The cold steel paused for a moment, then gently scraped at her skin, shaving her soft, sparse hair away. The priestess wielding the knife gave her a disapproving look, scowling at her, and bent back to her task. They finished shaving under her arms, and then the senior priestess knelt before her. Idara blushed furiously as the woman inspected her sex. The woman prodded Idara to open her legs, then pressed the blade against her skin again and began to carefully, almost reverently, shave the curly dark hair from Idara's mound. "To be sure you are pure, we must remove all the hair on your body." She said, as though Idara might have forgotten. A thought occurred to Idara. "Do you have to shave my head?" She blurted out, and immediately felt ridiculous. It was a stupid concern, considering she would be dead in a few hours. The priestess scowled again and shook her head. "No." She said. "Keep still." Thankfully, after Idara had been shaved, a young acolyte took over. She brought in two small bowls, and knelt before Idara.
