Maria Quartus, priestess of Virta, nervously fussed with her vestments as she sat before the entry to the office of the Madre Primus, Callista Secsterces, the leader of the faith of Virta in their city.
The door opened, one of her fellow junior priestesses stepping out. "Madre Calista will see you now, sister." she said, and Maria stood.
Maria stepped into the office, nerves buzzing.
Callista was tall, dark hair drawn back in a braid, the dark green vestments of the Madre Primus of Virta highlighting a lush figure that had drawn the eye of many men during the harvest festivals... and Maria's as well.
"Madre Primus, thank you for meeting with me." Maria said.
She smiled indulgently. "Of course, daughter. My duty is to guide Virta's daughters as much as it is to lead her worship." she said.
"Take a seat, and tell me what's troubling you, daughter." Callista said.
Maria sat, brushing a hand over her vestments and gulped. Now or never.
"I... need your advice. I have been having... thoughts, urges unbecoming of a priestess of Virta." she said.
"Thoughts alone are not evil, daughter, and neither are urges arising from the body. We were made from the stuff of gods, and so we inherit their flaws.
Only action can be sinful, for only action is done with intent and choice." Callista said, smiling gently.
"Tell me of these urges that trouble you so, and do not fear my censure." she said, reaching out and taking Maria's hand.
Maria blushed. "Well, Honored Mother, I uh... I..." she looked up at Callista's gently smiling face, gulped, and spoke in a rush.
"I have dreams about you. Fantasies, I... you're beautiful and perfect and devout and pretty and I..." she saw surprise on Callista's face, her hand tensed, and she went quite with a squeak.
Callista gulped. "Tell me the nature of these, ahem, fantasies..." she said.
"I..." Maria blushed. "They're too blasphemous..." she said.
"They are merely thoughts, daughter. Acting on them would be, but so long as they are thoughts, they are no sin." Callista said, her equanimity apparently back in full force.
"I... sometimes I imagine catching you in the bath... or... or you catching me, and me uh... performing, for you. But then there's..." Maria gulped again.
"I had a dream of the Dedication ceremony, but instead of happening in daylight, it happened at night, and the other younger daughters were there, and we had to... uh, strip, and you were there in the middle, where the goddess's idol is, naked, and we had to... demonstrate our devotion to you." she said, blushing profusely.
Callista blushed in response, and gulped. "I... well. It's not a sin to have... fantasies, dear. Just, remember that your actual conduct does reflect upon Virta, and she calls on us to be chaste in our dealings. I would suggest praying to her regarding this." Callista said.
"Of course, honored mother." Maria said.
"Very well, go in peace, daughter." Callista said.
[]
As the door slid shut behind the younger priestess, Callista gulped. A dream so similar to one she herself had had, with the young Maria being initiated as she had described. How strange.
She was young, yet so focused, driven in her devotion to their goddess, it was perhaps no surprise that Callista would feel affection for her, but this... base, feral lust, as though she were one of the ancient Virtian priestesses, who honored the goddess with orgies and sexual rites, was unbecoming of a modern acolyte of the goddess.
She resolved to abase herself before the goddess again and pray for forbearance.
[]
Virta was not embodied, truly. A deity was more of a free-floating idea, empowered and called into being through worship. But if they lived long enough, deities became less reliant on those who worshiped them for their personalities and thoughts, and became more independent.
Virta was older than Hellas, older than the ancient tribes who had brought her worship to the verdant, burning mountains and black soil of Hellas, and in all that time, she had been a goddess of fertility. And her rites had been typified by demonstrations of fertility, and sacred sexual rites.
She had been quite fond of attaching herself to her high priestesses, and miraculously inspiring pregnancy during lesbian sex. She had also quite enjoyed causing her male priests and transgender women priestesses to be suddenly pregnant as well.
The surprise was fun, the way they invariably became more devoted to her worship in gratitude, especially the girls made rather than born, was touching.
Despite the fact she had more worshipers now than she'd ever had in those old days, the sudden obsession with chastity had cut off the part she enjoyed most.
The old ritual of initiation, dreams of which she'd pushed into the minds of her two most devoted followers in the city, had two purposes. To initiate new lovers of the goddess, and to slake her lusts. As goddess of fertility, her lust built and built throughout the season.
And in that release, her power would be unleashed upon her faithful, answering prayers and inspiring fertility of man, beast and crops alike.
But it had been one hundred and two years since the Marriage of Virta rite had been performed, and she was increasingly pent up.
And those most devoted to her service were beginning to feel the arousal, the sexual hunger that she'd spent a century having built up with no release.
As two of her most devoted, First Mother and Honored Daughter, prayed for her help in combating her divine arousal, she finally gave up. She was overcharged with divine power, with no way to send it anywhere thanks to the new cult's obsession with purity. She was going to get release one way or another, and if she couldn't get the two of them to help her on their own, she was going to set things up so they did anyway.
[]
The ritual consecration of the central Icon in the heart of the temple was one of the few times the modern cult of Virta actually entered and used it, and it was the closest thing to a true old ritual of Virta.
The Madre Primus and one trusted priestess would enter, on the night before the summer solstice, the holiest day of Virta's religion, dressed only in a slip, and anoint the Icon and make prayers and burn herbs and incense.
As the summer solstice approached, Maria was called before the Madre Primus.
"I want you to join me in re-consecrating the shrine of Virta." Callista said.
"Me, honored mother?" Maria squeaked.
"Yes. You are one of the most devoted of the younger Daughters, and you are the best choice for it." Callista said.
Left unsaid, but implied by her conciliatory expression, was that maybe such a holy act would help with the unchaste urges they both had.
[]
The breeze brushed over maria's body beneath the sheer slip she wore, and she was glad the temple complex was sealed, as she walked towards the heart of the temple, the enclosed greenhouse, and at its heart, the Icon.
The feeling of the warm breeze beneath her shift caused heat to build in her nethers.