Author's note: This story is very outlandish and is not for everyone.
I'd strongly suggest new readers check out "All the Power - A Bit of Background," which contains some important context for what is happening here, as well as explanations for some of the more outlandish/unbelievable aspects of the story. It is very short, so it won't take up much of your time. It may give you a sense of whether you wish to read the rest; if you do, you'll have a better idea of what's going on.
*****
Dawn had not yet broken over the Sacred Estate as the boats pulled up to up to the piers. Tetenia sat, naked, cramped in with over 100 other concubines, looking out a small window at the water. She still had much penance to do, months of it, probably more, but for today she was happy to be off her knees. It was the day of the Changing of the Term.
For thirty days per year, each of the forty-eight Subject Kingdoms and twelve Imperial Provinces must send twelve individuals to perform the Term of Sacred Service. These individuals must be distinguished or highborn, or preferably both. During the Term, they would act as His Supremacy's personal servants - running errands, fetching concubines, and performing other tasks. They were usually referred to as term servants.
His Supremacy had sixty term servants at any given time. Each month, a new rotation consisting of twelve servants each from four Subject Kingdoms and one Imperial Province would perform the Term of Sacred Service. At the start of the month, these rotations would turn over - the Changing of the Term.
The Changing always began with a processsion of His Supremacy's concubines, who walked fully nude into the Sacred Throne Room and presented their bodies to Him as He sat upon the Sacred Throne.
Bleary-eyed, Tetenia exited the boat onto a massive concrete platform along with the other concubines. It felt good to stand and be in the fresh air, but it was chilly in the pre-dawn and she was naked. She rubbed herself with her hands, hoping to warm up a bit. Two boats, docked on opposite sides of the platform, carried concubines who streamed out onto it.
Tetenia began looking around. She had always been praised for her beauty, but suddenly she felt a bit inadequate. All of these women belonged to His Supremacy? Of course they did. All things belonged to His Supremacy, these were just the fortunate few who were chosen to live out their highest purpose.
They certainly did not all look exactly the same, but all were beautiful and most were curvaceous, the sorts of women that men fought over and wrote poems for. None were truly worthy of His Supremacy.
Tetenia wandered a bit, taking in the scene. The first hints of dawn were starting to show, and the concubines would look even more beautiful in the daylight. She was walking towards the center of the platform when an arm reached out suddenly and grabbed her. "Don't walk there!," a voice said, with a mixture of surprise and concern.
Tetenia stopped, almost tripping over herself, and looked down. Just in front of her was a narrow strip of pure gold in the middle of the concrete, maybe about four feet across. Tetenia looked at the smiled sheepishly. "Sorry," she said.
The woman - a sultry blonde, every bit as naked as Tetenia - said "that's the Golden Path. It is reserved for His Supremacy. Anyone else who traves upon it must follow Him on their knees, kissing the ground He walks on." She cleared her throat. "If he permits it."
"Oh, I didn't know. I'm really sorry. I'm new around here, I guess. I'm Tetenia."
The woman nodded. "Edea. It's OK. Now you know."
Tetenia was about to ask her how best to learn such things, but she turned and walked away. Evidently, she was not interested in making new friends.
At that moment, a horn blasted, and the concubines began lining up on either side of the Golden Path, one concubine on each side of it, in pairs of two. In front of thme was a massive marble staircase, beyond which lay the central entrance to His Sacred Palace, out of sight. Two by two, the concubines walked up the stairs.
Tetenia looked out towards the sun rising over the hills to the east. His Sacred Palace extended down the shoreline, a marble walls and balconies sloping down towards the lake's edge. The first glimmers of sunlight danced on the water. Tetenia smiled.
***
The concubines ascended the top of the staircase and then stopped suddenly, partway through an even more gigantic platform, this one made of marble. Tetenia, who had been taking in the view, was startled and again almost tripped on herself. She looked around quizically. Once it became clear they were going no further, she leaned up to the concubine in front of her and asked why.
The concubine tapped Tetenia's shoulder, and pointed forwards and up. Tetenia looked up and audibly gasped. Her heart started beating faster.
Before her was the central entrance to His Sacred Palace, which led to His Supremacy's main throne room. The structure was six-hundred feet wide and four-hundred feet tall, its wall a sheath of pure, shining, marble. The rest of the main Palace, to which it was connected, had a variety of windows and balconies, but not here. There were two large triangular windows on the upper left and right corners, and that was it. The walls were pure marble. On the far sides were two enormous statues of His Supremacy, over three hundred feet tall and nearly a hundred feet wide. Each statue depicted Him sitting naked upon a throne, a concubine or Queen Priestess kneeling before Him and worshipping Him. Both statues were made entirely of pure gold.
