Mortuus Virgo Read Online Free Page B

allowing her to serve the Goddess. Once a year on the anniversary of her arrival, her mother would visit her in the outer Temple, suitably attired and saying the sort of things you would expect from a mother, but despite looking forward to her visit each time, it was always a relief to get back to her cell when the visit was over.
    Now the time was fast approaching when all she had learned over the last ten years would come to fruition. Today was her birth, her first step into the real service of the Goddess. From now she would take part in the ceremonies expected as a Priestess of Vesta. For the first time in ten years, she would be able to step outside the walls of the Temple, albeit always in the presence of an armed unit of Praetorian Guard, but outside nonetheless. As one of only six Priestesses she would be in great demand across the city and since the retreat of one of the older Sisters into her last ten years as a teacher, the pressures on the other five had been immense as they waited for her replacement to be nominated.
    Rubria realised she had been very lucky. There were six other acolytes ready to take the next step forward but she had been selected by the high Priestess as the most ready and had lain prone for two days before the image of the Goddess, giving thanks for her selection. She stared at the open doorway holding her breath as the footsteps approached until, at last the Pontifex Maximus stood before her.
    ‘You are summoned, Acolyte!’ intoned the familiar voice formally. Rubria took a pace forward……and slammed the door in his face!
    ----
    ‘Get thee from my vision, temptation,’ she cried out, ‘I reject you!’
    As expected, a minute later the door was flung open once more and six Sisters who had already served their times as Priestesses, filed into the room and took their place in a circle around her. She dropped to her knees, and bending her head forward, allowed her long golden tresses to hang low to the floor. Another person entered the room and stopped before Rubria.
    ‘Do you discard all worldly possessions acolyte?’ asked the High Priestess gently.
    ‘I do,’ she answered meekly.
    ‘Do you surrender to the service of the great mother, blessed Virgin of the house of Vesta?’
    ‘With all my heart.’
    ‘Will you repel the hand of man in deed and thought, even unto death?’
    ‘I will!’
    ‘And will you nurture the flames of our mother’s untouched womb, forsaking all other god’s.’
    ‘Until the day I die.’
    ‘Then make the choice, Acolyte. Leave the world of the ignorant and embrace the heart of the enlightened.’
    The high Priestess gathered Rubria’s hair and bunched it together, holding it high. Another Priestess holding a silken cushion stepped forward and gave her a pair shears. The gathered Sisters said a mutual prayer, and as she prayed with her eyes tightly shut, Rubria’s hair fell to the floor beneath her. When the last of the golden locks had been cut she waited patiently as the stubble was shaved from her scalp. Fragrant oils were smoothed over her skin and she was helped up to face her fellow priestesses. A Palla of purest white silk, the mantle that would be the only type of clothing she would wear for the next ten years was draped over her shoulders and wrapped around her body before the surplus was draped down her left side. A white lace Infula was placed gently over her head and the headdress hung down over her shoulders to be fastened to the Palla over her left breast with a Suffibulum, a broach of pure gold.
    When they had finished, the high Priestess handed Rubria the cushion, this time laden with her old clothing and topped with her shorn golden locks. They left her alone in the cell for a few minutes, a beautiful vision in white, until once again the voice of the Pontifex Maximus boomed out.
    ‘Acolyte, you are summoned!’
    This time, after taking a deep breath, Rubria stepped forward and left the cell, carrying the remnants of her old life