Vetiscia carefully placed the scrolls in their rightful order, having read through them thoroughly, in ways most mortals couldn't fathom. She had them noted, sealed with wax stamps until they were ready to be read again, and deposited them upon the cart by the table she was coiled up at, her boa-sized bulk still plenty dexterous.
Her tail's tip delicately plucked the rolled scrolls from the table, whilst she breathed out a supernatural chemical cocktail that impregnated the papers with resilience from the elements, not that her Archives were at any such risk. But it did also mean her mark was upon them, unseen though it was. And each stamp, the red wax was impregnated with a drop of her venom, tinging the centre a subtle purple.
Lena was next to her, helping her Goddess with this simple work. Did Vetiscia need to do it like this exactly? Not quite, she could all but glance at a tome or a scroll or a grimoire or any such piece of knowledge and learn its secrets.
But she liked to be thorough. She did not simply trust in her godly power, that would make for a poor scholar and archivist.
And she found it all rather relaxing.
Hence why Lena assisted, for Vetiscia enjoyed the company of her Learned. The young woman brought fresh scrolls over to be read and sealed, and kept notes in a large book, a manifest of sorts. She was tall, but petite, not the most curvaceous sort, but still quite pretty, her long raven hair framing her face, one of her almost-maroon brown eyes nearly obscured at any one time. There was a small scar across the bridge of her nose, where she had apparently been whipped in her youth, hailing from a village that did not trust scholarly types, keeping learning only to its oral traditions, and discouraging any sort of open minded curiosity.
Simpletons like that had their reasons to fear knowledge, though it invariably turned to toxic dogma. And poor Lena suffered for it.
But she escaped her village and continued her pursuit of knowledge... and now she was here, where she'd be accepted. And so much more.
"My Lady, these ones came yesterday," she said, gingerly rolling several scrolls from her arms into Vetiscia's waiting tail, the Goddess depositing them in a neat row at the top of the desk.
"My, they have been busy," Vetiscia remarked, referring to those of her Cult who stayed mostly beyond the bounds of the temple, finding knowledge and conducting research, and relaying their findings back to her, if not sending what they found directly. As well as leaving hints and clues and planting the seeds of curiosity throughout the land where Scholars might stumble across them, and thus, eventually find their way to her.
That was how Lena discovered her, after all. The girl's hunger for knowledge was insatiable, and when she first learned of Vetiscia... well, she devoted all her energies to discovering if the Goddess was real.
An admirable determination, for one usually quite shy, even after participating in the less 'dignified' activities Vetiscia's Learned oft indulged in. And of course, to become one of her Learned, Lena would have had to have first experienced the Goddess' wicked pleasures - multiple times - before agreeing to Induction; a salacious act of devouring.
Still, she often blushed at the sight of her fellow Learned when they disrobed or flirted with her, and whenever it was Vetiscia who made advances on her, she often swooned. Vetiscia found it rather delightful.
But outside of such things, Lena was quiet, and diligent.
"It's good, is it not?" Lena remarked, brushing one of her bangs out of her eye, her dark robes shifting a little. "I look forward to reading everything that comes into this Temple. All these scrolls... there's some fascinating reports in them."
"Indeed there are~" Vetiscia agreed, plucking up one scroll and unrolling it, her eyes taking in the whole page at once. Knowledge forever stored in her mind. This one... a report on some craftsman's theoretical design, a metal vessel to store and boil water, to use the steam to drive all manner of mechanisms and devices. It was rather intriguing, though Vetiscia could only wonder how such a machine would change the world. For good and ill. It would not be her place to interfere, not in something new.
Ancient and forbidden knowledge was her domain, and she shared it as she deigned appropriate. But whatever intelligent individuals discovered on their own, that was not her right unless she was certain it pertained to darker things, too terrible for the world at large.
She rolled the scroll and had it sealed, impregnating it with her drop of venom.
At that moment, another of Vetiscia's cultists emerged from a nearby passage, carrying a stack of heavy tomes in her arms, humming a soft, mercurial tune under her breath.
