DD191 - Woman of the Cloth

The vestments of clergy are typically simple robes and holy symbols on Jura.  But Borsite priests and priestesses work best without a stitch of clothing.  They are the living instruments of Bors' teachings and will, acting as part relationship counselor, part temple prostitute, and part sex researcher.  They are expected to know sexual techniques beyond any madam or courtesan, and to have the ultimate control in any sexual situation.  The greatest priestesses are the finest lovers in Jura, often becoming concubines of powerful men and women.

It was a role that Eriniya, sixth daughter of the House of Imythess, never thought for a moment that she would fulfill.  So far removed from the line of succession to the Matron Mother of the House, she was suspected by her sisters immediately, hoping that she would die in infancy, but unable to strike against the child without the knowledge of the Matron.  As a youth, Eriniya was groomed to become a worshiper of their spider goddess, becoming a devoted cleric as her five sisters before her.  When she looked her sisters in the eye, she saw familiarity and her blood within them, but they acted as they did to each other: with a cold detachment.

But Eriniya never felt cold to them.  She was friendly, even to her male servants.  She was caring of their well-being, and horrified by the way her sisters treated them.  Her eldest sister was given stewardship of Eriniya by her mother, and instructed to purge Eriniya of these emotions.

A regimen of abuse followed, Eriniya living in fear of her sister, resigning herself to the coldness that she needed to survive.  She complied when ordered to injure one of her servants, but she still felt ill doing so.  That evening, her eldest sister came into her room... and immediately, collapsed, poisoned by her younger sister.  Her last words to Eriniya were "save that... part of you...." Driven half mad in grief and anger, Eriniya fled the House of Imythess into the underground wilds, living on scraps and whatever rats she could kill until she was able to reach the surface.  She broke through in a quarry near a farmstead, starved, her hands bloody and fingers raw to the bone.

The farmsteaders were a small Borsite community.  They nursed Eriniya back to health, and introduced her to the faith.  They had no prejudice towards a Drow, especially one of a Matron House.  Eriniya set her hopes upon the Borsite faith, and she travelled to learn their ways.  Her hope was rewarded as she became a priestess herself, excelling at every ritual, and taking up her quest as a missionary for the faith.

An urgent letter summoned her to another Borsite community one fateful day, and she rode to the community to find a paladin there, searching for the cure to a plague, one that the paladin knew well.  While Eriniya greeted the paladin warmly, the paladin was not so friendly, distrusting her for days, even after they had been given their quest.  But Eriniya persisted in talking to the paladin, who she would come to know as Valriel.  As the days wore on, the two fell deeply in love, sharing their gifts with each other each night.  Once the source of the plague had been found, Eriniya was lauded as a hero by her Borsite brethren and accepted in the ranks of the Borsite Matriarchs.  She now serves as Bors' right hand, his confidant, advisor, valet and keeper of Ossinia in his absence.  When he is present, she can often be found in his bed, closer to her god than she ever could have been in her old life.