Motherheart Dragon Priest

Chapter 4d - Harvesting the Essence

 “I have chosen you priest and for that all will forever honour you, wherever the name of the White Tigress is known. You are pure of heart and of soul. Your body is young and strong and I have arranged for your company for a quarter moon. During this time you will receive pleasure beyond any of your previous experiences and more than likely beyond any you will experience again!”

With this her gaze met mine and it was as if the empress’s gaze once again impaled me and laid all of my inner self bare to her sight. As before I was besotted and despite all my attempts I cannot recall what transpired after that gaze stole my will from me 

I roused from this delirium to find my head cradled on a silk cushion resting on the lap of Su nu. Confused images and memories flitted through my awareness. I drifted into sleep as the warm breath of Su nu carried fragments of melody into my somnolent mind.

So it was for the next three days that I was fed the most refined food. Never the same, always delicately spiced. Teas of many and various flavours I was bid drink and, though some were more bitter than even wormwood, they each seemed to strengthen my humour and expel any vapours that I had sensed accumulating within.

Each day one of their doctors did examine me but it was Su nu who changed the constituents of the concoctions, for she was a recognised physician. Su nu also bid me stretch and move my body and gave me a set of exercises to practise everyday.

This I did most studiously for Su nu was my constant companion and adviser, and encouraged me in all my activities.

Each evening I was escorted to the Dragon Room and each evening I was washed and bathed and caressed till my fervour rose like a storm and then I was presented each time to the White Tigress. As I grew more familiar I became more aware of the ways of the White Tigress and I attempted much questioning of Su nu but she would respond that it was not yet time for explanations.

On the third day the herbs from which my tea was composed changed markedly; less bitter and more sweet, more substantial in flavour. My audience, as it were, with the White Tigress that afternoon was more intense and after this, she seemed much pleased with me, though I was not in any fit state to discuss the reasons for her delight even if such a conversation had been possible.

As I reclined in my apartments later that evening and entered into my journal the events and my impressions of the day, I came to the realisation that this White Tigress was using me for some purpose that was entirely beyond me at this present time but appeared to be to provide her, for her hearty consumption, with male essence.

I had heard rumour previously from Master Marco and others of our party that many in Cathay see male emission as a most precious substance. Men try to conserve it and women try to partake of it or rub it into their skin. Perhaps here was a glimpse into their minds that I had not realised previously.

On the next day of my residence with the White Tigress the morning was given to instruction in exercises that I was told would keep me strong and vigourous even into my old age.

This Qi gong as they call it, is composed of various movements based on that of wild animals and so, according to their doctrine of signatures, I would acquire that characteristic of these animals that the exercises fostered.

Strength of back, quickness of reflex, clarity of thought, steadiness of patience, sharpness of sight, acuity of hearing and so on.

I was then accompanied by Su nu to the wonderfully beautiful West Lake. We boarded an ornate water wheel barge and were paddled out into the centre of the lake. I had seen these water wheel boats everywhere in Cathay but nothing like them existed anywhere else that I had travelled.

Their motive power came from strong legged men stepping on running boards radiating out from an axle that extended to a wheel attached to the side of the vessel and that was partly submerged in the water. This wheel was bespoked with paddle blades and so as the men stepped or ran the wheel turned and drove the vessel.

It appeared that most vessels on their inland waterways were powered thus and those with sail and oar merely secondary. A most marvellous piece of engineering. Our small barge had two wheels each side and was most nimble and when Su nu determined our position suitable she signalled its captain and the men rested.

There we partook of our midday meal while musicians accompanied us with the melodies that, even though I had been in the east a number of years now, still assailed my ear with their strange cadences and harmonies.

I was tempted to take up one of their lutes and retune it and regale them with some chant from my order. But I thought it more prudent to smile and accept the hospitality.