Talla's Fallen Temple Ch. 14

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It would have been vastly more intelligent, Talla realized, to have told V'shika to meet her right after their training ended. With all the girls leaving Form at once they would have been well hidden in the herd. Meeting up just before Serving meant that their was a need for haste. The best Talla would be able to do was set up another appointment.

Still, she had promised to be here, and whoever this V'shika was, she had been sent by Zhair'lo and that meant a lot.

So Talla arrived, nice and early, well before the minor bell that rang half way between the major ones, and hoped to have time to for a chat. From her point of view, it wasn't much of a deviation. She had to come out through the main gate anyway, didn't she?

There were a lot of things to think about, while she sat on the edge of fountain. Even given the numbers of women she was accumulating as friends and co-conspirators, they'd yet to come up with a reasonable plan for preventing a Queen from ascending to Goddess. Force of arms was out of the question. Sure, she'd just learned how to loose an arrow -- and she seemed to be damned good at it -- but there was no way she could sneak a bow and arrow anywhere near a Queen at the time it would matter.

But if they weren't willing or able to kill anyone, how could they prevent the final upgrades that would install a new Goddess?

She bit her lips and looked up at the portal of the Main Gate. How many nights had she been coming here now? Waiting for that which might never come? She'd lost count. It wasn't really hope that kept her coming back. Not every night, anyway. Sometimes it was just stubbornness. Sometimes it was the worry that she'd be seen as a promise breaker. Other nights, she couldn't even explain it. Force of habit maybe.

No one was here this night, but it was early.

"Talla?"

She jerked her head around.

"V'shika," she recognized the slim girl with the long eyelashes as she approached.

V'shika was out of breath and excited, a mood so opposed to Talla's stoic determination that Talla almost found it offensive.

"I've been dying to talk to you."

"We have a lot to talk about," Talla said. "But first there's a test I have to do, so I can trust you."

V'shika faced Talla, holding her arms wide with her palms up.

"So? Test me."

Talla looked around the plaza and rolled her eyes.

"We can't do it here," she explained. "We need privacy."

"Oh," V'shika shrank quite suddenly and took a seat beside Talla. "It's going to be tough, being in different Divisions and all."

"We might be able to set something up," Talla said. "I have friends in Form. Maybe at the next Bazaar. Have you ever been?"

"No," V'shika brightened visibly. "But it sounds like fun. Is it?"

Talla's lips twisted.

"I couldn't really pay attention at the last one," she said, watching how quickly the other girl's moods changed. "I was busy."

"Well, listen," V'shika said. "I'll tell you what I know, from what Zhair'lo told me."

"Alright."

This would be interesting. What would Zhair'lo have considered appropriate information to tell this girl? It would give Talla a good idea of how much he had trusted her.

"First off," V'shika said. "You have friends in Endowment and a few in Facial. But you have none yet from Sweetness, so I can be a big help there."

Talla nodded, as if conceding the point. V'shika, encouraged, went on.

"He told me what happened -- what Form made you do. He told me what meshes are like between the two of you. I mean, I can even feel the difference between him and the other guys I've Served, but for the two of you it must have been real special."

"Yeah, it was," Talla replied bluntly.

Talla`s tone seemed to chill V'shika considerably.

"I'm sure you'll see each other again," V'shika said, trying to cheer Talla up.

"Yeah, I'm working on that," Talla said. "But -"

Pause.

V'shika was looking at Talla with a great deal of concern as she had just turned pale white.

"What is it?"

Talla was staring straight out the Main Gate where a constant stream of women was moving in both directions in the street outside, all of them headed out to Serve.

Suddenly, her eyes snapped back to V'shika.

"Meet me immediately after bow practice tomorrow," Talla ordered. "In the main baths in the central triangle. You know where that is?"

"Of course," V'shika replied, confused. "But -"

"No time now," Talla cut her off.

A smile crossed her face.

"Talk to no one about this," she said. "And don't talk to me until we meet in the baths. Nothing obvious must pass between us."

"Okay, but -"

Talla was beaming now, absolute ecstasy taking over her features.

"Tomorrow," Talla said.

