Isabella Awakening Ch 04

In which both Isabella's life and the Della Virago change course.

*

Isabella snuggled into her cot and opened the parcel containing Beatrice's book. It was a quarto volume; about an inch and half thick and bound in fine soft brown leather. It was clearly newly printed, the edges of the pages were as yet uncut. The gold embossing of the cover simply read "Lost Knowledge" with the letters B.S.D.K. in a smaller typeface underneath, presumably the author's initials. Isabella carefully opened the book, treating it as a she would a great and delicate treasure.

She found a sharp blade in her satchel and carefully released the folded pages pair by pair. By the time she had cut a dozen or so, she was too eager to read and left the rest of the book till a later time.

The frontice-piece gave no further clues to the nature of the material inside, simply repeating the title and the initials B.S.D.K and noting the reprinting date as the current year. An odd scroll-like imprint at the very bottom of the page caught her attention momentarily, triggering a memory she could not quite grasp. The symbols meant nothing to her and, eager to move on, she turned the page.

It was not until she reached the one page Introduction that Isabella gained some insight into the book's contents. Apparently it was textbook containing reports and fragments of ancient texts no longer available or held only in certain secret repositories. The purpose of the book was to introduce new students of the "esoteric arts" to the origins of stories and special knowledge.

From her limited knowledge of Beatrice's library and interests, Isabella had a fair idea of what she was in for and dived into the first Chapter, titled "Keira de Bruine and the Rebirth of Knowledge". This is what Isabella read:

'Readers of this volume will obviously be already be familiar with the work of Keira de Bruine. It is for completeness that we include this abbreviated version of her story in this volume. All that follows, and indeed the lives of all our students, can only be understood in the context of Keira's contribution.

Keira was a beautiful raven-haired woman of high birth from the Burgundy region of old France. Her forebears were the Celtic aristocracy overrun and subsumed by the Roman and Hun invasions of previous centuries. Keira's people were therefore of mixed race and because many of the old stories had been lost in the wars, their folklore was now a jumble of Celtic, Roman, Norse and more recent Christian stories, they had no real complete knowledge of the true nature of mankind. This was a concern for the wise women of Keira's town and they would often meet in secret, without the knowledge of the men for whom such things were akin to witchcraft, usually under the guise of a sewing circle or just a group of gossipy women. They would talk of their memories of the old ways, handed down from mother to daughter, and try to join the fabric of their stories into some sort of systematic knowledge that could be handed down to the younger women. They examined the old books and tapestries and the fragments of songs that a few remembered and they questioned the older women from surrounding towns and villages. Through these efforts they discovered the names and characters of their Gods and Goddesses and abbreviated forms of the old myths of creation, wisdom and birth. But the stories were incomplete. The women decided that their situation demanded strong action and that the wisest and most talented of them had a sacred duty to rediscover, through personal experience and sacrifice if necessary, the truth of their existence. They selected three women to undertake these duties - Elvira, Natalie and Keira. Elvira was to investigate the nature of creation and heaven; Natalie the meaning of birth and motherhood, and Keira was assigned the task of finding the true nature of love and passion. Each woman was given two years to report back on her experiments and studies.

After some study and planning and much consultation with the elder women, it was decided that Keira must test herself with experience of love and passion and go out into the world of men and women to live the mystery. Keira took her responsibilities very seriously and traveled the countryside. Before leaving the village however (for it would not do to be known as a whore in her own country), she consulted the healers and equipped herself with potions and artifacts to ward off pregnancy and disease.

