The Book of the Blue House

[ChrisGibson]

This is a whole different type of story, which takes place in the world of the Blue Temple. In this world of magic, kings, queens, enchantments and ancient ways there is the New Faith, but there is also the Old Faith with its Blue Priesthood where sex and sexuality is a sacrament and lovemaking and sexual experimentation is the most profound worship they know. Fleeing from home and seeking a new life, we meet eighteen year old Conn who follows his sister to begin life in the Blue House.



One

Conn


Though Connleth Aragareth began his life in the far north of Westrial, his home is doubtless Kingsboro and his association with its Great Blue Temple. To think of Aragareth without thinking of the Blue Order of the city of the great kings, simply makes no sense.

The Ency-clopedia of Westrial, 56th Edition, edited by Andi Lincoln








“Here,” Nialla said, “drink some more water.”
Conn was trying to look as if this was not his first food for three days, and he was trying to eat the salad slowly, even as he looked over at the steaming loaf of bread. He obeyed his sister and poured the water into the large wooden cup, was embarrassed by how it sloshed around and spilled on the the table when he set the jug down.
“I didn’t hear from you,” Nialla said. “I wrote you, and then I didn’t hear back, so can you imagine how surprised I was when Cal came to my door and said your brother is here?”
“Cal?”
“Yes. The one you met. Calon, pronounced Kay-lon, but he hates that name.”
“And is he a…”
“Priest,” Nialla said. “Yes. He’s a priest.”
Two months ago, when Conn was back home in Ipwick doing nothing but seeing day pass after day, and occasionally being hired as a day laborer, living in the back of the large house with his mother, his father, his aunts, his uncles and all of their children, the letter came from Nialla, the disgrace of the family, a wench who had gotten up and fled on the night before her marriage to Alaric, a marriage which their mother never tired of saying would have changed the fortunes of the entire family, out the window and never been seen again, She had been heard from. When her first letter came from the city, Mother burned it in the fire palce, page by page, luxuriously, peeling the pages apart and gently laying them on the blaze.
“The first time you wrote to me, Mother burned it,” Conn said, “or I would have written you back.”
Nialla was too young to marry anyway. She was just seventeen now. And Conn was her younger brother. Nialla had suspected their parents were the reason Conn never got the letter and sent the next to their old school master. He had come down calling for Conn and handed it to him. Her second letter, sent in early autumn, when the leaves began to turn and a chill touched the air said, “Connleth, come down south to the City. There is life here for you and me, and I miss you. Come to the Blue Temple. There will be room for you.”
If Nialla had been present Conn would have made a joke and said, “What, do I need to be a Blue Priest?,But paper was precious, and so was time, and he didn’t want to be in Ipwick anymore. He couldn’t afford a landship or an airship, and so he knew he would hitchhike all the way, and Nialla’s warning was still in his mind, “Little brother, come before winter.” It was still warm enough down here, but the latticework reported that, already, the first snow had come to Ipwick and the northern hill countries.
“You can eat that slowly,” Nialla said, bending to look at him, “No one’s going to take that from you, and then for the rest of the day, if you want, you can come with me, see how things are.”
“You live here?” Conn said.
He was looking around in amazement, but not at the large eating hall which was, if anything, most unamazing. He meant this whole great and ancient building which he had come to this morning.
Nialla nodded and said, “Lots of people do.”
She amended. “Many people do. Some people find it not to their liking. If you do not wish to be a dependent here, this is the city, Conn. There are great houses and abbeys all over, and one right across the street. Whether you say there or go there, you’re here, in the city, and we’re together, and we will have such great fun!”
“Oh, now you really are disowned,” Conn said, switching from the salad to breaking off a piece of bread. He was surprised at how good the greens were, for he would be eating a bowl of hot soup if he was in Ipwick, but then the cool weather was just starting to come down here.
“If mother and father knew you had found your way to a blue temple.”
“I hold that once you are disowned you can’t possibly be more disowned,” Nialla said, shrugging. “And, besides, Mother and Father don’t know everything.”
She waited a moment and then decided, “I fact, they don’t really know anything.”
When Conn had headed south, only knowing that his sister was working in a blue temple, or living in one, he wasn’t sure what to think. He had seen blue houses and wasn’t entirely sure what was the difference between a blue house and a blue temple. Certainly some blue houses were little more than the size of the house he lived in with his family, and some seemed like taverns or inns while some in great cities, and this happened the further south you went, seemed like stately townhouses. Also, though they called themselves priests, and bthe White Priest reluctantly agreed that they were, Conn could not tell the difference between a blue priest and a male prostitute.
He imagined himself, coming into the Great City and asking, “Can you direct me to the the Blue Temple, and people sniggering, people saying, “Oh, this lad looks for a blue temple, indeed.”
Conn understood from very early on that a lad looking for another lad was suspicious. But things seemed to be different down south.
On his poverty stricken journey southe to warmer climes, he was surprised by the sizes of the cities, and when he had come up the River Arnor, and the ferry he’d taken passage on rounded its tip to reveal the City, his eyes had widened. Back in the north towns that were bigger than Ipwick were only bigger versions of Ipwick. There was no way to compare Ipwick to the city of the Capital. Ipwick had little churches and a few taverns, houses spaced out several feet apart. How to compare it to a place where the great minsters had towers touching the sky, and they crouched like massive lions, their naves as wide as several street blocks. How to compare to Ipwick’s houses the city blocks with great shops on the grounds and second floors of great mansions several stories high?
When Conn arrived in the city it was late, and though it was not cold like it would be in Ipwick, it was not warm as summer either. He was grateful now for the bag of warm clothes and the coat he had brought, and as evening set he looked for a place to sleep. A hotel was not an option, and staying in a tavern until it closed was not either. He was so tired he didn’t imagine staying up all night. His sister was somewhere in this city, and he asked, “Where is the Blue Temple?” wondering what someone would say, but the dry faced man he asked did not make any lewd jokes. He simply pointed to his left and said.
“You have come in at the far end of the city, and if you go up that road that is the general direction, but friend, you will be traveling till the sun’s up to get there.”
Kingsboro was an impossibly large city and even now, Conn saw all sorts of people who were not staying in houses, settling somewhere. He saw, moving through the city with the calm of people on a country road, shepherds with their great herds, the bells on the dust browned sheep tinkling as they headed to the fields along the river, and on the first levels of the houses, where there were open markets, the gates one thought would close were opening as merchants left, and people were coming to sleep in those spaces. The great parks he passed were receiving vagrants, but now he saw a troupe of people in grey, and the man he had spoken to said, “Friend, friend. If you love your stuff and want to see it again, get in with them.”
Conn did not like to weary people with questions when they had helped him out, so he only said, “Thank you, sir.”
But the man did explain.
“Those are the Brothers and Sisters of Ash. You couldn’t possibly be safer, and they take care of all who travel with them.”
And so, on his first night in the city, Conn had stayed with the Ash Sisters and the Ash Brothers, and learned that this city truly did take in anyone who came to it, some way or another.

