Priestesses of the Goddess

Rata dropped onto the bed next to Soji. All anger fled her turbulent mind as quickly as it had come. "Oh sweet goddess, she's right you know."

Soji nodded her head through tears. Rata loathed herself that she was the cause of her sister's pain. That as usual she had struck out in anger without thought of how her actions might harm others. That her flood waters had yet again broken their banks and destroyed that which was most precious to her. She could not remember the last time that she and Soji had fought. She was certain there was one. There had to be. They had been friends and sisters too long not to have disagreed over something. But never something like this, never this bad. Never had she hurt Soji as she had this rising.

She extended her hand slowly and Soji's met her half way, their fingers lacing together in mid-air. "I'm so sorry," she whispered as she looked into her sister's eyes that glistened with tears and pain.

Soji shook her head, "I know, sweet sister. I am sure that you wanted only to protect me as I did you. I am sorry too. I should have spoken to you before I had Leamus reassigned."

Rata chuckled, "And what of Larca? What of stealing my priestess?"

Soji laughed out right then, her fingers squeezing Rata's. "The girl never mattered to you, we both know that. But since, you mentioned the affront, perhaps you wish to choose one of my priestesses in return. It does seem only fair."

She smiled as she recognized the offer for what it was, "Of course, sweet sister, I believe that Cinki might do nicely, do you not?"

Soji winked conspiratorially, "A wise choice as always." She dropped her head for a moment as if choosing her words wisely, something that Rata rarely did, and something she wished she had done this rising especially. When Soji looked back up at her, she was worrying her lower lip. "I am sorry about Leamus. But I honestly was thinking of the young man."

She paused a moment as if digging even deeper for a delicate way to broach the subject, "Tsu is not the man we thought him, Rata. He is greedy for the glory and privileges of his office, being primary of a High Priestess suits his needs. But he lacks the maturity to manage the responsibilities that come with it."

Rata nodded. Soji was not telling her anything that she herself did not know. She had found her primary lacking for some time. If she were honest, she had always found the man lacking. But she had thought the fault lay in her. The defect of the goddess that held her suspended, a detached vessel to be used, but never to actually partake of the true power which flowed through it. But if her sister could see these things, perhaps it was more than just her cold nature that sent the man scurrying for her priestess's bed.

"I know," she admitted reluctantly.

Soji nodded her head as she continued, "When you had the fit, it was Leamus that found you. The boy had followed you from your chambers, because he knew his commander was with her and that you were unguarded," she paused and allowed her words to sink in. Rata frowned, why had he taken such a risk? An acolyte accompanying his mistress was unheard of, scandalous even.

As if she could read her mind, her sister answered the question, "He said he figured that some protection was better than none." Soji reached up and brushed the burnished red hair back from Rata's face, "The boy loves you as deeply as you do him, sweet sister."

Rata shook her head in denial. Love. It was a word that was as foreign as the battle cries that haunted her dreams. Certainly as a High Priestess she was the embodiment of the goddess's love and healing. But love as a feeling, an emotion. Especially the love between a man and a woman of which her sister spoke, it was as forbidden to a High Priestess as the boy himself.

"Tsu knows it and my guess is that he knows how you feel to. When Leamus overstepped his place to protect you, he earned Tsu's enmity." Soji lifted her chin and looked into her eyes, "I did what I did to protect the boy more than anything else, sweet sister. I know you would not want anything happening to him."

Rata nodded her head, "Of course, I would not. Thank you, Soji. Thank you for doing what I did not have the strength to do."

Soji smiled, "Unless of course, you wish to renounce your primary and promote the young man. He would make a far more worthy consort for a High Priestess."

Rata pulled back at her sister's words, shocked until she saw the twinkle in her eye and recognized the teasing laughter that lay just beneath the surface. "Of course, and perhaps by way of indoctrination we should all celebrate with a tribunal?"

Soji laughed, "It would certainly be an indoctrination the boy would never forget. It would either kill him or make him a man to be reckoned with that is for certain. Assuming that greedy little cunny Larca had not overlooked traditions and done the dirty deed already."

