The Choosing Ch. 05

Our final destination pleased me to no end.

A hot spring.

Public bathing rooms. I could have danced in delight at the sight. Hatha led me over to a flat rock in the corner, next to a small pool. She stripped me. There were three others in the bathing room at the same time as us. An older woman and two young women.

"I need to purify you," Hatha said.

"How?" I questioned. Wondering if she was to once again come at me with a straight razor. She raised a brow at my distrustful tone. I matched her stare, refusing to back down. Hatha broke first with a rueful smile and a shake of her head. Motioning to the flat rock she gave an indulgent sigh and said, "It's only a salt scrub Mistress. Lay down."

Salt scrub. That sounded so good. I wanted to be scrubbed clean, soul deep, of all the events of the last few weeks, but as that wasn't possible a skin scrub would do for now. I lay flat on the rock. It did not occur to me that I had been standing naked in front of strangers until the cool smooth surface hit my breasts.

Was it only last month I had never been naked in front of another? Even during my few and frantic couplings I had been clothed somehow—a chemise, stockings or a loose corset had remained on at all times. I came up on my elbow, cradling my head in my hand and looked about the baths. There were five women now, all staring at me with curious eyes.

Hatha laid her hand between my shoulder blades and pushed me down. I submitted to the pressure and lay flat with my cheek flat to the rock. Warm hands rubbed gritty wet salt across my back. I sighed at the feel of the soft scrub. She worked with strong fingers digging into muscles still sore from the time in the swamp. Down my back, along the spine and dipping to the soft curves of my side she worked. My buttocks, my legs and finally my feet. Her strong hands pushed, rubbed and caressed.

When her hands left my skin warm water soon followed, pouring across me in a steady beat washing away the residue of the salt. With eyes still closed I rolled over and let her do the same to the front. She hummed as she worked—a tuneless sound of contentment. I found myself spellbound by the noise and the feel of her hands. I fell into a half sleep, an almost hypnotic state.

After she had washed me clean she pulled me up to stand and urged me into the nearest pool. It was cold, not shockingly so but enough to wake me from my dream state. I dipped my head under the water and came out, smoothing the wet hair from my face as I broke the surface. There, in front of me was now a crowd of women. All silently watching me bathe. All young, they seemed to be in the range of child rearing age, but there were no children. All women. All watching. Me.

I held up my hand and Hatha came forward to help me out of the water. I stepped out of the bathing pool and stood naked by the edge. "What do they want?" I asked, tilting my head closer to Hatha.

"You my Vessel," she murmured, "They feel your presence and have come to see you."

"Do what? They have come to see me do what?"

"Whatever you feel Vessel. Do not think. Feel. Only feel. " As she spoke she brought her hand to my arm and with oily fingertips began to trace patterns on my skin.

"What are you doing?" I gasped as the feeling of her light touch rocketed through my body, tightening my nipples and dampening my sex.

"Purifying you my Vessel. Preparing you for The Council."

My head fell back. I had to spread my feet to keep balance as an overwhelming surge of wanton need swept over me. Hatha knelt down at my feet before me, precariously close to the edge of the pool, her gown falling back into the water. I watched it billow, floating ice blue on the flat black of the rock colored water.

Her fingers moved on my stomach. I looked down; she was painting me red with oily stain. Deep, brown red marked me in ochre symbols. Each touch like a lick to my sex, clenching my womb in wanting.

"Oooooh," I moaned and heard the sound echo in the crowd before me. I looked up at my watchers and met the eyes of a young woman in the front row. Long silver blonde hair fell across her shoulders, parted in the middle. She wore a simple white tunic, a modesty bathing gown. She looked pure, clean and virginal. Contrasting the innocence was a shocking desperate look of absolute sexual need that shone in her young eyes. She wanted me with a passion that matched my own. I could see it. I knew it right down to my throbbing sex.

I want to see you naked.

I wanted to see her pretty young body bared before me. I wanted to see her sex, wet and spread for my touch. I wanted.....

To my shock she nodded. Eyes on me she stripped her tunic over her head and stood before me bare. Skin pink and clean. She was not yet marked by the Sarran tattoo. Blond fuzz covered her sex and her nipples were rosy pale and beaded tight. Sweet. She looked so sweet. Did she taste it too?

She snaked a hand down the soft swell of her stomach into the blonde hair at the juncture of her thighs. I watched as she spread her thighs and slipped her fingers between her legs, wetting the tips with her juices.

Glossy fingers she first showed me, offering her hand out over the water of the pool and then bringing them up to her mouth to slip them between her lips, sucking them clean.

You. Come to me.

I did not speak the words but they sounded loudly in my head. She nodded and stepped into the pool, walking through the cool water to me.

Hatha shifted before the woman had stepped in the pool, as if she knew what was to come. She stood and helped the young woman out of the pool.

"An offering," Hatha said, "for The Vessel. Given in pleasure, taken in pleasure. You shall take and share the power."

She led us back to the flat rock. I lay flat, my back flush to the cool stone. I pulled her down to me, rosy pink and young. Her skin was flushed and warm as she slid over my body until her young handful breasts were pressed to mine. Nipples connected and sharp delicious pleasure shot from breast to sex.

"Vessel," she whispered in a soft puff of breath that vibrated on my lips.

