*Note to readers. This is a shorter, more erotic version of a longer story that I'm writing so please remember that it is copyrighted. To keep it from being any longer than it already is, I've taken out a lot of the background. Tho it is set in the future, a few of the words, some spellings, and some usage are from early Middle English (that's some of the missing background). Thou/Thu, thee, thy, thine are used. The archaic 3rd personal singular hast and needeth are used as well, otherwise modern 3rd person singular verbs are used for readability. Other old spellings, words, and verb forms are scattered throughout. I think the only word that is not in one wordbook or another is Vengaia. The rest all exist tho some use old meanings or a slightly different spelling. If you don't care about the background and plot, just scroll down towards the end for the sex scene. Enjoy.
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Helena, wearing the blue cloak of the Witan of Matriarchs, stood to close the weekly gathering, “As always, I thank you Friends for your time. The Friends of Vengaia owe to one another to share our thoughts and geist as often as we can.”
She stood upon the dais that sat in the midst of the hof, a great hall that was used for foremost as a temple as well as for gatherings and open meetings of the Witan. She spread her arms to the gathering of Friends who, in turn, crossed their arms across their chests as if in a loving embrace. She began to lead them in the blessed closing where she spake and the gathering answered:
We are the Chosen!
We are the Chosen.
Vengaia fosters all of us,
We care for Vengaia.
The good of the many,
Outweigh the good of the one.
The good of Vengaia,
Is the good of all.
We are the Chosen!
We are the Chosen.
Jared wasn’t keen on the weekly gathering. He saw them more as a way for the Matriarchs to spread their so-called truths under the guise of a moot so he often didn’t bother with going. However, it was called for to be on hand for at least one in four meetings or a fine also known as a bote could be set against anyone who missed too many meetings. He was a consort to Erika who still had strong links with the hof and went much more often than he did. Still, the Matriarchs never missed an opening to bring it up that he had been missing the weekly gatherings.
He was waiting by the wagon for Erika to wind up her chat with one of the Matriarchs after the gathering when Francois came up to him. Jared and Francois had been childhood friends who, along with Leonis, had often spoken of leaving the Keep while growing up. While Jared and Leonis had chosen many years ago to live outside of the walls and the shelter of the Keep, Francois had yielded to his family and to the Witan. After he had been chosen as a consort, he had stayed within walls of the Ishtar Keep while both Jared and Leonis had chosen to to be Outsiders and each built himself a lodge on swidden at the edge of the Jungle. They had gladly and wynnfully helped each other. At that time, even Francois had pitched in to help. Those who chose to live as Outsiders were needed to embiggen the settlement but were often viewed with mistrust of not wanting to be part of the Gathering. Blatant individualism, as selfhood was called in the shamed tongue that was used by the matriarchs and their followers to shame folks, could lead to one being shunned until one atoned. Jared knew of a few, such as Leonis, who had left to live in the Jungle. Leonis had left after being chided by the Witan over a squabble with the woodworkers guild. Jared had thought to do so himself before Erika. Since those who left would be shunned, there would be no reason for them to ever come back and thus he had not seen his friend Leonis for many years tho Jared would never have shunned him. Leonis was more than just a friend, he was his thofta, the one with whom he had shared hardship.
Most believed that those who had left had met their fate for the Jungle was full of dangerous predators and even flesh-eating plants. Jared thought otherwise. He thought instead that those in the Keep had grown soft. He was skilled in living in the Jungle. His father had taught him well and he had spent a lot time in the Jungle looking for new lodes of ore to smelt into new metal. It would be difficult to live alone there tho not unworkable. He always looked for tracks or tokens of Leonis and others when he went into the Jungle.
“Jared my old friend! Wes thu hal!” He used the old greetings from their youth, be in good health.
Jared forwent the old answer of ferthu hal, health to thy ferth as the geist or spirit was known in the old tongue, and answered with, “I am well Francois and thou?”
“Vengaia hath again filled our skeps with food.” He paused and led Jared away from the wagon to chat alone as Erika and the children drew near. Jared quickly marked that Francois brooked words from the shamed tongue, “The Matriarchs are concerned about Begum.” Begum was the oldest femella, as young femelles without consorts were called, in the household. Jared had known that this day would come.
“Francois, she needeth to grow more before the Ritual.”
“She is well past the acknowledgment ritual of the Kinaalda and has shown that she is ready. Jared, she is not a child. She hath also been looked closely at by the Matriarchs and she is deemed ready by them as well. Indeed, she told the Witan that she hath told Erika that she is reddy to claim her right but that thou, so far, hast refused to fulfill the Ritual. I have been asked, offhand of course, as thy friend to remind thee of thy duty to the Gathering and to Begum. As the first male in the household, it is thy duty to fulfill the Ritual. Thou owest this to her. She’ll not be given leave to pick a consort until the Ritual hath been fulfilled and there is proof to the Gathering that she is worthy of a consort.
