The ArchBishop bent down to her and took her face into his hand. He wiped her tears with his scented napkin. He gently seized her by the shoulders and slowly lifted her, and the choir in the background grew stronger in volume. He embraced her and his hands groped for the lacings that kept her clothing closed around her. Then for a final time he rumbled at her, eagerly trying to make her realize that what he was about to do to her, was a blessing and not a violation of her body, as some were sure to regard it. "You will thank me one day, my lovely child. You will bare my son or daughter -- the child of god -- and the world will pay fealty to you, and you will be happy." and, as he finished his self-forgiving reasoning to her, he ran his hands over her breasts and down to the smooth roundness of her hips. He kissed her mouth and brought his hands to her shoulders where he moved his fingers beneath the material of her garb and disrobed her. Her dress fell, in around her feet, revealing her silky smooth whiteness. She still cried but her hysteria left her, just as did her spirit and her self-value, turning her into a submissive bag of flesh that rattled with blood and bones. Like a child's rag doll, she gave pleasure to her master while he toyed with her until, at long last, he lifted his white satin frock. The choirs' hymn-sing rose to a grandiose peak that resonated throughout the length of Halls, then stopped. On the other side of the monastery were the libraries and the private-roms for learning. Daily, in those rooms, novices and the youngest vicars learned their history of the Canon and all that was necessary to be known, as men of the Almighty. Cardinals were usually the most learned of the monks, given to train the younger and inexperienced in the ways of life, love, worship and rule over the peasantry. While the ArchBishop made his studies in his office, so did the novices and grade vicars. They learned the proper methods for the torture of rebels and the demonically possessed. They learned that which assured the longest, most painful and lasting punishments that insured against quick death. Then there were those who taught proper methods of seducing and satisfying women. The Cardinal Allen was one such instructor, in this what he called 'an art'. In a dark room filled with books and artifacts, the Cardinal Allen was having and instruction session with one of the young vicars named Tohm, and a slanted-eyed wench, from Lÿnondan, called Ssidel. On a large rumpled couch lay Ssidel, with Tohm, clumsily balancing himself overtop of her as he took is instructions in making Allen's pronounced 'art'. Ssidel lay there. She didn't make a sound or move a muscle. She seemed dulled to what was happening and poor Tohm was once again becoming frustrated at his failure to please her. He felt ashamed at his adolescent inabilities, since this was his third time at his class and the third at his failure.