Chapter 31: The High Priestess of Xoth

While Gretel and Lexi polished off the remainder of their coffee and breakfast, Samantha ducked back upstairs to her room to get quickly cleaned up from her morning run. Once the party was then reassembled, they set out for the Temple of Xoth, the mage leading the way, pink hair bouncing under her wide-brimmed hat as she pointed out directions and city landmarks with her staff as the trio walked along.

At length, the temple came into sight. Built entirely of white marble, its design reminded Lexi strongly of the neoclassical architecture that had so impressed her during her High School trip to Washington DC. Lexi and Samantha both marveled at the enormous pillars and vaulted ceiling as the party climbed the dozens of steps that led from the edge of the road up to the temple’s massive entryway.

Shit! Lexi thought to herself, the sight of the temple pulling on a small thread tucked away in the back of her mind. I’m a paladin, right? So, that’s got to mean that I’m supposed to be championing some god’s cause. Fuck me, I never even thought to ask that fucking faerie about it, and SHE didn’t bother to mention anything. Still, it hasn’t bitten me in the ass yet ... but I wonder if that’s about to change?

As it was still early in the morning, there were few supplicants coming to the temple to make their offerings to the goddess. As the goddess of starlight, the mage explained, Xoth’s devotees typically honored her at dusk, just as the evening stars first begin illuminating the sky. That being the case, the only human activity the adventurers observed as they entered the temple were young acolytes, bustling about busily with their morning errands and tasks.

“Excuse me,” Gretel said politely pulling one of the young acolytes aside. “We’re hoping to speak with a priestess regarding a pretty serious curse that’s been placed on my friend here by a greenskin priestess during a recent quest we were completing for the guild.”

“Oh my!” the acolyte gasped, covering her mouth in shock. She was a pretty young brunette, probably close to Lexi’s own age, the paladin guessed. Like all the acolytes, she wore a simple white robe, tied about the waist with a golden threaded cord, the robe being sleeveless to show the girl’s long graceful arms. “If it were some matter of minor healing, I or another acolyte would be happy to assist, but for something like that, I daresay only the high priestess would be of any help. If you all would please stay here, I’ll see if I can fetch her.”

“Thanks very much!” Gretel replied as the young girl bounded off, disappearing down one of the temple’s seemingly innumerable marble hallways.

The young acolyte returned barely a minute later, flanked by a very stately older woman whom Lexi immediately assumed must be the high priestess. The first thing the paladin noticed was the woman’s shock of pastel blue hair, bound up prettily into an elaborate bun with a pair of long golden pins, which was offset beautifully by a pair of luminous green eyes. Her compact frame, nearly an entire head shorter than Lexi, was draped in elegantly flowing white linen robes which highlighted her lean physique beautifully, and reminded Lexi strongly of Roman statues of Diana, the virginal goddess of the hunt. The futanari’s cock twitched minutely under her tabard as she silently wondered whether or not these priestesses and acolytes of Xoth were all vestal virgins like Diana’s had been in the antiquity of her old world.

“Greetings adventurers,” the older woman said to the party. “I am called Anya and have been given the honor of serving as this temple’s high priestess of the great goddess Xoth.”

“Thank you for agreeing to meet with us so quickly,” Gretel said, inclining her head in deference to the high priestess. “Our situation is quite dire, or else we wouldn’t have come at such an early hour.”

“Yes, my acolyte here,” Anya gestured to the pretty young brunette, who bowed low and then scurried off about whatever duties she had yet to perform that morning. “Informed me of the broad outline of the issue, so I fully understand your haste. Naturally, I will do what I can, particularly as the victim is a paladin in service of the goddess herself.

Double shit! Lexi’s mind screamed. Of course we’d end up at the temple of the deity I’m supposed to be connected with. That’s so fucking typical of game logic, I should’ve realized it as soon as Gretel made the suggestion. Time to just play it cool and hope that this priestess won’t somehow KNOW that I’m just now figuring this out, and that this Xoth — whoever she is — won’t be too pissed either...

“Some such curses can be undone,” Anya continued, apparently not noticing Lexi’s internal consternation. “But it is generally the case that the longer someone had been under a curse’s grip, the more difficult its removal can become. However, enough of this out in the open here. Such talk is not meant for the ears of acolytes or, goddess forbid, any members of the public to overhear. Please follow me to a private chamber where you can explain the entire set of circumstances to me, so I can determine how best to help.”

Anya led the three adventurers to a small chamber, whose five sides mirrored the shape of the golden pentangle the high priestess wore around her slender neck. She closed the door behind them, and indicated for the party to seat themselves on the cushioned benches which lined four of the room’s walls, while she took the large chair set on the room’s fifth wall opposite the door.

“Now that we have some privacy,” the high priestess said. “Please tell me of the curse, my young paladin.”

Lexi took a deep breath, and lifted up the front of her tabard, showing Anya the bindrune which the goblin priestess had branded into the soft white flesh of her lower abdomen as the paladin’s sword ran through her chest. The high priestess’ eyes grew as wide as saucers when they traveled downward to rest on the meaty cock hanging limp between the paladin’s legs. However, to her credit, the older woman snapped her eyes back up to the cursed brand, pretending that she had somehow failed to notice that the beautiful young woman sitting in front of her just happened to have a giant cock dangling from the front of her pussy where a clit would normally be. If possible though, her eyes grew even wider, a dark shadow passing over her face, when she took in the brand.

“I know this mark,” Anya said so quietly it almost came out as a whisper. “This bindrune marks you has having been branded with the Curse of Eternal Lust — Igavese Iha Needus I believe it is rendered in the greenskins’ own tongue. Tell me now, please, how you came to bear this of all cursed brands.”

Lexi relayed the conclusion of her party’s attack on the goblin village to Anya, telling the high priestess everything about how she slew the goblin priestess, and of the pink haze which came over her almost immediately after. And, while Lexi was able to tell Anya about her dissociative loss of bodily control that accompanied what she termed the “pink haze,” Gretel and Samantha supplemented her story with their own accounts of Lexi’s behaviors while apparently under the curse’s grip.