Rata knew her sister referred to the moon cycle during which it was customary for a priestess to get to know her new primary without the encumbrance of communion, a courtship of sorts. But what bothered Rata most was not that her primary had lain with the woman, or even abandoned his duty to do so. What bothered her was the almost violent way that her stomach turned at the thought of the younger priestess indoctrinating Leamus.

She frowned as another thought occurred, "But if Tsu is already jealous of Leamus will not giving him to his lover as primary make him more so?"

Soji nodded, "I realize that too, but like you I too have a dark side when crossed. I shall never forget what Tsu did to you when he abandoned you, sweet sister. This move is perhaps a bit of my vengeance for that. To give his secondary to the man, who had bested him once already, should sting Tsu's pride enough to keep him in line."

Rata shook her head, "I am not sure it is wise. What if it is more than a casual secondary that Tsu feels for Larca? Will his anger not burn brighter at the man, who took not just the woman he is duty bound too but the one he loves as well?"

Soji inhaled deeply, "I gave Tsu a choice that rising. He chose to remain with you. Granted it may be that it is the power of his station as primary of the High Priestess that kept him at your side, but whatever his reason he chose you. If that is truly the case then he needs to forsake his alliance with the priestess and do a much better job of fulfilling his duties to you. Has he?"

Rata looked down at her bare feet against the cold stone floor. "I have not felt up to it," she lied. The truth was that she had not felt up to seeking her release in the arms of her primary for a long time.

The man had become little more than a trapping of her station. If Tsu used her and her position to his advantage, she too used him as a cover of sorts for her inadequacies. They both were living a lie. It was why she had not objected when he sought the bed of another. If she could no longer meet his needs, it seemed only fair to allow him to find release elsewhere...and for a time it had worked.

But times were changing in ways that none of them had control of. And that scared Rata more than anything. For as fast moving and unpredictable as her waters could be, the High Priestess hated uncertainty and change as much as anyone.

***

Soji felt the disquiet in her sister's soul. She knew that there was much more to this story than she knew. But then again if what her beloved sister said was true, and she had no reason to doubt it, even in her worst mood she knew that Rata would never lie. So if Versil had been in Cinki's bed these past few risings then she certainly had no room to judge the mess that her sister had made of her household.

She frowned. If she had lost Versil's interest, what then? Of course, she remained duty bound by her position to serve as the man's counselor, his line to the goddess for communion. But she knew that Mij had not sought out such communion with Rata in many cycles. Of course, the man still came regularly to the temple, spoke with devotion to the High Priestess that had served him since he rose to the Council of Three, but the most scared duties of the office had long since been forsaken.

She suspected too that Lapu did not seek such communion from Mya either. Of course, there was a very good reason for that. The man had been deeply in love with Lano. A love that was an open secret. A love that she suspected had been returned by the woman that was their mentor and other mother. Why she had not forsaken them all, her duties to be with the man Soji would never understand. If Versil ever asked, she stopped herself. That line of thought would get her nowhere. Especially in light of her sister's revelation.

"I am sorry, sweet sister," Soji felt Rata squeezing her fingers and looked up, realizing that tears clouded her vision as she looked at her sister. "You know I would never mean to hurt you. I should not have said anything. Kept my waters in check and my mouth shut."

Soji chuckled, "You never keep your waters in check, sweet sister. That is the job of your primary and he is not up to it. And it is best that I know the truth. That we all know the truth, is it not?"

Rata nodded her head, "The truth is that our little sister is right. A storm unlike anything we have ever known is almost upon us and we are fighting one another. Our own houses are a mess, falling apart around us. Some High Priestesses of the goddess we are, uh?"

"Oh sweet goddess, Mya. What are we going to do about her? She is so disappointed in us?" Soji wondered aloud.

Rata leaned in slowly, "I can think of one thing that would serve us all well, sweet sister." Rata's lips brushed softly back and forth over hers. Passion ignited in the depths of her fountain. Not the same unbridled passion that she felt when Versil sought her bed, dipped his mighty sword inside of her. No, this passion was soft, sweet, comforting. Familiar. The sweet communion of the goddess that only her priestesses shared with one another.

