Daughter of the Sun

IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS...

After the long trip which had brought Eluan from the Tower of the Sun, to the city of Hadun and the court of Duchess Sung, the Princess and their escort are enjoying some peaceful days of relaxation in the Palace of the Thousand Flowers, waiting for the Duchess to provide her response to Queen Hailey's letter.

In the meanwhile in the north, in the Palace of Troygrove, the young priestess and exorcist Octavia finds unexpected help during her investigations about the fate of Queen Artemis, after a passionate encounter with one of her soldiers and one of her bed slaves; the secret room within the Queen's apartment could be the place in which the mystery which surrounds Artemis is hidden...

https://literotica.com/s/daughter-of-the-sun-ch-11

https://literotica.com/s/daughter-of-the-sun-ch-12

***

With her palms flat on the grass and her knees firmly planted on the ground, Princess Eluan arched her back vigorously, stretching it to the utmost like a bow ready to shoot, throwing her head back and trying to touch the back of her head with her toes, almost succeeding, and remaining motionless in that difficult position for over a minute.

Having completed even that strenuous exercise to keep trained the flexibility and elasticity of her body, the Princess rose nimbly to her feet, ready to move on to the final exercise of balance and meditation. Clasping her hands in front of her chest and closing her eyes, she stood on her left leg only, resting the sole of her right foot against the inside of the opposite thigh, breathing deeply and trying to create absolute emptiness within her mind while, with extreme and deliberate slowness, she raised her arms high above her head, her fingertips pointing towards the sky.

It was just one of the many exercises that Hua, Duchess Sung's Head Attendant, had personally taught her the day before, when they had arranged to meet for a session of gymnastics and meditation at dawn in the same garden where she still was, behind the Great Audience Hall, and where Eluan had been welcomed two days earlier, upon her arrival at the Palace of the Thousand Flowers in Hadun, and entrusted by Sung herself to the care of her three young and beautiful attendants.

Hua had proven to be an extremely attentive and capable teacher. For over an hour she had guided Eluan through a series of exercises for the well-being and awakening of both body and mind, thoroughly explaining the details and the benefits, monitoring the proper execution and often intervening to correct the Princess's posture with her small but strong hands.

Eluan already knew quite a few of them, having learned them from her dear friend and court enchantress Praja some time ago, during the course of their usual morning meditation sessions conducted together with Hailey and Darya on the beach in front of the Tower of the Sun, but she had been happy to be able to learn some new ones from the beautiful twenty-four-year-old attendant with the large, almond-shaped dark eyes and tanned skin.

The two young women had exercised completely naked, in the dim light of the atmosphere preceding the rising of the sun, alone, surrounded by a perfect silence interrupted only by the murmur of the waterfall that fed the pond and by the chirping of the morning birds hidden among the branches of the trees in the park, alternating exercises of muscle stretching with those of strengthening, exercises of deep psycho-physical relaxation with others of intense meditation.

Very soon, Eluan had felt her internal energy awakening, and a sensation of pleasant warmth unfolding from the pit of her stomach, to gradually spread through all her limbs, a slow but wonderful wave of well-being and strength that had grown inside her, filling her completely.

And, along with the inner energy, the natural desire of her young body had also awakened.

Hua's expert hands were strong yet gentle, feeling pleasantly caressing, and they seemed to purposely linger on Eluan's bare skin for a moment longer than necessary, every time she touched her to correct a position or to help her with performing a particularly complex exercise. Eluan had not minded that at all, and had completely abandoned herself to the touch of those expert hands, as if she were clay in the hands of a potter, allowing them to guide and shape her as they wished.

The sweet and prolonged massage she had received the night before, along with the intimate conversation with Sung's three attendants, had somehow changed her internally, opening her mind and freeing her from many of her previous inhibitions regarding her desires and sexuality. And therefore, on that morning, she had had no qualms about openly confessing to Hua about her evident state of arousal, induced by the persistent closeness of their naked bodies and her constant, soft touching.

