Nyarra blinked and yawned as she roused from her slumber. Trying to stretch, she
that she was instead pinned to the floor of the temple. Glancing down, she saw
Delphine stretched out, lying half on top of her, her head resting on Nyarra's breasts.
Nyarra smiled as memory returned, and she gently stroked Delphine's hair.

“mmmmm” Delphine sighed and tried to snuggle even closer to Nyarra.

“Hey, wake up sleepyhead” Nyarra whispered

“comfy. Safe” Delphine mumbled

“I'm going to pee on you and your nice temple floor if you don't let me get up”

“oh, very well” Delphine grumbled, then slowly unwrapped herself from around
Nyarra, rolling over onto her back and stretching.

Nyarra slowly got to her feet, then grabbed her soap pouch and wash towel from her
bag. She noticed the temple door was already opening for her.

“hurry back, darling. Don't worry, the door will stay open for you” Delphine called
after her as she padded out the door into the late afternoon sun. Walking back over
to where she had made her camp, Nyarra ducked into the trees and took care of her
most pressing needs, then decided she would just wash up in the stream here rather
than going all the way down through the woods to the pond she had used previously.
She winced in pain when she ran the wet towel over her ass – her punishment had
been very thorough, and she was paying the price. Still, she smiled as she
remembered brief glimpses of what had occurred.

“who knew being spitted by two cocks could feel so good. I'm going to have to try
that again sometime. Or maybe even one in my ass and one in my pussy at the same
time?” The thought made her smile as she soaped herself up and scrubbed the sweat
and dried cum from her body. Rinsing off, she dried herself as best she could,
being careful to only gently pat the water off her extremely sore ass. Picking up her
toiletries, she headed back into the temple.

Delphine had put her green dress back on and was sitting on the floor beside
Nyarra's bedroll. Nyarra paused in the doorway and took in the sight. With her
newfound knowledge fresh in her mind, Delphine no longer looked like an elegant and
regal divine being, but more like a lost and frightened young woman, trapped in a
prison of her own making.

“she still looks damn good in that dress though, and the green goes very nicely
with her red hair” she thought, a soft smile crossing her face.

Delphine looked up at Nyarra standing in the doorway.

“Nyarra, come over and lay down on your stomach. We should put some of the keeper's
ointment on your tender behind. I, for one, would not like to see that beautiful
ass of yours permanently damaged”

“yes Mistress” Nyarra smiled wryly as she spoke and walked over to the bedroll.

Delphine's face lit up and her heart melted on hearing Nyarra's words

“now why did I say that?” Nyarra pondered as she lay down on the bedroll at
Delphine's direction. “perhaps because that is how the Keeper referred to her, and
it's starting to rub off on me. It somehow feels.....right...though”

Nyarra crossed her arms under her head and relaxed as Delphine began to apply the
ointment to her tender cheeks. Her touch was soft and delicate as she spread the
oil, working it into her tender flesh. Nyarra felt a slight jolt when Delphine
started to work some of the oil into the flesh surrounding her sphincter. 

“no, not now” she thought as her body started to respond to the delicate massage.

“maybe later”

Nyarra was enjoying the feeling of Delphine's hands massaging her ass, so she was a
little disappointed when they stopped.

“all done. You should be able to sit comfortably now, I think” Delphine said as she 
closed the jar and wiped her hands off on the hem of her dress.

Nyarra rolled over carefully, her ass only emitting a cool throb instead of a sharp
sting as she put weight on it.

“that stuff really does work wonders” she mused.

“I could...I could see about getting the recipe from the keeper...” Delphine
offered quietly. “if you wish?”

Nyarra lowered her gaze and blushed a little, knowing full well that offer meant
that she might be needing more than what she had now in the future.

“I...I think that would be a good idea” she admitted.

Delphine smiled, also realizing just what Nyarra had admitted to.

The two women sat in silence for several moments, neither one quite knowing what to
say. Nyarra finally shifted a little and cleared her throat. Delphine looked up at
her expectantly.

“You said that in order for you to leave, you need to transfer the power in your
temple into another device, and that someone else has to carry that item. You will
then be able to travel with them, as long as you stay within a certain range”

“yes, that is correct”

“what is this item, and how does it work?”

“well, unfortunately I cannot tell you what it is, but suffice to say you will know
it when you see it” Delphine twisted her hands together in her lap and looked down.
“as for how it works, well, you just have to ask a question. And no, I cannot tell
you what the question is. You will know when the time comes” Delphine clasped her
hands together tightly

“if you choose to help me” she whispered quietly

Nyarra gritted her teeth at Delphine's words.
“more puzzles to solve” she thought to herself.

