The Sultanah Ch. 10

Nislani looked particularly aggrieved to see the Guardian Party. I assumed that she simply knew what their arrival meant. Though, I suppose I should have been aware that there was more. I should have thought about what Nislani had said earlier, during out argument. Nislani had her reasons to dislike the Guardian Party. Not the entire party, but instead, the wives of the Barons (save for Kukla). Before my father's death she had run in the same circles as the younger wives (amongst others). They had, in many ways, grown up together. When my father died and our position became precarious, they had let Nislani know in no uncertain terms that she was no longer as worthy of their friendship as she had been before. I knew some of this, I suppose, but did not think much of it. She had assumed their affection was genuine and was crushed to find it so...conditional. Regardless, she had been weak in her will and still desired to be a part of the most exclusive circles and was allowed to tag along, humiliatingly, as a charity case.

These women took every opportunity to deride her and humiliate her. I later learned that when it was announced that she and I would wed, they had scornfully tossed her out of the group entirely, claiming she was beneath contempt. Laughing, as they did so, at her despair. Part of her discomfort at the wedding had been anticipating not just her first night with me, but the fact that her tormentors would be present. This disdain had been what finally sent her into my chambers that morning. Now, as they looked on scornfully at her final humiliation, Nislani seemed to break. She was already humiliated in their eyes, brutalized and de-humanized by their hatred. The same thing that had caused me to rise to the occasion, to become the Sultanah, had crushed my younger sister.

But I had only the smallest inkling of these events at the time. I was more focused on what the nine women had in mind than their status as my sister's former clique. I should note, it was not common for women to constitute all, or even the majority, of the Guardian Party. This had been a somewhat contentious issues in the weeks leading up to my marriage. While there was no dynastic need for a Guardian Party (no foreign family was ensuring their daughter was properly 'accepted.') there were still those who wanted to ensure that the marriage was consummated. Those people included Cin and the various Lords. They wanted to know that I would do what was necessary to ensure the perpetuation of my dynasty. I believed that many Collaborationists hoped that I would be unable to perform, thereby giving them a pretext to depose me in favor of someone willing to begat an heir.

However, no one could determine the propriety of allowing men to witness my wedding night. While men were usually present, these men exclusively had an interest in the new wife present. Specifically, it would be the girl's father, brother, uncle, or (more commonly) some representative of the same. The only man present from the groom's side would be the groom himself. Here, Nislani and I, obviously, came from the same family. Further, there were no men left in our family. If there were, we would not be married. After long debate in the Executive Assembly it was decided that Cin and her fellow priestesses would be present as representatives of Gunes, Kardes would be present as a neutral representative of the Hanedan dynasty, and the wives of the Executive Assembly members would be present to represent the interests of the nobility. These women could be trusted to guard the interests of the peerage without affecting my sister's dignity.

And so, as we tumbled wildly into my room, Cin, Agiz, Got, and Kardes rapidly pushed me over toward my bed while Duchesses Hain and Göstermelik along with Ladies Örnek, Sadik, and Kukla Sakşakçı took Nislani into the privy for preparation. Once I was on the bed, the priestesses essentially attacked me. In a few moments, my wedding garments were lying on a pile on the floor. I was completely naked on the bed, my cock hanging limp between my legs and my nipples hardened by the sudden caress of cool, evening air. As soon as they had completed their task, the priestesses smilingly piled off of the bed. I noticed that Kardes carefully avoided gazing at my body, but I could see her cheeks were red. This would be terrible for her as well, as the representative of our family. The things she would have to see!

Now that I had been forcibly disrobed, the next stage in the highly formalized process could begin. There was a knock. It was not on the outside door, but instead coming from the privy, where my sister had just been taken. Kardes, fulfilling her role as the family representative, spoke.

"Enter," she said, her voice sounding tight and nervous. Regardless, the women in the privy opened the door and burst in, heading to my bed. They walked out in order of importance, with Lady Sadik come out first, as the wife of the Chancellor. The other women filed out slowly. With the exception of Duchess Hain, they were young, vibrant, attractive women. They were second or third wives, my age and younger.

