As the Supreme Modir walked across the monastery grounds, the embroidered hem of her robes glided across the blades of grass and made a soft rustling sound. So light were her footsteps that the Holy Maidens did not hear her approach the fisherman’s cart, where they had a gathered around in a group, giggling and talking excitedly as they examined the fisherman’s goods.
“What is all the fuss?” she said to them.
The Holy Maidens squealed and quickly turned bowing their heads to the Supreme Modir.
“How many maidens does it take to buy fish? Leave at once and prepare for your afternoon prayers.”
“But what about the fish?” one of them said.
“I will handle it. Go, now.”
“Yes, Modir.”
The group of maidens quickly scattered and disappeared into the monastery.
“How you be, Her Excellency?”
The fisherman was a burly man with a long beard, a barrel of a chest, and thick arms tanned from the hours spent under the sun. He grinned jovially and dried his hands with an old towel, which he then casually threw on top of a wooden box.
“Your fish must be really good to cause such a stir among my maidens,” she said.
The fisherman laughed.
“Simply the best thanks to the Jade Lady and her heavenly host, Your Grace.”
“Is that so?” said the Supreme Modir taking a step closer in spite of the man’s musky scent. “Well, in that case I love to see this bounty of the Lady’s graces. Go on. Show it to me.”
The fisherman rubbed his hands together and opened a side panel on his cart that also served as a table. On it, he placed several fishes, ranging from small to large. He cheerfully told her their name, location where they were caught, and the manner most suitable for their preparation.
“It’s beautiful meat!” he said slapping a particularly large specimen with his palm. “Go on, feel it!”
She withdrew her hands from her robes and showed him her gloved fingers.
“I’m afraid I cannot break my vows,” she told him. There were eight of them. One of which was not to come in naked contact with flesh, alive or dead.
“Then you’ll have to trust me when I say that my fish is just delightful and like no other,” said the fisherman with a wink.
“Are you a believer, Mr…?”
“Lorak Ruddrig, Her Excellency, at your service,” he said with an awkward bow of his head. “And I am indeed a servant of the Jade Lady, and the Host of the Heavenly Realm.”
“You worship at her altar?” she prodded.
“Without fail, Your Grace, whenever I’m in town, I go to her abode where she dwells with her holy maidens.”
She pulled back her veil, and her eyes fell on the wooden box beneath the towel.
“What’s in that box?” she asked him.
“Just a catch I’m hauling up to Meadow Hills.”
“What is it?”
The fisherman cleared his throat and scratched the back of his head. “A rare species only found by the Horn, Her Excellency. It prefers darkness, so I keep it locked up in the box to make it happy.”
“Open it, and show it to me.”
The fisherman ran his hand through his beard, then not being able to find a good excuse to deny the Supreme Modir’s request, he relented with a grunt and opened the box.
The light fell on a creature with a large bulbous head, long tentacles, and a single eye on the top of its head, which the animal shut when the light fell on it.
She gasped and took a step back.
“So this is what the maidens were all in a titter about,” she said piercing him with her commanding stare.
“Aye, it’s not their fault, Her Excellency,” the fisherman said bowing his head. “They’re curious and easily excitable. I shouldn’t have shown it to them, and I hope Your Grace will find it in her mercy to forgive my transgression.”
“I am not in the business of forgiveness, Mr. Ruddrig. That is between you, the Jade Lady, and her Heavenly Host. I do control the purse strings of this Order, however, and can easily pull them from those who do not respect our ways.”
Ruddrig’s cheeks reddened, and his chest swelled. He raised his dark brown eyes, brooding, and stared directly into the Supreme Modir’s eyes.
Taken aback, she instinctively gripped the dragon tooth dangling from a golden chain beneath the crimson folds of her robes.
“Perhaps Her Excellency would like to take a closer look,” he said motioning towards the box.
“I-” she began to retort but stopped herself short. Her eyes turned towards the sturdy wooden box. Leaning forward, she looked into the large eye of the disgusting yet immensely fascinating creature.
