ggsm.740.desc;After supper the side-chamber is warm and the talk has already gone past doctrine. Two sisters sit in harness only: breasts out, rings in the nipples, cunts bare between the crotch straps. A third looks at the way you still hold your mantle closed and laughs, not unkindly.\n\nShe hooks a finger in the cloth and tugs it off your shoulder. The harness underneath is already doing the Order's work. Your nipples tighten in the lamp-heat. The slit between the straps is visible the moment the mantle drops another inch.\n\n"No one is going to drag it off you," she says. Her other hand rests on your hip-strap, thumb against bare skin. "But you cannot keep serving at the altar while hiding the altar." She waits. You may pull the cloth back up. Or you may let it fall and stay in the room with your cunt and your rings on display.;;;;;;;;;;;;;x
ggsm.740.a;I let the mantle fall;;;;;;;;;;;;;x
ggsm.740.b;Not tonight;;;;;;;;;;;;;x

ggsm.742.desc;It is no longer a dare. You cross the House in harness and skin. Rings tug when you walk. The crotch strap rubs your clit. A new novice stares at your breasts and forgets the basin in her hands. An older sister does not stare. She reaches as she passes and runs two fingers through the open strap, just enough to feel that you are wet, and keeps walking.\n\nThat is what changes you. Being seen is part of the work. So is being touched in passing. You light the candles with your nipples bare and your cunt framed and you do not close your knees. When a Catholic guest looks, you let him look. That is what the harness was buckled for.;;;;;;;;;;;;;x
ggsm.742.a;I am getting used to their eyes;;;;;;;;;;;;;x

ggsm.743.desc;You catch yourself pausing in a doorway on purpose. Not to shock anyone. To stand as the Order stands: harnessed, unhurried, rings catching the light, the slit between the straps easy to see.\n\nA visiting Catholic looks once. Looks away. Looks back and does not bother to hide that he is hard. You do not cover yourself. You shift your weight so the crotch ring moves against you, so he understands what kind of house he has entered and what he is allowed to want if he is baptized.\n\nA sister behind you murmurs that if he asks, you may take him. You stay in the doorway a breath longer and let him see the wet on the strap.;;;;;;;;;;;;;x
ggsm.743.a;I can carry this without flinching;;;;;;;;;;;;;x

ggsm.744.desc;The last reflex dies in a courtyard full of sisters and daylight. Someone calls your name. You turn. Breasts, rings, open cunt, stockings. There is nothing left to snatch at. Heat in your face is only sun and the ordinary heat of being looked at.\n\nA sister crosses the stones, hooks a nipple-ring as greeting, and keeps talking about stores. Another sits on the bench with her legs apart and a guest already kneeling between them. No one tells you to look away. No one tells you to cover.\n\nThey were right. Shame was never holiness. It was only a habit. The habit is gone. You walk the rest of the yard as you are, wet against the strap, and do not reach for a mantle that is no longer yours.;;;;;;;;;;;;;x
ggsm.744.a;I have nothing left to conceal;;;;;;;;;;;;;x