The last lady to enter was my former love, Kukla. She gave me a wry smile and a wink as she exited the privy. In fact, they were all looking at me closely. They, of course, knew about my anatomical abnormality, there were no mysteries left in the Empire. But, despite their efforts to behave as though they were not shocked by my appearance, I could see their unease in their eyes. Kukla, of course, was less the least affected. The other four women had mixtures of curiosity, disgust, and excitement on their face. A combination I knew well. Lady Sadik blushed uncontrollably and Duchess Hain had a simpering smile on her face. Despite their intense interest in my body, they continued to walk towards me and eventually, when all of the ladies were standing at the foot of my bed, the turned to the privy.

"Consort Nislani has been inspected and her virginity is confirmed," Lady Sadik said (though this was actually no longer done, it was simply stated. She was a virgin since marriage, and that was sufficient for the law).

"Then she may enter," Kardes said and we all looked toward the privy door. Glassy-eyed, Nislani stepped out into my bedroom. I let out a deep breath. Unprotected and nervous, Nislani had an innocent beauty that I had never noticed before. Her eyes were so wide, her face so naïve, she looked younger than her 18 years. Her body looked remarkably like mine, though still encapsulated in her wedding dress. Her breasts were the same size and sat high on her chest, she had the same delicate arms, the same thin waist, the same wide hips and slender legs. She was only slightly shorter than me, her nose slightly longer, and she had a small black birthmark on her left breast that I could see where her flesh poked from the bottom of her shirt. Without the crowds and the bright sun shining down on us, she no longer looked like a doll or mannequin used for wedding ceremonies. She looked like a terrified young wife.

Despite our close physical appearance, with me naked and her still clothed, I could really sense the differences between us. I know that might sound strange or even impossible, but I could. And it wasn't simply that she was childish and I was, at least now, more mature. There were deeper differences. I could sense her delicacy, her need for protection. I could sense the loss she felt and her isolation (who had been with Nislani all these months while I had been ruling? Who did she confide in with her friends gone?). I could feel her softness where I was rigid. For the second time that day, I felt gentle feelings toward my sister.

"Approach!" Cin said, as Nislani remained in the doorway. Nislani jumped slightly and her wet eyes looked up at Cin. She nodded slowly and then made her way form the privy to the edge of the bed. She moved deliberately, like she had to order her feet to rise and fall with each step. But eventually, she was standing at the foot of the bed, directly in front of the Guardian Party. She was looking up at me where I sat at the top of the bed and I could see her eyes move, embarrassed, over my limp cock and balls. I could hear a slight sigh, but she stopped where she was supposed to stand.

"Are you prepared to enter freely into this marriage bed?" Kardes asked, her voice clearly affected by Nislani's appearance as well.

"I am..." A squeak of a voice escaped my sister. She spoke quickly. I wondered if her whispers to herself during our wedding had been an internal pep-talk and that now she was simply ready and wanted to get it over with. That was the way I felt, I did not to wait longer.

"You must prove three things to serve as a satisfactory Consort for a Sultan. You must prove your devotion as a wife, your dignity as a royal, and your dedication to the Empire as the Consort," Kardes explained in the ancient manner. This was where the rituals had become particularly rigid. Three sexual acts were required of the new bride to satisfy the Guardian Party. It was not really known when these particular tasks had been developed. Where there had once been no ritual, there was now no deviation. These rituals were as important as the kiss during the wedding ceremony. Perhaps more so, because after this, there was no turning back. But whatever discomfort my representative, Kardes, might have in explaining them was beside the point. Everyone had their role to play.

"Tell her what she must do and she shall accomplish it," Lady Sadik responded, giving the traditional lines as though she was reading them from her hand. She spoke in a somewhat haughty manner, I could sense her delight in the weirdness of the proceedings. The other Barons' wives looked equally smug. I looked to the side, by the bed, and saw Kardes looking down at the foot of our bed at our sister. Her eyes looked pinched and she gulped deeply.

