To Love a Goddess

Outside in the garden, the cheers and chanting of Temmin's name were just subsiding. People were going home to emulate the Gods in their own gardens and fields, partnering up and disappearing into the many hidden corners of the Temple gardens, or simply dispensing with clothing and modesty and calling down the blessing right where they were.

Inside the Chambers, all was still. Temmin was lightheaded and floating on the light radiating from the Twins; it was a bit like when he'd breathed in too much of the incense smoke earlier, but he was more present, more sure of himself, and completely trusting. He felt so good, he wondered vaguely if it was a spell of some kind, but then Neya took his hands and led him to the low, wide bed in the middle of the Chambers, and he thought of nothing but his hands in Hers and how badly he wanted to please Her.

"This is a night of secrets," She said. "You will not speak of this night, ever, to anyone, about what happens in this bed, and you will share the blessings you receive in this bed in Our service for two years. Do you agree?"

"Yes, of course, Lady," said the dazed Temmin.

Neya smiled and kissed his hands almost wistfully. "Mortals when they're young--Brother, there is no creature sweeter. So agreeable and pliant. Now," She said, looking up at Temmin seriously, "show Me what you know about women."

Temmin looked down into Her eyes, and in them he first saw Mattie, unwilling and tear-stained. He frowned, and the image changed to Arta, willing but uncertain. Then came Ellika, forbidden and teasing. Bessa, needing a firm hand to find her comfort. Anda, voluptuous and gleefully forthright. Allis herself, knowing and wistful. "I'm not sure I know anything about women--the women I know are all different." His eyes teared up; he would disappoint Her, he thought fuzzily, he knew nothing. "I'm sorry."

Neya smiled; the clouds in his heart parted and the sun shone again. "Wise little one, that's the first thing one must learn about women. Lie down and you will learn another secret." He quickly stretched out on his back on the bed. "Are you ready?" She asked. Temmin didn't trust his voice not to squeak, and so he just nodded. "Then learn the secret taste of a Goddess." Straddling his head, She lowered herself down until Her folds were the boundaries of his world.

Her first taste was of the ocean, salty and clean. He felt the water all around him and lapped at it, searching for its source. The next taste was of the earth, of loam, rich and dark, and of green things growing. A bitterness arose, herbal and strong, but as he licked it turned to honey, thick on his tongue and flowing from Her. He let out a muffled moan and drew every bit of Her he could reach into his mouth.

There was no time, there was no place, there was only Her--until a mouth enveloped his cock, and there was also Him. Temmin had forgotten all about Nerr, but he remembered now as the God's tongue worked its way around the head. "It's too much, it's too soon, I won't last," he thought frantically.

Neya shifted slightly, and he immediately focused once again on the taste and smell of her, his worries forgotten. How could he be worried about anything when he was doing this? He took as deep a breath as he could; She was roses and sandalwood. Suddenly he caught the scent of the broom that grew around Whithorse and the herbs that Jebby crushed under his hooves as they rode, and his heart swelled with his love for his home. He loved the Lady above him, he loved the Lord between his legs, he loved his land, he loved his people, he loved the world; the flood of love pulsed through him until it burst out from every pore, a gushing of ecstasy that left him blind and deaf but for the rushing of his blood.

Temmin's first thought when he recovered was that he'd come too soon, that They would be angry with him. His second thought was that Neya was lying next to him, stroking his chest. His third thought was that judging by Nerr's hand on him, he was still hard, and not in the least bit damp. His fourth thought, the last before he opened his eyes, was that someone was licking his face--no, two someones were licking his face, delicately cleaning him off. When he opened his eyes, They had finished and were now languorously kissing each other above him.

Neya looked down and gave him a lazy smile. "Now you get a reward. Ask Me any question you'd like. Anything. And I will answer you truly."

Temmin tried to think, but he could barely string two concepts together. "Did I please you?" he finally said muzzily.

Neya stared at him; Nerr burst out laughing. "A chance to ask a God any question, and you ask that!" He whooped. "No wonder this Embodiment calls you 'puppy!'"

"Did I ask the wrong question?" he said, struggling to his elbows.

"That's two questions," said Neya archly. "To answer your first, yes. Your technique needs work. But your eagerness to please Me made up for your lack of finesse. These Embodiments and their servants will teach you, and in time you will have a very talented tongue, little Prince."

"That's good," he said, shaking his head to clear it. "That's good...what just happened? I came but I didn't--oh, is that a question?"

"An undestandable one," said Nerr, squeezing him at the root until his eyes fluttered in reflex. "You will always be ready for Us when you are with Us. We won't allow you to spend, but We will allow you to release. If We didn't, you wouldn't be able to bear being with Us. Your consciousness would fly apart, join the infinite, and your body would be left with no one inside."

"So that's what happened--I almost joined the infinite? Oh, I'm sorry, another question," Temmin winced.

"You may ask questions," answered Nerr. "We might not answer, and We might not tell you everything even if We do. We might even lie, unless We reward you with an answer. Then We will always tell the truth."

