The Preacher Man

"And?"

"Ilias, this really was a brilliant way of resolving the issue!"

We both knew Jibran, all of Ruling Royalty in fact, were testing me by not responding to the marchette complaints. Zaim continued, "Your solution was elegant! But if I may, I'd like to point out one possible downside."

"Go on."

"Your six witnesses are blowing up your battle into legendary proportions. You were unarmed, and up against a master swordsman who initiated the fight. The short sword is a superb weapon for close-in fighting. I've viewed the tapes several times, and it still surprises me to see you victorious. Watch yourself Ilias! Adoration among the rank and file militia can be a very dangerous asset."

I agreed with him, and we chatted for just another moment before signing off. I looked at the time, and quietly called Abigail to tell her I wouldn't be home before the end of evening Prayers today. This was one evening I needed to put in a full four hours of public appearance at the main sanctuary.

Chapter 20. A Glorious Beginning

Time: October 22, 8236 1:27 PM

I jogged the short distance from my office complex to my residential suite, shielding myself along the way from a horizontal rain driven by a fierce west wind. The sky to the northwest was definitely turning brighter though. I decided to start believing the forecast for bright sunshine at Karbala's airport by 4 PM. The delayed flights from the capital would almost certainly be able to land then.

Abigail met me as I walked through the door, giving me a very friendly hug even before I had time to take off my coat.

We kissed for a long moment, Abigail's foot reaching back and kicking the door closed behind us. "You're back early!" she said smiling. Another kiss. "Welcome home, oh glorious one!" she whispered as she licked my ear.

"You're that confident, huh?" I whispered back, continuing the hug and not wanting to let her go. I started massaging the muscles in the small of her back and the top of her butt.

"No, absolute certainty," Abby replied, pressing her hips into mine. "Hmmm... That feels nice."

I thought for a moment. The general announcement wasn't scheduled for release until 5 PM, an hour before evening Prayers. I glanced at my coat. I was still wearing the four-color square of a CL-23, purple and yellow on the bottom and green and blue on top. "So how do you know?" I asked.

"I went back to working the remote archives after lunch."

"Ah. The seventh millennium?"

"Yeah, the mysterious death of Abdul Badi, Servant of the Incomparable. Just before one o'clock, the dropdown menu suddenly started showing I had access to Level-III restricted material." Another lick on my ear. "The new data proved the following Cunif Califar had nothing to do with his predecessor's death. Hah!"

I chuckled, both from being tickled on my ear and by what Abigail was saying. I completed her thought. "But we have to remember that it was the historical staff of Abdul Samad, Servant of the Eternal, who did all that writing."

Abigail chuckled back in reply. "Anyway Ilias, third-level access, Ruling Royal level! Congratulations, oh glorious one!" Another lick on my ear.

"Yeah. I think I'll miss being called gallant. Gallant sounds inspiring. Glorious sounds so," I hesitated for a moment. "Pretentious?"

Abby laughed. "Well, we'll just have to endure it the best we can." More licks on my ear, and after a minute of kissing a teasing head, plunging into the tight space between our hips, tracing the outline of my body below my waist. "So when does the rest of the world find out?"

"This evening, a rare planet-wide holocast during evening Prayers." My hips were urging me to thrust against the hand that was doing such provocative things with my groin. "Jibran himself is flying in for the ceremony."

Thumb and forefinger, probing me, finding the deep base of my penis where it joins with my sac. Abby distracted me with a question. "They don't want to do this at Bandar Arenas?"

"Huh? Oh yeah. No, I guess not. This'll be the first coronation to Ruling Royalty outside of the capital since the third millennium. At least, that's what Jibran said." I panted as I felt Abby begin to work me into an erection from the base of my cock.

Abby was in a playful teasing mood. She kept our conversation going. "Ah, so Jibran is another historian. Perhaps I should begin to like him." Her fingers began to walk up the length of my cock, and my cock in response was urging me to pay attention to what was going on down there. "Still, I'm surprised he's coming."

I blinked my eyes, trying to follow the conversation in spite of the pleasure at my groin. "Huh? Oh! Yeah, Jibran. Well, he has his own political agenda of course, but on balance he has been fair to me. And I'm returning the favor."

The firm grip on my penis stopped for a moment. "Oh? What do you mean?"

