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Worshipping at Aphrodite's Feet Ch. 01

By: Josepha_Kass



Naama entered the courtyard, just as the younger classes were letting out. She was beyond class as one of the fully fledged. She smiled at the giggles of the youngest just beginning to take instruction in the arts, the knowing, confident looks of those in the middle class who thought they'd learned everything there was to know and the cool, assured looks of the ones who had learned everything the instructors could teach them in the classroom and who had experienced at least one assignation of their own choosing. 

Assignations were always of the girl's choosing. Even when the instructors did not agree with the one chosen, they remained silent unless they believed harm would come from the pairing. The only time assignations weren't up to the girl herself was when she waited too long to make such a choice. It was expected that the first assignation would occur by the time the girl was 18 years old but not before 16 no matter how ready the girl felt nor how impassioned her pleas to be allowed to walk through the outer courtyard where the boys could be found. 

These sorts of pleas came at the bidding of fantasy and dreams alone. It could not be that a girl had found a boy she liked and begged for the chance to dally with him specifically. The sexes were kept separate until it was deemed appropriate for a girl to accept her first lover. Only then was she permitted to walk the paths that wound between merchants stalls in the outer courtyard as if she were shopping for a bit of myrrh to sweeten her room or a measure of rose scented rice water with which to rinse her hair so that it gleamed. 

Even with the pretense, boys were aware that a girl never before seen on the winding tree shaded pathways that crisscrossed the outer enclosure was there for only one reason -- to find a boy that struck her fancy. And if never before seen, boys knew it would be to find someone for her first time. Although they were not supposed to use it as a bragging point and taught to respect the gift given during the Claret Tentra Ceremony, boys vied to be chosen to take a girls' maidenhead.

Naama had almost been the first in recent years to have had her choice removed for failure to decide upon her first taken, known as the Claret Tantra Ceremony, or Awakening the Dancing Goddess. Though the second name implied something magical, even those of the inner sanctum who were blessed to be fully prepared, returned from this experience with little to say and took to their rooms for two sometimes three dawns. No one uninitiated in the ways of the tantra were permitted to speak of it until the month before their own ceremony when extra individual classes were added to their schedule with one of the priestesses.

Priestesses had once been healing servants of the tantra and, those determined to be of steady hearts, pure intentions and knowledgeable minds, were inducted into the Sacred Order of Instruction of the Inner Sanctum. These classes were a mystery to those who had not yet reached the point of awakening, and keeping it a mystery was a strictly held prohibition that all were required to obey. Those who broke faith were whipped in the farthest reach of the courtyard which was measured off by a high wall and where it was said other ceremonies or punishments took place. One couldn't tell which ones, as the area was encased in a maze and only the priestesses could provide direction to the differing areas when required. 

Naama had been there once. It was when an Ayelet Hashachar, or Gazelle of the Dawn, the title for one who was in the month before their Claret Tantra Ceremony, had, out of fear, told the secrets to her closest friend. To make matters worse, this friend was almost a year younger and considered herself nowhere near ready for her own ceremony. 

Naama remembered the sound of the lash striking the back of the girl as she cried and struggled not to scream, a struggle she lost before it was all over. The girl had been dressed in a crimson robe so as not to show the blood of the whipping. This was because even after her indiscretion the girl's ceremony had remained scheduled and the High Priestess intended to prevent evoking any thoughts or comparisons to the Claret Tantra.

The girl who had been told the secrets had been ushered into seclusion for three days and was attended at all times by one of the priestesses. It was said she had been ceremonially lashed, just enough to punish but not to make suffer, for listening and not informing a priestess. But it was was also said that her tears were for her friends ordeal which she, too, had been made to witness, not her own pain. 

The duration of the three days was set so as to put a moratorium in the girls mind to neutralize her terror over what she had heard. The secrets had been greatly exaggerated or so it was told, colored by the fear of her friend and rendered altered by emotion. The Priestesses had ways of meditation to help calm and restore, as well as the power of ragua or the ability to induce tranquility with a light touch. Some could create a sense of serenity just by being near, though that was a rare skill.

