Headmistress Viviene prowled through the night quarters of her temple. A lascivious smirk pulled at the edge of her lips. Gods, she loved her job.

Soft moans and rebellious gasps of pleasure laced the air. Shadows of tangled bodies writhed atop verdant green tapestries. Their acts of worship projected across the walls by the flickering haze of dozens of candles.

This act of holiest communion was the closest one could get to the bliss of Lady Jeiya’s presence. Only those women blessed into the priesthood of their lady could take part.

The only downside was that as headmistress, Viviene had to oversee the ritual. Which meant she couldn't join in on the fun. All was well though, she liked to watch too.

Her pace slowed—attention drawn to one of the many alcoves that made up the sister's sleeping quarters. It was two of her newer acolytes, Mari and Kella. They’d been making eyes at each other since they both started some handful of months ago. Neither had acted on it though.

“Greetings sisters is everything ok?”

The two women blinked in surprise at Vivienne’s arrival. Wandering eyes had consumed their attention. She couldn’t blame them, there was a lot to look at.

“Oh yes, Mother! We just… well we-” Kella stuttered. She was a buxom redhead with rosy cheeks and crystalline blue eyes. A prominent beauty—but horribly shy.

“This is our first consecration.” Mari chimed. Whereas Kella was soft and curvaceous; raven-haired Mari was lean and athletic.

“We… we’re not quite sure how to begin,” Kella said, her already scarlet-tinged cheeks burning.

“Do not fret sisters,” Viviene said crawling atop the cushioned platform. “You’re reverend mother will guide you.”

Viviene made her way over to kneel with Kella on the cushioned platform. Their faces came so close Viviene could feel the heat of Kella’s breath on her lips. With gentle fingers, Viviene placed her nails just above Kella’s knees.

“Now Sister, time to see if you’ve been studying your doctrine. What is consecration?”

“Consecration is the act of claiming a place or thing holy in the name of the twelve.”

“Very good,” Viviene said. She dragged her nails up the other woman’s thighs, stopping right at the base of the habit's extra-short skirt. “And how do we—the followers of Jeiya, consecrate in her name?”

“We give freely to others and to ourselves,” Kella said. Her breath caught as Viviene’s fingers slipped underneath the hem of her skirt.

“And what is it that we give?” Viviene whispered, pushing closer. Warmth and wetness awaited her venturing fingertips. She toyed with the woman's dampening lips, feeling them swell. "What does our lady Jeiya tell us is the greatest good?"

“Love.” Kella managed to gasp.

Viviene grinned and pulled her hand out from underneath the woman’s skirt. A string of sticky wetness bridged her fingers. Without breaking her gaze with Kella, Vivienne licked them clean.

“And love is only love when free,” Vivienne said and pushed Kella onto her back. “Without condition or reservation.”

She pushed the girl's knees away from each other, spreading her legs. Kella’s eyes had gone pouty and desperate. Her ample chest rose and fell with deep breaths. She squirmed, but Viviene held her legs open for all to see the redhead's dripping arousal.

Viviene turned to Mari. A bit of drool ran down her chin. She’d been watching— eyes fixated on Kella. They may have been shy, but these two were ideal sisters of Jeiya. They had that insatiable desire in them. To give themselves over to their passions and lose themselves in it.

“Sister Kella looks like she’s in some discomfort doesn’t she?” Viviene said.

“Yes Mother,” Mari responded hungrily.

“Then I suggest you do your duty and relieve her of her ailment.”

“Of course, Mother.” Mari nodded and crawled forward. With Vivienne's gentle guidance, she brought her head down in between Kella’s thighs.

Viviene pulled back to give Mari space. Within moments Kella began whimpering and moaning, which only spurred Mira on further. Her tongue eager to lap up all Kella had to give. Vivienne watched a wet spot grow on the cushioned spread. She couldn't tell if it was more a product of Kella's eagerness or Mira’s. Either way, she was proud of her girls getting out of their shells. If only she could get her dear Caspiera's out of hers. Though she knew from their shared past her hang ups went a fair bit deeper than first time shyness. Maybe one day.

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As much fun as the consecration ritual was to perform. She had called for it out of necessity. Few of the sisters knew the true benefit behind the consecration. It wasn’t something the church wanted advertised.

It wouldn’t be good for the faith if people knew that their healing magic was not actually divine. It was the same manner of magic any arcanist could use. The spell-arrays themselves were of course a close-kept church secret. But the power itself was very mortal.

It's said in ancient times that the gods granted divine power to their most righteous followers. But that wasn’t the case for Vivienne. She could use magic simply because it ran in her bloodline, like all other mages. Her thaumatecture was middling though, so she’d never be a mage of any true power. But she'd had just enough to inscribe the sacred healing spells into her arcane pathways. After giving her earlier years to be of service, she was able to earn the rank of high priestess. She was proud of her position, even if it was for a temple in the middle of nowhere.

Or at least it was supposed to be the middle of nowhere. But this place had proven odd in many ways. Recently there had been The bizarrely sapient goblins. But even before that, there'd been the unique fauna that the town had been founded to cultivate. The many eccentric individuals who'd popped up here and there like the old man, and now the mysterious vagrant. Not to mention the local essence density

Primal essence was the power source behind all mortal magic and spellcraft. It was what she drew on to cast her spells. It existed almost everywhere, saturating the land. But it wasn’t distributed equally. Some places had higher density essence than others.

Priapine village and much of the surrounding wilderness had was rated at tin. The lowest density a place could have. Which was strange in and of itself when the average was at least copper. It was almost like something was eating up all the ambient essence. Because of this, spells of even the lowest levels had been pricey to use.