They come here often,” Nialla said. She seemed serious.
“To stay the night and to eat?’
“No,” Nialla shook her head, and then she said, “Yes. Bui it isn’t like that. They come to say prayers and give lay blessings over us and receive them from us. The Grey Brethren are strange. They believe that all are one. That’s the most I can say of them, and so because they think they are part of everything, few of them keep their own houses. And they don’t have their own temples. They go from temple to temple and minster to minster that will accept them. They stay in the stoas of houses, and in the parks. They have tents, many of them, and when they go to stay where the homeelss are, they feed them.”
“That’s what they did last night,” Conn remembered. “I was nervous to join their party, but when I did I was not the only one who was not part of them. It was many people who were walking with them, and when they got to the park there were others there, many women, many like nuns, and they were cooking food over fires, and they were feeding the other people in the park, and feeding us. Most of them were dressed like monks or like nuns, but some had children.”
“Yes,” Nialla said. “Some do.”
“I think I saw them back home, now and again. In the big cities, but I never saw them married.”
“A few are,” Nialla said. “That much I have seen when they come here, and when they come here everyone becomes much happier. Especially since the Ashes have teachers and preachers and musicians with them. It makes the temple happy.”
“The people with children stayed in tents. They were all very friendly and one was called Sister Hannan.”
“I love her—”
“You know her?”
“Yes,” Nialla said. “There are about three groups of Ashen Brothers and Sisters in the city, but this one I know—”
“She said the tents were fine, but for the winter the mothers and children would have to be put somewhere else.”
“They will probably stay here. I can’t imagine the Blues would not have them stay here.”
“This is so different,” Conn said, “different from what I thought it would be, different from how it is in the north. That Blue Priests have large temples and monks and nuns stay with them. And there is no… no judgment.”
“No,” Nialla said. “The South is different. The Blue Order is the oldest of the Orders and the most respected even when people are slightly leery of them. Here, take some bread. Eat but don’t eat too much. I want to show you around.”
“Don’t you have to get back to work?”
“Oh,” Nialla said, shaking her head, “it isn’t like that. Not really. And everyone knows that you are here now and that we have much catching up to do.”
Among the Ashen Brothers he had felt more secure and more at peace in that park, under the paper lanterns hung in trees, helping to pass out the cups of soup and the plates so rice before finally sitting down to eat his own than he had felt in his family’s house. From the Ashens he’d learned directions across town to the Blue Temple, and how long the journey was, and he slept for only a few hours in a circle of grey nuns and monks with one man playing the harp and singing old songs before he got up and began to travel. One of the sisters laid hands on him and said a blessing.
“We will see you soon enough,” she said, “when we reach the Temple as well.”
The streets were well lit, and once he crossed the river and saw the great lamps of the bridge sparkling dowm on the broad black water, and looked across to see the lit buildings in the distance as well. He saw great minsters and large palaces by the night, and carriages stopped not on the main streets but in the gated alleys by which the wealthy were led to the secret second and third story gardens of those mighty houses that held shops by day and homeless by night. Above the common life of the city, in a world of towers and ball rooms, turrets and great porches linked by fashionable bridges, the wealthy lived their lives in a world that never touched the ground. Against the light and the all night music, Conn saw the shadows of broken buildings too, and he wondered what joys the city held in the day, but did not stay to linger, wanting to be in at the Blue Temple by morning.
He came to it in the grey before the sunrise. It was the only building on its whole block, and surrounded by a long grey walk on all sides, the grey paved street was empty this time of morning, and the blue house rose high and square with a grave and heavy atmosphere all its own. It was built like a rock, a great butte of deep blue stone, and the façade, though patterned and pillared, had only one opening, a door, twice the height of a man, but seemingly small because of the height and width of the silent building, and.the door standing between two great pillars, was bright red and deep as blood.
Conn crossed the empty street and stood on the walk, looking at the door and it called to him with a mocking magneticim, for the more he resisted it, the more powerful was the silent call and yet he knew the door was not for him. Conn did not know how long he stood before it until, at last he walked to his right, to the left of the door, and began to walk along the lengthy southern side of the Temple. When he looked up, there were were narrow windows, though these were all high up. He walked along the grey street as the sky began to silver with morning and, after some time he found, deep in the wall, between two other pillars, still high, but a little squatter than the Red Door, a black double door. He knew he could knock at this one, and yet he didn’t dare. He just sat there, hungry, as the sun rose and people began to come out onto the streets. Carters moving toward the bazaar, young seminarians in robes, the last of the night police carrying their lanterns. And this was when the door opened and the one that Nialla told him was called Cal, looked down at him.
Calon did not resemble any priest Conn had ever seen. His wide blue eyes were supremely merry looking, and he had a head of springing auburn curls. The same size as Conn he was well made, strong with the body of a man that made Conn feel still much like a boy, and he wore a well fitted tee shirt and faded dungarees. He did not have the look of cruelty beautiful people often had, but he leaned across the door and said, “You’ee early. You look lost, bug. Are you lost?”
He had a not quite southern accent, or at least what Conn through was a southern accent, and Conn said, “I was looking for my sister.”
“Did you find her on the sidewalk?” Cal said, and laughed at himself, and then at Conn’s look said, “It’s just a joke.”
“Her name is Nialla. She wrote me. She said she lives here. Maybe I’m wro—”
“Oh!” Cal exclaimed. “Come in, Come in!”
Conn followed the young man through the black door, and he was in a lobby lit with grey morning ligh from above and hung with evenly spaced stain glass lamps.
“She’s probably upstairs, but… have you eaten?”
There were other young men in the lobby, some coming down the corridor that stretched ahead, Some wore dress shirts and dress pants, some wore robes and some wore the formal doublets and trousers of the upper classes while some were dressed in simple tee shirt and jeans like Cal, but now Conn realized they were all in blue.
“No,” Conn said. “Not really. I had some soup last night in the park.”
“Soup last night in the park? How tragic. Sanjo,” Cal called to a shaven head brown skinned Blue who was dressed like him, but whose shirt was even more snug on his chest, “Can you take Bug to the commissary for food? This is Nialla’s brother. His name is… What is your name?”
“Connleth. Conn.”
“Connleth Conn,” Cal said.
“It’s not Connleth Conn, it’s just…”
But by now Cal was saying, “I’m going to find that girl and send her down to you,. She’ll be so glad you’re here. She talks about you all the time.”
That was how Conn had entered the Blue Temple, and now he was finishing his meal, and his sister was leading him to the kitchen to put his bowls away.
After they went through the kitchen and Nialla said good morning to the dishwashers and the cooks and told them, this is my brother, he’s with us now. A few of them named themselves and tipped their fingers to their heads and Conn did the same, though he was sure he would forget them in five minutes. The whole place, his whole first day here, was a blur. Past the kitchen they went down a dark hall, and Nialla explained.
“Everything you’ve seen is in the stoa. The room is for all the visitors and you may never eat there again. Or, if you like,” she shrugged, “you might eat there all the time. When people stay for the night, or for several nights, they stay down there.”
Down there she said, for now they were climbing up a narrow stone stair, and when they came to the landing there were passages leading left, right and ahead of them, but Nialla simply kept walking up the next stair to another landing where there were similar passages and then to one last landing where they finally went down the hall ahead of them, and emerged into a sunlit,but quite corridor.
“I’m goingto the library to study because I promised I would,” Nialla said.
Conn was about to ask who she had promised this too but, carelessly, a nude young man came down the hall not looking entirely awake, and pushed the door into what might have been a washroom, disappearing.
“You could use some rest,” she told her brother.”You’ll stay where I stay. In Derek’s room.”
Again, Conn didn’t see the need to ask, but simply followed his sister down the corridor The light came from behind him, but he didn’t look back. There were only lamps here, and it was dim in the hallway of pale blue stones. Dark blue doors were almost evenly spaced, and now Nialla pushed open one and there was sunlight on the other side of a heavy blind, and a large, well made bed in a well appointed room.
“You just go to sleep here, and when you wake up you can take a nice shower. Or a bath. Whatever suits you. I use this bathroom over here.”
She walked across what was a large room and touched the door to her right. “The other bathrooms are for the Blues. I wouldn’t use them. Maybe you could, but I know I shouldn’t.”
And then Nialla flung herself on her brother and said, “I’m so glad you’re here. Everyone will be glad you’re here, and you can meet everyone tonight!”