The lack of stimulation gave me a moment to catch a deep breath. "As a CL-24, I'm now entitled to be Domine of a township cathedral. Jibran asked me if I would accept Karbala from him and I agreed. It's not just my coronation. We're also doing a Domine transfer ceremony tonight."

"Ah, let me guess. Jibran has his sights set on Aleppo?"

I laughed. "But of course!"

There are about thirty-five more townships than Ruling Royals in the world, so not all townships have a Domine, a Ruling Overseer. Bandar Arenas has the Cunif Califar as its Domine, and the rest of the 120 towns fight for the honor of being selected by the other Ruling Royals. Once selected, the town is theirs until they either die or advance to the next Citizen's Level. In the latter case, the Ruling Royal has the option of switching to one of remaining unselected towns.

The role of Domine varies greatly by the Ruling Royal's temperament. If he wishes, he can live there and be a god within his city. The power is effectively absolute so long as it doesn't make waves at the capital. But becoming a demigod is definitely not the path of advancement. In practice, all Domines live at the capital and treat their sponsored town and cathedral as both an opulent vacation home and as an economic bargaining chip.

Most Ruling Royals ignore the traditional role of Domine entirely and allow the town's Holy Upper Commanders to assume full responsibility for the actual daily governance of the town. Frequently the more mundane civil affairs of resource management are delegated to the Upper Commanders of the township's home Guild.

Miyaz, a powerful CL-28, had died in September, creating an opening in the Supreme Executive Ruling Council and also releasing Aleppo from his patronage. By offering to take Karbala from Jibran now, I was freeing Jibran to jump ahead of any possible Ruling Royal promotions next Judgment and seize the opportunity for the key hub township of the North.

It was a huge favor for me to grant, but it would have created a lot of Ruling Royal resentment if I as a lowly CL-24 tried to grab the prize of Aleppo for myself. So instead I bought myself into Jibran's alliance with the trade. It is a powerful faction, with four members on the Supreme Executive Council. The transfer tonight was thus a good deal for us both.

But Abby wasn't thinking politics right now. Her hand returned to caress me below my waist, probing the outline of my body, soft fingers turning to tug, pulling up and down. The outline of my body began to change. My eager wife was offering to play, pressing her breasts against me and suggesting she would be VERY disappointed if I declined. But why would I ever want to do that? With one arm supporting her back and a hand firmly cupping her shapely butt cheek, my other arm swept her off her feet at the back of her knees, and I carried smiling Abby off to bed.

I lay sated in her arms a half hour later, enjoying the warmth of her nakedness, her hand drawing lazy circles on my chest.

"I don't suppose you could get back early tonight..." she whispered. She leaned over and gave my nipple a small lick.

I shook my head. "No. The Glorious One must rise to meet his public. I doubt I'll be back until well after midnight."

Abigail giggled. "Oh, I think I can get the Glorious One to rise sooner than that..." A minute of playful testing went by. "Ilias! Are you intentionally trying to stay soft?"

"Yes."

"Hah! Well, it's not working very well, is it?"

I sighed playfully. "No, I guess not."

"I challenge you to try softer!" Abby laughed at her own play on words, in not challenging me to try harder. Then her hand descended to the base of my semi-inflated cock and she began to pump me. I tried to think dull thoughts, count backwards by seventeen from the current year, but it was a losing battle. Abby pulled the foreskin back on my cock and popped me into her mouth, actively suckling my penis head with her lips and tongue while pumping the blood up from the base with her strong fingers. Saliva began to dribble down the length my cock from her mouth, and she turned her base pumping into a slick jerk off. The sexuality was direct and intense. I whimpered at the totally impossible task of resisting a full erection. "I surrender," I whispered.

"Good! So it's time for me to declare victory! I now claim my prize!" Abigail rose up and straddled me, holding my hips fixed with her knees while she angled my erection towards her feminine opening, one filled with delightful moisture and silky softness. She rubbed my penis head through the folds of her labia, long lubricated slides, back and forth, from anus to her thick bush of pubic fur. Soon my erection was rock-like and pulsing. I started to groan in frustration with my desire for her.

