Naranha took a deep breath, trying in vain to allay her nerves. She had practiced for this day, never completing the ritual that it would be necessary to finish for the ritual to take place. The healers had already been in to see her and had verified that she was ripe to become the Earth mother invoked by the Babylonian rite. She clad herself in the golden gown that would mark her status as the most favored of the priestesses, chosen by the sacred ritual.
The practices had been long and intense, testing her abilities to the very edge of her endurance. And each time they left her feeling unfulfilled, joined afterward by her life-mate Indira. Indira would massage her sore muscles, would restore pleasurable feeling to her pinched nerves and seared senses. Naranha settled the Tiara of Light atop her head. She stepped out of the quarters that the Earth Mother was always allowed to occupy. There waited four golden-clad priestesses, her guardians. Indira stood in the middle of them and embraced Naranha. The women had been friends since their thirteenth year, when they had first been selected for their duties as priestesses of the sun. They had become lovers shortly thereafter, friends who could talk about the secret rites and the uncaring nature of supplicant after supplicant, who paid high indulgence taxes to pleasure themselves with the priestesses, only to spend themselves in the women's bodies before rudely departing, bathed by the scent of a priestess.
Indira held Naranha at arm's length now and gazed into her large brown eyes. Naranha felt they were her best feature and had even been embarrassed by Indira's love poems about them. Naranha thought Indira was far more beautiful. But, for some reason, Naranha was the one selected. Indira had shown nothing but happiness for her since. Now, Indira looked a little sad. Naranha leaned out and kissed her lover gently on each eyelid. Indira rewarded her with a brave smile. Indira stepped out of the way and Naranha stepped into the middle of her guardians.