Not like you have much a choice

Being mostly carried out of the academy by the two sisters you do not hear any comment about their mother being present. You'd have expected Oriana to draw attention to the possible conversion of her mother but she remains silent on the subject and you don't want to out and ask they know their mother will be at church to get impregnated by you.

Descending the hill you see the festivities going on strong. Actually they seem to have increased their presence, more performers were setting up of the outer edge and musician seemed to be trying to compete with each other on the amount of volume they produce. An electric guitar, that is what you should invent and call a Christopher, it's perfect, and with lots of variation, the bass Christopher, the acoustic Christopher, plus you haven't seen one around yet.

"What's going on don there?" You asked Auria, assuming that of the two sister she would be most aware of the yearly parties.

She shrugged and looked at the food vendors lining the road. "Dunno. Hey sis can we stop for -"

"No." Oriana shot her sister down, earning a pout. "We'll get something on the way back." Oriana bargained earning a sunny smile. Shame you're loved ones can't be so easily pacified, or maybe they could be you've never tried before.

You look around to try and see some sort of sign or booth that could explain why there are all here. Nothing, no signage, no one in official dress, not even so much as a consistent colour. It looks like a bunch of different performers just decided to throw a massive festival outside the academy. You do see a lot of fellow students among the audiences.

As you are over the road you look for booths that were taking donations on behalf of performers. A loophole to any no commerce on the green that you could think of would be to set the donation spot somewhere off it. Aside from the food vendors, some of whom seem to starting a fight with the shop owners also trying to sell their food, you can't find anyone taking payments for the performances. You can't imagine someone would have paid for all the performers already for a festival that isn't even advertised.

You are forced to continue your march towards the church so you can't ask anyone at the festival and the sisters don't slow enough for you to ask a passerby. One sister motivated by religion the other by food made for a formidable obstacle to expanding your knowledge.

As you neared the church the movement of people shifted. No longer were you walking against the tide you were a part of it. Tide might be an exaggeration but there was a clear block of people going to same place as you. Oriana stood a bit taller as she walked with you. Wearing the same golden, only just not sheer dress, with gold make-up and more than a few items of jewellery that was jangling slightly with each step.

Auria was dressed same as her sister though her much larger chest was adorned with jewellery that highlighted that difference, a single chain of gold around her neck crossing at the top of her chest and looping down to pull the fabric of her dress taught across her chest.

You had gotten so used to seeing the two of them in their religious frock you'd stopped making note of it. Something the people you overtook on the walk were doing. Lots of chatter and comments where thrown towards the golden women, the reason for Oriana's increasingly proud posture.

When you rounded the corner to see Farrah's home/church you paused to appreciate the view. There were more than a dozen people loitering outside, very clearly becasue they weren't able to get inside. Farrah was at the door trying to direct her new parishioners for a room far too small for them.

"Yes I'm sure our Stud will be here. I have sent my acolyte and her sister to bring him here, however even if he isn't we would appreciate you joining us." Farrah said as she walked a women inside.

"Mother." Oriana called out from the gate.

Farrah looked down and her face lit up with relief at seeing you. "St -"

"Daughters." Ortus said from inside the church, sweeping out in a very similar golden outfit as Auria, though her golden chain crossed more than just below her chest, keeping the material taught across her stomach, coming to single diamond just above her crotch.

"Mum?" Auria asked. "Oh hey mum." She dropped your elbow and walked over to kiss her mother's cheek. "You here to -"

"Auria!" Oriana shouted, not letting you go. She nodded at Farrah and Auria gave her a blank stare. Oriana sighed. "Welcome daughter. Has our Mother greeted you?" She looked at Farrah who looked at Ortus and Auria.

"Oh you're." Farrah cleared her throat. "Sorry my Lady."

Ortus held up a hand. "Please there is no need. Stud." She bowed to you and put a hand on her lower abdomen. "I am here as a prospective mother not as Viscountess."

As the noble title left her lips everyone around the room looked at her. You looked around and recognised most of them from the field hospital that Farrah had set up after the Delilah kerfuffle. Guess you were expecting a bit too much for them to not credit religion for their rapid recoveries.

People started parting but Farrah cleared her throat. "Then Daughter please wait inside. The Mother of All shall chose those to receive the milk of life." She managed to recover her religiously superiour tone with a lot more ease than she used to. Oriana might be jumping into the role acolyte with high ambitions but Farrah was getting more comfortable in her role.

Ortus bowed and walked inside. Oriana's hand holding yours had started griping very tightly as Farrah finished. "You ok?" You asked her softly.

"I wanted to be first." She mumbled. Took you a moment to figure out what she'd meant by first.

"Oh." It was all you could say and you decided to keep your mouth shut and not make the joke, at least the first would kept in her family. Partly to not start a fight, partly becasue it just hit you exactly why you were here. You were fully expected to put a baby in someone. Like an actual baby, you're baby. And apparently that was going to Oriana and Auria's mother, assuming the Mother of All picked her ... why did you tell Clare about this, you just know she is going to be making a cosplay appearance to help pick.

