Chapter 17

At five o'clock, the Pledges were all gathered in the room where they had all made the transition from Prospectives to Pledges of the Sigma Lambda Tau Society just two weeks earlier. Irina and all of the elder members were also present, except for two. Brother Delmar and Sister Nicole were entertaining the guests out back during the conduct of this Society Business Meeting and Induction Ceremony.

"While all of you who have been Pledges now move into a position of full membership within the Sigma Lambda Tau Society, you must understand a few things," Irina was telling them.

"First of all, your journey to becoming a well-trained Courtesan or Cavalier Servente has only begun. The training and experiences that you will encounter for the rest of this semester will be designed for your continued accumulation of knowledge and skills that you will need in the future. But the intensity will be nowhere near what it has been over the past week.

"When you return after Winter Break to begin your next semester, the training will continue, but not even at the intensity level of this semester. You will be asked, though, beginning sometime in the Spring Semester to accompany elder members on certain 'engagements' to begin serving a form of; well, 'apprenticeship, ' I guess you would call it.

"At the end of the school year, the requirements for engagements will be cut back until the beginning of the Fall Semester of the next year. But we require that you take your Society study materials with you and that you remain in good physical condition through regular exercise and proper diet over the summer."

Smiling impishly, Irina also added to the snickering of the former Pledges, "And we want you to practice your 'other' skills whenever the social situation in your home town allows. You are also encouraged to take dance lessons in your home communities over the summer--we will, by the way, begin dancing here later this semester. After all, dance is a very basic form of seduction."

Irina looked around to see if any questions were forthcoming. Seeing only nods, she turned to Todd, Jack, and Melanie and gave a wave of her hand. As Todd moved to a central position in the room, Jack and Melanie arranged the now former Pledges into two lines by gender. Jack held one velvet-lined tray and Melanie held another.

One at a time, the Pledges were beckoned forward and to each of them Todd offered the greeting, "Welcome, Brother," or "Welcome, Sister, to full membership in the Sigma Lambda Tau Society. Felicitas Est Intus Medius." After quoting the Sigma Lambda Tau Society's motto, Todd reached over to pick up a pinkie ring from one of the trays being held by Jack and Melanie. Rings from the tray in Jack's hand were styled more for masculine tastes, while those on Melanie's tray were more feminine. All of the rings had been sized beforehand for perfect fit for each of the intended recipients.

Each ring consisted of a beautiful silver band with an exquisite solitary pearl in an artful yet simple setting. Quiet gasps rose as the former Pledges recognized the styling of the rings as that of the pinkie rings worn by all the elder members.

Once all the rings were handed out and placed on the right pinkie fingers of each of the New Members, Todd led a round of applause from all the elder members present. He turned to offer the floor again to Irina Mirkova.

"You are all on your way along the path you have chosen with us, and on which we shall continue to assist you as you move forward. Consider what you have already begun to learn," Irina looked each of them in the eye in turn as she spoke.

"You have learned to be comfortable with your naked bodies; not only in simple day-to-day living; but in the presence of others of the opposite as well as the same gender. In the past, many Pledges to this Society quit on the first day and left at the very first requirement for being nude in front of others." Irina smiled and said, "Not ONE of your class left over that issue.

"Typically it takes Pledge class members over a week--even under the conditions of immersion into mixed gender nudity, living, and sleeping--to begin to explore new horizons of sexuality. Your class began by having every woman in your group giving blow jobs the very first evening, and teaching the men how to go down on the ladies; and even demonstrating advanced sexual techniques as well."

Looking at Andi, Irina smiled and continued. "And you have even established a new standard protocol for post-coital etiquette--what your Pledge Captain calls 'slut etiquette'--that we have now incorporated into future Pledge training and the Society's rules.

"Of course, it helps to have someone experienced in these things take charge and show you how." They all looked at Andi now and smiled. Dee put a friendly hand on Andi's shoulder. Jay reached out to give Andi's shoulder a squeeze, but stopped suddenly, remembering that Dean was right outside.

Irina continued, "Then, you learned to become comfortable with fleeting public nudity, although in a limited and somewhat protected environment, when shopping as a group. Some of you even became acquainted with spontaneous sexual acts with strangers." A couple of the guys nudged Brooke, Tylea, and Dee, all three of whom just smiled in mild embarrassment and nodded.

"With the events of Slut Week, you learned to experience sex with multiple partners--and with sexually pacing yourself, for the men. You became acquainted with the aspects of security and discretion when approached by other Society members with clearly identifiable bona fides for sexual activities; and these were without any preparation, requiring you to decide, accede, and comply quickly.

"You have all now experienced light bondage and an introduction to the ideas of Domination and submission, as well as your weeklong experience of exhibitionism in and around campus. Here at the house, you have had a taste of voyeurism as well as a bit of experience in cuckoldry for the men.

"And, as difficult as it may have been for some of you, you learned to experience sexual activities with someone of the same gender, even to the point of overcoming revulsion at the very thought for the most part. As we noted from reviewing the video footage, most of the women in your class adapted quickly and well, and even enjoyed this." Irina smiled teasingly.

"Of course, with women being the more flexible and superior gender where sex is involved, that is to be expected." There were snickers from all the girls and snorts from all the guys, but they all grinned good-naturedly at each other as Irina joked with them.

"As you discovered during last night's scavenger hunt, sometimes sexual activities do not require blatant sex acts, and sometimes they do not involve actual sexual contact at all. Sometimes, they can be activities that are simply titillating and just plain fun." Memories of the enjoyment they had all experienced during the Friday Night Forage caused all of them to smile.