Vetiscia spied Lena's gaze shifting to the woman, the faintest blush showing on their pale face.
"Ah, Seri, how are you~?" Vetiscia greeted, Seri turning around after she placed the books down on another nearby table with a small huff, the loss of weight causing her rather buxom chest to bounce beneath her lighter robes.
The woman's sun-kissed face twisted into a small grimace of strain, before offering a wonderful smile.
"Oh, other than a sore back just now, I have been well, My Lady~ I have just finished collating the works of the Lost Poet... what beautiful verses they have, to have left behind nothing of who they were~"
Vetiscia smirked surreptitiously, knowing that the knowledge of the Lost Poet's identity was somewhere within the Archives... but she'd say nothing about it, and let Seri discover it on her own. It would be wrong to rob one of her Learned of the thrill of the hunt.
"You have been looking into their works for some time. I've seen only a handful put in so much dedication."
"Well, whoever they were, their prose is legendary. I hope one day to release their full works to the world, so that, even if they are lost, their full legacy never will be."
Seri sighed wistfully, before turning to Lena, that smile never wavering.
"Hello Lena~ I haven't seen you in a few days. I hope you're well yourself."
"... fine, just fine," Lena answered with a slight delay, looking like they were trying to maintain their composure, just a little. Her eyes were glancing at a particular part of Seri's anatomy, though they did roam all over the admittedly beautiful woman.
"You know, if you need help with the book you are writing," Seri began, "You can always ask for my help. I'm looking forward to seeing it finished."
"Of course... I'm making progress, don't worry about that," Lena assured, her voice sounding just a little lacking in confidence.
Seri grinned, leaning forward, her bust bouncing a little.
"You don't need to rush. The greatest works of our age have been done with patience," Seri assured. "But a little help never goes wrong."
She then stood straight and laughed.
"I'll leave you two to finish your work," Seri remarked, before bowing to Vetiscia. "My Lady."
"As you will, Seri," Vetiscia responded with a small nod of her head.
At that, Seri wandered away with a refreshed sway to her gait, her shapely rump outlined by her robes.
Lena gulped down and did her best not to be distracted; Lena had never been with Seri before, but she had been with men and women alike since she joined the cult. This continued bashfulness despite that would always delight Vetiscia.
"You seemed rather distracted with Seri~" Vetiscia noted, grinning broadly.
"What, no!" Lena blurted out, before catching herself, and sighing bashfully. "Well, yes... she's so beautiful and exotic."
"And I'm not~?" Vetiscia teased, slowly encircling her head and neck around Lena, making them shiver.
"O-Of course you are... the most exotic of them all," Lena agreed, but there was a look in her eyes that betrayed other thoughts to Vetiscia.
"But there's something I'm missing," Vetiscia noted.
At first, it looked like Lena wished to deny that statement, but there was no hiding truth from the Goddess.
"I dream about being trapped in your coils, my Lady," she admitted, though hardly a confession. "But, people like Seri... she has something you don't. I mean... wouldn't you want to rest your head upon a bosom like hers? To feel her hands over you... ah, I did not mean to offend!"
Vetiscia was not offended, simply smirking at the panicked girl, licking her lips with her forked tongue.
"Ah, so that's it... what if I told you, I could provide the best of both worlds~?"
"What do you mean?" Lena inquired, her tone that characteristic inquisitiveness.
"I am more than just this form... just as I can change size and length and girth as I desire, I can do more than that~"
She then leaned in close, and whispered into Lena's ear, such that her tongue was able to flicker across the contours within it.
"Join me in my chambers... and I shall show you~"
She hissed a chuckle, and unwound herself from Lena, brushing her scaly body against the woman as she left the scrolls where they were; they could continue later.
Shortly after, Vetiscia was in her chambers, and Lena was there, standing in the middle of the room before the bed, watching with eyes mixed between bashful and lustful as Vetiscia coiled her bulk up upon the bed.