With her always exquisitely humble and calm manner, Hua had welcomed that admission by clasping her palms and bowing her head.

"I am honored and pleased to hear you pronounce such words, Your Highness," she had said. "It is good to see you finally free from all those unnecessary inhibitions that plagued you. Come now, let us conclude the session together with one last, liberating exercise."

Following Hua's lead, they had knelt together on the soft grass of the lawn, facing the rising dawn, side by side, their bodies barely touching each other. Hua had gently took Eluan's hand in her, before guiding it right in the middle of her thighs, where a small bush of black hair grew lush, placing the Princess' fingers on her clit, while Hua's right hand had came to rest in the same exact spot on Eluan's womanhood.

Gently, Hua's fingers had began to move in small, slow, very pleasant circles, while she had guided the Princess's hand to do the same to her. Eluan had found herself extremely pleased to discover the intense wetness between Hua's legs, an unmistakable sign that, for the beautiful black haired attendant too, their session together had not been indifferent and without effects at all.

"The sun is life, strength and warmth," Hua had declared in a calm, deep voice. "Welcome its energy into you, Highness. With each breath, feel its rays of fire entering you through the pit of your stomach, imagining its light filling your body and mind entirely. With each breath, your inner life force grows, becoming stronger and stronger..."

Deeply influenced by her suggestive words, Eluan had actually felt a new energy growing inside her and, together with it, her own physical pleasure too. Moaning, she had abandoned herself to Hua's expert touch, whose fingers had began to move faster, in more energetic spinning circles, sometimes even slightly penetrating into the Princess's femininity while, with her free hand, Eluan had squeezed one of her own small breasts, further increasing the effect of those sensations.

And when the red disk of the sun had appeared in all its splendor above the treetops,

the two young women had simultaneously given themselves over to a prodigious and prolonged orgasm, freely screaming their ecstasy aloud, like two ancient, primitive sun-worshippers of times past, offering their feminine pleasure in praise of their glittering divinity.

It had been an almost mystical, unifying experience, something incomparable to any other erotic experience she ever had so far. It had been absolutely spontaneous for both of them, once their spirits had calmed down and their labored breathing had subsided, to remain kissing each other long and deeply, embracing each other tenderly and taking pleasure in each other's presence and in their physical and emotional closeness.

A sweet smile curled Eluan's lips as she remembered the events of the previous morning, as she brought her hands back to her chest and concluded the last of her exercises with a deep and vigorous exhalation, placing her foot back on the ground and slowly opening the lids of her beautiful blue eyes.

Even though she had done it in complete solitude, that morning session had left her as if transformed. Energized in every fiber, her body almost vibrant with vitality, her mind filled with a self-awareness of her own seductive power that she had never felt before, in that moment Eluan felt much more than the Princess of Syfall; she was a young and irresistible Goddess of Love, capable of making any woman she may have desired to drop instantly at her feet, with a simple blink of her eyes or with a snap of her slender fingers.

And perhaps she was truly becoming so, she thought with a sense of pride. During the banquet of the previous evening, organized by the Duchess in her honor, she had found herself surrounded by a crowd of young and beautiful courtesans, all highly excited by the possibility of exchanging a few words with the Royal Princess in person, and Eluan had greatly enjoyed the feeling of being at the center of all that female attentions.

Okawa, the Lady Commander of the Red Flowers had offered, who knows if with an ulterior motive, to lead her in a private training session in the martial techniques of their military corps, while there was no the slightest doubt about the real intentions of the Admiral Kasumi, behind her invitation to go and visit her ship and to enjoy also a short tour of the surrounding islands. Eluan had accepted Okawa's offer and had graciously promised Kasumi that it would have been her pleasure to make the visit, should the time she had left available at Hadun had allowed it.

The Princess returned to look at her surroundings. The clear surface of the nearby pond had an irresistible attraction on her. As if hypnotized by the bright reflection of the early morning light on the water, rippled by the light blowing breeze, Eluan allowed her feet to drag her toward the edge, step by step, as if animated by a will of their own.

