Temple of Phallus: Two Tales - Beka's Tales

Beka's Tale

I was orphaned when I was ten; my older sister Mille was the only family I had left. We were very close, and she looked out for me as I grew up. We didn't have much, but as silly as it sounds as long as we had each other we were happy. We amused ourselves by telling stories of how we'd grow up to be rich princesses, living in palaces with lots of servants. I guess we knew it would never happen, but it helped us to forget just how poor we were.

Then the Great Drought struck and it got really hard for us to get food or water. My sister tried to work to earn enough money to feed ourselves, and I did whatever odd jobs I could, but we could never earn enough. So that we didn't starve to death, Mille and I resorted to stealing food. We knew it was wrong, but had no choice. Pretty soon, my sister was caught stealing from a man in the temple district and went before the Adjudicator. There were too many witnesses for her to claim innocence and the Adjudicator had no choice but to find her guilty. Even then she still tried to protect me - she never mentioned my name at her hearing, in hopes that I would be spared punishment.

Millie wasn't consigned to the work gangs or even sold into slavery, like we had feared. Instead, she suffered a fate which, at the time, I thought was even worse. Because she had stolen from an acolyte of Phallus, the Adjudicator turned her over to the Temple to become a Servant, as allowed by the Compact.

I didn't understand at the time what it really meant to Serve Phallus, and I tried to visit my sister a couple of days after she entered the Temple. I guess I thought I could help her escape so we could be together. It wasn't hard to enter, the Compact guarantees all men and women free access to the Temple's public areas. I asked one of the priests, or maybe it was an acolyte, if I could see my sister. At first he refused, but when it looked like I might cause a scene he changed his mind and told me to wait in a side room.

A few minutes later a woman entered the room. At first I didn't recognize her, but after a moment I realized that her face reminded me of my sister. She greeted me using a pet name Mille had given me when we were younger and asked if I had been able to take care of myself since her arrest. At that moment I knew this was my sister.

But she had changed. My sister had been thin, lean, and wiry. The woman standing in front of me was soft and curvy, with the biggest breasts I'd ever seen and wide hips, and she spoke in a sultry voice I'd never heard my sister use. And her eyes, her eyes had this look that said there was little thought going on behind them. To top it all off, Mille had always been very prudish, but the woman in front of me was wearing a white, translucent shift which left her body open to anyone's view.

Of course, I asked Mille what had happened to her, and she just said that she now Served Phallus, just like her other Sisters. I was really confused; after all, we didn't have any other sisters. I decided it was one of many things we could discuss after I'd gotten her out of the Temple. So I told her I was ready to help her escape, and asked if she'd learned anything which would help her get out.

I wasn't ready for her reaction. She laughed at me! Not mockingly, but in disbelief. I never forgot her exact words. "Why would I want to leave? I'm so happy here. I get to Serve Phallus and His priests, what more could I want? No, Beka. Phallus willing, I'll never leave the Temple's Service."

I was crushed. My beloved sister refused to even try and come back to me. She was abandoning me for what I thought were a bunch of foolish priests. It was then that I realized what had happened. The priests must have hurt my sister, warped her mind and made her forget what was truly important. It wasn't her fault; she was only one woman against an entire Temple. I didn't know if I could save her, but I decided right there that I would devote my life to hurting those priests just like they had hurt my sister!

Mille must have misunderstood the look of determination on my face, thinking I was only upset about not being with her. She said that if I wanted she would ask the priests if I could become a Servant, this way we could still be together. She said something about my still being young enough to be protected by the Compact, but her main concern was that she didn't want to bother the priests with such a petty matter.

This was all I could stand, my own sister referring to any chance of us being together as a petty matter! I ran from the room and made my way out of the Temple. At the entranceway I paused just to see if she had even bothered to follow me. Mille had stepped out of the room and took a step in my direction, but then one of the priests called her and she immediately turned her back on me and rushed to his side. Now with my new understanding of Phallus I understand why she did so, but back then this just made me more determined to make the priests suffer.

