Talla's Temple Ch. 11

"The crime is jin ree," the Adjudicate announced clearly, "to which the accused freely confesses. The punishment is three common lashes."

There was nothing Adria could do to prepare herself. She was on her toes with her arms stretched out off the far end of the table. There was no way to hide or to adjust her position to try to protect herself.

The whip sang through the air and cracked off her cheeks, instantly raising a long red, rash as it traced across her flesh and licked at her flank.

Without a moment's respite, the Adjudicate pulled the whip back and cracked it across Adria's rear a second time.

Talla watched in horror -- unable to look away - as Adria muscles went taut from the pain; as her body instinctively tried to get out of path of the onslaught. But, painful as it was, the young girl refused to make a sound of protest. She seemed determined to maintain what little dignity she still had.

At least it was quick.

The third slash left its mark between the angry rashes of the previous two strikes.

An instant later the guards were releasing Adria's hands from the belts. She stood up immediately, able to relax her calf muscles once more. The attendant was there with Adria's clothing folded in a neat pile. Adria was forced to face them as they handed her clothing back to her, one piece at a time. She stood with as much pride as she could.

Talla couldn't see the bruises from the front but she didn't need to. She could see Adria's eyes and that was enough. She could also see that the table on which Adria had lain wasn't polished. There were long, white marks where splinters had scraped the flesh of her breasts and stomach when the guards had yanked her hands through the sleeves.

As Adria dressed, the Adjudicate held up two fingers. Back in the corner, Sila took this signal and retrieved the next largest lash from the wall.

Apparently M'lis deserved something slightly worse ...

Rain wasn't that bad. Zhair'lo was eighteen years old. He'd been rained on.

But this storm wasn't like any of those that had come before.

Standing out in it had been more like having pails of water dumped on his head.

The entire complement of farm hands had retreated to the large farmhouse. There just wasn't any way to get anything done outside and they had already done all of the work they could in the stables and the silos.

The funny thing about the rain was that, heavy as it was, there was almost no wind with it. Zhair'lo could sit in the common room with the shutters open and watch it come straight down. It was blinding and violent in a way that he had never seen before. There was nothing he could do but watch sheet after sheet of it pour down in a continuous assault on the land. The farm wasn't going to look pretty when this was done.

Would it let up before the evening? At least he didn't have an upgrade to do tonight. He couldn't imagine having to walk half an hour in that ridiculous weather.

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"It's not your fault, Talla. Forget about it."

"But, M'lis, if I hadn't-"

"Talla," Adria cut in, "each of us is responsible for our own actions. You never, ever, blame your mistakes on someone else. Right?"

Which, as axioms went, pretty much settled the question. Both Adria and M'lis seemed to accept the fact that a phrase taught to them as children overruled any other distribution of guilt.

"We are women," Shanata had said once, reinforcing the old rule. "We rule from this Temple. We are each of us capable. We can face our mistakes. We do not run from our responsibilities or our errors."

But Talla had made a mistake, possibly, last night with Tina. Was it really her fault if she hadn't known there was a rule? Women could kiss each other's nipples, couldn't they? And during her first week, hadn't they all been instructed to penetrate each other with their fingers?

If someone was going to whip her ass for breaking rules, shouldn't they let her know all of the rules?

Even more strongly on her mind, however, was the distinct memory of the moment when Zhana had sneaked up behind her.

"Something wrong with your clothing, girls?"

Talla's hands had been cupping her breasts. The tips of her fingers had been curled around the edge of the fabric of her top in preparation to pull the top down. She had been about to expose herself and return the gesture the other girls had been making at her.

If Zhana had waited just another moment to interrupt, Talla would have joined Adria and M'lis on that table. Talla would have been tied down and helpless, just like them. It would have been her flesh that felt the searing kiss of the whip. It would have been her breasts, their flesh still sensitive from the stretching caused by the upgrade, scraping against that table.

M'lis had been bleeding.

Bleeding.

Had that really been necessary?

Talla shook her head and huddled closer to the fire.

Like many of the women of the Endowment, the eight of them had gathered in Endowment Hall to warm themselves by one of the many fire pits. M'lis and Adria might have joked about enjoying the cold rain water on their abused skin but they stood shoulder to shoulder with the rest around one of the small fires and rubbed their hands over its flames.

"Suppose we'll have to make a run across Tranquillity?" Talla asked.

What with the rain, no one had made the run today to fetch the assignments. They were still sitting there in their slots in the Offices, waiting to be picked up.

"No rush," M'lis pointed out. "We're already here anyway, right? We're not going anywhere."

There were nods of agreement. No one wanted to go back out in the rain. It was much better to stay here, together. They might not know what to say to M'lis and Adria; they might not have the words to make it better, but they could at least be there, commiserating.

So they commiserated for a while, best as they could, in silence.

"Talla!" someone whispered urgently.

She turned around to see Tina and panicked a moment. The last thing she needed right now was a reminder that she might have a beating in her future.

Tina was giddy, though, and wet from the rain. She was in a different place relative to Talla, who had just seen ... what she had seen.

"Hey," Talla said as she left the group huddled around the fire.

She handed Talla her assignment card.

"I saw you when I went through," Tina explained. "Then I saw your assignment in its slot, so I picked it up for you.

At least it didn't say, "History, Shanata" again.

Instead, the writing on it said, "Jace Ch'lai. 2-11 House 7."

"You know where that is?" Tina asked.

"Yeah," Talla said.

The '2' meant Endowment's side of the city. After that she just had to find the eleventh block and the seventh house. Everything was numbered -- for this purpose and probably for many others.

Jace.

She'd never heard the name. After all she'd been through today, she was going to go out and Serve a boy she'd never met?

Talla thought about that for a moment, looking blankly out the giant doorway of Endowment Hall in to the pouring rain. What a grey day this had turned out to be.

She peered in to the rain as a shape began to form.

A figure in yellow was walking through the rain, quite casual in spite of water coursing over her double sash. As she came through the rain, Talla could see that she favoured the cloth style of skirt over the grass kind. The strips of her skirt, as soaked as the rest of her, clung to her powerful legs.

She wasn't accustomed to seeing that kind of muscle in Endowment. Women here were busty and softer. This woman wasn't of Endowment. She came to the threshold of the Hall, standing just out of the path of the rain -- not that the rain had seemed to bother her -- and waited.

A woman in orange -- an Acolyte of Endowment -- approached her.

"They were all delivered?" the Acolyte asked.

"Of course, Mistress," the yellow woman of Form answered. "We made sure they made it before the rain came. The scrolls were dry and legible on delivery."

The Acolyte nodded and retrieved a group of canvas bags the Form woman had been carrying over her shoulder.

"Our gratitude," the Acolyte said with a light bow.

"Our duty, Mistress," the other said with a deeper bow. She turned on her heel and walked back in to the grey nothingness .

The Acolyte took the bags and hung them on the wall.

Talla stared at that wall quite a while. Could it be that easy?

Tina was shaking her shoulder.

"You alright?" her sister asked.

"Um, yeah," Talla said with narrowed eyes and a smile. "I'm fine."

Jace it would be, then.

Maybe that was exactly what she needed after this particular day.