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Teshmir's spiritual officer told zir to go to the room of Ascent. Zie will find a fissionid there, the officer said, and the fissionid will tell Teshmir what zir rite of ascent will consist of. Then the officer led Teshmir to a small door in the back of the temple. The ritual was to be done in complete privacy, and no one even explained to Teshmir why it would be administered by a fissionid. Their name is Kaelori, the officer said, and did not answer any more of Teshmir's questions.
Fissionids were such infrequent visitors planet-side that Teshmir had not seen one before.
The door shut with a soft, claustrophobia-inducing click. The room had walls draped with fuzzy, ornate swatches of fabric. To mute the sound, a thought crossed Teshmir's mind, but then zir attention was taken by the fissionid, Kaelori: the most impressive - and indeed, the only - object in the room.
The alien had a long, thick tail that resembled a giant, flattish loaf of bread. Their six limbs looked way too feeble to carry their body around. The fissionids developed on a world with a much lower gravity than Teshmir's own. Zie could imagine that here, on a high-grav planet, Kaelori felt like a splayed, immovable blob, similarly to how Teshmir felt after a Shedding Night dinner at the grandparents', but ten times worse. The alien, however, managed to look dignified as they scrutinized Teshmir with their deep-set, yet sharp and focused eyes.
"By undergoing your rite of Ascent you'll do me a great kindness," said Kaelori. "I'm honored to be picked as an individual who ushers you into the next stage of your life. Your species forms a symbiosis with mine, and it is at the heart of the rite. Simply put, you will give me some of your enzyme splisomorphase. I need it for my tail to split and make legs strong enough to enable me to walk on this planet. These," they wiggled their straw-thin limbs, "are of no use to us here."
"Ah, I see," said Teshmir. This seemed a trivial request, nowhere near special enough for the first truly important ritual of zir life. "I can milk myself, but I was not told to bring a receptacle. I can still go and get one?.."
"No," said Kaelori. "You will inject it into me directly. If the splisomorphase is exposed to air, it will lose potency."
"Oh," said Teshmir, stunned. "I don't see how that's possible. We... express our enzyme by biting into something, you see."
"That's exactly what I want you to do to me," said Kaelori.
"Dear Kaelori, our teeth can crush rocks. I'm afraid that's out of the question."
"Dearest Teshmir, do not even dream of not cooperating in your own rite of Ascent," said Kaelori. An imperious note crept into their voice. "My tail does not feel pain. I would appreciate you just getting it over with."
"Alright." At the thought of failing the rite Teshmir decided to overcome zir squeamishness and do what zie was told. Zie approached Kaelori with great reluctance.
"You'll need to bite me right there," said Kaelori and pointed to a soft, unprotected-looking spot in their loaf of a tail, most of which appeared to be covered by bark. The "bark" was peeling in places. Kaelori scrunched up and pointed their short, limp arm to the desired place. There, the "peel" had come off; it looked like a bald spot.
Teshmir crouched, opened zir narrow, snout-like jaw and tentatively moved it over Kaelori's tail, positioning the two front fangs over the target spot.
"And now, on three, clamp down with all your strength," said Kaelori. "Ready? One, two, three!"
Teshmir had never bit a living being. Zie clenched zir jaw with all zir might, and felt something - springy, crunchy, slippery bits - slide underneath zir teeth, moving apart, grinding against each other. It was not even the sound, but the pure feel of it - the grinding, the slipping - that caused Teshmir to seize with fear and revulsion. In an instant zie became unshakably sure that the flesh in zir mouth was sensitive and undergoing pure agony.
"Stronger!" Kaelori croaked. The sound that erupted from their throat was so full of torment that Teshmir could not bear it: zir jaw cramped, fangs piercing the flesh until the upper and the lower teeth met.
Zie heard suppressed grunts, more vibrations than sounds, coming from deep within the fissionid. Terrified of what zie had done, Teshmir pried zir own jaw open with both zir hands. Teshmir was panting heavily, the sound filling zir own ears. Only seconds later did it register that Kaelori was panting too. Their eyes did not look sharp or alert anymore, but rather clouded and diffuse.
"Did I hurt you?" whispered Teshmir, feeling foolish and terribly guilty. It was very plain that zie did.
"You did very well," Kaelori said between gasps for air. "You did me a great favor."
"I'm very sorry," said Teshmir. Unable to stand being in the room with someone zie hurt horribly, zie headed towards the door.
"Don't leave yet," a croaky voice said. "You are not done."
"What?" said Teshmir. Zir voice came out as a tortured screech.
"You need to do it again," said the fissionid. "Bite another spot, equidistant from the central axis of my body. Only then my tail will divide into three serviceable legs."
"I can't!" Teshmir yelled. "Not after knowing what my bite did to you!"
"I'm afraid you have to," said Kaelori, zir breathing returning to normal, voice regaining its previous icy tones.
Teshmir rushed to the door. It was locked from outside.
"That's the real test for your Ascent," said Kaelori. "Knowing how terrible the task is, and doing it anyway, because you must. Do you understand the meaning of your rite now?"