The Book of the Blue House

[ChrisGibson]

TONIGHT CONN ATTENDS A MIDNIGHT FEAST OF THE SPIRIT, AND LOVE BLOOMS

“Wakey! Wakey!” Conn heard, and something was moving across his face.
“Time to get up,” a voice said, and Conn remembered his brother’s friends putting bugs on his face and nearly shot up, but Cal said, “Are you alright?”
It was the hem of his robe. That he had taken off, and he weas in shorts and an open work shirt. A light was on down the hall and Nialla was sitting up, yawning.
“We wanted to know if you wall wanted to join us,” Cal said. “All I’ve done is ruin a good night’s sleep.”
“Of course, we do,” Nialla said, tying her hair back. Before Conn could say anything.
“What time is it?”
“A little past midnight. It was Cayman. He’s a Grey priest. He teaches a little long. You don’t mind it, but the whole night’s gone before you know it. And Gabriel is coming with us, He’s in the bathroom, cleansing.”
“I think a lot of people are coming,” Derek said in a quiet voice. Conn hadn’t seen him from where he was in the corner of the room, his arms folded into his long sleeves. Lorne was singing to himself, and gathering things, and as Conn put on his overjacket and Nialla slipped on shoes, they headed out through Derek’s door. The three first years who had lunched with them were out in the hall looking eager and knuckling their eyes, and they all headed down the hall to where Derke had gone earlier to reach the Gorgon rooms, but now they were heading upstairs and Loren was singing, lustily.

They say a man gave up his
land to be the Woman’s Key!
Oh! And Seven came down
Oh, and Seven came down
Of all of them I’ve spoken
Except the one who’s broken!

Conn was right beside Derek, and Derek looked at him and smiled, shyly. Was it shyly? Maybe Conn was making that up, and Nialla said, “It’s times like this I wish Jon lived with us.”
They wound up to the next floor and then the next and they were at the seventh, and then they emerged into the night sky and the cool night air.

It was here that Lorne grew quieter and Conn thought, well no one’s rooms were near the stairwell, so probably no one heard him bellowing.
And then they emerged on gardens and benches. This must have been the roof of the Blue house and now, as Conn looked about, he saw that it was absolutely vast. He had not imagined the roof of the Temple, but what he saw now was trees and winding garden paths, little fountains, and no end to it all. From where they emerged they were nowhere close to the sides of the building though, in the distance, he could make out what he thought was the parapet.
They were all walking toward what Conn thought must have been the windowless façade of the Temple. There was a great wall rising, the length of a large house and Conn could see that it was a square, so a wall squaring an unseen courtyard. From there, in the day, the sunlight must have come into some inner court of the temple, but the parapet was not so high to prevent people from falling down, Conn decided, as it was to keep people from looking in. Now through a screen of tree branches he could see the city beyond. They would have been, Conn supposed right over the sanctuary, but now they were all taking out wine and cheese and bags of tobacco, and Lorne was singing:

They say a man gave up his
land to be the Woman’s Key!
Oh! And Seven came down
Oh, and Seven came down
Of all of them I’ve spoken
Except the one who’s broken!

Now Cal asked what Conn had not dared
“What in the world are you singing?”
“An old song,” Lorne said.
“That tells me nothing.”
Instead of explaining, Lorne sang:



First was the mage
Who moved from age to age
And second was his hero strong

Third was the starry maid,
who lived in trees,
whose wood would never die
Seven came down
Oh, and seven came down

Four is for the lady who fits inside
men’s hands
Who gave up arms and legs to
be an arm again
And Seven came down
Oh, and seven came down

“I don’t know anything more than I knew before,” Cal said.
“Sure, you do,” Derek dismissed this. “the Seven are the Anyar. You’re just not paying attention.”
Connleth did not know what the Anyar were, but Cal said, “We never sang that song in a temple service.”
“The Gods don’t only exist in Blue Temples, numbskull,” Derek said.
Derek set down a cushion and gestured for Conn to sit on it beside him, and then, on impulse, he wrapped an arm around Conn, but didn’t look at him, and Conn liked to feel Derek’s arm about his waist, and he liked the smell of Derek. And the quiet of him.
They were drinking and talking and Lorne was smoking, and in time came the woman Obala, and then Nialla rose up and almost shrieked when she saw a black girl, young and willowy with her hair in braids come up, and she was carrying little bottles of wine and Nialla said, “This is Sara. She’s usually around Gabriel. And where is Gabriel?”
But then Gabriel was coming up with some more first years who seemed in awe of him, and he was in lose pants and a warm jacket and a cap was pulled over his ears. With him came three more people who must have been dependents. It was a regular night Derek said, and Conn felt warm and full of peace here.
“It’s all good,” Derek said.
“Yeah,” Conn said. “Yes. It is.”
“He noticed that Derek had a little earring, like a twist of wire through his ear that looked intricate and wonderful and painful.

Seven came down
Oh, and seven came down

“You’re quiet, like me,” Derek said.
Conn didn’t know what to say to this, but then, of course, that was Derek’s point.
“We’re people who like to consider things,” Derek said.
Derek’s arm was still lightly around him, but then Lorne’s arm was around Cal and Nialla’s arm was around someone he didn’t know. It was early winter even if in the south, and they and their blankets were they’re protection.
“Tell us a tale, Cal,” Sara said. “give us a tale.”
“Not tonight,” the curly haired beauty said, “My tales aren’t for tonight. What about Gabe?”
The boy in glasses shrugged and said, “If you loved me better you wouldn’t make me do a thing.”
“I’ll make it up to you Gabriel,” Cal said. “I swear I will.”
Gabriel stared at him, and then laughed and said, “Alright then.”

In the long ago, there lived the great king Dafydd, and though many loved him, his son King Sol would be greater still. But Sol was not his original successor. His first son was Amon, whose mother was a princess, and Amon believed his hand had the right to touch anything, and so he fell in love with his sister Tamar, and did not think this unfitting because Tamar was, he said, only his half-sister. Her mother was a princess from another region called Namu, and so Amon said he was ailing and needed Tamar to come and wait upon him. And behold, Tamar was a priestess of the Lady of Amana. She was attending her brother, when he held her down and had his way with her, and when he was done, she ran from him and shut herself in her mother’s house. She did not return to the temple but veiled herself in black.
Now behold, Tamar had a full brother, the son of the High Priestess of Amana, and this was Absalom, The Father of Peace, and he went to his sister and when his sister told him what had happened, he said, “I will be your vengeance,” and he went to Tubal, the Smith of the Gods and commissioned three swords made, and with those swords he went into the house of Amon and he slew Amon, his mother, and Amon’s son, and when this was seen, the people of the Great City of Allia where ruled the King declared the Absalom must flee, and so he did.
Now, Absalom’s mother was Maachah and her father was Talmai, King of Gesshur. She sent a letter to him to send him to the land of his grandfather, but Tamar, full of rage, raised up an army for her brother and he rose and returned and took the kingdom of Allia, causing his farther to flee. Now, there are of that time many fair and sad songs, for this is called one of the Great Sorrows of Storytelling, but King Daffydd had a bloodthirsty nephew, Ioav, the son of his sister, Zeruiaha, and he slew many of his kin, hoping for a throne and a high place, and he led King Dafydd against his own son. He said, ‘Let me pursue him into the Great Wood, which is the Wood sacred to Amana the Great Lady, and Dafydd said, ‘Follow him, but do not slay him.’

Now, when Absalom had fled from his father, he left the three great swords made by Tubal, and now Ioav took one of these and gave the other two to his sons, and they pursued Absalom, their own kinsman into the Wood. And now Absalom rode on a great white horse called Clayrfax, and as he rode, behold, his hair was caught in the branches of a terebinth so that he hung between earth and heaven, and though he cried mercy, Ioav had no mercy, and he and his sons ran their three swords through Absalom, and so desecrated the swords and the Tree and the Wood. Then Amana wept and behold, the very wood and leaves of the tree turned red as blood.

