EXTRACT FOR
The Convent Of The Angels
(Antonio Brasil)
The first months of Sister Innocencia`s tenure as Mother Superior of the Convent of the Angels, a time marked by relief, joy and a sometimes volatile jubilation in the Convent community paralleled by an explicitly hopeful, even cloying mood in the village, were a season of spiritual and unexpectedly physical growth for the good sisters of the order. Sister Innocencia`s popularity extended beyond her immediate province all the way to Salvador. There, her praises were sung by all, with Dom Eugenio Batista de Lima Azevedo dos Santos, auxiliary bishop, charismatic and, in a usually well concealed second life, viral rake, the willing choir master.
Sister Innocencia enjoyed the hearty respect of the ecclesiastical hierarchy due to her masterly administration of the once dissidence-ridden Convent, her magnanimous treatment of vanquished enemies and the well-circulated tale of her suffering, details of which were alternately exaggerated or elided depending on the audience.
The aged archbishop, for example, famously abhorred the sight, or even the mention, of bloodletting, a peculiarity which prevented him from officiating at certain ceremonies or entering certain precincts until the more gruesome examples of the decorative arts had been removed or concealed. It was said that, when the archbishop first met Pope Leo in Rome, he burst into tears, overwhelmed not by the papal presence, but rather by the sight of an especially gory depiction of the crucifixion by Caravaggio.
Others of the hierarchy, the chief bursar and the prefect of parishes, for example, were quite the opposite. They demanded more and more specifics with each retelling of the Passion of Mother Superior, often expressing skepticism as they probed for hints of a contradiction or as a way to draw out the details, particularly those relating most explicitly to nudity and physical torture.
Dom Eugenio was a master at tailoring his story to the emotional needs of his audience to the point where, from the archbishop`s viewpoint, Sister Innocencia was a suffering, but chaste and cleanly scrubbed saint while, in the bursar's eyes, she fairly quivered in her torture-induced nudity. The outcome was predictable and, for the bishop and his protege, highly favorable--the largesse of the archdiocese poured into the laps of the good sisters, with some of it trickling down to the villagers, making Sister Innocencia, to all eyes, even more saintly.
Sister Innocencia herself quickly grasped that her powers were at their apex. She endeavored to make the most of them, once, in a conversation with the auxiliary bishop, paraphrasing another Pope Leo, by saying, "Now that we have the Convent, let us enjoy it!"
Sister Innocencia`s way of enjoying her domain was somewhat eccentric, however. Her first act was to appropriate the spacious lodge as her private quarters. To these lofty, sand-colored rooms, cooled by evening breezes and bathed by morning sun, Sister Innocencia brought her collection of rich tapestries and elegant clothing, furniture and tableware. From the village, she procured candles, wine and crystal. A gardener and a cabinetmaker collaborated on a system of iron hooks, cables and rings from which to hang dozens of leafy samambaia plants. Finally, she had the cabinetmaker craft a four-poster bed with a white linen canopy.
Sister Innocencia shared her chambers with almost no one, to the point where they became the objects of gossip and exaggeration among nuns and villagers alike. There were rumors of marble fountains splashing wine, tapestries for bedclothes and an eternal flame honoring Mother Superior`s deceased parents. Despite their absurd nature, Sister Innocencia encouraged such tales. They set her apart spiritually, as the actual tower lodge did physically, from both Convent and village.
Sister Innocencia managed the Convent`s affairs with studied indirection. Her most traditionally loyal disciples became the Convent`s actual administrators. Sisters Teresa and Carolina, who had shared bodily torture with the new Mother Superior during the famed revolt, were the bustling caretakers of everything from the contents of the storeroom to the twice-yearly harvesting of cacao, the broad brown pods that generated income for the order and labor for the poorest of the villagers. They also served a second, occult role as observers of the Convent populous, reporting gossip, criticism and infractions to Mother Superior.
Stoical Sister Ana Regina, brutally crucified before her peers on one famous occasion during the old regime, became the chief catechist of the Convent, instructing its novices in the order`s beliefs and practices, a function which kept her in the Chapel for long hours, eventually making it her accepted domain. In her role, she was assisted by Sister Fabianna, whose injuries under torture had left her hobbled and contorted much in the manner of a hunchback. Even her speech, a thick almost unintelligible growl, pointed up her martyrdom. Novices were in awe of her, especially those who came to the Convent after the famed mutiny, tales of which were elaborated and spiced to the point where all its participants, but especially Sisters Innocencia and Fabianna, became heroines and saints. To Sister Ana Regina the novices came for advice; from Sister Fabianna they sought, and usually obtained, anointment by a living martyr.
But the most favored of all was flinty Sister Carmen, the comely negress whose timely actions had saved the Convent from tyranny and heroic Sister Innocenia from death. Sister Carmen, as Proctor, was the day-to-day boss of 40 nuns and novices and a dozen workmen. She was the Convent bursar, contract negotiator, engineer and disciplinarian. It was a role well suited. Inevitably, she became unpopular, but hers was a spirit craving not the devotion of others but rather their respect. And, most of all, it gave her scope for tireless action allied with the opportunity to fulfill her duty to the one who, more than any other in her life, had placed the young nun on the path to the true love of both God and Man--Sister Innocencia.
The new Mother Superior quickly established, and rigorously enforced, the style of her regime. All nuns, novices, workmen and villagers reported to either Sisters Ana Regina or Carmen. These two reported to Sister Innocencia.
It was a rare moment when Mother Superior appeared in the Convent corridors, courtyard or gardens. When she did, a hush would fall on any little group of gossiping nuns. Workmen at rest against their tools in the noonday sun would suddenly stand straight and, averting their eyes, bless themselves and begin pawing at the purple earth again.
