“Hnnhf, you stupid… root!” Orchid pulls with all her (meager) strength, but she is starting to get really tired.

The sun is getting quite hot today. 

She is sweating profusely and her garments stick to her skin, showing off the slight definition of her arms, her thin waist and her rounded butt. How sinful! She is going to get a change as soon as she is finished here!

The root, though, refuses to give in. She has to clean the weeds, it’s part of her orchard duty, but she doesn’t seem to be able to do it.

“Samash the Everburning,” she murmurs, looking up at the Sun’s namesake. His heat feels like oil covering her skin, heavy and dripping. How long has she been here?

She should take a break, but her Sisters would get… mad…

The world spins. 

“Uoooh!” Orchid shouts, trying to hold onto something even as she falls back, her legs giving in beneath her.

“Here!” Someone is behind her, holding her fast. She looks up to see auburn hair and pretty hazelnut eyes, and a rosy mouth smiling at her. “I got you!”

“L-Lily…” she mutters. Maybe it’s because the sweat has made her clothes feel so flimsy, but she can clearly feel her Sister’s large breasts pressing against her back as she holds her. Something inside her stomach coils and squeezes. Orchid lightly grinds her thighs, embarrassed. She shouldn’t be thinking lewd thoughts! “You-“

“You are drenched!” Her Sister scolds her. “Have you even taken a break? Did you drink anything? Of course you didn’t you silly. Here, come inside with me. Today’s work can wait a while.”

“But I… I have my duties…” She tries to protest, but Lily’s embrace is so warm, and so soft. She loves it when the side of her breasts still brush against her back, even though it’s such a sinful feeling… she shouldn’t! But it’s just the two of them today here, and maybe… her head spins so much, it’s so hard to think… maybe a quick break will do her good. “A-Alright.”

“Good girl,” Lily whispers to her ear. Orchid’s head spins again, this time in reverse. Her hot breath feels so good against her skin… is it really so sinful to…

No! She has to hold fast! She will not give a nail’s width to the Morningstar!

That’s what she wants, to tempt her with lewd thoughts and fantasies - but she knows better!

Still, she leans in against her Sister and friend. She smells so good - a little tangy, in fact. Lily’s breath is also a bit ragged, just like her own. Maybe she is starting to feel the heat as well. 

She drags her inside their quarters. 

Orchid lets her do everything she wants, carrying her between her strong arms - she remembers watching them during her training! - and she pours her tired form on a bed in one of the inner, cooler chambers, away from the heated rays of the midday Sun. 

“Are you feeling a tad better?” Lily asks. Her voice creaks a little, as if she was about to ask another question, but she decides otherwise at the last moment.

“Yes. Thank you so much,” Orchid groans. 

“Anything for you, Sister.” Lily turns to shut the blinders. The room gets progressively cooler and darker. Her eyes take a moment to get used to it. 

She shakes her head.

Something inside her stirs. It’s different from how tired and worn-out she feels… she feels like there’s something coming. A bad sign. 

“Sister…” Orchid asks weakly, laying on the bed on a pool of her own sweat, “why are you shutting down all the blinders?”

“It’s to get you to rest better. You are really tired.”

I’m really tired. 

She’s right, but the way those words rang through her mind, rattling through her skull… it feels a bit worrying. 

Something’s wrong.

“Lily… are you sure we are safe here?”

“As safe as we can be,” Lily replies shutting the last blinder. The room is pleasantly cool and dark now. Her head keeps spinning, though… and her chest is heavy and her breath is ragged. She’s so tired… and she keeps thinking about the way Lily held onto her. She has never been so affectionate before. 

Her Sister joins her own the bed. Her strong fingers run through her blonde hair, caressing them. Orchid closes her eyes, leaning into her touch. It feels so good… it might be sinful, but… but… it feels so pleasant to just lean into it and let her Sister take good care of her.

“You know what?” Lily says, smiling fondly at her. 

Orchid smiles back, and then frowns a little. Were those… silver sparks going off in her hazelnut eyes? 

It must have been a trick of the light.

She has heard of similar signs before - argent flashes, and strings of pearly lights… these would the signs of the Morningstar.

But this is ridiculous!

It’s only the two of them here, and there is no way a demon can slither in, not through the wards she has checked personally.