Ioav took down Absalom’s body and buried it under a cairn of stones beneath the tree and returned home. He rode into the city and men cheered him and he told the King that he was avenged, for his son was dead. And then King Dafydd wept and Ioav chastised him saying, ‘Look at the men who died for you, and behold you weep for the son who betrayed you, Shame.’

And then Dafydd gathered himself and stopped weeping. But Tamar robed herself and in red and raised her hand to curse Ioav and his sons and she said, ‘Behold, even the Gods damn you for your deed, for see, the entire forest knows of your bloodshed,’ and she pointed from the window and, look, all of the trees of that wood were now red as blood and ever afterward have the trees of Amana been bright red like new blood.

Tamar lay heavy curses upon the sons of Ioav, and there are other stories, I will not tell here, and she laid curses upon Ioav which in time were received, but of this you must know tonight, that at the end of the Second Creation, when all the world was nearly lost, the Amana’s Grove drowned beneath the waves and only one great Red Tree survived. Today, far away, there are still Red Woods grown from the seed of that Tree, but the very Red Door of our house, which is dedicated to the Lady Amana herself, is carved from the wood of that Tree which was taken from the land that sunk beneath the waves, and it is in this house the Lady is honored beside Adonay as she ever was, by love and pleasure.”


Conn understood why Derek had given up his small room. Everything seemed to be happening in the greater room, where Conn considered the piled books and ashtrays filled with stubbed cigarettes revealing that while he and Nialla had slept, there had been life there. But now it was time for sleeping, and Conn piled himself on the sofa amidst covers, and Lorne crashed into the large bed that was actually his own but rolled so far into a corner there was still much space. Conn saw that when Lorne had gone into bed he had gone wrapped in a large blanket and so now he knew that there were so many piles of covers that no one was really stealing blankets or privacy. Gabriel lingered in the room talking a little to Cal and one of the first years—Conn thought his name was Andrew and he liked him a great deal—who was still not ready to go to bed. Their chatter disturbed no one and, of course, if they had wanted sleep they surely could have had it like Nialla and Sara who had gone back to bed in Derek’s unused room.

Conn’s whole first day had been made of occasional sleeps, and when he woke up there was a dim light from the kitchen shining on a night blackened room, and Derek and Lorne asleep in the large bed with a great empty space between them. He heard snoring and he heard small noise, but in all these connected rooms it was hard to tell from where. He needed the restroom and got up to head down the little hall toward where his sister and Sara slept, and went into the toilet room. He finished, cleaned himself, washed his hands and trod across the large room to the kitchen where a little light was still on. He wanted water and he heard the noise from Cal’s huge room. He poured cold water from the cold box and drank it slowly while listening, then, at last, went to the room where there was no door closed.

In the middle of it, in the large bed, lit by the moonlight, Cal lay on his back, half sitting up, and Gabriel, white and beautiful, knelt on him, fucking himself quickly, his mouth parted, head arched in pleasure while small noises escaped his mouth.

“It’s alright baby,” Cal said, in a slow voice that held none of the sarcasm and drawl it had earlier, “it’s alright. I told you I’d be hear for you.”

Eyes closed, sweet Gabriel panted and pumped himself quickly on Cal whose hands rose up occasionally to touch him while his mouth opened wider until, at last, Cal rose from the bed, and the moonlight was white on him when he turned around and began slamming himself into Gabriel while Gabriel’s hands went around him. Conn knew he shouldn’t watch, but almost as he said it a new inner voice, said, “Why wouldn’t you?”

He ached. He was so hard and he realized that, in some way, he had ached all day for this affection, could nearly cry out for something that was so near to him and so far even as he heard Gabriel moaning like someone being punched while Cal fucked him harder and harder.

Conn came back into the dark room, and the light from the bathroom was off as Derek came out, naked, and looked at him. Derek came to him and the two of them heard and watched Cal and Gabriel.
“Why doesn’t he shut the door?”
“Because he isn’t ashamed,” Derek said. “It’s how we are. We are here for each other. We love. There is no shame.”
And then suddenly, Derke hugged Conn tight and Conn ached to bursting, and Derek said, “Come on, Connleth, why are you on that couch?”

Derek led him back into the warm bed, and he spread the cover over him, and they huddled together. And then, Connleth kissed him quickly, and Derek kissed him hungrily, not shy at all. Under the covers the two of them struggled to pull of Connleth’s thin night pants and they gave themselves up to touching and squeezing and kissing, rubbing each other’s hair and arms, all of their bodies, pressing together tighter and tighter until Derek gave a surprised cry and Connleth shuddered, felt an erupting and then realized the two of them must have been spilling together at the same time, a hot syrup blossoming in the bed between their stomachs.

Exhaustion and contentment overtook him. A strand of Derek’s hair in his mouth, the tension over, just this holding Derek he’d wanted all day since he’d met him. This softening after the hardening, they clung together tighter under the warm covers and soon fell into sleep.

MORE SATURDAY NIGHT

 

[CharmedFan28]

An excellent new section. Learning more about the Blue House is always very interesting. I am glad Derek and Conn acted on their feelings. I don't know where this story is going but I am enjoying the journey! Great writing and I look forward to more in a few days. Hope you have a great weekend.

 

[ChrisGibson]

Well, just wait and see. It's going to an interesting place and I don't think where it's going is foreseeable at all.

 

[ChrisGibson]

THREE


THE PRIESTS



God is fire. God is desire born and desire met and this is the mystery of the Azul Ierateío, the Blue Priesthood. All of Ieraterion is aimed toward devotion. Desire and love, which have become things to fear, are faced in the Blue Temple in an alarming light. Here the Ierateion puts his hand to whatever he desires turning this bright burning lust into exultation, and through exultation reaching exaltation. The fire of lust having burnt itself out, the priest becomes what most men never are, a hollow place of stillness and calm where God may enter to be reborn into a new and gentler flame.

