Talla's Fallen Temple Ch. 32

When the throbbing golden waves ceased, Bree gained her senses before the rest of Zhair'lo's squad. She ignored her comrades around and passed the huddled forms of half a dozen sleeping Virgin girls to clamber up the stairs, afraid and as desperately hopeful as anyone over the last several bells. Still, fear or not, she knew her duty lay in finding the man who'd saved them all, and seeing if she could do anything for him.

Peeking her head over the top of the stairway, she found the rooftop peaceful, a faint hint of dawn creeping in on the eastern horizon, lighting up what ashen haze the rains had left behind. She tried to calculate how many bells she'd slept through, but quickly cast the concern aside.

Ahead of her, a leather covered form draped over another body. That body underneath had to be Zhair'lo, though why a Soldier had come up here and fallen on top of him, Bree couldn't imagine.

In the farther distance, splayed over an altar under a triangular pavilion, the naked, golden body of what could only be the new Goddess rested, her bare chest heaving but otherwise immobile. It didn't occur to Bree to check on the former Queen. Goddesses, she surmised, could take care of themselves.

She stepped up onto the roof, her sword at the ready, and scanned in all directions. Aside from the strange pavilion under which the Goddess rested, no obstacle on the roof's surface provided a place for an enemy to lurk. Still, she didn't let her guard down.

As she closed with the Soldier and Zhair'lo, a strange blue aura about them caught her attention. It reminded her of the glow Areese had created, shielding Zhair'lo from projectiles during their approach to the Temple. This, however, had obviously lasted much longer, perhaps through the entire night. When, Bree wondered, had this Soldier come up here? Was she really a Soldier in the first place? Too small to be someone of great magical power, certainly, but Bree didn't know of anyone besides a Second who could generate these auras.

'Then again,' she thought, 'no one told us Seconds could create those shields either.'

Reaching the entwined bodies, she saw Zhair'lo's skin had paled into a sickly greyness despite the blue glow emanating from his entirely nude body. Her heart twisted inside her, seeing the strongest man in her squad reduced to such a state.

She knelt and rolled the armoured woman off of Zhair'lo. She, too, had gone limp, though not nearly as pale as Zhair'lo. It surprised Bree to recognize the Abundance girl who'd tagged along with them, one of the useless hangers-on and observers. She winced. She'd thought the same of the three Seconds until Areese pulled her little trick. Had she been told the girl's name? No. Had this one also had some purpose after all?

With a groan, the girl began to awaken, twitching and taking up Zhair'lo's nearest hand in a death grip.

"What - who - did we make it?"

"You're alive," Bree replied. "It's over."

"Zhair'lo?" the girl fought to sit up but failed completely, thumping her head back down on the wooden roof.

"He looks bad, but alive," Bree looked at her suspiciously as she felt for Zhair'lo's pulse on his free hand. "Who are you, anyway?"

"Talla," the girl inhaled deeply. "I came ... I came here for him."

Bree looked the girl over, guessed her as too young to truly matter in the grand scale of magical powers, and turned her attention away.

"Really," Bree threw the girl a last cynical glare. Zhair'lo's flesh chilled the hand she placed against his forehead. "I'm pretty sure he's our job to watch out for."

"Yeah, sure," Talla replied groggily. "At least I got up here."

"Why are you glowing?"

"It's a thing ... between us. I think it saved him. I think that's what Shanata planned."

"Shanata, someone you came with?"

Talla nodded and sat up slowly, never releasing Zhair'lo's hand. When her grip tightened, the bluish glow strengthened.

"Are you ... are you keeping him alive like that?" Bree's eyes widened as she nodded toward Talla's hand.

"I don't know," she shook her head and looked balefully at Zhair'lo. "He looks like Shen did when he went Catatonic."

"Who?"

"A boy I Served once," Talla explained. "He went Catatonic and they called me in to help wake him back up."

"It worked?" Bree eyed Zhair'lo nervously. "Could you do it again?"

"Maybe," Talla shrugged. "But not here. We need to get him to a bed."

"I'll get the rest of my squad," Bree stood and ran toward the stairway.

---===================----

Emptiness surrounded him.

It also penetrated inside his body, filling his chest with a soothing nothingness.

A bright whiteness pervaded his surroundings, filling his head through his eye sockets without the aid of his eyes.