Soji softly caressed her sister's cheek as she deepened the kiss. Her tongue danced across her sister's, the same tongue whose words had brought her such pain, now offered her the sweetest of solace. She drew back reluctantly with a sigh. Her body was alive with the energy of their goddess, desire flowed through her. "I think that is an excellent idea, dear sister." Lacing their fingers together in union, she stood and drew Rata up with her. "I think it is past time that the High Priestesses of the goddess seek their communion, together."

***

Mya's sobs had quieted to gentle hiccups that came sporadically, but her mind remained turbulent. She had sought Lano's counsel through all the tears. Tears that Rata assured them all were the soul's water, cleansing and healing. But they did neither. She was as lost and alone as she always had been.

Lano was gone. With the goddess herself, unreachable to mere mortals, even High Priestesses. Her sisters, who should have lead and guided her, were fighting one another. And the vision that they had shared with Rata during the healing, it now haunted her dreams as well. So many were dead, others lay dying. The alter broken into thousands of pieces, destroyed, shattered as her faith was now.

She wondered if she ever truly had that thing called faith. When she came to this place, she remembered Lano drawing her into her chambers that first night, her chambers now. She had held her as she cried, cried as she did now. Then she had told her the story of her birth, the full truth that her father had never even shared with her.

Oh, he had told her how special she was to him, how he and her mother were lovers of their youth, having known sweet communion only with one another. He told her how they had tried for a child for so long, but how her mother had been unable to conceive. He had even told her that in desperation her mother had sought the blessing of the goddess through her priestesses. What he had not told her was what that blessing entailed.

That burden had been Lano's to reveal. Her mother had come to this place, something women did not do, though it was not forbidden. It was just that women did not need to seek communion with the goddess in the same way, since each carried within her a fountain of the goddess, though not blessed in the same way as a priestess was.

Mya laughed sardonically, was it a blessing? What she had witnessed of the temple and life here, she was no longer certain. Love and healing that was given it seemed to others, but rarely returned in any small measure. Used endlessly, but seldom valued for the precious gifts that they gave so freely. Hearts that never truly knew the power of their own gifts. Wombs that were forever closed to the greatest manifestation of the goddess's love, life itself.

That was what had driven her other mother, the emptiness inside the woman whom had borne her called to that same emptiness inside the High Priestess who has raised her and become her other mother. When she had seen the woman's pain, listened to her pleas upon the alter, she had felt power surge up inside of her, she said. Knew that she held the key to healing, knew that she could open the fountain of the goddess and allow life to flow into it, even if such things were forbidden to her as a priestess.

The details of what that healing entailed still boggled Mya's mind. At times she wondered why her other mother had shared such intimate information with her. Sometimes she thought it was perhaps to comfort that lost little girl, assure her that another missed the man that had raised and protected her for so long. But now? Now she was never sure of anything.

The truth was that Lano had taken them both into her chambers. Shared sweet communion with the couple. Been as much a part of her conception as the mother who had carried her in her womb or the father who had seeded her. The High Priestess of the air had for a time forsaken her duties to her councilor and her own primary. Had instead channeled all of the power of the goddess within her into the couple. And by the time that they left these chambers Mya grew in the other woman's womb.

But Lano had always asserted, she was as much her child as she was theirs. Her other mother always believed that she had passed along her gifts to the babe, destined her for this life and this office from the moment that she first tasted her mother's lips or touched her father's sword.

The bitter sweet way in which Lano shared the story had always left Mya feeling as if her other mother was apologizing for passing along some burden, some curse as much as welcoming her into her heart and her confidence. And this rising that had never seemed more true. Their world was crumbling about them and they fought one another.

Another sob made its way up from deep inside her troubled soul. Just as it would have erupted forth in anguish she felt the gentle hands upon her shoulders, rubbing and soothing as a mother might her young. She did not need to roll over to know those touches. Her sisters. The only beings who had ever touched her in such a way. The only ones whose comfort she sought.

