Legends of Belariath

Talida Stargleam

Talida Stargleam stands in front of the mirror in her little chamber and checks her appearance very critically, being 5'7'' in height and of slender build. Her lightblonde hair has a golden twinkle and like her amber colored eyes and her slender waist gives a hint to the trace of elven blood in her. Her skin is very pale and silkysoft over her shapely build. Especially her full breasts and her full hips and round asscheeks show her human heritage, all in all being a lovely mix in itself. Her mound is totally hairless, a mithril tattoo of a crescent moon with a woman sitting inside the crescent adorns it. Her nipples are comparatively small and her mound very delicate but in general both are very responsive.

As a cleric of Ishtar though, such is more than only an act of vanity: Another beautiful girl bears the positive or negative consequences of her looks only herself. A servant of Ishtar, however, represents her divine mistress and her divine will at every moment she is in public. The so infinitely powerful divine Ishtar has put her confidence in her, an insignificant half elven orphan, to serve in her name. Talida accepts and honors that responsibility and would never want to disappoint her beloved Mistress.

Although so much time hasn't passed yet at all, these days which passed feel as if being already a lifetime ago as so much happened in the meantime. Still in front of the mirror, being lost in her own memories, she remembers her hometown Peace Valley: she had always lived there in the temple of Ishtar, where she had been put down as a baby on the steps of the temple. The priestesses of the temple of Ishtar took her in, noticing soon that the little orphan girl had both human and elfish blood in her. They lovingly raised her and became the only family she ever knew. Nevertheless the question always was in her, who her parents were and she couldn't stop thinking about it, but none of the older sisters could answer it.

From early age she was raised in the faith to the goddess and so it came quite naturally to her to become a servant of the divine mistress although this wasn't thought over very deeply and thoroughly within these young years, but arose much more from an intuitive longing. For a long time to follow, she had to learn very hard the many disciplines, such as the religious ceremonial, dancing, make-ups, "reading" the guests of the mistress in their needs and to master long meditative exercises to pass the noviciate. Each of her older sisters in Ishtar had her own way to venerate the divine mistress and every novice had to satisfy each of the sisters in all she required before the high sister allowed that the novice was allowed to be introduced to the divine mistress herself.

In the ceremony of her ordination, which was prepared by a long time of inner contemplation and meditative exercises, Talida on the one hand felt the attention of the divine mistress on her, seeing everything, revealing the innermost core of her very being, but on the other hand she was, by the unity with the mistress, for a small moment as one with everything that loves and that desires, she experienced as mere mortals outgrew their limited self, because what they love became much more important to them, than all the lifeless and cold gemstones and gold of the world can ever be. Talida feels as well how carelessly some other mortal children of the divine mistress are using this infinitely valuable divine present and she feels this is the task, which the mistress expects from her: To be a friend, a teacher, a lover and an intimate friend to those, who still are in the distance to the mistress on the search surrounded only by coldness and darkness, but as well for those, who already found the way and all the more confirm them on their way.

After her successful ordination she was finally received by the proud older sisters, who are of course also mothers for her. They congratulated Talida and as a present for the ordination they submitted to her, what they had found out in carrying out an investigation for years over her origin: Her past. The older sisters thought this to be the worthiest present to the young half elven girl, being torn between two worlds and not fully belonging to none.

Talida read, that she is the daughter of the high elf princess Samira Stargleam. Her mother fell in love with a human adventurer, he was the famed warrior Turlogh MacAlistair. Both kept their love a secret as Samiras family would never tolerate such a shame on the family honor, but with time Samira got pregnant with a child and as it began to show, Turlogh and Samira tried to flee out of the families reach, but Tarvun Stargleam the families patriarch with highly developed magical skills found them and as Turlogh tried to defend Samira, he killed them both. Inspecting the site he found Samiras baby daughter and looked down at her in disgust, as in her noble elven blood mixed with human blood. He left the child in front of the nearest Ishtar Temple in a kind of elven irony and disappeared with no further trace.

Then the day had come when the temple equipped a small caravan. The destination of the caravan was the capital of the empire, Nanthalion – a long journey but this place had been revealed to the older sisters in Ishtar by the divine mistress in lustful, oracular dreams. A portent that the mistress planned something with the young half elf girl in the future, nobody, however, only dared to suspect what could be the reason for this – The divine mistress knows and her servants will follow her word.

A unit of mercenaries had been assigned to the caravan, who should protect Talida and see to it that their charge arrives in good condition in Nanthalion. For Talida a great adventure started because many small farmers and merchants were in Peace Valley, but these mercenaries already were very new in their behavior for her. Eager in an innocent and warm-hearted openness, she took in all these impressions into herself, while she was traveling from home further and further away than ever before. At peaceful moments she continued reading over her past and knew, that she would need a long time to come to terms with her new found past.

Almost a month later, however, the travel funds, having been given into her care by her older sisters from her home temple, were exhausted. Talida had to spend too much money along the road due to her inexperience in haggling and when she couldn't pay the mercenaries anymore, they got dissatisfied. She still could put the mercenaries off for a couple of days at this time, but when due to heavy thunderstorms, the caravan had to wait in a camp in the wilderness, the mercenaries took what they understood as a bonus being owed to them. If, till now, Talida had rather tried to teach the rough mercenaries sensitive behaviors, flirted with them, the mercenaries showed her now what they kept for an adequate Ishtar service.