He'd expected death to be a black emptiness, not a brilliant white one, but the Temple women had always been vague about the afterlife, as if they placed a low importance on ascertaining its existence. The Teachers' axioms had always dealt with how to live and serve, not what to do after death.

Zhair'lo inhaled, found it painful.

Should he still feel pain after dying? He coulddn't pretend to have expertise on the subject, but that didn't seem right.

For the time being, and well into the future, he found the notion of oblivion harmonious with his state of mind.

He could happily rest here for all of eternity.

---===================----

A quarter bell passed before Bree roused enough of her people, improvised a stretcher out of folded blankets, and moved Zhair'lo down to one of the small bedrooms off of the Goddess's chamber. By then, older women had started to wake but, in their rush to get to the rooftop and take care of the golden woman there, entirely disregarded the young Soldiers and their unconscious charge.

By the look of the small bedroom, it had been built for the Goddess's Virgin attendants. Although the floors boasted the same black marble as the rest of the Goddess's inner sanctum, the interior designers had filled the room with white curtains, bed fittings and furniture. Of the three small beds in the room, two had been shoved aside so that one could be placed in the centre of room. From there, its grey-skinned occupant could soak up the thin rays of morning sunlight slanting through a window.

Talla knelt by Zhair'lo's side, having held his hand through the entire process to maintain the blue aura that every one of them now believed kept Zhair'lo alive. Around her, the seven other members of Zhair'lo's squad formed a circle. Every brow creased with worry, wondering if their comrade would survive.

"Can we find a doctor or something?" Kit asked.

"Good luck," Tara snorted. "They're all busy with the mortally wounded. I can't even find the Seconds we came with."

"I don't want to answer questions about this," Talla muttered. "And neither does Zhair'lo, I assure you."

No one argued. Del quietly slipped around behind Talla to close the door securely.

"What do we do?" Bree knelt next to Talla.

Talla looked around, eyeing each of the girls in turn. They'd shed their armour to help with moving Zhair'lo and rearranging the room, and what she saw under their thin, sweat-tacked white tops and underwear didn't look promising.

"None of you have any Within?"

"Tight and Iron," Tara replied.

"And one Facial," Del added.

"That might help," Talla tilted her head doubtfully. "The last time this happened, all we needed to do was get him inside someone. Once the mesh is established, he should be fine."

"You going to do it?" Bree asked.

"I think it has to be me," Talla waved her free hand to encompass the strange aura that still issued from them. "We're already kind of glued together ... and a mesh is no place for three."

"Should we ... uh ... leave?" Del asked.

Talla shook her head, "It took two of us ... well, almost three really ... to save the last guy."

She looked around at them again, this time at the three boys.

"Okay," Talla said. "I'm going to get on top of him, try to ... rub him and get him going."

"And what do we do?" Tara asked. "Cheer you on?"

"You have three boys, right?" she asked without meeting anyone's eyes. "Can you guys ... y'know ... get the girls going without meshing with them?"

"Don't you want our meshes?" Tara asked.

"What ... why?"

"When they're close by, they can trigger each other," Del explained to Talla, then turned to Tara. "She wouldn't know that, would she? They don't Serve with other people in the room."

"You do that?" Talla's eyes widened for a moment before she shrugged it off. "Well, this will be less awkward for all of you then. But no, I don't need your meshes. I need your, uh, fluids."

Four pairs of female eyebrows raised.

"Our fluids?" Bree asked.

"Get yourselves aroused," Talla kept her eyes on Zhair'lo, not willing to look directly at any of the strangers gathered around her. "And I'll do what I can in the meantime."

"There are only three boys, though," Del pointed out.

"And you're the one with Facial, so ... you can help me," Talla managed to look the punctilious girl in the eye. "It might be a bit cramped, though, at least at first."

"Right," Del let out a low whistle. "You need help getting undressed?"

Talla, having focused on clinging tightly to Zhair'lo's hand, still wore her armour from the night before. She nodded her acquiescence and got to her feet, slightly bent over so she could reach Zhair'lo, and let the women unbuckle her armour. Underneath that, she wore only the standard clothing of an Initiate. One of Zhair'lo's female comrades undid the ties on her skirt, before pulling both it and her underwear off. She stepped out of the panties and kicked them away. They unlaced her oversized bra next.

"You're dressed like an Initiate ..." Del trailed off as she tucked the garment aside.

