Queendom 11: Original Offense

Author's note: Thanks to my one anonymous reader, for being so patient and understanding. Thanks Lene, for the song, and the many many, many cracks. Thanks Solstice, for the insight into submission. And thanks to Suehirogari, for TAG.

Story so far:

Queen Elanor of Wolkenshire, the Great Chaste, is having a hard time keeping a level head, navigating the daily politics and policies of her court, while mourning the unexpected demise of her true love, King Barthomius. Advised by the High Priest, she employs Bellatrix of Agrafena, a promising horse trainer. Bellatrix correctly identifies the key to the royal dilemma, but it involves manipulating the Queen's bodily cravings, primarily the sexual kind.

To avoid suspicion, Bellatrix is given the official title of 'Head of Households', a powerful position in its own right. Bella starts treating the 'condition' in secrecy, without violating the Queen's chastity, nor risking her anonymity. But the sheer sexual nature of the tasks waking up her inner dormant cravings, an untameable beast of true deviancy, was something no one expected.

Like any relationship, ironing out the kinks can be tedious. After a brief hiatus, the two resume treatment, with Bella making additional changes to the contract. For various reasons, Bella appoints four random servants as 'Handlers' to aid in further training of the Queen. The Handlers are under the impression that they are training a Royal body-double.

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Conflict is Moral

"I'm simply asking you to reconsider, Highness. An internal debate between us Clerics and the Royal scholars, this weekend perhaps. I believe there's common ground. Progress, if not paced right, often does more harm than good."

The thirty-something Sister Lyanda, the Abbess of the Southern Church, made her case quite confidently. Sitting next to her was Bishop Benedictus, the High Priest, here on behalf of the Southern Church Clerics, though he remained silent for the most part. Listening intently, Elanor looked to the representative from the judiciary, Brehon Tupee.

"Your thoughts, Tupee?"

"I think it's quite clear, Her Highness, that politics and ploys aren't beneath the Southern Clerics."

As the nun's face turned red, Benedictus masked his chuckle with a cough. Though not the biggest fan of Lyanda and her tactics, the Priest couldn't let such actions undermine his kind. He was here to be a medium, a dispassionate one at that. Tupee continued.

"The Judicial wing did invite the Clerics for council, three separate times in the past, from when the original amend was first proposed, and they kept postponing. If we grant another chance, and they repeat such foxy-tactics, the coming month marks the end of the Judicial Quarter.. Meaning, the amendment will be put on hold. I expect such gamesmanship from my colleagues, but an Abbess.?!"

"That's absurd, Highness! If the Brehon has an issue with the checks and balances, then he should take it up with his superiors. They approved the rules, and the Clerics have the power to postpone."

"Not indefinitely, though." Tupee snapped back.

"That's enough." Elanor raised her finger, as both parties calmed down.

"Father Benedictus.. You've been quiet for a while."

Elanor was happy to see the High Priest, even with the ghost of their last confrontation hanging over. Benedictus smiled her way, and said.

"Highness, I'm here simply to make sure that the concern, of the faithful flock from Southern Church, finds your ear. As High Priest I must refrain from policy, and the spirited Abbess Lyanda is best suited to settle it with your Brehon. All I can say for his remarks at her 'foxy' tactics, is it takes one to know one. I hope the Brehon isn't questioning Church's authority here. He wouldn't be the first to try that."

"I don't believe he is, Father. Are you, Tupee?"

The Queen asked, as the legal-novice formulated his response.

"Uhh.. mm... Highness. His Grace Benedictus. In my understanding, the Wolkenshire Jurisprudence has well-defined roles for the Curia and Church, roles that ensure the fairest judgements across all lands of men, as witnessed by time. Gone are the days of Trial by Ordeal, though forms of ordeal still remain optional for the rare instances. Church holds rein over matters of morality, in any and all accusations, criminal and civil. Including, but not restricted to, the assumption of guilt or innocence, from state of mind.. To implications of the graphic nature, of both crime punishment, for the larger social psyche. Curia, as in the Judiciary, is concerned with balancing justice and fairness, assessment of culpability, and sufficient penalties. Barring provisions like the 'Sovereign Pardon', the tension between Church and Curia is deemed essential, for it keeps the Justice System from ossifying. That is my understanding, Highness. And I do not question the authority of the Church, nor the Clerics."

