by Alma Nilsson
The men stopped them, “Stop and announce yourselves for entry to the god of darkness’s home.”
Ko spoke first, “I am Ko of House Rog.”
Jade then said, “I’m Jade of House Human.”
“Babette of House Human.”
“Mir of No House.”
The disciples stiffened when they heard Mir’s name. Babette thought it was because he had no House. “I thought this is where you came if you were outside a class?” Babette whispered as the disciples talked amongst themselves.
Mir looked at Babette and said, “I’ve not been altogether truthful, I...” But before he could finish his sentence, the disciples asked him a question.
“Mir of No House, you must reveal yourself. All names and ranks must be spoken and left here.”
Babette looked at Mir, surprised, and questioningly.
Mir let go of Babette’s hand and stepped a couple feet away from them all. He then raised his hands and drew a circle of blue fire out of nothing around himself, suddenly ancient symbols appeared, and he said, “I am Mir, born of House Rog, to the slaves and now with No House, but I am and will always be the embodiment of the god of peace. Forever reincarnate.”
The disciples nodded then.
Mir released the blue flames and looked at Babette, who just stood there in shock.
He went to take her hand and tried to walk in.
Babette didn’t move. She didn’t take his hand.
“Babette?”
“When you said you hadn’t been honest, I thought you were going to tell me you had been married before or had a child out of wedlock or something.”
“No, I would never do anything so terrible.”
“No,” Babette agreed. “You are the god of peace, reincarnate.”
He didn’t catch her sarcasm, “Yes. We must go now.”
Babette still didn’t move, “No, not just ‘yes.’ What are you? I don’t understand, and I must know before I go any further. I’m a forgiving and open person, but I am not walking into this completely blind.”
She heard Jade snicker behind her, and she knew it was because they had just walked twenty minutes in the blind darkness only holding these aliens hands, but she ignored her. “Tell me. What are you?”
“I am a man who has found his other half in one of the Lost People. Babette,” he spoke gently, “We are destiny. Every lifetime, I find my other half. I know it is you. There is no question about it.” He looked into her alien blue eyes and hoped this would be enough for her to go through with the marriage ceremony.
“That is how you knew the way here,” Babette said as if she had just figured out a mystery. “How many times have you been married?”
“I’ve lived over a million lifetimes,” Mir said quietly. “I cannot remember them all, of course.”
“And what about your wives do they always have the same souls? If they are your other half?”
He looked directly into her eyes then, “You are the only one who has ever asked that question.”
Babette knew she should be more upset than she was about this and a bit nervous now she could see blue sparks still floating around Mir, “Answer the question.”
“That answer is not for mortals,” Mir did not want to have this conversation here.
“Maybe my love doesn’t extend to the embodiment of gods or whatever.”
“Babette, there are things I cannot reveal.”
“Am I the same soul? I need to know this.”
“Search yourself. You know the answer. You’ve always known. That is why you are here.”
Babette heard his words and knew he was correct. She had always known it was only now that she realized it. It was surreal.
“Now,” Mir said, extending his hand, “it won’t matter who we are once we pass through the gates. Come, Babette, I want you to be my wife.”
“Again,” she said softly, “For the number one-millionth and one time.”
Mir heard her, didn’t answer, but smiled. He thought, Well, at least, she can find some humor in this for the moment. He was concerned though that this would be short lived. This marriage ceremony was not for the faint of heart. Even Alliance women would hesitate before agreeing to it. Not because of its illegality or that it was blessed by the god of darkness, but because it was primal as much as it was spiritual. This was a marriage that was binding through eternity not just the mortal flesh.
Jade said to Ko softly as they walked forward, “Are you also some kind of god, reincarnate?”
Ko laughed, “No, there are very few, less than ten out of the trillions of Alliance people. I’m just a regular man. The disciples know who we are anyway, and that is why they would not allow us through when Mir didn’t reveal himself.” Ko left off saying that he didn’t really believe that Babette was Mir’s true other half and that was also why the disciples had been hesitant to let them in. Everyone knows the god of peace marries an Alliance woman. However, Mir had been his best friend since they were young children and he would not let his friend down no matter what he really believed.
“You knew?”
“Of course, we all know. Slaves are the closest to the gods. All the reincarnates are born into the slave class. Don’t you study our religion in your little classes?”
Jade ignored his belittling comment about their cultural classes, “But Mir has switched classes, doesn’t that make him a traitor to his destiny or something?”
Ko shook his head, “No, he must have a purpose. He always serves a purpose and is on a mission of peace.”
“Oh,” said Jade, not quite believing in any of this but then not knowing what to think. She had seen with her own eyes Mir create blue fire and look like some kind of wizard or magician or something.
The disciples next led them into a room with many black boxes and silver instruments that looked like medical instruments of some kind. “Now, you must choose binding tattoos so that this place will remain a secret.”
“Binding tattoos?” Jade asked. She didn’t want to be bound to Ko.
