his shoulders.  “Shhh.  Gan... it’s all right.  You didn’t hurt him.”

“Oh Ten,” I managed to gasp.  “Gannara that was... awe inspiring.  You didn’t hurt me.  I... heart’s brother...”

He was laughing along with his tears and got up on his elbows to kiss Fara again and Ky stretched across me to touch his shoulder.  “I have this idea,” he said finally, gasping.  “We have a good chance of making this work for us.”

Ky snorted in my ear and I giggled and then all of us were howling with laughter, on the floor of the pool room.  “If... if... we can keep our senses of humour...” I gasped.

“We’ll... we’ll be all right...”

“And no Minis, before you ask... the fluid that came out of us cannot crawl off the stone and get either one of the girls pregnant!”

“I know that, you wool-knot.”

“Not a wool-knot after all that washing...” he snorted.

Fara shook him and us.  I could almost feel her eyes rolling up toward the ceiling, as Ky smacked my shoulder.  “Boys,” they both said, almost at the same time.

460a We Deserve Not to Die

I open the door of the room and stare down the hallway of the changed Mahid quarters, my toes on the line between inside and outside and the hallway is inside the greater outside.  And the Marble Palace inside the city and the city inside the greater city. Inside the Empire.

Outside the line that marks Mahid from not Mahid... people are recovering from a celebration. They celebrated the election of my son to become Imperator. My son... steps across edges. He is Aan. From me, he is Mahid.

I cross the threshold, my foot crossing that line, stepping across the line and softly press my sole on the stone floor.  

It still holds me up as it always did.  We step.  We step.  We keep on.  As I did after he was taken from me.  As I did when I was Second Amitzas’s wife.  As I am now.  I am required to cross lines.  All Mahid are being required to do so in this new world, this new Arko.

The Yeoli Imperator, the one who allowed me not to swear to him... who allowed me to live and be proper the way I have been trained... gave me room to think.  His words to me, on the roof, echo in my mind as I pace down the hallway.

The Mahid... are like the Yeoli semanakraseye … or... they could be.  When we had a good Imperator... we were good.  We were allowed to be good.  We were allowed to... serve. I said so.  He said. “My thought is that the Mahid should be what has always been best about them, and leave behind what was the worst.”

Our worst.  Our worst was our obedience and our very struggle to do what was right.  The old Imperator...  We were made to obey.  Our obedience, our excellence was turned against us.  This child I carry... what will his future be?  Or hers?  As First Wife... or First Widow... or Dowager... whatever I am.  I have a responsibility to the family.

We are re-creating ourselves.  Do we deserve to?  As the Mahid of the former Imperator.  And his father.  We were supposed to be monsters.  We were tortured into being monsters.  The... aggressor against children often becomes the revered one and emulated.  We were taught that the only way to be safe, was to be like the one who owned us.

So... we are taught to be monsters... there was nothing else for us.  All Arko has been taught we are not human.  We were reflections of a man... we had to revere as divine... who was a fiend.  Arko would be safer, better served if we, as a family, had not been restrained to be the reflection of one man.

I stop by the plant that father had carefully placed under the sun-tube that brought light to the deep and dark places.  We would all have been better if we had been reflections of the whole Empire. We would have not be deserving of death. We would not have been dragged into sin, deserving of such punishment.

Perhaps there is something different... a different pattern for Mahid.  A different honour... the stories of the most excellent of Mahid are all old.  How did...?  I reach a properly gloved hand and draw a hand along the edge of the leaves, gazed at the damage the serrated edge under the beautiful flowers left on my glove. How did the Aans... steal us from our higher purpose?  Did we have one?  I’m certain to my bones... down to the bones of my child inside me... that we did have a higher purpose, an honour, a glory, at one time.

We, as a family, deserve to... serve.  Under the eyes of the Ten... we deserve to serve.  We deserve not to die.  We deserve to live.