"A simple no would have sufficed, Tupee."

As the Queen remarked, Benedictus kept observing. Did she just smile? There was a certain nimbleness to her, a sense of playfulness, much like the young beauty Barthomius had introduced long back. She's really healing, isn't she? Bella's ways are actually working.

Elanor continued.

"I understand your objection by rule, Abbess, but this isn't about legality. It's about what's ultimately moral, and both parties know it. An internal debate is out of question, not this deep into the matter, not with weeks to pass the amendment. But I'm open to special provisions, so lay it out for me. What are your moral objections, to the penal amendment 220c."

Additional amends to penology. Section 220a-220h. That had been in Elanor's orbit for months now. May be even before. Though she found punishments essential, some of the wilder varieties she had witnessed growing up, including the aftermath of witch-hunts, had forever changed her outlook on the purpose of chastisement. Section 220 deals with the treatment of female culprits. The Wolkenshire Jurisprudence had always differentiated punishments for men and women, differing in its very principles, compared to the more barbaric Calthean or Noxtran laws.

In short, men are to be temporally penalized, with prolonged servitude under cruel conditions, whereas women get socially penalized, by reputation at times, with risk of losing special privileges, quicker proceedings, and way shorter sentencing. Especially when they opt some sort of shaming ritual, like say, a public flagellation. Both men and women were given public punishments, only the former had to serve time as well. Men contribute to free-labor when incarcerated, but a women's fecundity is far valued a resource to be locked away for decades.

220c, the amendment in question, severely limited the number of attendees allowed at a public punishment, given it involves severe physical, emotional and social trauma to the culprit, except for crimes of the highest degree. 220 is currently limited to just females, but Elanor had planned to extend it across board in five years. As for now, in short, it meant no more public humiliation for the female convicts.

Lyanda, the Abbess thanked for the opportunity with a not-so-polite bow, and began making her case.

"Highness, it is absurd to call it 'public punishment', if by law the attendees can't exceed half a dozen, including the guards, whippers, and the plaintiff. There's no busy street or venue in the whole of Wolkenshire, meeting such conditions. Shaming is the point of a public penalty, and under the new rules, the convict will have more shame, had she been flailed within the prison cell."

The Brehon interjected.

"I don't think you understand at all, the intended purpose of these punishments, Abbess. Evident from the very first flagellation this year, the notorious one from the Southside market square."

The Abbess raised her voice in frustration.

"The fact that you went for such an obscure anecdote shows the weakness of your position. The church has nothing to apologize for anyhow. Certainly to ones that lack a proper understanding of moral complexity. What of it, the Southside case?"

"You don't think there's any wrong.?! Nothing to apologize, for shaming a young girl of age, who got robbed, and nearly molested.?! Who approached the authorities complaining, and yet got punished.?"

Abbess scoffed.

"Well, someone has to teach her not to walk the streets unaccompanied. A girl her age ought to know, don't you think.?!"

"Safety concerns aside, that's how you teach? By caning her in the market square, to an unruly crowd.?!"

With a hard-to-hide perverse sense of pleasure, she responded.

"Her face was covered! The Clerics had amended rules for this very same reason. All the culprits now have the right to protect their identity during any public ritual. A right that could be waived for reduced sentences."

"That's not the point. The molesters were never caught."

Rolling her eyes, as if tired of dealing with a child, the Abbess explained.

"A crime was committed, Brehon! The girl admittedly lost her innocence to lust. Now we may quibble about whose lust or whose misconduct. But in the Lord's eyes, such a crime going unpunished would be the greater sin. And if it teaches the poor thing to be careful next time, can't you see the good in it?

"That's what you call justice?!"

"Tupee, your guardsmen failed to catch the molesters, that's not on the Church. We can only judge the ones we have.. This shouldn't be that hard to grasp."

The young novice was very irritated as he asked.

"Again, canning the affected party?! That's your 'judgement'?"

The Abbess now had a tone of pity.

"The girl confessed, and took responsibility. She said- 'It's on me'."

"The girl was traumatized, probably confused. Reinforcing her misguided guilt, you call that good?"

