Talla's Temple Ch. 11

"We're gettin' wet, no matter," a quiet, lilting voice agreed.

The third bell of the afternoon, only faintly audible over the rain, had already signalled the end of their shift. New girls had come in, wet from the weather, and taken over supervision of the children. It was time for these eight to leave.

The problem was the distance. The Sweetness girls had a short dash to the closest entrance to their part of the Temple. The Endowment girls didn't have such good fortune. Unless there were extenuating circumstances, women did not run through each other's sections of the Temple. It just wasn't done.

That left the eight girls of Endowment in a lurch because, while all dormitories were within short distances of Sweetness gates, this particular building was in the section farthest from Endowment. The girls would have to pass around Form's corner of the Temple.

"At least it's still warm," Talla remarked. "No point waiting."

There was a chorus of agreement. M'lis turned to look at Talla who raised her eyebrows in return.

"Take it at a run?" M'lis asked.

Talla nodded. Six others, Neophytes and Initiates all, prepared to follow.

"The fastest way is past the carters' depot," someone said. "Straight up the road."

"Let's go!" M'lis shouted.

And they ran. The rain was unbelievable. It must have been some ridiculous storm coming down from of the mountains. Talla couldn't remember ever seeing anything like it. She imagined the sewers deep under their feet filling with rain water as it rushed madly down to the river. Would this rain overwhelm them and flood the streets?

She thought of things like that these days, even as she and her companions raced along the cobble stone streets. They tried to find shelter as they ran, ducking under awnings wherever they could in their mad sprint. This was really a childish and stupid thing, running on wet ground like this. But it was exhilarating, too, to be set free. The rain made them anonymous, almost invisible. They weren't being watched and they weren't worrying about rules.

In just the first few moments, they were soaked so thoroughly that you could tell who had the Point upgrades and who didn't. Talla was glad that her top was tight enough to hold her breasts in place. The last thing she needed on this unsteady ground was unnecessary undulation.

She concentrated mostly on keeping the small amount of bounce her breasts did generate in synch with her steps -- while avoiding crashing in to fruit baskets and other sundries laid out under awnings rendered useless by the power of the storm.

Someone shot past her, a flash of black hair and white fabric against the impermeable grey of rain, and shouted, "This way!"

Where was she going? Who was it? She hadn't even gotten to know all of the other Endowment girls by name yet. But everyone seemed to follow her, so Talla did, too.

There weren't quite past Form's corner of the Temple yet. If they could make that corner, they could run along the wall -- maybe even draw a little relief from the downpour. But they weren't heading toward the wall. Where, then?

Suddenly, they were under cover and the rain was no longer assaulting them.

M'lis was there already, heaving with exhaustion and delight. So was the other girl, the one who had run past Talla so quickly.

Talla wiped water from her eyes so she could take stock of her surroundings. They were in a building that reminded her very much of Zhair'lo's stable. Tall stone posts, high ceilings, lots of wide doorways and storage space. A few oxen sat placidly in their stalls.

"Where are we?" Talla asked between breaths as the last of the girls were coming in behind them.

M'lis, standing with her hands on her knees to alleviate the cramps in her side, said, "Carters' depot."

"Figured it'd be empty," the dark haired girl said. "Rain and all."

Both girls were Neophytes, wearing the sopping wet chest sashes that denoted their ranks.

"You Talla?" the dark haired girl asked.

"Yeah."

"I'm Adria."

"Hey."

That was all that could get out while tried to get air in to their lungs. Talla blinked her eyes clear. Both of her comrades were so wet that their sashes hung a good distance from their bodies. From where she was standing, catching her breath, she could see down both of their tops. M'lis was clearly in Point -- though she already knew that. Adria, on the other hand, had had three upgrades in Abundance. That was obvious, too. Talla could see everything from where she was -- breasts splattered with clear raindrops and nipples stiff in the cold rain.

Talla flashed back suddenly to the previous night.

Tina.

She remembered Tina embracing her.

She remembered waking up cushioned on the soft flesh of that girl's breasts.

She was also staring, an activity at which both M'lis and Adria promptly caught her.

"Not satisfied looking at your own pair?" M'lis asked with a laugh. Still unable to rise to a standing position, she instead stuck out her tongue and shook her shoulders, making her breasts dangle quite freely back and forth.

