Goods and Services

Phoebe’s expression totally fell now. The more this very handsome man said, the more she decided he was actually very ugly. Ugly enough that she no longer wished to have a drink. It was impolite. It meant she would have to be a bit argumentative – which she hated – but frankly, she didn’t know how anyone could stand this man long enough to sleep with him. Unless he kept his mouth shut – and then how was it he was going to spread the word of Safrin? ”I see. I think I understand what you are doing quite clearly.” she said, her voice a little clipped. It sounded unnatural on her, as she wasn’t comfortable with the tone. Anger did not come easily or quickly to the young woman, but Bastien had struck a nerve. She served women as a midwife. She would love to hear of a powerful goddess being worshipped for all she was. Instead, it seemed the one goddess she would hear about was being treated with the same reverence of a bunch of drunks sharing stories of their conquests. The young midwife stopped in her tracks and glanced up at him, a frown curving her lips. ”You’re using this goddess Safrin as a cover to bed people. ‘Come, lay with me and I will tell you of a goddess I know nothing of except for her beauty.’” She said bluntly. ”You aren’t actually devoted to her. You said it yourself: if she doesn’t like your methods you will find a new deity to serve. That isn’t devotion but a bed of lies you lay in. You don’t spread her name, you twist it to fit your means. I do not know this goddess, I have not met her nor heard of her before, but I don’t think it is right for you to sully her name just so you can get laid. I bet there is a lot more to her than transcendental beauty, and here you are, making her into naught but a shallow reflection of what a goddess is.” Phoebe had seen enough men like this while apprenticing as a midwife. Men who saw their wives as nothing more than a means from which to get sexual gratification. All she could see were memories of women in tears, begging for ways to keep their husbands pleased or they would find someone else, or hurt them, or worse. That was all Bastien was doing, in the name of a goddess no less. She wasn’t even sure Frey would have agreed with that method. Were those who followed Bastien really doing so willingly if they thought it was about worship but was actually just a trick to get them to sleep with him? She didn’t think so. Phoebe turned on her heel then. ”I think I will skip that drink. Thank you, though. If you ever have something substantive to say about your goddess, something that would bring her glory rather than the plot to your wet dreams, I would be interested to hear it.” That was all she would say further on the matter. If he had known that was how this goddess wanted to be worshipped, then fine. But he didn’t. This was selfishness and on the verge of assault of his followers and slander of a deity of a higher nature; who had asked him to spread her name not use it to bang his way across the settlement. It was wrong. Unless Bastien physically stopped her, she was going to head back to her shop. Phoebe In a gentle way, you can shake the world