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Oryll leaned a little closer and dropped his voice. "That is notmyproblem. If you want to make his life easier, then I suggest you impress me this year. And the one after that until you are promoted to disciple and allowed to take your own assignments. My responsibility here is to teach every one of these kids how to easily make it through their sessions in one piece. I don't care if you are special. I only care if you are a disruption to the class that will cost them a valuable education."
"I didn'tdoanything," I reminded him.
"Exactly," he said. "Priests of the Body are Zeal's physical connection to his followers. They pray and we answer. Doesn't matter if that's for pain, vengeance, pleasure, or anything else. Your duty is todowhat is asked of you, and you could barely get your phallus past the back of your mouth."
"I've also never done it before," I pointed out.
He lifted a brow. "You're already partnered to another priest of the body, with your relationship approved and recognized by the administration, and you've never had a dick in your mouth? How does that work?"
"Well, a dick, yeah..." I admitted, not wanting to mention that it had been a guardian's.
"You think that because you have more black lines on your skin than the rest of us that you won't be held to the same standards? That you deserve to have the rules changed? Well, let me explain something. This temple has run the same way for over six hundred years. We know what works. We know how to raise you from a child to a seductress whose name is whispered throughout the capital. Weknow what we're doing, Nariana, and you are trying to throw a wrench in this machine."
"No," I snapped, refusing to back down. "I didn't ask for any of this. Not to be surrendered, to be chosen by Zeal, or any of it. I'm just making the most of what I've been given. So teach me, Priest Oryll, or don't. I will still pass my secondary education and become a disciple of Zeal."
"You sound confident for a girl who doesn't know how to suck a dick," he countered.
"Because I will learn. In case you forgot, they prohibited penetration before our Choosing. I haven't even been an initiate for three weeks, and most of that was spent running around making sure my marks were real!"
He nodded once. "The High Priest says that your marks are genuine, and that they were all removed and replaced before his eyes. He's made it clear that you are to primarily follow the Path of the Body, but that doesn't mean I like it. You are no longer a child, Priestess, so I will not treat you like one. If you cannot keep up with the material in this course - oranyof my others - then you will fail. You will be sent to another Path. I'll leave it up to the High Priest to decide which one, because the truth is that Ido notcare. You are not a Priestess of the Body, and I don't see why I have to treat you like one."
"Because Zeal seems to think this is what I should be doing," I pointed out. "He put the marks on my bodytwice,and more the second time than the first."
"Then prove you deserve them," Oryll said.
"How?" I asked.
"While you are in my class, you are a Priestess of the Body just like everyone else. I don't care what you do anywhere else, but here? You will not be called anything special. You will not be given second chances. You will not be pampered or coddled. You will learn to seduce, am I clear?"
I lifted my chin. "Why do you hate me, Priest Oryll? I haven't even done anything yet."
"Because, since your Choosing, this temple has ground to a halt, and the only thing people care about are the rumors about the girl our god touched. Not the followers who need us, but the fact that Zeal has once again shown himself." There was a threat lingering in his voice.
I groaned in frustration. "In case you missed it, I didn't want to tell anyone that I had extra lace. You and Priest Ghale announced it. The High Priest asked me to prove my marks were real, and I did everything he wanted. I don'twantto be treated special!"
The man crossed his arms, but something in his expression softened a bit. "We don't need young priests and priestesses getting the wrong idea. We don't need them to think that breaking the rules will get them special treatment. We need them to see that you're treated just like they are."
"Or worse," I grumbled.
"Or worse," he agreed. "Because if we push you harder, then they won't try to do something stupid in an attempt to impress our god and end up getting hurt for it."
I could only nod, because he actually had a valid point. "That makes sense."
"It does?" he asked.
"Priest Oryll, I wasn't an exceptional student when I was an acolyte. I wasn't the prettiest girl in my class, or even one of the popular ones. I honestly did not ask for this, yet here I am."
And a little more of the anger in his face disappeared. "So what do you want, Nariana?"
"To be the best priestess I can be. To revive belief in our god." I shrugged. "To be the temptation that Zeal cannot be himself. More than all of that, to figure out this Path that he put me on, because it didn't come with instructions."
He nodded once. "I'm going to push you hard, and I'm serious when I said I would fail you, but it's only for your own good."
With both hands, I reached up to push my hair back. "So what am I supposed to do? I'm expected to be this thing, but I don't even know what the thing is."
"Forge your own Path," he said softly, glancing back to where his partner stood. "Convince us that you belong here and that your Path is needed. Try being an exceptional student, Nariana, because saying you want to learn is a whole lot easier than doing it, and I assure you that we've heard every excuse there is."
"Ok," I agreed, feeling my resolve return. "But if you're going to ride my ass, then I'm going to do this my way."
