Excerpted from Green Ruins & Shallow Blues: Book II: FRUITFUL
(c) Kyrinn S. Eis All Rights reserved
Daisa in a sportshalter and absorbent loose-fitted pants was drenched in sweat. She brought her right foot up and turned it so that her heel rested above her left knee. Balanced so, Daisa contracted her abdomen and drew in as deep a breath as possible -- presently possible; she was to learn all the 'essential forms' within short order as the foundation of her Moon Maiden training, privately instructed. Anethra pressed on Daisa's belly and the small of her back at once.
"Your diet hasn't been enough; I will have you on Zhomda soon; your body will transform before your eyes, of that, have no doubt."
Spentz would had nodded, but that would had meant she had stopped her exercise. Anethra smiled the half-wicked, half-cronish smile Zere found ugly.
"Why did you leave your goddess' army? ...You may stop now."
Daisa cooled down and found a neutral stance at the bottom of a series of de-escalation forms meant for a half-hour process. Anethra monitored each and smiled, perplexedly, as the other woman performed them to the absolute minimum duration for any efficacy.
"You would make an excellent dancer of the Shindjariis Sect's, Temple of Flesh, ritual. You have it already without having it been taught you. The North-East, you say? Except for your pallor, I could swear you are Khathaqron."
Anethra took Daisa's jaw in her hand, turned her face in it and judged her nose, and then laughed.
"No, I take that back; whatever that nose is, it is not Khathaqron. Something noble, though, old...rare."
She continued her hold, and their eyes met. Daisa looked on with her grey eyes, and Anethra relented and softly released her. The Uldwnyerna stood close enough that her student's body heat warmed the older woman like an oven. Anethra swallowed hard and then stepped away in dance and whirled in great arcs, her legs in long strides bounced in bowed arch, pushed off, up with her heels. She drew-in her arms and began to whirl faster as the circle tightened. Her gold-chased black crop-top and seraglio pants flashed in a marvellous glittering while her red sash belt, normally loose, was flattened against her waist and hips. Daisa knew that the, Dance of Edwn, was her instructor's way to not deal with her desires; she -- Anethra, sought to sublimate her energy into the offering to the male consort of Matride as a tithe or bribe -- something to have the excess reside anywhere but upon her. Daisa watched all this, and knew this, but never once thought to do anything without either permission, or a request from Zha, who loved the Uldwnyerna. Daisa felt nothing at all; as grey and steely as her eyes; she only loved herself, and only when she had mastered her newest challenge. She smiled ever so softly at her instructor's praise, but the Shindjariis Sect wouldn't win this war, nor gain Daisa the invisible crown she sought for herself. Anethra finally stopped, and stepped into folded legs and placid arms of meditative rest even as her chest heaved and her amazing abdomen plunged and bellowed silent huffs through that magnificent nose. Daisa then looked up and out the window at sunset; a sunset meant only for her viewing, for only she could see it at that particular angle, in that exact spot, in that very instant: it was a glory of violet and orange in a space impossible to mix; a furiously beautiful light which almost made her believe in something Greater -- almost.
-- "You are missing a beautiful sunset, Uldwnyerna Anethra Dash."
"Imagine what Matride sees of it from her vantage point."
Spentz smiled, almost snorted a laugh, but that conveyed something far different in Khathaq culture; and Daisa meant the very opposite of that sentiment. The Chief Justice watched as the last rays shone through the swamp trees; she felt ...empty. Daisa looked at Anethra and wondered what she tasted like.