"My Seal-breaking involved a quadruple upgrade," Talla nodded distractedly at her breasts as she stepped over the bed.

Though the Temple didn't care to afford much space for its Virgin attendants, Talla found the bed wide enough for her to plant her knees on either side of Zhair'lo's hips and lower her body until her bare mound pressed up against his limp penis.

"There isn't really enough room here for both of us," Talla waved at her genitals as she flexed her right hand, only now realizing how much of a death grip she'd kept on Zhair'lo for the last half bell.

"Are you even wet?" Del kept her voice low.

Talla looked around, thankful that the other six members of the squad were off in the corner to her right, occupying themselves rearranging the beds and getting busy with each other.

"Not yet."

"All right," Del nodded. "That's okay. You work on yourself and let me work on him."

"Right."

Talla lifted herself off of Zhair'lo, still carefully keeping her knees tight to his hips to maintain the skin to skin contact that might be keeping him alive. She slid a single finger down her belly and parted her lips.

'Dry,' she winced as her finger tugged uncomfortably at her tender skin. She took her middle finger up to her mouth and coated it liberally with saliva before sliding it back down.

Del knelt by the bed side and lay her head in Zhair'lo's lap, squeezing herself between there and Talla's body. Talla watched as, in one quick motion, she took his penis entirely into her mouth. Not a great feat, in Zhair'lo's current condition, but the Soldier made it obvious how frequently she'd engaged in this act by the casual speed with which she did it.

"You've Served him a lot more than I have," Talla said, gently stroking her clitoris as she watched the other girl attempting to please her man.

Del backed off a bit so she could meet Talla's eyes through her cleavage.

"We don't really think of it as 'Serving' anymore," she said quietly. "They're Heroes, right? We just ... have sex ... almost every night. We have to rotate, though."

'Every night,' Talla stared in wonder as Del tucked her head between their genitals and went back to sucking on Zhair'lo's penis. 'What were we prepared to do to have each other? And here you had the same Soldier girls every four nights.'

Talla masturbated gently as she looked down at the head of the girl working busily below her. 'Could I have cut my hair short like her? Could I have joined the Fighters?'

Even if she had joined up to become a Soldier, assuming she had the ability, would they have taken an Abundance girl? Would she have been assigned to the same squad as Zhair'lo? Nine hells, no.

But what if? Sure, they'd have to share their bodies with six other people, but what was that compared to the months or years they'd have had to wait for random rotation to bring them around to each other in the city?

Talla closed her eyes, imagining the little Barracks room where the eight of them slept, but with one of the girls - probably Tara - missing from the equation. She and Zhair'lo could share a bed every fourth night, sneak in a double or a triple while the others slept. And the other nights, didn't they say their meshes got tangled up when they Served so close together? They could trigger each other, was that it? Maybe something of their magic could mix into that too.

She had seen, in Zhair'lo's mind, some of the things they'd done together. They'd swapped beds, even in the same night. What must that be like, Talla wondered, to feel one erection inside her, and a different one right after it?

Wetness leaked out of her vagina, touching her fingers. She felt a warmth building inside her.

Another image came through - was he feeding these to her, somehow? - of the four girls, side by side, stripped from the waist down and bent over a table at the back of their little sleeping quarters. Their muscles, harder than hers, twitched tantalizingly. But in her mind's eye, one of them disappeared so Talla could take her place. She turned her body, as if suddenly transported to another place and time, twisting her back to lift her hips, perching herself up higher ... begging for his penetration.

"Hmph," Del twitched down below her.

"You feel something?"

"A little," she said. "Look."

Zhair'lo had, just barely, started to lengthen. Blood had started to move.

"Let me try now," Talla said.

Del nodded and backed away so Talla could lower her wet lips onto Zhair'lo's manhood.

'Can you hear me, Zhai?' she wondered. 'Can you feel me?'

If Zhair'lo had fed her those strange, modified images, he had no intention, or perhaps no method, of confirming it. She tried to assure herself that his mind still functioned, that somewhere inside, the man she knew still lived. But instead of sensing him, properly, the only mental signal she received from him was that of an empty cavern, echoing back her own thoughts.

Talla considered the possibility that the events of last night had permanently damaged him. Hadn't she heard that fear repeated from multiple sources? It would explain why no one had bothered to help Zhair'lo.

