Life and Times of a Priestess Ch. 04 Pt. 04-05

Chapter 4: Prisoners Of Prancir

Part 4: Profits From Priestesses

"I have also been thinking about our purpose, but while we are still prisoners perhaps we cannot do much", said Danella. "For sometime I was relieved to be more comfortable, and for our lives to return to some degree of normality, after the fighting and the rape. But now I begin to feel impatient again. Is there not something we can do to resist the Prancirians or to improve our own situation and those of the men in the camps?"

"Sreela I have been thinking about the money which the soldiers have been paying to come in. I have discovered that money is power amongst the Prancirians. Who ever holds money can control others because they can pay others to do things for them. All Prancirians want as much money as they can acquire. That is why the officers visit us more than the ordinary soldiers, because they have more money. Have you considered who is receiving the money which is paid for our services?"

"I have been thinking over the last few weeks Sreela," Danella said, "The money which the soldiers pay for us is given to the guards and various people benefit from it in the Vanmarian way!"

"Yes" said Sreela wondering what Danella had in mind, but finding the concept of money a difficult one to grasp even for a High Priestess.

"The guards collect it," Danella said "It is worth perhaps a couple or more days pay to an ordinary soldier, so he cannot come here very often if he has other needs for his money which most of them do. This money is valuable to them. I was wondering who received the money. I asked one of the regulars and he said he did not know but he can make a good guess. The guards get a part and the officer in charge even more, I would think, and the General Ravelleon must receive much of it because it is under his authority that this is allowed. Maybe the other Generals receive some too. I would not be at all surprised."

"I suppose for the Prancirians the money they collect helps to support us, pays for our food," said Sreela slowly, as if still grappling with the idea of money.

"Yes you've got it. Among the Prancirians we have to 'pay our way'. "It's a term they use", said Danella, knowledgeably. "It means we have to earn money for the Generals and officers who 'protect' and feed us. So we pay them for looking after us." She waited for Sreela to indicate understanding.

"I see what you mean" Sreela confirmed "I had thought that but you express it so much better than I would. Roger did say he would look after us. But he also said, later, that we were looking after ourselves. I did think it was odd because he was always saying he would protect us all, as if we could not look after ourselves. Well that is alright is it not? In the same way we 'looked after ourselves' before the conquest. We just didn't use money, but we still gave and received from everyone around us. Is that not what a community is?"

Danella was impressed with Sreela. She could well appreciate why Sreela had been made a High Priestess. She had a good brain and a good understanding, even with difficult alien concepts such as money. She could understand the workings of her own society and translate it into an understanding of the Vanmarian ways. However, Sreela had not quite made the leap of understanding yet which Danella felt she had made. Sreela understood exchange of services but she had not yet understood the concept of money as exploitation, but she had at least understood that. Danella was leading to something critical about their new masters. A Priestess lived and 'worked' with people and they understood the moods and the subtle suggestions made by each other and by their people of Pirion.

"Yes Sreela you have more than half of it but I am trying to say that these Generals and Officers are earning too much from us. They are receiving far more money than is necessary to look after us, and instead of allowing us to keep what we earn they are keeping it for themselves to become rich." Danella did not know the word 'profits' but she was beginning to understand its meaning. Sreela however looked perplexed. "You see people in Vanmar want to make as much money as they can so that they can be rich. Being rich means you can buy all the things you want like a house and furniture, and control other people's lives. Not being rich means you cannot choose where to live, afford the best furniture, and you are controlled by others. These soldiers here are controlled because they fight for money. In Pirion our position gives us power and control but it is not done with money. A General or a High Manager is granted a large private house and he is given a wide choice, even High Priestesses can do that if they wish. Ordinary people live in smaller homes and dormitories and have less choice. In Vanmar they can earn money or even steal it from others in any way they can get it, in order to have this control, whereas in Pirion this choice comes only with position. This is why Roger and the new man Gerald, and probably General Ravelleon and the guards, and we don't know who else, are making money for themselves out of what we do, making money from their own soldiers. They want to become richer, so they can have more control and power. Do you understand what I am saying Sreela?"

"I think I can see that, but we are in their power anyway. Why would they want more power?" said Sreela.