MORE TOMORROW OR SATURDAY

 

[CharmedFan28]

This is a very interesting and different story! I am enjoying it though. The characters seem cool and I look forward to reading more about The Blue Temple. Great writing!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Thank you for being an encouragement. It's just begun and this may be the strangest story yet.

 

[ChrisGibson]

CONN, PART TWO


Conn lay down to sleep, and his head had hardly hit the pillow when he heard bells ringing. There was a slight hurried shuffling of feet for a while, and then silence again, and Conn sat in the room of someone named Derek, where Nialla slept and where she had assured him Derek would not mind. No sooner had he put his head to the pillow than he had the need to explore. He didn’t understand this building. He thought he was somewhere on the third floor and he had come up through a thin passage like a worm’s burrow into this hall. The bed lay under the blinded window and he sat down on it, looking at the door through which he’d come. To his left was the uninteresting wall, but to his right was a door. Conn rose, opened the door and was nearly blinded by sunlight. To his right a window overlooked the city, but to his left was a plain door and on the other side of it he heard a shower running. Was this the Blue bathroom that Nialla would not go into and he should think twice about? At the end of the corridor was another door but it was half open and when he entered it, he found himself in a room larger and messier than Derek’s with clothes all over the place and sofas and a bookshelf. Books were on the floor too, along with paper and pencils. Conn crossed into the room, wondering what he would say if someone came in, thinking he would say, “I’m Nialla’s brother,” and see where that got him.
There was an open doorway across from the one he’d entered, so this room opened to another which Conn saw was a messy, messy but very large kitchen. Plates, half drunk orange juice and old coffee were on a table where the sun came through, and a cooling box hummed with its cold energy. The last of the rooms was revealed by a half open door that revealed a much cleaner bedroom. This room was larger than the last one, andwhen Conn went to its door, instead of the silence of the hallway, he again heard shower water. It was, Conn thought, a very curious set up.
He immediately set about cleaning, searching under the sink for soap and gloves, pulling them out and filling the sink with hot water. He fouind a dish rack below, and for the first time he felt a purpose in being where he was. Conn always wanted to be get something done, and there was a satisfaction in the scrubbing of plates and the washing of glasses. He hesitated throwing half eaten food away, but figured the eaters were clearly done with the rinds of toast and fruit. The edges of everything he tossed away, then place the dishes in the suddy sink.
Conn was not sure how long he’d been up, but he was in the large common room, the one which now he realized had a bed in the corner off of the wall it shared with the kitchen, As the second oldest in his family, he knew how to clean. His mother never thought that was just a woman’s job. He had opened up the shades to allow the sun in, and he imagined by now it must have been nine in the morning, though it seems as if he’d been up forever. Conn yawned a little now, gathering up scattered clothes. He couldn’t rightly tell to who they belonged, but he could tell that under things were done with, so with very little care, he picked them up and moved them to a hamper. The trousers and the shirts he put in another pile for their junky owners to understand, and he began to stack the collection of books and notes imagining that, as messy as they were they were there for a reason. Scarves and shirts he folded, and it was now that the shower cut off and a few moments later, out of the bathroom door in the little hallway came a tall young man. He was white as marble or snow, with red lips and black hair that might have been wavy if it weren;t half plastered to his head. He was like the girl from the fairy tale who bit the apple and went to sleep in the dwarve’s cottage, except he was no girl and he was slender but well muscled like something cut from marble and his cheeks were red and he was laughing,
“You must be Nialla’s brother,” he said, and he stepped forward as if he wore more than a great towel and was holding more than the second towel with which he dried his hair.
“I’m Derek.”
So this was Derek.
“I’m supposed to be… I was sleeping in your room. That’s where my sister…”
“I never stay there, Not much these days. In the House no one really stays where they’re supposed to.”
Derek’s voice was quiet and reedy despite his strength and height, and his eyes sparkled from behind long dark lashes so that he almost appeared to be asleep. He moved like a deer, Conn realized and Conn, still holding a book in his hands, also knew he could barely stop looking at him.
“You’ve really made something nice out of this place,” Derek said. “And you’ve only been here a day. You might be just what we need. Not that Nialla isn’t great, but…” Derek had opened up a cupboard and he was pulling out oils and perfumes, bottles that might have been lotions, He was combing his hair which indeed was black and lustrous and wavy, and slapping some sort of aftershave on his cheeks, spraying lightly his chest and wrists with cologne, and rubbing oil into his white skin. This was not the first time Conn has been entranced by a slightly older man, but this was the first time he had been allowed to be in the presence of a man who seemed to mind him being entranced. In the north there were people like Conn who were often called white, but like Conn they were the color of gold or ivory and mixed with the Old Blood. Derek very much appeared to be truly descended from the Reavers.
“You know, when I first came here,” Derek chatted on, “I didn’t do a thing for days, just walked around, and here you are, cleaning up the junkiest room we have. And look, you’re yawning, you need ot relax. Go in that room and grab a pomegranate juice from the cooler. If you’d be kind just get me a water too.”