Adria laughed and did the same.

Talla had to laugh, too. With the rain and the cold and the exhilaration of running, it was just that kind of moment. She was, in fact, just about to pull her top down and return the semi-rude gesture when she heard a voice behind her.

"Something wrong with your clothing, girls?"

It was a deep, powerful voice. Undoubtedly feminine and not to be trifled with.

Adria and M'lis, despite the pain in their sides stood straight up immediately, wincing as they did. Talla came up, too, and twisted around.

"No, Mistress," all three chorused in fear.

The other five girls straightened up as well, but it was just these three who were the focus of the older woman's ire.

Oh crap, Talla thought.

The woman wore orange clothing in the form of a double sash -- just like the Neophyte costume -- and a tiny bottom Talla would have mistaken for underwear. It was the habit of the women of Form to wear the tiniest bottoms they could possibly find. That was one clue. The other clue was that she also had the strongest legs Talla had ever seen.

Form. Probably Tight, even.

Law and order.

And an Acolyte II to boot.

Of all the damned luck.

"Ho, M'yalik!" the woman called out to someone out of sight.

"Ho, Zhana!" a female voice called back.

"Ren jin ree," Zhana sang back.

M'lis made a plaintive noise at this declaration. Talla cursed again her inability to understand Temple speak. Two of what?

"Hai," the other voice replied.

"Follow me," she said darkly. "All of you."

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So it was going to piss rain all day, then.

Zo'kar would have preferred to be outside, repairing rooftops, but that was nine steps past stupid in weather like this. He and the rest of the roofers would take some time off. The rain was chilling so someone started a fire.

"Be nice to be a baker today," someone shouted.

This invited a number of laughs. Who would really want to be a baker, cooped up inside all day, sweltering by an oven?

"So tell me, boy," Chu'zen said, "How'd you do last night?"

Chu'zen had been his master for years, ever since he'd taken on construction as his vocation. The man had taught him roofing and masonry and a hundred other worldly pieces of wisdom. Chu'zen wasn't from Gern. He'd moved to the town just before Zo'kar had been old enough to leave the dorms. Not only had he been there for Zo'kar throughout his adolescence, he also seemed to take it personally that the boy move smoothly in to adulthood.

So this was no idle question. The cacophony of the rain hitting the roof gave them a measure of privacy.

"Good, I think," Zo'kar said.

Chu'zen observed him closely. The shyness that had dominated his personality had waned. There was enthusiasm now where before the subject of women had brought only signs of embarrassment.

"The upgrade worked," Zo'kar added. "That's what they told me."

Also, Zo'kar thought, Eletta's tits were glowing. Should he mention that? Maybe he was wrong and it was just a trick of the moonlight and the flickering torches.

"They don't generally lie," Chu'zen said wisely. "Where'd you do her?"

"Chest," Zo'kar said.

Chu'zen eyed him a moment.

"More of an ass-man then?" he asked.

"Huh?"

"You didn't seem very excited," his mentor observed.

"Oh, no, it was cool," Zo'kar offered. "Just weird, y'know? Girl staring at me. All those people watching."

"Bit unnerving," Chu'zen observed.

"Yeah," Zo'kar confirmed. "It was a lot easier, the first time -- at that Initiation, I mean."

"That time I had to kick you out the door?"

"Yeah, that one," Zo'kar said. He hadn't really spoken about this to anyone, but he supposed that Chu'zen was the sort of man he could trust. "She turned around, see?"

"You did her ass?"

"Yeah."

Chu'zen nodded wisely. So that was how the boy had broken his spell. A little confidence booster just to get him going.

"And a few days later you're coming for an audience," he said with a smile.

"Yeah," Zo'kar said and smiled back. "I hope I get to do another one."

"If you did it well, you will."

He wanted to say more. He wanted to tell Chu'zen that he could actually see Eletta's tits getting bigger right in front of him, while she was rubbing his semen in to her skin. He wanted to tell Chu'zen how he'd seen this faint glow in the mix of his semen and the Temple's clear syrup. But he held back a bit. The man was a bit older. Maybe he didn't want to hear about it?

"Have you done it a lot?" he asked.

"At least a hundred times, when I was young," Chu'zen said wistfully.