It was Soji, whose ample breasts were first pressed against her back, as she leaned in and placed soft kisses along her neck, brushing her red hair back softly as she did. But it was Rata's sweet voice that washed over her like the healing pool lapping sweetly at her battered soul, "We are sorry, sweet sister of our hearts." Mya turned in their arms, opening her own for them, welcoming the healing communion that they offered.

Soji smiled down at her as she brushed tears from her left cheek, "You are right, little sister. We should have known better. Should have done better by you."

Rata's hand caressed slowly down her chest, squeezing her ample breast, not tightly, more like the temple baker would with the soft dough that he kneaded gently until it rose high, as Mya's nipple did under her lover's touch. "We are here now, sweet Mya." Her red head bent slowly until her lips touched the puckered pink flesh that ached and yearned for her caress. "So friggin' sweet. You are always so friggin' sweet little sister."

Mya cried out as her sister's mouth drew the turgid peak deep into the warm welcome of her mouth. She suckled softly upon it, just as Mya imagined a child would, had this blessing of the goddess been equally a curse that closed her womb forever to that which she longed for most. Soji kissed a gentle trail down her cheek licking each tear away, following the wet trail along her neck.

Rata's pale lavender eyes that matched her waters glowed with the depths of passion as she raised her head from its sweet ministry. Mya cried out with the emptiness that she felt, her wet nipple abandoned by its lover. But not for long. Rata repeated the process, softly kneading the other breast, lifting it high. But this time it was not her lips that sought its crest, "Soji, taste the sweetness of our little sister."

Mya would have cried out as the other woman's lips found the peak, but Rata's lips covered hers. Any sound was swallowed by the deep kiss. The battle of wills as tongues fought for supremacy, as passions rose higher by the moment.

Mya always swore that not even the presence of the goddess herself could be as sweet as this time with her sisters. When the three of them sought comfort and communion with one another, it was the only time that she ever felt whole, worthy, blessed of the goddess.

The deep, sweet taste of Rata's kisses drugged her even as the tugging and soft nibbles of Soji's lips and teeth upon her nipple brought a surge of the goddess's power through her. She felt the growing pressure of the sweet release of that blessing in her fountain. Its waters flowed even as she felt the sweet breeze of their love wrap about them all.

When she felt the fingers prying her thighs apart, she needed no further encouragement, opening them wide in welcome to the invasion. But it was not the sweet thrusting of her sister's hands within her fountain this rising, instead those fingers found that sweet button of the goddess's special blessing. They danced and skittered softly across the sensitive nubbin until arched her round hips high off the bed, seeking, begging, pleading for that which her body craved, needed more than she needed the next breath of her sweet air, which she commanded.

Rata's voice was low and husky like the stillest of lakes, quiet and peaceful, deceptive in its depths. "Our sweet little sister has need of something, our rock. Hold her. Hold her well. I have need to drink the sweetest healing nectar of our goddess this time."

She rose over Mya then like the avenging warrior of their goddess which she was. Her lips captured any protest that Mya might have made with a kiss that was far more commanding than any they had ever shared. For the first time, Mya felt like a woman, a priestess, a High Priestess. This woman's equal. Not some innocent child that they coddled and protected, but their lover...a priestess in her own right. And nothing had ever felt more right.

Mya arched off of the bed, rubbing against her lovers as they worked together to build her passions to a level that she had never known. Soji's teeth sank into the tender flesh of her nipple at the same moment that Rata's nails pinched its twin. Mya cried out with the pleasure/pain as Rata broke the kiss, shifting on the bed.

"Hold her, my rock. Capture the wind itself. Hold it for me so that I may taste its sweetness," she repeated her earlier instructions as they all shifted on the bed. Soji lay on her back, cradling Mya. Her breasts pressed tightly against the younger woman's back, even as her own hands flamed the need in Mya's aching tits.

Soji's face was pressed close to Mya's face, placing a trail of light kisses along it. When her lips were close to her ear, she whispered, "Watch her sweet sister. No one drinks the nectar of our goddess like the High Priestess of the waters, feel it. Let your waters flow from your fountain. Drown our sister in their healing depths."