059

*5*

Gregor watched the men go about their meal preparations from the horse picket line. The unnaturally large horses were obviously war horses given how well they were trained and how well the ignored his presence among them. One of the men came towards Gregor and spoke in his choppy syllables. The words bumped and bobbed in unexpected ways, if he stopped listening Gregor could almost pick out some words or sounds that were familiar to him, but understood nothing.

After nearly a week Gregor continued to wonder why they spoke to him at length given the fact that he obviously comprehended nothing. The man finished speaking and looked at Gregor. Topless and muscular Gregor watched the man's body move with his breath. The tattooed lines on his chest and arms black in the failing evening light.

"I don't know what you said. Balls man, I have no idea. I am hungry and thirsty though." Gregor brought his hands to how mouth and mimed feeding himself. The gesture was clumsy as his wrists were tied but the man understood with a nod. The tattooed man turned and walked back to the cook fire where the rest of the group was eating.

After the initial beating Gregor had been treated well. His wounds had been cleaned and he was given enough food and drink so that he did not go to bed hungry. The men allowed Gregor to break his fast and eat an evening meal but for some reason refused to let him eat anything for the mid day meal. At that time drink of water was all that he was given.

Gregor still had no idea who these men were or why they had captured him. For the most part he was ignored by the men, rarely was he looked at or spoken to when it wasn't meal time. He did observe them, and from that Gregor was sure that these men were from far away.

058

She smiled to herself as she remembered her dream. The blackness wasn't continuous anymore, her dreams were coming through. She heard boots on the wood and saw the edge of her door begin to glow as a lamp was brought close to the other side of the door. Even the faint light made her squint and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust. She looked at her filthy prison.

A slot in the door scraped open letting in a pool of light large enough to lend colour to her surroundings. A steel plate was brought through the slot and placed on the floor followed by a short candle. Next a steel cup was placed on the floor beside the candle and plate. Whomever had brought her food sad nothing and closed the slot. Malina looked at the candle for a moment before realizing that it would only last a short time perhaps long enough for her to finish her meal.

She drank the water first. It wasn't until the water soothed her throat that she realized how thirsty she really was. She finished all of the water before starting on the plate of food. It was the heel of a loaf of bread and a thick stew. She used the stew to soften bits of the heel before she ate them. The food and drink did not last long in her empty stomach and she was able to make use of the waste bucket before the candle burnt out. Finished she crawled to her straw bed and began to sob. Empress of Tollan soiled and dirty prisoner at the bottom of a boat.

057

Tollan stretched beneath her window. Malina pushed herself forward into the breeze her hands reading on the marble railing. She looked down and saw that her arms matched the placement of the curved baluster. She looked at her bare forearms and smiled feeling the warmth of the sun and the weight of her jade headdress. Empress. Empress, of all that she could see beneath her. The world rocked and Malina blinked into the sun. She found herself rising and falling on a bed of straw at the bottom of a boat in a cell. Empress.

056

Malina tried to keep herself calm, the darkness helped. She didn't have to look at herself, she didn't have to look at anything. Here in the dark she could be with her thoughts. Despite herself her thoughts raced from one topic to another leaving her present situation for a moment. Itzi was dead, she was sure that she had seen him fall. The Otontin had betrayed her, but why? Teiuc would have been the mastermind behind the coup. He was a powerful man in Tollan as the general of the Shorn Ones always was but he had risen above that to be the speaker for the three other's who commanded the Otontin. He had kicked her.

Malina called out for her ancestors, she called out to her Gods, but received no answer. Something was wrong, something was pressing on her. She could feel it, she could see it, even her in the dark, she could see them wreathed in smoke. Their pressure pushing down on her silencing her voice. Neither the Gods nor her ancestors could her her through that weight. She reached out again. It was too much, she could do in her weakened strength could get through. It was like nothing she had ever seen before, it was like a cloud that surrounded her, she could see it following her hands as she moved them through the air. He eyes were still bathed in blackness, but behind her eyes she saw the cloud as she had seen in on the floor of her cabin.

She began to explore her prison. Slowly on her knees she began to map out her cell. IT was barely a bodies length across but still she had to pause to rest once before she reached it's end. She mapped it twice before she was forced to quit. The cell was hardly long enough for her to lay down in any of the four directions. Roughly a square in shape, the door lay directly across from the cured wall of the hell and a bed of straw law along one of the interior walls. It was there that she finished her mapping and feel into a fevered sleep. She willed herself not to think of where she was when the darkness took her again.

