Herald of Steel

After a long day's hard work, Alexander slowly returned to his tent, eager to see his lover's face again, when upon just entering it, he was immediately hugged by an over-enthusiastic Cambyses.

"Alex!" Cambyses squealed in joy as she rocketed towards him, wrapping her arms around Alexander's neck and her legs around his back and turning herself into a koala that was hanging off Alexander.

"Mwah," She then laid a heavy kiss on her man, sucking his lips and mixing her tongue inside his mouth, recoating her lover's insides with her scent.

Alexander too was parched for this nectar, and responded in kind, pulling on Cambyses's tongue and lifting her by her butt to embrace her more tightly.

It was a while later that the out-of-breath couple finally unlocked their lips, at last allowing them to offer their greetings.

Cambyses was the first, "Alex, congratulations on becoming the commander. I could hear the soldiers' chanting your name all the way from here!"

She had a huge, beaming smile on her face as she gazed at Alexander with infinite love and pride in her eyes.

"I would not be here today without you, Cam," Alexander grinned in reply.

This led to another round of kissing.

Finally, after both were satisfied, Cambyses decided to free her legs and stood up on her own, allowing Alexander to notice the three other people in the tent with them for the first time.

"So, mistress has finally left Mean, uwuu," The short girl cried in an exaggerated fake manner as she felt Alexander's gaze land on her.

Beside her, a saccharine voice wafted through the air into Alexander's ears, " That's only natural! Master is a god and only someone like him deserves an angel-like mistress,"

The voice belonged to a raven-haired beauty, curvy, mature, and graceful, she had a diamond-shaped face and appeared to be in her late twenties.

',

This was Gelene, a slave originally gifted to Octavius by his father to celebrate him stepping into adulthood and now Cambyses's property.

But Alexander's attention skipped both these people and was instead drawn to the third person, a woman that in his eyes was quite the abnormality because she had blonde hair, a hair color he was seeing for the first time in ten years.

Sensing a curious gaze fall upon her, the tall, fair woman immediately kneeled and prostrated, "Slave greets Master, the divine son of Gaia."

Alexander's mouth imperceptively twitched at such a formal greeting and especially at the address she made and he sent an inquisitive look towards Cambyses, wanting to know why a stranger was calling herself his slave and claiming his to be divine.

"Ophenia, please get up and explain your situation to your master," Cambyses said with a light smile.

"Yes, mistress," The ivory-skinned blonde got up and introduced herself, "My name is Ophenia, master. I was born in Cantagena, to the wife of General Agapios nineteen years ago. As you know, Cantagena was going through its most tumultuous times during that time, and because of my noble birth, illegitimacy, and mostly my golden hair, I was seen as a curse from the gods that brought down ruin upon my city-state."

"Illegitimacy? What do you mean?" Alexander found it hard to keep up.

"Apologies, it seems master is not quite familiar with Cantagena. My story is known to every man, woman, and child there. You see, though my mother was General Agapios's wife, my father is not him. Twenty years ago....." Here Ophenia retold the story of how her mother was raped and actually got pregnant with her that night, and then how later she died during childbirth.

Alexander was quite surprised by the story, not by its contents but by how easily the young girl was able to recount such painful memories

It seemed the girl was either immune to such pains, or much more likely, she had completely closed her heart to the outside world.

,m Ophenia continued her story in a bland, monotone voice, "...I never got to know my real father and I never got to spend any time with my mother. But General Agapios..my adoptive father, loved me more than any real parents ever could. Even when the Cantagenan senate was pushing to burn me at the stake as a witch to appease the gods, it was my father that bore all the pressure and refused to budge."

Here Ophenia's voice finally changed from its robotic flat tone to being slightly pitched and agitated, "Although I did nothing but bring him pain upon pain, he never ever blamed me. He only blamed himself, saying it was because of his mistake that my mother died and that I was the greatest gift from the gods to him because I reminded him of his beloved."

By the end, the girl's voice was choking into sobs.

Alexander's mind drifted a bit hearing the last sentence as he asked himself, "Could I do the same if Cambyses suffered such a fate and her daughter was in front of me?'

'Probably not,' Was the answer that formed inside Alexander's mind.

'',

But then Alexander pulled his mind to the present and finding it hard to connect the admittedly tragic story to him becoming her slave master, said, "I very much empathize with you, but what does it have to it with me?"

"Oh yes, I got sidetracked." Ophenia snapped out of her melancholic trance and started again, "The Senate was unable to kill me, but after my first bleeding, they did manage to force father to send me to the Temple of Shiva in Peirinion for three months a year, where I apprenticed under a Cleansing priestess."

Ophenia correctly guessed that Alexander might be unfamiliar with the term, 'Cleansing priestess' and decided to elaborate, "Oh, a cleansing priestess is a woman who gives sexual gratifications to men on behalf of the temple for money. They are called such because they help release the male body of its white, wicked desires and purify their sins by taking it inside her body, thus cleansing them of all evil.

"The temple is a brothel?"Alexander asked incredulously. To him, a sacred place of worship such as the temple seemed the furthest thing from a sinful place like the brothel.

"Yes, it is," It was Gelene's mature voice that answered. "The goddess Shiva is the god of love, lust, and pleasure, and the Temple of Shiva was originally built by a few working girls to pray and worship the goddess on the outskirts of a small village. Legends say that the goddess blessed the women there such that men and women from all over Thesos came to the temple to have a taste of the divine skills. And once they experienced the divine pleasure, they were said to be so enamored that many chose to stay, and thus the city of Peirinion was founded, or so the story goes." Gelene finished.

"Sister here is quite knowledgeable." Ophenia nodded with slight amazement. It was very impressive for a slave, an illiterate to know this story with such accuracy.

Then she added a bit of detail, "Though some say the temple was originally built by both men and women, thus we have both cleansing priests and priestesses."

She then continued, "The Cantagenan senate argued that because I was born by the mixture of essence of many men, it was a sign from the gods that I was destined to serve many men and be dyed white in their releases. My golden hair was seen as further proof that my destiny lay with the Temple of Shiva as their Sacred High priestess."

Blonde hair was mostly associated with prostitutes, as many would dye their hair blonde using plant extracts to appear different and it was also the main reason Alexander was so surprised to see her first.

"Sacred High priestess!" Gelene made a little yelp of terror at this mention.

"Yes, they saw me as the divine manifestation of goddess Shiva and wanted me to be their leader, and serve the highest echelons of Thesos as their comfort pot." Ophenia almost nonchalantly added though the anger in her voice was hard to musk.

"But my father did not agree. He detested the perverse actions of the Temple and used his martial influence to make the priests swear to the gods that I would only be taught the scripture and theoretical knowledge and never be made to entertain any guest or participate in their rituals. And so for the last eight years, I was rigorously taught all the pleasure techniques from the sacred scripture and the procedure on how to conduct all their rituals."

"But with time, my father grew weary at how the Temple was relentless in their pursuit to have me. Even when he arranged a marriage for me, the Temple seemed adamant. He feared that his deterrence might not last enough and it might be only a matter of time before the Temple made me initiate as a Cleansing priestess. So when this opportunity came to destroy Adhania, he made a deal with the Cantagenan senate for my release from the temple in exchange for his service." Ophenia revealed.

"But though the senate agreed, father was afraid they might go back on their word, or simply do something while he was gone. And so with the excuse to see his daughter before setting off, he cleverly switched me with a doppelganger and bought me secretly as his slave with me."

"But with your father dead and Cantagena defeated you came to me to hide." Alexander finished her sentence for her.