- Holy Love, Holy Devotion by Gabriel Rokamont


There was a tickling on his chest, and Connleth tried to ignore it, but every time he did, it returned. Like a bug. He slapped it away, heard laughing and blinked himself into wakefulness. He was under the soft covers and the laughter was Derek’s.
“Time to get up, sleepy head. At least for a little bit.”
Derek lifted the covers above them, and yellowish white light filled the room.
“Oh, it’s not time for you to get up. It’s time for me to get up, and I didn’t really want you to wake up alone.”
Connleth scratched his head and reach for Derek. They both tumbled out of bed naked, and Derek had it easy because he simply reached for a robe and slipped it over him. It was Conn who struggled for night trousers and a shirt, but luckily not socks, for the rooms were carpeted.
He stretched and yawned.
“I could sleep two more hours,” he confessed.
Derek looked at him seriously.
“Should I let you go back to sleep?’
“No,” Conn shook his head.
“Do you have to…? Go to the temple? Or…?”
“We are in the temple,” Derek said.
“You know what I mean.”
“Go to the rooms and have sex with visitors is what you mean,” Derek said, baldly.
“No, I don’t. That’s done for the week. Funny,” he said, picking clothes up from the floor, “How we all swear that we are boys of such high energy we’ll do that forever, and after about three years we peter out.”
“What’s it like?” Conn asked. Then he said, “It’s none of my business, really.”
Derek shook his head. “I’m not offended. None of us is offended, Conn. Not by your questions. I don’t know what it’s like. It’s like being a Blue Priest, I suppose. It’s different for all of us.. I know what it’s not like. That’s the only way I can describe it.”
“Then….” Conn shrugged, “what is it not like?”
“Let’s see,” Derek had been crouched on the floor, and there he remained, thinking, “It’s not like being a prostitute. That’s the first thing. I am not paid. Though you could say the Temple is paid and we live in the Temple, but it isn’t as if we are forced to do anything and none of us seems to do it very often. I’ve never been a prostutite but it’s my understanding that a john picks a prostitute and a prostitute must do whatever a john wants. It’s not really about that here. It’s sort of the other way around. I… have never been asked to explain it, so I may not be very good at it.”
Derek shrugged.
“Or maybe that’s exactly what I am? A part time prostiture.
“But there is more because Blues do not only serve the public. They serve each other. I guess that’s what it’s like. So many people are ashamed of their desires, or they need to be touched. They need it. Men are dying to touch another man and be touched. Some people say you don’t need that. It’s not a need and its not important. And there are even some people who say it is dirty. But sex is holy, even when it’s not lovemaking. It’s a need and it’s good to meet that need for someone. And for each other.”
Conn did not ask the question he wanted to, but Derek had been ordained three years and so he said, “And now you want to know what the difference is between being a Blue and what we did last night?”
“I hadn’t thought it,” Conn lied. “But yes.”
“That is a harder one,” Derek said, looking a little way. He stood up now and sat on the bed beside Conn.
“I didn’t really bother to think about it. I… guess you want to know what’s the difference between us and what you saw with Cal and Gabe? I dont know that there is because I think Cal and Gabe have something for each other. I know though, that whenever a Blue is ordained, he has to go on what’s call a Journey. Once upon a time we did not have Houses. We traveled the roads and gave ourselves to men who needed us. We still do. And when you go on your journey you go with a brother. The purpose of the brother is that you do not use sex with the unordained to simply fulfill yourself so that brother is their to protect you, but also to fulfill your needs.”
“And you had one?’
“I did,” Derek said. “But he left the House, left the Order, and I was offered a new one, which I turned down, though in time, Lorne was there for me if I needed that. But… needing a friend for your temporary desires is different from…”
Derek cleared his throat. He was more uncertain and unable to speak than he thought he would be.
“It is different with us because you are not ordained, because you look at me like I’m just a person and we’re just two people who like each other, and I really, really wanted to be with you. I don’t know if I’m explaining this at all well.”
Derek stood up.
“Conn,do you want to spend the day with me? It’s not going to be fun. I have to do laundry. But… we could eat together and everything, If you’d like?”
When Conn was slow in answering, Derek said, “I hate laundry and completely understand—”
“No, No, I do,” Conn said.
And then he said, “I like you, Derek. A lot. You don’t have to be shy around me. I like you a great deal. I like how you take your cothes off in front of me and don’t think about it and aren’t trying to seduce me and you just look lovely. I like last night. I want ti again. With you. I like the way we are, even if we don’t really know how we are. Okay?”
“Okay?” Derek nodded, smiling a little.
“I’ll even do laundry with you.”

After their talk, Derek handled him in that rough, offhanded brotherly way which attracted Conn, as if they barely needed any introduction, he stripped the bed, tossing sheets to Conn and instructing him to place them in the basket.
“Go look for all the towels and get all the other robes that are in the discard.”
Conn did so and he said, “I’ll go clean up the bathroom.”
“No,” Derek said, almost scowling. “It’s part of our training. No matter how many dependents and and servants there are, only Blues clean up bathrooms.”
Conn raised an eyebrow.
“I will explain it to you later. Or show you.”
Conn shrugged and nodded. They gathered their things, and Derek went back to his own room, the room where Nialla slept though he did not see her and wondered where she was. He came back with bundled sheets and clothes. He opened the door and took up the first basket, holding the door open for Conn, and as Conn came out, Derek pressed him against the wall and kissed him roughly, then turned around, indicating for Conn to follow.
They did not go to the the stairwell, but in the opposite direction, and even past the secret stairwell his sister had brought him up through yesterday. They stood at a gated door. Derek pressed a button and the gates opened for them to go inside, Derek pulling the door shut as it descended several floors, and then finally stopped. Conn pushed open the gate now, and they came into a hot room which opened onto a larger room full of steam and great hot cauldrons. Here there were Blues, stripped to the waist, stirring great pots.
“The laundry rooms. We always do our own laundry and our own bathrooms,” Derek said.
“Humility?”
“Not exactly,” Derek said. They filed past boiling pots and found one not in use and just steaming. Derek instructed Conn on how to heat up the kettle, and what soap to toss in, and as he did, Derek wiped the sweat from his brow, pushing a hand through his black hair, and then began to toss in the bedsheets.
“The less warm pots are for the robes. The cooler for ordinary clothes. We will be here a while, or at least, you will be watching me. Oh, I’m such a cad. We should have had breakfast, but I wasn’t thinking.”
“I wasn’t hungry.”
But Conn felt hunger now. As if Derek heard his stomach grumbling, he said, “Don’t be foolish. Go upstairs. The hall you ate in yesterday is right above us, and say Derek Annakar wants his breakfast.”
“What about me?”
“You will eat the breakfast, dumdum,” Derek had stripped down to nothing and thrown his robe on the floor. “I just want the apple. Unless you want the apple.”
Conn realized he was not even looking at Derek with lust. In a day he’d becomc used to him, and they would be together again.
“No,” Conn said. “I’ll be back.”
Derek nodded and took a great paddle and began stirring the laundry.

MORE TOMORROW

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was a great portion! I really like Conn and Derek's dynamic together. They really seem to care for each other. I am enjoying too learning more about this world. Excellent writing and I look forward to more tomorrow!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Yes, Conn and Derek and fully into the beginning of a relationship and the tenderness of young love. I enjoyed this part, and especially enjoy Derek. Thank you for reading and I'm glad you're feeling the story.

 

[ChrisGibson]

TONIGHT WE LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BLUE TEMPLE AND FOLLOW NIALLA AND SARA AROUND KINGSBORO

It was three hours before they were done and the laundry was left hanging in the blowing rooms, rooms so hot and filled with turning fans, that by the time they’d hung their wash on the lifting hooks, Conn was stripped naked as well. At first he wouldn’t undress, but then he felt foolish being only half naked next to Derek who was dripping with sweat, flushed and nude, and continuously wiping his brow along with all the other men here who were not, Conn realized, all universally slender or the same in color or height and who were also not looking at each other.
“Enough of this. We’ll come back in the afternoon.”
“Are we going to miss lunch?”
“Miss lunch?” Derek looked at him as if he were mad, then said, “It’s only ten o clock!”
“What? What time did you wake me up?”
“About half past the sixth hour.”
“What?”
Derek shrugged. “We had a lot to do. Why sleep in?”
“I could actually hit you,” Conn discovered.
“Ah, Conn, don’t be like that,” Derek said as they came out of the boiling room into the ante room, and began to dress again. “And now we’ve got the rest of the morning.”

Unconsciously, Derek had decided to treat Conn more lor less like a younger brother, and to Derek Annakar, who had no actual yunger brothers, this meant doing the same thing he would do with a young Blue in training. Since Conn was, it seemed, also his lover, and a few years younger, theating him this was seemed the only good sense. In their rooms, Derek stripped himself of the old robe and murmured that it was a shame he couldn’t have washed it along with the others.
“But there are others,” he said. “We need to clean. I’m going to my bathroom to to use the commode. Come to me in about five minutes.”
Five minutes later, after Conn had relieved himself, he entered Derek’s little bathroom and Derek took a warm cloth and began to wipe Conn down.
“We’re filthy. We didn’t even shower after having sex in some old sweaty sheets all night,” he chuckled, and handed Conn the cloth as he took his own cloth and cleaned his body quickly, openly wiping between his thighs and swiping the cloth through his buttocks, murmuring, “That’ll do for this.”
He reached into the cabinet and pulled out a small bottle with a tip at the end, opened it, turned on the faucet and filled it with warm water, then closed it again. He squeezed a bit of the water out and put oil on the tip and then without warning, turning to half sit on the sink, squeezed the water into himself all the time saying.
“If you’re going to have a man inside of you, you should do this. Or if you just want to be clean. Everyone should do this. It’s the first thing you should know. Well, one of the first things.”
Derek, in the confidence of a Blue priest, moved to the commode and chatting all the time, evacuated water and then repeated the process a couple of times saying, “You want the water to run clean out of you. If it does not run clean you are not done. Go to the other bathroom and try it yourself.”
Conn did not even think of questioning this, but was also surprised that he had become so used to Derek, and he understood now that the reason Blues cleaned their own bathrooms was because the bathroom was an intimate part of being a Blue, as were the clothes, the sheets where sex took place, stained with sex and the robes of the priesthood, perhaps sometimes equally stained. The bathrooms where bodies were cleaned and purified before and after sex, where the glamorous priest became the man voiding his bowels, was equally sacred, and Derek had decided that he would not be the glamorous priest, that he would show Conn everything, and as Conn grimaced and felt water pouring out of him, he felt himself oddly in love.
When he was done they showered slowly and with tenderness, and Conn could smell that Derek had already put coffee on. But they didn’t drink it. They made love until Derek lay on his back in the darkness of his little room in the bed smelling new sheets, and he wrapped his legs about Conn and brought him inside. Conn nearly flew out of his body as Derek guided him and all too quickly, shuddering while Derek laughed in joy and held onto him, Conn came.