As Naama's Claret Tantra had been held several years previously she was fully aware of the secret instruction of the last month and also why it would create fear. Though after the years of other instruction and reassurance by theHigh Priestess that none of the boys encountered in the outer courtyard would be characteristic of the extremes of which they spoke, she felt the fear should not have overwhelmed the girl so. While the instruction was intended for passing through the ceremony, some of it was also intended as an introduction to possibilites that might be encountered later. Since the time when she'd undergone her own ceremony, Naama was also unclear as to why almost all the girls needed days in their rooms when they returned. She had decided it was just an affectation to get a few days to themselves, a rarity in the inner sanctum, and to receive special attention and delivered delicacies brought by the Priestesses themselves.

When Naama's awakening had occurred she had been freed to wander the outer courtyard in the Springtime. Instead of pretending to browse the wares of each merchant she truly did so, causing raised eyebrows among the Priestesses and girls alike when she returned more excited about her purchases that any of the boys she'd seen. She'd been left to her desires for a month, then called into the head Priestess's sanctum chamber to account for herself. She knew it was rare that a girl went this long without coming back with reddened cheeks and shining eyes to giggle with friends over this boy or that. Almost always if the date of the ceremony hadn't come and gone within the first month, at least the date had been set for shortly after. Naama's cheeks had reddened not at the thought of a boy, but at the necessity of explaining to the Head Priestess that so far there had been no one who had interested her, no one who had enflammer les sens, stirred the blood so to speak. The Head Priestess had simply said, "Tell me," and Naama had. She'd told the Priestess of wanting the ceremony to be if not of little long term consequence, then with no strings other than friendship. But she did want there to indeed be strings of friendship present. She spoke of how she thought that would make it what it was intended to be as opposed to just thrown away or a night that left lasting ties to the boy that often weren't welcomed. 

Naama's face had grown redder when the Priestess had asked if she had practiced the visualizations given in class, had created her own based on her specific fantasies, developed further along the path of self-exploration? She muttered she had, denying seeing it through to its conclusion which could have lessened desire as instructed. When asked if no one had caused her to become damp, to have desirous sensations brought about by only a boy's looks, his smile, the way he had of speaking to her, that undefinable something that drew one to another, Naama had become even more embarrassed, dropping her voice so low she'd been asked to repeat herself. "I haven't actually spoken to a boy yet," she'd said again in shame. She had been aware of what she was supposed to do but truly there had no one that seemed to be someone she'd even choose to converse with. She'd been far more excited by the luxurious goods brought from other lands as well as those made by expert artisans in Eautania than the rather large boys that seemed to not be fully comfortable in their bodies yet. She'd though it didn't harbor well for the ceremony especially when you added what else she'd been told about their size during her final month of instruction for the ceremony. 

The Head Priestess had sighed. "Naama, you really must try harder to speak to some of these boys. You don't have to speak to those who truly hold no appeal for you but even if there is only so much as a glimmer let them approach you. You don't have to select them if they aren't pleasing to you. They have been instructed as you have been and are aware of the subtle dance that occurs when the genders first mix in the outer garden. But you will never find anyone that is even a possibility if you refuse to speak to a single one of these boys. They were carefully chosen and taught as were you. For your first experience anyone of them would suffice." 

Here the Priestess had held her hand up, closed her eyes and turned slightly in profile to pre-empt what the look on Naama's face foretold. "No, I am not suggesting you find just anyone, someone who will merely suffice, so don't look so out of sorts with me. All I'm saying is there isn't a weak one in the bunch or they wouldn't be allowed for consideration. At the same time you must find one that appeals to you and of course, it is, as always, your decision. "

Naama felt relief at these words. At least until the High Priestess went on.

"However, that being said, you know that you cannot drag this out forever and there is a mechanism in place to take your decision from you should you linger too long, a mechanism which also suggests there is something lacking within you in terms of the Tantric Arts despite your selection and education here. An impression that will follow you always.

Naama tasted bitterness at the back of her throat. "Yes, High Priestess." Her eyes were once more fully focused on the floor.