459 - The Endless Folds of a Red Rose

The party was still going and it was almost true dawn.  I sat in a niche in the baths at the Folly.  Mil had moved heaven and earth and paid a great deal to be at the forfront of the new trend to swimming in the city.  Very few of the older party goers were still there, or still conscious.  An older Aitzas betrayed his location with a fruity snore rising from the middle of a miniature garden, upon the chaise there.

The mammoka, I could see in the garden outside, through the enormous windows.  He was between the bathing house and the terraces, his riding platform on the ground to one side.  He was chained by one foot, to a massive log and seemed to be sleeping, standing, rocking gently as music still wafted from the biggest ballroom, his trunk slowly curling and uncurling as he swayed. I wondered, did mammoka snore?

A crowd of young Aitzas and Aitza lounged around the edges of the swimming bath, half lying half sitting, smoking from the tall pipes or personal pipes, while servants were the only ones still on their feet, bringing trays of fresh wine and spirits, re-filling the tall pipes.  Four or five Gybir swam in the cool pool and an Aitza I didn’t recognize waded.  I’ve been being good so long I’m tired of it.  There was a fair amount of space in the deepest part and I went with the impulse.  I let the sweet smoke of ‘herb stream out of my lungs, handed the pipe off to Resh who lounged on the cushion next to me, stood up... and fully dressed, dove into the pool.

There was a bit of splashing and shouting and a desultory water fight after that, since I’d splashed a Gybir.  Farasha wasn’t around and Ky, laughing from the pool side, hurled an apple out toward me.

Benthasas Monnen lunged from the shallow end of the pool and managed to intercept it, but got too deep when he came down and lost it and the apple became the ball in a game of swimming, wading, splashing keep away.

I managed to pull off my shirt and sandals, piecemeal, in the melee and either they let me win it or I was able to swim well enough to snatch it up after a while.  I’d lost the cape somewhere earlier in the evening, but I was certain it would turn up somewhere.

“Serina,” I said as gallantly as I could, slightly herbed, a little drunk, “I believe you might have dropped this.”  Things were lovely and rosy and I could hear birds chirping.  Strange since it wasn’t true dawn yet.  Perhaps it was just the herb.

She giggled at me.  “Yes, Minis.”  I tried not to drip on her as I presented her with the bruised fruit.  “I have a surprise for you.”

“A surprise?  For me? What more surprise do I need after this night?”

“Come into the hot pool room.”

The Itzan baths had their hot pools in tiny glass rooms off the main room and if they were closed up they tended to fill with steam, making the images inside vague and ghostly and, not surprisingly, private.  If you were not pressed up against the glass no one from outside could truly see you at all.  Most of what people could see would be the nimbus of steam around the lights inside but not anything else.

They had been very popular all evening and once or twice I’d noticed a servant at one door or another and realized that someone was requesting more privacy for a short while.  The one she led me toward had at least one person in there, I thought, but followed along.  Kyriala stopped at the tall pipe at the buffet table and she drew a lung-full of herb along with me.  I grinned at her over the green mouthpiece.  “You... are being very mysterious...” I said, holding my breath as well as I could.

She didn’t answer me with anything but a smile until she’d exhaled.  “Come on.”

I was glad I’d set aside most of my clothing in the pool.  Even soaking wet my gloves and my kilt were almost too much in the steam.  Ky, in a swimming costume that she had borrowed from one of the daughters of the house, sank up to her chin in the water.  Gannara and Farasha waved at me, a tray with a bottle and four tiny glasses on the floor behind them. I stopped where I stood.  Oh my.  I was suddenly feeling very awkward.

“Come on in, heart’s brother.” Gan said.  “We reveal to you a grand conspiracy.”

“Um,” I said intelligently, trying hard not to look at either of the girls, thankful that the water was foaming, covering up where I wanted to look most.  I sank into the water myself, hissing at how warm it was and stripped off my kilt and gloves under the cover of the foam, setting them on the edge.  I think I need another pipe.  “Grand conspiracy?”

“Well,” Farasha said, “Gan is going to be coming with my family caravan.  All the family want to meet him this summer...” she paused and Gan kept right on going...