Nialla heard a singing in her ear that, once she could assemble her thoughts to remember the night before, she attributed to Sara who had been sleeping, poorly, on the twin bed with her. But no sooner had she murmured, “Saaaara,” then the black girl said, “It’s not me.”
“Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!” Cal sang over them, and Gabriel was laughing. The two priests were in their blue robes and chuckling in the darkness of the room.
“Time to make the world a beautiful place for those whose lives are less beautiful.”
“Out of all the mornings,” Nialla said, stumbling out of bed.
“Out of all the mornings indeed,” Sara agreed.
“Now go wash your faces in the first bathroom and come on, We’re going to give breakfast to those we’re here to serve.”
They were in such a good mood, Nialla thought, and she wondered if Gabriel, who was always sweet tempered, but more jovial than usual, had stayed the night with Cal. She ruefully though that staying the night with Jon wouldn’t have been so bad, and she wouldn’t be here, washing her face before sunlight. But the White Monks at Purplekirk might not approve.
And why wasn’t Conn up, or Derek? Nialla thought as she washed her face in the sink and then rubbed a towel over her face. And what or Lorne? Well, maybe they were already downstairs. It would have been a Conn thing to have been first to all chores.
But downstairs she did not find Conn though Lorne, she was told, was doing morning duty in the sanctuary.What she found were all the guests who had stayed last night. No one said homeless, because if you were here you had a home, and besides, there were pilgrims along with the indigent who came to the Temple, and they were all treated alike. This morning Nialla ladled porridge as she yawned because she said that was all she was willing to do if Gabriel was going to ask her to be up so early.
Gabriel laid out towels and attended the shower rooms for the guests while Cal attended to the clothing room for those who had none. The lobby of the Temple at the White Door was large and well made and made. A great stair with low long steps in a wide staircase led up to sanctuary, a place she had never been. She had come as a guest herself, but guests had two options, though they were not strongly enforced, to stay and then go and perhaps occaisionally come back, or to attach themselves to the house and take some sort of work. Cal remembered that when Nialla came she came with no fear to a place few women save Sara and Obala and some others came snd said, flatly, “I’m here to stay. Show me where I can lay me head and what needs doing.”
That’s what he reminded her as they drank coffee and chewed on bacon after serving the guests, and Sara said, “I think I don’t feel like bed again. I think I want to go around the city.”
“At this time of morning?” Nialla said.
“This time is the perfect time. The city is hardly up, I think I’ll visit my cousins. Come with me?”
Nialla nodded.
As she and Sara were leaving, they noticed, or rather Nialla noticed for the second time and boy, a young man maybe a little older than Conn who was hanging in the lobby. His clothes were decently made but a little threadbare, and he had a rough face, not bad but sharp boned and wide eyed. Nialla’s friend came forward.
“Hello, I’m Sara. Do you need some help. All you need do is ask.”
“I,” the boy’s throat must have been dry, and Nialla thought he was one of those who no one would ever just call pretty. His eyes were too wide apart, his cheekbones too sharp. His brow was sloping and a little heavy so that he appeared to be frowning. There was no prettiness in him.
“I was looking for a Blue.”
“Oh…” Sara said.
“Oh, well, if you are looking to be with a Blue then you would actually go through the Black Door on the other side of the Temple, but there is Cal right over here, and he could talk to you and—”
“No,” the boy said with a force that she could tell was not anger so much as nerves.
“I am not looking for a Blue to… be with one. I am looking so I can…perhaps…”
“Oh,” Nialla interrupted, not making him say another word.
She offered her hand to him, and he took it shyly, still looking at the ground. He was taller, Nialla realized now, and she led him to Cal.
“What’s this?” the young priest asked.
“Someone to talk to you,” Nialla said, simply.
Ladylike, she curtseyed, and so did Sara, and then the two girls caught hands and headed down the lobby and out of the White Door.



They went east, toward the bazaars that were just setting up and then past them to the pasturelands. Here, one who did not know the city would have been surprised as houses and even fair grounds gave way to the green hills and sloping banks that ran the eastside of the river and looked across its wide breadth to the higher banks where the wealthy houses of King’s Gather looked down through the bare trees. In this almost wild strip of land, merchants and businessmen, bakers with carts of cakes and stacks of bread balanced on theirs heads, gave way to the tents and sheds and of brown skinned herders, and now Sara and Nialla made their way through large, silent, but friendly groups of people who were leading in their careful way, herds of sheep, or herds of cattle or, in the case of Sara’s people, flocks of black necked, brown bodied cackling geese. The land was broad, not crowded, and even though it would be some time before she saw a tent or a shed with a cookfire, if Nialla was not careful she could very easily walk into a sqwawking huddle of geese. They stopped where grass was going brown, and on their right the bank dropped to a lower terrace and a family of ducks was plodding by, ignoring them. If she looked along the ground, Nialla could forget she was in the city, but if she looked up in either direction, she saw the towers and houses, the minster spires of Kingsboro. On the other side of the river, on the high bank beyond the houses, she saw the rose colored towers of the very King’s palace for which the whole city was named.
The girls walked along the bank until they saw Tayan, Sara’s younger sister squatting by a small, swirling pool like an ear in the river.
“It’s good to see both of you. Father will be pleased, but I don’t dare look up until—yes—”
Her hand darted down, and she pulled up a struggling trout and laid him on the bank with the others. With equal precision, while the muscular fish leapt about, the girl picked up a bloody rock and brained it quickly, and it was dead along with the pile of similary disposed fish.
“That’s enough,” Tayan said, pragmatically. Her hair was an elabroate matter of braids hung with beads, and her skin was darker than Sara’s, almost brown black like the earth, and smooth, shining even on this near winter morning.
“Sara. Nialla, Help me carry these back. It’s almost time to start breakfast.”
“I cannot believe we are staying here this year,” Tayan said. “Or rather, this is the first time I have endured a winter in Kingsboro. I hear it is much colder up north,” Tayan said, to Nialla.
“Oh, yes. What you think of as winter here, is something we only dream of in the north.”
This house was more or less permanent, though Tayan and Sara’s family were not always the ones to inhabit it, someone from their their clan generally did. It had the cook room and the smoke room, one more smoky and more shadowy than the other, and then, with windows open even in the winter, to keep it aired out, there was the tent room, named because it mirrored the tents the Marnen people traveled in though this house was wood. Different curtains hanging from slides made separate rooms and privacy when needed, and Nialla marveled over the elaborate tapestries.
“Does Nialla still want to travel with us and see the world one day,” Tayan and Sara’s brother, Theo asked, teasing.
“I still haven’t given up that dream,” said Sara from where she sat, feet folded under her on the thick carpet.
“Mama is gone into town today. You may see her. She’s at the market place near your temple, where the Everdeen Road cuts into the road to the Wedding Country.”
There were two pasturelands to the north and to the south of the Great Bazaar, making a T and always bordered by the meandering rivcr, then south of the pastures toward the end of the city were the Yards, the extensive cattle and pig yards as well as the graineries. Everything the city would ever need in case of a siege was here, but then, this was the capital and it had been many years since there had been a siege. Originally Kingsboro had simply been the great red stone Boro, then in time it had overflowed expanding to the King’s Garth, but the city’s boundaries had overflowed its original walls many times over, and the Yards extended to the Ram’s Gate. The very road the girls had crossed to come to the pasture was called the Ram’s Road, and all though any other street in Kingsboro might be filled with traveling carriages,s sedans and the motor bikes and few gas cars, only herders and walkers and the occasional boy on a bicycle or an old fashioned walking horse traveled the Ram’s Road. The Ram’s Road led out of the city and through the pasturing country, and it was by this road that herders from other lands came.
The Marnen were a people from far off Marnen Ro, but for centuries they’d traveled the Great Route from their land to this so that the road was their home.
“The journey takes a season. Maybe even half a year,” Sara had told Nialla once.
“One day you celebrate because your uncle has returned from the West, and then you know that after some celebration your father and his brothers will make the trek out. Or maybe your brothers. And then the next year you and your mother and the rest of your group will go. You are usually with everyone you know. Your village. As villages go among our people. Now and again some people stay. Some people settle in cities along the way. Kingsboro is the last of the cities. You’ve seen them here, Marnens, though they are hard to tell from Royanas. They give up the tenting life, but they still are part of the business, still our relatives. But, then I suppose I gave it up to. That’s how I came to the Temple.”
Early morning was turning to mid morning, and Nialla wrapped a piece of fish in flat bread and bit into its hot flaky goodness.
“Do you think you would ever take the road again?” she asked her friend.
Sara shook her head. “Not now. Not any time soon.”