"Please don't make me take your will from you. This is an important time. It should be a happy time, for you."

Naama sat silently. She felt a soft hand under her chin and a gentle pressure cueing her to lift her head so as to look into the almond shaped green eyes of the Head Priestess. "Try child, just try. All will work itself out if you put some effort into the choosing. Every decision, the reasons for each girl's choice is different, unique, of their individual nature. We do not try to influence the way in which you choose. But choose you must."

Naama heard the sound of satin folds brushing the floor and looked to where the High Priestess gazed through the large beveled window. The golds, and pinks, and purples which had just begun to separate from that which was merely pure brightness filtered through to alight on the walls around her. The glow formed an aura around the High Priestess, convincing Naama, not for the first time, of the special powers said to be characteristic of the woman before her.

"It is to be a beautiful evening," the High Priestess said. "Perhaps the beauty of day's end will temper your reticence and cue your passion. It's a perfect time for a walk through the outer courtyard. There will be fewer merchants to take your attention, to provide you with armor against simple conversation. And that's all it has to be at first, Nammah, simple conversation. You do it every day, hmmm?"

But not with boys, Naama had thought. One of which I will have to decide on having far more than conversation with. But she had nodded and tried her best to look willing and acquiescent so as not to appear resistant or disrespectful. As difficulty as the entire thing was turning out to be, she hadn't wanted to chance losing the right to choose. That would truly have been a fate worse than being dragged to the netherworld. The smooth palms had gently tilted Naama's head once again and she felt the cool, petal softness of a kiss bestowed upon her forehead.

"Go now my child. And may you find the pool of desire deep within you touched by one who is most worthy."

Naama's throat tightened and her eyes blurred slightly, which was all the more extraordinary as the High Priestess was using none of her powers. Nothing to soothe and calm, nothing to influence, nothing to create longing, all of which were in her prerogative. Naama just nodded and stepped from the coolness of the high chamber. Without a look or word for anyone, eyes still slightly cast downward, she made her way directly to the outer entranceway and stepped through to meet whatever fate had waiting for her. 

Worshipping at Aphrodite's Feet Ch. 02



"Naama, could I speak with you for a minute please?" The High Priestess stood aside to let Naama enter her chamber. "Sit, please." Naama did so, back straight, eyes slightly widened in concern, hands folded in her lap. 

"You're not in trouble, Naama, don't look so frightened. I just need your help with one of the girls," the High Priestess said, sitting gracefully amidst the flowing folds of a midnight blue gown that fell and settled softly into order around her. 

The Priestess picked up a silver tea pot, her arm perfectly aligned into the graceful curve the girls had to practice over and over until their elbows and wrists cramped. Each movement the High Priestess made as she poured the deep amber liquid was part of the one before and the one after such that each was part of a long, smooth wave of motion. She poured the spicy scented tea into two delicate china cups without a ripple or so much as a single drop spilled. Then motioning to the cup closest to Naama in invitation she picked up her own cup cradling it between her hands.

Picking up the cup carefully, as she'd been taught, Naama thought about her place in the inner courtyard. She knew she was an anomaly having had only two lovers and a handful of other experiences to date. There might have been a third, someone she had liked very much, but he'd been killed in the outer sector where the war was still being fought. 

She'd met with him in one of the private pavilions along the waterfront the last time she'd seen him and while she wasn't ready to decide on whether to take him as her third taimirah, she had let him go farther than she'd allowed the other two prior to taking her fully. With the first it was expected that no serious sexual contact occurred prior to the ceremony, though some girls preferred some experience before their actual ceremony night. 

Although not permitted to complete the act, they could do just about everything else as long as they were discrete about it. They were also not permitted to have anal relations or to take the boy into their mouths. While the latter was a deserved right of all men, the former was a deserved right of women, at least those chosen to be trained within the center courtyard. That meant that anal relations were under the prerogative of the woman and she could refuse should she choose to do so. 