“And we had a sort of healer’s orders from Surya before we left, so we thought this party would be a good place.”

“Um...” if this as anything like the last session I’d had with Surya then.... I wanted to run away, but I’d gotten naked without putting a towel to hand... and where were the attendant servants?  And KY was here!

“Farasha and I had a talk while you two were playing ‘Drunken Idiot’,” Ky said.

Gan turned to her and said, blinking, “That game is really called that?”

Farasha poked him in the shoulder while Ky nodded approvingly, very much like they had worked together all through the campaign, but now on a personal level.  “Of course it is. Why would a game involving cards, alcohol, dares and stripping off clothing be called anything else?”

I was floating now on that last couple of breaths of herb, things were rosy edged and everything was suddenly funny, especially her saying that.  I snorted and they started laughing and we were all laughing suddenly and laughing and hugging.  In the hot bath.  Gan and I ended up with our backs to the bubbling wall and we each had a wiggling, giggling girl on our laps and our other arms wrapped around each other. For some reason that was so funny I laughed hard enough to squeeze tears out.

“Oh... this is too public,” Ky said, looking out through the steamy walls.  “Anyone could walk in...” her weight on me, mitigated by the water, just lightly rubbing against me as the water moved her.... I had my one arm around her waist and suddenly I was aware that the bottom of her breast was pressed against my forearm.  And her bottom... was... um... Not that I could feel anything, truly but it was as if the water there and over my groin were suddenly red hot.

“No,” Gan said.  “One of the servants is sitting outside now... I paid him to guard the door for us.”

“And I dimmed the lamps,” Farasha said.  “Anyone looking from outside is going to see only dimly lit steam.”  Ky hesitated and then relaxed more into my arm.  It felt so good.  It felt like... when Gan and Fara and I slept together.  But Ky... um...

“What are you all talking about?”  I looked at Gan’s face and at Ky, who was smiling shyly now.

“Well.  Fara and I... we...” She stopped.

I tried hard to look only at everyone’s faces.  My thigh was next to Gan’s, separated only by water and bubbles. Ky’s swimming costume was so thin it might as well have been non-existant. Fara handed Ky a tiny glass of dark liquid, and one to me and one to Gan.  “You boys have been kind of going slowly and the women thought we should... not speed things up, necessarily... but at least talk about what’s going on here.”

I had to take my arm from around Gan to take the glass and sipped.  It was the Niah chocolate liquor, sweet as... well, as the feeling of Ky sort of floating/sitting on me, powerful as the heat pouring off a fire and made more so by the heat we were sitting in. 

“Slowly?  What do you mean?”

“We’re going to be a four, aren’t we?  Aren’t we considering that?”

I coughed and coughed and nearly spilled the drink, but couldn’t somehow get my power of speech back.  I couldn’t go anywhere without dumping Ky into the water so I was trapped.  I ducked my head under water and Gan pulled me up by the top of my hair.

“Don’t be silly, Minis.”

It was so odd.  In the motion of the water, and arms and legs and hair it was so unreal.  It was even all right that I was getting hard.  Not that I usually did in hot water but with Ky sitting on me... it um...  It was hard to focus on what Fara was saying.  Gan was letting her talk again.

“I... I... yes.  Look,” I said.  “I do want to talk about this.  I do want to do this if it’s the right thing for everybody but I’m too smashed out to sayn’ything sensible...”

“Very sensible,” Gan said solemnly and we all started laughing again.  Fara reached to where she had the bottle and poured our little glasses full again.

“It... goes down easily... doesn’t it?” Ky asked.  “I usually only drink wine.”

“Minis, this isn’t a firm proposal of marriage or anything... just... starting to wonder if we should be working towards it and how...”

“Um.”  My wits had escaped me entirely tonight.  “All right.  I like the idea.  I liked the idea of the three of us and –“ I ducked my head underwater again, came up without being dragged. “But I didn’t know how to ask Kyriala properly. A four isn’t Arkan...  This isn’t proper...”

“No, silly,” Ky said.  “I expect a full and proper proposal from you when the time comes.”