The more spells she cast in sequence, the less essence she had to work with. After the day's attack, she’d had to use more healing magic in an afternoon than she had in her entire time as high priestess.

She couldn’t forcibly restore a place's essence density. It would eventually regenerate on its own. But she could influence the essence that remained. Make it more aligned with her magic. Make it more synergistic.

Her spells were of life and vitality. So she had to imbue the area with as much life and vitality as she could. And nothing filled a place with life like the act of making love. It was where life came from after all. She would never understand why some people were so embarrassed and shameful over the topic. It was a beautiful thing; Love.

Hence the consecration ritual.

She’d be lying if she claimed she didn’t take personal pleasure in it though. She turned her attention back to her two acolytes. As she watched them squirm and share in each other's passion, she couldn’t help but feel the heat rise in her chest.

Before she realized what she was doing, her hands had crept up to her breasts. They were so warm and soft. She squeezed at them, imagining their were rough and powerful hands groping her.

The image of the stranger from earlier slipped into her mind. His hands looked very powerful. Forearms sewn with dense muscle. His storm-grey eyes peered out under dark, thick brows. One of Vivienne’s hands began to drop. Tracing a path down from her chest across her stomach, and ever lower.

She pictured him walking into the temple again. But this time instead of carrying reserved Caspiera. He came for her. He’d walk straight into the hall and rip her habit off of her body. He'd force her down on all fours in front of all the other priestesses. Letting everyone see what he was going to do to their head priestess.

She pulled her large breasts free of her brassiere. Droplets of sweat leaving glistening trails down her heaving cleavage. She didn’t have the patience to tease herself. She tried to hold back, to pace herself. She couldn't. She entered herself with one finger that was soon followed by another, and another.

She imagined it was him. Thrusting himself deeper and deeper into her. Dominating her in front of the whole temple. He’d take her from behind. Slamming his length into her again and again until he was ready. Then he’d use her mouth to finish. And she would take it all down her eager throat. Everyone would see how there once-noble reverend mother was turned into a slave to pleasure. Proof of her new status marked by the mess on her smiling face and dripping down her chin.

Vivienne's eyes rolled back as she stuck out her tongue. Lost in her fantasy. Soft whimpering filled Vivienne’s ears. It was her own, she realized. She was close now. Only a little bit more.

“Headmistress.” Someone nearby said.

“Just… a moment.” Vivienne panted. She could almost taste him.

“Headmistress it’s important.”

“Nothing... is... that... important...” She said between moans

“It’s a missive from the Ziaxium. It says they are sending inquisitors to Priapine.”

Vivienne stopped immediately and turned to the messenger. It was Nira. Sweet, and infuriating Nira. Without making any effort to make herself decent, Vivienne crawled off the bed and snatched the paper out of Nira's hand. It was still warm from the magic of the transplacer press.

She scanned the paper. Her brows furrowed. She read each line faster than the last. They couldn’t be serious. Inquisitors, over something like this? Sure, she had reported recent events but this was hardly an appropriate response. Like sending siege equipment to deal with a pest problem. What’s more, is that they even paid the Arcanist Association’s outrageous fee for use of their translocation circles. Which meant this was of the highest priority.

“Headmistress, if you don’t mind my asking, who exactly are the inquisitors?”

Vivienne glanced up from the paper to meet Nira’s eyes. She technically wasn’t high enough rank to be made aware of the Inquisitors. But it seemed she’d be meeting them soon enough anyway.

“They’re the Ziaxiums’ special task force. Their official role is to seek out and investigate threats to the church and its ideology.”

“And their unofficial role?” Nira asked.

Vivienne gave a pained smile. Nira was a smart girl, sometimes too smart for her own good.

“Let’s just say I’ve only heard of inquisitors being deployed when a threat has already been identified, and the geezers want it taken care of, permanently.”

“But what is the threat? Surely the Cardinals wouldn’t care about some goblins out in the mountains of the frontier.”

“I don’t think the goblins are what they're worried about either.”

Vivienne looked to the bottom of the missive. It bore two names. The inquisitors that would be arriving.

Isandra Inbar, fourth Inquisitor of Naodir

Nowen Fist, fifth Inquisitor of Naodir

She didn’t recognize their names, but she recognized their rank. Each sect of the twelve had eleven inquisitors. Each ranked by their effectiveness, and thus their power. The first-ranked inquisitors were legendary. They were said to be even stronger then first-class seekers. Who could easily defeat adult dragons in single combat.

To have fourth and fifth-ranked inquisitors sent their way, and of Naodir no less? No, none of this made any sense at all. That would be like sending a whole team of third class seekers. Which would be a small fortune to hire.

While they all worshiped the twelve in their entirety, that did not mean there weren’t differences among the sects. Naodir was the god of war, battle, and bloodshed. Diametrically opposed to everything her lady Jeiya represented. Inquisitors of Naodir would be every bit as violent and bloodthirsty as their god. And they would be coming to her temple.

“Nira, with me,” Vivienne said stalking out of the night chambers. She resented having to leave the ritual early, but work had to be done.

“Yes Headmistress, what are we doing?”

“I’m going to prepare for the inquisitor's arrival. In the meantime, you are going to make it up to me.”

“Make what up to you mother?”

Vivienne spun to to Nira. “I was in the middle of something and you not only interrupted me but also put a great deal of stress on me. So now you are going to personally finish what I started, and then you’re going to finish me again as an apology.”’

Nira nodded, a smile pulling at the edges of her lips. “Yes mother, anything to be of service.”