Probably he didn't want to hear Zo'kar's tales then -- it being old news. No one who had been through so many upgrades would care about the details of Zo'kar's first trip. Chu'zen would be more than familiar with the girls in the showers and the altars and the whole feeling of having all those people watching him.

Zo'kar smiled as he thought of his chance meeting with Talla in the showers. Seeing her there had been a huge boost to his confidence. He'd never felt the least bit worried after she and her friend had finished with him. He'd walked out of the little shower room and straight to the centre of the Augmentation Chamber. He'd looked up at that crowd of women in their rows of seats and never flinched -- not even once.

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Talla felt a kind of cold that went down in to her bones where rain water couldn't reach even in the worst storm. Cold sweat could do it - even to people who were cold anyway.

The woman in orange had brought them in to the Temple. She hadn't brought them through the main gate, but through a much closer gate, a gate with a small square over it.

Welcome to the Division of Form.

They'd been marched in to an imposing building made entirely of wood. It was the only one of its kind Talla had ever seen. Most everything else -- especially in the Temple -was made from sandstone that ranged from pinkish brown to yellowish brown. This place stood out in its darkness and the grain of its wood. Talla had dimly noticed the red star over the doorway as they had entered.

Soaking wet, the eight of them had been led through privacy baffles in to a long, tall room with narrow wall slits where small amounts of light could enter. The place wasn't meant to be bright, nor to be cheery and comforting. The walls were too close; the windows too narrow; decorations absent.

The eight girls in white were led past bench after empty bench to the front of the room.

A pair of stoic, spear-armed guards stood against the wall, bracketing a woman at a small desk. In one corners, nearly forgotten and unnoticeable, there were several girls in knee length skirts and small tops sitting in chairs.

Talla tried to drive the shivers out of her body when she saw that woman, but her trembling wouldn't stop.

The older woman, sitting on a wooden chair, wore a style of orange robe that seemed designed to be imposing. There was no doubt that the woman was an Officer -- the blouse and tiny bottom visible through the gaps in her robe told that story. She also wore a circlet of cold, rough iron about her crown. Talla had never seen that circlet, but she knew what it was from descriptions she'd heard. That also removed all question of where they were and who that woman was.

"Zhana," she said to the woman who had caught them. "What have we here?"

"Adjudicate," Zhana said with a bow. "Two Neophtyes. Caught at jin ree."

Adjudicate. A judge. And this was her court.

During her first two weeks, Talla had been told about the courts, about how quickly judges reached their decisions. There were benches here for women to be lined up to take their turns. Apparently it was a slow day because the benches were all empty.

"Which ones?"

Zhana turned to face the quivering girls.

"State your names," she ordered.

What else could they do? Two frightened, shivering girls who knew they'd done wrong? Six others watching with a strong sense of inevitability? Talla sensed it, too. Punishment was coming. Pain was in the air. She remembered the sting of the teacher's crop on her cheeks. This wouldn't be like that. That little stick was a toy compared to what would be used here.

"M'lis, Adjudicate."

"Adria, Adjudicate."

"Do you admit that you were exposing yourselves in public?"

"Yes, Adjudicate," they confessed, simultaneously.

The language and cadence of obedience had been drummed in to them.

Nine hells, Talla thought, we've even formed two ranks of four without even thinking about it.

"What did you expose?"

The girls glanced at each other, wondering which of them should answer. It was M'lis, feeling responsible perhaps, as the senior of the two, who spoke.

"Our breasts, Adjudicate."

Talla flashed back to that moment. It had been playful; funny, even. They hadn't meant anything by it. They had just caught her staring and were making fun of her.

The judge turned to Zhana.

"Were there men in the area?" she asked.

"No."

That mattered? Talla supposed that it must, somehow.

"A mitigation to the sentence, then. Where was this?"

"A carters' depot," Zhana replied.

"A place where men could often be," the Adjudicate stated thoughtfully and sighed.

"Young ladies," she said with evident disappointed, "rules exist for reason."

She stood up and came around from behind her desk. All eight girls braced to stiff attention. It felt so familiar, just like being in the classroom, waiting as the teacher stalked between the desks; waiting for the trivia question that would mean either reward or pain.

"M'lis, can you tell me why we do not expose ourselves?"

"It is a Protocol, Adjudicate," she stammered.

"And why do we make Protocols?"

