Seraglio of the Gods - Segment 02

Chapter 06

At the top of the stairs, there was a small entryway through which males could not pass. Vulcan let go of my hand and called out, “Servant, I require you.” Immediately, a woman of advanced age came out of a tiny area off to the side.

Vulcan said in an arrogant tone of voice, showing the woman she was of no importance, “You will take this one back into the women’s quarters. I’m done with her for now, but I will want her brought back to me after sundown.” He moved close to me and sniffed. “Be sure to bath and perfume her before bringing her to my quarters. She still has the smell of Earth on her.”

My anger rose once again. “That’s your foul smell on me, your worthless seed still on my legs.” The old woman scuttled back into her small room, out of the way of what she anticipated to be Vulcan’s fury. I ignored her and continued to verbally castigate Vulcan, not caring he could strike me dead at any moment. “I prefer the smell of Earth to your rancid chamber. I don’t appreciate lying on sheets where you’ve taken so many other females.” I walked up close to Vulcan and angrily shook my finger at him. “I called you a rutting pig, and you are one in every way. You rut like a pig, you live like a pig, and you even smell like one.” This last was a lie, since Vulcan smelled wonderful with a musky male odor similar to that of my satyr. However, there was no way I was going to let him know this.

“Old woman,” yelled Vulcan, pushing my hand away from his face. “Come take this woman out of my sight before I have to beat her.” As I was led away by the trembling servant, Vulcan stopped on his way to the stone stairs and faced us. “After you have taken her inside, bring Astrid out to the courtyard. Tell her to say her good-byes to her friends. It’s time for me to carry out the whore’s punishment.” The slight smile on his handsome face frightened me, and I realized how dangerous this particular god was.

Before he disappeared down the stairs, he gave the servant one more order. “Have the women stand out on the balcony, but out of sight of those below in the courtyard. I want them to see what happens to females who disobey us.”

* * *

Chapter 07

Astrid started whimpering when she saw the old woman coming toward her. All her bravado disappeared, and she fell to her knees to rock back and forth in terror.

The servant stopped in front of her and looked down at the woman who had mistreated her for so many centuries. In a voice filled with pleasure, she carried out Vulcan’s order. “You are to follow me down to the courtyard where your previous owner will be waiting for you.” The servant looked around at the other women who were gathering nearby, silently watching the tableau in front of them. “Vulcan wants all of you to go to the balcony overlooking the courtyard to witness this whore’s punishment.”

I saw Sabrina in the group of women and went to join her. The redhead, for the first time since I’d met her, showed fear. “Sabrina,” I whispered, “what will Vulcan do to her?”

“I told you. She will age and then return back to earth.” Tears started down her face. “Vulcan will age her in front of us, to show the ultimate power he and the other gods have over women. He will very painfully cause her to reach 80 years before consigning her to a slow death back on Earth.” Sabrina was sobbing by now. “I saw Bacchus once order a woman to death in a similar manner. This was after one of his drunken orgies with some other gods. We later heard the female had failed to arouse him sexually and foolishly laughed at his poor performance in bed.”

By now, Astrid was on her feet, and the gloating servant stripped her outlandish outfit. We watched when the doomed young woman followed the servant out of the large room and from our sight. One by one, the women headed for a large open doorway I’d not noticed before. I followed Sabrina and soon found myself on a wide balcony. Down below in the courtyard, I saw males starting to gather in a wide circle. All were silent, and I knew there were gods from many cultures standing there.

In the center of this masculine circle, Vulcan held a golden goblet up high in both hands. He stood naked except for a circlet of laurel leaves resting on his dark hair. Even from this distance, I could see the anger in his eyes. When he looked up toward the balcony, I shrank back from view, knowing some of that anger he aimed at me.

There was silence, both below and on the balcony, when we saw Astrid leaving the building. The servant walked in front of her until they reached the edge of the circle of gods. When two males moved aside to let Astrid enter the circle, the old woman turned and quickly walked back to the building.

“Whore, get down on your knees!” Vulcan’s voice thundered over the yard and up to the balcony filled with women. When Astrid didn’t move quickly enough to suit him, Vulcan motioned for one of the quiet men to come forward. “This whore doesn’t obey me, Loki. What should I do?”

The Norse god thought for a moment. He then swung one of his legs out to trip the woman standing in front of him. Astrid fell to the ground, and Vulcan smiled at the other male in approval. “Very good. Now, slut,” Vulcan’s smile disappeared when he stood over Astrid, “your punishment is for betraying me with another male. I warned you I don’t share, and you ignored me. For that, your time here is over.” He pulled Astrid’s head back by her long hair and forced the goblet to her mouth with his other hand.

I shuddered when I remembered his father making me drink that scalding black liquid and wondered what Astrid’s potion did. It soon became apparent after Vulcan used his hold on her long hair to drag her to her feet once again.