“You misunderstand,” Mir explained. “These tattoos only bind us to the secret. We cannot tell others, and we will always remain close friends.”
Jade and Babette agreed then, and all four of them looked over the choices.
“Is there not a standard one everyone gets?” Babette asked.
“If there was a standard one, everyone would know we had been here, and that is not the point of this kind of binding tattoo.”
“Do you have many?” Jade asked Ko.
Ko lifted his sleeve to reveal at least twenty if not more separate tattoos along his muscular left arm.
“Wow, you must be really great or really terrible at keeping secrets,” Jade commented.
Ko gave her a smile, “Something like that. Now, since I don’t care, why don’t you women decide since these tattoos will probably be the only ones you ever have. I hope for your sakes anyway.”
Babette and Jade looked over the selection. They finally chose four equal circles inside of a circle. Then they each had to give each other the tattoos while swearing oaths to one another not to reveal what they had participated in here.
Mir took Babette’s left arm and pulled up her sleeve, “This is going to hurt,” he said while finding a good place. Then he positioned the tattooing instrument and looked at her expectantly.
“I don’t know what to do.”
“Say, ‘Mir of no House, I give you my oath on pain of death never to speak of what we have done here together.’”
Babette repeated the sentence, and then he held her arm so tightly she worried he would break it and then sunk the tattoo in. She screamed a little from the pain. It took her a few minutes to catch her breath and come back to the present.
“Now me,” Mir said and begun pulling up his sleeve as he handed the machine to Babette. He showed her where to position it and then looked into her beautiful face and said, “Babette Lynn Thomas of House Human, I give you my oath on pain of death never
to speak of what we will do here together.” When Babette hesitated, he said, “Do it.”
Babette sunk the tattoo into Mir’s grey skin, and he only gave a sharp intake of breath but then was fine. She was jealous, she had been the only one who had screamed out in pain.
After the oaths were taken and the tattoos binding complete, they were ushered into a vast expanse of the cave which had been decorated with paint and some kind of geometrical pattern, Mir and Babette were made to stand in a small square painted with white paint in the center of the room. Jade, Ko, and the disciples stood around them at the four corners. Then, someone they could not see spoke. It was a prayer that echoed through the cave, “The god of darkness said to the people, come to me to find justice when your class and the other gods fail you. I cannot promise you will like the judgment, but I will give it without prejudice. Come to me, lovers who dare to love outside their class. I will look into your hearts and decide if you are worthy.”
Then all the lights went out.
Babette screamed at the shock of it, at being in total darkness again.
Mir took her hands in his and said, “Babette Lynn Thomas of House Human, I knew within the hour of meeting you that you were my other half. I am sorry I have to ask you this way, with nothing to give you except my heart and body, but will you allow me to pledge my life, love, and honor to you in secret wedlock?”
Babette wished she could see Mir, all she could see was black, and she was scared. She held onto his hands tightly. When it was her turn, she knew what to say as she had memorized the ceremony from her handbook, “Mir of no House and the reincarnate of someone,” she added the second part because she couldn’t help but mention it, because it was still so preposterous in her mind that he would be someone else besides her Mir. Then, she took a deep breath wondering if he was going to fill that name in, when he didn’t she continued, “I pledge my life, love, and honor to you in wedlock. I mean, secret wedlock.”
They had no marriage bracelets, but the thundering voice spoke around them again, “Babette of House Human and Mir of no House, you are bound together for the rest of your days in marriage by the grace of the god of darkness. He will protect you and guard your love. If you break your promise to each other, you will feel his wrath.” Then the lights came back.
Babette looked at Mir, “Are we married?”
“Almost, just a few more rituals to complete,” he looked down at her thoughtfully. “Babette, are you okay?” His eyes were searching hers though for some recognition, but he still only saw her human confusion.
“I’m fine. Just overwhelmed and I want this over with so I can be with you.”
He embraced her, “I feel the same way, I just want to be with you. I promise it’s not long now.”
The disciples came into the white square and separated Babette and Mir, explaining that it was time for the next phase. One disciple went with each of them in opposite directions. Mir assured Babette that is was supposed to happen.
Babette and Jade followed the disciple into a small stone room with mirrors and candles. “You must remove all of your clothing and all of your jewelry so that no one will know your rank. You may put your clothing here, and you will retrieve it after the next ceremony,” he said, indicating a black wooden wardrobe. “When you are naked, you must cover your bodies in this silver paint and wear these silver flowers in your hair.”
When Babette began removing her clothing and not Jade, the disciple admonished her, “Both of you must be without rank.”
Jade sighed and began taking her clothes off, too, and then they painted each other with the silver paint and put the silver flowers in their hair. They looked at their reflections in the mirrors in wonder.
“We look like something alien,” Jade commenting.
“Like robots or statues,” Babette said striking a pose like the Greek mythical goddess Artemis from Earth.
“It’s kind of sexy,” Jade ran a finger down Babette’s arm, smearing some of the glossy silver paint. It feels so warm and slick, like oil.
