[coronatiger]

I hadn’t yet found my seat when the door to the hallway opened and three women entered. One was the Ashtarite priestess we were here to meet and one wore the garb of an Anati priestess. When the Ashtarite saw us, she sent the third woman away. Apparently, she had only come to keep an eye out for us.

The Anati priestess asked if any of us wanted something, but nobody replied, so she left too. The Ashtarite undressed and sat down to await the bell. This wasn’t the place to have our talk, her body language said. Poor Wolfram! Her arrival added another direction he couldn’t look without blushing.

The bell rang after a few minutes, and since nobody leapt to their feet, the Ashtarite entered first. Xipil and Wolfram went inside the next times the bell rang. Grogg and Hylda hesitated, so I told them they should go before me. I was first the other time we were here, so it was only fair that I should go last this time. Hylda left, and a minute later, Grogg followed.

As soon as Yana and I were alone, I turned to her and kissed her. Yana was at first horrified that we should do this in the temple of the goddess of purity and worried about being discovered, but she soon returned my affections with as much tongue as I gave her. The bell rang all too soon, and Yana bounced to her feet. She stopped before the door to compose herself, took a deep breath, and went inside the cleansing chamber, leaving me to cool down alone. I realized I was quite flustered myself.

Knowing what I was walking into, I endured the cold shower and Anati’s rituals with more poise this time around. I still had that dichotomous feeling of being both clean and dirty afterwards. I really disliked subjecting myself to the rituals of another goddess.

I joined the others in the serenity pool, seating myself between Yana and the Ashtarite priestess, whose name I still didn’t know. We sat in silence for a minute, then the Ashtarite thanked and dismissed the Anati attendants.

I told of my meeting with Jaryn, the priest at the Terrace of the Evening Sun. The priestess seemed surprised that I had gone, but it was only four days since I told her I would. Hadn’t she believed me? I relayed Jaryn’s message, that he was willing to talk, but only through an intermediary – me – and that he would absolutely not cut off the cooperation with the other cults, those of Tivito, Elik and Kabal.

Wolfram interjected that he believed Lord Mir was behind the Ashtarite division, but I didn’t find that likely. I explained that the Evening Sun faction wanted to change the law, so that Ashtar, Elik, Tivito and Kabal got equal treatment and the privilege of monopolies on each cult’s field of interest. This was not what Lord Mir had said in his letter to the priestess, she reminded us. After talking it over, Wolfram conceded that he had probably been wrong.

The priestess and I both suspected that Jaryn wasn’t the one in charge on the other side. For my part, it was his unwillingness to concede even a little, as if he had no authority to bargain, that made me think so. I posited that someone from one of the other cults was pulling his strings, and most likely Tivito, since they had seemingly nothing to gain from relinquishing their unique status. I hated that politics had found its way into our chapels and temples, but I kept my feelings to myself.

What I said made the priestess want to accept Lord Mir’s offer that we wouldn’t be persecuted for our faith. Lord Mir wanted very little in return, and nothing specific. I opined that he was after our goodwill. The priestess didn’t know where Lord Mir was, but she informed us that his mercenary army was making its way from Sam and into Larma territory.

Xipil asked if the priestess had heard anything about us, lately. She hadn’t, and asked what he was talking about. Both Xipil and Wolfram wanted to keep what had happened at that farm from her, but I revealed that we beat up some Tivito cultists. When she prodded, I told her that we had in fact killed all of them except one, whom my companions had foolishly allowed to escape. The priestess suddenly declared that she wished I hadn’t told her this and dove under the water, presumably to think without hearing any more.

When she resurfaced, she said she couldn’t willingly meet with anyone who had attacked Tivito. Was she trying to get rid of us? Stunned by this betrayal, I asked if this meant that she wanted me to cease my attempts at dialog between the two factions. She replied that she wasn’t asking me to stop anything, but she couldn’t have any more contact with us. She couldn’t have been more inconsistent. There could be no dialog if one part refused to talk. At least, there was no way for me to continue as an intermediary. I seemed to be the only Ashtarite in Byblos who wanted to find a diplomatic solution apart from Yana, and she didn’t have the clout that would be required to make high-ranking hardheads listen. Besides, her bridge to this priestess was burned now.