Delphine saw the turmoil in Nyarra's face and felt sad for her. Gently, she reached
out and touched Nyarra's knee

“I understand if you need time to think. Take whatever time you need.” Delphine
withdrew her hand and looked down again. “I'm not going anywhere” a deep note of
sadness punctuated her last words.

Nyarra's heart broke again at hearing the sadness in Delphine's voice. She reached
out and pulled Delphine into her arms, cradling her against her chest. The lost,
frightened young woman had come to the forefront again, and Nyarra couldn't help
but want to comfort her. It didn't help Nyarra's state of mind that she thought
she might be falling in love with this enigmatic semi-divine woman.

“Nyarra?”

“yes?”

“will...will you stay with me here tonight? I want to feel your skin against mine,
hear your heartbeat. I don't want to be alone”

Nyarra gently kissed the top of Delphine's head

“of course I will” Nyarra assured her

“I like feeling you next to me as well” she admitted quietly, her voice catching a
little on the words.

Delphine tilted her head back and stretched up to kiss Nyarra softly

“thank you”

Delphine cuddled against Nyarra.

“we still have a bottle of wine and some bread if you are hungry”

“pretty sure I've still got some roast rabbit as well” Nyarra replied

“I've never had rabbit”

“well, it may not be up to the standards of those skewers we had in Dagesh, but...”

“it never hurts to try new things” Delphine's face twisted in wry amusement
“well, sometimes new things do hurt, but that's part of the fun”

Nyarra laughed and hugged Delphine tighter.



They shared their food and drank the wine, talking long into the evening. Nyarra
told of her time with Senna, and how the brave blonde woman had taught her what she
knew about lovemaking, as well as her skill with a blade.

Eventually they grew too tired to keep their eyes open. Nyarra was chagrined to
realize that her bedroll was too small for the both of them. Delphine just smiled
and made a sweeping gesture with her hands, conjuring a large soft blanket for them
to lay on. As they curled up next to each other, Delphine gestured again and another
soft fluffy blanket appeared to cover them.

“I still have only the one pillow.....” Nyarra admitted

“that's alright silly. I'll just use you” Delphine replied sleepily, and then
proceeded to drape herself over Nyarra as she had before, resting her head on
Nyarra's soft breasts.

Nyarra smiled at the young woman curled up on her.
“this does feel very good” Nyarra admitted as her eyes closed and sleep began to
overtake her.

As Nyarra drifted off, a strange but not unwelcome sense of peace and contentment
flowed through her. Somehow, everything just seemed....right. Unlike her sleep of
the previous days, this night her dreams were untroubled by sexual memories or
fantasies and she rested peacefully.

When she woke, she stretched to find that Delphine was no longer beside her.
Instead, her basket was again filled with food and wine from the market in Dagesh.
There was also a neatly tied scroll resting on top and a folded piece of parchment
beside that.

Tearing off a piece of the sweet bread that was in the basket, she picked up the folded
parchment. As she chewed, she unfolded the page to find a neatly written
note;


Nyarra, my sweet

I hope that you are not too disappointed that I went back to Dagesh without you,
but I wanted to surprise you. There is food enough and wine if you are so
inclined, but you do not strike me as the 'wine for breakfast' type. As you wished,
the scroll contains the recipe for the Keepers ointment. I do not know how
difficult it might be to find some of the ingredients, but there it is.

If you wish to honour my request, come and find me deeper in the temple. I hope
you do. I have sincerely enjoyed our time together, and I find that I do not wish
it to end. You have the knowledge you need to figure out how to complete the ritual
I wish I could help you more, but I, too, am constrained. You are a smart and brave
young woman. I believe in you and I'm sure you will figure it out.

Love, Delphine

Nyarra carefully folded the note back up and placed it in the basket. Picking up the scroll,
she carefully unrolled it to have a look. Some of the ingredients she
was unfamiliar with, but that wasn't odd; she wasn't an alchemist after all. She
would need to take it to someone more knowledgeable than herself to sort out what
she was looking for. She carefully rolled it back up and put it back in the basket
as well. Tearing off another piece of bread, she slowly chewed on it while looking around the room.

'You have the knowledge you need'

“argh!” she exclaimed and thumped her fist on the floor.

She was good at figuring out puzzles and mysteries, but currently this one eluded
her. Untangling herself from the blanket, she got up and began to pace around the room,
letting her eyes wander over the statues and carvings once more. She tried
not to focus on any single item, but instead let her subconscious work as she took
it all in in a general fashion.

After a half hour of seemingly aimless pacing about the room, she felt no closer to
a resolution than when she had started. What else had Delphine told her?

