Daughter of the Temple

For centuries, the Temple of the Deity has guarded the people of Heklos. But the line of the High Priests has shrunk to two: Ariana, the High Priestess, and her son, Abiron.

Abiron has been kept innocent of his heritage. But a visitation from the Deity Herself sets the wheels of fate in motion. An unexpected revelation shakes his world. Can he really do as he is ordered? Is he willing to worship in his mother's Temple of Sin?

~~~~~ Excerpt ~~~~~

“Relax.”

Abiron's head spun around. Standing next to him as he knelt was a child, perhaps six years old. She wore a pink dress and there were white ribbons in her hair. Her hair was dark, and she seemed to be holding a rag dolly.

He opened his mouth, “Uh…”

“First rule: You don't get to ask who I am.”

His eyes narrowed. “Deity?”

“Very good. You win a prize.” The girl hugged him around the neck and kissed his cheek.

“Why this form?”

“Because I want you to relax, and everybody loves little girls. Everyone worth loving, at least. I know that you are nervous about tonight, but if you think too much more about it, you are going to explode.” She glanced at his groin. “I am not sure which bit will explode, either.”

Abiron sputtered, but could not find anything worthwhile to say.

“You need to relax, Abiron. This has come as a shock, I know. But you can't build it up to be bigger than it is. You are more scared than a novice priest performing his first rite. It is very simple and very easy.”

“Easy? You think this is easy? I am being asked… No, I am being commanded, by a divine being, no less, commanded to take my mother as my lover and to impregnate her. To sire my child on her. And what does the divine being say? She, incarnating as a six year-old…”

“Seven.”

“Incarnating as a seven year-old, my apologies, my Lady, with a rag dolly no less, she says that this is going to be easy!”

“Second rule: No panicking,” the Deity sighed and looked at him, her adult words at odds with her little-girl voice. “Abiron, it is easy. Loving someone is always easy. You did it as a child when your mother held you close. Your mother loved you before you were born.  What you are going to do this night is only another aspect of that love you hold for your mother, just as this physical form is another aspect of the love I bear for everyone in this land.” Her nose wrinkled. “Even the stinky ones. Gods need to be loved.”

“And so does my mother.”

The Lass smiled. “Well done. Your mother is an extraordinary woman, Abiron. Someday I think you will realize just how extraordinary. She needs physical love as much as a tree needs sunlight, and she has kept herself chaste and celibate for sixteen years, making do with the kisses of a small child and the hugs of an adolescent. She knew that to seek out gratification for her own sake would endanger you, since she would have to bring a stranger here or risk taking you out into the world. She did neither. And kept you safe. But now the time has come, the dam is breaking, and her needs will not be given second priority anymore.”

“But…”

“But what? I will only allow one 'but' tonight.”

“But I don't know what to do!!”