The priestess left, and Wolfram said that we couldn’t solve any problems peacefully anyway, but we could hunt down the Tivito cultists behind all this. I wanted to scream at him, “Maybe you can’t, but some of us can actually talk to people!” I made my face smooth and stifled my desire; the people in this pool were the only ones I could trust in all of Byblos, maybe in the entire world, if my temple in Sam had succumbed to politics.

Hylda asked why we didn’t just ask Lord Mir for help, since we apparently knew him so well. Wolfram informed her we didn’t know where to find him, but Hylda thought the whores following his army would know. Xipil suggested reaching out to Nulius, Lord Mir’s aide.

We had to prioritize our operation at the Golden Arrow. I asked Xipil if he knew a place nearby where he, Grogg, Hylda and Wolfram could stay, so Yana or I could reach them easily if the need arose. He didn’t know of any, but Yana said the area had plenty of dining establishments where they could rent a private room and stay all day and night.

Xipil said he didn’t plan on waiting for word from us; he wanted to seek out Korro, the Tivito captive he had let go. I thought that was risky. If Korro had stayed true to his word and kept his mouth shut about things we didn’t want him to tell his superiors, that wouldn’t last long if we showed up in his life again. If he had talked, Tivito could be keeping an eye on him on the off chance that we decided to reach out. Wolfram agreed with me and pointed out that there wasn’t much more we could get out of Korro. He was just muscle and wasn’t privileged to sensitive information. Wolfram would rather that Xipil tried to find Elik’s whereabouts in Byblos.

The others were losing focus and allowed the talk drift off in several directions. I cut through the chatter and said that Yana and I had to go now, so we could grab our gear, disguise ourselves and move in at the Golden Arrow. The others could stay here and chat if they so desired.

Xipil brought up going to see Nulius again, but an Anati priestess came in and everyone had the wits to clam up. The priestess told us that while the temple wasn’t closed, other parts of the city might be soon. We thanked her for the information, and she left. In the silence while she exited the room, we could hear bells ringing faintly in the distance. I thought the sounds were coming from further west in the temple district.

Wolfram leapt out of the pool, saying it was time to get dressed. We all went quickly to the dressing room. Xipil asked Yana to help him with his makeup. Hylda assisted Grogg in putting on clothes and armor, and we were out of there in no time.

Xipil asked if the bells sounded an alarm. Yana replied that we would surely find guards soon who were bellowing what had happened. Two Anati priestesses hurried towards the temple, and Wolfram stopped them to ask if they knew why the bells were ringing. They didn’t, and hurried on. Some temple district guards were running for the gate, and Wolfram asked if we should run after them. I tried to keep my companions calm and said we would surely discover soon enough. The ringing bells spread over the entire city, but it sounded like it started in the west, possibly at the palace. I thought perhaps the bells rang to inform the populace of a fire, but I saw signs of neither smoke nor flame.

We left the temple district. Other people on the streets seemed as clueless as us as to what was going on. Two guards were running eastward, making Wolfram chase after them. Grogg joined him. Yana and I glanced knowingly at each other before legging it. Two giants in full armor chasing after a guard patrol – that would spell disaster if we weren’t there to intervene. Xipil dashed past us and tried talking sense to Wolfram; he’s much faster than Yana and me. Wolfram didn’t respond, although he slowed down a little, allowing Yana and me to catch up with the others at an intersection.

The guards had gone around the corner, but were nowhere in sight now. The guards must have gone indoors, but where was anyone’s guess. We stopped to talk, and agreed that Yana and I should return to the inn to prepare for our infiltration, Xipil should go west to see if he could discover what started all this, and Grogg and Wolfram should go east, at a more reasonable pace.