"Nislani, to demonstrate your devotion as a wife, you must demonstrate your submission to your husband...er wife," Nislani said, recovering from the memorized lines to make her statement more accurate, "You kneel on this hard floor with no thought of your own comfort and you must pleasure your...wife in a manner which gives you no gratification. You are forgoing you own needs to serve the needs of the Sultanah, just as the Sultanah forgoes her own needs for the Empire."

While the script provided was too coy to actually spell out what needed to be done, it was clear to everyone the manner in which Nislani was required to "please" me. As such, the announcement served as my cue. I took a deep breath and briefly placed my hand on my heart, willing it to slow. I inched myself to the edge of the bed and placed my feet on the cold marble floor. I felt the eyes of the women around the room on me as I stood up next to the bed. My legs felt weak and I swayed uneasily for a moment. Kardes nearly reached out to balance me, but Cin held her back. I had been thinking so intently on the situation and on Nislani's obvious distress that I had barely noticed how nervous I was. It was not that I had conquered my nerves, they were all there, swirling in my stomach. I had just ignored them. Now they were returning to me with interest.

"She will do as commanded," Lady Sadik said. This was Nislani's cue. For a moment she simply stood at the foot of the bed. Unlike the other women in the room, her eyes had not followed me. Instead, she was staring at the spot I had been sitting a few seconds before. She made no noise, and the Guardian Party at her back looked at one another arrogantly. Finally, Duchess Hain reached forward and pushed my sister's shoulder slightly and then the women giggled rudely. Nislani made a quiet noise in her throat and jumped. But her eyes went back into focus and she shook her head. Her head turned towards me and she realized I was standing. Despite the fact that she had clearly not heard Kardes' command, she knew the part of the ceremony she had reached (the entire ceremony, in fact, was described in lurid detail by a female family member on a Princess' 18th birthday). She bowed awkwardly and then started to move towards me.

Her motions were jerky and mechanical and her eyes remained down, focusing on my feet. She moved slowly, but not so slowly that she could be faulted. Her breasts bounced slightly in her revealing shirt as her feet padded along the marble. Perhaps if she was not my sister and I was not surrounded by family members, priestesses, and strange women, I would have been affected by her ethereal, sensual beauty as she walked. Instead, my body remained motionless, standing next to the bed. My cock remained limp between my legs.

Finally, my sister walked directly in front of me and then turned so that she was facing me. She was only a foot away from me now, our breasts were nearly touching. Our eyes locked together for the briefest of times. But somehow, that fraction of a second seemed to stretch out into eternity. I saw her wide, scared eyes and her nervous, but beautiful face. But then the moment passed and I didn't even know what it meant. In retrospect, it didn't even really seem to last that long.

Regardless, the spell was broken by Nislani's movement. She slowly started to shrink before me. Where we once stood nearly face to face, I watched as her eyes slipped down below my nose, my lips, my chin, my throat, my breasts, and my stomach. Down and down, getting ever lower. The whole time she kept her pupils facing up towards me, as though she could maintain her discipline if she could see my face, if she could keep her focus on the parts of my body that she was familiar with.

But eventually, Nislani's knees landed on the cold marble floor. Her neck was craned back entirely and here wide eyes were looking up. I was looked down, between my breasts. I could see the tops of Nislani's breasts, separated from my limp cock by only a couple of short inches.

As she settled onto the ground, I hear a low sigh slip through her lips. Then she took a deep breath. I became aware of the absolute stillness in the room. I could not take my eyes off of Nislani to look around, but I knew that no one was moving. No one was breathing. I believe they were all thinking what I was thinking: 'when is this going to stop? Who is going to stop it? This can't possibly happen.' But, at the same time, we could all sense that this thing, this duty and requirement, had a will of its own now. It was pulling events forward even if no one, except perhaps Cin, really wanted it to happen. Or perhaps some wanted it out of spite. Regardless, it had to happen.