"I -- uh -- to make things better."

Another sad sigh.

"Adria, do you know why we do not expose ourselves?"

"It's a rule, Adjudicate," she replied. "That's all I know."

The Adjudicate shook her head.

"We make Protocols to keep the peace and ensure fairness," she explained. "We cannot have women of the Temple running around naked. Men have work to do. They get sex at night when that work is done. You would distract them. You would arouse them when relief is not in sight. Our job is to keep the men peaceful, not distract them and arouse them beyond their skill to resist. They are simple creatures who cannot handle such things."

Young heads nodded.

"You have all studied history, yes? The end to which you would lead us is nought but violence and anarchy. It is a slippery slope. I am tasked with ensuring we do not fall down that slope. That is why we have this rule. It has served us well and kept peace for centuries. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Adjudicate," M'lis and Adria said in hopeful unison.

The Officer took a deep breath and raised her voice.

"Do you all understand?"

"Yes, Adjudicate!" they shouted back.

"Good," she said, her voice relaxing slightly. "Very good."

She looked back with a sad grin at the two Neophytes in their soaking wet sashes.

Talla became hopeful, then. Perhaps, frightened as they all were, this scolding was all that was needed. She was fairly confident that neither of the two Neophytes would ever risk such playfulness again.

"Had men been in the area," she said, "the punishment would be quite severe, depending on how many women we would have to send out to Serve them in the middle of the day."

Punishment? Surely there was no longer any need -

"There were no men," she went on in a kind voice. "But I fear this lesson must still be reinforced."

Talla, standing close to M'lis, felt the other girl take a sudden, panicked breath.

"Three common lashes is the minimum," she declared. "Which of you is senior?"

Stunned by the apparent contradiction between the woman's tone and her words, M'lis could only take a hesitant step forward.

"I am, Adjudicate."

"Very well, M'lis. You will watch," the Adjudicate said. She beckoned to Adria, "You first."

Adria, startled though she was, twitched forward in blind obedience. She walked tentatively, with fear making every step a threat to her balance. As she approached the desk -- whose purpose every girl knew - two of the girls that had been quietly waiting in the corner stood up and approached her.

"Disrobe," the Adjudicate commanded.

The attendants were by then standing beside Adria. One of them held her hands out, palms up.

Adria unlaced her skirt and handed it to the attendant. She folded it neatly and handed it to her partner. Underwear went next. Talla, horrified, tried not to watch but was unable to avoid detecting, in the periphery of her vision, the exposure of Adria's bare flesh.

The underwear, wet though it was, was folded in to neat, crisp triangle and handed off.

The attendant held out her hands again.

Adria seemed surprised.

"Complete nudity is part of the Protocol," the Adjudicate informed her dryly.

It seemed unnecessary. It was very rare for any crime to require lashes to anywhere but the rear. Why would she have to take her top off?

But Adria was well past being able to disagree. She released the buckle that held the waist band of her sashes in place and lifted it over her head.

So sad, Talla thought. Only moments ago she'd looked at those breasts and thought of Tina's warm embrace. Now she could only think how cold and alone Adria looked and how nudity only made it worse.

"Hands in the sleeves."

The 'sleeves' in question were leather belts fastened to the far side of the table. To reach them, Adria had to stand on her toes and lay her upper body flat on the table. The two guards stepped forward to pull her hands through and tighten the belts that locked her wrists in place.

So this is how it's done, Talla thought with a chill. In this cold, dark place, this is how they punish people who step out of line. They tie them to a slab of wood, bent over and humiliated for everyone to see. How horrible to watch. What must it be like to be Adria?

It was just like the classroom, but scaled up in every respect.

The Adjudicate looked over in to the corner where two attendants still waited. She held up a single finger, which was apparently a signal. On the wall hung a number of lashes of varying thicknesses. The attendant unmounted the one farthest to the left. Perhaps it was the lightest? Talla earnestly hoped so.

The attendant, a Virgin in a knee length skirt, handed the lash to the Adjudicate. The Virgin's eyes met Talla's for just a moment.

Sila.

She glanced at Talla in surprise. Then she saw Talla's clothing and her eyes went wide in pure shock. She looked away, still fearful of their encounter even this many days later, and bowed to the Adjudicate before rushing back to her place in the corner.