"Yes," I answered opening my mouth in an invitation she gladly took. The first time I had kissed a woman. Lips pillow soft, her taste divine. My tongue met hers in slow exquisite pleasure. Soft touches and flicks matching moans and gasps.

I snaked my fingers into the soft curtain of her silver hair. Threading the fall through my hand and then grasping it into fists. She moaned, liking the soft and then sharp bite of pain.

My mouth moved down the curve of her neck as I pulled her head up with a vicious tug. I could see Hatha behind her, watching me, watching us.

I bit down on the soft skin, marking the pulse point of her neck with my teeth. She writhed against me, pushing her sweet young sex against the bone of my pubis as she did. She straddled my hips, her wet slit rocking into the edge of the bone as she offered me her neck to mark once more. I bit down, my eyes on Hatha as I did, watching her flushed reaction to the moans.

With hands on her shoulders I pushed her to sit up with a shove. She did, looking down at me with intense desire. I rocked up and watched her moan and writhe as I connected with the pulse of her aching sex. Her cup full breasts swayed and bobbed as she moved. I reached up taking one in my hand, feeling the weight and then pinching the nipple between my finger and thumb. I twisted the nubbin until she wailed.

Reaching between her legs, I dipped my fingers into her drenched slit. Oily, warm and slippery I brought them out to paint across the soft swell of her stomach. The symbols rose from her skin in a map seen only by me. I worked fast, dipping into her sex over and over as I painted her breasts, nipples, stomach and thighs with powerful marks of magic. The room buzzed with each swipe of my fingers on her skin. Over and over I felt her sex clench in orgasm as I dipped inside the warmth of her slit.

Around me I heard moans; desperate sounds of panting wailing orgasm filled the room. Power rocked across me. I was the center, the center of all pleasure. When I had coated her in my spell I pulled her down to take her mouth.

Give and take. Take and receive. The cycle of pleasure. Take and share the power. The words looped in my brain as I kissed her sweet young lips. I knew then how to complete my spell.

I smoothed a hand down the soft curves of her side until I reached her thigh. Understanding my wordless command as I tapped her leg, she dismounted me. I came up on my elbow smiled and then reached forward to cup her sodden sex. Fingers wet with her release I brought up to paint my lips and then crooked my finger for her to come to me.

She blushed and smiled, it pleased me that she was still bashful even after all we had just done. Her thighs straddled my face, soft skin brushing me as she did. The smell of her wanting enveloped me, her taste, her smell, her touch surrounded me in pleasure. My hands I brought up to cup her sweet arse. Skin like silk, warm and supple. I stroked with splayed fingers before gripping tight to pull her down to my mouth.

I felt her face nestle between my thighs. I brought up my knees, spreading wide to give her room. Her mouth found my clitoris easily in the bare folds of flesh. She blew first, a hot puff of air that I reciprocated on her own swollen nubbin.

As she tentatively licked me I dug my fingers into her arse, spreading the cheeks wide and pulling her closer. I tasted her to my satisfaction, leaving no inch bare of the swipe of my tongue. Her clit I sucked and flicked. Her slit I entered as deep as my tongue would allow, tasting deep into the musky heat. Maneuvering her by changing my grip, I tilted her forward to lick back to the rosy pucker at her rear. She gasped, tightened her thighs and rocked into my tongue. I flicked across the rosette and then stiffened and pushed my tongue as she clamped her thighs over my face.

My own release was coming. I could feel it build, my stomach clenched and my thighs shook with the rising tension of unspent release. I paused in my pleasuring and lay back letting the feeling her mouth at my sex wash over me.

Give and take. Take and receive. The cycle of pleasure. Take and share the power. I knew we had to come together. Complete the cycle with shared orgasm. I returned my mouth to her clit, flicking my tongue at the root of the swollen nubbin in a devastating rhythm, matching her.

We bowed. As one we became a circle of orgasm. A flowing round of endless pleasure. My sex to her mouth, her sex to my mouth, we came as one. My release pulsed into her mouth, spurting in shocking, almost painful bursts as her sweet musky cum seeped over my lips.

Hatha pulled her from me. I was glad of it because I had not the energy to move myself, let alone another. Through eyes slitted with pleasure I watched my young offering slip into the water of the pool. She looked back over her shoulder at me, a quick smiling shy glance, before dunking her head in the cool water.

Hatha returned to help me up. I sat first on the edge of the rock before standing. The watching crowd parted to reveal the Lady Vere.

How long had she been there? I wondered.

"The Council meets now," she said looking not at me but Hatha, "Askel awaits outside the bathing chamber to take you and your Mistress. Come without delay."

Heads bowed as she departed in the flurry of silver and royal blue. I watched, back straight and proud until she was out of sight, then I slumped and turned to Hatha.

"What now?" I asked.

"She knows you are The Vessel. There is no doubt."

I scoffed, a snort like sound. "There is still doubt Hatha. Perhaps not that I am The Vessel, but of what they want from me."

"How do you know they want something from you Mistress?"

"They always do Hatha. They always do."

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Once more reluctant but deserving thanks must go out to my favorite rat bastard PacoFear. In equal parts I love and loathe him for the very easy way he makes me sound so much better.

Many commas died to bring you this work -- at the hand of my harsh but fair grammar dominatrix Mistress Red Pen. Thank you Mistress.

Thanks for the lovely feedback and comments. I really do enjoy hearing from you. Leave me some sugar and click on the stars please. I'm shallow and needy and desire proof of your affection.

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