055

Malina awoke in the dark. It wasn't the darkness of before, instead it was simply the absence of light. She could feel that she was lying on floor of the boat. Rough cloth rubbed against her cheek and she could hear the familiar boat sounds: the creaking of the woods and the lapping of the waves. Her throat was dry. She took a deep breath in though her nose and could hear her breath gurgle through thick mucus clogging her nose.

Malina brought her hands up to her face and brushed her hair back as she sat up. She was sore and stiff. Sitting was difficult and she had difficulty keeping her head up. She let her chin drop to her chest, her eyelids fluttered and closed.

Malina awoke in the dark. She was sitting against the curved wall of the ships hull. She was somewhere in the hold of a ship. Her head was pounding, but she could remember having been awake earlier. She reasoned that it hadn't been that long since she was last conscious. There was not light to use to differentiate, but the rhythmic lapping of the waves had not changed. She reached her hands up to the back of her head, her ribs were sore and she could feel dried blood matted into her hair.

054

The four generals of the Otontin looked at Malina, their eyes did not waver they watched every movement she made. She leaned back in her chair barely resisting the urge to brush her hair off of her face. Itzi adjusted his weight slightly causing the floor boards beneath his feet to creak slightly adding another wooden sound to the air.

The room exploded with motion and sound.

Knives were in the air. Her training allowed her to react before the two knives stuck her. Her awakened ancestors held the knives in the air for a moment before she flung them back at the two generals, Jaguar and Eagle both fell to the ground, knives having gone through their throats. Malina rolled to the ground, she heard Itz fall and the pounding feet of Teiuc and Chantico. She rolled onto her back to face the two remaining generals as the ran towards her. She summoned her Gods and the ancestors to her, attempting to snap the neck of Teiuc when something slammed into her chest and threw her back into a chest where she kept her maps. Star bursts of light appeared before her eyes clouding her vision for a moment before the room returned to normal, but in that instant she saw it. The blackness was there, someone had had summoned ancestors she had never seen before. They we black and wreathed in smoke that twisted and boiled around them.

The nameless and shapeless figures crashed into her once more slamming her head into the chest. She felt blood leak from her nose as the room began to slow. Teiuc kicked her in the stomach once but Malina barely paid any attention to it. The blow felt as though it happened to someone else's body. She expected more but none came.

She blinked and it seemed to take longer then normal for her eyes to open. Something warm was running down her shoulders, Chantico stood looking at her, his hands resting on her desk. 'It's blood.' She thought.

Her eyes blinked again. She struggled to turn to look at Teuic but her body wouldn't respond. The blackness crawled in from the corners of her eyes slowly and she watched the room disappear. For a she saw black, and then nothing.

053

Teiuc straightened, his chest broad and his shoulders back. He did look impressive, were it not for the his shaved head any woman would find him attractive. Well he shaved head and the look his eyes. Malina felt that the two went arm in arm, it was a special breed that joined the Shorn Ones, let alone lead them.

"I have faith in my subordinates and those that have made landfall."

"So the Shorn Ones have made landfall? Then you have indeed had word from their casters?"

"Yes," Teiuc replied, "we received word early this morning. The Shorn Ones made landfall two days ago. The sending from their caster was weak but we were able to get most of it. It was sent when they first made landfall. In fact according to the sending they were still disembarking when it was sent."

"And did this sending contain anything of interest? Let me rephrase that," Malina straightened. 'This has gone on long enough.' She let the frustration she felt rise into her eyes. "Why have my four generals of the Otontin come to see me unannounced."

"You speak as though Honorifics have been put aside."

"It seems as though you four put them aside when you came aboard without proper notice." Malina shot back. "Unless there is an emergency that can justify your actions?" Malina tapped her desk with the first two fingers on her right hand to emphasize her question. The echo of that wooden sound hung in the air for a moment and then was replaced by the creaking of the ship.

052

"I am glad that we find you well Masu." Teiuc said with a smile and a deep bow. He removed his black headdress to reveal his shaved head beneath. Malin could see no hair on scalp implying that he had cut his hair either this morning or the night before.

