Reign Of Fayala

Inner Sanctum

          Fayala strode through her ornate inner sanctum and undid a clasp letting her ceremonial gown slip from her shoulders and fall to the floor.  It required a dozen temple servants to carefully collect up the gown. She stepped out of her slippers and padded barefoot to a vestibule where comfortable robes had been hung for her convenience.

     She sat down and signaled to servants who waited patiently on top of the table that she was ready for her wine. She smiled warmly as six servants, barely as tall as the goblet she held in her hand, carried the pitcher forward, lifted it above their heads and filled the cup.

A plate of fruits had been prepared which she leisurely picked at while watching other servants take away her slippers and the discarded gown both to be meticulously cleaned and stored. She cherished the temple workers not because they  made her life pleasant and enjoyable, but because they loved serving her, nothing was forced or coerced,  they served for the sheer joy of being in her presence.

     They were just a part of the one hundred and twenty workers that served within the inner sanctum waiting on the Goddess hand and foot.   The servants were provided by the villages and worked for twelve months in the temple. At the end of each month ten servants that had completed their year of service were allowed to leave and go back to their village to be replaced by ten new servants.

      The servants were supervised by priestesses permanently assigned to the temple at an early age who lived their entire life in service to the Earth Goddess. The villages also supplied all the food and drink necessary to sustain the labor force and of course, Goddess Fayala.

          This is how it has been for almost two centuries since Goddess Fayala had led her people west away from the great cataclysm that destroyed their ancestral home in the eastern mountains. She had led them through dense forests and across a great river enduring months of hardships before settling in the fertile grasslands they now occupy. Under her guidance humanity flourished and expanded exponentially across the land. There are now ten townships in the federation that account for much of the burgeoning population which numbers over one hundred thousand humans.

          An unforeseen consequence of the Miorpean terraforming was that Earth's natural resources were practically endless. The trees and foliage created by the process were larger  and more bountiful than their predecessors. Streams and rivers with fresh water abound. The same process that produced the gigantic foliage invigorated the soil allowing for rich harvests on lands cleared for farming. 

Earth was once again a paradise and humanity owed its existence to a meek and mild deaf girl who psychically bonded with Mira, a giant alien from an ancient race called the Miorpeans. The mind link they shared not only caused her to gain psychic abilities far and beyond that of any normal human, but also activated a dormant gene in her DNA that over time transformed her into a sixty-five foot tall Goddess.  A Goddess that would use her abilities to protect and enrich all humans she now calls her children.

Fayala reflceted on how different she was than the girl that was favored by a Miorpean named Mira who used her psychic power to activate Fayala's Alien DNA.  Now she could read minds and influence people's emotional states and perceptions. She found that her vision became more acute, she could adjust her sight to focus in on far away objects or zoom in on very small ones. She gained the ability to hear. Having been born deaf  Fayala initially had difficulty differentiating between what she was actually hearing with her ears and people's thoughts that she picked up telepathically.  

           She discovered the sun felt wonderful and invigorating on her skin. She would feel energized after exposure and her skin tone slowly changed color to a deep bluish green while becoming more translucent. She presumed there was a correlation between her growth and the ability of her body to convert sunlight to energy. Full exposure to the sun was needed to provide the vitality needed for her DNA to kick into its final phase of her transformation. Her physical growth was gradual and after several seasons she reached her full height of sixty-five feet.

          To honor their benefactor humans built a temple so they may pray and worship their living Goddess. Over time the vast building complex was expanded and made more lavish to accommodate the growing stature and power of their Deity. The people began building shrines to her and expanding them as she became larger. The human population had grown as well and there were thousands of workers available to build the inner sanctum which was to become Fayala's home.

     The rear half of the inner sanctum was built directly into a mountain side incorporating an access to a deep cave system within its construction.   A network of natural tunnels cut through the mountain and opened into a lush valley with a flowing river and large lake that was surrounded by tall peaks and completely inaccessible except through the cave. This small paradise became Fayala's private retreat, no humans were allowed.

     The valley became her refuge, there she could shield herself from the endless stream of human thoughts and emotions that constantly invaded her mind. Only in the valley could Fayala truly rest with a sense of personal privacy. No servants underfoot, no priestesses with sacramental needs, no worshippers with devotional demands.
__________________________

           Tarn, a temple servant,  had just finished his year of obligation to the Earth Goddess. It had been an honor to serve her, an experience he would cherish for the rest of his life. He had been contacted about his service and traveled many miles to the village of Brighid to meet with a group of men seeking information on the inner sanctum. They were scholars he was told, wanting to develop curriculum that would be used to better prepare people for service to the Earth Goddess.

        Tarn readily provided detailed information on the layout of the temple, the Goddesses daily schedule and personal habits. He had been well compensated and left Brighid feeling satisfied that Goddess Fayala would be pleased with his actions.