“I can do that.”

“Good!” Then Fara leaned over and kissed Gan and Ky and I both watched.  I could see her watching just as intently as I was.  Was it possible that a girl could be just as warm seeing that as I was?

She wiggled a little against me and then looped her arm around my neck as I found my arm pulling her in a little more snugly.  “Do you mind that, Ky? Shall I desist?”

“No.  Don’t you dare desist!”

“Oh.”  It was just so easy to cuddle... it was so nice to watch Fara put both her hands on either side of Gan’s face and hold him still to kiss him. Not that he was struggling to get away. I’d set my glass down on the edge of the hot pool and my free hand somehow found it’s way around Gan’s waist.  Lower waist.  Hip really.  I should stop right there.  We were surrounded by bubbles and I was wondering if the herb was making them pink and gold and floating up out of the water.

I opened my mouth to swallow one and it tasted like a kiss.  I opened my eyes to find that Fara had leaned over and put her mouth on mine and I blinked and saw Ky looking behind, her eyes twinkling.  Was that her finger in my ribs making me jump?  Gan put out a finger and traced a water droplet down Ky’s cheek and stopped at a dimple... I was cold and shaking even in the hot water.

This was too much, too soon... I couldn’t do this.  They were all having so much fun... I’d ruin it all... I’d taint it all.  I’d, I’d... Fara kissed me again and my mind went away for a bit.

“We talked about this... Minis...  We need to go slow, for you and for Gan and for Ky’s comfort,” Fara said, panting a little. 

Someone’s hand was on my belly and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out if it was Ky’s or Fara’s or Gan’s in all the heat and bubbles.

“Um... yeah... um... is this right?  Is this proper?  I don’t want to hurt anyone...”

“Minis...” It wasn’t Ky’s hand on my belly.  Her gloved finger.  Her wet gloved finger.  Her hot, wet, gloved finger lay across my lips, shushing me.  “Shhh.  I will watch.”

“W...w...watch?”

“Yes, Watch.  And I will find out if I can, as I am, be comfortable with the idea of ...” she looked down and blushed, even in the hot water, with her hair in wet strands on her cheek and disappearing into the bubbles.  “... the idea of more than one husband... and a wife...”

I swallowed hard, my mouth full of the taste of chocolate.  “Oh... all... um... all... right.  Let me help...”

She giggled again.  “I’ll just sit over here with another glass of this.” She put one hand right on me to lift herself out, completely innocent and I froze on a yelp.  It half hurt half enticed, I wasn’t sure which.

“Now, Minis,” Gan said.  “I think you and I need to be careful too, because of all the shen we got taught about sex between us, so we’ll fix it when I get back.  Right now...”

Fara sat up on the edge of the bath opposite Ky.  She was naked as Gannara, and me too.  Her skin was a lot fairer than the liquor but it looked as warm and it was wet and her hair trailed down over her beautiful breasts like coils of cocoa and butter.  And between... um.  Between her legs. Unpurified, but I remembered the Haian book from years ago.  I couldn't think of someone cutting her there or I would make myself sick.

That spot.  That part of her was not the gate of Hayel. It would not make me impure or sinful to contact with it.

Perhaps it was the drink, perhaps it was the herb.  The hair between her legs looked luscious as chocolate liqueur. “May I... am I allowed...will it hurt you if I... um...” I took a deep breath.  “Licked the chocolate I see there?”

She laughed and opened her legs a bit more.  “I'd like that.” Gan boosted me over himself, smiling, then put his elbows up on the edge of the bath behind him as I half swam over and bumped into the wall right between Fara’s knees, Centurion Graceful. Somehow I lost my footing, scrambled, went under, came up coughing with someone pounding on my back and then my face ended up right... my cheek lay against a soft pad of wirey hair my nose pressed into one thigh.

She smelled so good.  The bubble wall was running up my front as I turned my face and looked up her belly and breasts... I was hard --  I was... the head of me was just touching the slick, hot tiles of the pool, my knees on the bench weren't sore, all submerged, all being moved and touched by the rushing water.  