As she left her own region, she first starting by talking to all the people she met to learn of the role and nature of love and passion in their lives. Eventually, when far from home, she began to experience it herself. Each week she would travel to a new town, often sleeping or making notes sitting on the back of her horse, stopping in the evening to take a room at an inn. And each night she would enter into the secret worlds of the towns and villages, finding lovers who would yield to her considerable charms and ever growing knowledge of sensual delight. She would entertain each new lover for a night or two, allowing herself to fall completely and passionately in love with each of them while at the same time taking careful and detailed observations of their, and her own states, thoughts and reactions. In a year and half, she loved two hundred and thirty-seven men and eighty-six women – erotic couplings between women being rarer in those days. She experienced the love of men and women of all creeds and races and from all walks of society. She loved white and brown, tall and short, thin and fat, princes and labourers, priests and prostitutes, warriors and washerwomen. This went on for many months and Keira never wavered from her sacred mission. After a while, she found that she could wholly indulge her senses and her feelings while simultaneously maintaining the detachment required of the critical observer. She would probe her lovers' desires and fears and gently coax from them their secrets and true nature. She monitored her own responses and development as a lover, chronicling her different moods and desires through the cycle of her menses and in relation to every subtle change in her mind and body. Her diaries and notebooks filled quickly and eventually she needed a string of donkeys to carry her notes from town to town.

Six weeks before she was due home to make her report, Keira entered a convent in the mountains near her town to contemplate her studies and prepare her report for the women. The nuns of the convent had no idea, of course, of the nature of her studies but simply treated her as wandering learned person in need of rest, sustenance and care. Initially, naturally, Keira was exhausted and simply enjoyed the solitude and quiet of the cloistered halls and the Spartan rooms. She slept often and barely noticed the mild attentions of the nuns and novices who cleaned her room and served her food. After a few days of peace, she started on her notebooks, working diligently through each day, cataloguing and categorising her experiences and matching each observation with the fragments of stories and legends handed down through the ages of women. After five more days, she realised that this was the longest period in the last two years that she had been without a lover. Her dreams however were vivid – wild and passionate couplings; gentle caresses; intertwined bodies, legs and the almost unendurable attentions of tongues and fingers and phalluses. She actually got quite aroused and had to rediscover her talent for self-pleasure, unused for whole duration of her intensive study. But it wasn't until she seduced a young novice, who would then come to her each night after prayers, that she finally started to write her report.

Keira's report was a masterpiece and broke new ground in its field. It was erudite, beautifully argued and a joy to read or study. Even now, those who are lucky enough to read it, say that it speaks to them deeply from a place beyond knowledge and myth, from the very heart of humanity. It makes them tingle to read the intuitions and essential truths that Keira divined from her studies. The Chapters on anatomy and physiology were, even by modern standards, accurate and scholarly. The Chapters she called "The Mechanics" explored, in word and exquisite drawings, material that even surpassed the secret eastern texts and when dealing with the link between sex and spirituality, Keira eloquently evoked the very heart of what the Indian mystics call Tantra. But perhaps her most enduring and practical insights came in those sections of the report dealing with the nature of lovers and the pathways to fulfillment.

By the time she had finished the report and bade farewell to her novice, she was fully prepared for the presentation to the women of her town.

The other researchers had already returned with reports – Elvira with a great body of work on creation and the realm of the gods and Natalie who had studied birth and motherhood and had amassed reams of closely written notes. Together, over a period of several days, Keira, Elvira and Natalie would present their findings to the assembled women in a large tavern on the outskirts of the town. By careful planning and use of their wiles, the remaining women had conspired to have their men out of town for a festival of sport for the whole week following the researchers' return.

The meeting opened to a great sense of expectation and excitement and nobody was disappointed. The three presenters were spellbinding, taking the assembled women on a journey of profound spiritual exploration, detailing the science and myth of existence and opening up a whole world of meaning and understanding for each woman present.

When Keira spoke one morning of her experiences with the lovers she had known, each woman in the audience was totally enthralled. Her descriptions of seductions, passionate embraces, couplings and explosive release brought many to the point of rapture. So evocative were her words and the images she created in their minds, that during the break, many had to sneak away to the nearby wood, either alone or in small groups, to slake their passion and return their minds to quiet receptive contemplation of the reports.