The whole time, Derek had been talking he had, with no consciosuness whatsoever, unwound the long towel from about him, and began to lightly dry his thighs, his buttocks, and what Conn turned his head from. Well, this man as a Blue, perhaps they didn’t care for things like that. Once he’d known a boy who would corner him when no one was around, and then pull down his trousers to get a reaction from Conn, but Derek wasn’t doing this at all. He was naked and very beautiful, combing his hair, looking himself up and down in the mirror as if he were fully dressed and on his way to an appointment.
But when Conn came back and handed Derek the water, the other young man said, “Thanks. I’m so exhausted. I’ve been working all night. Looks like you have been too. I’m not doing another thing until lunch, and that’s the truth. Say, we should all have lunch up here. All of us.”
Conn did not ask who all of us was, and Derek quickly climbed into the large, slightly messy bed and pulled the great comforter over himself.
“Come along,” he turned around patting the bed. “Time for you to sleep. And shut those curtains,”
“Ah, that’s nice,” Derek said, as Conn pulled the curtains close and the yellow light went to amber darkness.
Derek had turned the cover over and Conn realized he was supposed to climb in the bed with him. What a strange place this was, and how tired he was, and he knew he needed a bath, but he also knew he was terribly tired despite what he realized was the confused hardness of his cock.
Quickly, in the dark, Conn threw off his cothes and climbed into the big bed, taking the pillows Derek had pushed toward him and wondering what he was supposed to do. But Derek was already snoring, and weariness was the highest thing on Conn’s mind too and so, the first time that Connleth Ipwick ever slept with a Blue Priest, all he did was sleep.

MORE SUNDAY

 

[CharmedFan28]

I am enjoying this story quite a bit! Derek seems like a cool guy and I look forward to getting to know him better. Great writing and I look forward to more in a few days!

 

[ChrisGibson]

I'm a great fan of Derek .He's based on someone I once knew. I'm glad to share this story, or at least its initial draft, with you and anyone else who might be reading.

 

[Autolycus]

Slight adjustment for this to meet JUB criterion!

"we meet eighteen year old Conn who follows his sister to begin life in the Blue House."

Nice start

 

[ChrisGibson]

If you feel you have to alter, then change it to young Conn, and leave it nondescript rather than making the character another age.

 

[ChrisGibson]

I think I lied and said no posting until tomorrow, but by the time I'd found the post I was like... might as well.


Two

DEREK





The wise ones say that even to be seen is to be changed and to be altered from ones natural form, thus why love is generally in the dimmest of lights, for desire flowers like mushrooms. But in total darkness, free of all seeing and being seen does on stumble into the true country of desire, and discover at last, true lust and true freedom…

- The First Azul Treastise, by Ammanzabad of Dura


Almost a month before this day, when Derek Annaker, aged twenty-four lay passed out in a bed next to an equally passed out Connleth Ipwick, had been the beginning of his fourth year as a Blue Priest. Three whole years since the day he had come from his consecration and out of the notivitate that was for some weeks, for some months and for some a year. Once upon a itme he had been at the Black Door, lost and not knowing what was going on, just like Conn when he came to the White. Only when Derek had come, he was sure that in the end, he would be a priest.
He was exhausted, which was why he was drooling onto his pillow, and his hair was in his face. He would have made a pretty sight to any of the men who came to the temple seeking him, he thought, and then he realized on some level that he would have indeed made a pretty sight, for he was a pretty man. What was more, men were not allowed to seek a particular Blue. They took whom the Master of the Day sent them.
The work of a Blue was not easy, for it was not work you could only give your body to. You were, in the end, a priest, and the very oldest kind of a priest, far older than the white robed priests in the minsters who swore celibacy and offered the body and blood of their nameless version of God, but didn’t know that before you could do this, you must offer Him up in your own body, your own blood. A Blue Priest had to always be present, fully present to the need, the desire, the fear and the hurt in the men who came to him, and this took much out of one.
The Blue Temple expelled no one. In addition to the priests were the novices and the dependents, not to mention the vagrant, the homeless and the pilgrims, and no one in that vast building had to work very hard to prove they belonged. To remain counted among the priesthood, with the rights of a priests one only had to offered himself at least three times in three years over the course of a decade, Derek had thought what a minor requirement that was. And, indeed, most Blues easily fulfilled it. But it was only in his first year he realized how easy it would be to stop if one were not called to it. Not all sex was pleasant, not all men were pleasant and, of course it was about you or even about their immediate pleasure, but about their need, about their healing. You were not there to fulfill yourself or gratify shallow fantasies. Sometimes, though, you fulfillied yourself by accident, but this was holy work. However, as Derek had ruefully reminded himself just a few hours ago, when he trudged upstairs to his apartments and stripped for the shower, even holy work, even the Great Work, was work.
These upper level, beginning with the third one, belonged to the Blues as sleeping quarters. The first floor was the stoa for pilgrims, homeless and guests. The next level as well as certain isolated parts of the third floor and even the fourth, were where the Blues received the men who came to them. There were some smaller houses where one’s bedroom and the room where you had sex with supplicants were the same, but not here, not in the Great Temple. The temple was built like two buildings coiled together and only in certain places connected, so that the halls and passages which the supplicants entered did not connect to the stairs, floors and hallways of the Inner Temple for Blues and their friends, the Dependents of the temple, of which Conn was now one.

