Life and Times of a Priestess Ch. 06 Pt. 02

Chapter 6: The Priestess Meets Another General

Part 2: Ravelleon

The building she entered was an old one, probably made centuries before, used to house groups of people in small dormitory rooms. The previous occupants might have been a group of families who had chosen to live together, or groups of female or male workers unpartnered. The General had chosen it probably for the size of its rooms, which he could use as offices, and the number of them. Other officers and clerks would work here, usually only during the day, she suspected as the place seemed mainly empty this evening.

The guard showed her through the hallway, decked out magnificently in what must be the taste of Prancir. The offices had been newly wallpapered, further evidence of the Prancirianisation of Dalos and the declared intention of the conquerors to remain here permanently. On the sides of the hallway and the staircase she ascended were pictures of what she assumed must be the latest styles of Prancir, blurred paintings of restful country and city scenes, gentle portraits of attractive women and men. She had no time to look closely but she was given a renewed interest in Prancir and its culture. She knew much already about its soldiers, variously arrogant and meek, unused to the rich sexual life the Priestesses had to offer, but desperate for it. Many of them were good people, she could see, forced into unnatural but nonetheless exciting circumstances. There was an emptiness and a loneliness about them which few in Pirion displayed, but glimpses of the culture they came from revealed arts and glories many of which Pirion could not boast.

The guard ushered her straight into an upstairs room where the General sat waiting for her. She had half expected him to be working on some letter or giving order, but no, he had set aside this evening to relax and was waiting in his armchair, dressed still of course, in his uniform. She had no time to take in the details of the room but it was not an officer, more a room with comfortable chairs to relax in. To one side, near the window, its curtains drawn was a table set for two, candles lit, the places facing each other.

"Danella, it is good to see you," he said. "You look very beautiful, and the dress," rising to take her hand. Softly he raised her hand to his lips and kissed it, his eyes looking straight into hers. The physical touch of him put her at ease, making the situation more familiar to her. Would he rush her to bed now or would he wish to talk about other things as the officer Paul had at first. She was expected for a meal, that much was certain as the table was set, but probably that was to be afterwards. From what she knew the General was not in full approval of the personal lives of his men and officers, so she was prepared for him to treat the occasion with more 'Prancirian' seriousness. She fully expected him to draw the liaison out over the whole evening. However his sensual greeting suggested a quicker intimacy, one with which she felt more at ease. He lowered her hand, unexpectedly and she began to raise her head towards his face in the normal affectionate response of a priestess towards her acquaintance.

"No its alright, not now," he spoke all too quickly and pulled her hand away gently. She detected instant disfavour. His General's voice spoke with power, even such simple words, and she would not have disobeyed. Not for the first time she reflected that this man avoided involvement in sexual actions and words. She had observed shyness amongst more than a few young soldiers but this was something further also. This was the kind of abstinence she had observed from reading 'The Homecoming'. She was curious about this man. Probably he would bed her after the meal, she concluded. Why else should she be here.

"Please take a seat," he gestured to one and she sat across the room distant from him, "I want to talk first. Soon we will eat," he nodded to the table. "I was impressed to see you reading our books this morning" he said.

"Is that why you decided to invite me here tonight?" she asked, aware that she should not put words into his mouth".

"Yes, I find it quite unusual in any woman of Pirion to read the books of foreigners, tell me what makes you want to read our books?"

"I am curious about Prancir. I have never been there and I wish to find out more about you. We are defeated here and under your rule. I want to know more about the people who have conquered us. I want to find out about you."

"And learn our language?" he finished for her.

"Of course and that as well".

"I am curious about you. Usually people of Pirion have no interest in reading. Usually they know nothing about my country and do not wish to know" he declared.

"Now we do want to know. You have forced us to take notice of you. If you knew our country better you would know that many of us take great pleasure in reading and we have many fine writers".

"I do not see much sign of this. Mostly your people are like beasts. They only live to copulate for pleasure and to reproduce. Your people have little other purpose in life. Even when conquered they return to their old habits very quickly if allowed" he said.

"You think my people have no purpose?" she repeated, interested to try to understand what this leader of their enemy thought about her people. The conquest was insult enough, further insults were merely interesting, for they could do no greater harm, than they had already done. She was not surprised or particularly offended by his accusations, they were expected from these materialistic conquerors. She could not take it personally because he seemed to imbue her with some intelligence or motivation at least elevating her to superiority over her fellow citizens. She had felt for some years that she was different from most of her fellow citizens because of her curiosity and her interest in far away places and books, her practice of keeping a diary in Shanla. In Dalos she had come to terms with her identity as a Priestess again but it had taken the war to make her realise what could be lost in the invasion. It had given her a determination to keep her people and her culture alive whatever the Prancinarians might force upon them. However, she had to be willing to learn from them.

"You are people just as in my own country, but you make nothing of yourselves," he went on, "You live like simple animals. You have not the great arts of Vanmar and your technologies are backward. You need the rule of progressive people to make you into a worthwhile people. We Prancinarians can do that for you, and soon you will thank us for it".

"So you do not believe that we are worthless, merely that we need education", she summarised.

"That is so."

