THE STORY of SU NU Chapter 1 Solo Rite Honourable Elder Sister, I
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www.healing-tao.co.uk 1 THE STORY OF SU NU Chapter 1 Solo Rite Honourable Elder Sister, I have rewarded the bandy-legged oaf who brings you this with more than gold, of which he carries enough to comfort our honourable parents so be sure to get all of it. I will have his manhood if he cheats you. Tell him. Have you missed me? Had you noticed me gone? Such relief you must have felt when I disappeared with Master Lu Yan and his Dancing Bear. No more Su Nu, no more little sister to make sheep’s eyes at your suitors. I hardly knew my power of enchantment then and never set out to steal them. You found others, surely? Have you held any? Or does your sharp tongue wilt their Jade Stalk? And me, what of me, I don’t hear you ask. Well, few find me plain, although that is my nomme d’amour at Court: the Plain Lady, a name I took so I would think of you whenever I heard it called. Which is often: the Golden Lotus is watered well and I have grown used to breakfast in bed, even if not the same every morning. Are you surprised that I, who would not even lift my hem behind a bush on a forest picnic, now have the ear, and more, of the Emperor? But I do not write to brag or belittle: what need? Three summers ago the Master took me to his hermit cave and initiated me into the Solo Rite, the same I saw through your screen, the same, but different. You were noisier and did it lying down. Then he went, leaving me a promise of wetter times ahead and instructions to follow the Tao of my destiny. I have completed my tasks. I wish to find him again and test his promise. Has he visited the village again, to pluck another virgin? If you help me find him I will look after you well, Elder Sister. Send word with Ah Li and I will come home. Meanwhile, see if my story sends you behind the screen to fiddle your lute strings. http://www.healing-tao.co.uk/acatalog/E-books_and_Articles_for_instant_download.html www.healing-tao.co.uk 2 Loins aching and lips atingle from that Night of First Love, mind ablaze with what I discovered later, I set out from the valley of the cave. The previous day he guided me by hills and open meadows, through forest and down valley, along a stream and behind a waterfall. Once through the slippery entrance he felt around for materials to kindle fire, blew red embers to heat my body, opening me to his whispered stories of the Golden Lotus, the Jade Stalk, Bamboo Grove and Strumming Lute. I had heard these stories five summers before, listening with the innocence of a child, after the Fang Shi picked me to honour our ancestor, the goddess Hsuan Nu. Father boasted I was chosen for my lineage and for my birth, when Yin met Yang on the breath of midnight between Earth Monkey and Rooster, in the hour of Rat, on the tenth day of Rain Waters under the sign of Rabbit: making me, he declared, a perfect match for the son of the Son of Heaven, heir to the Dragon Throne. Amid words too big for a child to understand I acquiesced, to honour my family. Mother said I was special anyway, when you taunted me about my strange coppery hair and full lips. Had a gweilo passed by at Harvest Moon in the Year of the Wooden Horse? Ha Ha. The jet-black eyes and little nose reflected in the stillness of our pond were definitely Nu, as were my broad forehead, and slim hips now forming a more girlish shape. His hands moulded to that shape as we lay on sheepskins watching the fire pink our cheeks. I thought him a handsome man with his short black triple-forked beard and wild hair bound in the red band of a trance-healer, a Master of the Formula. Their kind had no lineage and roamed alone, falling in fits and healing the sick. Mediating with Spirit, they called it and everyone was in awe of them, with their shadowed eyes and secret powers. They could make people sleep and walk at the same time, stand on hot stones and feel no pain. Masters of magic and fighting, they would tarry in the forests where villagers brought food and gifts to barter for healing. We never saw more than one in any season but rumours ran of gatherings and dark practices under the black moon, circles of fire and the calling of beasts. My Master told me that after their penultimate initiation they each must find a mate to bring into the Circle for the highest degree, the Double-Master of Yin and Yang. He told me too of the http://www.healing-tao.co.uk/acatalog/E-books_and_Articles_for_instant_download.html www.healing-tao.co.uk 3 days when the Fang Shi flourished, of the teachings of the Lady, then of persecution by those who taught celibacy in defiance of the Goddess. “Now we hide and wear the headband far from the cities. Now we practice without drums, rattles, robes or other articles of our craft. Now you cannot tell a sage by his clothes. We are called the Hidden Masters but our influence has waned. Now the time is come again to penetrate the inner chamber.” His soft voice aroused me, and the warmth of the fire my body. He laid a hand on my belly and my heart hammered. “Our rites are sacred,” he said, “and secret because they give power. You will know the power of Yin. To use it you will learn from many teachers…” I whispered, “I want only you to teach me, Master…” He stopped me. “Give up comfort of the known. To awaken you must seek the hard.” His hand covered my breast and the nipple rose to his palm, hot through the silk. “I will teach you the first step. Find others to for Clouds and Rain, Three Treasures and Sacred Geometry, the Five Flavours and many more. Free yourself, through exhaustion of desire and claim your seat in the Circle.” He went on talking, lightly tapping fingers on my chest to make the points, palm resting on my skin. On the cusp of womanhood, burning with curiosity, I heard the stories unfold anew. Much of what he said I found hard to understand and some hard to believe but did I care? I was lying in his cave, on sheepskins beside a fire, held by the man held in awe by my family and the whole village; and his hand was in my blouse. “Stories hide codes, codes conceal practices. Codes without practice are empty, Su Nu,” he said, flames dancing in his eyes. “What use is knowing the five flavours, without blending them to make the five pleasures? Only the adept sees through the veil.” The Master opened his pouch. My mouth watered at the sight of his fruit packed inside. He fed me in ritual fashion, inserting little by little. I savoured the taste, rolling the fruit around with my tongue. Soon his hands slid from my mouth to my face and then down to my shoulders. My heart pounded as he slipped down my arms to my hands. He guided me to fan my arousal then withdrew, openly watching. I was tentative, embarrassed yet fascinated by his pleasure. http://www.healing-tao.co.uk/acatalog/E-books_and_Articles_for_instant_download.html www.healing-tao.co.uk 4 I already knew the pleasure of watching, of the tingling below when I peeked at you, Elder Sister, sometimes putting my own small hand into my undergarment to copy your movements, rubbing my little bubble of flesh down there but I could not comprehend the violent jerking that overcame you after a few minutes of your frantic finger-blur. Sometimes I was not alone. The first time Second Uncle made his presence felt behind me I almost jumped out of my skin. A sudden big hand clamped my breast and pulled me back against him. I felt him fumbling and then his other hand drew out his sword. That’s what he called it but I only ever saw the hilt gripped in his fist while he jerked in silence to the rhythm beyond the screen. His chest heaved and juddered and his other hand scrabbled to get inside my shirt. I know not what he sought there for I had little to offer in that department but nevertheless with he so excited I deemed it wise not to interfere. When you let out a shriek that sounded like but I knew could not be pain, Second Uncle’s sword hilt squirted Dragonseed, over my silk pantaloons. He would join me at the spy hole in those drowsy afternoons when honourable parents were out of the house and, on reflection, Elder Sister, knowing what I know now, I believe you may have been deliciously aware of our hidden presence. He told me to keep it ‘our little secret’ and I was happy to do so. He was only a few years older, growing up with the games we play but do not show. He knew better than to try to pluck my cherry, knowing it would be not only my blood that spilled as by then I had been dedicated to the Goddess and waited for my first moon to be taken by the Master, he who lay beside me now, breathing secrets in my ear.