Life and Times of a Priestess : Ch.13: New Friends In Dumis : Part 1 (Section 1)

             Chapter 13 :  NEW FRIENDS IN DUMIS

Part 1

Section 1

    Mireau led her around the dance floor.  “There is a friend of mine who wishes to meet you.”

    “Who is it?” she asked.

    “Come and see, you will soon see,” he invited her mysteriously.

    “How do I know I want to meet him?” she asked playfully, but he had already begun to lead her and she had already begun to follow.  She had been introduced to so many people it began to weary her.  She could never remember half of their names and most of them meant little to her.  She would not see many of them again, unless it was at another dance or party.

     “You will want to meet this man when you see him.  He is a very entertaining man and very important at Dumisian parties.  He engineers a lot of them.  And he brings the guests together.  He saw you on the dance floor and asked me who you were.”

    “I feel tired of endlessly meeting people Mireau,” she said, “I have met so many and I will never see half of them again.”

      “Oh but this man is at every party.  You are bound to meet him again and again,” he said.

     “Well then I can wait to meet him at the next one,” she said, logically.  Mireau knew her well enough now to know that she would argue every point.  Her superior logic was always irrefutable, but he knew also that she meant nothing absolutely.  Every point was for the sake of argument only. It did not mean she was unwilling to meet this man. Mireau had noticed in her a hunger for meeting people, a curiosity which was rare.  Unlike many women he had known this woman wished to meet others not only for personal advancement but for curiosity.   She collected information about people avidly, always wanting to know who they were, what status they believed themselves as having, what status they aspired to, were they married, were they happy.  She was a great conversationalist, not particularly a story teller or a teller of jokes, but she was kind to people.  She wanted to listen and learn from them to draw out of them the details and the attitudes they had within them.  She flattered and encouraged them, and as Mireau noted, there was nothing better calculated to win friends than someone with patience and a good ear and a curiosity about the interests of others.

    She had something else also which excited people.  Beauty obviously, that went without saying.  That was the first thing a person noticed when they met her. The males were naturally attracted to her dark hair, her beautiful tanned face with its strong pretty bones and her well proportioned body, neither too tall nor too short, neither too slim nor too heavy.

   Mireau had felt the powerful seduction of her body at first sight and could still hardly believe in his good fortune in having been able to enjoy all of its fruits fully and even some fruits which he had never known to exist.  He had never considered that it could happen to him at the first. She was Ravelleon’s mistress, untouchable, a kept woman.  He could not have imagined that any woman would want more than his friend Ravelleon, who personified success and power with good breeding and gentility.  But as he had become her companion while her ‘master’ was away he had come to realise that she, a Priestess of Pirion, could be bored.  She had not yet tired of Dumis or Prancir. She was loving the culture change of being hosted as a privileged guest in a strong and foreign land after a period of being a virtual prisoner in her own homeland.  But evidently she had been used to the arms of many men in her past, and one man, particularly one who was absent so much, was insufficient for her.

      Accordingly she had found a target, namely himself, and seduced him expertly.  A target who could be relied on to be discreet and would accept that she could not be his fully, that he would have to share her with his friend.  He even accepted that her insatiable lusts might lead her to find other targets in the future. He could not claim her for himself.  She was a free bird and he was lucky to have been chosen as a companion even for the short while he had enjoyed so far.  Few men could ever have been so lucky as he.  He hoped this beautiful free dalliance would persist forever, but even if it had to end tomorrow, he would still be a happy man, not that there was any sign of it doing so.

Section 2

     He drew her over to a small group of men and women who sat at a table beside the dance floor.  There were three men and two women.  All looked to Danella to be stylishly dressed, comfortable with their surroundings and confident. She had noticed them before, in fact.  The men had been engaged in some humour which had set the two ladies to retort with laughter.  They made more noise than any other table between themselves.  The three men were experienced strong looking men perhaps in their late thirties possibly early forties.  All wore moustaches which appeared to be the height of fashion in Dumis, as well as amongst some of the officers she had known in Dalos.  Their dinner jackets were well fitted and expensively styled. The ladies were finely sculpted, slim and beautifully dressed in with the wide bustles and corsets of the most up to date styles, hair neatly gathered and tied up with pins.  This would be an interesting group to meet there was no doubt, but she was tired.  Would she say the right words? Their eyes were upon her, but which was the man who had requested to meet her.

    “Danella please meet Mr Valsivar”, Mireau gestured at the tallest of the three men.  He was dark haired and flashingly handsome.