Three types of people came to the temple, four really, Derek supposed sleepily. There were the poor and the vagrant and traveling, and the guests who were fed in the kitchens, and there were the men who were looking for sex, but not the kind of sex that came from a prostitute. There were the worshippers of Adonay the Blue God who came in through the Red Door and came right up to the Great Sanctuary. Certainly there was an overlap between these groups. And then there were the young boys who came ot see if they should indeed be priests and entered as novices through the White Door.
Those who came through the Sacntuary, often came to offer themselves to priests or to offer themselves to the God through lying with a priest. True, all the sex a Blue priest had was a sacred act, for the Blue Priests, but when worshipers came to a priest in the Sanctuary, the devotee was worshiping as well. For them, they went into the special rooms behind the image of the God in the part of the Temple open to the air surrounding a great pool. There they worked the ancient sex prayers and the ancient magics that were the last things a Blue learned before his consecration, the solemn reminder that he was not a street whore, but a man of God, and he had better elevate his whole self for the sex act. Derek had been in the sanctuary rooms all last night. There had only been three men, one of them a little more than a boy, a seminarian from the White Temple looking for understanding, but still sex was sex, and Derek was weary. As he lay dozing beside this golden skinned, bronzed haired boy, he thought it was nearly time to take the bath of purification, but this morning all he could bear was a shower and sleep.
This is why when he saw Conn cleaning his room, the last thing on his mind was Conn as a sexual person, and living in this house, where sex was not a shame and the human body nothing to be afraid of, Derek had so freely undressed. Very early in his training, like all Blues, Derek had been exposed to the bodies of men which he both longed for and feared, and exposed to his desires. Very early he knew that if he wanted sex it was easily to be had, and so the bodies of his brothers, and of all men were lovely and to be treasured, but the flesh was not threatening, and though everyone had what they needed and had their own rooms, life in the Blue House was fluid, and most of them did not care to be alone, and so Derek, who had long stopped sleeping in his bed, forgot it was there, and seeing Conn, naturally assumed Conn would sleep in the same bed with him.
It was only now with noon so close that Derek Annakar began to come to himself, remember that this was a boy who did not live in the Temple and that he must have thought this all a little strange. What was more, Derek was by his nature, a creature of desire. If Lorne were here, or Cal, they might have awaken and began the giggle and play that led to orgasm, but now Derek said, feeling his own urges reassert themselves, “Conn, Conn, wake up.”
The ivory skinned boy with his green eyes and reddish brown hair blinked, and Derek said, “It’s nearly time for lunch. You should shower.”
Conn stretched under the blanket, and in the darkness climbed out. Derek looked over his fair body and thought, if Conn were to make a move he wouldn’t stop him, but her certainly wouldn’t begin things.
“You go through that door. It’s a private toilet,” Derek said, sitting up and frankly looking at Conn’s chest, at his hollow stomach that descended to his sex.
“There’s towels and clothes and soap. If you push thr door on the other side it is the shower I share with Lorne. You….” Derek was able to look him up and down, not without appreciation, but not with greed either, “look about Mickel’s size, He’s across the hall. I’ll ask if you can borrow some of his clothes.”
For some reason, maybe because of the dark, Conn wasn’t embarrassed about being naked and he said “I brought clothes.”
“But when’s the last time you cleaned them?” Derek asked, climbing out bed and thinking how nice it would be to climb back in. “No,” He said reaching into the clothes pile and pulling out some light trousers which he slipped on and tied with their drawstring. “You get in the shower. I’ll get you clothes.”

PROBABLY MORE TOMORROW

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was a great start to chapter 2. I am enjoying learning more about the world of this story. Derek seems like just the right person to guide Conn around this new place. Well done writing and always and I look forward to more soon!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Yes, I think Derek is a lovely person, and he's going to show Conn what the temple is all about. I love the life of the Temple and the people in it.

 

[ChrisGibson]