"I have had enough of questions, truthfully answered or no," said Neya dismissively. "I wish to enjoy Our gift. Hold him for Me."

"Gladly, though I hardly think he's trying to get away, Sister." Nerr slipped behind Temmin, propping him up on the bed with His arms around Temmin's waist. He stroked Temmin's length until the prince rolled his head back against the God's broad shoulder.

"Pay attention," said Neya, pinching his nipple. He brought his head up with a start. "Better." She straddled his lap, and brought his hands to her breasts.

They were heavy and full, perfect in his hands as he'd always known they would be, and a knife of awareness cut through his arousal; this was not Allis. He was touching Allis's body, but She wasn't Allis. And he'd wanted his first to be her. "I am Allis," She said. "But I am every woman who desires a man. Of course I know your thoughts, little mortal, I am a Goddess. Allis is far away, and I am in control. But she feels this, and she will remember this. We are both your first. And you will have her many times before your time together is through. Now, please Me."

She shifted, bringing Her breasts closer to his face, and he ran his tongue around each nipple before taking one into his mouth. She tasted of flowers, like the honeysuckle he would pluck off the walls of the stable and eat with Alvo back home on lazy summer evenings, the sunlight still slanting low among the trees. Why would such a thing come to mind? he thought dimly as he suckled. "Everything you've ever loved, every person, every place," She whispered, "everyone and everything you've ever wanted, I am all of that. I am the fulfillment of desire."

Temmin gave himself over then, losing himself in the feel of Her hair and skin. His lips found Hers, and he kissed Her deeply, his tongue reaching for every secret he could coax from Her mouth. He broke the kiss and gasped; Nerr had reached between them and was guiding his cock inside Her. He felt the head at her entrance, and then She was on him, impaled to the root.

She was hot and wet, yes. He knew that women were hot and wet inside from his limited experiences with Anda and Bessa. But this was differerent. This was perfect. This was a wetness he would happily drown in, a heat he would gleefully burn in. She fit around him as if he'd been made for Her, and he wondered if he had been.

He cried out as the ecstasy began to flood him again--oh dear, so soon? he thought--and when he returned fully, She was still in his lap, riding him with long strokes.

"That's nothing," She said. "When We finally let you go, you will know what it is to love a God!" She threw Her head back and let out a long scream of pleasure, and he felt Her pulsing all around his cock. She never stopped moving, riding him and coming over and over but never letting him fully release. He didn't care. All he wanted was to please Her, to feel himself sheathed inside Her and laugh with happiness with every ripple that moved through Her. He had no sense of time and didn't care to have one ever again.

Nerr's fingers circled the base of Temmin's cock, drenched with His Sister's wetness. "I feel you, Prince, I feel your heart beating through your skin," He whispered, nipping at Temmin's ear. He could feel the God's own erection pressed against his ass, and the God's fingers alongside. "Wrong angle, Supplicant, and wrong night. Perhaps next spoke, hey?"

Suddenly Neya rose up on Her knees, releasing him. Temmin shuddered with longing, and the warm air against his suddenly exposed cock felt icy cold. She lay back on the bed, lifting Her arms and legs in invitation. "There is an old, old ritual, back before the first of your line, Prince Temmin, before your namesake was ever thought of. Your people don't remember it. But you do. Inside you, it lives, and I have been waiting so long for your line to return to Me. Bring down the blessing on your land. I am the field, you are the plow."

Temmin fell on Her, covering Her body with his own and sliding back inside Her with a grunt. "Lady!" he groaned into Her hair. That deep, earthy smell came to him again, and as he worked inside her it sprouted into green tendrils that curled around him, holding him close to Her and twining around his root. The green burst into bloom, simple, homely flowers at first-- honeysuckle, pinks, sweet peas that made him think of Whithorse again. Then came white roses and gardenias, freesias and tuberose, the scent of the incense in Allis's ordeal. He remembered her suffering, and he wept as he kissed Her. With his tears, the blooms ripened into fruits, apples, pears and berries, and some whose names he didn't know.

"Well done, my king, well done," She sighed, close to some final crisis.

"I'm not the king, Lady," he answered.

"You will be. Look at Me, Temmin." He gazed into the green of Her eyes again. The fruit began to rot, and the smell of dry leaves filled his nose. Figures reappeared in her fathomless eyes. He saw his father on a battlefield, Sedra shielding a child, Ellika facing down Tremontine soldiers, Jenks galloping across the rolling hills of Whithorse with his cavalry sword in his hand, Ansella bloody-handed and in tears, and finally the Teacher and the Traveler Queen, wreathed in flames.

"What's going to happen, Lady?" he asked with his last bit of control.

"You will happen. You will choose to be either Temmin the Liberator or Temmin the Magnificent."

"This--this is the blessing?" he cried as he felt Her close in on him, pulling him into the ecstasy again.

"Yes!" She answered. "Don't be afraid, Temmin! Take it! It's yours, take it!"

Temmin let out a long roar, plunging into Her as he took the release They finally offered.