Astrid started to moan, but that quickly turned into cries of pain as the liquid coursed through her body. In front of the eyes of both the male gods and female concubines, Astrid started to age. Her soft and pliant skin began to sag and wrinkle. Her glorious mane of black hair turned gray while her eyes dimmed with the onset of cataracts. Her proud, tall body shrank as the decades piled relentlessly on her. Internally, where we thankfully couldn’t see, her organs aged as well. By now, she was in such pain I could hear nothing else over her agonized screaming.

Just as I thought I could no longer watch or listen one minute longer, Astrid crumbled to the ground in a fetal position. All was silent on both the lawn and balcony when Vulcan bent to examine her. He finally stood back up with a satisfied look on his face. “She has failed to survive her punishment and will now return to Earth as dust.” He stepped back from her, and the ancient body that once was a beautiful woman disappeared.

Vulcan then looked up at the silent women. “Remember what you saw this day and learn we expect total and complete obedience from you.” He was speaking to all the women, but looking directly at me.

* * *

Chapter 08

For the rest of the afternoon, I watched the women wandering silently around the large room, mourning the loss of one of their own. Astrid had not been well liked, but her cruel death made us all realize we were at the mercy of the gods. Even Sabrina, who actually loved Ares, knew fear.

As the sun was starting to go down, the old woman began escorting various women out of the room. I could hear the deep voices of their male owners out in the entryway as they greeted their concubines. Tonight, none of the women went eagerly as they had done so often in the past. With blood lust still running through warrior gods like the Egyptian Montu and the Celtic deity Nodens, their female slaves prayed they would make it through the long night alive.

When the sky outside was dark and filled with stars, I breathed a sigh of relief that Vulcan might not ask for me. The old woman dashed my hopes when she came to stand before where I was sitting. “I’m to bring you to him in an hour. First, though, he ordered once again that you bathe.” Without another word, the servant led me down another set of stairs to the ground level and into a large bath area.

Going into a large room, damp from the pool in its middle, I saw half a dozen naked women lying on stone benches. Young girls barely into their teens rubbed perfumed oils on the bodies of the concubines, preparing them for their various gods.

“Get into the water,” ordered the old woman, handing a large sponge to a young girl passing by. “This one will scrub you clean and make your body ready for your master’s touch.” Saying this and warning the girl I belonged to Vulcan who expected perfection in all things, the older servant left.

“Please to enter the water for me,” begged the girl, barely more than a child. “The crone is right in that Vulcan punishes harshly.” Unconsciously, she touched a large burn scar on her slender arm. Not wanting the child hurt because of my actions, I quickly stepped into the pool’s warm water.

Half an hour later, the girl helped me out of the water and asked me to lie down on a stone bench. After drying my body and combing out my long hair to help it dry quicker, she poured oily liquid from a cobalt-blue bottle into the palms of her hands. The elusive fragrance of lilacs soon covered my skin, flushed from the heat of the pool. Almost as if she timed it, the old woman returned just as the child finished.

Over her arms, she carried a long dress, gossamer thin and the color of the night sky outside. The old woman helped the child put it on me, paying no attention to my objections about the transparency of the sheer material. “This is what Vulcan ordered I dress you in tonight. What you think of it does not matter to him.” She started to grin when she added, “Anyway, he won’t let you wear it long. He prefers his woman naked and compliant to his every sexual desire.”

I could feel the anger about this particular male starting to rise in me. “Well, he might be able to see me naked, but I’ll never be compliant.” Hearing these defiant words, the old woman and girl looked at each other knowingly. In the battle between god and female, they both knew the god always had the power and won.

Holding my head up high, I followed the old woman out of the pool area and across the courtyard to Vulcan’s familiar building. The evening breeze had gone through the sheer gown and cooled my body, if not my temper. Leaving me with the warning to be obedient in all ways to Vulcan, the servant left me standing beside the forge.

I waited for a few minutes for Vulcan to come out of his chambers and welcome me, but his living quarters remained silent except for the sound of running water. I became exasperated at Vulcan ignoring me and walked into his chambers, ready to start complaining about its messiness again. Instead I found the bedchamber empty.

Curious to find out where the sound of water was coming from, I walked into the bathroom and surprised Vulcan in the middle of his shower.

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He swung around, surprised to find me invading his privacy, but not before I had a chance to admire the sight in front of me. Water ran down his body to drip down onto the shower floor. Even in my present angry mood, simply looking at him made me wish he could be more like my sexually perfect satyr.

* * *

Chapter 09

Annoyed at seeing me arrive early, Vulcan pointed back to the bedchamber. “Wait for me there. You also may take off that dress since you’re inside now.” Not waiting to see if I would obey, he finished his shower and started to dry off. When he turned around and saw me still standing in the bathroom doorway, he glared and asked, “Didn’t you learn anything from this afternoon’s demonstration with Astrid?”

Determined not to give way to his bullying, I defiantly remained by the door. “I refuse to go into that room until it’s completely clean.” I had noticed, when walking through it to the bathroom, an attempt was made to at least change the sheet on the bed. “You might be happy to live like an animal, but I’m not.”