One quick squat down, thrusting her pelvis down upon me, and I was buried deep within her womanhood. She worked me energetically, long pulling strokes up, and then tensing her abdominals as she pushed my erection back down into her, forcing me to work for quick penetrations or else risk having my cock bent out of shape. My universe was filled with thoughts of her femininity and the heat of my desire for her. I stared at her nakedness, mesmerized by the sight of her bouncing breasts and rotating hips as she rode me. Abby was panting from her efforts, her face flush and sweaty, her eyes glassy and filled with sexual expression.

I deeply sensed her mood. Our previous orgasms had been gentle and loving. Now she wanted something on the rough side, something elemental. She wanted to submit to me, not as a loving wife to her husband but something more primal, passionate submission of one gender to the other. She wanted me to take her as my woman.

I reached up and grabbed her pelvis in both hands, locking her hip position. Then I began pounding up inside her, long, hard strokes with sharp slapping sounds as my groin smacked into her pubis. Abby grimaced, yipping like a puppy and she actually started to growl as I drove her to orgasm. Her entire body tensed and vibrated as the pleasure took her.

And I was thrilled to discover I still had something left from our earlier play. I followed her to release, depositing the last of my seed into a very tight and willing vagina.

Abby collapsed upon my chest, whimpering and cooing. After a while we turned on our sides, still coupled but drifting back down into gentleness. I loved the velvety glove fit of being inside her, feeling myself soften while still buried in her womanhood. Our desires for thrusting were completely sated.

But not our desires for cuddling. Abby sighed after a while and purred, "You surrrrre you can't get back here early tonight? I promise you, you won't be disappointed."

I laughed as I kissed her neck, gently stroking her flat stomach as I looked at the clock. "I have to get up in twenty minutes, take a quick shower and head off to the airport."

Abby nodded, turning serious. Her hand came up and took mine from her stomach, lowering it and pressing it into her body above her uterus. Her pubic fur was wet from our exertions. "I love you," she said simply.

"And I love you... Hey! Where's Michal? Shouldn't she be here now?"

"She's working a second shift at the hospital."

"Huh? The central hospital? Here at the hub?"

"Yeah."

"Oh." I thought for a moment. "What's she doing?"

"The positron tomography scanner went down. Michal called me late this morning. She's diagnosed the problem, but it'll take her a second shift to fix it."

"Oh... Is she okay with that?"

"Sure. She loves her work Ilias, loves to build and repair things. She's a wonderful engineer."

"I know..." I drifted and thought about Michal for a moment, all her years at Al Maqwa, frantically filling her life with learning, storing up a lifetime of adult skills before her wedding day.

As children, girls don't do nearly the amount of formalized praying as the boys. They don't have the time for it. Rather than praying eight hours daily, one third of the day, the girls pray three hours daily, one eighth of the day. It's one of the many mirror images with the holy digits that the Priesthood is so fond of.

Starting as toddlers, the girls have an early morning Prayer of Obedience, a noontime Prayer of Acceptance, and an evening Prayer of Submission. All their remaining time is filled with exercising and studying.

In the last two years before their weddings, the evening Prayer changes to the Prayer of Virginity, as the young women learn how to please their future husbands by practicing on life-form dolls.

And once they become eternal virgins, the Priesthood considers them to be permanently sealed in a state of Holy grace. No further formalized Prayer is necessary. This happy theology also allows the Priesthood to extract the maximum amount of work from the adult female population. Just a coincidence, I suppose.

Abigail's hand was caressing me, lightly brushing the hairs on my chest. "Ilias?"

"Hmmm?"

"Michal... and me. You think about the two of us differently, don't you? Emotionally, I mean."

I leaned over to kiss Abby, running my nose along her check and then kissing her, first her cheek, then her throat. Finally I moved up and kissed her forehead. "Ah, my perceptive wife! What do you see?"

Abby turned and smiled, looking directly into my eyes. "When we're all in bed together, when you make love to her, the way you mount her, you are always so gentle with her."

I blinked. "Well, Michal and I started making love when she was pregnant. I didn't want to do anything that would be uncomfortable for her."

"Oh, it's not just that Ilias. Even after she birthed..." Abby was grinning at me, her eyes full of love. "You are always so gentle with her Ilias, in your lovemaking I mean. It reminds me a little of how Michal was with her child."

Abby was silent for a moment and then asked quietly, "Ilias, do you think of Michal as your child?"