"It is true we are prisoners and we are in their power and under their protection. But they want power over their own people too which means they need money," Danella explained.

"So they are receiving a reward for their protection of us!" concluded Sreela. "Is that wrong?"

"They are being rewarded. They deserve some reward but I am saying they are taking too much. They are taking more than a fair reward. That is money which, if we were Vanmarians, we would wish to earn for ourselves. If we were Vanmarians we could do what we do and earn that money for ourselves and achieve more control over our lives" said Danella, extending her argument into new territory.

"But we are not Vanmarians" said Sreela, she was following Danella's reasoning well now and even had her own answers. "We are Prisoners. They would not allow us to earn money for ourselves, surely. We are at their mercy still. Look how badly they continue to treat our people in this city, particularly our men."

"You are correct of course" agreed Danella, "I am not suggesting we can do much about it right now. But in time we may be treated more like their own citizens and we will be allowed to earn our own money."

"Maybe one day, but I would hope" said Sreela "that Pirion will take back its city and all the others from these barbarians."

"Of course so do I," said Danella, "but do you really think it will happen? Certainly not tomorrow or even next week!"

Sreela pulled Danella closer to her and kissed her lingeringly on the mouth while her hands massaged her body through her gown. They lay like that for a while in rest and mutual love. "You will make a good High Priestess when the Empire is restored," whispered Sreela.

"Do you think so?" Danella replied, not expecting this sudden change of subject. She had always hoped to be a High Priestess but to a young Priestess the possibility had remained a distant one and her recent ambitions had run beyond this towards learning and travel until she found herself a prisoner of the Prancirians.

"I think you would make an excellent High Priestess," Sreela persisted. " You have all the qualities, beauty, sensitivity, intelligence and love for your fellow Priestesses."

"I always wanted to be one, but now Dalos, and who knows how much more of the Empire, is conquered. I don't think I will ever be able to take on that role now. Do you?" declared Danella.

"None of us know, but we must live in hope. Even while we are conquered we may still need High Priestesses, to lead those of us who still follow the ways of the Goddess and to keep her spirit alive. Even the Vanmarians may come to the Goddess in time. Look at these soldiers here, they want the Goddess desperately. They really need her," said Sreela.

Danella listened and agreed and these words would stay in her mind for the rest of her life. She could not appreciate now what they would mean to her in the future.

Ch.4: Prisoners Of Prancir

Part 5

Sreela began to open Danella's robe. "I want you", she whispered. Danella nodded in response and obliged by allowing the High Priestess to ease her out of it. What Priestess could refuse a High Priestess, and Danella did not want to refuse. She felt as close to Sreela now as she had ever felt to any person. She truly loved this woman after the hardships they had endured, still endured, together. There was a meeting of minds and a comfort in each others presence which was rare among any two people. Danella did not love her as she might love a man such as General Polad, or Sreela's love for Roger. It was not lust or desire, but a more empathetic and relaxed love. Neither was it quite the same as the female love Danella had shared with Carel which had contained a form of lust towards Carel's youth. There need be no orgasms in this love.

It had been a long time since she had engaged with a woman, the months since the conquest and the demands of the soldiers had seen to that. Other Priestesses had found comfort this way, but neither Danella nor Sreela had felt this need until now.

Sreela moved under Danella, opening her own gown as she did so, her fingers brushing up from the thighs to her breasts. Danella's hands pulled Sreela's gown down as Sreela allowed her arms to relax while the sleeves came off. Sensuously their arms explored each other's bodies slowly.

"I haven't done this with a woman for a while," admitted Danella.

"Neither have I," said Sreela softly, "I just felt like it. I don't want you to feel you have to because I am a High Priestess. You're off duty," she said, although she knew there was no need.

"I want to," Danella breathed. "I do love you."

