by Jessie Wolf
Her speech was beautiful, meaningful, and moving. Thankfully by this time Dee De had downloaded the rituals for me. “You understand that to be a Temple Guardian is a life time commitment? That once you take the oath and make the vows you’ll be Temple Guardians for life. Are you ready to make that kind of commitment?” I was speaking only to Janet, but it was as one that the Heathers answered. It was their answer that surprised me the most, and drove home their conviction.
“Where our sisters go, we go. We shall never fail them again.”
If I didn’t know better I swear they had practiced their answer it was so perfect. “You know that each of those girls have given up all contact with the outer world, to include their families? Even Bethany, who had just yesterday regained her connection with her grandfather. Are you girls willing to give up as much as they?” once again they answered as one.
“Where our sisters go, we go. We shall never fail them again.”
“You understand that if you become Guardians, that it is not a life of leisure? That it is long hours hard hours of mind numbing training? Days on end of endless boredom followed by periods of intense, insane, terrorizing, action against people who mean to kill you? It is a long hard bitter life with little or no reward at the end of the day. Is this the life you wish? The life of a soldier.” Once again they answer as one.
“Where our sisters go, we go. We shall never fail them again.”
“Three times you have been given a chance to refuse. Three times you have denied this chance. I will ask you one more time individually. None shall pressure you to make this decision. To insure this I will take you off to the side and ask for your answer.” I was not about to let peer pressure influence their decisions. I took them one at a time over behind one of the Temple curtains. I asked each girl if they truly wanted this life again. None of them wavered in their commitment. They all gave the same answer of ‘Where my sisters go, I go.’ After the last one had given me their answer I returned to the altar.
“Then step forward and give me your hands.” I reached over and took the ceremonial blade from mama. With a quick sure stroke I cut the palm of my hand and let the blood fall into the ceremonial bowl. As each girl came forward I made a small cut across the palm of her hand and watched as they let their blood mingle with mine in the bowl. After the last of them had cut their hand and bleed into the bowl Alice took the blade from me, and cut her hand adding her blood to the mix.
Alice hands the blade back to mama, and then sets fire to the blazer under the bowl. Looking up at the celling she calls out. “Inari Ōkami, accept these sacrifices of sisterhood and blood. We come before you seeking your blessings as humble defenders of peace.” According to the ritual this was her position as my second in command to make both the offering and prayer. Now comes my part.
Reaching into the now hot blood I gather a handful. Going to each one of the girls I place a stripe of blood across their foreheads and down each cheek. After marking each with the blood I do the same to Alice and I. Stepping back around to the front of the alter I cry out so that everyone can hear. “By this blood of sisterhood, I welcome you into the ranks of the Temple Guardians. May the Goddess shine down upon you and grant you her blessings.”
What happened next was not part of the rituals. Each of the Reverend Mothers and the two Reverend Fathers came up and blessed the girls welcoming them as their Guardians. Even mama who was no longer an active Reverend Mother gave hers. I was a little surprised when they gave their greetings and blessings to Alice and me. I was even more surprised by Reverend Mother Katsumi actions. Placing a set of rings on the right hand ring fingers of Alice and me then giving us the Five Point Kiss of the Goddess.
“Excuse me, Mother Katsumi, but neither Alice nor I have joined one of the Sisterhoods. Why did you just give us the Five Point Kiss?”
“The answer, Deaths Daughter, is simple. Never before has this Temple had a Sisterhood take up the mantle of Guardians for it. Until now, they have all been military units committed to our defense, made up of both men and women. Yours is the first to be made up solely of women.”
“But you only give the Kiss to those who enter into one of the Sisterhoods. None of us here have done that.”
“Until now, it did not exist. The rings on your right hand mark you as full sisters in one of the four here in this Temple.”
“Wait a minute! What Sisterhood did we just form?”
“Once again Deaths Daughter, the answer is simple. Did you not by your own actions create the Storm Dancers? A Sisterhood of Death Dealers. While you may have only two full sisters, you do have a Reverend Mother, and three novices, you have just added over twenty initiates to your Sisterhood. You did this by your own words and actions no more than a few moments ago. It may not have been your intention but that is the results.” Her words had the note of finality to them that left no doubt in my mind that I was now stuck with this fact, and the consequences.
Just to underscore this mama walks up to me with a look that just lets me know that I can no longer dodge my responsibilities to the Temple. “How shall we train your new sisterhood, daughter? Shall they be like our regular House troops, or will they be as we are, Death Dealers? I may be the Reverend Mother for this new order, but you are its Mistress of Novices. Their training and education are your responsibility.”
Perfect, just bloody perfect, I now have twenty five new Temple Guardians with the added kick in the ass of being a religious order for nuns trained in combat. Wait a minute we can’t be nuns or an order for them. “Um… mama we have a problem here. Neither you, Alice or me can be members of this sisterhood because we’re married, now.” It was perfect. You can’t be part of the Temple orders if you’re married. They all take vows of celibacy.