V'shika nodded, her face brightening. She couldn't really be sure what it was that had made Talla so happy, but all she really cared about was that Talla would let her in on their conspiracy.

'Tomorrow,' she thought. 'Tomorrow we can really start.'

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Sitting by the fire, Zhair'lo watched the women come forward to call out for their men. He'd already done the count, though. The cadre from the Temple was one short and they were all wearing yellow and orange. Sure, the firelight could be playing tricks, making white cloth look yellow, but he knew by now the correct clothing patterns and none of these outfits were appropriate for girls of the age that might come for him.

As the last of the women went with the last of the men, she tossed her head back to Zhair'lo.

"I'm sure she'll be along soon, dear," she said dreamily. "They all know the way."

But Zhair'lo was a Hunter now -- a real one, of the kind that brought down actual prey - and a Hunter knew how to wait.

That is to say: quietly and without letting on that it bothered him to wait.

Besides, he still felt queasy, looking down that path to the Temple. Things just weren't right and they hadn't been since he'd torn the side off the neck of that deer. A cold wind blew towards him from the fire. The wind carried no heat to him, just some cold smoky air that put a chill through his body.

Something was coming.

It was coming right gods damned now and it was scaring the hell out of him.

Every hair on his body was standing on end. Every nerve ending tingled.

He stood up, keeping his centre of gravity low, and stepped back from the fire, moving for the bow he'd left leaning against a tree.

Darkness. That would provide cover against whatever was coming.

What was it that the Fighters fought, way out there in the lands beyond the city? Was that what was coming for him? Should he wake the others? Call for help?

Why, though? There was nothing here. Nothing but his fear of some unknowable thing that he suspected was coming down that path.

And if something dangerous was coming, wouldn't it be approaching from the other side? The side away from the city? Shouldn't he be worried about what was behind him?

No. There was no logic to it. His fear was focused on that path. He knew, in a way that went beyond knowing, that the danger was there.

He slunk away further, having instinctively retrieved his bow and quiver of arrows, and backed away into the farther of the two clearings. Whatever it was, he would have time to see it cross the clearing, time to see it pass through the firelight. He could sink several arrows into it before it could even see him.

The air around him started to hum and that was when he saw it.

There it was, the weak, bobbing torchlight that justified his trepidation. What person, up to anything legitimate, would be carrying such a dim torch? This villain was here for sneaking, for treachery, for unjust purposes.

He sank to one knee and notched an arrow. There wouldn't be time to wake the others. Yelling out would only create chaos and get one of his friends hurt. Let this interloper approach, thinking it was the Hunter, when it was merely his second catch of the day.

The torch bearer rounded the corner.

Zhair'lo squinted, not yet raising his bow.

The sense of danger was rising, but his eyes didn't agree with the assessment at all.

It was just a girl, wearing white.

But she was supposed to be here. How could he be afraid of her?

Was the danger behind her?

The humming was getting worse, singing a song in his ears.

Stunned, he dropped his bow.

If she heard the sound, she didn't twitch or look his way. Instead, she simply approached the fire as cautiously as she had been walking down the path.

He squinted harder, his anxiety increasing.

The breasts.

That was when something clicked inside his head. There couldn't -- there just couldn't -- be a girl with breasts that large who wore white. There was only one of those.

The song howled in his ears now and he couldn't restrain himself. He bolted into the clearing, all sense of stealth and patience gone from his movements. She took notice of him even before he began to move, as if his recognition of her were enough for her to see him, even in the darkness.

She was glowing.

Even in his urgency, he noticed the blue aura, it was so obvious. When it started to cloud his vision, he realized that he must be glowing, too.

It occurred to him that charging at her like this wasn't the most brilliant thing to do, all things considered, but he couldn't stop himself any more than a dam could stop itself from collapsing once the first brick had burst from the pressure.

He leapt over the fire at her as she dropped the torch on the ground and ran to him.

When their bodies collided, something happened. It was an event that they couldn't make sense of and, as there were no witnesses, there was no one else to make sense of it for them.

One moment, they were glowing and running. The next moment, there was a horrendous crack, as if lightning had struck the ground right next to them. A blue light flashed in their eyes, blinding them. Zhair'lo felt something slap his face - hard - and a force like a punch in the gut hurled them back away from each other.

