Can a priestess love?
Priestesses are not allowed to love. If they do, they will be cast out as traitors. You can only give yourself to a man if you play the part of the virgin huntress at the Beltane Feasts.
Rain was very familiar with all of these things. And yet she loved someone.
It all started when Rain and her sister got a bodyguard one day. Actually he was more to Rain than to her sister because she absolutely didn't act like a princess, even though she was one. Rain and her sister Rion were as different as fire and water: Rion was always wrapped in beautiful clothes, was well-behaved, polite, spent her time in her parents' castle garden with her friends and was courted by beautiful men. Rion also took private lessons. Rain, on the other hand, hated beautiful clothes and, when she was not performing in public, preferred to wear jeans and a T-shirt, went to a middle-class school and just as little liked it when the men who courted her sister tried the same on her.Since Rain was also very fond of metal concerts, the Queen and King felt that their daughters needed a bodyguard. So one day Marco and his son Leon came to the castle and asked to become the bodyguards of the two princesses. The king and queen gladly accepted this offer and made Marco and his son their daughters' bodyguards. Marco became Rion and Leon Rain's bodyguard.
They accompanied the princesses wherever they went, to school, to parties or just to private meetings.
Rain didn't like it at first that Leon accompanied her everywhere and even slept in her room. She tried everything to drive him away. She was at her worst and was unruly. But Leon was not impressed in the least, on the contrary, he never let Rain out of his sight.
Over the years, Rain learned to appreciate her bodyguard's presence more and more, even if she never showed him.In the meantime he had become an irreplaceable friend for her that she no longer wanted to do without. But Rain couldn't tell him that she liked him because she was never very good at showing her feelings. She also noticed that her sister had her eye on Leon, as Rion knew that Rain didn't care much about men. But Rain cared a lot for Leon, even if she didn't say it.
And Leon, too, felt more for Rain than he admitted. He had loved her from the first moment, but she gave him the cold shoulder and he suffered greatly from it.
One day Rain vowed: “I'll tell him now what I'm feeling.” She ran through the castle looking for Leon. Finally she wanted to check her sister's room. But Rain had no idea what was going on there: Rion had begun to seduce Leon and since he was still suffering from the fact that Rain still treated him so coldly, he let himself be seduced by Rion with the thought: "The, who I love don't want me anyway, so why not? "Unsuspecting, Rain stepped into her sister's room with the words: "Rion, you know where ..." in the middle of the sentence she paused because what she saw struck her speech: Leon and Rion stood there, deeply kissing. When Leon Rain's presence noticed he let go of Rion immediately and stammered embarrassed: "It's not what you think ... I ..." He couldn't get out more. But Rain said, even though she was boiling with jealousy, surprisingly calmly: "Don't let me bother you. I'll be gone again immediately." And with that Rain disappeared and locked himself in her room for the next few hours. The next day Leon feared that Rain would reproach him for the previous day, but she behaved towards him as always: friendly, but reserved. In the days that followed, Rain found it particularly difficult to look Leon in the eye. She thought Leon would love her sister, but he loved her, but couldn't confess his feelings to her.A few months later, when Rion was celebrating her 21st birthday, she asked Rain to sing some songs for her because Rain had a very beautiful voice. Rain was very happy to grant her sister this wish, but if she had known what Rion was up to that day, she would not have done it. After Rain had finished singing, Rion asked if she could address a few words to her guests: "Today, on my birthday, I would like to take the opportunity to announce that I will be getting married shortly." RAin was very happy about it that Rion had found a man she loved and soon the question was asked who the lucky one was, to which Rion replied: "His name is Leon and he is my bodyguard."
Rain stood there as if moved by thunder. She felt as if the ground opened under her feet and devoured her. This news came as a surprise to Leon, too, but since all the guests were there, he couldn't say anything against it.A few days later, Rain asked her parents that Leon and his father swap places so that Leon could be with Rion and she was no longer exposed to this feeling that made her breathe. Leon kept trying to find out why Rain had asked him and his father to change jobs, but Rain never gave him a straight answer.