I had no idea how I would do this, after all, I was still just a girl. Even as I ran from the temple, though, it seemed I found my answer. A Priestess of Clyte was in the street and I ran right into her and we both fell down. While we were both getting up, I decided this might be a sign from the Pantheon. Even I knew that before the Compact Clyte and Phallus had been rivals within the Pantheon, with one devoted to male pleasure, the other to female pleasure. The Compact had lessened the rivalry among their followers, but I knew the two temples were often at odds. At the time, it seemed logical that the best way to get back at Phallus was through Clyte.

I found out later that I should have been rejected for training as I was too old, but Clyte's church had suffered greatly in the ongoing problems and was in need of priestesses, so I was allowed entry. My desire for revenge made me an avid pupil and a quick learner, and my apparent zeal convinced most of the priestesses that they had been right in accepting me. A few saw me for what I was, but their warnings that my faith was not true went unheeded.

Over many years as a novice and acolyte I participated in all the rituals and ceremonies of Clyte, but took the greatest pleasure at the Dedication, when men were sworn to the service of Clyte, much like Servants are sworn to Phallus. Every man I saw undergo the ritual I imagined to be a priest of Phallus, taken from his "family" as my sister had been taken from me. Each time I used them for my own pleasure I ordered them to apologize for the wrong that had been done to me.

Finally I took my vows as a priestess, though in my heart I never truly believed. I was assigned to various temples all over the Midlands and at each I did what I could to strike back at Phallus. Unfortunately, the Compact and my junior status limited my chances to do so. My one great victory came when a refugee from the South whose Dedication I oversaw turned out to be the brother of a priest of Phallus. But this one small victory came nowhere close to satisfying my hatred.

Yet opportunity unexpectedly presented itself when I was assigned to the temple here, in my home city, as a Deputy High Priestess. It was intended that I spend a number of years training to become a High Priestess before being given my own temple. Within a year, however, a wasting disease, which I blamed on Phallus, struck the temple. While the rest of the city seemed to be unharmed, scores of Clyte's faithful died, as did many priestesses and acolytes. I survived unharmed, but the High Priestess and her Senior Deputies died within a short time of each other.

This left me as the senior priestess in the Temple. Though I was still too young to lead my own temple, I would act as High Priestess until the Matriarch appointed a permanent replacement. Even as I buried my predecessor I took this tragedy as a sign that Clyte was giving me an opportunity for vengeance and I decided to act while I had the authority.

However, after nearly twenty years of hoping for revenge I did not have an adequate plan prepared, so I had to improvise. I decided that my best path in the short time available to me would be to discredit Phallus and his temple in the eyes of the people, costing him followers and maybe even having his priests banned from the city.

It was rumored in the temple district that Phallus had ordered His priests to increase the size of His church, so as to improve his position in the Pantheon. So, I spread stories that the priests were doing this by increasing the number of Servants in violation of the Compact, in part by kidnapping unwilling women, especially those whose families had previously opposed Phallus.

Then I went about making it look like this was actually happening. I had long-since spies to watch Phallus' temple and keep a record of who came and went. I now examined these records and found the names of men whose disappearance would not be noticed. These included beggars, thieves, the homeless; the underclass of society. For my purposes anyone who might have symbols of Phallus in their possession was suitable. I arranged for these men to be brought to my temple, where I personally saw that they were Dedicated to Clyte. Though I knew this violated the Compact, I did not care, so long as I had my chance for revenge.

Now that these men would do anything I wished, I set them to abducting the women I needed. They took the wives, daughters, and sisters of men who had spoken out against Phallus or His priests, being sure to leave signs that Phallus' followers had been involved. I thought it particularly appropriate that Phallus' former followers were being used against Him. After each abduction, I would make sure to spread rumors that these women were being held deep within the Temple of Phallus and were being forced into His Service.