When Conn had come out of the shower, he found that Derek had neatly folded draw string trousers, underthings and an over shirt and socks on the commode in the little bathroom, and he had even put out lotions and hair oil in case Conn would want that kind of thing. He did, more than he had guessed he would after the long journey down south and his cracked hands and dry skin. He wanted this bit of luxury after the absence of ameninites, and now he he heard noise on the other side of the wall, he was glad Derek had brought clothes to him here so he would not have to present himself to anyone else in a towel. The intimacy of the darkened room where he had stood before Derek seemed gone now ,and this was not his house or his temple and he did not have the same aplomb about his body as did Derek.
When he came out after brushing his teeth with the brush left for him, the common room had his wheat haired sister and she seized his wrist and kissed him merrily then said, “And here is Cal, and this handsome dark stanger,” a broad shouldered, tall man red brown in color with thick lips and strong nose, “is Lorne, whose bed you were sleeping in and whose room this is, and this is Matthias,” she said, pointing to a small man with blondish hair almost completely shaven, “who lives at the Purple Kirk but always finds himself over here.”
“He finds himself over here,” Cal said, “because of a certain girl with wheat colored hair and twinkling green eyes.
Nialla thumped Cal in the arm, but Jon, though he colored, said, “I won’t deny it.
They were in the midst of laying out food on the floor as if it were a picnic, a bottle of wine, Conn assumed, and a jug of milk, a fresh loaf of bread and a whole cooked, but cold chicken, a wheel of cheese, and several little jars of what Conn supposed he would have to wait to see, Jon set down the cups, and the door opened and in came three handsome boys in blue and a large middle aged woman darker than Lorne.
“Is it time for food?” the woman demanded, and turning to Conn said, “You must be Connleth.”
“Does everyone know I’m here?”
“Yes,” the woman said, holding out her stout hand, “And I am Obala.”
They sat or knelt or folded their legs under themselves to eat and Cal said to Derek, “Would you lead the blessing over the food,” and Conn remembered that, yes, these men were priests.
Derek bowed his head and spread his hands over the food, and Connleth did not remember what he said except that he added, “And thank you for Connleth being here. This room hasn’t been so clean in ages.”
And then, laughing they set to eating. It was not a quick meal, which is how Conn had always thought of lunch, the thing rushed through before you returned to work. And before it was done he found himself saying, “Well, then what is a dependent?”
“Oh, it’s not a very nice word, is it?” Cal said.
“I think it’s a great word,” Lorne differed, “because a proper house is dependent on dependents.”
Derek laughed and said, “If you look at it that way, then it’s a great word.”
“Dependents,” Nialla said, “are all those attached to a large household. All great temples and minsters have them. Some large actual households.”
“We are like guests who never leave,” Obala said, chewing on her bread.
“That is exactly what we are like!” Nialla decided.
“It’s not,” Derek frowned. “Guest don’t clean up messes or cook food.”
“But we’re not like employees either,” Jon said, chewing on his bread. “I know that I voluntueer to do the cooking at the Purplekirk, and I take care of the older monks, but it isn’t like a job, not really.”
“The dependents are the extended family of the temple or household,” Derek said. “They share our lives and this becomes their home. It is an option for a homeless person or a traveler. Say you are coming to a city and you are new, you drop in here, and by our vows you are a guest. After a few days, you begin to find ways to make yourself useful. Conn did it in the first hour he was here. There is no set job. You are just part of the family, and family pitches in. The dependents of the house use to be called the Children of the House. There is no proper house without children.”
“And all over this city, anyone who needs a roof over their head can simply show up at minster or a temple and find one?” Conn said.
“Not only this city,” Cal said, his mouth full of the apple he was chewing. “All over.”
“What kind of world would it be if homeless people just walked the streets and had nowhere to go? If people couldn’t find jobs or be looked after by other people?” Lorne murmured, “Such a thing would be uncivilized. A country where these things happened…” the Blue priest shook his head, “would be no proper country.”

Once lunch was done, every one began to clean up, and Conn learned that three boys across the hall were Blues in their first year, newly initiated, and that across the hall there were six rooms much like Derek’s though only one had a bathroom, and they all had to leave their rooms to bath in the shower room at the end of the hall.
“Well, I don’t know where there would be room for it,” Connleth said. “Cal’s room is back there,” Conn pointed beyond the kitchen.
“And that is the funny thing,” Cal noted, “all things are not even in this house, which is one of the reasons that people move so freely throughout it, save that first years usally have the rooms with no amenities, and we live in this joined together apartment.”
“Cal’s room is larger than all of ours,” Derek said, “with huge windows and everything, except that to get to it you must either come through this room.”
“Or,” Lorne pointed out, “you must get to it through the bathroom.”
“Through the…” Connleth now remembered that the door to Cal’s room did have shower water on the other side of it. He had assumed this was Cal’s own personal bathroom, but Nialla said, “I will show my brother the Temple, and if he has a mind for it, I will show him some of the city.”
“Some and not all?”
“Conn,” Nialla said, “This isn’t like Ipwick.”
Conn shook his head and said, “It isn’t like anything I’ve seen, really.”
“I have someone to see downstairs,” Cal said as if it were just another day at work which, of course, it was, and and Lorne said, “I could use an after lunch nap,” while Jon said, “If it’s the same, I’ll come with Conn and Nialla. For a bit. Then old Brother Ambrose likes to be read to before his two o’clock nap.”
“And what about Derek?” Cal said. “Back to bed?”
“Back to bed?” Derek said distractedly. “Ah, I think I’ll find something to do. I’m not ready for bed just yet.”
Conn was sad and glad at once. He’d loved sleeping deside the tall, black haired boy, and if Derek had gone back to sleep in that bed, Connleth would have longed to lie beside him.

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was an excellent portion! I am glad everyone is so nice to Conn. Settling down in a new place and I guess a new life can be tough. Great writing and I look forward to more soon!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Settling down in a new place can be the worst! But this temple is the best. And yes, I love everything he's learning, though things will eventually, of course, go deeper. I hope you're having a good night.

 

[ChrisGibson]

Derek departed to his room and lay on the bed a while until everyone had left and until he heard, down the corridor, Lorne, settling down on his bed alone. He never stayed in this room for very long. It smelled of Nialla’s perfume, and there were her notebooks and things folded, for this was the place she had found to stay when she came to live here. Now Derek got up and entered the hallway, which was quiet and empty at this time of day, and he padded down the hall the opposite the way of the bathroom to the door where Nialla had come through with Coon that led to the back stairwell. Here, the hall lengthened, or it made a right turn, and he made the right turn and went to a door which led to a wider stair and down to the lower level. Embossed upon this door was the snake haired head of the goddess Medusa with her tongue leering out, For short, most people called this floor, and these rooms the Gorgon.
Derek pushed the door open, and thse corridors did not appear different from the ones above, but now and again, from behind the closed doors he heard gasps and outcries, swearing and shouting. He heard the furious pounding of sex.
Only a Blue Priest, or a novice in training to the priesthood ever saw the Gorgon. You met these rooms in your training, when you werd learning to embrace every desire and know no fear, when you were facing all the shadows and longings normal people ran from and testing your limits. And here, in the Gorgon’s rooms, a Blue in need could find whatever he desired. This morning, Derek had been exhausted after his service, but waking up with Conn all he had wanted ot do was reach for him, and had Conn been Lorne or Cal, he would have done just that and there would have been and end of it. But now his body still pulsated with a desire that Blues were not allowed to expend on anyone but another Blue or a particular lover. Sex was pleasure and always should be, yes, but lust had no place in the services of a Blue, and so the Gorgon rooms existed. Here, he could do what he needed and emerge exhausted and fulfilled. Today he needed the Faceless rooms, the rooms of complete darkness, where he would allow other men in need to reach for him or he would reach for them and they would do whatever they needed to do. And then he would shower and perhaps take his bath of purification, and emerge renewed with his head cleared.
“Yes,” Derek thought, as he answered the throbbing in his loins, and pushed open the door with the black circle painted on it, he would do exactly that.