Oriana and you walked up the stairs to Farrah's house and you were handed over to her. "We need to talk about how this is going to work." Farrah said as she walked you through the church with Oriana behind. The place was packed, no one was quite in the level of clothing that Oriana and family were in but there were a few with some gold rings and yellowish clothing that was clearly the best people could manage. Mostly women as usual but there were a few men, all at their partners sides.

Ortus was sitting in the front row with Auria beside her. Auria was quite happily chatting about the academy while her mother listened. As Farrah led you and Oriana through the door into her house proper you felt eyes on you.

The door closed behind you and Oriana locked it. Little worrying but considering the number of people out there fair. "So how is this going to work?" You asked. She'd mentioned there being a hole cut in the wall for you to, use for any rituals but as you looked at the wall your couldn't see any holes, glory or otherwise.

Farrah walked to the table and grabbed the golden book of their religion from it. "I know the ritual but." She opened the book to a bookmark then flipped back and forth through a few pages until finding the ritual she wanted to perform. "I don't want to do it wrong." She glanced at Oriana who was looking a bit nervous herself. Having her mother presence mus be a lot more pressure than she'd been expecting.

"Ok, let's have a look." Your curiosity to learn more about the religion temporarily overcoming your nervousness about the end result of the ritual in question. "Mother of All we seek your favour. Before you your daughter waits, their belly empty and wanting. Their chest unswelled with the Nourishing Milk. In your light we breathe, in your grace we bask, in your company we share your love. With your name on our lips and your heart in her womb we ask you, give our Stud the firmness and desire to fill her belly, her breast and her being with proof of your love." Little heavy on the 'love' but you get the idea, an idea you had never actually considered before. Absorb collective aura and then focus it all on reproductive organs. "Wait could that work?" You read the next ritual and the previous one hoping for some inspiration.

"Could what wo -" Farrah asked only for you to hold up your hand to quiet her.

The idea of the ritual is use the aura sharing to supercharge reproductive organs. At least from your understanding of what it is asking. That might mean if you could get enough people together and focus on your missing arm it might be enough to remind your nonself-consciousness of it's existence and boom new arm.

"Christopher?" Oriana asked

"Give me a second." You said walking away from them. The ritual after seemed focused on healing a sick child but not, or maybe a wounded but not sick, 'suffering' was a little vague. The one before was about food, either a blessing or spell, honestly you hadn't thought of putting your aura into a food before but that didn't seem all that much use, you want a hand not a nicer tasting potato.

Nothing of any real use. If that isn't the summary of religion you don't know what is. "Alright well," you returned to the two looking a bit worried, "you need to absorb everyone's aura. Then focus that absorbed aura on the chosen woman' womb and Stud's penis." You don't know why you are using the technical terms, maybe becasue you are talking about yourself and Oriana's mother, yeah probably that. "If it works, I don't actually know. At a guess it magically ensures an egg will be fertilized." The two look at each other than at you. Yeah makes sense they wouldn't know what that means, actually you're kinda surprised they didn't falter at womb, you did get some book growing up that discussed anatomy but you wouldn't have thought it would be so widely know, by which you mean you are surprised the Farrah the non-noble knows the term enough to not question you.

"And how do we know if it works?" Oriana asked taking the book from you to read the ritual as well.

"Wait a few months?" You answered with a shrug.

"I'm sure the Mother will give us a sign." Farrah said taking the book back from her.

"What ritual were you going to do before Oriana's mother announced what she wanted?" The bookmark was still in the page and you were curious, Farrah didn't know you were coming so it'd make sense for it to be one she know how to do.

"The collective fertility ritual." Farrah said.

"We've done that one too many times. People will stop coming if we never do any other ritual." Oriana complained.

"If I." Farrah corrected.

"Sorry Mother." Oriana corrected herself.

You know, all those fears you had about burning people on stakes with books along with them, are getting increasingly well founded each time you see Oriana's religious ambitions. "You should listen to Farrah, Oriana. A ritual that works and have very obvious proof it did is a lot more likely to attract people than a ritual that does neither." Oriana looked a lot more chided at your words than she had been at Farrah's.

"Thank you Stud." Farrah said. "Acolyte ensure my Daughters are ready for a ritual." Oriana looked at the two of you and didn't see any support from you for a coup so she left. When the door closed Farrah sighed. "I'm not a very good teacher for her am I?"

"You're doing well from my perspective." You don't actually know but anything to temper zeal is a good thing in your book.

"That is kind but I'm not." Farrah sighed and held up the book. "Which ritual should I perform?" She was holding the pages open for you to read both easily. It was somewhat instructive as she did that. The collective fertility is closer to the front the directed fertility to the back, a clear logical progression in rituals. Maybe you should borrow that book and scour through it sometime. From the rituals you've seen you can tell it is building to something beyond a simple vision of a Goddess. And maybe there is a more than the sum of it's parts ritual. When you have a true understanding of how they all worked you can start improvising, like replacing a hand for instance. But for now you have a decision to make. Sadly it seemed to be a decision of if you want to give Oriana and Auria a baby sibling.