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"You're also a gently-reared lady," Faylie pointed out. "Not everyone wants to know our duties."
"I do," Maela assured her. "I spent my whole life terrified of the Temple of Temptation, but my first visit? It's the most comfortable temple I've been in, and my father is the Baron of Compassion! Seeing so much love? It's a beautiful thing. I thought it would be shocking, the way you all share your bodies, but life has a way of making that lesson clear as well. I thought I'd be more upset when my husband took a mistress."
"Has he confirmed it?" I asked.
"Not directly," she admitted. "But he made a large payment to a well-bred young lady who has recently moved to the country and decided to marry down." Maela closed her eyes and pulled in a deep breath. "Which means he got her with child, but he assumes I'm too stupid to realize that."
"I'm so sorry," I breathed, reaching out to take her hand.
She just shook her head. "I'm not. After the Fresh Start? He didn't even care that our son was in my arms! His youngest sister was more worried about Haryth! At this point, I don't want him in my bed."
"What happens if you don't have seven children?" Shalsa asked.
Maela shrugged. "Not every wife does. Some die in childbirth before that. The youngest is always sent in their place. If Haryth's the only one, then he'll inherit the title, and the temple will wait a generation, or until Tath replaces me."
"So you do not want more children?" Faylie asked.
"I do," Maela admitted.
"Then lie with him when you're the most fertile and only on those days."
The look Maela gave her made it clear there was a lot more that we learned in the temple than most respectable ladies. "When's that?"
"Two weeks after you menstruate," Faylie said. "From the start of your bleeding, not the end of it. I have some lubricants I can gift you so you won't even need to worry about arousal."
"I tried to tell her to have a session with a priest," I told Faylie. "If her husband is finding his entertainment elsewhere, then there's no reason she can't, and it might lure him back to her bed."
"But the only priests I know are the guardians," Maela pointed out.
"And Eladehl," Amerlee added.
"Her partner!" Maela gasped. "That is not what friends do."
The rest of us laughed. "Um," I said, gesturing to Faylie. "She's his instructor."
"Ok?" Maela asked.
"In certain sexual practices. Faylie has sex with my partner once a week, at least. Usually for a few hours."
"And he's a rather impressive man," Faylie admitted.
Maela's head was twitching back and forth between the two of us. "How are you not jealous of her?" she finally asked me.
"I was for about five minutes when we met today," I admitted. "Believe it or not, Faylie is..." I looked over. "Your friend, Shalsa?"
"My partner through my initiate courses, actually," Shalsa admitted. "We were paired because there weren't many female submissives in my year interested in women, and the submissive men weren't the kind that appealed to me."
"Delicate and fragile ones," Amerlee clarified.
"What kind of men do you enjoy?" Maela asked, lowering her voice as if it was a very naughty secret.
Shalsa laughed. "Oh, about like Amerlee's guardian, or that big guy you met earlier."
"Wraythe," Maela breathed. "He is quite the specimen, isn't he?"
"And I live with him," I admitted.
"He likes men, though?" she asked. "I mean, he's paired with Eladehl."
