Chapter 150

Most people didn’t realize how busy daily life at the Temple could be. Aria had a whole laundry list of tasks. Beyond caring for the grounds and maintaining the temple premises, she also needed to help with the temple library, welcome and provide guidance to visitors, organize the financial and legal paperwork that came with the Temple’s daily operations, her daily worship duties, and so much more—the list went on and on. Admittedly, most priestesses wouldn’t have such a busy schedule, but Aria was the daughter of the Head Priest, and while that didn’t come with any special title herself, it sure came with a whole lot more expectations and duties.

Not that Aria was complaining. She loved her work. Life as a priestess was, with no doubt in her mind, her calling in life.

Today was a slow day, though, and she would admit those were her favorite. She had room to breathe. And more to the point, she had time to mingle with visitors while she went about cleaning the Temple’s various altars—though while pretending to look busy, since a priestess could hardly seem like she was loitering around. She kept an eye out for people who might need help, or otherwise just someone to talk to. Her favorite part of the day was getting to enlighten those coming to the Temple seeking spiritual guidance, to aid them with making offerings to a patron god or otherwise enlighten them on what little she knew of the pantheon’s enigmatic nature.

Right now, she worked studiously away at dusting down the statue of Ephythithys. Since she had been caring for the Temple since she could walk, this was hardly her first time doing so. But despite that familiarity, she had always—and still did—found the task of cleaning Ephythithys’s statue a bit ... well, flustering.

Because whichever artisan had painstakingly chiseled the effigy had taken great effort to highlight the goddess’s, erm, holy assets. Which was fair. Most people knew Ephythithys as the goddess of fertility and sex, but primarily in the biological sense—the planting of seed to grow new life. Aria, however, having spent her life studying religious texts and immersed in topics of the divine, knew she represented more than that. Sex in all of its aspects. Ephythithys’s domain included lustful indulgences, carnal desires, the sensuality of touch, and the heat of ecstasy. Not just the process of creating life from a sacred standpoint, but all the sweaty, sticky details in between.

And the statue-maker knew this too, apparently. Blushing, she dusted down Ephythithys’s bust, struggling not to let her eyes shy away from her very, very generous proportions—and more importantly, the lifelike realism of the stone. The clearly visible nipples through thin clothing, which Aria politely dusted.

Unfortunately, Aria was hardly the only person in the Temple to have noticed the impressive accuracy of the statue. Many visitors had as well. And because of that—and the perverted, irreverent nature of some—Ephythithys’s stone breasts were starting to discolor from being touched so often. Most people brought proper reverence into the Temple, but not all of them. People would be people, even in a holy place. Aria herself had caught a handful of visitors rubbing the stone.

One such violator had told her that he had done so because, apparently, rubbing Ephythithys’s breasts brought good luck—and he was trying for child. Aria was torn on whether she believed him. He had seemed earnest. It made some sort of sense, but she was pretty sure the constant touching stemmed from immaturity, not the desire to ‘receive luck with fertility’. Regardless, it was becoming clear that the statue might need to be renewed. The discoloration became more noticeable by the year.

Aria wondered whether it counted as blasphemy to fondle a Goddess’s breasts, even just an effigy. Or the Goddess’s rear, which was likewise changing shades from so many touches—and was also likewise perfectly, and nearly lewdly, sculpted, with the long, thin folds of her dress very neatly tucked into her curves so that she might as well have been naked.

Certainly, the mistreatment of any other holy statue would have produced an outrage in the Temple, but Ephythithys was obviously a special case. She was also the only one with clearly visible nipples poking through her clothing, to name the obvious, so really, they were as at fault for displaying her as the visitors who couldn’t help but touch.

And wasn’t that Ephythithys’s aspect to begin with? Even if the lewd touches weren’t for ‘good luck’, Ephythithys would celebrate anything related to carnal desires. Though, maybe not so much the groping of her own holy image. Aria was undecided. Funny enough, it was a topic of quiet debate in the Temple—though obviously not in any official capacity. Except, as years ticked by, it might need to be discussed at the next council, officially speaking. They could hardly allow the discoloring to become too obvious.

Deliberately keeping her eyes from wandering across the goddess’s figure, Aria studiously dusted away, keeping her altar and image as pristine as a goddess deserved. Eight candles flickered across the altar and in various places on the alcove, providing a dim light in the recess which the tall overhead dome windows couldn’t reach.

Then, as her thoughts wandered as she dusted away, something odd happened: the candles flickered pink.

Aria froze, her eyes snapping in the direction of the nearest, to find that, yes—it burned a bright, lustrous pink. A half-second later, long enough she knew she hadn’t imagined it, the lights returned to their soft yellow glow.