MORE TUESDAY

 

[CharmedFan28]

It is cool to read more about this world and other characters like Sara. As always I enjoy the Conn and Derek interactions. This story is very different to your other ones but I like it! Great writing and I look forward to more in a few days!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Yes, I've hidden my fantasy away until now. I'm glad you like it, and of course we'll get back to Derek and Conn and.... all sorts of new developments you can't even anticipate!

 

[ChrisGibson]

WHILE SARA AND NIALLA VISIT THE TRAVELING PEOPLE, CAL WELCOMES MATTEO TO THE TEMPLE AND LORNE CONTINUES HIS MORNING WITH BRIAN.

“Here are some bathtowels and some shirts and some nice pairs of pants,” Cal said as he entered the room where the young man was, and, “hey, you don’t have to do that. I was about to.”
“Well,” the young man said, “it is my bed, so I should make it. I want to be useful.”
He was deep voiced, almost he had the voice of a wolf,” Cal thought. He looked raw as if life had rubbed him down and more likely to cut you than seduce you.
“You are our guest,” Cal said, as he sat down in the chair in the little room. “And whatever happens, always our family.”
Then Cal said, gesturing for the young man to sit on the bed under with the narrow window, “I don’t know what you’ve been through before you came to our door. But I know that I’ve been through. I want you to know I am sincere.
The young man nodded.
“I don’t even know your name.”
“Matteo. Matt.”
Cal nodded and said, “Calon.
Then he said, “Matt, I must ask you. Why have you come to us? Why do you want to be a Blue?”
The rawboned boy said, “Because I saw once saw one of your priests walking down the street, and I saw the awe people had for him. The respect. A few men said things, but not to his face and not in his hearing. They were in terror of him, and I thought, the same people who call me a punk because I got turned on the streets to service men—they see that priest and they are in awe. And I was in awe of him, and I thought, the hardest thing they do, the thing that a lot of men would bawk at, I’ve been doing it since I was eleven. I could do that.”
“But do you like to do it?,” Cal said. “because if you don’t… if you preferred women, there is the Red Priesthood. We will not ask you to do things. We are not prostitutes. We are not dong this to keep a roof over our head and a nice life. You have to, at heart, want to be with other men and be with them the way we are. You have to see your sexuality as a divine call the way the White Priests see their virginity as a call though, in truth, I never saw the use of that. The sex is one part of what we do, but it is a major part and gives pleasure, yes. But you must feel pleasure as well. Do you know what I’m saying?”
Matteo hung his head, looking at his knuckles. His mouth was a little open and he shook his head. “Not exactly, sir.”
“When I came here I was not like you at all. I had been thorugh a lot but the way I handed it was by beingn cocky, by smiling and looking like nothing touched me. I was not like you, who seem good and pure and clean. I was damaged, Matt. And I though the same thing as you. Let me be respected instead of being reviled for doing what I do every day. And then our Abbot asked me, “Can you love every man you’re with? Can you give them your love?” And… I got angry. I got so angry I almost threw something at him. I didn’t know what was coming over me because, you see, and I do not say this lightly. I leanred to have sex from my father when I was seven. He made me do things a child shouldn’t do, and I acted like it didn’t matter, like it made me stronger. But in that moment when I sat in the Abbot’s office I realize I hated men. I hated them all. I hated everyone I’d been with. If I could have I would have killed them I was so full of rage.”
Matteo looked up at Cal, his eyes were still a little downcast, but his hands were balled into fists.
“They tell you, I think that one of the ways a Blue trains is by having a lot of sex. That is part of the training. And maybe they even say it helps you to face your fears and your demons. But maybe they didn’t tell you that you don’t come to a single person until you’ve made love for the first time, until the moment that the sex that you used for money, or to live, or not make someone beat you or kill you, until the thing that humilitated you is sweet. And sometimes we’re not ready for that right away, Sometimes, Matt, you need for no one to touch you. And that’s how I started.
“The training is hard because you don’t get away from any of the thigs that sex brings up in you, and some people walk away and don’t finish it, but at the end and at the beginning is love and… Self discovery and…” Cal laughed, trying to resume his old casual face again, “that was deeper than I meant to go for now.”
Cal stood up, “Matt, can I come and get you for lunch? You can join me and my friends if you’d like.”
Matteo nodded, but did not speak.
Quickly Cal swept down and hugged him, and then turning around, he left the room, shutting the door behind him.