The Morningstar, for all her cunning, surely can’t get the upper hand over an entire monastery!

They are safe here.

Safe. 

That’s all that matters…

“… I know… what?” Orchid mutters, asking once again with a smile. Yes, it must have been a trick of the light. It feels so warm and comforting to lie on a soft bed, with her best friend sitting next to her. Because Lily is her best friend, after all, isn’t she?

Of course she is…

“You are the prettiest novice we have had in a long while,” Lily purrs, leaning forward. Her brown mane falls like a curtain over Orchid’s forehead. It tickles. She feels a warm pulse going off in he chest, even though pride is a sin… but it feels so good to be praised like that… 

“T-Thanks. Sister?” Orchid flushes. “Y-You are really pretty too…!”

“Of course I am,” Lily chuckles. 

Wait, what?

Being prideful is a sin…

“I have noticed how you look at me, my dearest Orchid. Always trying to steal a glance at my bosom, or at my butt… I know the way you think of me, Sister. I know how it must feel to watch me from afar, and wonder how it must feel to hold me close, to rub our skin together… to pepper my neck with kisses as I grope your cute little breasts…”

“L-Lily!” Orchid snaps out of the spell.
There’s definitely something wrong here. She tries to pull away, but her Sister holds onto her. She pins her to the creaking bed. Her smell is overwhelming… it smells so sweet, like flowers, just like her namesake… but this is isn’t right! They are not supposed to be so… so intimate! 

“Let me go, I beg of you! Something’s wrong! I can feel an evil presence! There must be a demon around… do you think something infiltrated the monastery?”

Lily chuckles darkly.

And there: Orchid can see it clear as day: a flash of argent going off in her eyes. The same pearly light she has heard it’s the mark of… of…

“… oh my cute little, innocent Orchid,” Lily growls, and she can feel the desire dripping thick and heavy from her lips like hot honey. It gets beneath her skin, arousing her to thoughts she think about! Her Sisters… she has to warn them… she has to tell them a demon is trying to… “…do you really think a demon is trying to get in?”

Lily laughs. Her tinny, gentle laugh twists into something heavier, lower, as it is tinged with a dark, mocking undertone that makes Orchid’s eyes sting and her heart ache. 

It can’t be… it must be… a hallucination. 

It cannot be real. 

Not her!

Lily’s form begins to change. 

Her skin darkens, turning tanned and then a rich sable color. 

She keeps laughing, and then moaning as her nipples turn stiff, pressing against her robes. Her hair, already auburn, slowly grow redder and redder until they are a rich shade of crimson, while her eyes become two golden orbs, their pupil slit like a cat. She moans and arches her back, making her large breasts sway. Something is growing out of her back: bit by bit, with a noise like ripping paper, thick and black wings stretch over Orchid, unfurling like a bat’s at the first sign of night.

Atop her head a pair of red horns begins to part her crimson hair, growing like a cattle’s.

“It can’t… no! Please, Lily, no!” 

“Ahhh… it feels so good!” Her Sister (her former Sister) groans, bucking forward with her hips. Something else is growing there, but Orchid is too scared to keep looking. She doesn’t want to look, she doesn’t want to see, she doesn’t want to know! Why is this happening to her?

She tries to struggle, but it as if Lily’s arms, always strong, have grown as mighty as steel. She pins her to the bed while she squirms like a worm. 

“Ahhhh- you have to try it, Orchid! It’s beyond this world… fuck Corona and her stupid rules, fuck being a silly priestess! You must learn to live a little…!” Lily’s golden eyes roll back as her forehead glistens argent. Just above her eyes thin pearly lines start to appear, like thin treads of silvers poured between tiles. They form a shape Orchid knows all too well.

A shape she has always been scared to one day see with her own very eyes.

A flower with five rounded lobes, pointing to the ground.

It’s not just a flower, though. It’s a Mark.

It’s the Mark the Foe gives to those who have given their souls to her. Those she has utterly con completely corrupted.

Orchid cries in anguish: her friend is now beyond saving. Beyond every exorcism. She has sold her soul to…

“… ggnng! Haaa... Haai...” Lily pants, and then she shouts, ecstatic: “Hail… all hail the Morningstar!”

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