[coronatiger]

Yana was desperately worried about me being tired all the time, and I must admit it confused me too. Maybe it was the dilemma I faced that drained all my energy. I need to find Your sibling, but I also have to stay with a crew who clearly don’t want me. Except Yana, of course. Since my so-called friends would be better off without me, I was tempted to offer Yana to accompany me on a one-way trip to Your realm, but I couldn’t do that, for my task in this world was not finished. I felt tears welling up in my eyes, and I turned my back to Yana, so she wouldn’t see me cry.

I must have dozed off, but I startled awake when someone knocked on our door. “Who is it?” Yana asked. Xipil’s voice said they had something for me, so Yana went to open. Xipil held out a lidded beer mug and said it was for me and that there was cake and tea downstairs. Yana replied that I wouldn’t appreciate the “gift”, knowing I wasn’t keen on alcoholic beverages. Grogg insisted I would like it and Xipil added that Yana wouldn’t.

Curiosity got the better of me and I got up and reached for the mug. Your presence washed over me and cleared away my exhaustion. When I touched the mug, I could feel what was inside. It was a pregnant blue-bellied river striker, a thirty-centimeter-long viper. She was healthy, but a little afraid, so I took the mug with me inside the room and opened it. “What did Grogg do to you?” I asked in Common so the troll would understand. The viper hissed back that the bird didn’t harm her and that she was grateful that it brought her to me. I let her out of the mug and spread my fingers so she could intertwine herself with them. “I name you Hope,” I hissed in the snake tongue, “for that is the feeling you give me.” I turned to my friends and put my other hand around Yana’s waist with a big smile on my face. “Did anyone mention tea and cake?”

In the meeting room waited Wolfram with a big stack of sun buns and a large teapot. Grogg said to dig in and took his own advice. I hadn’t had lunch, so I ate two whole buns, as did Yana, so I suspected she watched over me the whole time while I was sleeping. Xipil was satisfied with one and Wolfram with three, leaving the rest to Grogg and Hylda. Much of it ended up on Grogg’s shirt.

Hope played among my fingers and I could tell she felt happy and safe with me. Yana commented that it was nice to have everyone enjoying themselves together again, and Hylda quoted that it is when times are hard, it is most important to enjoy oneself. Her mother used to say that, she informed us. Or was it her grand-mother? Hope froze for a moment when the spirit raven kraaed, but I got the impression again that she felt safe with me and grateful to Kraa for bringing her to me.

Xipil asked if I was all right, and I told him I had just been a little tired lately. Xipil mentioned the priest at the Terrace of the Evening Sun and said that the proposed law might not be as he expected. I quite agreed and said I wanted to go and speak with him. Wolfram offered to come along as protection. He could wait in a wagon outside, he said. He suggested that I mentioned that we were going to get evidence for what Tivito’s law proposal actually said, as if I hadn’t thought of that myself.

I said I wanted to go immediately, for the priest might well be at the temple long before tonight’s Meet. I suspected the Meet would be short, so attendees could get home before the sun had set completely. I proposed that Xipil went to the wagon company, hired a wagon and came back here to pick up whoever wanted to come along. I would leave now, with Yana. A glance at her told me she wanted to go with me. We went upstairs and readied ourselves for going out. I put Hope into my belt pouch along with my vial of self-produced venom.

There were more people at the restaurant over the temple today than there had been before. Some were dressed no better than Yana or me, and the guards didn’t stop us from entering. We did the ritual wash before descending down to the temple. There were a few people present, including a couple who looked like they had taken up residence there.

I didn’t see Jaryn, but there were many places down here where he’d be out of sight from the main chamber. I asked the snakes where he was, and one of them told me to look to the right. I did, and saw Jaryn and a woman cross an intersection of side passages. Yana had stayed back a little when I approached the snakes, but I pulled her with me after Jaryn. We rudely interrupted the talk Jaryn and the woman had, but the woman understood this was important and said they could talk later. Jaryn was surprised to see me. I told him I had come over some information, and he took us deeper into the passages.

I explained that Tivito was deceiving the other cults to support a law that would only benefit them, that the new law would give Tivito power over the other cults. Jaryn responded that this was not good at all, but there was something about me that made him trust me. He wondered what we should do about this. I said I was no lawyer, but if You told us to remove those who were pushing this law forward, my contacts could potentially stop it from taking effect. I suggested we went to see the other Ashtarites and gave Jaryn my word that he’d be safe. I said I expected a wagon to come here shortly; we could take that to wherever we needed to go, and in the meantime, Yana and I could disguise him, just in case.

Jaryn gave us the key to his third-floor apartment and said he’d meet us there in ten minutes. Yana and I went upstairs and looked through his closets to find clothes to hide his identity. When Jaryn showed up, we presented him with the disguise. I sent Yana out to look for the wagon.

It didn’t take long before Yana returned, and we went outside. Xipil had made the drivers park out of sight, but he had shown Yana before she came inside to fetch Jaryn and me. We climbed into the wagon and I told the drivers to go to the temple district. I would make sure they could drive in through the gate.

Xipil asked who Yana and I had brought, and I gave his name and said that we were going to facilitate a meeting with Jaryn and the other Ashtarite leaders, since neither side benefited from Tivito gaining power over us.

At the southern temple district gate, I disembarked and looked at the queue waiting to get in. The flow was good, but we wouldn’t be able to drive in without the assistance and permission of the guards. I located the leader and began to push my way past the queue. The people standing in line didn’t like that very much, but I managed to get to the guards eventually. I explained that I needed to bring my wagon inside and they allowed it, as long as we didn’t park anywhere. They also required a small bribe. “Stay in the sun,” I said with a reverent glance upwards. They’d likely take it as a blessing, but what I was really saying was to leave the shadows to me.

I returned to the wagon and asked the drivers to take us to the Tsovin and Vagan temple. The guards cleared the way for us to drive through the gate. We stopped briefly when we reached our destination. Xipil and I got out; he could run to the abandoned Tiri temple and look for Enani and Audria there. I asked Wolfram, Grogg, Hylda and Yana to protect Jaryn while I was away.

The drivers got the wagon moving again, and I went inside the temple. As she had told me to do, I entered the post office where I found a functionary and told him I wanted to send an urgent letter to Enani. The functionary went to get pen, ink and paper but when I looked at the paper, I saw instructions to go to a certain place in this temple where I would find wash basins. I should look for someone who knew how to wash in the proper manner and follow them.

I found the place not far from the main entrance and did the ritual wash there, in case someone was watching for that. Nobody contacted me, so I went back to the entrance where I could keep an eye on both the wash basins and the street outside.

When the wagon came by, I jumped in and told Jaryn and my friends that I had been promised that someone would arrive before sunset to take us where we needed to go. I asked if we should send away the wagon and wait inside. Wolfram didn’t want to, because of the crowd, so we decided to have the wagon drive around for now. The drivers had orders to go home before dark, so they might abandon us before our guide showed up.

I returned to the temple entrance and continued watching. Xipil returned after a while and told me he found Enani in Your temple under the north gate. Audria was coming too, he said. In that case, we needed no guide, so when the wagon drove by again, we got in.