Chapter 1 - The Blessing

Even the most experienced priests sometimes found themselves punished.


That was what Zahrine kept trying to tell herself as she furiously scrubbed the tiled floor of the Cathedral of Light. Still, it seemed a bit excessive for the Archbishop to force her to menial labor in response to one single comment made about the void. It wasn’t like priests channelling the powers of the shadow were uncommon, yet her comment that the two could be combined together had caused him to balk and demand repentance for such blasphemous words. So she was forced onto her knees; not for piety, but for hard labor. 


The bishop had watched throughout the first hour, his eyes trained on her as she wiggled and scrubbed the floors. He seemed particularly interested in staring at her as she bent low to clean underneath the tables, though Zahrine was confident that he was simply making sure she was doing a good job. Then, when she had stood up to refresh the bucket of soapy water, he had quickly spun and excused himself, telling her she could finish on her own before making a hasty retreat.


Zahrine didn’t mind. She leaned back, arching her back and feeling the pops as her aching spine reoriented itself. Her slender body was visible against the tight fabric fine robes that were no doubt being sullied by the dirty ground, but such was the life of a priestess. She even ran a hand through her blonde hair, fixing whatever mess the hard labor had done to the stylish undercut that the goblin barber had assured her was all the rage these days.


She was just about to get back to work when something strange caught her eye. A small golden glow was coming from beneath one of the books resting on a desk in the room. She stood up, idly dusting her knees off as best she could, before moving towards the wooden tabletop. At first she thought the tome itself was glowing, But when she got closer, she saw that it was merely covering the golden light. With a careful hand, Zahrine moved the book to the side, revealing a swirling pool of golden light set in the center of the wooden tabletop.


The soft glow was calming, yet Zahrine felt her heart begin beating faster at the sight of it. Her skin flushed and she swallowed to try and get some saliva flowing in her suddenly dry mouth. She felt the waves of power rolling out of the small pool and she felt a question pop into her head so suddenly it couldn’t have come from her alone.


Do you wish power?


Of course she wished for power. It was what had sparked her research in the shadow magics of the void and got her into her current mess.


Do you wish to live forever?


Zahrine actually nodded at this question, though it didn’t appear that anything could see her.


Do you want to break free from your freedom?


That one didn’t make too much sense to her, but she stepped closer to the table and murmured out a soft, “Yes.”


Reach your hand into the pool, the melodious voice said, and begin your quest by receiving the blessing.


She places her hand over the pool, feeling the warming energies flowing off of it. Zahrine hesitated here, licking her lips as she debated on putting her hand into the strange hole. However, she convinced herself that there would be nothing safer than something appearing in the Cathedral of Light, and she plunged her hand into the pool.


It wasn’t hot to the touch, just a warm feeling around her as she plunged in up to her forearm. She frowned for a moment, not finding anything immediately that would qualify as a blessing. Her well manicured fingers groped around inside the swirling depths. Eventually she found something tangible. her fingers touched a soft feeling, yet very firm, object. She blinked in surprise, her fingers instinctually wrapping around the thing and feeling it more in depth. Her tongue stuck out slightly as she got a good feel of it and realized that she was supposed to pull it out of the hole.


It was cylindrical, yet not so big around that her fingers couldn’t grasp it and still touch the tips. It felt like she was touching something malleable, similar to the feeling she got whenever she experimented with solidifying the shadows that she had been training with. Perhaps it was some sort of weapon made of energy and she was holding the handle? She ran her hand slowly down the smooth surface, trying to see if there was a blade or blunt hunk of metal attached. Instead of finding answers, she gasped in surprise as it twitched at her touch. Whatever it was, it was reacting to her. With no more delay, she gripped it firmly and pulled upward, intending to bring it out of the portal and into the real world.


Instead, she felt part of it shift with her for several inches before stopping the movement all together. That was odd. It was almost like it was attached to something. She guessed it was too good to be true that this blessing would be easy to receive. She would have to put a bit more force into this.


Readjusting her grip as far down as her arm could go, she screwed up her face in concentration. Her tongue stuck out again as she pulled upward once more, but she still only felt the slightest twitch before she couldn’t tug anymore. She pulled with a bit more effort, but soon realized that whatever it was it wasn’t budging. She let her hand glide up it again in frustration, ready to give up. When her hand reached the tip of the shaft, she felt something warm coating her palm. It wasn’t like the energy that surrounded her. It had a much different texture. She pulled her hand the rest of the way out and brought it up near her face so she could get a better look.


A small amount of glowing golden energy rested in the palm of her hand. Zahrine poked at the substance and found it felt like a thick liquid. She rubbed it between two fingers and a spark of power cascaded through her. A tiny amount, but still enough to make her stagger back in surprise. The shaft wasn’t a handle, it was a dispenser for the energy she was supposed to receive.


Eagerly she plunged both hands back into the portal, her arms pressing her chest together and her body bending slightly so that anyone who walked in the door would get a nice shot of her framed ass. She had no consideration for any of that though. Her mind and her hands had one mission now; Milking.


Zahrine was inexperienced, that was evident by just how little understanding she had of the implications of the object she was now stroking, but she knew enough about milking cows from second hand sources and a bit of personal experience with similarly shaped objects (mostly teenage boyfriends) that she was able to work into a steady rhythm. Her hands each wrapped around a portion of the cylinder, pulling and twisting lightly as she coaxed more energy out of the object’s tip. Frequently she went up and rubbed her hands over the top, feeling the rush of power flowing through each time. It was only a small trickle, but the blessing provided her hands ample lubrication for faster stroking.


Whether the young priestess noticed the side effects of her actions was debatable. She was getting excited, that much was clear from the way her thighs clenched together and how her breathing increased. She should have thought that this phallic object in a mysterious portal was odd, but her mind was justifying this as another mysterious way in which the light worked. She didn’t notice the edges of her inhibitions dulling and soon she began pumping faster in eager hope for more of the substance.


She spent ten minutes elbow deep in the portal, her arms pumping faster and faster and her body bouncing like a woman furiously churning butter. She was quite the sight, despite the conservative dress she wore, and would have made any man in the room instantly hard. Her eyes went wide in surprise as the shaft began to twitch much harder than before. Instinctually she moved one hand to the tip just as the first blast of magical energy shot out from the end and splashed against her palm. Her other still coaxed, though her movements slowed out of some unknown desire to keep it from being painful. After a few blasts of the blessing had hit her left hand, she switched to her right and filled that up as well.


After she was sure she had drained every drop from the object, Zahrine slowly pulled her hands out of the pool of light. The glowing liquid was thick and sticky in her fingers, but felt warm to the touch. As her hands retreated fully from the surface of the pool, it slowly faded away. In her mind was one final message from whatever had started her down this path.


Clean yourself up and head to the Faire.


Zahrine blinked a bit in surprise. The Darkmoon Faire was not known as a place to gather any sort of power. Rather it was a place for a bit of fun. She shrugged as she wiped the liquid away from her hands onto a nearby wash cloth. She might as well see where this goes and decide if it was worth it.


As she finished cleaning her hands she blinked in surprise once again. The palms were marked with a faintly glowing golden symbol, one which she didn’t recognize but that thrummed with power. Each symbol glowed faintly in the candlelight, but as she brought them closer to her body they flared up with a more intense light. She also felt her body react as well, a flush creeping over her skin and her nipples hardening under the conservative robes she wore. Had she been more aware of herself at that moment, she might have seen that as a warning sign. As it was, she simply took it as the blessing’s warmth flowing through her and turned away from the now unremarkable desk.


Next stop: The Faire.