“That is where you are wrong, Lady Maiha. Not all orders have vows against marriage. Some actually require that their members marry and have children. As you and your mother, who has left the Sisterhood of Enlightenment, are married so can your initiates, novices, and nuns. It is up to each of them to take their own personal vows as to how they will live inside of your order.” Damn that woman has an answer for everything! If she wasn’t already a Reverend Mother, Mother Katsumi would be looking for a new Temple.
However much it burns my ass she is right. The fact the orders at this Temple don’t allow their members to marry doesn’t mean that other Temples don’t. “Each shall be trained as Death Dealers as my sisters are being trained to be. I will arrange for them to receive the nanites. As for our being the Sisterhood of Death Dealers that will never be the orders name. The sisters of this order shall be as deadly as they are beautiful, as graceful as they are powerful, as devout as they steadfast, and peaceful as when they are required to be violent. They deserve a name to match. One that embodies not only their purpose in life, but the peace they strive for. Do you have any ideas Mother Dai Etsu, after all you are our first Reverend Mother?”
“There is only one being that comes to mind, daughter, and there has not been a Sisterhood or Brotherhood in its honor for over four thousand years. In a way it would be very befitting for that Sisterhood to be reborn with these young girls.” There is a collective gasp of surprise from the other Reverend Mothers. They knew the Sisterhood mama was talking about, while I had no flipping clue. Before I knew what was going on Mother Katsumi was turning to some of the novices and shouting orders.
“You three! Go to Sister Gai Há in the archives. Tell her we need the Dragon scrolls up here now. You two! Go find Reverend Mother Mary Robert and have her bring her four new novices here at once!”
Father Waylon was not far behind her shouting his own orders. “Brother Samuel, Brother Timothy, go to Master Yoshi and tell him we need twenty nine sets of Fangs. Brother James, go to the rectory and find Brother Thomas have him bring the Celestial orb. Move it gentlemen! Brother Michael fined Brother Īchûrro and tell him I need the Tongue of Fire.”
I turn to mama trying to figure out what was going on. Mama must be readi
ng my mind again. Placing a hand on my shoulder she gives me a smile. “Your friends shall have their voices returned to them before we leave here, but the only way to do this is for you to resurrect a long dead order.”
“But mama how can I do that? I don’t understand.” I know I sounded like a whinny little girl right then, but damn it I hate not knowing what is going on.
“All will be made clear in time, Maiha. Trust me, in this matter.” Seeing the look on my face was rapidly turning from confusion to anger mama relented. “You were not the only one who was angered by what happened last night with those girls. But, I had to follow the tenants of the Temple until there was another option. Your actions though they were unintentional have given me the way to correct this.”
“You mean to tell me that Bethany, Lisa, Stacey, and Kimberly will be able to talk again?” mama’s smile said it all. They would get their voices back, but the rest is still on my mind. “What about the chastity belts? Can we remove those as well?”
“That vow I am afraid is one vow they will have to take to their graves. The chastity belts the Silent Sisters use are bio-feedback in nature. Once they are sealed they can only be removed in death. You have to die to remove the power source.”
“Will, Reverend Mother Mary Robert release them so soon from their vows?”
“She will either release them from their vows made in their darkest hours, or I’ll let you release her from her vow of chastity.” The note of finality in her voice told me just how pissed off she was at Reverend Mother Mary Robert. I must have let the shock I felt appear on my face. “That woman should never have let them take their final vows last night. Especially the vow of eternal silence. However she is the Reverend Mother for the Sisterhood of the Blessed Silence the only order that neither I nor you have direct control over.”
“About that mama, why don’t we have direct control over them?”
The sigh that escapes her once again; tells me more than her words. “They are part of the Imperial Temple and not subject to all the tenants of this Temple. That is why she was able to allow those girls to take those vows. If I did not have to have that order in our Temple they would be gone. They are nothing more than spies for the Emperor.”
“Why do you say that mama? Everyone knows they take a vow of eternal silence.”
“Exactly, child, no one thinks of the text-to-speech programs in the Reverend Mothers quarters. You know the one they use to ask if a novice or initiate wish to join their order. The one they use to conduct their interviews. The one that makes it possible for a Reverend Mother to communicate with other Reverend Mothers.”
The more she laid out the more I realized how the Emperor was able to use the Silent Sisterhood as spies. Hell, the Bastard has even used them here to spy on me! Everything he knew during the war of rebellion last year he learned through them. The Silent Sisters had overheard more than one conversation and reported it back to him. No one ever suspected the Silent Sisters of being spies, because everyone knows you need to speak to be a spy. That assumption could have gotten a lot of people, even me, killed over the years. I wonder how many men and women have been tried for treason because of these women.
I can even see how these women would even target girls at their lowest point in life and twist them into blind obedience to their order. Offering them salvation in the form of service to the Emperor, by becoming Silent Sisters. At this realization my anger rises from the very depths of my soul. Mama will not have to ask Mary Roberts to release Bethany and the others. The woman and her order is a threat to the Temple and as such I can remove it, preemptively.