When the disciple realized they were ready he said seriously, “Follow me.”
Babette and Jade followed the disciple to a massive stone altar with a carving of what she supposed was the god of darkness. The statue had been carved out of the stone and was painted in silver just like they were. The women were told to stand there and wait.
Babette and Jade waited for some time in the large cave temple. After a few minutes, they heard some screams, and Babette wanted to run as it sounded like Mir, but before she could, a disciple appeared.
“No, Mir and Ko are giving the blood necessary for the ceremony. They are doing it for you both so that you will remain untouched by the tail of the god of darkness. Pray for them. It won’t be long now.”
Babette still felt uncomfortable and strange standing naked, exposed, painted in silver, listening to her husband to-be scream in the background. “Why does everything involve blood and pain?”
“Because everything in life has pain; otherwise, life would be taken for granted. And Mir has more life to give than any of us, so, therefore, more pain to sacrifice. And more pain to sacrifice for you too. You are his other half. That is why you hear his screams and not Ko’s.”
“That’s not making me feel better,” Babette replied, annoyed. She didn’t want this to happen like this. It hurt her to know that Mir was hurting and hurting for her.
Jade looked at her friend and tried to comfort her because the disciple was just making things worse with his words, “Don’t worry, Mir knew, more than any of us, what he was going to have to do here. Trust him to know his own strength.”
Babette nodded, still feeling guilty.
After many minutes of just standing there naked with the disciple, three more disciples who were still in their clothing, what Babette supposed was the priest, Mir, and Ko walked up to join them in front of the giant statue in the large cave. What amazed Babette was that Mir seemed fine, and it was only Ko who looked exhausted and beaten. Both were covered in the same silver paint, though, so it was difficult to make out their actual levels of health. When they reached Babette and Jade, they both handed silver chalices filled with blood to the women.
Babette took the chalice from Mir and tried not to look disgusted, “I’m not drinking this.”
Mir shook his head, “No, go place it at the altar and ask that we might be allowed to be married. It is an offering. Jade should do the same.”
“Good,” Babette said and then nodded at Jade. They approached the feet of the high statue and put the blood-filled chalices next to others that had been long dried. Babette and Jade remained kneeling and said a similar prayer to when they had entered the cave, which now seemed like hours before.
When they walked back, the priest said to them, “Now it is time for the proof of commitment.”
Babette assumed this would mean vowing to always be married or something. What she had not expected was to be shown to a room with all the disciples, men chanting and told that she would have to have sex with Mir in front of everyone.
“I can’t do this,” she told Mir.
He took her face in her hands and directed her gaze up to him. She looked so stunning with the silver paint and her blue eyes shining out. “You’re with me, and we are proving our love. We must do it to be married, and I want to be married to you.”
“But why are they all here, chanting and watching?”
“They are chanting the god of darkness’s prayer to keep the goddess of light from seeing what we do here.”
Babette looked at all the men watching them and said, “I don’t know if I believe enough in this Alliance religion to do this.”
“Babette, you can,” he took her hand and pulled her close. His hands easily sliding over her oily silver skin. Her breasts pushing against his chest. His cool tongue in her mouth. “You can do this,” he said softly in her ear, sending shivers up her back. He glided his hand down her back cupped her rear and whispered again as his
finger circled the entrance to her vagina, “You can do this.”
He then guided her to the round stone bed in the center of the room and made her lay back as he began caressing every centimeter of her body. His fingers mixing the silver oil all over her body. Everything made more sensual and surreal by the cold stone against her back, the flickering candlelight, the disciples’ constant chanting, and the silver paint making her skin feel so desperate for his touch.
Babette closed her eyes and felt like a completely different person. She even thought, Who am I that I am suddenly okay with this? But the truth was she didn’t care anymore, she was so aroused, and it all seemed perfect what she was doing, what they were all doing. The disciples, Mir, and then she looked up and searched for Jade.
Jade was standing on a smaller circular round stone bed, and Ko was licking her sex vigorously. They looked like two silver statues except that they were moving.
Mir reached up, and without saying anything brought Babette back down on the stone platform, then he began licking Babette, first around her abdomen and then her upper thighs and finally over her vulva. He stopped and had a finger caressing up and down her vulva, parting her folds gently while he said, “Please give me some direction, as you’re new to me, and I want this to be as right as it can be now.” In the past, when Mir had found his other half, they recognized each other by now and with that recognition came complete honesty and openness. He didn’t have that yet with Babette and he doubted that she would guide him now, unless he asked her to.
Babette had a moment where she wanted to say, “You are doing fine,” because it did feel good. Still, then she realized that they were doing this in front of an audience and most likely it was some crazy Alliance rule that she had to orgasm too, so she began directing Mir a little. She felt shy to tell him what to do in front of all of these people. She wished they were alone.
It didn’t’ help either her or Mir’s confidence to hear Jade scream in the background, “Oh Ko, yes, suck right there, I’m coming. Don’t stop. Don’t stop.” As Babette was not even close.