"But the biggest hurdle that you all have appeared to overcome during the past two weeks is the mental hurdle. You have discovered how to experience the physical intimacy of sex without the emotional entanglements that can ruin friendships and existing serious relationships.

"How many of you, even after sleeping with and having sex with your fellow Pledge class members still have somewhat serious relationships, either long-term or developing, outside of our Society?"

After just a moment's hesitation and a slow lifting of hands--Dee even surprised herself when she realized that she had raised her hand without thinking about it--the former Pledges were surprised to look around and note among their group that over half of them had their hands up.

"So, you see?" Irina continued. "You have begun to see that you have the capacity to separate sex and emotional commitment. It does NOT mean that you can have sex without there being ANY emotional connection at all. That is just not in the make-up of human beings. But you are learning the difference between--in the simplest of terms--loving and being IN LOVE."

Irina turned slowly to look around the room at all the Society members present as she continued. "All of you, at some point in your journey with the Society, are expected to become the paramours of very important people. As such, you will very likely be experiencing sex with someone who is fully committed emotionally, politically, or financially, to another.

"You will come to be able to do what is expected of you and enjoy the sexual connection without becoming the nemesis of the other committed partner and without becoming threatened with emotional hurt yourself. You all will also become masters and mistresses of discretion while you gain proficiency in your sexual skills.

"Why, even in your own pairings over these past two weeks, you have actually played both roles. You have been the servant and the served in your own Suites. And, from what we have been able to observe," Irina glanced meaningfully at Catherine and caught the girl's eye, "you have done so without creating any long term emotional entanglements among yourselves that could prove painful later."

Catherine's eyes widened briefly, but then she glanced at an unsuspecting Jeremy, who was looking elsewhere and missed it. Catherine turned her eyes back to return the direct look from Irina. Catherine smiled and nodded almost imperceptibly to let Irina know that she had received the message.

"Are there any questions so far?" asked Irina as she looked around the room at their faces. Brooke tentatively raised her hand to gain the older woman's attention. "Yes, Brooke?"

"Irina," Brooke paused and glanced around before continuing, "if we are going to be involved with people who are in committed relationships, or maybe even doing what you expect of us while WE are in committed relationships ourselves," she paused a second to get her thoughts together, "how do we keep from screwing the relationships up? I mean both theirs and ours?"

Irina smiled sagely and said simply, "By being absolutely, unhesitatingly, and completely open and honest about all of it." Seeing Brooke's still unsure look, Irina continued.

"The three main ingredients for a successful committed relationship are love, trust, and communication. If any of these three fail or are violated, then problems develop, most of the time irrevocably. These principles can also be applied to dealing with the, uh, paramour clients, as we call them. And the most important piece to this is communication.

"You never want to give your paramour client or his or her partner even the slightest hint that your position in the mix poses a threat to either partner as it pertains to THEIR relationship, either long term or even short term. You will personally need to be up front and honest with both parties yourself, and encourage your paramour client to be completely honest with his or her partner during the time that you are in both of their lives. Yes, I said both.

"Offer your paramour client the encouragement to communicate to his or her partner all intentions for future events involving sex within your arrangement. Also ask that he or she follow up with communication to the partner after any particularly--shall we say--'interesting' occurrences.

"You must follow up as well with your paramour client to ENSURE that he or she is communicating with his or her partner. If your paramour client is not doing this, then you must notify your Engagement Handler within our Society, and we will begin the process that we call 'disengagement'. We do this so that you may be removed smoothly and quickly from what is probably becoming a dysfunctional relationship with your paramour client, and we do not want you or the Society to be part of that type of situation. Clear so far?

"As for maintaining your own relationships while you are involved with an engagement, you must apply the same principles associated with love, trust, and communication. Discuss the whole situation concerning your chosen lifestyle and events of each specific engagement with your own relationship partner.

"Make it very clear that what you are doing with your paramour client is NOT a threat to your own long term relationship. Give your partner regular details of your proposed or completed activities with your paramour client--BUT without giving out names or locations. We must still maintain absolute discretion when it comes to the clientele of the Society.

"And one thing is very critical here. Never deny your own partner any sexual activity in which you willingly participate with your paramour client.

"If, at any time, your own partner becomes too uncomfortable with your current client situation, you must tell us immediately and we will arrange an intervention meeting to assist in calming your partner's mind about things. Hopefully, we will be able to resolve things so that you may continue within our Society while maintaining your relationship.

"If not, depending on the depth of your commitment to this partner, we will take appropriate steps either to place you temporarily on Inactive status, to place you on long term Inactive status, to work out a solution for your complete separation from participation in the Society's activities, or to assist you in separating from your own partner smoothly so that you may continue with us."

Looking at Brooke first, and then casting a look all around the room, Irina asked, "Does this answer your question on that matter?" Receiving nods, Irina continued.

"You are now members of the Sigma Lambda Tau Society with full privileges here at the house. Thus, it is time to modify the house rules slightly for you. Rules One through Five will remain in effect, with one exception. For Rule Five, concerning the restrictions on wearing pants and certain stockings for the girls, we always make exceptions for the winter weather in Vermont. Otherwise the ladies could quite literally freeze their asses off."

Everyone laughed at Irina's graphic statement. Those who had grown up in the Northeast and other Northern Tier states readily identified with what Irina was saying.

"And, needless to say, now that Slut Week is complete, we will dispense with Rules Six and Seven." Irina saw the relief on the faces of the former Pledge ladies, and then smiled slyly as she said, "Of course, you may voluntarily continue them if you wish." All the girls laughed and shook their heads in the negative at this, although Tylea gave a good put-on expression of considering the idea.