Nislani seemed to understand this as well as the rest of us. She was still looking up at me pleadingly, but finally, she blinked. And when her eyes opened again, her head had dropped slightly and she was facing my cock. She had seen it from a distance a moment before, but now, she was experiencing it intimately. This was the thing that had placed us in this situation. This aberration in my anatomy had placed us in this situation. Nislani surely hated it, it gave me power over her. And yet she as bound, by all of the conventions of society, to try to give it pleasure.

And yet, as Nislani's hand slowly rose from her side, her eyes flickered up to me briefly. And in that look I could feel something I had been noticing all day. Those soft feelings I had for my sister. My sister hated that I was Sultanah, but she had heard what I'd said to her in the morning. And I think she believed it. I did not want this power over her any more than she wanted me to have it. She felt trapped but she could sense that I felt trapped as well. That had been a revelation to her. I know she felt this, because I felt it in myself. I could feel the bond. I once overhead my father tell one of my brothers, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Nislani and I understood that principle in that moment. We were not allies, but we were both trapped in this situation, it was our enemy. The office of Sultanah was my enemy. The silly girls in the room were my sister's enemies. And we both knew that we could only get out of it together. As Nislani's hand rose up and her finger tentatively touch the base of my cock, a truce was called. A temporary alliance of expedience was forged.

I moaned despite myself. The pads of Nislani's fingers were very soft. She touched me with just the slightest amount of pressure, her skin just barely tickling mine. I felt my shoulders relax slightly and my breathing slow. Nislani jumped slightly as I moved, but she kept her cool fingers against my warm skin. She looked at my limp cock, seeming to study the impression it made on her hand.

She slipped her fingers around my cock, her skin skimming over mine. Eventually, I found her warm palm pressing against the side of my cock, her fingers were wrapped all the way around me. Her hands were so small that a couple of inches of limp cock still stuck out from her lightly closed fist, pointing towards her breasts. For a moment, she simply held it, her eyes glued to the tip of my cock. I looked down at her between my breasts, watching our chests rise and fall in unison.

After a few moments, I felt my sister flick her wrist slightly to the side. My limp cock bent to the side slightly and I groaned. Her fingers squeezed and slipped around me in a pleasant way. She then bent my cock the other direction, and I groaned again, more loudly. Then, Nislani leaned in slightly, I could feel the breath from her nose against the tip of my cock and I felt a prickly feeling up my back. But then there was nothing. I looked down at my sister, my brow slightly knotted. She was staring up at me, giving me a beseeching look. She moved my cock slightly in her hand and leaned upward. She hazarded a glance at the women around us then spoke to me so softly that I could barely hear.

"Isn't it supposed to be hard?" she whispered, "Varis, I have never done this before...I wouldn't even know how to do this if it was hard. What do I do now?" Now I looked around. I saw all the leering Guardians, leaning in towards us and trying to hear. I personified my hated fate with them, and leaned in towards my sister, working with my temporary ally. We had to get out of this, and that meant going through it.

"I am nervous and you're...this is difficult," I said and she looked a little pained. I hastened to explain, "Everything you're doing is good. You look beautiful. You can't screw this part up as long as you don't use your teeth. Just do what feels...good," I offered and then gave a little shrug. Nislani gave me a wry look, but I could tell she was drawing strength from me. Hell, it was the first time she didn't look catatonic since our conversation earlier in the day. Her eyes dropped back down to the two inches of soft cock poking out of her hand.

I saw her hesitate for a moment and then I watched as her thick lips part slightly. Her head leaned in towards my body. I felt her exhale sharply and warm air caressed the tip of my cock. And before that pleasant sensation faded, I felt my sister's tongue slide over my foreskin. My entire body felt tingly and my hands clenched into fists. I let out a low breath of air and felt a lump forming in my throat. This was so incredibly wrong, even if the sensation of my sister's tongue pressing against my foreskin was undeniably pleasant.

Despite the fact that my body seemed to be reacting totally to Nislani's touch, I did manage to hear something from the side. Nislani's saliva was just starting to wet the bottom of the tip of my cock when a sharp gasp issued from the Guardian Party, or at least the wives of the barons. I turned my head slightly and could see Duchess Hain shaking her head.

"I can't believe she did it," I heard her whisper only slightly discretely under her breath.