Surely that view, up her body, must be a kind of Selestialis?... “I don’t know what to do.” I said in a small voice.

Her head was tipped forward and her hair dripped on my face.  She smiled.  Her one hand came up and opened herself so I could see right there. RIGHT THERE. Dark red, wet, glistening, shaped like a flower pod perhaps? The endless folds of a red rose?  I... she... I... Her finger ran slowly over a junction of two folds... a nubbin of flesh.  “That’s like the head of your penis, Minis.”

I leaned forward almost before she finished speaking and put my half open lips right there.

April Fool - An Ancient Ritual by Isa

“No, trust me, you do it this way. Open your robe a bit.”

Darmas gave his best friend a long skeptical look. He was not up for something like that right now, even less up for it outside where passing city Arkans could easily stumble upon them at any moment. The shadow of the Mezem was dark but it was still public, after all!

Then Fentzan produced the pail filled with liquid far too red to be blood, although that was where his mind went immediately.

In the other hand his best friend held a large horsehair brush. Darmas’s hesitation did not move him, did not temper his giddy enthusiasm, did not stop him from dipping the curled tip of the brush into the paint.

“Come on, open,” he said.

“Why isn’t there anyone else here?”

“We’re early. A full bead,” Fentzas explained.

The arcade around the arena was quiet, completely unlike the noisy revelry that would pour into the arena gates just before the match began. They were way too early and Darmas didn’t understand why Fen was looking at him like he was a package of Niah-lur-anan chocolates.

He flinched as the brush moved across his skin. “It’s cold.”

“It’s a guarantee,” Fen insisted. “Ancient ritual from before the Fire. Can’t fail.”

“How would you know?”

“It was covered in lectures this week. If you hadn’t been asleep you would know that.”

Darmas flinched again, a short hiss sucking into his throat as the paintbrush left shimmering bright red trails down his pale and pasty skin.

“Watch the nipple. The paint is cold.”

“When the Fighting Anoseth Fessas crush their rivals it will be worth it.” Since the sack, the Grass League Faib teams had become Sand teams, in the Mezem.

Fen’s strange snake-like pattern ran down his chest. It was impaled by two red slashes and was not even reminiscent of any identifiable character Darmas could think of. “What are you drawing anyway?”

“Ancient symbol of power.” Fentzas bit his lip, his tongue poking out from between his pale pucker. “Adds to the effect.”

Darmas was not convinced that Fen wasn’t just making this all up as he went along. “You’re full of shen. No one knows what civilizations were like before the Fire.”

Apparently finished, Fen straightened up and admired his work. He paid almost no attention to Dar’s accusation. And why would he? He had already successfully marred his smooth skin with a blood red mark.

“I told you, pay attention in lectures and you’d know this stuff too. Now...” He pushed the brush handle first in Darmas’s direction. “You do me.”

“What should I draw?”

“The same. It’s not hard. It’s just a squiggle with two lines through it. After you’re done we’re supposed to make a fire and cook sausage meat over it.”

“Is that part of the ritual too?” Darmas asked.

“Yup.”

Still skeptical, Darmas nevertheless bent down to dip the brush back into the pail of paint Fen had brought with them. This was ridiculous, but he didn’t dare say that out loud for fear some ancient god would strike him down on the spot. After all, the Fire had destroyed practically everything of that time. Who was to say those people had not angered their god by mocking the sacred paint-chests-eat-sausage-meat rites.

“What is this ritual called anyway?”

“Huh?”

“Its name. What did they call this?”

Fentzas had to think about this for a second. “I think it was called … tailgating.”

_____________________

HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S DAY!

This Guest post was brought to you by: Isa at seme@fluffy-seme.net!

I wrote the post for Claire K. R. Miller over at:  

http://clarekrmiller.digitalnovelists.com/node

The master list of all authors who participated if you'd like to read the whole round robin is here:

http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/happy-april-fools-day

Your regularly scheduled Post 459 will be brought to you Monday!  Have a good weekend.