"The girl joined the convent shortly after, Tupee. And prays alongside me twice a day, so yes. I know it resulted in good."

"That's not.. Father, how am I supposed to argue with that.."

The legal novice looked to the High Priest and his Queen for some support, but both simply nodded at him, to proceed. Advocating was his job, so they were not going to interfere with the exchange, nor do it for him. Taking a deep breath, the Brohen asked again.

"What do you suppose, is the purpose of punishment, Abbess?"

Without waiting for a response, he answered himself.

"The Revised Wolkenshire Jurisprudence Codex states, that punitive measures have three foundational principles. It's for the guilty to reflect upon and regenerate. It's to grant justice to the plaintiff, in all measures, but foremost morally. And it plays the role of a social deterrent. In that order of significance."

"You are making my case, Tupee." The Abbess countered. "What serves the social deterrence, with the 'public' in public-punishment, essentially neutered?"

"May be you weren't listening, Abbess. I said, in that order of significance. The primary purpose is for the guilty to reflect, repent, and learn better. Even if it comes in conflict with the second principle. You can't simply punish endlessly, for the lust for vengeance is notoriously insatiable. Penalties have to be just. Similarly, 'social-deterrence' is an important factor, but the first principle takes precedence."

The Abbess couldn't have replied with more contempt.

"These are good arguments for your philosophy club Brehon, to impress virginal law enthusiasts perhaps. But out in the real world, the cold and dispassionate had prevailed effective for so long, for good reason. Highness, if I may.. This 220c is going to be another disaster, like your 'Brothel Registration Act' from earlier this year. Sure, the total seedy sex-working situations may have reduced, impressively so, but the number of registered, monitored brothels is on the rise. I doubt you could count that as a shining accomplishment.."

Elanor sniffled. Of course, the conflict is moral. The conflict is always moral. Especially between the moralities of the puritanical, and the libidinous neoteric. Besides such debates always reek of in-fighting. In a way it isn't wrong to construe as such. The current Judiciary grew out of early reformist sects within the Clergy. The word for Judiciary, Curia, is used synonymously with Church in other kingdoms, but the Wolkenshirians are sticklers for etymology. So the tension between Curia and Church, has its roots in the friction between the new Church and the Purists.

Elanor asked the Abbess.

"Sister Lyanda, what's bothering you? For the uninformed outsider, the 'Brothel Act' may seem pretty preposterous, but I was certain of its aims, and believe me, it's far from a disaster. Eradication isn't how you deal with the devil, for it only supplants you in his place.. For such a conclusion stems from a failure to grasp the fundamentals. The Brothel Act was meant to regulate the activity, not to demonize it. Let's not lose sight of the topic at hand. 220c. What is your primary concern?"

There was a hint of contempt ih Lyanda's eyes, and the Queen recognozed it wasn't meant just for Tupee.

"If you.. Highness, if you take away the harsh costs that are meant to deter, by fear if not strong moral clarity, then you are incentivizing bad behavior. Almost all major feminine crimes stem from lust. Premarital, extra-marital, seductions, accusative blackmail.. You name it. I'm proud of the Clerics of our Southern Church, and our ardent followers, mostly settlers from rural spots, for not losing the path, but the city is.. Highness, it might not look much, from up the ivory tower, but the city is infested with temptations for the meek."

Elanor nodded in disagreement, for she knew too much now, about the night-life in her kingdom, and various ways in which it keeps things balanced. She had personally met, by now, at least a dozen agents who moonlight as prostitutes, primarily for intelligence gathering, and that's excluding the ones working abroad as mistresses and harem-girls of influential noblemen across kingdoms. The Brehon dejected.

"That's preposterous, Highness. There is no way the Abbess's flock coming contact with the 'problematic' parts of city in normal life, for they populate entire different geographic regions. Moreover, the Church have plenty options to shape morality, with programs like 'Maidens of God', going into brothels to convince the 'misguided' souls back to the righteous path or whatnot?!"

Sister Lyanda scoffed at the mention of the program.

"I don't mind saying it in front of the High Priest himself, but his 'Godly Maidens' are a joke. Especially in light of the embarrassment of losing two of our nuns to the temptation instead. Pleading and preaching isn't how you guide back the willingly ignorant. Flailing the skin off the backs as they confess and repent. Over and over again. That's how a deviant should reflect. That's how you deter the maidens and men watching, to tread with extreme care, with the gifts that have been bestowed upon you. That's how you instill the fear of God, impress upon to their very core. Forbearance."