Naama had refused both her first lovers in this. While she wasn't opposed completely to sexual pain, having a romantic attraction to showing the man she was with her commitment to his pleasure, anal relations was a type and level of pain she did not feel she would be able to tolerate. Each of the girls was required to be tested in all manner of the arts from the most basic - touching of the lips and having a finger gently inserted into their mouths to suck on, to tastes of the most exotic, involving bondage and having a variety of object placed at the entrances to both lower openings without being told ahead of time that none would actually be inserted. 

Not knowing if any of the large, rough or electrified objects might be inserted, tested the ratio involving the girls fantasies compared to her readiness to experiment where pain was involved. This served to help instruct the girls prior to obtaining a long term or permanent patron who might rightfully make such demands of them depending on the largesse of his Patron fee. 

The men who became patrons were not the same boys who the girls first explored their sexuality with in the inner courtyard. These men were from the next ring out and while they had not been trained as the boys of the inner courtyard had been, they had received training in allowing their full male constitution to determine their sexual desires without guild, shame or regret. Many of those desires had been experienced and honed with sexual slaves when the men went on Adventure Recreations Departures in the slaves sector. This provided them with the knowledge to pursue hard and rough play with their subjugates, while also further educating them on how to carry out extreme forms of numerous sexual acts giving them the confidence to pursue them. 

Patron's became a girl's lord-master, and protector, and she was expected to show her appreciation, fealty and dedication to her patron in whatever it was he wished, provided it did not fully overstep the acts listed as hard refusal's in her contract.The girls had been told that the most serious experimentation was under the category of deserved rights for them. However, the High Priestess had also stated that at some point a patron would likely expect that they choose at least one thing from the category on their hard refusal list as an indication of willingness to accept the male's right to dominance. Naama knew that many Patron's insisting on at least attempting a variety of acts on their hard refusal list. 

This was the natural social order of the new world society, though what a male's right to dominance meant differed in terms of remaining rights for women, depending on where the women found herself. The further out from the center courtyard one went the more a woman's rights decreased. No women were normally allowed in the outer three rings. The first of these was where the medical services for their soldiers was located, while the second was a staging area for those fighting where they either entered or exited the active war zone. The outer most ring was the actual combat theater where the war was taking place. 

The reason women weren't permitted in those zones was that first, as you got further away from the center the deserved rights of women were respected less and less. Sexual slaves, who had no deserved rights at all served in the zone just inside the soldier's medical zone. Sexual slaves were the lowest status in the new world. Naama didn't know what was less than no rights but she really didn't want to find out. 

The second reason women were banned from the outer three rings was that the men there were given implants that blocked much of the impulse control governed by the frontal lobe of the brain. This part of the brain led to behavioral disinhibition in terms of violence. Without it, well, things must have gotten exceedingly frightening. The men were also regularly dosed with testosterone such that their levels were constantly kept extremely high, another measure intended to increase their willingness to commit violence against the enemy. While an agent was included that prohibited them from feeling violent urges towards their fellow soldiers, this did not extend to women as no women served in the military. 

Only women convicted of the most heinous crimes ever spent time in the outer three zones and then only as punishment for their crimes. Some of the possible sexual acts that such a woman might find herself forced to endure had been described to them by the High Priestess in an effort to encourage them to live on the right side of the law. Yet there were countless others that were either only hinted at or left entirely to the girl's imaginations as judged too disturbing to share with them. Given what had been described, Naama could only imagine what had been withheld, and she was determined that such a fate would never befall her.

Naama knew what she could likely tolerate and what she likely could not. This was based on the testing that occurred throughout their education. They tested t a girl's tolerance for anal relations by inserting a probe into her anus. Since this was related to a deserved right for the girl she was permitted to ask that the insertion be stopped if it became too painful for her. The probe started out thin, about half the circumference of her pinky and slowly thickened by "joints" like the ones in a finger. At the end of each "joint" the insertion was paused so the girl could try to acclimate to the sensation and level of pain or to allow her to say" stop". As soon as the second pause began, with the probe inserted barely an inch, Naama had quickly said stop. 