It was that afternoon that Keira turned to the question of the nature of lovers and it was then that the group became increasingly interested to know how women could apply this new knowledge. Keira's taxonomy of the types of lovers she had known has become legendary. She described lovers in three broad categories that she named The Carer, The Philosopher and The Smithy. For each she listed their good and bad points as lovers and companions and further subdivided each category according to temperament, passion and physical attributes.

Carers, she argued were men driven by their hearts. Their own need for love was expressed in kindness and tenderness, a willingness to please their lovers and partners. Of passive disposition, they were often small men, given to serious pursuits and occupations and known for their reliability and steadiness. While these men made excellent husbands and fathers for girls, they were often indifferent lovers and their members were usually thin or short. Women wanting this type of man, needed to pursue him gently for he would only rarely be the seducer. When he does pursue a woman, he seeks to attract her with an averted gaze and small gifts or favours. For these men, often raised by domineering or strong mothers, physical love can be problematic, especially in the long term, as romantic love fades. But with adequate tutoring and encouragement, such a man is capable of gaining skills and control that could satisfy a wife, provided she was a person of moderate passion herself.

At the other end of the taxonomic scale was The Smithy, a man of strong animal instinct and passion. Often physically large - in all departments, The Smithy was a man driven by his male parts alone. He is fertile and self-absorbed. Quick to become inflamed and demanding urgent satisfaction, The Smithy is a challenging, but often rewarding lover. He is most usually found in the trades and occupations requiring strength or violence, as he is, by nature, not a thinking man. His means of acquiring lovers is also somewhat brutal. No subtle seducer or shrinking violet is he. He gains access to women's favours by direct request and his animal presence alone. A woman must use guile and cunning if she is to gain the ultimate satisfaction from such a man. A woman of ample girth and who is herself quick to reach her satisfaction will find the Smithy an ideal partner. Virgins need to show great care around Smithies, although a young Smithy can be a rewarding first love for a maiden of an earthy disposition and wide hips. But he makes a good husband only for a woman who does not need gentleness and sweet-talking, as he is apt to ignore her when not physically inflamed. Often raised by men alone, or by weak women, he is prone to taking many women indiscriminately and can interpret his popularity with the fairer sex in a way that leads to vanity and dismissiveness towards a woman's concerns.

The Philosopher is, naturally, a man driven by his mind. While the Carer is focused on his lover and the Smithy on himself, it is the relationship and the coupling itself that absorb the Philosopher. He takes greatest delight in the journey, rather than its end, and will lead a woman to places and to passions she has only dreamt of. His is much more than a physical love, although he usually comes highly skilled and well equipped for the physical act. When in a high passion his whole being is devoted to the act of love. His body, his mouth, his words and his power are all focused on his lover and the act of love. A truly wise Philosopher can transport a lover to ever higher planes where she will meet her own goddess and know of heaven, often many times in a single encounter. Only a woman oblivious to the higher plane, or one with feeble breath and no endurance, would find The Philosopher an unsatisfactory consort for an evening's pleasure. When not engaged in lovemaking, the philosopher is an observer. That is how his powers increase. This can make him seem aloof as a companion. The Philosopher is an ideal first lover for highbred romantic virgins, for dreamers and for women seeking deep spiritual as well as physical satisfaction. Women who have only known Carers or Smithies can be totally mesmerised by the Philosopher's knowing and sustained intensity. He seduces mainly with his eyes and his voice. At his best he is a witty, challenging partner who can delight and charm his way into any woman's bed. However, if his thoughts should descend to the black depths, he will be morose and an unsuitable companion for man, woman or beast. As a husband, he can be fickle and prone to periods of barren self-absorption. Any woman unequal to his intellect travels dangerous ground with a Philosopher as a husband.