The High Priest was starting to look uncomfortable, not least for the criticisms, as he clearly disapproved of these views. The Brehon countered.

"Respectfully, Abbess. You are free to preach your beliefs, but most of the Church don't go so deeply puritanical as you Southern Clerics. I'm sure the High Priest himself finds your 'standards' outdated. It becomes a problem, when the preaching bleeds into law, taking form of moral policing. The most unfruitful kind, at that."

"Unfruitful?! I doubt it, Brehon. I don't think anyone for the past five years had returned to temptation, after a proper public punishment."

"Right you are, Abbess. In fact, your whippers and the jeering crowds did so good a job, that hardly any dared showing their face in public ever. They were mercilessly humiliated, with your monthly sermons, reminding the flock of their misdeeds long after things having settled, forcing them to confess out to public. I heard you call it, redemption?! Bad apples within the Clerics leaking their identities, making life in public a living hell, that most of them end up fleeing, to the remote regions of Calthea, where the weak and withered are preyed upon further."

The Abbess shook her head.

"That's preposterous. We can't be held responsible for rumors. We don't demand repeated confessions. If the society compels them to come forward and bear it out further, that's their calling. Highness, I don't understand these strange tangents your Brohen seems too keen on. Self-flagellation used to be a deep religious declaration, not so long ago."

"But not anymore, Sister Lyanda!" Elanor spoke out, as if she had heard enough.

"We stopped the practice for finding it questionable, rightfully so, in multiple cases of dubious consent. None of us have forgotten the witch-hunts. We stopped doing burnings, Abbess.. For good reason. These shamings, are just burnings of the soul. Burnt to the crisp, in most cases, the shadow and shame of which plaguing the punished for decades after trial. It's unconscionable."

"That's arguably untrue, Highness. The results tell a different tale. Harsh measures are warranted, for these are harsh truths of urban life. Most of our flocks from rural settlements are shocked, near-traumatized, even by the way these city-harlots dress up in public. Overtly, intentionally tempting out the worst. It angers them, as it should anger any true believer of All-father. From servers, to bar-maids, dance-shows and massage places, to authorized meat markets.?! I understand that business is the essence of urban life, but is everything up for sale? How else are we supposed to end such harlotry, Highness?"

Elanor, certainly impressed by the Abbess's intensity, replied.

"Are you suggesting that harlotry is an urban invention, Cleric? The oldest profession of mankind.?! I have it in good authority, that it predates our fore-bearers taming the wilderness of the Great Mounts. The proper fear of the sins of lust and blood is understandable, but I'm afraid it is as inescapable as the wars we wage. Sure I could lay the iron-fist, drive them underground, but then what.? Lose the regulatory control we currently have?! Don't you recall what happened the last time sex-trade went underground? The increase in black-markets, which became the breeding-ground for diseases, thanks to the lack of oversight. Not to mention the overall uptick in trafficking, aggression, and sexual-misconduct. Didn't the King himself fall prey to a venereal disease, caught from his mistress, who had a sudden influx in trade?!"

"No Highness, I'm simply suggesting.." The Abbess said, cutting off the Queen with a condescending smile.

"..that an issue as complex as this cannot be settled so quickly and thoughtlessly. The moral implications are huge, and as your Brehon himself said, Church holds rein over matters of morality. The Curia simply cannot deny the Church it's right to scrutinize the amendment. This requires a grand debate, between more mature and astute thinkers, unlike the novice here. Sure, 220c may get pushed, for a Judicial quarter or few. But what good would it do, to publish something so thoughtlessly conjured up into the law?"

Tupee objected.

"Thoughtlessly?! Abbess, did you even read the fine-print? Do you feel the same, Father Benedictus?"

The old man shook his head in disagreement, and said to Elanor.

"But I'm afraid the law sides with Clerics, Highness. When a dispute is invoked, the Judiciary must convene a debate, at a time of convenience such that it doesn't affect the court functioning. It will take months, if not years to settle, considering the Church has provisions to demand further reconsideration. Such are the rules, Highness."