I stand before the red veil. The thick heavy material that separates me from this world and the world beyond it moves in an invisible breeze. I stand still, naked. A gold mask covering my face. The mask heavy, the iron bashed and moulded, melded into place. The contours of the mask gently curving and sweetly melting with my skin. The gold leaf delicately placed. I see through the eyes, breath through the nostrils, a different person I become.

I touch the material, soft and delicious. Sensations spreading up from my fingertips, rubbing the ridges of my fingerprints. They say it's velvet, but how would I know? I have never touched it before, let alone seen material this luxurious. It's red colour vibrant and bright, warm and glowing.

I feel? I feel apprehensive, nervous. I stand still daring not to breathe. Waiting for the moment, for the curtain to be pulled back. Only this morning everything had begun. The bath of salt water to cleanse and purify my skin. The sweet scented herbs, names I had never heard of before, jasmine, mint, lavender, sprinkled into the steaming water. The scent rising up and mingling with the air, with the steam, the room becoming a heady mix of perfume and intoxication.

Then was I was scrubbed down from head to tow, dead skin flaking, falling from my body to meet the marble floor. I stood still reciting the prayers I had been taught, prayers to our dear and most benevolent god Arkusha. This was the meeting of all my training, all my preparation. The circle come full circle. The ending to my beginning.

'Dear lord Arkusha, favour me
Dear lord Arkusha may I dwell within you for all eternity
May the flowers of your garden be my sanctuary
Dear lord Arkusha….'

I whispered the words over and over again, as I was prepared, my skin oiled and perfumed.

This is my life. Born and raised within The Temple of Arkusha. A miraculous birth. Pure. The process was arduous and long. Then through some technological marvel of an artificial womb. Skin recreated like real skin. The vagina opening and contracting mimicking the birth, even right down to the blood. I was created, I was born. I was given life and I burst forth into the bright lights of the temple and my life begun. My training was begun in the ways of my beloved lord and master, to become him and serve my people.

They call it taking on the 'godform'. You become the god, you take on his image, become him. All my training had been centred on it, around this one concept. The priests with their perfumed skin, robes that draped around their slender bodies, white robes so bright white they shone like individual stars. They taught me in his ways. Their words would caress my mind, speak to my heart. I would sit at their feet and listen with open eyes.

Then at 13 when I reached the age of transition, I was initiated into the inner sanctum. My black hair was shaved off, never to grow back. I sat cross-legged as they cut it away, falling around me like black thunderous clouds. There slender hands caressing my scalp, rubbing ointment into it. Then…..then…

I was taken to bed. The old godform came to me in the night and passed on his knowledge and wisdom. Through the act of love, the mingling of blood and sperm, we became one. We became Arkusha. He became me, his mind melted with mine, his body became mine and together we entered the paradise of our lord. His touch was like silver rain, cool water splashed over my hot body. His words like honey that slipped like gold down my throat. We were hungry for each other, unquenched, desiring each other. Our skin, our age moulding, melting becoming One.

He was gone the next day. He lay dead next to me. A still life. His spirit within me. Throughout the temple, I was proclaimed the new heir to Arkusha. Trumpets sounded. Celebrations began. Ten years from that moment, I would sit upon his gold throne and become him.

I have never known the outside world. Nor do I want to. In this temple, this tower that rises like a holy monument from the ground to the heavens here in the skies. I live away from it, ours is a closed community.

I have heard the stories, the rumours of the outside world. Seen the news on the screens, read the stories on the computer networks. Death and destruction, disease and poverty. Gangs roaming the streets killing anyone they wish, raping anyone they take a fancy to. The Earthurian Government have lost control, they are a law unto themselves, deciding the fate of everyone and making sure their own kind are safe and comfortable. This has always been the way.

Nothing can change this cycle, this history, she will repeat herself for all eternity. Wars have come and gone, civilisations risen and fallen, death is still the same. Humanity always cruel and greedy. We cannot change, because we do not know how to. We have lost sight of our innerselves. The inner voice has been stifled, crushed, broken and trampled on.

We have only ourselves to blame.

The outside world has become enslaved to the technology it has created. Become a prisoner of its own making. These thoughts are always swirling in my head. I am afraid to voice them to my teachers, they would not understand. Their ways are old and have been unchanged for many centuries.

Now here I stand before the curtain, the veil. Unsure of myself, unsure of the future, of what it might hold, of what stories might unfold around me.

I close my eyes and breathe deeply, chest rising, taking in the purified air. Breathing out, heart racing.

The curtain is pulled back and I step into the marbled inner sanctum of this tower. The highest floor in all the land. Decadence does not even begin to sum up this room. The walls, the ceiling are covered in various types of red material, flowing, billowing, swagged and draped. Silk, satin, velvet, sari, every material known. In the centre of the room is a pool of clear water. At the other end of the room is the throne of Arkusha. Cushions lie scattered across the marble floors. Boys and men lie naked amongst them. Clean, smooth and tanned. Golden masks cover their faces. Whites of their eyes staring and watching my every move. Incense is burning, its pungent scent swathed all around me.

I stand still, frozen. Then red rose petals are thrown through the air, they flutter like butterflies. Cover the skin. I begin to walk, everyone begins to make love. Bodies becoming wrapped in each other. Some falling into the pool. Nobody touches me. I must watch for now. Everything unfolding before me, passion I have never seen before exploding all around me. Everyone intoxicated, delirious. The air filling with the sensual touching of skin upon skin.

Music is playing, distant music. Almost watery, chiming, harping, stringing. It adds essence to the moment, the ritual. I stand in front of my throne and survey everything around me. I close my eyes and draw everyone's energy towards me. Soaking it up, drinking it in. Two men come towards me and kneel before me. Their hands stroking the calves of my legs. Sensual touches, electric currents. I shudder at their touch, their lips gently pressed against my skin. Tongues licking up my legs to that secret warm inviting place that opens like a rosebud for them. Hairs prickle, become erect. I open up to them. Their hands caressing, inviting and warm.

Their tongues become like hungry lapping wolves and I am in ecstasy. I feel so dizzy at their touching, licking, sucking, lapping and caressing. I am nothing, but yet I am everything to them. I am all things; there is no distinction in my body for I contain everything. I am both polarities, both male and female. I am rising and spinning into the stratosphere. They are all around me. They lift my body high into the air.

I am laid gently onto the floor and they feed upon me as I feed upon them. For I have become Arkusha, their guardian and creator, their giver and receiver. I am they, they are I, and in this moment, we are One with all things.

I am sat upon the gold throne, decorated with images of creation, this tower, this light. Everyone lies around me spent in their lovemaking, asleep, half-asleep, drifting into sleep. But I am awake and alert. I will never sleep again; this room will become my new home. My domain. They will come before me, offer their lives, their bodies, their pure male bodies of exquisite beauty. For me to touch, to take their knowledge and devour it. For I am Arkusha their lord and master.

©2002 Nigel Symon - Contributor's Bio