Danica Pt. 15

Danica opened her eyes and gasped for breath when her orgasm gave her a little respite. She saw the pair of Priestesses at the head of the room had turned to watch her, smiling in the afterglow of their own release and gently rubbing each other as they watched. Danica licked her lips, and then let out an explosive gasp as Rekhmire thrust even harder. Danica turned her head and flipped her hair out of her eyes, seeing the signs that Rekhmire was quickly nearing his own peak.

Danica reached beneath her body to rub her bud in fast circles, moaning encouragement to the man penetrating her depths. She quickly built toward another crescendo, and from the sounds Rekhmire made, she knew he was close as well.

Danica was nearly to her peak when she felt him pull free of her. Danica growled and turned to see him stroking his member over her back. "Inside me," she loudly gasped.

He hesitated in confusion for a moment, but finally grasped what Danica was asking as she rhythmically thrust her bottom back at him. He slid back inside her with a gasp and Danica’s fingers returned to her clit.

Danica's walls tightly squeezed Rekhmire as she drew to the edge of climax, held there on the edge of release. Her dam broke when she heard him let out an explosive sound of release, coupled with a hot geyser of his seed erupting deep inside her.

They remained joined and gasping for breath for a few seconds, as their twin climaxes shook their bodies. When Danica opened her eyes, she saw the two women from the head of the room approaching. From off to one side she saw the priestess who had asked her to come to the temple approaching as well.

When the priestesses reached the pair, the single priestess placed her hand on Danica's back and buttocks. She offered a prayer chant as she softly stroked Danica's back. The touch caused Danica to gasp and her walls to contract around Rekhmire, who also gasped. The other two servants of Quadesis stroked Rekhmire's skin with their soft hands and chanted as well.

After a few moments, the women completed their chants and one pressed against Rekhmire, instructing him to withdraw from Danica's warm depths. Danica and Rekhmire both gasped, as he pulled free of her. He let out an even louder exclamation of surprise as the two women who had chanted over him dropped to their knees to lap the mingled juices from his slowly shrinking member.

The priestess who attended Danica chanted again, moving behind her to part Danica’s quivering labia. Rekhmire's thick cream dripped from Danica into the offering bowl below, and she pushed to hasten the process.

When Danica ceased to drip, the priestess ran a finger between Danica's lips and pulled out a tenacious, clinging dollop, allowing it to drip into the bowl as well. The servants of Quadesis guided the pair to a nearby divan couch, and then one of the two who had attended Rekhmire returned to the altar and took up the offering bowl, retreating to the depths of the temple with it.

The other priestess attending to Rekhmire then slowly and sensually dropped to her knees. She chanted and traced invisible sigla upon Rekhmire's thighs and tummy. The priestess in front of Danica also knelt and pulled Danica closer to the edge of the divan. Danica moaned in anticipation just as Rekhmire gasped in surprise. The priestess' spell caused his nearly flaccid manhood to swell with blood again almost instantly. The priestess' warm mouth engulfed him at the same moment that the other priestess closed her lips over Danica's folds.

The pair quivered and gasped as the two women dedicated to the religion of sexual release showed them the pleasure that dedication created. Only Celes had ever caused such feelings of hot euphoria in Danica with her mouth as the priestess who was now between her legs did.

Danica drifted in a fog of pleasure. Her mind didn't even register the woman causing the pleasure after a few moments, and she had no idea how long she remained in the erotic trance. The feeling evaporated in the face of a long, loud scream – the scream bursting from Danica as she gushed a torrent of juices into the mouth and face of the priestess between her legs.

Through the loud sound of Danica's rapid heartbeat in her ears, she registered an equally loud cry of release as Rekhmire filled the mouth of the priestess who engulfed his cock. Again, the two women chanted over them as Rekhmire and Danica recovered from their climaxes.

Danica looked over and saw that Rekhmire was gasping for breath, his eyes half closed. The priestess before him looked to the one in front of Danica and received a nod. The priestess in front of Danica offered her hands to help Danica rise, and then the other lay the gasping Rekhmire down on the divan couch.

