The following is a bit of alternative fiction based on certain characters from the Xenaverse. It is not meant to infringe on anyone else's rights. If you don't agree or disapprove, please go read something else.
"May I join you?"
Gabrielle took a long breath and looked up into Seragi's gentle eyes.
Gods, the priest had changed. She nodded, though she didn't really feel
much like seeing anyone. "Sure," she sighed. Then she scooted over on
the mat and went back to staring at the wall of the hut.
Seragi's robe swished gracefully as it settled about the knees. Firelight flickered gold off the hooped earings. The voice was low and deep. The robe's scooping neck revealed the gentle upward swell of small breasts. Strong square manicured hands folded together. Seragi smelt like honeysuckle.
She didn't comment on it.
Instead she concentrated on losing herself in the texture of the wall. Seragi said nothing, but when she sighed again, the priest gently took her hand and just held it.
It seemed a candlemark passed and then another, but Seragi wasn't one to measure time anymore. The priest had plenty of it. The priest had spent hours looking at this wall.
"We're going to lose." Gabrielle said the words with whispered dread and finality. "We're really going to lose." She looked down at the priest's hand, which held her own. The red nail color seemed very bright. She felt the gentle squeeze and swallowed back a tear. "I've never felt this way before. With Xena....with Xena, nothing ever seems impossible." She lifted her gaze and looked at Seragi. "We've beaten giants and cyclops and even the sea...and yet..." A tear slid down, "I feel so helpless. They're all gone...all of them...OH...Artemis," she mourned, "I've killed your people..." The tears really started falling then.
Seragi gathered her into strong arms and thought. The priest wished Jacosta was here. The prophetess would know what to do. But she wasn't and there was only Seragi and not even the Gods to help...
And that was the answer.
Seragi stood up quickly and the abruptness of her release startled the Queen enough that the tears stopped for the moment.
"My Queen," Seragi intoned, "who am I?"
"What?" Gabrielle shook her head.
"Who am I?"
"You're Seragi..."
"That was the name I was given when I was born a son of a priest. Am I that man now?"
"I...."
Seragi smiled, "let me save you the answer. I know the truth as you do. I have the staff of flesh and the bowl of life. I am neither male nor female. I will never be one or the other, but always ...both. I have, after all, a service to provide."
Gabrielle blinked.
"Maybe you're looking at this the wrong way. When I was told that I would no longer be what I was...when that pronouncement was made..I thought...I thought that I would become a woman. I was sure of it." Seragi paused and then knelt before the queen. "Of course, the answer wasn't as obvious as I thought. I never thought I would become...an it."
"You're not an.." the Queen began to deny.
"Yes. I am. I am neither one nor the other. There is nothing to describe me. I am bound to this godsbedamned temple and I've stared at these walls long enough to know the answers are not in them..." The hermaphrodite pressed zir palm gently against Gabrielle's heart. "They are here," ze sighed, "where they've always been."
"I grieve at the loss of...our...sisters, but they gave their life for a purpose. So that others might live. That is a noble and worthy cause. There is nothing," Seragi's voice quivered, "lost. Your amazons await you in another land...Grieve, my queen, but don't guilt. Your people can't afford it." Seragi spread zir arms. "Look at me. I am what the Gods have made me, my queen, for your Amazons. See your answers. Listen to your heart."
Gabrielle stared at Seragi. Her mouth hung open in astonishment. Her eyes looked glazed. The tear streaks snaked a path along her cheeks.
Then she looked startled.
This time it was the queen who stood up abruptly.
"Seragi, what would you like most when we win the war?"
The hermaphrodite tried to track the switch in thought and finally caught up. Ze looked shy. "Well..." Ze looked at the small temple's walls. "I would love to have... more room."
Gabrielle clasped zir forearm. "You've got it." She stepped away and headed towards the door. Gabrielle turned. "When we're through with Aulix, we'll make this a temple the world will envy. And a place you can live."
Seragi looked as if zir world had suddenly opened up. "I would like that. I would really like that." Gabrielle smiled at the priest. Then left with a more confident step. Things were going to change.
The priest gathered up the mat, rolled it and tied it. In the corner of zir eye, ze saw the friendly flicker of the fire. Ze heard a whisper in zir ear, "Well done, my child." Seragi couldn't help the smile or the tear that fell to the floor.
Xenite Temple | Fan Fiction Site | Home Page
These pages were last updated: October 29, 1998
İOctober 1998
URL: ../../STO/friends/friends47.html