It was too shallow to swim in, but that didn't matter to her. At its deepest, the water barely reached halfway up her thighs, but Eluan still greatly enjoyed the feel of the cold water on her skin as she slowly padded over the hard, slippery stones of the bottom, stroking the surface with her fingertips, heading toward the point where the stream coming from the pine grove cascaded over some large rocks, forming a small, bubbling waterfall.

Cupping her hands together, she let the cool streams of water fill the hollows of her hands, while crystalline drops splashed freely onto her bare chest, onto her nipples already naturally swollen with the morning's excitement.

If the sun was her progenitor, the mother Goddess from whom her ancient dynasty originated, water was her personal element, her most intimate friend, her lover. It seemed just perfectly to her right to demonstrate her love and devotion for that primordial element, by dedicating to it a sensitive manifestation of her pleasure, a pure expression of her life force.

She was alone that morning, but this didn't bother her anymore. Finally free from those useless feelings of guilt, the Princess had no longer any problem with pleasuring herself, quite the contrary.

The thought of Hua's naked body was almost sufficient in itself to induce her to orgasm. She wasn't mentally strong enough yet to be able to reach a climax with just the force of her thought, but, she had promised to herself, with practice she would have succeeded in this one day.

But at least for that day she still needed a little, manual help. Taking another step, she moved further below the waterfall, so that the jet of water rained straight on her breasts, enveloping her body from that point down, like a splendid liquid and cold dress. And then, two light touches down there were enough to unleash her pleasure, a long, powerful scream of liberation, while her young body trembled, releasing into the water discharge after discharge of powerful orgasmic energy.

In the most ancient and primal times, the most spiritually elevated women were used to offer their pleasure to the elements of nature, as a sign of worship and praise. Eluan had learned this from her readings, and was more than fascinated by the fantasy of reliving those ancient cults. A thought beyond heretical, and one that would have brought her more than a simple rebuke from both her sister and Lady Edith Beresford, the elderly High Priestess of the Sun. However, there was no need for them to know, Eluan thought with a smile.

Having fully completed her morning ritual, feeling totally at peace in body and mind, the Princess slowly emerged from the waters of the lake, heading towards the low canopied bed placed right on the shore, the same one where she had received that wonderful, mind-blowing massage from the hands and the naked bodies of Hua, Jia and Yin-Yu two nights before.

A soft, thick cloth towel had already been prepared for her by one of the attendants, folded and scented with lavender. Eluan wrapped it around herself, before sitting on the edge of the bed, taking from a low wooden table nearby a fine porcelain cup, filled to the brim with a warm herbal tea, pink in color, whose delicious aroma hung in the air.

She had just tasted a few sips, when one of the sliding doors of the building on her right opened, and the three female members of her escort entered the garden. As always, they were dressed in their usual traveling clothes, tunic, trousers and boots, and their swords were firmly secured at their sides in their leather scabbards.

Anja was the first to speak to her.

"Good morning, Princess," the statuesque blonde, daughter of the Count of Summerstone, greeted her with a radiant smile. "I trust you are feeling well after your morning exercise session."

"I feel wonderful, my dear Anja," Eluan replied, putting down her cup of herbal tea and stretching languidly, feeling more refreshed and invigorated than ever from the exercises and fro the bath. "And good morning to you too, Lydia and Nicole. Did you have a peaceful night?"

"Very pleasant I would say, Your Highness," Nicole replied with a knowing wink. "Thank you for asking."

Eluan couldn't help but giggle. Through the thin walls that separated their apartments, she had heard unmistakable noises coming from the girls' room during the night, and she knew without any doubt that, as had happened a week ago at the tavern along the road, the three women had conceded to themselves another moment of mutual pleasure before falling, presumably still piled up in the same bed.

But, this time, she had felt no envy at all, only a sincere contentment for the trio. In all of her life Eluan had never truly desired the throne for herself, but in that moment she thought that, if fate ever made her Queen one day, what she would have desired the most would have been to surround herself with a court of women who loved the female gender, and who felt entitled to freely express such love with each other.