“Allison, Fuyuko, Nanase, Nanami, when the Reverend Mother Mary Robert gets here block her path to the exits. I don’t care who you piss off doing it. If they get in your way, move them; if they won’t move kill them. The Silent Sisters are a threat to the peace and harmony of this Temple, one that I intend to remove, permanently.”
The gasp of shock from those gathered around us was as loud as a gunshot. The fact that I had so casually ordered my wife and sisters to kill someone who got in their way was more than some could handle. The fact that they did not question me did not go unnoticed either. Only one person stepped forward to question my actions. Professor John Recco. “By what authority do you give this command?!”
“Thank you, High Prefect for finally showing your true colors.” At my use of his title High Prefect Johnathan Marshall Recco made himself known. “I was wondering why you kept pinging my family’s AIs, sir. Now I know, and why you still have an active AI outside of extended long range duty. You do not have one of the experimental AIs; everyone who has that particular AI is on Belladonna four in the Esscays System. All with an outbound travel band. Only a few, a very select few were ever allowed off that planet. Only the members of the Imperial Temple’s warrior order Knights of the Black Rose.”
The sneer that comes to the man’s face is one that he will come to regret. “What gave me away, you freak?! Oh yes, I know exactly who you are. I would know that Omega /assault class AI anywhere Lord Owens. So I know that you went through your secondary configuration.” Yup, he was definitely going to regret his arrogant sneer and manor.
“Your ring High Prefect is what gave you away. That and the fact that Reverend Mother Mary Robert, would not have tried so hard to cover up your mistakes with the Heathers that were placed in her care.” I stepped down from the altar to face the man on level ground. “Your next mistake was you trying to force the transfer of the COBRA o.s. system between me and my family. Only a deep strike/infiltrator Death Dealer or another Omega /assault class would have the codes to get inside my AIs firewalls. As you are not an officer that only leaves the deep strike/infiltrator, and the only reason why you had those codes was so you could break the common codes of our enemies. You should never have used your breaker codes to get inside my AI. If you had not done that I would never have figured out who you really are. However sir it was the bow you received from Sister Mary Robert while you toured our Temple that was the final give away to your rank. The Silent Sisters only bow to a High Prefect.”
“So, you have exposed me. There is nothing you can do to me or the Reverend Mother. We are the ones in true power here. This Temple stands at our pleasure, not yours.” My anger must have boiled over to the rest of my family, as I see mama’s fist rocket past my shoulder to land squarely between his eyes. The man’s head snaps backward, there is a crunching sound that comes from his neck, and his legs fold up under him no longer supporting his weight.
“Sorry about that, my daughter, but I could no longer stand that man’s arrogance.”
“Hey, no worries mama, you only beat me to it by milliseconds.” I turn to one of the monks and ask “Brother, would you be so kind as to remove this filth from our Temple?”
“It would be my pleasure, Guardian.” As the monk begins to pick Recco up, he looks up at us. “I hope you don’t want to question this fool more, Guardians.”
“Why is that?” mama asks the man.
“Mother Dai Etsu, your blow snapped the fools neck, he is dead.”
“Damn mama you were mad.” This brings a chuckle from the men and giggles from the girls, and women. The monk had no sooner left the inside of the Temple than those who had been ordered off on errands began to return. The first were the novices sent to find Reverend Mother Mary Robert, Bethany and the others. Next through the door were the two brothers who were sent to Master Yoshi, who was followed, by five of his assistants all carrying multiple sets of swords. The brothers sent after Brother Thomas and Brother Īchûrro. The last to arrive was the novices sent after Sister Gai Há. All three were burdened by their assigned task to bring, but none off that meant anything to me. I had the one I wanted standing in front of me. The one who had caused so much pain for four young girls that had become my friends. All so she could cover up the mistakes of an arrogant piece of shit, time for her to pay.
“Sister Mary Robert, you have one chance, and one chance only, will you
release these girls from their vows to your order?” I have to give her these, even though I don’t want to. The woman shakes her head no. “The High Prefect has been exposed and is now dead. I ask you one more time, will you release these girls from their vows to your order?”
Alice and my sisters had done as I had asked, but they were not the only ones. The former Heathers had moved to surround them in three ranks. This woman was going nowhere, and no one was going to interfere with them getting their sisters back. Reaching I grab Mary Roberts by the right hand and break it. When the woman screams out in pain I realize for the first time something is truly rotten in Denmark.
“Who are you? How is it you can speak? Where is the real Sister Mary Robert?” where I was angry before now I was beyond and in full on rage. It was taking everything I had to keep my combat mode from surfacing. I really wanted to carve this bitch like a turkey with my combat knives. I just kept twisting her broken hand, the more she screamed the madder I became. If it had not been for mama I might have ripped it off of her arm.
“Peace, Maiha, peace. We no longer need her to allow to release these girls from their vows.” I look up at her from my rage. “She cannot be a true Sister of the Blessed Silence if she can talk.” Mama’s words break through my rage, and I let the woman go. I step away from her before I lose total control over the knowledge that this woman has lied to so many young girls who were in pain. How many that might be, I don’t know. However, I do know this much, she will know their pain.