"Will he be alright?" Danica managed to stammer out as she tried to force her wobbly legs to work.

The priestess looked at Danica with obvious curiosity. "He will be fine, and will feel the blessing of Quadesis wash over him. Surely you have performed this ritual before?"

Danica shook her head in the negative as she sank down onto another divan couch, drawing yet another look of confusion from the priestess.

"Do the rituals of Quadesis differ in your land?" The priestess asked.

Danica weakly laughed and smiled. "Not as far as I can tell, though I've only been to the temple of Erotine once before. Erotine is the name Quadesis is known by in my lands."

The confusion on the priestess’ face only increased. "You are not in the service of Quad... Erotine?" The woman struggled to pronounce the unfamiliar name of the goddess Danica had mentioned.

Danica shook her head. "No, I’m a student of magic."

"But you have been gifted with The Awakening."

Now, it was Danica's turn to be confused. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"This is most unusual. I have never heard of one not high in the service of the goddess being blessed with the Awakening ritual."

"The one time I was in a temple of Erotine, I was simply with a lover. We weren’t even approached by the priestess. What is the Awakening anyway?"

"It is a ritual that awakens the natural desires of the body and enhances them. It offers greater stamina and enhanced pleasure, as well as causing the natural attractive scents and magics released by the body to increase ten fold. I can feel myself drawn to you like a moth to the flame, as would any who find you desirable."

"Is it magic? If so, you must be mistaken because there are no spells – priestly or otherwise – on me. Trust me – I have good reason to have checked carefully."

"It is a blessed prayer, much like healing. The magic does not remain inside you – it does its work to alter the body, and then dissipates. Your own body makes the magic now through its natural processes, though much enhanced now that you have been Awakened."

"Could this ritual be performed on you without you knowing it?"

The priestess had a look of doubt and surprise on her face as she answered, "I imagine such would be possible, but the ritual is never performed outside the temple."

Danica's lip curled, the pleasure of her orgasms burned away by anger now that she realized that Zoraster had indeed tampered with her. Her desires were not completely her own after all. "It’s been done at least once – to me apparently. How is it undone?"

"It is never undone. Only Quadesis or another of the gods could remove the blessing of the Awakening."

Danica closed her eyes for a moment to master her emotions, and then rose from the couch. "You will ensure Rekhmire is returned home when he is able?" Danica asked, noticing that the young man was dozing in the lap of the other priestess.

The disturbed looking priestess nodded to indicate she would. Danica moved quickly to retrieve her clothing and return to her room.

{*****~~o~~0~~o~~*****}

Danica spent an hour or so contemplating what she had discovered once she returned to her room. Zoraster had told the truth when he said it was not his magic that caused her to desire. As Danica considered it, she realized that the ritual did nothing to affect the mind. Every desire was truly hers – the emotions were simply fanned to a white-hot flame by the ritual. She’d suppressed many things that she now desired, and she likely would have never acknowledged those desires before the Awakening was forced upon her.

Because she attracted others to her through the magic of the ritual had an effect as well. When someone showed desire for her, it heightened her own. She knew the little natural magics that attracted people to one another only grew stronger once arousal set in. For Danica, once the process started, it was nearly a foregone conclusion that sex would soon follow.

Thinking back to the Astral Imp, Danica realized now why it had nearly destroyed itself in the process of trying to reach her. The Imps had difficulty resisting a normal aroused woman. Danica enhanced scent would have created a maddening fog of desire that completely overruled the Imp’s reason – and even its desire for self-preservation. The Awakening also explained the strange reaction of the two Nymphs, although it did not explain the interest of their Mistress, who Danica assumed must be some nature goddess.

Danica knew that there was little she could do about it. The priestess had said that only the gods could remove the Awakening. Erotine certainly would have no reason to do so. Danica doubted any god she would have any desire to deal with would prove amicable to her now, considering some of the actions she had taken under Zoraster's orders.

Danica sighed. She would simply have to remain aware of what she was doing, now that she understood the reason behind her desires. In truth, she enjoyed her new inhibitions, even though they caused her to do things that troubled her at times. Danica thought, Would I ever have been so aroused as to lower my pussy to Celes' lips that time without the Awakening – giving Celes a gift she had been denied for so long and thought she would never receive again?