Over time, the feeling of having Leon close by, but not being able to reach him, became so unbearable for Rain that she asked her parents to send her to Avalon so that she could be educated to a priesthood. Thus the king and queen arranged for their daughter to be brought to Avalon as a novice. It all happened quietly and secretly. Leon apologized to Rain one day at school with the excuse that she was sick, but the class teacher immediately refuted that: "You just tell me, you don't know that Princess Rain is being brought to Avalon as a novice today?" "WHAT ????" asked Leon completely horrified.“Why don't I know anything about it?” Without saying anything, he jumped up and quickly left the school and ran to the train station, hoping to see Rain and tell her that he loves her.
When Leon arrived at the station, Rain was about to get on the train. "Rain wait, please." he called, but Rain just looked at him and got in. The doors closed immediately and the train started. Leon ran a few meters from the window where Rain was sitting and called for her, but she ignored him. After the train had left the station, Leon stood at the end of the platform and looked after him, then sank sobbing on his knees: "Why? Why are you leaving me Rain? I need you." Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder and when he looked up he looked into the face of the queen who smiled at him and said, "You love her don't you?" "Yes, I love your daughter more than my own life." he replied dejectedly. "Why didn't you say anything? Then she could have saved all of this." said the king."Quite simply," Rion interrupted them. "Because at my party he was too cowardly to say that he doesn't want me. Well, and now I've snatched the man from under my sister's nose, Ha!" "Shut up, Rion!" exclaimed the queen angrily. "Enough! You have hurt your sister enough. I know that she felt more for Leon than she wanted to admit and I know that you wanted to seduce him because he was the first to be interested not in you, but in Rain." If you had been more considerate of your sister's feelings, she would not have had to go to Avalon. "No one had ever seen the Queen so angry. Rion was not her daughter, she was the daughter of the king's first marriage, but this woman had died when Rion was seven years old and the king had remarried and from this marriage Rain was born. Rain loved her sister, but Rion always tried everything to be better. And if there was a man who was courting Rain and not Rion, Rion would do ANYTHING to get that man's attention.There they stood now, Rain's family and Leon who was always sobbing looking in the direction of travel of the train in which Rain was sitting. Leon was released from the marriage vows that bound him to Rion by the King and Queen, and he vowed to wait for Rain even if it would take his whole life.
The years passed, years that were unbearable for Leon, because he was still waiting for the woman he loved. He was now the Queen's bodyguard while his father watched over Rion until the day she actually married.
Rain had meanwhile become a priestess of the great goddess. She learned everything that was needed for a priestess: She learned all the healing arts, everything she needed to know for the rituals, the ritual dances and chants, the mastery of all four elements and the division of the mists. Rain was worshiped by all the people, almost like the mistress of the Holy Island herself, which was not surprising because Rain was supposed to be the successor of the high priestess and everyone knew about it.Everyone but Rain himself. On top of the fact that Rain was not only popular for her knowledge, there was also the fact that she was loved and admired everywhere for her beauty and character.
Part of her training was also learning to suppress her emotions. That meant that she was allowed to show her affection to her parents and sister, but not express these feelings towards a man. In view of her current emotional state, it was easy for her to renounce love. But the high priestess knew about her love for Leon and said one day to Rain: "I hope you realize that one day you will face him again? And then you will be confronted with your feelings for him again." Rain was himself not sure what to answer, so she asked: “What do you mistress, what should I do when I stand in front of him?” The mistress of Avalon smiled and said: “You should only listen to your heart, it will tell you whether you will come back here or whether you will stay with him. "One day Rain was called to see her parents because her father had been injured in a competition and now needed help. Rain was received with all honors that could be bestowed upon her. Her mother greeted them with joy. Leon didn't get to see her for the first few days. It was all right with her because she was afraid to meet him. And if she had met him now she would have ignored him, because all her attention at that moment belonged to her father, whom she cared for lovingly.
Rain didn't see Leon until a few days later when he came across the hall