As those weeks passed leading up to my moon blood, I learned. When I touched someone I could feel what their heart desired most. That feeling then swelled and bloomed in their heart—until it took control. Whatever that desire was, whatever lay within them, my own heart reciprocated. That reciprocation did not require touch, though the stronger the desire and the more fixated upon me it was, the stronger I reciprocated. I was like a tiny boat tossed upon the waves of a stormy sea. Had I been in my right mind I would have gone straight to the Magi Tower and demanded analysis, and training. Even at the age of thirteen I should have known better!
Instead, I found myself drawn to violent and aggressive men. Not only acolytes, but patients. I never touched those who were at risk of injury or death, I reserved my twisted affections for the recovering and able bodied. When I would start, I'd be a virgin waif, torn asunder by the beastly brutes. When I was done with them, they would be spent, helpless, weak, and limp while I only grew stronger. I did learn to temper and control my complimenting desires, to hold back, and even withdraw completely before I'd taken it too far.
There were concerns voiced, soldiers near discharge suddenly growing worse. Yet, with my awareness of everyone around me at all times, I could never be caught so long as I remained in control. What did it matter if some pedophile fell ill and took another month to recover? Before my threshold I'd had my ass groped and young body lusted over. Now they fed my ever growing desire and gave me experiences I'd craved since first memory. Unlike Lia, I—was—not—bored!
Everyone around me felt happier and more energetic. Even mother had grown to enjoy the time we spent together outside of the clinic. Though, I was careful to refrain from making physical contact with her when ever I could. Somehow, she never felt the urge to hug me or kiss me goodnight anymore. My influence of course. When we went to bed, she laid with soldiers, lords, and acolytes while I took peasants. I timed thrusts, matched tempos, and spread my exuberance between us. For the first time that I could remember, mother found passion. She even achieved climax in time with mine and never knew the reason why. Bit by bit, her boredom vanished and the false smile was replaced by honest joy. Every night, all night, as she lay only a chamber away, the mother I knew dissolved away and was reborn.
Twenty seven days after my threshold breach, I woke to find my undercloth soaked in blood. As a child growing up in the Temple of the Hidden Moon, I knew much about the secrets of sex and reproduction. I knew that if I had my moon blood, I wasn't pregnant. I also knew that I was the most fertile shortly before it arrived. Cold hard reality shocked me to my senses for the first time in a month. A child of the temple would not be expected to open herself as a holy prostitute until at least sixteen, after a couple years of intense tutoring. Pregnancy before approval was severely frowned upon and could cost one her place in the temple. I could never pretend that I wasn't at fault.
The thought also struck me as I stared into my bloodied clothes, "Do I want to be a Priestess?" Mother never chose who she laid with after all. Frequently they were men she did not find attractive and rarely satisfying. I had been enjoying my pleasures with those I picked. Brutish and brawny fellows who didn't care about my age or future. It was a great thrill. I didn't want to give it up, but I also didn't want to be kicked to the streets. I'd never left the temple grounds, though I had seen through the gates and out the upper windows. The crowds were vast and violent. I didn't think for a second that I couldn't handle myself, of course. Teenagers are just that stupid sometimes.
With my recovered senses, albeit altered by a month of hedonism, I approached mother with my soiled garb. I told her, "It is time, I need to be analyzed." Her emotions were a sudden maelstrom stirred by my words. I cannot even recall what she said, or even the intent of the words. I remember being washed by her, our first physical contact in a month. I remember the climax she gave me as she fixated on cleaning my vulva, for over fifteen minutes straight. I remember also pushing her away as her drawn desire overwhelmed us both. At last I fled naked from the bathing chamber and straight into the arms of an elder Priestess. There followed a whirlwind of clothing, scented oils, accessories, and other unfamiliar bits of grooming as I tried to calm, and control the minds around me.
It was near sunset when I finally left the temple, held aloft on a palanquin within a column of temple knights. It was only then, as I was carried away, that I realized just how the temple saw me. No other child of the temple had been treated this way in my memory. The words "future high priestess" became a haunting shadow of thought which chased me all the way to the Magi Tower. The temple was ready to set my future in iron and stone.
That journey was vividly memorable, if overwhelming. For the first time I was exposed to the general population. The swarms of emotions, thoughts, and urges bombarded me. Most in the temple knew basic isolation techniques to hold their thoughts to themselves. Patients frequently did not, but they were few, and held distant from the sleeping wing. A few distant mental voices were akin to someone having a conversation two rooms over. Here, amidst the crowds as I was carried through the city, it was as if ten thousand jeering voices watched me battle an ogre in the coliseum. Terror before me, a cacophony to every direction about.
I was carried past the market district through a wall gate and into the commercial. Then another wall and past vast manors which housed the city elite. We neared the final wall and the gates to the palace, and turned right. The mental noise had left me with a pounding headache, but here it was lessened. Something about the palace absorbed the noise. It left a dampened sensation, like a pillow held to the ear. Even the other side was more subdued, far from the masses. Lordly mansions held only a handful of staff it seemed.
At last we reached the Magi Tower and my palanquin was lowered to the ground. On shaking legs I rose, though I refused the offered hand to assist. I gave the man a warm smile, but there was no way I could put myself through physical contact now! The temple knights backed away and made room for me to approach the tower gate. The tower was held behind it's own, separate wall with the city street between it and the palace. Above the street was a bridge, allowing royal access to the Magi, below that bridge was the gate. I stood in shadow, with murder holes strategically placed above me as I pulled the bell cord to announce my presence. Not that anyone was unaware of my approach. You could hardly ignore a column of twenty some heavily armored knights marching!
The gate opened and a man in undyed hempen robes gestured me in. He was bald, unshaven, and barefoot. Though I said his robe was undyed, it was not unstained. Both cuffs were smudged to the elbow in ink and a splattering of fossilized food stained the pleat of his breast. He was the most disgusting man I'd ever met, even peasants knew to wear clean clothes! The stench of perfume oils that drifted behind him was enough to make my eyes water, I remained a few steps back, just to mitigate. Behind me, one of the knights slapped his fist to his breast, "My Lady, I shall remain here until you are ready to return." The others gathered up the palanquin and departed leaving him alone. I barely acknowledged his presence, I was simply too overwhelmed.
The gate closed behind me and the magi lead me to the tower. The yard encircling the tower was a messy affair, disorder and chaos ruled here it seemed. There were shipping crates, barrels, piles of molding hay, and even an old stained mattress draped over box. I shook my head, pinched my nose, and just followed him through the door. He then sat himself behind a wide desk, just as messy as the exterior. He propped his chin upon laced fingers with elbows atop a sheet of freshly inked paper. No wonder his cuffs were stained. He spoke his first words to me, and his voice was surprisingly gentle, even soothing, "My lady, what purpose brings you to the Magi Tower today?"
I fidgeted at the front of my silk dress as I looked back at him. Filthy and disgusting, yes, but his eyes were strangely kind and inviting. An ability perhaps? Nothing about his person had changed since he'd opened the gate, yet… yet I wanted to open up to him. I felt the urge to babble bubble up from the depths of my mind. It was a strangely familiar sensation, like losing control amidst violent sex. I was quite well practiced in regaining control by now however.