For a time it seemed my plan was working. With each abduction opposition to Phallus grew among the people and the city leaders. There were calls for the priests to open up the Inner Sanctum of the Temple so it could be searched. This could not happen of course, as no God would allow such a desecration. But as long as the priests refused, suspicion grew. I did all I could to have my agents make the priests' denials seem like admissions of guilt. There were demonstrations in front of the temple and there was talk the Lord Mayor would take action.

I was ecstatic. It seemed as if my hastily developed plan might allow me to satisfy my vengeance, at least on the Temple which had enslaved Mille so long ago. Then everything went wrong.

My Dedicated took Ostra, one of the city's leading young merchants, a woman who had once thought to join Clyte's temple and who hated Phallus as much as I did. Like all the other women involved, I felt sorry for her, but rationalized Ostra's sacrifice as necessary. As with the others, she was given herbs and drugs which made her very happy and very dumb, so that she neither knew nor cared about who she had been or where she was from. Then she was handed over to slavers to be shipped off to the Westlands. This violated the codes of the Slaver's Guild but Kamen, the local Guild chief, was often desperate to meet his quota and rarely questioned the identity of his slaves.

What nobody, especially me, had known was that Ostra had been Kamen's lover. He was not happy to see his beloved standing before him, giggling and asking his men if they wanted to play with her breasts, showing no sign of recognizing him. Kamen really thought Ostra had been taken by Phallus and was preparing to march on Phallus' temple to recover her; now he turned his anger upon me. Not only did his men lay siege to Clyte's temple, he informed the Mayor of what had transpired, revealing my complicity and the innocence of Phallus.

I hid in the temple, claiming sanctuary. My fellow priestesses were appalled, but Clyte's law prevented them from acting against me. Even as the mobs began to grow in the streets, I found myself inside, cut off from any who remained loyal to me. To make things worse, this was when Elana, the new High Priestess arrived. She had doubted my faith many years ago, and would not give me her support.

Invoking her authority, Elana had me stripped of my rights and privileges as one of Clyte's priestesses, and declared on the steps of the temple that I would face justice. Though Kamen demanded my head, under the law I would be tried in a religious court.

My trial took place in the Hall of Prilep, with the High Priest of Udine the Law-Giver as Adjudicator. I remained steadfast in my belief my actions were justified, and argued that I was still under the protection of Clyte, no matter what my replacement said. Even as I uttered these words, the statue of Clyte fell from its place on the wall behind the Adjudicator. As it shattered on the ground Elana stiffened and her face took on a rapturous glow. From her lips came the goddess' voice. "She belongs to me no longer. Let Phallus do with her as he will." No sooner had she finished speaking than Elana fell dead, as no human can long bear to carry a god's presence. Such an event was nearly unheard of, and having been so clearly abandoned by Clyte my fate was sealed.

I was condemned, but rather than facing the death which I now would have welcomed, I was placed in the custody of Pentarch Mandot. He brought me here to the Temple where I was prepared for my Initiation. I struggled and fought all the way to the chapel, and continued even as the ceremony began.

It was then that Phallus made Himself known to me. As His Seed came upon me I realized for the first time the extent of my folly. All this time I had thought that Serving Phallus was a curse, when it fact it is the greatest blessing a girl can receive. The pleasure Phallus granted me then is indescribable to any who have not experienced it. It was as if His essence infused my entire being, wiping away my old prejudices and replacing them with a realization that Service is life, and nothing else matters. Once I fully accepted Phallus as my Master, the ceremony was complete, and I was able to begin my true calling as His Servant.

It has only been a few days, but I have experienced more pleasure and joy since my Initiation than in the all the years before it. I have been told that some of my former supporters have started riots in an effort to "rescue" me, and I wish I could explain to them, as I have to you, how happy I am in my new life. But it is not a Servant's place to make decisions or show initiative; it is up to the priests to decide what I can and cannot do, and it is unthinkable that as a mere Servant I question them.

Soon, perhaps, you too will be blessed enough to Serve Phallus and be my Sister in Service to Phallus. I know when that happens you'll agree with me that nothing could be more wonderful!

The End