I thought for a long moment, considering Abigail's insight, thinking especially how Michal would learn to love her son anew, every single day he was here. I finally answered, "Well, in some ways.... I feel very protective of you both, but yeah... Maybe Michal in particular."

Abigail nodded. "Did you know, in the early first millennium, weddings were done with girls as young as nine years old?"

"What?! No! That's horrible!"

Abby nodded in complete agreement. "I found a few references to it, in writings from the Wild Times. The practice was officially banned in the year 273."

"Wow... A glimmer of compassion in the first millennium?"

Abby shook her head. "No, I don't think so. I think the men finally realized that nine-year old girls make poor eternal virgins. They couldn't possibly learn all of the skills they would need for their adult lives."

"Shaitan!" I whispered with a hiss. "Destroying the mind of a nine-year old child?!"

Abby sighed and nodded. "I know. The cruelty is monstrous." She paused for a moment and then hissed and cried back. "Oh Ilias! Why is it that you're the only man who can see this?!"

I lay silent. Am I the only man? There was that strange business at Qataban, a secret society interfering with Security's monitoring system. And that section of the Bolivian mining region has by far the world's highest mortality rate for unmarried female miners. Many are lost in mining accidents each year. Or are they?

I never shared my thoughts and hopes with anyone, not even with dear Abby. An inquisition team has powerful drugs at their disposal. There was nothing to justify the risk of telling her, not yet anyway. I just shrugged my shoulders at Abby.

After a moment she went on. "The marriage age was standardized to eighteen in 273, and then slowly drifted up to the twenty-first year by the beginning of the second millennium. That's when the child monastery system was formalized."

I petted Abby for a while, caressing her breasts. "I made a promise to Michal," I finally whispered, "a silent promise to myself. Perhaps I was too late to save her, but the monster that hurt her mind will not stand. I swear it Abby. I pray about this every day."

I lay quietly with my first wife, my hand still cupping her breast. So warm, so loving, so full of truth and goodness. I started thinking about my daily pleas to the true Holy for strength and guidance. My mind drifted back to my childhood. With my perfect memory, I had an enormous hidden advantage for learning. During countless hours of dull Prayers, when dull Priests were droning out book Prayers by rote, I would explore problems with my mind, physics and math, ethics and morality, matters of the heart and my life's desires. My perfect memory was invaluable for letting me not waste the time.

Time! As an adult, I've come to appreciate that time is the universe's ultimate non-renewable resource. Once wasted, it can never be recovered. I perhaps will live three to four hundred years. It seemed like such a huge amount of time when I was a boy, but now it seems so short. There is so much I want to do, and so little time! I sometimes wonder as I pray, what are the true Holy's perspectives on time and causality? My own views seem so limited.

And I remember enjoying Prayer too. I thought back to my days at Anqara, in the early 8230's, finishing my study work for my Guild and running to chapel for the start of evening Prayers. The fall was my favorite, the trees were so colorful, and the crisp cool air of September was full of the promise of winter. I loved running to evening Prayers as the sun set.

And it felt like that now! The air smelled of the ocean rather than of forest, but my memories felt like now! Wonderful spring, here at last! Sunrise today was at 4:15 AM and sunset would be at 5:55 PM, five minutes before the start of my ceremonial evening Prayers at the great cathedral of Karbala. I thought it was a perfect time for evening Prayers, right after sunset as the twilight formed.

I blinked as I realized I was truly looking forward to this evening's ceremony. I felt a passion for becoming Karbala's Domine. It felt as if a great gift of trust were before me, and I was eager to accept it. And I only had to wait a few more hours. Hours... Hours? Uh oh!

The clock! I looked at the clock and gulped. I had time for one last kiss with sleepy Abigail, and then I leaped up and sprinted for my shower.

Chapter 21. Crystal Display

Time: November 28, 8236 10:10 AM

By the time I got back to my private suite of offices ten minutes after the close of morning Prayers, it already seemed as if I had put in a full day. I had been up since sunrise seven hours ago, but that wasn't it. It was my 5 AM holocast call with Abigail. As she was giving me the scheduled status report, she flashed a secret hand signal. She was asking that I recall her immediately. With the multiple rail and ferry connections needed to get back to my cathedral from Stanley, she wasn't due in my office for another half hour.