As Lorne lay back in the great, cushioned bed and the young man rode him, he rejoiced moaning, “Sometimes….”
Sometimes it was easy. Sometimes it was a young boy like this one, in his first year, sweat dripping down his body, his blond hair plastered to his head, his hands pressing down on your brown broad chest as he churned himself like butter on your cock and you bounced him up and down growling to his groaning.
“That’s it, my lad. That’s it,” Lorne urged him, holding onto the boy’s hips and thrusting into him. “That’s it. Do you love it?”
“I love it!” Brian wailed, “I love it. I love it when you fuck me!”
“Ah,” Lorne groaned, “you’re the one whose fucking me.”
“That’s right.” Brian looked down his face sweating. Drunk with passion, he ground against Lorne wonderfully, clenching him and pulling up and down on his shaft.
“That’s right, I,” Brian repeated, moving up and down, “I am fucking you. Let me make you come,” he continued in rhythm to his thrusts on Lorne, “That’s right. I’m fucking you, I am. I am,” he declared as he bounced up and down, shouting to the ceiling, “I am!”
When Brian ahd first come to the Temple he was a quiet boy, and he was quiet outside of this room. What you were in sex was not what you were out of it. It brought things out, and now Lorne, overcome by his own desire, rose and turned Brian around and the boy with his reedy voice, on his hands and knees demanded, “Take me. Take me now, take me like the bear you are!”
“I am a bear,” Lorne declared, giving in to his lust.
“I,” he slammed into Brian, “am—a goddamned—fuchapter cking bear!”
He plowed Brian while Brian shouted, both of them delighting in the loudness of their sex. It was as the light was turning from grey to the first hints of yellow that Lorne called out triumphantly, Brian groaned and Lorne’s head rolled back to look at the ceiling. Gripping Brian’s hips so he didn’t fall over, he ejaculated. It came in jerks that rocked his large body and pulled the seed out of him. Brian groaned in what sounded like defeat, receiving Lorne, and then Lrne collapsed on top of him, and Brian rejoieed in being crushed.
Brian Attabara was in his novice year, not even initiated. and he had asked Lorne to come to him the night before as Lorne had been singing.
So when Lorne had gone to bed, he knew he would rise to meet this delightful boy who had joined them on the roof that night, and who would join them for lunch later on. It had been in the summer that Brian had come to the House, not a waif off the street, but a college lad like Derek had been, young and curious and from a northern family. He had come to Lorne at first as a supplicant who wanted to leaan about himself, and only later had he shown up at the Red Door asking for admission to the order.
Lorne always and ever slept like a rock, and when he had awaken this morning, he was surprised to see that Conn was in the bed with Derek and they were holding each other. Well, that was something. Cal and Gabriel had been in the kitchen giggling and naked, getting some type of snack, and apparently they had spent the night together.
Lorne only said, “I’m showering. You and the girls get on out of here and find something to do with yourselves. Derek and Conn are going to get some time to themselves.”
“Derek and—” Gabriel began, and then Cal said, “Oh, that is sweet.”
“We’ve got you, Lorne,” Gabriel assured him. “We’ll all clear the hell out.”
Lorne had bathed and was on his way to Brian, an appointment he was never tired of, never tired of the the little white body so unlike his own, almost like a boy’s still, but wth an ass muscular like an athlete’s and round as a peach, and an insatiable man’s desire. Now he was stroking the pale boy’s cock, pulling the orgasm out, listening to Brian’s laughter that accompanied his groan as his semen, like rain, jetted out over both of them.
In admiration he watched Brian on the other side of the large bed. Most novices had a twin bed, but Brian had boldly told the About that for his purposes he would need a large one, and the Abbot had accepted this without question. The boy was curld up like a comma, one leg lifted higher than the oher, his wonderful ass ripe to be admired by Lorne. Now, even as a novice he was a formidable lover. What kind of men would come to him? Those assured of themselves who thought they knew everything, who needed a boylike creature with manly powers to humble them, he would be matched with them.
Brian turned over and his voice was deeper now, He looked thoughtful and said, “It must still be early. It can’t even be eight o clock yet.”
“It is. Just,” Lorne said.
“I am scheduled to be in the sanctuary to assist Kiersson Prynne in the Offering Rooms,” he said. “I’ve done it twice before, and each time I think I need to train myself to go to the Gorgon rooms.”
“What for?”
“So I can learn to be with people I don’t know, and men I didn’t choose. I attend classes. I pay attention. I know why I’m here.”
“The Gorgon Rooms are for those who are facing their deepest desires and want to learn from them,” Lorne said. “They aren’t a punishment. Sometimes they’re a relief. But no one has to go to them. And for that matter, you don’t have to do the Service in the sanctuary.”
“But I do have to learn to be with strangers not of my choosing. I know that much.”
Brian sat up.
“And I want to. I know I look like some shallow idiot.”
“No one would say that about you.”
“You would not say that about me,” Brian corrected. “But some would. And some have. I take this seriously. When I become a priest, Lorne, I’m going to be a real priest. Like Derek or Cal or like you. Or like the Abbot who accepts everyone with that same smile and that same grace and nothing sticks to him. That’s going to be me one day. I swear it.”


MORE TOMORROW

 

[CharmedFan28]

It was cool to hear some more rules and what some of the training involves to become part of the Blue House. I don't have much more to say other then that I am enjoying this story quite a bit and I look forward to more tomorrow!

 

[ChrisGibson]

I'm glad you enjoyed. i hope you had a great day.

 

[ChrisGibson]

CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER THREE


The sanctuary was always a surprise when Brian entered it. Of the three doors that led into the Temple, only the Red Door led directly into the Sanctuary, and so it was possible to never even see the heart of the temple until the morning one was initiated. The Blue House was so full of dormitories and pleasure rooms, the little chapels, the eating rooms and the gadens, that it was hard to remember that it was, above all, a temple, and that there was, in it, a great sanctuary. It’s size was a surprise, and its height. Brian came to it through a little hall that emptied to an anteroom and then from the anteroom entered by the north door which was was gilded in blue and stepped down into the Sanctuary whose height reached all seven stories of the Temple, and there were six balconies, one at the the of every floor looking down, though the first three floors were much further back. The the sanctuary was tiled in great flat blue grey stones worn with time and warm to the touch, never cold, and on it were several carpets and several people, men and women, most dark and southern, but some white, some priests, but most not, their legs folded under them, eyes closed, prayer beads moving through their fingers.
Across from him was the other door stepping down into sanctuary from the south side, what corresponded with the White Door, and when Brian turned to his right he saw a greater gold gilded doorway, the only one with open red doors which led down to the Red Door by which priests and initiated priests entered the Temple.

He could hear the chant murmured:

Ta vlépei óla Ta xérei óla oli tin agapi
Káthe gios pou déchetai.
Se aftó to simeío to sýmplegma ólon

All along the walls were the murals of the ancient stories in their rich tempera, Erkovan and Escovan, the Twins who were the Lords of the Sky. They had been made when the Lord Annar had divided himself and they came together in love. These were Two Warriors of Heave, the Princes, who had made love to each other until their sprayed seed had brought all life into being. Life that came not from man and woman, but from pleasure, the life that was still going on. Every time a Blue Priest lay with a man, he was participating in the First Creation.. And there, part of the same story, or of a differing one, the Lord Varayan himself, between two Gods who were the Twins or sometimes they were Belmarine and Waylan, but always he had two lovers, and there were the varying scenes of their love, their bodies twisting together in all shapes, the shapes made by the men of the Blue Temple, bringing the first world into being. Varayan was Annar and Annar was Adonay. He was the Lord of All Places, the Shepherd, the Merciful One, the Master of Magic and all Mysteries.
Before men and women or God and Goddess brought the world into being, the pleasure the Gods had with the Gods did so, and the Goddesses Amana and Selu, Syr and Tevanu brought forth life from their own pleasure with the aid of no man. These were great mysteries, strange and to those uninitiated, possibly wicked pictures that contained deeper and deeper messages to one whos heart was open and who loved the Mysteries.

“Ton pragmáton eínai óla ta prágmata,
dínei ta pánta katéchoun óla.”

Along the walls were the great stone images of Amana, the Lady of Love and Pleasure and also the Lady ot the Seas, the shapely Goddess of the Red Tree that reminded all that even in here, one could not deny the mystery of the feminine and the presence of woman. Unlike the White Temples dedicated to celibacy, here women were essential even if they were not sexually served, and women would always be in the Blue Temple. And there were, n their armor, Erkovan and Eskovan, the Warriors of the Sky, the first two lovers and first two incarnations of Varayan. But, at the south wall, taking up the height of the first three stories, sitting calmly, legs folded beneath him, eyes closed in contemplation and his hand extended in blessing, was the Lord Adonay.
About his head was a bronze disk, and carved into it in the ancient letters, like the rim of a halo was:

Ён усё бачыць
Ён усё ведае
Ён любіць усіх
ЯГО прымае ўсіх
Ён ахоплівае ўсіх
Ён усё