You will know it when you see it

This implied that it was going to be something that Nyarra would recognize, and her
mind would automatically shout 'there it is, that's the one'

As for the question, well.....that was even trickier. She had already asked the questions
she could think of.

Would recognizing the item give rise to the question?

Nyarra balled her hands into fists in frustration.

Looking over at the temple door, she noticed that it was still open. She walked over to it
and looked out at the forest beyond.

“I could walk out the door and not come back if I so chose. I have a bag of coin,
albeit strange ones, and I'm sure the ointment recipe would be worth something to
someone....” A pang of remorse rolled through her heart at this thought, and she
remembered Delphine sitting beside her, crying and looking like a lost and
frightened young woman.

“who are you kidding. You could no sooner do that than you would kick a starving
kitten” she scolded herself.

Turning her back on the door, she walked back over to the jumbled blankets and sat
back down. Pulling a piece of fruit out of the basket, she quickly ate that down as
well, then had a drink of water. Looking up, she found herself looking down the
corridor that led deeper into the temple. Her shoulders slumped and she knew what
she was going to do. Her conscience really gave her no other choice. Standing back up,
Nyarra strode into the hallway and headed deeper into the temple.

She had gone maybe fifty paces when she came to the first set of doors, one on each
side of the hallway. Opening them up, she felt like beating her head on the wall.
They were bedrooms, complete with wardrobe and a soft bed. She could have spent her
nights sleeping in one of these rooms instead of her tent and bedroll. The
wardrobes were empty, but the beds were interesting, being fitted with padded
manacles at the head and foot of the bed, as well as loops on the sides, possibly for
ropes to be tied through? She blushed as she thought of the uses those manacles and loops
could be put to. She found several more bedrooms further down the hall,
as well as a couple of rooms that were fitted with pillories. Various paddles and
crops hung from hooks on the wall. Running her fingers over the various
instruments, she found a couple that looked interesting. She started to withdraw
her hand, then stopped and reached up quickly to pull them off their hooks. Exiting
the room, Nyarra ran back up the corridor to the antechamber and stuffed the paddles in
her pack, then ran back down the hallway to continue her exploration.

As she came to the end of the corridor, it opened out into what looked like any
other temple gathering chamber – pulpit at one end, multiple rows of sturdy benches
for worshippers laid out before it. Behind the pulpit here, though, was another
pillory and a large X-shaped cross, with manacles at the top and bottom, presumably
for securing wrists and ankles. Looking around the room, she saw another exit on
the opposite side of where she had come in, as well as a door behind the pulpit.
She briefly thought of going to the door opposite, but she felt a strange pull
guiding her to the door behind the pulpit. Examining the pillory as she went past,
she saw that it too was padded for comfort – this was for those desiring to be
punished, not for securing criminals.

Opening the door behind the pulpit, she passed through a short corridor lined with
silk drapery. The room beyond was richly panelled in light-coloured wood with dark
grain patterns running through it. There was an ornate bed against the far wall,
roughly placed in the centre, but what really drew her eye were the various items hanging
on the walls. There were sturdy leather and metal harnesses, similar to
what she had seen the pony girl wearing, various gags, wrist and ankle cuffs, and
a larger collection of paddles, straps, and crops for spanking. Laid out on a table
to the left of the door she come in by were various dildos and anal plugs,
including a nice shiny silver plug with a blue jewel set in the base. Fondling the
plug, Nyarra bit her lip.

“I really should have brought my bag with me” she mused

Looking to the other side of the room, she saw a large wardrobe up against the
wall. Moving over to it, she opened it up and found an old leather bag inside.
Smiling, she picked up the bag and went back to the table. The silver plug was the
first thing she put in the bag, followed by a couple of different dildos. Walking
around the room she started taking things down off the wall and stuffing them in
the bag as well – a couple different gags, a set of wrist cuffs, and the tight
leather harness. She practically had the bag bursting at the seams with her
collection. Not seeing anything else that caught her eye or struck her fancy, she
turned and headed towards the door. As she approached the door, she suddenly
stopped dead and the bag dropped to the floor, slipping out of her suddenly numb
fingers.

Hanging on a hook beside the door where she hadn't seen it when she came in was a
plain silver collar. Slowly, Nyarra reached out her hand and ran her fingers over
the smooth metal and leather. A wave of understanding ran through her as she lifted
the collar off its hook. Holding the collar in her right hand, she picked her bag
of bondage goodies up and walked back out into the central chapel area. Dropping
the bag beside the pulpit, she turned to face the altar she had not initially taken
note of.

