"In Dalos, and later in Dumis, I continued to read about your culture, and in your history books I noted the history of Pirion. The Empire of Pirion was a land which was closed to Vanmarians for many centuries, by caution and fear of each other and by the misunderstanding of Vanmar. I thought about the origins of our Pirion, where Jaspernon founded an Empire and created the Cult of the Goddess, and I realised that he must have seen that Pirion needed a system to encourage the people out of their old ways of monogamy and sexual deprivation, the people's fear of each other; to wreck the selfish inwardness of that old society and bring people closer so that they could excel in human skills instead of the investment of human effort in economic excess, and political and military disagreements which had taken place before."
"The cult of the Goddess was the way he encouraged the people. He set up the Priesthood, who were volunteers to the ways of the Goddess, who existed to serve the population sexually and in caring roles such as nursing and listening to their difficulties. The Priestesses and Priests gave the population a sexual outlet and sexual enlightenment, providing an example to the people about how they could behave if they wished. Any member of the population could call at a Temple and participate in exciting sexual ceremonies or enjoy the communion of individual Priests and Priestesses and it was allowed and officially encouraged, for both men and women. Of course there were times and rules dictating when the people could come, from which area or profession and how often. But our people evidently took to the new practices and they began to take multiple partners, lovers, indulge in group communion and to be sexually free amongst themselves also.
"Jaspernon's ideas succeeded in changing the nature of our society. Perhaps one day soon we can change Vanmar in the same way. Our Priesthood here will not be officially sanctioned but perhaps by exchange of ideas and informal encouragement we may stop the war at least and spread our ways amongst Vanmarians."
"I understand better now. Thank you," said Jeanette, hugging her friend closer. "It all falls into place. So Jaspernon created the Cult of the Goddess to manufacture a system which would organise your people into new sexual ways."
"And spiritual. The Goddess also teaches kindness and sharing," added Danella.
"Yes, and that too. You know Danella, it's the sex I want," said Jeanette. "I'm in the fortunate position that I am rich, I have a large pension from my father, who is still strong and alive. He has plenty of money so I do not need to work for a living or to find a rich husband. So I am free to live my own life. You came along and offered me new sexual encounters I would not have dared imagine before. You offered me yourself. I had never tasted female flesh before. You offered me friends I had known for years and exciting strangers to play with. Now I am free to taste whoever I may and I have the confidence to know that most men will want me. I now know that I only have to offer and I will receive what I want."
"You know the sex is all I want, but I agree that Prancir and the rest of Vanmar should be liberated. It is a laudable aim, and I can support it. I would like to see my people happy for once, and for your people to be freed from the terrors of war and the threat to your culture. I wish you all success in your efforts and I will play my part sexually and look forward to it. Bring me all the good looking men I can handle and I will gladly show them my love. But what I do is more selfish than your cause. I do it for my own greed rather than to save the world. I think Jacqueline will make a wonderful Priestess but I think I am not quite of your strength of character to be committed to the Goddess."
Danella held her and kissed her lightly on the cheek. "Your honesty is admirable. I don't ask that you or any Prancirians become Priestesses, or Priests. I only seek your help in spreading new values to Prancir which will help to stop the war. You don't need to become Pirionites for my sake. But you know we Pirionites are selfish too. How many of us, indulging in our ceremonies, consider the well being of our people or the ideals of the Goddess? No we are only ordinary human beings, who want to love beauty, or to let our innermost desires free in front of an audience. We in the most part are contented in our lives, and therefore when faced with threat, will fight to keep our sexual culture, but we're not normally committed to the conversion of foreigners."
"I have come to a stage in my life when I needed a purpose. For years I have been a Priestess in name. I was a Priestess because it brought me excitement, variety and, in a way, avoidance of more mundane work. But it is only recently, in this time of struggle, when I have seen the need for saving Pirion, that I have truly understood what it is to be a Priestess for the Goddess. That understanding has brought me new purpose. But that does not mean that I perform the sexual act as a mere duty to the Goddess. I feel the lusts of any Pirionite and my sexual hunger is genuine. The work of the goddess coincides with sexual pleasure because that is its nature."
"Don't forget Danella that I have seen you in action. There is no doubt in my mind that your performance is far more than a duty."
Danella had tried to persuade Ravelleon of the falseness of his beliefs, but she should have known that to persuade that man from his career for the sake of new beliefs was an impossibility. His attitude towards her had been little different. Tasting her love, he had wanted all of her love, and to control her life. He had wanted to change her true nature and the experience of a Priestess. Once a Priestess, once a Pirionite even, no woman or man could ever succumb to the social restrictions and sickly philosophies of Vanmar.
And Valery? Well his promise, so encouraging at first, had proved to be empty. He had at least helped others to the ideas of our natural humanity. But he had remained captivated by the power of his position, and the common values of the business classes.
Mireau and Philippe and been more easily converted despite early unwillingness and resistance. As she had known from her conversations with soldiers in Dalos, women in Prancir were far more unwilling than men to change their sexual habits. Many men hungered for change. Why else did they crowd into Priestesses dormitories to waste the money they risked their lives for. Women had not that option in Prancir although to some who could accept the loss of status in society and the gossip and condemnation of their own sex there were often lucrative options. In Jeanette, and later Jacqueline and Arabella, she had found her most devoted disciples. When the surface of social prejudice and second-hand ideas was scraped away women could reveal their true natures, spreading their charms and natural warmth to all around them without any prejudice at all. However, she doubted that most women of Prancir would turn so naturally to the wider love of the Goddess. Many women of Prancir were too engaged in the constant battles of child rearing and of hard work for employers or husbands alike, to be free to think of the wider possibilities. So many women in Prancir seemed to be willing slaves. She supposed the same could also be said of the men although many of them seemed openly less willing.
Ravelleon
General Ravelleon went out to the front again during a new period of field command. A big battle for Sorlas took place. He entered the city in the aftermath, surveying the dead and wounded of the enemy and of his own army. It had been bitterly fought. The Pirionites resisted for a long time, refusing to surrender until the battle was truly lost. In the streets which had been fought over there lay bodies of Priestesses in their green and purple tunics, soldiers at the last who had once, not long before, been lovers and nurses by occupation to all men. He saw one with full golden breasts and shapely shoulders, lying in the mud after the agony of death. Her clothes were partly pulled off by her killers, he presumed. She who had been a woman reminded him of Danella the Priestess, whom not so long before he had thought he owned in his house in Dumis. This one was a similar beauty, whom most soldiers would have preferred to plunder than to kill. She had been a beauty, prized by all living and breathing males, yet this was her eventual reward for the years of devotion and tenderness she had given to men. She was slashed across the temple, half her forehead gashed and split, one side of her beautiful face spoiled while her stomach contained the bullets of a gun, perhaps more than one gun, which had ripped through her body, tearing flesh. Blood had flowed and lay drying in the mud around her. He could not tell whether the sword blow to the head or the shots to the stomach had come first. Whichever it was perhaps the other had been a mercy to her to end her agony more quickly.
He saw Danella in the woman. Perhaps it was Danella. She did look very much like his own Priestess. She could so easily have been her. An involuntary panic settled upon him. Although he knew this woman could not be her. She could have been Danella, so easily. When they had taken Dalos the Priestesses had been defenders. Danella had told him many times, so often that he had not wished to hear of it any more. She had told him of her own fear, of how she had killed at a distance, of how some of her comrades had fallen around her, singled out by fate and the cruelty of his Prancirian army. Now he heard the voice of the Priestess again, quite clearly as if she were here with him.