Brian was one of several novices in a blue hoodless robe, lighter than the darker smoke blue robe of the priests, standing slightly behind the nine priests on duty, and now, coming through the White Door arrived Marmoset Joe with his wide lambent eyes and his shock of hair, standing eagerly behind the priest Javan. Kierrson gave a little smile to Brian who whispered, “Sorry I’m late.”
Kierrson shrugged.
“It’s more a matter of us being early,” the handsome bronze haired priest murmured. He had eyes green like glass bottles and deeply tanned skin. One of the devotees looked up from his prayers, and now Kierrson came to him, extending his hand.
He nodded. Every devotee was not here for this Brian understood now. This man must have said he was earlier. The man rose and Kiersson took his hand and they walked toward the image of Annar. Frankincense burned on a great brazier before him, and they each offered a spoonful more, Brian standing silently behind them. There was a door on either side of the Adonay, and these doors led to the Offering Rooms, different from the rooms where most men came. Here the devotee was offering himself to Adonay by being with a Blue Priest, and now, solemnly, the three of them traveled to the left door, blue lentiled, gilded in gold, A novice like Brian could only attend, could provide water, cloths, towels, could watch in order to learn, might be asked to stay outside the door, could not be touched by the devotee. As they walked slowly down the darker hallway lit only by small oil lamps and scented in lavender, Brian remembered what the writing about the halo of Annar’s head read:

God sees all
God knows all
God loves all
God accepts all
God embraces all
God is all


MORE IN A FEW DAYS

 

[CharmedFan28]

This story just gets more and more intricate with regards to the Blue House! I am enjoying it still and look forward to more in a few days! Great writing!

 

[ChrisGibson]

I'm glad you're enjoying it, Matt. I hope you had a great day.

 

[ChrisGibson]

Four

CALON​

The White, the Grey, the Black and the Brown Orders have, in the last millennium replaced the Older Orders at least in the Sendic Kingdoms, but in the Royan lands and the Far South, the ancient Orders are still revered, the Mages of the White Tower, the Women of the Rootless Isle, the Grey Sisters and the Azul Ierateío. Scorned by the New Orders as the Blue Whores, the Azul Ierateio alone have a presence in the city of Kingsboro and in the councils of the King, though that is surely do to change under the next reign….

- taken from the notes of Adeltos Derek Annakar



Conn and Derek were spreading out a cloth on the floor when Nialla and Sara came in with baskets of smoked fish and bread and cheese, and Sara said, “No. We’ve been walking all morning, and we’ve been up since before sun rise. I’m not crouching on the floor. Bring out he table.
Conn groaned a little and said, “You’re going to have to help. We’ve been up with laundry and…” Conn stopped because they had been up with laundry and then that had ended, and the rest of the morning had been he and Derek alone.
“We’ve been all over this city, and I think that Jon is stuck in Purplekirk, so I’m going to see him this afternoon,” Nialla said as they went into the kitchen and pulled out the table. She and Sara worked at pulling out the wings while Conn went into the kitchen and brought out cups.
“How many people are coming?” he asked Derek.
“I have no idea,” the black haired priest said, amiably.
“My brother almost came,” Sara said, shuffling off her cloak.
“What happened?” Conn asked.
Sara shrugged.
“He didn’t.”
Cal entered the room followed by a tall, but awkward looking young man. Cal, carrying a covered tray, kicked the door, and when he saw Sara he kissed her on the cheek and she hugged him.
“You smell like you’ve been to the gooseruns.”
“Are you telling me I smell like shit?”
“No, I’m telling you you smell like outside. You know I’m not catty like that. If I wanted to tell you you smelled like shit—”
“You’d tell me the truth.”
“I always do. Most of this is for lunch and here, but this strawberry wine is for you. You take it back to your place downstairs. Do not give it to Gabriel.
“Do not give what to Gabriel?” Gabriel demanded as he entered followed by the boys across the hall who heard the beginnings of lunch.
“But who is your friend,” Sara said.
“If you would give me a chance to tell you,” Cal said, gesturing to the tall, wolfish young man, “This is Matteo, and I’m sure you know who he is because you introduced him to me this morning.”
“Yes, this is true,” Sara said, “and yet we didn’t get his name, and we ‘re all glad to have you for lunch, Matteo. Please don’t mind us. We’re like this all the time.”
Derek skipped over to shake his hand.
“Hello, Matteo, I’m Derek.”
“Matt,” Matteo said. “Matt is fine.”
“You have a deep voice,” Nialla marveled, and because this seemed to embarrass Matteo, Conn took Derek’s lead, stook his hand and said, “Welcome,” even though he himself had just come yesterday.
Lorne was last in with Brian, and by then, Derek had pulled his hood over his head and started the blessing. He pulled it down sharply and looked at Lorne.
“What?” Lorne said, unimpressed, and reached for fish only for Derek to smack his hand and continue the blessing.
“Yes,” Brian thought, if he could be like Derek, so inviting, so handsome, so and yet so… sacred and right and with a sense of his duty! That’s exactly what he would like to be.
“Matteo is new to the temple,” Cal explained, and Brian, a drumstick in his hand leaned forward and said, “I’m a novice. Are you a novice?”
Matteo looked like he didn’t know how to answer. Nialla thought that he was a bit rough looking, but shy at the same time, and it was Lorne who said, “No, Matteo is a postulant. He’s seeing if he would like to be part of us.”
“Yes,” Matt said at last. “Me and Brother Cal,” he loked to Cal, trying out his name, “had a long talk about things. But I don’t want to just be sitting here doing nothing.”
“Sometimes nothing’s the best thing you can do,” Derek said.
“I don’t see how that could be,” Matt differed.
“It gets you sorted out,” Derek told him. “And most ofus, when we come here, could do with some sorting out. Figuring thingns out. Figuring ourselves out.”
Matt nodded his head and he said, “I didn’t think I’d even be wanted here.”
“Why would you say that?” Brian said, sounding shocked and little reproving.
Matt said, simply, “Cause I’m ugly.
“What?” There was genuine shock and upset from the Blues around the room.
“Who told you that?” Lorne was almost sharp.
“My old man,” Matt said. “He used to say you’re nothing to look at at all, but you’ll do.”
“I don’t think you’re ugly at all,” Brian said. “I think you’re lovely.”
Matt looked surprised and turned red.
“That brow of yours! And those eyes! You’re quite amazing, really.”
“You could do with some feeding though,” Lorne noted, judiciously, as he broke off a husk of bread.
“There are all kinds,” Derek said, seriously, “in the Temple, For God needs all kinds and there are all kinds of people. You’re more than welcome, Matteo. You have to let us know if there is anything we can do.”
“Yes,” there was a chorus of agreement around the room.
“And you also have to tell us when to leave you alone,” Lorne said, “A busybody’s an awful thing,.”
“Oh, I’ll be such a busybody if we live on the same floor,” Brian said.
“You do,” Cal said. “I gave him Ussek’s old room. But that doesn’t mean you’re to be a nuisance.
Matt gave a gruff smile and said, “I don’t mind a nuisance. I probably need a nuisance in my life.”
“Tonight we’re going to leave you fine friends,” Derek said, squeezing Conn’s shoulder.
“All priests attend evening chapel, and then we all have supper together this night. No getting out of it. We will bring Matt with us so he can see how we live. Would that suit you?”
Matt nodded.
“Excellent,” said Derek.

MORE TOMORROW

 

[CharmedFan28]

I am liking getting to know Matteo better. I think he will fit in well if he decides to stay. Conn and Derek seem to be going along well. Great writing and I look forward to more tomorrow!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Yes, Matteo will change everything.