These are, of course, only brief summaries of Keira's treatise on men. She goes on to describe the development and different life stages of each class of lover and discusses such subjects as arrested development, early disappointment and the effects of war and violence on the psyche of men. She prescribes herbs such as Mandragora and opium to mange the fires of overly passionate men, especially Smithies prone to shortness of perseverance. Her Chapters on women, both as seducer and seduced, as lovers of both men and women, are equally astounding in their insights and prescriptions for joyful union.

Keira's presentation to the women of the town was not fully recorded but snippets do survive in the form of sayings handed down by the women of the region. Apparently her answers to questions were direct, witty and to the point, as recorded in a short poem told to the girls of her town through the centuries since, which, in translation reads:

A woman rose and asked of Keira

What use then can be the Village Idiot?

Keira's response, measured and sincere was voiced,

An Idiot is only a man who has lost his mind

And for many men, that is their least interesting part.

Another proverb, believed to be based on one of Keira's responses, says that young men are to be thought of as paving stones – if laid properly in the first instance, a woman can walk over them for decades.

But enough of Keira's report. The true gift of Keira de Bruine is not her book but how she went on to live her life.

Of course, the other presentations, by Elvira and Natalie, were similarly scholarly and insightful. The meeting apparently broke into small groups to discuss their finer points before resuming on the last day to give thanks to the researchers and to acknowledge their work and sacrifice.

Firstly however, the Elders decided that the work of their three students needed to be rewarded.

The Elders gathered the three together and asked each in turn how she should be rewarded. Elvira, after initially considering a life as a nun, decided instead that she wished to marry a widower of the village and tend a garden for the rest of her days while being available to give wise counsel to women who pondered the mysteries of creation and the gods. The Elders agreed to her wish and undertook to arrange her marriage. Natalie desired only to put her knowledge of birth and nurture into practice as both a mother and a midwife. She asked the elders to arrange a suitable marriage, to a large and powerful man as befitted her own physique and temperament. This they also agreed. When it was Keira's turn, she hesitated.

"Surely you of all women, you must know your heart's desire?" said the Elders.

"There are so many factors," complained Keira. "Sometimes I want a Smithy, like Natalie, and at others I know I'd only be happy with a gentle caring husband, as Elvira has been granted. Yet in my heart, there is also a place for a Philosopher who can take me to heaven and back."

The Elders were perplexed. They consulted each other while Keira sat in quite contemplation. While they were still in deep discussion, Keira suddenly jumped to her feet smiling radiantly. "I have it!" she said, "More research is clearly needed. I ask your agreement to an extension of my contract – another five years should suffice."

"With your blessing, I shall continue our quest, leaving no avenue unvisited, no question unanswered."

The Elders, of course, could only agree and wish Keira well on her selfless quest for the knowledge and wisdom that would serve all women, and through them all humanity.

The second volume of Keira's report has never been found, but is rumoured to exist somewhere deep in the northern foothills of the Himalayas where it is guarded and protected by one of the happiest races of people known today.'

*

Isabella was breathless after reading this story. She had no previous knowledge of this woman Keira, but felt an instant affinity with what she had just read. Her heart beat quickly and she felt herself being on the very start of a mysterious journey in which the knowledge of Keira was a central part. Many of her own thoughts about sex and passion and spirituality were swirling together with the brief outline of Keira's philosophy in the book, threatening to coalesce into some sort of unified view of life and universe. The feeling made Isabella both warm and giddy.

She put the book carefully into her satchel, treasuring it and her connection with Beatrice even more. After that, she simply drifted in and out of a state of sleepy dreamlike awareness in which the images she had seen in Beatrice's library came alive and mixed with visions and feelings and sounds from that day: Beatrice, naked and so alive under Isabella's mouth and hands; Isabella's green-eyed, wild-haired inner guide, coupling with men and women of all races and nationalities; oil on naked breasts, wet cunts and hard cocks; and deep, shattering explosions arising from deep within Isabella's own womb. The feelings were so strong that Isabella, for the first time in her life, actually came without so much as touching herself. As she drifted deeper, the faint smell of honey infused her dreams.