What if…

Cerina flushed with embarrassment, her cheeks hot as she glanced nervously around the room. The absurdity of what she had just done hit her like a wave. What if someone had seen her? Shaking her head, she stood up quickly, crossed to the door, and slid the lock into place. The faint click was oddly reassuring.

Returning to the bed, she sat on its edge, her fingers fidgeting with the stone in her hands. Its pulsing had softened, but it was still present, a gentle thrum against her skin. She set it down on the blanket for a moment, the sensation of a hollow, missing feeling in her tummy returned. Her eyes widened as the thought finally materialized fully. She hiked up the end of her robes and glanced between her legs. A flush of embarrassment reddened her cheeks again, so she looked away.

But her eyes fell back to the object laying on the blanket in front of her. Cerina picked it up, its weight in her hands seemingly heavier than before. She glanced between the stone and the still exposed gap between her legs.

Before she could talk herself out of it, she lowered the stone and aligned it with the only place through which it could reach her tummy. Slowly, she pressed the object between the glistening folds. It was a tight fit—almost too tight—and she had to adjust her grip several times to keep going.

As the tip of the stone disappeared inside her, a peculiar warmth began to build in her stomach. It short, unpleasant sting stopped her briefly, but the hollow ache in her belly, the one that had gnawed at her since she first touched the stone, urged her onward.

She pressed the stone further, her movements careful and deliberate. As the warm stone slid deeper and deeper inside her, her body seemed to settle, the strange sensation in her gut giving way to a sense of satisfaction—almost wholeness.

Cerina let out a heavily shaking breath when her hand and the two spheres it grasped were all that remained visible.

She froze, as if waking from a trance. Stunned, she realized she had pushed the thick hand-length stone fully inside herself. What had she done? Her pure offering, spoiled before she was wed. Shame engulfed her. Then longing.

If that was the case, why stop now?