Naama silently sipped her tea, lowering it to admire the design and how thin the china was. You could see the rich color of the tea through the wafer thin porcelain on which was painted the palest pink roses held aloft by pastel mint green leaves. No one knew from where the High Priestess had gotten the china service as it was thought all such things of beauty had been destroyed in the wars many ages past. The service was truly a treasure, one of many that belonged to the High Priestess it was rumored. Most believed the objects were gifts from patrons from an earlier time in her life. 

Her famed Fabergé Egg, the Rosebud Egg, sat in its place of honor on the high alter of sacrifice. The egg was given by Tzar Nicholas II to his new wife in 1894 of the old calendar. The egg was not a favorite of the Tzarina since its blood red enamel reminded her of the fact her son suffered from hemophilia, a bleeding disorder without apparent cure. The color, of course, held positive significance for the girls ceremony for bleeding during the ritual was believed to be a sign of pleasing the spirits of motu corporum in gyrum.

The alter held items that were related to the girls' Claret Tantra ceremony, items they were loaned so as to look radiant, and innocent yet knowing , a phrase that was embedded within them from shortly after being selected to follow the path of the chosen. The night of a girl's ceremony would be preceded by a full day of preparation by the other priestess acting almost like ladies in waiting, helping her bath, dress in her undergarments of silk and linen, and accompany her to the chamber of the High Priestess. The High Priestess would greet the girl and her entourage and vacate the premises for the day while the other priestess helped the girl use items that had been arrayed upon the high alter for her use this night.

The final contracts would have already been signed by the High Priestess and the High Priest of Dagon, the leader of the Dagonian establishment and the male equivalent of the High Priestess. Yet whereas the girls of the inner courtyard were taught the art of the science of love, a serious discipline that must be practices and learned over much of a young woman's lifetime, the boys were taught quite differently. 

Given the nature of the male dominated society, the boys were taught how to access their inner most desires and come to accept them as part of who they were, learning to believe that those things which they wanted and originally believed they should be ashamed of wanting was the opposite. These desires were what made them men. Embracing these desires even if all of the girls and later women they came into contact with would not abide by some of these desires, they were also taught ways to convince women that their desires were good and wholesome, that for the woman to truly serve him as she was expected to meant allowing at least some of these desires to be acted out. 

Many of the girls had a difficult time understanding these ways and paths of instruction since women had deserved rights so how could these rights exist when men had base desires they were encouraged to give into, even the first time. Patrons were said to have the right to ask for things which a girl had been taught she could refuse but actually couldn't. There were many group discussions about this and over time the girls were able to hold the competing ideas together, at least as long as they remained within the inner courtyard which was encircled by the outer courtyard and then the walls of the outer court which were huge and within which the boys lived and learned.

Naama took another sip of her tea carefully raising it, bringing it to mouth and slightly tilting it just enough for a swallow of the honey sweetened heated liquid to be gathered into her mouth. For a moment she thought there was the taste of peach blossoms, though how she knew from those she was unsure. Placing her cup on its matching saucer, and balancing it perfectly upon her knee as she had been taught, she waited for the High Priestess to inform her of her task. 

After, another moment of companionable silence, the Priestess said, "The girl's name is Emerald. She should have selected a lover last month and still is no closer to doing so now. She reminds me of you , her stubbornness, her refusal to choose."

"But what good would I be," Naama asked, confused. " I was the exact same way. How could that possibly help her?"

"I don't think you are giving yourself enough credit, Naama. Consider perhapst explaining how your beliefs came about and how these beliefs colored your willingness to take your first lover. You are free to tell her as much or as little as you want so long as you think before speaking and determine the reason you a sharing something. Whatever you choose to tell her is up to you. I only ask that you give great consideration to everything that you intend to say. Impress upon her how it was that you were finally able to make the choice and how relieved you were to finally have turned that corner just as she will be. She simply has to choose. 

"Not so simple for some of us," Naama thought. But if the High Priestess wanted Naama to try to explain what came to pass leading up to her own Claret Tantra ceremony to the girl she would do so. She gave the High Priestess a slight nod of acquiescence and lifted the light porcelain cup to her mouth once more, her movement calm and flowing, so as not to give away her discomfort at sharing her reasoning, desires, hopes, dreams and fears.