She also considered her Art – vastly increased along with her desires. Perhaps the Awakening had also renewed her passion for magic, long been drowned in feelings of inferiority to her sister. Though she and her power were Zoraster's tools, Danica had used her magic and her wits to do many things that had helped people as well.

Danica couldn’t even guess when the ritual had happened. Zoraster admitted controlling her with magic and potions at first. As far as she knew, she might have acted purely from her own desires at some point between the potions and the Awakening.

There is a reason for everything, Danica remembered her mother always saying. Danica had to believe that there was a reason for everything she was enduring.

As she thought about the people she had coupled with, her inner fires stirred. Danica forced the feelings down at first, and then realized she wasn't hurting anyone by giving herself pleasure. It was ridiculous to endure the torture.

Danica drifted off to sleep after climaxing twice on one of her toys.

{*****~~o~~0~~o~~*****}

Zoraster watched Danica sleep in his scrying mirror. "Interesting – I would have expected her to break into another self-pitying crying fit if she ever learned about the ritual of Awakening. Perhaps your will, which resists my attempts to read your mind so well, now serves to resist your own emotions as well. I shall have to beware of that, little rose, because you will become a dangerous power if you ever learn to master your emotions," he whispered.

Behind him, well out of earshot, wizards looked on. Amongst them was the bald wizard with the goatee. Zoraster turned back to them, "Now let us see if your research bears fruit."

The wizard nodded his understanding, and then joined the other two workers of Art in preparation for their spell casting.

{*****~~o~~0~~o~~*****}

Danica awakened feeling a combination of weariness and warm afterglow. She could plainly remember the vivid, arousing dream about Andrea. As Danica’s senses roused from her slumber, she realized that the dream had left her in a nightdress that was damp between her legs.

Danica sighed, wishing her tub was finished, and washed at the washbasin she had brought to her room. Danica ate the breakfast of fruit with everyone else as she had the day before. It took only a few minutes of observing Rekhmire to realize he felt uncomfortable.

Danica waited until she had an opportunity to pull Rekhmire aside. He looked very embarrassed and unsure of himself as he stood in Danica's room. "What's wrong?" Danica asked him.

Rekhmire stood silent for a moment, and then answered, "What we did at the temple – it was improper for me to touch you so."

Danica had to fight hard to suppress a laugh. "Silly man – I wanted you. I've been thinking about it ever since I saw you. If anything, I took advantage of you. You’re a servant, and you still look upon me as a Master, don't you?"

"Yes, I guess I do."

Danica walked up and kissed him. "Well – stop. I’m a guest in this house. I hope I can be a friend, and perhaps we could enjoy each other again sometime, like we did in the temple."

Rekhmire still looked embarrassed, but Danica could see some of the nervousness draining from his expression. He then asked, "You enjoyed it?"

Danica laughed. "Didn't you hear me? Of course I didn’t, silly. I didn't cause you to break from your morals, did I?" Danica asked the last with a note of concern, in light of what she had learned in the temple.

Rekhmire shook his head. "No. I know a little about the lands beyond our own, and pleasure is not frowned upon in our lands, as it is in yours."

Danica smiled and led him out of the room, gesturing toward the game board in the main room. "Care for a game?"

Rekhmire smiled and shrugged his shoulders. He then looked toward the door and made a motion with his head for Danica to look in that direction. When she turned, Danica saw the architect Sushume had arrived with his plans. Danica turned to Rekhmire and said, "Later, then."

Rekhmire nodded and Danica took Sushume to her room to go over the plans.

After looking, Danica decided Sushume had drawn the plans very close to what she had described. Danica made only a few small changes, and approved the design. The plan followed the normal design of Zoraster's outposts, but Danica expanded the size of every room, including those of the servants, and added a room specifically designed for her comfort. Sushume remarked that she had struck a perfect balance between opulence and functionality, perfectly fitting the structure into the class traditions that divided the city according to the location of the building site.

