Life and Times of a Priestess: Ch.8: Winter In The Occupied City (Part 5: The Return -Section 1)

Part 5 : The Return

Section 1

     When Gerald had gone Sreela spoke to the Priestesses about the men returning. “We should go to welcome them,” she suggested.  It was not an order.  Under occupation she had finished with giving orders.  She no longer felt that she had the authority to tell the Priestesses what they should do.  The visiting soldiers chose from among the Priestesses, she had no part any more in determining who should worship together.

“We should go to find where they are living” said Danella,” but this is a rest day for us.  Any Priestess who wishes to stay should feel no obligation to go.  They may need our help however”.

“Of course” said Sreela, “only if you wish to help them. There will be time later when they are settled back in their lodgings.”

     “Will Gerald allow us to go out after the festival? He wants us here to earn money,” said Agnessa.  Danella noted that the understanding of Prancirian money was spreading amongst the Priestesses.  Many of them now recognised that their guards and the General were making money out of ‘work’ which they performed. However, as Priestesses they had no dislike towards what they did so there was no reluctance from most Priestesses.  Most of them enjoyed their work. They were well fed, happily housed.  They were given Pranciran clothes sometimes which they enjoyed. They still resented the soldiers for the defeat for Pirion and wished the carefree days of the past to return, but hatred had gone from them as they had come to understand that the men who visited them were human much like themselves.

     “We have a right to visit our countrymen,” said Sreela.  “Gerald and the soldiers owe us much.  If they value us they will allow us to make our requests.”

     “They have not given us much freedom before” said Agnessa. “We have not asked before, or had reason to go anywhere,” said Sreela.

     “They do value us,” said Danella. “These men are starved of the varied sex they require in their own country.  We are important to them because few women in their homeland are willing even to have sex with them.  They are held to one partner.  And we do things which few of their women would ever contemplate.  They must value us because they are willing to spend money which is precious to them.”

     “Some of us should go and care for our men. They will be lonely and neglected,” said Sreela. “If a few of us go Gerald will not complain.  He will wish us to work as normal after the festival, but a few of us off duty can serve the men who need us”.

     Danella and Sreela with Agnessa and another young Priestess Lira left the dormitory in its day of rest and went to discover where the returnees were being housed.  Some houses, which had been deserted in the months since the conquest, were the first place Sreela thought to look.  They noticed signs of occupation as they approached these tall three storey houses. Smoke welled out of the chimneys of the street in the cool winter weather. Signs of the damage of the conquest which had been present on this street, the broken doors and shattered windows, which had in many cases remained unrepaired in the months since the conquest, were now fixed.  Sreela picked a house, seemingly at random although it was one of the first they came to, and knocked on the door.  Danella wondered, would they find the returned prisoners here or would they just be more Prancirian soldiers.  A man opened the door.  He looked  healthy, although perhaps a little tired as if he had been working hard.  He wore the clothes of a captured Pirionite soldier, the orange and red jacket and the buff coloured trousers, but the clothes were tatty and fraying at the seams.  The threads had come loose at one shoulder and the knees of his trousers had worn away.  Recent  patches appeared to have been roughly sewed onto his trousers.  The lower leg of one trouser had been ripped and again roughly sewed back.  The man was bearded but his beard had been roughly trimmed and he looked presentable enough in that respect.

     “Hello ladies” he smiled at them instantly eyeing the Prancirian dress which Lira wore.  Evidently he was not familiar with Prancirian ladies wear, as the Priestesses had not been when Gerald had first persuaded some of them to wear it when they visited officers and paying soldiers away from the dormitory.  The Priestesses enjoyed the fashions of the Prancirians. They recognised a certain style about these tight fitting clothes which the old Pironite robes and gowns did not have.  The clothes of the Goddess had been worn for centuries without much real change whereas Danella had learned from books and speaking to Paul and other soldiers that female fashions in Prancir changed every few years.  Lira had spent the whole night with a Prancirian officer and so had returned only this morning fully dressed in Prancirian garb.  She liked their costumes.  Much as she regarded the Prancirians as rude and sexually unpractised, and feared their unearthly ways of violence and greed, there were some things she could respect.

     “Have you come to see us” he asked, pleased to see them.  “You know I haven’t seen a woman in months.”  His words were meant to be taken at face value.  There were no hidden meanings. “I have not worshipped with a woman since the conquest.” So refreshing thought Danella, the customers at the dormitory were rarely so direct. The openness and maturity of his approach took her back to the good days of the past in Shanla and in Dalos before the conquest.  Why had she been so keen to embark on her life of adventure, which had brought her into the range of the anti-sexual crudeness of these remote foreigners.  After the fear and uncertainty of the conquest she had enjoyed herself, discovering a new culture. But this reminder of her own people brought back the good things that they had lost.  It was a stark contrast to the ignorance and the cruel self imposed abstinence of General Ravelleon.

    “How many of you are in this building?” asked Sreela.

    “There are six of us here, one in each room.”

    “At least you all have a room and a bed.”

    “It’s a lot better than the camps we have been in I can tell you.”

    “Are there many more of you in this street?” she asked.

  “Yes this whole street is set aside for us.  I don’t know where they have put all the others. I’m not from Dalos.  I was in the official army.  Have you come to commune with us?” he asked.  There was hope in his eyes.  This was new, Pirionite men rarely needed to hope for sexual expression as they had always known it was freely given, except perhaps where a particular woman was so beautiful that she was in great demand and he would have to wait his turn. This man had been starved of the company of women for so long that he no longer trusted that it would be always available.  He needed it badly.

    “I suppose we might commune,” said Sreela, "but you must understand.  Things have changed here.  We were made prisoners too, although we are no longer to be referred to as prisoners.  We were made to become Priestesses for the Prancirian Army.  We enjoy our life well enough considering the circumstances.  However we are ‘working’ for the Prancirians and they may not let us practise our normal ways.  Today and tomorrow is the Festival.  Their soldiers are barred from us but our life will return to normal after the festival.  We will not likely be permitted to come to you very often.  The temple is burned and they will not allow it to be repaired.  But we will do what we can.”