It was even more rare for a nun or novice to be summoned to Mother Superior`s chambers. In the lodge, they would find her ensconced in a red bishop`s chair behind a huge table. Conversation would be chilly--a few orders and admonishments with little or no chance for explanation or dialog. Novices especially would come away with a sense of dread, awe and the impression of a humorless, middle-aged or even ageless icon. There were even a few who, in the most private of conversations, described her as ugly. In this austere way, Sister Innocencia imposed her will and hid her beauty.
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But it was in the privacy of her chambers that Sister Innocencia most enjoyed her hard won authority.
As one of her first acts, the new Mother Superior appointed a committee of villagers to help manage the works and distribute the funds which the archdiocese had decided to shower on the once distressed but now happily salvaged Convent of the Angels. She interviewed dozens of villagers before choosing, with great care, the 12 who would constitute her works committee. In her manner of choosing, she had at least one occult purpose. Three of the members, one a gifted sculptor, another a muscular blacksmith and the third a master cabinetmaker, were all unmarried, young, and visibly viral. These became the subcommittee on engineering. One of their projects was to periodically engineer the satisfaction of Mother Superior.
The subcommittee met on a weekly basis and always at night. It quickly fell into a routine carefully devised and enforced by its mistress. Sister Innocencia was never present when the three members arrived at her chambers. Instead, they were met by a novice. The novice`s task was to draw their bath and then help them off with their cloths, which were then folded and deposited in a tiny anteroom, no larger than a broom closet. The bath water was usually warm with a soft patina of steam; musk and herbs hovered over its surface. The three men were asked to be quick, slipping in and out of the perfumed waters one after the other, then reassembling in Sister Innocencia`s bedroom. There, they would find the friendly novice again, this time setting out a wine decanter and lighting candles in an atmosphere of hushed reverence and anticipation. The departure of the novice, not to be seen again until the end of the ritual, was the signal for Sister Innocencia`s entrance.
Mother Superior could emerge from any of three doors. She would normally choose the one most likely to cause her lovers surprise, an expression they would, in any case, labor to display in the knowledge that it was especially, though somewhat mysteriously, pleasing to her. Once in the room, Sister Innocencia would smile, stop to offer an almost imperceptible bow and then sweep across the floor to the imposing four-poster bed constructed by the very cabinetmaker now about to enjoy its sleek beauty and utility to the fullest.
Sister Innocencia`s procession toward the bed was a particularly enticing, and important, part of the ritual. She always wore the same gown-length linen garment, which fluttered like wings as she strode to the bed; this, encircled by candles, she had fashioned into a kind of altar. The garment was pure white and exuded a faint scent of musk and linseed oil. Although it covered her shoulders and upper arms, it was tantalizingly open in the front. As she turned to sit on the bed, Sister Innocencia would tug the top of the gown off her shoulders exposing her back down to the base of her shoulder blades, then she would turn to face her awed audience, sit on the bed and allow the linen garment to fall to her waist, thus exposing her chest to their anxious gaze. This was, for Sister Innocencia, one of the high points of the ritual. An enigmatic smile playing on her lips, she would glance at each of the three men in turn, eager to gauge whether the mere sight of even her partial nakedness was enough to cause arousal.
Now, she would begin to give orders, ones which, once the ritual had been memorized by the three men, became almost automatic. A nod from Sister Innocencia would mean distribution of crystal tulip glasses brimming with wine. A word or gesture would bring a dozen sputtering candles from the corners of the room to the night tables on either side of her bed. This was a moment the men looked forward to. It was the prelude to touching their mistress`s skin for the first time. The candles would seem to crowd the bed like curious worshippers. They had a way of washing out blemishes, highlighting the gentle curves of Sister Innocencia`s breasts, her hips and the slight roll of her lower belly. They cast small but sharply defined shadows across the hollow of her navel. And, curiously but aptly, they left a faintly pungent odor of male fecundity in the air.
Now, at last, Sister Innocencia would motion for the men to come forward. This too was a moment closely choreographed. One man would place his lips on each nipple, in turn, sucking and lathing it to a bright red spike, then, after sprinkling her chest with droplets of wine, he would mold each aureole with his tongue. A second would enjoy the fullness of Sister Innocencia`s embrace, and, holding her firmly in his arms, administer a lengthy, deep-throated kiss while the third would tug the linen garment off her hips and toss it to the floor.
Next, Sister Innocencia would encourage the men to scramble onto the bed. With herself at its center, she would invite each one, in turn, to kiss her full on the lips, allowing each the time for a leisurely, full-tongued exploration as the others stimulated her breasts or, at first tantalizingly and then with increasing earnestness, her womanhood. Soon, Sister Innocencia`s body would be rocking gently from side to side, with the sculptor lathing her nether lips with his tongue, the cabinetmaker pinching her breasts then smoothing the skin of her belly, chest and arms and the blacksmith massaging her scalp as he kissed her with a series of succulent smacks.
Finally, Sister Innocencia would allow each man his pleasure. She insisted on a full-throated kiss from one of the men as the other penetrated her and the third pulled and tugged at her breasts, leaving her nipples distended and even raw and her chest heaving. In this way, the Mother Superior of the Convent of the Angels, full of worries and labors by day, would lose herself, smothered in pulsating pleasures, by night. By the second or third penetration, Sister Innocencia would close her eyes and, her tongue, breasts and innermost cunt roiling from the relentless stimulation, surrender her every nerve to the familiar shocking flood like wave after wave washing against the beach until it glistens with a bright, bubbly sheen.