At the center was the entrance itself - an utterly enormous solid gold door, four hundred feet wide and over five hundred feet high at the middle, tapering off at the sides. The procession of concubines had stopped where it did because the door needed an enormous amount of clearance.
Tetenia's palms grew sweaty and her left arm started shaking. She tried to regulate her heartbeat, but she kept looking at the mind-boggling scene before her. She knew His Sacred Palace, and especially the central entrance and throne room, was enormous, but she had never seen it up close. A trumpet sounded. Tetenia looked down a bit a noticed hundreds of men - all guards - with their bodies tethered to the enormous golden door.
The men began walking forward with great effort, straining, heaving. The door gradually opened with a deafening roar. The men strained and heaved forward as the door slid across the marble. Tetenia thought it almost sounded like thunder, but it didn't really - it sounded like what thunder might sound like if you happened to be inside the cloud producing it. She began to quiver.
The procession entered an anteroom, but calling it an anteroom seemed wholly inadequate. It was an enormous room, so huge it didn't even feel indoors - six hundreed feet wide and equally as long and four hundred feet tall. Its walls were, again, sheathed in pure marble. On either side, at its edges, the room gave way to hallways and staircases leading to other parts of the Palace. Behind them, where they just entered, the wall was decorated with carvings depicting His Supremacy's conquests and varous subjects and potentates prostrating themselves before Him, and Him in repose with varous beautiful concubines and Queen Priestesses.
Before them was the entrance to His throne room, another marble wall with another enormous golden door, almost as large as the last one. This one opened in the same way, with hundreds of guard-servants tethered to it, with a thundering roar.
Tetenia felt like her heart was beating out of her chest.
***
Tetenia had been awestruck. When they entered the throne room, she did not know if a word existed to describe the level of awe.
She had heard that His Supremacy's throne room was large enough to fit one-hundred-thousand people, but she thought it a myth. It was true. The room was six hundred feet wide and half a mile long. The concubines walked down a center aisle, keeping clear of the Golden Path. Tetenia looked around. Skylights rimmed the top of the walls and the ceiling, bathing the room with daylight. The room - if it could be called that, the entire Nordish royal castle could probably fit inside of it multiple times - was shorn of ornamentation, all simply marble and gold trim. The floor of the throne room was filled with people bowing down towards Him.
His throne sat atop a massive staircase, covering about half the room's height - around two hundred feet above the tens of thousands of worshippers. It extended the entire width of the room, creating a large marble platform at its top, on either side of His Supremacy's throne. The staircase was largely occupied by more nude female bodies, prostrating themselves towards Him - the Blessed Servants. The concubines would eventually each take their spots along the staircase in the middle of the room, closest to the center aile and the Golden Path, next to the Blessed Servants.
Tetenia fixed her eyes on His Supremacy, even though He was still quite far away. His throne was made of a rare gemstone, mostly red with golden trim. The seat and back and armrests and footrests were apholstered entirely in layer upon layer of rare silk and velvet. He sat upon the throne, nude, with the Queen Priestesses Anya and Sha fellating Him. Arrayed on either side of Him, bowing down towards Him at the top of the staircase, were the other eight Queen Priestesses. Tetenia looked around agian. Her body began to twitch. She had no idea a person could be so nervous, so completely overwhelmed by earthshattering awe.
The procession reached the foot of the staircase and stopped, all 244 concubines falling to their knees. They remained like that for several minutes. The room, so filled with people, was shockingly quiet. Tetenia's hands trembled.
His Supremacy gave a signal to the Queen Priestess Lyenne, who said "His concubines may approach His Supremacy's Sacred Throne."
The concubines ascended the staircase, two by two, on their elbows and knees. All who ascended the staircase to His Sacred Throne had to do so on their elbows and knees.
When the first two concubines reached the top, the procession stopped again. Tetenia was afraid of slipping the entire time, as her body was a trembling wreck of nervousness and awe. Soon, she would have to present herself to Him.
One by one, the concubines stood, each for five seconds before sliding over to take her place prostrate upon the staircase. The procedure started with the concubines at the top of the stairs and worked its way down. Tetenia was about halfway down the line, and as her turn grew closer, her nerves frayed more and more. She had to actively stop herself from vomiting; she was trembling and shaking but couldn't possibly control that. She noticed many other concubines looked nervous and were shaking, too, albeit seemingly not as badly as her. When it got closer to her turn, time seemed to slow down. Every tremble of her body felt like an internal earthquake, every effort to calm her stomach an internal war. The concubine in front of her stood for five seconds, then moved to the side. His Supremacy looked totally relaxed on the throne, His cock buried deep in Anya's mouth and throat. The concubine to her left stood for five seconds, then moved to the side.