"What of the Vanmandrians?", she asked, "I have heard stories about the way they treat us like animals, and how they slaughtered our poor people in Jumillos. They surely do believe we are worthless".

"Some of those rumours are exaggerated, I think, but not all. In Jumillos they failed to appreciate the value of your citizens. We were as angry over that as you were. We fought with the Vanmandrians after that outrage and taught them a lesson. We Prancirians do not behave like that. You will see we are good for Dalos," he stated.

She was impressed that he sounded genuinely angry about the massacres by the Vanmandrians, but this was not good enough to excuse the crimes of Prancir which she had witnessed with her own eyes. He seemed willing to listen to her. This was a frank exchange of views. She was not afraid of him, even though she recognised he had the power to change her life for better or worse.

"That temple over there", she pointed through the curtains to where she thought the burned Temple of the Goddess lay in ruins. "What respect for our people did you have when they were massacred?"

"This is a war. Sometimes soldiers have to kill. There was resistance at the Temple you know. As soon as I found out I halted that action", he stated, with no sign of conscience.

"I doubt there was resistance. We had given our surrender and you broke your treaty. Other houses were burned with the inhabitants inside. Some citizens were chased and killed cruelly. Where is your honourable nation now".

"These incidents were rare and soon stopped. It could have been much worse, I assure you. As you have said the Vanmandrians are not so kind," he said.

"Also there are the crimes you have committed against our men. Many of them are still in the camps, the work is forced and they are worked hard as well as humiliated. They are denied the freedom to be with their women. That is cruel," she declared. He laughed good humouredly, but his dismissal of her objection she found distasteful. The treatment of the men was something upon which she had thought she might be able to influence the General. If her visit to was to do some good maybe this was something she could achieve, to improve their life quality. Instead he seemed to disregard her point with his humour.

"They are still prisoners and the war continues. How many prisoners are allowed to sleep with their wives in any country," he betrayed his misconceptions about Pirionite society by assuming that Pirion would commit such cruelty on even prisoners of war.

"War itself is no longer a normal practice in Pirion, it has not been for centuries." She explained.

"When the war is finished we will release them. They will be able to return to their families".

"When will the war be finished? I do not think you will be able to conquer the rest of Pirion." Sitting here with one of the conquerors, and at his mercy her words sounded weak and unconvincing. As a prisoner of the Prancirians she was not sure she was convinced by them herself. If she could not convince herself how could she expect to convince the General who knew his own power and knew far better than she what his army was capable of.

"Don't mislead yourself Danella," he said gently. "The nations of Vanmar will destroy Pirion once and for all. Your old way of life has gone for good. It cannot return. Instead I suggest you look to the future. You will experience a new world. Pirion will grow richer and more cultured under our rule, particularly those areas under the rule of Prancir. You will learn to appreciate many things which you were not even aware of in the Empire of the Goddess."

She felt embittered by his dismissal of old Pirion. Could he really believe the Empire of the Goddess had nothing of value to teach the young nations of the north. "What do you have to teach us. All I see are the acts of war and the economics of greed," she said. He looked surprised at her use of such long Prancirian words, as if he would not have expected a citizen of Pirion to know about such things as economics, and less so a woman. But it pleased her at least, that she could be having a dialogue with a General at the heart of power. She would like to think it meant that he could value the conversation of important matters even with a captured woman of a defeated Empire. She knew the Vanmarians were a male dominated society, having never known the Goddess. Important matters were often kept from women, unless they had position. Men made the rules and women obeyed. She had learned these things from the books of General Polad, and she found the echoes of them in "The Homecoming" to confirm them.

She should feel privileged that the General was willing to conduct such a conversation with her, even if he refused to accept any weaknesses in his own beliefs and opinions. However, she knew he was really doing this because she was an attractive woman. She could not understand why he did not ask her to take her clothes off by now. He answered her questions as if she were a child to be listened to patiently, and then instructed, but he showed little sign of taking her views seriously. His Prancirian upbringing surely gave him the sexual reserve which denied him the expression of his foremost desires. Instead he would play with her in other ways so he could 'enjoy' her company without breaking the rules he held himself to.

It was not that she objected to talking this way. This kind of conversation fascinated her. It was a welcome relief after years of petty conversations with other Priestesses. She flourished in the climate of a thinking person's conversation. She had loved General Polad for his knowledge and his mind, his respect for her. In the climate of war she had enjoyed far reaching conversations with other Priestesses and particularly with Sreela. With Paul who had loaned her 'The Homecoming', she had been able to talk widely with him for part of their evening. Ravelleon was of the same kind, she thought, although more committed and extreme in his opinions. She had the feeling that Ravelleon wanted her body but would not allow himself until after he had entertained and dined her in other ways, whereas with Paul the sex came sooner and was often the prelude for the sharing of ideas.

Danella was about to begin to explain what she felt were some of the weaknesses of Prancirian society as she understood it so far, and to explain the strengths of Pirion, but Ravelleon began to change his tack. "Perhaps I should not be boring you with my strong views," he retracted.

"You're not boring me, General. Your views are interesting, even if I do not agree with them all".