An image of herself, sitting on Syfall's throne with just the crown on her head, gently stroking the hair of two naked maids lying at her feet and looking down from her seat at the throne room, crowded with beautiful courtesans and female knights engaged in amorous acts, aroused an inner smile within her mind.

"Do you know what I was thinking?" she said, standing up. "That you would really deserve a day off, all the three of you. Not much is going to happen today. I won't speak to the Duchess about my sister's letter until early afternoon, and for this morning Lady Commander Okawa has invited me to a personal halberd practice session in the Armory. Our stalwarts Willard and Gerrard will be here in the Palace anyway, so there's really no reason to keep all the three of you here."

"With your permission, Princess," Anja replied seriously, "just for safety, I'd prefer to stay by your side anyway. You never know what you might need..." she said, purposely letting a certain ambiguity to hang in the air, something that Eluan didn't mind at all. Then, turning to her companions with a smile, she added, "I don't see any reason not to give our two friends here a little freedom, though."

"What do you think?" Eluan asked, looking at the other two girls. "Would you like that?"

"Your Highness is very kind," Lydia replied with a shy smile and bowing her head, after exchanging a quick glance with her friend. "We would accept gladly, and with gratitude."

"Then we will do this way," Eluan decided. "Take the whole day off, until the evening. Go out, visit the city, do whatever you want and, above all, have fun. I would only ask you to run a small errand on my behalf, if that's not too much."

"Whatever you may want, Princess," the young red-haired knight nodded.

"Hua recommended me a number of ointments and medicinal plants that I would like to purchase," Eluan explained. "You will find a list on the table in my room. I would appreciate if you could stop by an herbalist on your way back and make these purchases for me. Feel free to take as much money as you need from my purse. And feel free to take more to buy anything you might like during your visit to the city."

"I know a very good one, Your Highness," Nicole, who had been born and raised in that city, replied. "The owner is an old family friend, and I don't exclude that she might even apply us a little discount. We will return with everything you need."

"And one more thing," the Princess added before dismissing them. "There is no need for you to go around in those heavy travelling clothes. The Duchess has graciously presented me with a selection of beautiful kimonos, which you can find in the wardrobe in my room. Please choose the ones you like the most and wear them. They will be my gift to you."

Both Nicole and Lydia bowed to the Princess with beaming smiles on their young faces, before turning to go get ready for their day off with obvious excitement.

"Your Highness really does have a golden heart," Anja commented once they were left alone in the garden. "They are two reliable, loyal and hard-working girls, who always give their best during the tough training sessions. Even little Nicole, despite sometimes seeming a little silly and immature. They really deserve a reward for their efforts."

"You would deserve that too, dear Anja, perhaps more than anyone else," Eluan said. "You have been our trusty and tireless guide throughout our journey since we left Vinevris, and Darya has always had high praise for you to me and my sister. Is there really nothing you desire?"

"Something that I desire?" for a brief moment Anja seemed caught off guard by that question. "Yes, there is something, Your Highness," she replied after a few seconds of thought.

Her beautiful, light blue eyes bore straight into the Princess's. And when she spoke again, her voice was full of emotion, as if her words were flowing from the depths of her heart.

"A secret dream that I have jealously guarded in my heart for some years now. But it is something so beautiful, something so sublime that my lips do not dare to pronounce its name, my Princess, for fear that it might vanish in the air like a mirage, the moment should I find what I desire the most right here, before my eyes."

Her heart began to beat more madly in her chest at the hearing of those words. During the course of their journey from the Tower of the Sun, Eluan had more than once the impression that the blonde daughter of the Count of Summerstone might have been hiding some interest in her. She had guessed that from the occasional glances, from the half smiles that she gave her from time to time, from the amount of things that the lady knight seemed to know about the Princess's personality and passions, although the two of them had never spoken to each other before that journey.

But those words went far beyond a mere expression of desire for carnal enjoyment. They were a true declaration of love, profound, intense, directed to the soul.