HE landed on his back side, less than a body length from the fire. He could feel the heat from the fire pit, and when he turned around in a panic, he found that the fire was no longer burning. When he looked forward again, he saw that Talla was rubbing her forehead

Her eyes bleary, she looked over at him from where she'd been blasted.

"What happened?" she asked.

Zhair'lo stood up, panicked.

"Doesn't matter," he said. "Let's get out of here before someone comes out."

There was a sense of urgency in that statement. Talla felt it from him more than heard it in his voice.

'You're inside my head, again."

'Yes.'

A jerk of his head was all that was needed. Everything else was explained mind to mind. Talla suddenly knew of a set of tents in another clearing, far from where anyone could listen in and that Zhair'lo was making a short stop in his own tent nearby to grab something critical.

Her head still spinning with the impact of ... of whatever that had been, she got back up and raced to the farther. By some unspoken agreement, they had decided not to touch each other again. It seemed that whatever energy had built up between them had been spent, but they didn't want to chance creating a commotion like that again and attracting the attention of the camp's other occupants.

Of course, they needn't have worried.

Though they didn't know it, they were the only people in the area who were still conscious.

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"Imminence!"

The shout came at her out of a black fog.

What had happened? She'd been sitting at her desk, looking around for some parchment or other. Then -

A wave of nausea swept over her, interrupting he recollections.

Oh.

"I think I fainted," she said, to no one in particular.

A voice she didn't recognize had called out to her, concern deeply evident in the speaker's tone. She still couldn't see.

Hands were under her elbows. Two people were trying to help her return to her seat.

"No. Leave her sitting on the floor."

This was a quieter, calmer voice. But it spoke with the deep tones of authority and it was obeyed. The women at her sides merely supported her so she wouldn't fall over again.

"Within?" the Goddess asked the slowly coalescing shape in front of her.

"Yes, Imminence."

"What happened?"

There was a pause as the Temple's premier doctor took her wrist in hand, feeling for a pulse.

"You appear to have fainted, Imminence."

"I shouldn't faint."

With nearly a hundred upgrades to her name?

"No," Within agreed. "You should not."

"The pregnancy?"

Everyone in this room was safe when it came to that subject.

"Always a possibility."

"The child?"

"In a moment, Imminence," Within replied, her steady voice forcing her superior to calm down. "I will first see to you."

A few moments passed in which the physician examined her patient, then directed the conspirators of Pussy to help her stand and move her to a nearby couch.

"You appear to have recovered quite ably," Within observed. "I see no reason for you to have lost consciousness."

"Now the baby?"

"Yes."

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"Get in, get in," Talla urged, holding the tent flap open.

At any second, they expected the clearing to come boiling over with people, women and men, demanding explanations. Talla could absolutely not afford to be at the centre of attention. Names and testimony were out of the question.

"What in the nine hells was that?" Zhair'lo hissed.

He snapped the blanket down over the grass floor of the tent.

"Worry about it later," she said and moved toward him.

They both stopped, with a distance of perhaps the length of their forearms between them.

"What if that happens again?" he asked.

"You're not glowing this time," she said. "Am I?"

"No."

And yet, neither one moved.

The last time they had touched had been pretty painful.

Now that they thought about it, collectively, the time before that hadn't been all that great either.

"But you came anyway," Zhair'lo said.

She nodded and exhaled, pushing air across the faint chest hairs his shirt left exposed.

"Of course I did," she replied.

Zhair'lo shivered and looked at the ground before her feet.

"After what I did to you -"

"That was my fault as much as yours."

"I meant to hold on -"

"I cut you off to save you the pain."

Overwhelming guilt, flowing from him to her. He looked up to meet her eyes.

"This is too dangerous," he said. "Us meeting -"

"We have a Temple to bring down," she reminded him. "There'll be a lot more danger along the way."

She felt his strength returning, both in the stance of his body and the emotions that flowed into her mind.

"True that," he acknowledged.

Taking a breath, he lifted his hand and held it palm out towards her.