He has risen as a light in the darkness, for the upright of heart. Hallal.
Blessed is the man who fears Varayan,
and loves his commands above all things.
His seed will be powerful on earth:
the descendants of the just will be blessed.
Glory and riches will fill his house,
and his righteousness will stand firm for ever.

At the top of Varayan Hill, several blocks northwest of the stately Blue Temple, they entered the Purplekirk, crouching in the heart of the central neighborhood of the city like a white and violet lion. Under the great dome tall as as a seven story building with a hollow wide as an arena, the voices of the monks reverberated as they sang the early evening prayer.


He rises up in the darkness,
a light for the upright,
compassionate, generous, and just.
Happy the man who takes pity and lends,
who directs his affairs with wisdom –
he will never be shaken.
The just man will be remembered for ever,
no slander will he fear.

“And Jon lives here?” Conn whispered from the chair where he sat behind a pillar with his sister.
“You could too,” Nialla said, “if it suits you. It’s beautiful, but it wouldn’t suit me. And having you away from me wouldn’t suit me either.”
“Then let’s not talk of it. You can stay with me tonight in Derek’s room.”
“Oh good.”
“Or,” nialla said, ‘if you want the decadent luxury of your own room, then you could stay across the hall. I think there are some empty ones. You can tell because the doors of the empty rooms are always cracked.”

His heart is ready, hoping in the Varayan;
his heart is strong, it will not fear,
until he looks down on his defeated enemies.
He gives alms and helps the poor:
his righteousness will endure for ever,
his future will be glorious.
The transgressor will see, and be enraged:
he will grind his teeth and fade away.
The desires of the wicked will perish.

They waited till the night psalm was over, and then Conn said, “That was nice. It’s been so long since I went to an actual service. I used to feel so calm when we were at the little kirk back home.”
“True,” Nialla notd, “but this is nothing like the kirk back home.”
“No.” Conn looked about at the great ancient structure, its white marble walls, its very wide aisles.
“I think our whole village could fit inside of here. I think I got tired just walking down the arcade.
He stretched his head, looking high up to the rafters and said, “Good Lord, can you just… how high is that?”
Nialla craned her neck to look at the door that was a network of sculpted and webbed stone and she said, “I can’t begin to imagine, but I do know one thing. If we don’t get back, the night is going to beat us, and I don’t mind traveling at night, but I don’t love it either.”
They left the monks to their singing. The great doors of Purplekirk opened up directly to the pavement, and the great townhouses and shops of the Everdeen were before them. The street was getting less bsuy with the venders shutting down, and Nialla lifted her finger and hailed a bus that took them down from the Evereenthe and back up to Morion Hill where the houses and buildings were overseen by the ancient, rectangular butte of the Blue Temple.
They came in through the same white door Conn had entered that morning, but this time they went through the lobby and up a wider stair, and Cal met them on the first floor saying, “Com on, you all it’s dinner time, a communal dinner! So you’re going to meet Hyrum. He knows oyu’re here, Conn,” Cal said. “He’d love to meet you.”
Conn blinked and nodded, and he and Nialla followed Cal who was now in a loose blue robe like a monk’s, his hands folded into it, the hood hanging.
Well, Conn reminded himself, he is a priest. They are all priests.
Derek.
Merry, beautiful black haired Derek, was a preist too.
He told himself he was treacherous, because suddenly he longed to lay in bed with Derek again, and not stay with Nialla at all.

 

[CharmedFan28]

Sounds like Conn and Derek both want to be with each other. It will be interesting to read what happens with them going forward. I hope Conn decides to stay. Great writing and I look forward to more tomorrow! I hope you have a nice week.

 

[ChrisGibson]

Conn and Derek have a deep attraction to each other, and where this attraction leads we will see in our following chapters. So much will be hapening.

 

[ChrisGibson]