They are beginning to wonder if there is a problem with thine urges. If there is, then another must be found to do the Ritual. I don’t have to explain to thee the importance of this to the Gathering. Thou knowest full well why it is done.
Honestly Jared. No one understands your reluctance.”
Jared knew the spiel. It was taught to all as they went to school. There was something about this world that had caused many birthing woes from losing the child to badly shaped babies. Moreover, there always seem to be a shortage of men. Not only are there more femelle births than boys, but more males than femelles fell to the predators and dangers of the Jungle. Therefore a femelle could not keep a male to herself if she could not bear children. It was not unwonted for the best males to be shared for breeding with the rede and leave of the Witan. For a femelle tho, not only must her begetfulness be shown, but she must beget a healthy child. Anything less and she would be given a lessor standing in any linking in the Gathering. Even if she were given leave for a consort, she would be bound to share him with another who would then hold the higher standing as the matriarch of the household while she would then be lessened to not much more than handmaiden.
Altho miscarriages didn’t seem happen much nowadays, the Ritual was still done. The consort or first male of the household would give his sperm so as to make the girls pregnant as they became old enough and were said to be ready by the Witan. She then had to bear a healthy child. After two years, the child would be closely looked at. If there were no shortcomings, then femelle would be given leave to choose a consort once she had done the Mylitta, which was the custom of having sex with a stranger at the hof. Of course the hof was given silver by the male to do so. After this, the Witan would give the femelle leave to have aconsort and bear children.
Given the often harsh and baleful life on Vengaia, it was witless for any femelle to put off bearing children. After the Ritual Childe, a femelle could have two more before needing leave from the Witan. If a femelle had a fourth childe without leave from the Witan, she would have to pay the babybote and might be made to yield her consort. The Witan, always reminded the folk that growth of the Gathering needed to be done in a guided way. Needless to say, the Witan did the guiding.
Begum was Erica’s Ritual Child. Having a femelle Ritual Child made a femelle even more sought-after for it let a male beget three children as set against two with a femelle who had amale Ritual Child. Jared had been somewhat taken aback when Erika had given him heed and wanted him to be her consort. He had had little thought in being chosen as a consort for any femelle and had already turned back others. He had had a few flings since leaving the hof where had been working as a hind while learning to be a hearg-theow, also known as an alter-servant in the shamed tongue, and, so far, the Matriarchs had not banned him from using the femelles of the Mylitta. He had not wanted any everlasting linking that would bind him to Ishtar but he had been careful not to openly say so.
After what he had found while sifting thru some old papers while a hind there, he wanted nothing more to do with the Witan. Thus, he had chosen to carve a life out at the edge of the Jungle, away from others but still close enough to trade his wares and skill as a metalsmith. Many frained Erika’s choice in him but the two of them had shown to be a good match.
He knew that he could not put the Ritual off any longer without the Witan taking it as an unbearable show of selfhood that, in the end, could and most likely would harm those he loved as well. He looked at Francois and nodded, “It will be done.”
“Excellent! I shall inform the Witan. May Vengaia bless her.” He nodded to Jared and left. As he watched him walk away, Jared wondered what happened to the geist of his old friend that he would so gladly enthrall himself to the Witan.
Erika and Begum watched as the two men talked. Helena had told her that Francois would talk to Jared about fulfilling the Ritual. From the bodytalk and nods, it betokened that Jared would do the Ritual.
“Mother, let it be done tonight.”
Erika laughed softly, “You are indeed my child. I too was keen for your forefather to do the Ritual as well. I think there will be time before we sleep and you are beginning your time of eggloss.” Even tho Erika’s “father” was Begum’s life-father, it was the custom for the femelle’s consort to be called Father and the other to be called Forefather and thus she called Jared, Father.
“Mother?”
“Yes, Dear?”
“I love Father dearly and find him a handsome male, but I cannot begin to fathom why thou chosest him to be thy consort and to live on the edge of the Jungle. Couldst thou not sway him to go back into the Keep?”
“Your father hath many fine hues. He is well-thewed, strong, and has many skills that others have not. Most of all, he hath a geist that is so often lacking in the males of the Keep. What I never told him was that there were many femelles strongly drawn to having him as their consort.”
“Thou dost jest!”
“Careful Begum, you know that jest comes from the Shamed Tongue.” Then she smiled, “Nay, Daughter.
