Enola and Mae bowed to each other, to respect the years they had studied together. This would be the last time they saw each other as initiates. Their studies were over. When they left the meditation chambers, one of them would be a priestess and the other would have to leave the church.
Meditation usually came easy to Enola, but today she struggled to find her center. Nervous anticipation kept her breath and heart from slowing. She could barely keep her limbs still. Tension kept her shoulders tight, making the kneeling position she'd assumed noticeably uncomfortable.
Priestess Nga entered, and Enola lost all composure for those who could see, even if she didn't move. The privacy of the transition from initiate to priestess had always been emphasized. Surely this meant she had failed.
"Rise, my child," the priestess said.
Enola obeyed, studied the priestess' face for any sign of her fate.
"Kneel at my feet."
With the practice that came from many hours of meditation daily, Enola sunk flawlessly to the floor.
The priestess held out a hand, the uncut ruby in her ring symbolizing her rank in the abbey. "Kiss my ring."
The ruby was cool beneath her lips, the stone surprisingly smooth from wear.
"Kiss my feet."
This command, unlike the others, caused Enola to pause. "Kiss your feet?" she asked, hoping for clarification.
"Yes. Show respect for your better. I am a priestess and you are but an initiate."
The haughty attitude didn't sound like Priestess Nga at all. She was a generous teacher, one of the best at the abbey. And kissing her feet wouldn't be respect, but debasement. Was this some kind of test? "I already offered by respect," she replied, after consideration. She would not offer herself so lightly, not even for the place she had worked for these many years.
The priestess nodded. "I will see you at the ceremony, where the new priestess will be welcomed in the company of her sisters."
Enola sagged until her bottom touched the floor as she left.
Enola could feel the blood flowing through her entire body, even her ears, as she followed the priestess who had come to retrieve her for the ceremony.
She entered a great hall she'd never seen before, having not been welcome in the sanctuary as an initiate. The priestesses sat on benches at long tables, each with a woman kneeling behind her.
Enola was led to the only empty place, behind which knelt a woman she recognized. "Mae?" she asked. Mae remained kneeling, her dark hair hiding her face from view.
"Priestess Enola, please sit," said the Head Priestess.
Her still, beatific face caught Enola's attention as she settled onto the bench obediently.
"Welcome, sister, as a member of our order. You were chosen as the new priestess of the Goddess, and thus Mae failed. But in the Goddess's eyes none are failures, and thus Mae has been transformed into your conduit with the Goddess. When you need to purge evil from this land, you will scourge her body. When you need to share the Goddess's light, she will fill you with the pleasure of the Goddess. She will remain in the sanctuary and personal quarters as your instrument. She is your slave in all things as long as you serve the Goddess."
Enola's hands trembled lightly where they rested on the table. Slavery had been banished from their land under the aegis of the Goddess. Why would she have her priestesses take up such a practice?
"Mae," the Head Priestess said, command in her voice, "show Enola the delight of the Goddess that she has ascended to the sisterhood. Complete her welcome into our noble order."
Enola felt arms wrap around her, rubbing her shoulders through her robe, releasing the tension from kneeling for hours in suspense as to her future. The hands lowered to her breasts, ghosting over them, and Enola couldn't resist thrusting her chest out into the light touch. It was for naught, because the seeking hands found her sash instead, and untied it.
Those hands slid her robe down, leaving her naked in front of her sisters, with her nipples stiff peaks. Enola shifted in embarrassment, but a gentle hand pushed her forward, and her breasts lowered below the sightline of the table as her shoulders rested on it. The relief from their gazes relaxed her, and her head sunk forward to rest on the table.
The next touch was a tongue, licking a wet stripe up each buttock. Heat flared, lighting Enola's cheeks and chest with a betraying flush. Hands parted her cheeks, revealing not her sex but her other hole, the one she used for that most intimate release.
The tongue licked it next, sending a shocked shiver through Enola's body, racing straight up her spine. She'd never imagined that such a touch could light her body on fire, far more intense than any of her own quiet explorations with her body. The tongue licked and licked at her entrance, each time with that indelible frisson of bliss. Then, the tongue thrust inside her, circling. Soon, Enola found herself bracing her hands on the table so that she could thrust back on the tongue. She abandoned her dignity before her sisters. They wanted her to use Mae, didn't they?
Finally, those hands touched her aching breasts, just as she'd wished so long ago. Forefingers and thumbs pinched her nipples, milking her for pleasure.
A ragged cry of praise escaped Enola's throat as she came. Her mindless state allowed her to offer the Goddess the truest prayer of her life. And now she could pray so honestly and fully every day, thanks to her conduit. Behind her closed eyelids, she could glimpse the Goddess's plan as she came closer than ever to paradise.
"Do you understand the use of your instrument?" asked the Head Priestess.
"Oh yes, sister," Enola breathed, resting her head on the table until she could recover. Slowly, she remembered the whole of the Head Priestess's words. She pondered what would happen when she listened to the people tomorrow, how she would need to deliver the punishment for their misdeeds through the body given to her. She imagined smacking the fullness of her conduit's buttocks with her hand until they grew cherry red. She imagined what she might have to do if some penitent shared a confidence of true evil. "Oh yes, sister," she repeated. This time when she shivered, it was with the dreams of the mingled pain and pleasure she would share with her conduit as she strove to serve the Goddess.
Enola was the priestess, and Mae had left the church. But the Goddess, in her Grace and Wisdom, had found a way for all her former initiates to serve, in body if their minds were not as useful. Enola was swept away with the wonder of it. Truly, slavery was banished everywhere. This was something else.