CONN'S RELATIONSHIPS TO HIS FRIENDS IN THE BLUE TEMPLE DEEPEN


They went up several floors. Conn knew they were traveling higher than the floor where Derek and Cal and Lorne lived, where he would be living, but he forgot to count and midway ip, when Nialla let herself take the breath Conn was holding in, Cal said, “Come on!” and she said, “Come on yourself, we should have taken the lift.”
They arrived, however, on a very different floor, spacious, with great windows, and there were few doors here, and one ahead of them opened to noise, and when they entered, Nialla seeming almost but quite as sheepish as Conn, they saw the great eating hall was full of Blues at table, all in robes, though some lighter than others. Some robes were hooded. Many were not, and Conn observed all sorts of Blues. Some were dark like the men of Ava and some white as Derek. Some were golden brown or olive like the old tribes and the Armorians. There were tall and short, black haired, red haired and bald. In the buzzing room was every type of beauty one could imagine, slender boys lithe like swimmers or men thick like ball players and several waved or nodded amidst the jostle of food being passed, but Cal led them to the table where there were many, including the boys they’d lunched with, and Derek rose up merrily in his smoke blue robe and embraced Conn.
“Did you all enjoy the city?”
“Bits of it,” Conn said.
Derek laughed, and there was laughter around the table. Beautiful men he did not know looked at him with affection, and Conn colored.
Conn said as he and Nialla sat down between Cal and Lorne, “I mean, I enjoyed what I saw, but we only saw bits.”
Nialla whispered, “I think he knows.”
“Try the fish,” Lorne offered to Conn. “It is cooked in a butter and wine sauce and the the bone is lifted right out of it before your eyes. Well, before my eyes.”
Conn looked around and he observed that at the table was fat Obala and there were other people, some of them women, who did not appear to be Blues.
“This is our fellowship night,” a red headed Blue whose name he did not know said, “Everyone in the house comes together on such nights and we all eat in the Upper Hall.”
“It’s not usually like this?” Conn asked.
The redhead shook his head.
“Usually only Blues eat here, and usually it’s the Blues who were at the evening service. A lot of times we eat scattered, but at least once a day every Blue comes to the hall to eat. You just don’t know who will come when you do.”
“You would know,” Derek said, bitting into a crust of bread, “if you came around and called more often.”
The red head rolled his eyes, and Lorne said, “Every since Gabriel went through Second Orders he’s become pretty high and mighty.”
“I hate you all,” Gabriel said with a sober face, “and that’s why I don’t eat with you.”
He chucked a crust of bread at Derek and and Cal asked, “How was this afternoon for you?”
Conn thought he was talking to him, but luckily didn’t answer before Lorne spoke.
“It’s a good thing we have to love them but not be in love with them. He was kind enough and gentle enough, and one could feel for him, He told me all about his children and his former wife and how his son was at home asleep, and he reminded me of a squirrel. I actually had to tell him to slow down. He was really all over the place. A bit of a biter until I brought an end to that.”
“It isn’t supposed to be about your own pleasure,” Derek said rather superiorly.
“It’s isn’t about my suffering either,” Lorne said, “and I won’t suffer to be covered in some squrirlish man’s bite marks. But in the end things went well enough. He was very eager. He kept using my name, which is too familiar for me, and he said, I sure hope I can see you again. I sure would like to see you again.”
“Did you explain to him,” Cal said, his eyes hooded and a smile across his face, “that we are not in charge of that, that whoever is sent to him is sent to him.”
“That’s exactly what I explained.”
“Oh, that’s terrible,” Conn heard himself say, and they all looked at him.
“I mean,” again, his face was red, “you might have to go through that all over again. If you’re sent to him.”
“Bless you, Bird,” Cal said with a touch of that drawl. “All Lorne has to do is go to the Master and say he isn’t going to be with that man again. Come to think of it, I could say the same ahead of time and spare myself an experience.”
“Really?”
“Yes,” Cal said.
“Tnen what about… the poor person who ends up with him?”
“If someone is known to have… peccadillos or a complaint,” Lorne said, “then the Master will always tell whoever is going to him. If someone is out and out black balled that’s a whole other story. But you get warning about what’s going to happen. The men we come to may be surprised by us, but we’re not to be surprised by them.”
Derek said, “It’s always supposed to be a match. The right Blue for the right supplicant.”
Conn nodded thoughtfully.
“I won’t say no to him indefinitely,” Lorne said, “But I will let the Master know I’m not having him again anytime soon.”
Derek nodded and Lorne went on, “I know you say it’s a service and it is, but that doesn’t mean it has to be a drudgery, and I won’t have a string of bad lovers. And you know what I’ve had today?”
Derel blinked at him.
“A string of bad lovers.”
They burst out laughing but for Conn, whose face was red, and Nialla lifted a cup to her face ot hide her smile.
Their laughter came ot an abrupt end as Conn felt a presence at his back, and he turned around to see a not very tall, mild faced black man. His head was shaven and he was in a deep blue, hooded robe. From his neck hung a pendent in the shape of an open hand, and he said, “Since you didn’t come to me, I had to come to you.”
“Oh, Master,” Derek interrupted, “we meant to—”
“Peace,” The man was still smiling as he put out his hand.
“Connleth, I hope they’re treating you well. If you should need anything you must come to me, or any of the other senior preists,” he said gesturing to a table where there were several men in hooded blue robes, though most of them seemed older than the man before him.
“:You are the Lord Hyrum,” Connleth guessed, swallowing his food and bowing.
“Hyrum suffices,” he said with a smile.
“Was this… But the House could not be named after you.”
“No,” Lord Hyrum said. “The house was named for the very first Hyrum and every high priest after him takes his name. This is the tradition in all blue houses.
“So if Derek started a Blue House,” Cal interrupted, “then everyone after him would have to call themselves Derek when they were high priest.”
Derek looked aghast and Hyrum tilted his hand and said, “There’s a little bit more to it than that, Calon, but…” he smiled broadly, lazily, and touched Connleth on the shoulder before saying, “Calon, are you still attending me two days hence?”
“Of course Master,” Cal said with none of the feline calm he had so far possessed, but something like true adoration.
Hyrum nodded, winked, and was on his way, Cal still looking after him.
“What are we doing for the rest of the night?” the soft faced Gabriel asked.
Connleth didn’t want to say how tired he was after walking all over the city and a few hours of sexually frustrated sleep, but Nialla said, “I’m exhausted, and could use a nap. I’m so tired I don’t even know what else to think about.
Conn nodded and Derek said, “I think we’re going to the last night service, and then there’s the teacher who will be speaking down below.”
The way Derek said teacher made Conn want to go, but he yawned and felt like he’d challenged himself enough. All the Blues said they were going except for Gabriel with his red hair and soft expression, his eyes blinking through his spectacles.
“I am actually on duty tonight. Until after midnight.”
“When’s the last time you were on duty?” Lorne asked.
“Gabriel looked reflective.
“This year most of my work hasn’t been in the rooms. I usually only go one night a week,” the young man looked to his imaginary watch, “and this is my night.”
Connlet was surprised by someone who seemed so bookish and boyish and innocent being a priest who was casually going down to one of the rooms to have sex with whoever showed up, and that was exactly what Gabriel was going to do. Connleth tried to refrain from shaking his head in surprise. A single day could not make him used to this place. And he didn’t have to be. He was going to rest, talk with his sister for a while and, at last let a little sleep claim him.

When they stood in Derek’s room, looking at the bed, Nialla said, “It’s not their fault. They aren’t practical that way. We should have asked for another bed or a bigger one.
Conn had never seen the bed until now, and he realized it was too small for the both of them.
“We can work on that tomorrow and I’ll take the floor tonight, Nialla said. “I take it all the time anyway.”
“I’ll take the floor,” Conn said, “and we can talk in the dark, and later on, I’ll just go into the main room. There are sofas and everything.”
He said that but he was thinking of the huge bed where he and Derek had slept together and wondering if they could do that again,
“Wonderful,” Nialla said. “You get some cushions.”
And so while Conn lay in the cushions on the floor, and Nialla lay above him, the beginning of moonlight came through the widnow, and they whisperd about the day past, and from several blocks away heard the bells tolling in Purplekirk, telling the city that night had arrived in earnest, at last.

MORE TOMORROW

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was a very interesting and informative portion! I am liking this world more and more. I look forward to the next portion and to see if anything more happens between Conn and Derek! Great writing.

 

[ChrisGibson]

Ah, yes. Tonight, dinner in the Blue House, and tomorrow we learn a little bit more.