'No,' she decided. 'That only means they've given up. And they've been wrong before.'

Another image came to her from Zhair'lo's past. Atani sparkled into Talla's vision, her bra pulled down to let Zhair'lo come on her chest, a punishment for accidentally exposing her pussy to him in public. Her superior had forced her to spend the rest of the day with Zhair'lo's sticky ejaculate between her flesh and her top. The image shimmered, Talla replacing Atani. She watched from his eyes as he spurted out over her own much larger breasts, her eyes smiling joyfully up at him.

'It's him, gods damn it,' she thought. 'I know it's him.'

Talla opened her eyes, looking down upon his pale, weakened body. Del whispered in his ear, biting at him playfully, a sombre look on her face.

The visions had stopped. Whatever Zhair'lo had fed her, and she fervently believed he'd done so, he'd stopped.

"Take a break?" a voice intruded into her awareness.

Talla turned to see Bree at her side, the girl's tiny breasts level with Talla's eyes.

"Yeah," Talla grimaced. "I - yeah. You may as well give it a shot."

She stepped off to the left side of the cot, taking Zhair'lo's hand in hers as she knelt at his side and Bree moved in to straddle him.

"It really doesn't bother you?" Talla raised a curious eyebrow as Del moved in with her mouth in the brief interlude before Bree got into place.

"What's that?" Del pulled off to make room.

"His penis is wet from me."

Bree exhaled with brief humour, "No, we're more than used to it."

Talla shrugged, taking her eyes away from Bree and focusing again on Zhair'lo. At that moment, in just this position, she flashed back to the time she'd tried to revive Shen. She knew what to do, just as she had all those months ago. She took Zhair'lo's hand and pressed it to the underside of her breast, squeezing it into place just as he might have squeezed himself.

"You're going for another round later?" a male voice asked.

"I ... yes," Talla replied, distracted. "I'm sorry. Which one are you?"

"Kit," the boy showed no sign of insult, but the compression in his lips told her how deep his concern ran. "I can lick you, to keep you going?"

"Right," Talla breathed, feeling the absurdity of the situation they'd all created.

Kit slid the third bed over, turning it perpendicular to the other, so Talla could sit on it while maintaining her grip on Zhair'lo's hand. He then knelt on the floor in front of her and pushed her legs apart. Not many boys had done this for her, but Kit showed every sign of knowing what to do.

When his tongue touched the cleavage of her bare lips, she felt the faint tingling of the mesh coming on and a worrisome tremor rode up her spine. With her body already connected to Zhair'lo, what did it even mean to feel another boy joining her? She remembered linking up with Yua when the other girl had fingered her, but the only person she'd connected to via oral sex had been Zhair'lo.

'But today,' she thought, 'today I'm charged up with something else entirely.'

As Kit worked between her legs, she watched Bree part her lips and push her saliva-wetted, pink skin against her man's genitals. A new fear seized her as she felt a fourth presence in their mesh.

"Weird," Bree whispered, a note of delirium in her voice.

What, Talla wondered, kept all of these people on their feet? Could the power of their training overcome the exhaustion, or did their feelings toward Zhair'lo run as powerfully as hers?

The moment passed and Bree lifted herself off Zhair'lo. Talla eyed him carefully to see if his manhood had responded to her, but Del descended upon him quickly, obscuring his penis in her mouth. That the Facially enhanced girl could still engulf him completely boded poorly for their success, but she too clicked into the mesh.

Did these people even realize the mess they'd created? Had they made themselves accustomed to it by all the sex they had in tiny little rooms, one couple on each bed?

Talla shook her head, not knowing what to do, and watched Bree step off the cot. While she couldn't keep the names of the boys straight, she knew the girls well from the images in Zhair'lo's mind. The moment she'd heard their names, she'd linked them with all the meshes Zhair'lo had had with them, such encounters having run vividly through his mind into hers, with the features of their bodies intensified in his memories by all the things he'd done with them. So when Bree stepped aside, she easily recognized Tara and felt the awkwardness of the gentle manner in which the girl spread her lips and slowly lowered herself into contact with the grey-skinned man on the bed.

Talla watched in fascination as Zhair'lo's comrades wordlessly rotated from one bed to the next, each of the boys taking a turn to arouse to each of the girls, each of the girls taking a turn to work on Zhair'lo. With a subtle nod of their heads, they indicated when Talla should take a turn.