 

[ChrisGibson]

The storm had begun late in the afternoon, and Matteo felt glad he was here. Of course, had he not come to the Order and come to his new chamber, he would have still been in the temple milling about in one of the common rooms. Or, apparently, he would be like that boy Conn and those others he met at lunch, just living in the temple like family members.
The thunder boomed again.
He could still do that, but it wasn’t a serious thought to him. As much as he didn’t understand what a Blue Priest was, he understood that he should probably be one, that when he saw Derek saying the blessing, when he was with these kind men who rose above whatever theye had been through, what he still could not rise above, he thought he should at least try to be like them. He had never been one for religion, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about God or the Gods or any of that stuff. He just tried to live his life, and he didn’t want to go in for silly things. His brother had run off with Ahna Ahnar and his mother had gotten the Fervent religion and the shame to go along with it. Somehow he had never understood that these Blue Priest were just that, priests, and they practiced a religion. He was surprised when they said the blessing at lunch, surprised when he went up to the hall with Derek and Cal and the others, and surprised when he had been in the presence of the Abbot. Had this man, who was not old but seemed old and wise and above so much, been like him? Long ago? And then they had all come to the large chapel upstairs, singing, the candlelight mellow, old and young, short, tall, brown, red, white black, in the hooded smoke blue robes, or the lighter hoodless robes like Brian’s. Some in tunics and some in trousers or jeans.
They had sung back and forth, old songs in a language he didn’t know, and not knowing it made it better, and then suddenly, it had been Derek who came to the middle and let them, singing:

Videt omnia,
Sciat omnes,
Omnia diligit
Omnem filium quem recipit
Hic omnia complexus est omnia,
Dat omnia
Possidebit omnia

After this there were were two men, one in his hooded robe with a shock of hair and wide golden shocked eyes in a monkey face that made Matt want to laugh, and another one, short and in a tunic, limping with his leg at a broken stance, and Matt did not laugh at him. He seemed kind, but dignified and Matt immediately dismissed the idea of him as a cripple. With well formed shoulders and olive skin, thick dark hair and a dimpled chin he was incredibly goodlooking, sweetlooking really, and they lit the incense spot and filled the chapel with the smell of frankincense, though Matt did not know to call it that.
Then they all drew together, and were no longer formal as they sang the last song. A light was lit before the image of a woman, a Goddess or a saint Matt did not know, and they all sang, some with their arms thrown over each other, and Matt felt Cal’s arm thrown over his and on the other side of him, Lorne’s as well, and they swayed. And Matt even felt good to see there were some old and crusty or just simply ironic who would have no part of that. It seemed that anyone belonged here.
As they were leaving, the Abbot caught Matteo’s hand and he was accompanied by Brian and the young man with the limp.
“How do you find it?”
“Find it? I—I like it, Master,” Matt said, feeling the gruff roughness, the too deepness of his own voice, feeling awkwardly tall and skinny.
Suddenly he said, “If you want me to, I can start…. Doing what Blues do immediately. I’ll attend in the Temple.”
The Abbot smiled kindly, like there was a joke, but that Matteo perceived he was part of the joke, not the cause of it.
“Blues do more than you think, and that is not for you yet. If ever.”
“I want to earn my keep,” Matteo said, almost desperately. “I don’t want to be… I’ve never been a burden. I’ve never just sat around. If you all go to the men, I can too.”
The cripple, Matt didn’t know what else to call him, said, “We’re not like that, Matt. That’s not how we earn our keep. It’s a gift, and the truth is the Order is richer than you know. There’s too much of people telling people to earn their keep. Right now you need to be here because…. I’m talking too much,” he stopped himself.
Matt did not want him to stop. He was beautiful to look at, and his face was wise and sweet. The Marmoset faced young priest was standing with them too now.
“No, Quinton, you were not wrong,” the Abbot said to the young man with the broken leg.
“But Matteo, if you want to earn your keep, you are not the only one who feels that way, and we all do earn it in the end. Why, Connleth came just yesterday and he’s more than earning his keep on the fourth floor. Can you imagine, boiling laundry at seven in the morning! Now you, Matt, go to the kitchens in the morning with Kenton.”
Kenton nodded.
“He’ll show you around and… well, would that work for you?”
Matt smiled a little too deliriously, and grasped the Abbot’s hand shaking it.
“I’m no layabout. I’m serious, I promise,” Matt said.
The Abbot embraced him, He had been in this house for a long time, and in every young man, whatever became of him in the later years, he saw their insecurities upon entering the Blue House. Cal had wanted people to think he was unbreakable. Derek had wanted to prove his intellect, and now Matt wanted to prove that he could work hard. All of them had wanted to prove they were sincere, and all of them had gradually needed to learn the lesson that they were loved. As, followed by Marmoset, the tall, gawky young man went off between Brian and Kenton, who loped quickly with his crippled leg, the Abbot was sure Matt would learn this lesson too.


Cal turned over and eyed the waterclock which read that it was nearly the seventh hour. He stretched, and smacking his dry mouth before drinking from the water glass, he turned around and drew the covers over himself, pulling Gabriel closer to him. He had been sleeping alone for a while now, and these last few days, with Gabriel had been welcome. Gabriel had his own suite downstairs along with Nijarin and Osellar and Obala and Sara and Nikon were usually there with him. Would he want to leave it permanently? As Gabriel, so sweet looking, stretched and wrapped his arms tighter around Cal, and Calon surrendered to the warm soft skin and the strength of Gabriel’s body, he thought, we can worry about it later.
If Lorne came in this morning talking about how they all had to be up early, he’d tell the big lump to go and fuck himself. Besides, Matt and Kenton were in the kitchens and Brian probably would be as well, Cal’s duty was to accompany the Lord Abbot to the palace, and he needed plenty of beauty sleep for that. He and Resilyn were to meet the Abbot in his chambers at nine o clock, and they would go to the palace from there.
Oddly enough, he was not excited about the palace. He had been in large houses and even in parts of the Kingsboro itself. It was the being asked to accompany Abbot Hyrum which he took pride in, and because it was pride and not fear he could sleep for one more hour in the darkenss of this room.
Part of him wondered what was going on next door. Conn, so very handsome, so… pure looking Cal though, had only arrived a few days ago. Golden the boy was. Tall but not too tall, golden limbed with cinnamon colored hair and a tinge of gold in his eyes. He could have been a Blue, maybe should have been. Cal was sure he had come to the Temple a virgin. What was Derek doing with him? That was very clear. Derek was in love with him, and it’s not even that it was rare for a Blue to fall in love with someone who wasn’t, and take him into his bed. But it was rare for him to do so with a dependent and in the very Temple. Would Con understand when Derek had to serve in the Rooms or in the Sanctuary and go to other men? Would he understand when Derek, being a man, wanted to sleep with other Blues? Or would Derek? Things weren’t so simply. Cal knew that now. If Gabriel kept coming to him every night, Cal wouldn’t really want to go sleep with other men either. He was no longer curious about other men and, what was more, curiosity wasn’t as much of a motivator as people pretended. Derek wasn’t the kind of person who, between his Temple duties and Conn, would recreationally try out sleeping with others. He might have to, though. All priests were responsible for training postulants and novices, and Derek might have to sleep with Brian or with Matteo for that matter, but this was something different.
And all of the something was none of his business. Rosy cheeked Gabriel gave a grunt and a snore that said it was none of his business. Yes, they would have to arrange things differently. Nialla was no simpleton. She had taken her few things down to Gabriel’s rooms with Sara, and she was there half the time allowing for Derek to come back to his own room. But Derek had not come to his own room. There was a time when in this city and in wealthy cities whole families had slept in large beds.and generally naked too. If one or two wanted more privacy, then they rolled themselves in under or over blankets and Lorne had not wanted Derek and Conn to depart, and so they hadn’t,. and like people of old, or like Blues in general, Lorne was not bothered by their lovemaking, though Cal knew Lorne had been making love to Derek before, and wondered if Conn would mind if he made love to him again?
Still, all this supposed that Derek was stupid and heartless and didn’t see into any of these things, and as far as Cal estimated, Derek saw into all things quicker even than the Abbot himself. If Derek Annakar could figure it out how to care for Conn, there was no need for Cal to.

MORE TOMORROW

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was a very informative and good portion! I may be repeating myself but I am still really enjoying this story. From the sounds of things there may be some great change coming soon. I hope Matteo can find his place or as he says earn his keep. Great writing and I look forward to more tomorrow!