After the unsatisfactory sexual few minutes spent with Vulcan earlier in the day, I no longer cared what happened to me. The knowledge I’d have to spend eternity with this self-important, overbearing male took away my fear of him, or even death. To show my contempt for him, I slowly walked around the spacious bathroom, examining him from every angle.

He continued drying himself when he saw what I was doing. “Do you like what you see?”

After slowly looking up and down his long body, I shrugged. “Not particularly. The satyr was better looking and definitely better in bed.” Yawning to show my boredom with him, I left Vulcan standing in the shower with his eyes wide open in shock. As I walked back into the bedchamber, I could hear him cursing followed by a loud crash.

When I raced back into the bathroom, I stopped abruptly at the sight of Vulcan sitting on the shower floor. While swearing at me, he had dropped the bar of soap he was using. Bending down to find it, his lame leg slipped out from under him, causing him to fall flat on his ass. “Well, woman,” he yelled at me, “help me up, or am I too ugly even to touch?”

Shame at what I’d said came over me as I remembered Astrid’s comment about Vulcan being both lame and ugly. Did she call him ugly to his face? I wondered, reaching down to pull him up. Once on his feet, it took him a couple seconds to catch his balance. He held on to my arm until he was able to put weight on his lame leg.

Without a word of thanks, he let go and finished drying his body that had become wet again while on the floor. Throwing the damp towel into a corner of the shower, he walked into his bedchamber. “So,” he asked, not looking in my direction, “the satyr is better in bed?”

“Anyone is better than you, Vulcan.” I followed him into the room, but made sure to stay away from the bed. “You know nothing about sex except how to spill your sperm as quickly as possible.”

Vulcan went to his large bed and stretched out on it with his arms behind his head. “What’s wrong with that? It releases the pressure I feel at times, and that’s what you women are for, isn’t it?” If I shocked Vulcan with my earlier words, he stunned me with his callous attitude.

Seeing me looking around the chamber for something heavy to throw, Vulcan seemed to read my mind and hastily jumped out of bed.

* * *

Chapter 10

“Don’t you dare!” Vulcan headed toward me, his arm raised to shield his face from any item I might throw at him. “I will not tolerate any woman behaving like you do. Prepare yourself for punishment.”

As he came closer, I found the small, copper statue of Pegasus in my hand, almost as if the winged horse flew there on its own. I laughed and said, just before I threw the heavy object, “Prepare yourself, mister. I refuse to simply be a convenient hole for you to fill.”

“Damn you, woman,” yelled Vulcan, seeing the statue coming his way. He failed to duck out of the way in time of the flying item. It missed his chest where I was trying to hit, but smashed further down on his naked body. I couldn’t have hit a more delicate part of the male anatomy if I had deliberately aimed there.

I watched in astonishment as Vulcan fell to his knees, moaning in pain from having a small horse smash into his scrotum. I never knew a man, or in this case a god, could be incapacitated so easily. I must remember this, I thought, sitting on the edge of the bed to see what Vulcan would do next.

While waiting for him to stop writhing on the wooden floor, I removed my sheer gown to check if I’d splattered anything on it while in the bathroom. It seemed undamaged, and I placed it on the bed beside me. Now and then, I’d glance over at Vulcan. I had to admit I enjoyed seeing him at my feet, first on the shower floor and now here in his bedchamber.

It took a few minutes before Vulcan climbed slowly and painfully to his feet, his hand still rubbed his bruised balls. When he limped toward where I was sitting, I quickly got up and gave him my most innocent smile. “You didn’t prepare yourself, Vulcan. You honestly should listen when people warn you.” At that point, I realized I may have gone too far when I saw him narrow his eyes.

I immediately moved toward the door to the forge, heading for the safety of the women’s quarters across the courtyard. Like a stalking panther, the silent god slowly followed me. Once outside, I started to run, but Vulcan caught me around the waist and slung me over his shoulder. A few males were walking in the courtyard returning their women after satisfying their own sexual urges. I recognized Ares with his arm around Sabrina and heard his laughing encouragement to Vulcan. “You’re winning, my friend. Let her know who’s the boss, or has she already shown you?” Vulcan practically snarled when he heard this taunting jibe about his manhood, his injured manhood.

“Stop struggling, and if you kick, hit, bite, or throw anything else at me, you will regret it.” Vulcan managed to get out this warning while limping once again into his living area. Bite? I thought, as he tossed me onto the bed, I wonder how he’d taste. I called him a rutting pig, but I bet he’d taste like chicken.

At this old earth joke, I couldn’t help myself and started laughing. Vulcan, about to begin ravaging me, stopped to stare at me in confusion. He had no idea why I was laughing, and then clucking at him like a chicken. I managed to stop long enough to confuse him even further by telling him, “It loses something in the translation.”

* * *

To be continued in next segment.

Seraglio of the Gods - Segment 03  (XGC) Chapters 11 through 15 #1309910 by J. A. Buxton