As they discussed the cost, Danica was pleased to discover that a supply of building stone was readily available at a discount to her due to a command from the Governor. Sushume had rejected the stone for the construction of the Governor's funerary temple, but it was still fine stone and would serve Danica's needs well. Danica's grand design would require more materials, but the gift would offset the cost. Likewise, there was stone available for artistic pieces, which had been rejected by the artisan, Meresses. The materials were simply not suitable for the final resting place of an important official in a culture where the trappings of burial were so important to the afterlife.

Meresses arrived just as Danica was discussing this with Sushume. He joined in the discussion of cost, and Danica realized she was going to need to spend quite a bit of her own coin if she wanted to make her grand design a reality.

She decided it was worth it.

Danica discussed the tubs and chamber pots with Meresses, something she considered almost as important as any other aspect of the outpost. She was determined that each tub would at least allow a person to stretch out to full length, and that the chamber pots would allow a person to sit instead of squat. She provided sketches and simple designs that the artisans could perfect. Meresses was intrigued with some of her ideas, derivatives of tubs she had commissioned in other places that were entirely new to this land.

Danica and Meresses decided the rest of the artistic considerations could wait until the construction was farther along. Such work could not truly begin until the little modifications that always arose between design and actual construction were worked out. Meresses said he would return the next day with refined sketches and plans. Sushume said he would begin the construction the next day.

When Danica rose with them as they took their leave, she added more cost to the project in her mind – furniture that wouldn’t make her feel crippled if she sat on it too long. Her back and backside both ached from what she now guessed was three or four hours of discussion with the two men.

Once again, Danica longed for her tub, to soak away the aches of her body. She had only washed the day before, and decided she would go have a bath in the washing basin, to rinse some of the sweat and grit from her body.

Danica was surprised to find Reneb walking through the back door into the house as she approached the door to the courtyard. He asked her if she required anything, or the servants needed any chastisement, to which she quickly rebuffed him and continued on her way.

When Danica entered the outbuilding, the first thing that met her eyes was a nude Tari washing cum from her body. Tari started and awkwardly tried to cover her body, relaxing a little when she realized it was Danica who had entered.

Anger swelled up in Danica. She understood Reneb’s presence now, and it was painfully obvious from the first glance that Tari was not a willing partner in what had occurred. The anger must have shown on Danica's face, because Tari asked, "Have I angered you?"

Danica shook her head in the negative and jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "No, but he just found a way to make me dislike him even more. How often does he do this to you?"

Tari lowered her head as she spoke, "He is the overseer. I am to be obedient and offer myself to him whenever ordered, so long as the Master is not here."

Danica growled, determined she was going to get Tari out of this situation. The other slaves were treated fairly well and provided for. From what Danica knew of the culture, they were probably better off as slaves than as free foreigners without means. Most of the servants actually seemed to enjoy their employment. None liked Reneb, but as near as Danica could tell, their true master was fair and treated them well. Slavery was bad enough, but a woman forced to serve with her body and offered nothing in return really made Danica's blood boil. It reminded Danica far too much of her early days in Zoraster's grip.

"Let me help you. That ass splattered his seed in your hair. I can at least see it and try to get it out for you while you wipe away the rest."

Tari nodded, and Danica dipped a cloth in water to sop out the sticky mess in the dusky woman’s dark hair while Tari continued to wash the semen from her body.

Danica found it difficult to combat her urges. Tari's body was every bit as perfect and enticing as the priestess of Quadesis. She had the same firm, round breasts with perfectly round nipples. Her body was just as lithe and curvy as the priestesses, and her shaven mound only made her all the more mouth watering to Danica. Tari had a far prettier and more sensual face than the priestess. Danica daydreamed that Tari would have risen high in the temple if fate had placed her there, instead of in slavery.

No matter how hard she tried, Danica’s arousal increased by the moment. She tried to concentrate on her task, hoping to quench the fires inside her and prevent her body from calling out to Tari. She wanted the beautiful, dusky woman desperately, but she didn't want her unnaturally strong sexual energy to push Tari over a line the woman didn’t want to cross.