Tears welling in her eyes, she slowly dropped to her knees in front of the altar.
She brought her trembling hands up and looked at the collar she was holding.

“I understand now. I understand why you chose me”

Slowly she placed the collar around her neck and clicked it shut. The leather felt
smooth and warm on her skin. It was snug, but not so snug that it impeded her
breathing. Bowing her head before the altar, she clasped her hands behind her back.

“May I be of service, Mistress?” she asked reverently

Nyarra felt a surge of power grow in the room and start to stream toward her. She
felt the collar grow warm and her skin tingled as power flowed around her, through
her, and into the collar. The flow of energy swirling around her seemed to go on
forever, but surely it only lasted a few minutes. When it finally stopped, she
could feel that the collar had changed. She reached up to touch it and found that
it was no longer a leather and silver collar, but instead a delicate silver
necklace. Somehow, she knew that it could not be harmed by any tool or weapon. She
could remove it herself if she wanted to. That was the nature of the submission.
Service by choice.

“Please, stand up Nyarra” Delphine said quietly behind her

Nyarra stood up and turned around. Delphine stood only a few paces from her, her
face lit up with a radiant smile while tears coursed down her face. Delphine
stepped forward and hugged Nyarra, pulling her into a crushing embrace, then
kissing her with more passion than Nyarra thought was possible.

“Oh, my beautiful sweet Nyarra, I knew you would figure it out. I knew you would
not let me down. I have longed for this day for so many ages you cannot possibly
imagine. When I first heard of you, I knew, somehow, that you would be the one”

Delphine pulled back to look Nyarra in the eyes

“I did not expect that I would fall for you so completely” Delphine gave Nyarra
another passionate kiss.

“now come, pick up your bag and follow me. There is something else you can do for
me”

“yes Mistress” Nyarra quickly picked up her bag and fell in behind Delphine as she
strode off through the door that Nyarra had initially ignored. Taking a couple more
bags off a shelf inside the room, she led Nyarra over to a large trunk against the
far wall. Flipping open the trunk, Nyarra saw heaps of the unusual coins, as well
as various gems and jewels. Delphine handed a bag to Nyarra

“Nyarra, do you think you could help me divest this soon-to-be-crumbling mausoleum
of some of it's riches?” Delphine's eyes twinkled mischievously as she smiled.

Nyarra grinned back

“of course, Mistress. I would be delighted to”

Both women fell to their knees and began scooping the assorted wealth into their bags.
When they felt they could carry no more, they linked their arms together and began to
head out towards the antechamber where the rest of Nyarra's belongings
still lay. The light from the globes was noticeably dimmer when they came out of
the hallway and into the antechamber, the power that kept them lit draining into
the necklace around Nyarra's throat. They quickly gathered everything up and headed
towards the door. Nyarra strode through the open door and into the afternoon sunlight.

Delphine, however, stopped just at the threshold and trembled a bit.

“Nyarra, I....” her voice faltered

Nyarra looked back to see Delphine trembling on the threshold of the doorway, her
free hand clutching the side of her dress, twisting the fabric and twitching with
fright. Nyarra came back and took Delphine's hand in her own and gave it a little
squeeze.

“it's alright now, you are free of this place” Nyarra smiled reassuringly at
Delphine.

Delphine slowly stretched one foot forward and stepped outside the bounds of the
temple. With Nyarra continuing to encourage her, she took another hesitant step,
then another, gaining a little more confidence with each one taken. As she came fully
out into the sunlight, Delphine tipped her head back and took a deep breath.
Dropping her bag on the ground, she spun around and cried her joy to the sky above.
Stopping her spin, she practically launched herself into Nyarra's arms, almost
sending them both tumbling to the ground. She clung to Nyarra and showered her with
kisses she was so happy. Disentangling herself from Delphine's manic embrace,
Nyarra took a step back and shook her head in amusement.

“if you don't stop shouting your joy to the sky and calm down, I'm going to have to
gag you” she teased

Delphine stopped prancing and sidled up to Nyarra and breathed in her ear

“don't you threaten me with a good time”

Delphine did calm down though, and picked her bag back up and fell into step with
Nyarra as they made their way over to Nyarra's campsite. As Nyarra dropped her bags
next to her tent, Delphine shook her bag of coin and gems.

“it seems you did find the treasure you came looking for”

Nyarra stepped over to Delphine and smacked her ass, then gave it a squeeze and pulled her
close to look into her eyes

“I think the real treasure found me, and that's what brought me here”

Dropping her bag to the ground, Delphine melted into Nyarra's arms and kissed her
passionately, fresh tears of joy streaming down her cheeks.