"In Prancir we men try not to overtax our ladies with dry and weighty matters. We attempt to entertain our ladies. It is called chivalry".

"Where are you from?" he went on, carrying the conversation into new territory, finding out more about herself. It seemed that in Prancir as well as in Pirion the adept man knew that women liked to talk about themselves.

"Shanla", she replied. When he looked as if he did not know of it she said, "It is a long way south in Pirion. I thought you would have hard of it if you intend to conquer all Pirion."

He smiled, "I admit, madam. I have not heard of it".

"I hope you will decide not to go there. If you have not heard of it there is some hope for it." She wondered whether she was becoming too critical again, but he seemed happy for her to disagree and to counter him. He had some humour and seemed to enjoy her opposition.

"I promise you," he promised, "when we do go to Shanla I will ensure that no great harm comes to its people. You have parents there?" He smiled as he spoke as if he accepted he would not be in Shanla soon.

"Yes, I have not seen them since I left. My mother and my father are teachers. I have sent and received letters from them while here in Dalos, but of course nothing since the conquest".

"You must miss them very much," he said showing an attitude of concern which seemed genuine, but nonetheless was hypocritical given that he was the reason for the enforced separation.

"It is kind of you to be sorry for me but you are the person who has separated me from them. You have done this to me." Again she felt able to criticise him. She knew it was unwise to risk angering him, but her instincts told her that she personally had no reason to fear this man. Indeed she could probably say what she wanted to him. She knew enough of men to be confident of them. Very few men did not have respect for her. She knew she was an attractive woman. In Pirion it had given her power and confidence since puberty because experience had proved the power of her body. Now in conquered Dalos that power continued to work over the soldiers who visited. If anything she was more confident of her sexual power here because the Prancirian solders came to the Priestesses starved of sex and unsatiated, whereas the males of Pirion had as much as they could wish for. When a man was interested in a woman and knew that a woman was available to him there was little a woman could do to anger him. Men in the frenzy of battle were different. In that situation they were afraid for their own lives and in anger for their fallen comrades. She had feared the Pranciarians in combat and in the immediate aftermath of conquest. Now things had settled down in Dalos there was little to fear from them in the dormitory and in their own lodgings. The officers and it seemed particularly a General like Ravelleon did not wish to be angry in their relaxation time. They wanted one thing above all, the treasures that women could give.

"What I do, I do in the cause of Prancir and the world, for justice and progress. I seek not to harm you or your family. When did you come to Dalos?"

"I came here a year ago".

"Why did you come here?" he asked.

"I came because I was tired of my life in Shanla, I wanted to see the rest of the world," she said. "And did you find what you wanted," he asked.

"I liked Dalos. It was a great city until you attacked it and burned so much of it down and enslaved its people. But it was only to be the beginning of my travels. I had seen many places on my way here from Shanla but there is much more".

"What made you tire of Shanla, to make you wish to travel?" he asked. She began to be surprised at the depth of his questions. A short while ago he had seemed bigoted and stuck in his views. Now he seemed eager to find out more about her. He seemed to understand that a woman likes to talk of her own life and her plans for the future. She would not have expected so much patience or interest from a Prancirian Soldier, although Paul in his own lodgings had also shown such interest.

"I was limited by my life as a Priestess, the repetition of the same ceremonies, the same people, the same repeated petty conversations. I needed to change my life. I knew I could travel and that in so doing I would find out about the world".

"You see your life in Shanla was not good for you, you needed culture perhaps or a husband?" he posed critical questions. She saw that he was going to use her own dissatisfactions with her Pirionite life as justifications for the Vanmarian conquests. She could see how his mind was working. Even so she felt no reason to hide the truth. The truth could only make him understand better what Pirion was. If he knew what it really was he might not want to suppress it any more. The hope was naïve, she knew, but truthful answers could do no harm.

"Yes I wanted more culture. I liked reading. I wanted to read more and find out about other places like Prancir and Vanmandria, and understand their histories and the way their people lived. I was tired of living with people, even though I loved them, who had no knowledge or interest in these things. Many people in Shanla were not even interested. They had not even heard of the war."

"So you travelled north to Dalos, and you found the people different here?" he asked, seemingly very interested.

"The people in Dalos are not really different. Some of them are of different race and appearance than in Shanla but culturally they are the same. All of Pirion shares a culture and a way of life. The big difference here was that the people here knew that not far away were the occupied territories. They had all heard of the fall of Jumillos and they were afraid it could happen to them. Naturally they were made interested in Vanmar and foreigners and were asking questions about their enemies and debating why the war had come about. That certainly made them more interesting to me. They valued what they had more than the people in Shanla who did not even know that their pleasant lives were threatened. In Dalos they knew what they were fighting for. At first the war was a long way away and then suddenly you came with your army and we had to fight.

"When did you become a Priestess?" Ravelleon asked.

"I was sixteen years old, almost seventeen. My mother considered I was ready, and I wanted to".

"You did not consider other alternatives? In Vanmar a young girl like you continues to live with her parents until she finds a suitable husband. Only when married does she leave the protection of her parents although she may find work away from home. You could surely have become a house servant or a nurse in hospital perhaps, rather than become a Priestess", he said.