If, till now, Talida had found out and trained her still blossoming Ishtar-sacred abilities with the farmers and merchants in Peace Valley, she now felt in the pouring rain on all of them and the scantily wooded hills being around, as she was pulled by her slim ankles into the middle of the camp, rough calloused hands more overbearingly exploring her young body than she ever got to know it. She defended herself instinctively in panic, being desperate and overwhelmed by the whole situation. She didn't deserved this, it wasn't her fault that all this was so expensive? Cold metal closed around her soft wrists, a stinking rag was stuffed into her mouth.

Why didn't the mistress help her? She was serving her anyway? Pain coursed through her young body as the first one penetrated her, tears ran down along her cheek as one after the other one used her mercilessly. Instead of letting her give to them, what the divine mistress wants her to give, the mercenaries seemed to have found pleasure in letting her suffer and humiliating her, again and again over a night which didn't want to come to an end. In the next morning she had to bear their lust once again and each of them ripped a rag of her gown out this time, because the gown of an Ishtar servant is a luck charm for many people.

A felt eternity she lay on her back crying, desperate and pain-stricken and her whole body trembled. Naked and freezing she was totally helpless and confused, she didn't knew what to do and why the Mistress seems to have abandoned her, still remembering her ordination as a servant of the Mistress. Soon the mercenaries set out and decided to sell Talida to a well paying slaver, convinced that the order of Ishtar would owe this to them for the escaped pay. Within the next days the mercenaries moved on, dragging her along behind naked and in chains, hardly giving her to drink or to eat, but giving her all the more blows for it and quenching their lust with her again and again.

More and more Talida lost all her pride during these days and with the humility she felt more and more in herself instead, she saw how silly and egoistic she has been. Her body was weak of the hunger and hurt of the rapes and blows over the last days, but she cried now because she asked her mistress for forgiveness for her own pride, because she only had her own journey in mind, but not paid attention to the Ishtar-blessed needs of those which accompanied her and protected her. She cried her tears for her own blindness since she hadn't paid attention to the mundane needs of her companions not even knowing which of the mercenaries needed this contract to feed his family and which only wanted to spend the money on booze.

She cried her tears now in shame since she had disappointed her mistress and realized that she deserved everything that happened to her. Lying on the ground overgrown with grass bound to a tree in the cold of the night trembling she caught herself, that she desired the warm body of a mercenary over herself. The most terrible knowledge came for her, that her mistress had tested her and she had failed her.

In those dirty taverns into which the mercenaries took her, it got even worse, but Talida took her fate humbly and again pleaded to her mistress for pardon. She watched the mercenaries now more closely, trying to "read" them while the days were passing, as she has been taught during the noviciate back in the temple. She used her heartfelt love and warmth as a means to give the precious gift of the divine mistress to her captors, remaining humble and modest each day a bit more.

Some of the mercenaries were already such brutes and bullies, that they didn't even noticed the changes in Talida, but the youngest of the mercenaries, being called Salvor, noticed them very well. At first he had raped the proud, uppish Ishtar servant maliciously, but now it more and more came to his mind that they possibly are going too far by now. It was one thing to degrade an arrogant little Ishtar cleric, another to get the anger of the powerful goddess now and lastly, he simply liked the young half elven, having now found in her reactions to her own tragedy new sides to her character. Salvor still was in a conflict, since on the other hand he didn't wanted to betray his unit either.

Finally some of the mercenaries met a slaver, which appeared interested enough in Talidas description to want to see her and he offered much more money then the others, if the mercenaries were able to give evidence to their promises. Salvor knew, that the moment had come finally, where he had to make up his mind and he thought about a plan how he could help Talida without acting too much against his mercenary unit. Talida has been put into a cold and damp cellar, behind the wooden door were the other mercenaries and on the other side of the cellar was a small window with an iron grate to the back alley. Salvor noticed that the grate was rusty, and he was able to bend the grade open with an iron bar and while the mercenaries received the slaver in front and therefore were distracted, Salvor led Talida away.

Then Salvor took Talida to the next Ishtar temple and was rewarded richly for his deed, as it was verified that Talida really is an Ishtar cleric. A tear ran down her cheek as the highpriestess confirmed her status, as it was a sign for Talida, that Ishtar had forgiven her. Salvor, however, got a well-paid position as guard with benefits in the Ishtar temple.

However, after Talida had recovered for some time of the hardships she has been through, she didn't forget the oracle of her sisters in Peace Valley. Nanthalion! - this is where her mistress wants her to go !

Talida followed the call of her mistress after she has thanked the sisters in the temple and warmly said goodbye to them, as her old dress was gone she has chosen a deep red tunic made from a very sheer transparent fabric, which only reached down that it barely reached her thigh, a deep red bow runs around her shapely right thigh, together with small shoes from a deep red cloth, adorned with sewings.

She smiled and promised her mistress that she wouldn't disappoint her this time and looked for the market place and in the midst of the many customers, she lets her gaze wander seductively, knowing that for a real cleric of divine Ishtar there is always a lover, who watches for her and sees to her safety if she is doing it right.

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