“Perhaps Your Grace would like to touch it?”
“I couldn’t…”
“Go on. A rare experience it is. ‘Tis a gift from our Jade Lady and her Heavenly Host. Are we not to venerate her in all her forms?”
Looking around her, she said, “very well, but not here. Follow me discretely.”
The fisherman closed the box, and holding it in his arms, he followed the Supreme Modir across the neatly trimmed gardens.
He saw her enter a crevice beside the monastery, behind several bushes full of plump red berries. He made a mental note to pick a few on the way out, for nibbling on the road to Meadow Hills later that evening.
The narrow crevice opened into a large grotto with archways that rose onto a swirling vaulted ceiling, painted with scenes of the Heavenly Realms. Stained glass panels threw sumptuous flickering lights on the scenes of the cavorting lords and ladies, engaged in the eight aetheric delights.
An enormous sculpture of the Jade Lady stood in the middle of a pool, fed by a stream of water cascading from the grotto’s ceiling, pouring onto her body, between her legs, and down in a splash into the radiant pool.
“Come, quick,” the Supreme Modir told the awestruck fisherman. “Show me.”
“They are shy creatures, Her Excellency, so you have to coax them gently using your fingers like this.”
He opened the lid, and wiggling his fingers like tentacles, he gently tapped the edge of the box.
“I see,” she said.
She raised her right hand, and with the fingers of her left one, she removed her translucent glove.
She leaned towards the fisherman’s box, wiggling her fingers like he had shown her, then tapping lightly on the edge with the tip of her fingers.
The creature within stirred and opened its single eye.
“Good, that’s good, aye…” the fisherman whispered. “Gently, Modir, gently.”
She gazed intently at the creature’s eye which swirled in shades of yellow, red, and blue. Its tentacles began to squirm and slide up the wall. She fought the urge to pull away even as her fingers continued their sinuous dance.
The tip of a tentacle touched the tip of her middle finger.
“Hold it,” the fisherman fervently whispered, sensing her uneasiness. He slid his hand beneath the folds of her robe and gently but firmly held her wrist.
The bulbous head of the animal swelled and shimmered with colorful lights upon contact. Its slimy tentacles slid across her skin and wrapped around her fingers, then up along her wrist, and around the fisherman’s own fingers, binding their hands together with its eager appendages.
She felt as if the creature was pulling them towards itself. It had a vigorous energy, and she felt a strange sensation course throughout her body.
“Easy, Modir, easy…” whispered Ruddrig in her ear. “Shy little fellow, ain’t it? Oh yes, there it goes, Modir, nice and easy.”
In the junction where the tentacles came together, the creature had a small mouth tucked within its folds. A pink tongue protruded from the cavity and seemed to taste the air. The creature pulled her closer until its tongue slid over her ring finger.
She gasped as her finger disappeared in the creature’s mouth with a slurping sound.
“Ah, he likes you, Modir!” Ruddrig said. “Don’t worry, they’re not really poisonous.”
“What do you mean not really?”
“Wait, just a little longer.”
She felt a prickling sensation on her finger, exhilarating waves spread up along her arm and made her shiver. An unbidden sigh escaped her lips and echoed in the cavernous space.
Ruddrig chuckled, and taking the creature with his free hand, he unwrapped its tentacles, and placed it back in the box.
“It’s a stimulant of sorts,” he said. “Released when it meets one of its own. Not harmful, mind you, just enough to make you feel a little tingle.”
She turned to face the Jade Lady and slid her fingers back in the glove.
“You may go now,” she told him.
“Would you like me to return next week or…?”
“Yes!” she said a little too eagerly. Then catching herself, she fiddled with the knotted rope around her waist and said, “please return as per usual. For your excellent service, I will ensure that you are rewarded with a handsome recompense.”
Then with a bow and a smile, the fisherman thanked “Her Most Gracious Excellency” and left with the box cradled in his arms.
On the way out, he went up to the bushes, gave them a good whiff and picked a handful of ripe berries to nibble on the road to Meadow Hills.
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