Talla gulped, blinked once, and lifted her chest by way of invitation.

Slowly, he moved his hand towards the centre of her chest where the crossing silk panels of fabric parted to reveal her cleavage.

With a nervous glance around the room, as if she expected something to explode at any moment, Talla gave him an encouraging nod.

Only the width of a finger separated their flesh now.

The air began to hum.

That wasn't particularly reassuring, but what else was there to do at this point?

Fear mixing with dogged determination, they anxiously closed their eyes as he pressed his hand to her breastbone.

Talla opened her eyes first, looking around the giant tent.

'Nothing?' she thought at him.

'Guess not.'

Their eyes met for a moment before their gazes fell to his hand, still lying upon her chest, and a thing happened then; a sudden realization that struck them both.

Talla's arms fell limply to her side, not out of hopelessness or surrender but simply because they both knew this was the fastest way to get where they wanted to go. Zhair'lo's hand took the crossing fabric pieces of her top, whipped them off her shoulders and yanked them down past her little skirt.

Before the top even hit her ankles, she was working at the ties of his short pants.

Their lips met, ecstatically, teeth occasioning to collide in their mindless desire, or biting each others' tongues by way of encouragement. One of his hands snaked between their bodies to cup her breast, the thumb pushing upwards at the tip of her nipple.

She moaned, her manual dexterity suddenly failing her just when it was needed most for its unlacing task. But he kept it up, regardless, kneading her breast; working over her tiny nipple. She felt her arms go limp -- there was so much sensation in that one part of her body that everything else seemed numb by comparison. If his other arm let her go now, she wouldn't be able to keep herself from collapsing to the floor.

Zhair'lo easily recognized the precariousness of her situation and though he wanted to touch both her breasts, he knew she couldn't hold herself up. Instead, he simply held her with his left arm around her waist and milked her breasts, one at a time, as hard as he could with his free hand.

Helpless, she could do nothing but endure his attention. With the way he manipulated her soft flesh, and dug deep into the muscles that backed it up, he was pulling every lever in her body.

Knowing she couldn't take any more from the way her eyes were starting to roll back in her head, he lowered her to the blanket and relented his grip.

Talla felt her senses return to her. She could feel her body again, wiggle her fingers even. Her hands quivering, she found the ties on his shorts. This was a terrible moment to be so clumsy. How fortunate that undoing knots was easier than doing them up.

There, his pants were off.

"You're good?" he asked, aloud.

"Yes," she hissed back, meaning, quite simply, that he should stop wasting time.

First, she spread her legs as widely as she could. Then she wrapped them around his waist, pulling him in by digging her heels into spine. He didn't even take the time to set himself nicely against her lips. She was so wet it wouldn't have mattered and besides, neither of them had any patience.

The swollen tip of his erection pushed past the welcoming moistness of her lips, made contact with the tender skin on the inner rim of her vagina.

'Now! In!' she urged.

...

The mesh!

Every mesh in the weeks and months that had passed paled in comparison to this one. They could see through each others' eyes, hear through each others' eyes. He knew what it was for her to feel herself being penetrated. She knew what it was to be him, pushing inside her body.

He filled her to the end of length and held himself there, trying to adjust to the power of their mental link.

Memories were flooding now, back and forth.

He saw Zoe, silhouetted in a window, waiting for Talla. He felt the mesh the two of them had shared. For his part, he shared his memories of Zoe: the distance she'd been willing to do, letting him ejaculate in her mouth, to prove her dedication.

And Talla thought back, 'I'm not the only one.' And she laughed.

They were going back through time now, hurtling through sexual partners and conspiracies: naked girls in bathtubs and men in trees. Talla had been far more successful than Zhair'lo.

'They don't listen to you?' Talla asked.

'They don't. They pretend to be happy how they are.'

'Are they really happy?'

'No, but they think everyone else is.'

'What if no one's happy?'

An echo of Kenji's voice came from Zhair'lo's memory.

'You think that's really likely, Zhai?'

Trees. Archery. Naked bodies. Upgrade rituals.

Everything came by in a blur, information being transferred that couldn't be processed fast enough. They only hoped their minds would retain what they'd seen for later retrieval.