For a while Sreela lay on top of Danella in embrace, gently kissing her mouth and face, her body slowly massaging her subject's as it moved. Their groins rubbed together while Danella caressed Sreela's back and buttocks, then she moved down the bed, fixing her mouth on Danella's firm young breasts, licking gently as her fingers began to stroke the lips of her wet open cleft, bushing her clitoris gently, giving her the treatment which few of the male customers had been able to give. Danella's own fingers now sought Sreela's vaginal lips. Sreela moved around upon her to accommodate. Her sensitive clitoris responded with slow throbbing to the teasing. Tongues joined fingers as the needs of their bodies become more fevered. Soon Danella began to cry out as Sreela found the rhythms she needed. Other Priestesses, reclining, resting, ignored or watched the sensual movements as they desired. There was little privacy here, unless they pulled the screens around which most soldiers insisted upon, nor was any desired amongst Priestesses of Pirion. But all knew that this was between Danella and their High Priestess. None made any move to intervene although some began their own couplings, moved by the sight.

Sreela then began to cry out as the ecstasy became stronger until both shook, uncontrollably pulsating with pleasure as they stimulated each other. Danella's clitoris throbbed and burned. Sreela's fingers jerked to and fro inside her, bringing Danella to a sobbing, wailing, climax, while Danella's mouth and tongue wetly licked Sreela's lubricated mound as she held apart the vaginal lips with shaking fingers. Sreela shuddered urgently for long minutes as she climaxed with a series of broken sighs.

When they had calmed and grown still again they stayed in each other's arms for some time, breathing into each other's mouths. Finally they returned to conversation.

"Do you think that Roger is a bad man, and Gerald, and the General?" asked Sreela, having thought again on what Danella had spoken.

"Well, I don't wish to hurt your feelings for him. He saved us, together with the General, from a possibly disastrous fate and we must all be grateful to them. Also they have looked after us well and you know how he listened to us and you especially. They have only done what any normal intelligent Vanmarian might have done from what I have seen and read. They are taught, and even forced, to make money in any way they can. However, yes. What they have done is wrong. They enrich themselves from the money of their own soldiers. It is not that they do us so much harm."

"I do wonder" Danella continued, "what we might do for ourselves without these officers and generals. If Dalos becomes under permanent occupation as seems most likely we will eventually be "free citizens" as the Prancirians seem to believe themselves to be. That means we would be free to make a lot more money than the soldiers do. We would be rich compared with the ordinary soldiers".

"What would we do with all this money. We already have food and water even if we are prisoners, and a dormitory to live in," said Sreela. "We cannot buy the release of our menfolk, or the return of Dalos to the Empire, or our own freedom."

Danella's eyes sparkled with the thought. "That may not be such a foolish idea. Prancirians will do much for money. Maybe we could pay the Generals to restore our men to freedom or to buy our own freedom". She was beginning to get used to this concept of money, to think more like a Vanmarian.

They lapsed into silence again for a while. "How do you feel about Roger, after what I have said?" Danella asked. "Does it hurt?"

"I felt very close to Roger in a way I have felt with very few men. As a High Priestess it does not do to become too attached to any one man," she said sensibly.

"There are no rules on that. You are free to love anyone you choose as long as you continue to love the Goddess, and through her, everyone else."

"I still do that. But we cannot have a partner or become a mother and remain a High Priestess." said Sreela.

"But you may return to the Priesthood after some years of motherhood or partnership," argued Danella.

"That is true," she conceded. "Roger is important to me. He may be greedy but he was good to me. I know what he thought about me. He spent too much time with me for his care to have been anything but genuine. He talked to me."

"He may have been close to you because you are our leader. Perhaps he thought that through you he could control all of us. Our loyalty to him would protect his earnings. Perhaps he feared that without his relationship with you we might find new protectors and he would lose his income." Danella stated her suggestion without knowing if it were true. As far as she had seen Roger had seemed genuinely attached to Sreela, and why should he not be. Sreela was a beautiful woman, and Roger was a Vanmarian man, far from home. Danella understood that men in Vanmar had few opportunities for sexual expression. Roger had a wife in Prancir but he was far from her and what man could be satisfied to care for only one woman. No man in Pirion would have stood for that. All the Prancirians were greatly excited by these women of Pirion, that much was obvious.

"No," said Sreela, "he may have used us to make money, but the things he did and said to me were not the actions of a man who did not care. You know he cried in my arms before he went away and he promised to come back as soon as he could."