"You as well Teiuc. I was surprised to learn that you were coming aboard. I would have assumed that with the Shorn Ones making landfall today you would want to be with your caster in case any news is sent from your outriders." Malina looked down and adjusted some papers on her desk, a movement intended to display calm. She wore no formal headdress and had left he long black hair loose around her head. She looked up from her desk and looked deep into Teiuc's hard eyes. She held his gaze for a moment longer then should have been comfortable and went back to adjusting papers on her desk. A trick her mother had taught her when she came of age. 'Your beauty is another weapon to be used. Men pride themselves on being strong, but few, very few can resist the gaze of a beautiful woman. It matters not where their heart lies, for women or for men, if they are entwined or alone, when faced with beauty, and especially the beauty of an empress they will falter. But you must be careful as well,' Malina remembered her mother removing the brush from her hair and turning her face so that she could look directly into her daughters eyes. 'you can fall prey to beauty as well.'

051

Itzi's signature knock sounded at the door of Malina's Cabin. He was with the generals and something was up. She looked at the door for a moment and it slowly opened. In walked Itzi and the generals, Teiuc at the lead his eyes saying nothing and his stride purposeful. He wore his full General's uniform. Blue feathers at the shoulders, and thick jade plugs in his ears. His dark red robe was clean so clean that Malina guessed that this was the first time that it had been worn. Something was indeed up.

Itzi walked behind Malina's desk and stood at her right hand side. "The four generals of the Otontin to see you Masu." Itzi announced the obvious to the room with a deep bow. Now the meeting could officially begin.

050

A bell clanged three times then stopped, then four more times. Malina looked at the sun as it climbed it's way over the horizon. She didn't want to move, but she could not help herself and she glanced to her left. There she saw the skiffs she knew would be approaching. Two skiffs, four generals. She left he lonely postion and walked over to the captain of her ship.

The captain work his black hair long and tied back behind his head. He wore a thick blue cloak that covered his bare barrel chest. He stood by the helm watching the sun rise and did not notice Malina as she approached.

"Tayauh," Malina said addressing the captain, "I see the generals are approaching. Why was I not notified of their impending arrival."

Tayauh bowed when he saw Malina. He remained crouched on one kneee while he addressed her with his head bowed. "I do not know Masu. The bells you heard were my first warning as well. Perhaps they received some news over the night and wished to deliver it personally."

"This ship was to received all news, and there is no reason to deliver news personally, we have have easier methods of communications. Please, please, resume your postion." Captain Tayauh stood and manned the helm, his eyes steady. "I will be below preparing for their arrival. Please have someone wake Itzi, if he sleeps, and send him to my cabin."

"It will be done."

"Thank you." With that Malin departed to her cabin. The Red robe she wore would not do for another meeting with the generals. She could not appear unprepared.

049

Malina was on deck as the sun rose. The sailors that manned the ship gave her a wide berth as they went about their tasks. Few were on deck at this early hour and it was the closest to outdoor solitude that Malina could find. Last nights encounter with Itzi had not gone as she had wished. The news was good, by all accounts the promised land was being prepared for them. They should have been celebrating.

But Itzi had doubts, his faith in the Gods and prophesies as not what she had assumed it was. Why had he waited till now to tell her. She had no doubts in the feathered serpent. Quetzal gave her people, the Totec their magic, blessed them with an empire that stretched back into the ages. An unbroken line of Emperors and Empresses that vanquished all that rose against them. Quetzal was a quiet god, he required no worship save the well lived lives of the Totecs. Malina worshiped the feathered serpent each day the way she ruled the Totec. This was her church. Did this make her soft? Had Quetzal faded into her the background as Itzi's mother had? Were the prophesies something to believe in, or parchment to be used?

A series of images dating before memory of the Totec's themselves. Copied and recopied as images faded and parchment fell apart. A ship on the water, an island, the promised land of rebirth. After that two images: the reclamation of the promised land and a rain of fire. From their the prophecies split into new rolls. One empty and the other shows the Totecs on the island. The very same island that occurred thousands of images earlier bathed in blood. In that images the Totec's were driven from the island, or they abandoned it.

048

"Did your people know magic?"

"I don't know." Itzi looked at his old wrinkled hands. "My mother never mentioned it to me. My father, well you know, I never really knew my father. When I was young we lived in a group house for slaves, your Uncle's Fathers, your grandfathers, actually. So I remember some of the singing and dancing that we had at the end of the day, but I was young when your Uncle came back to live in the city." Itzi laughed and looked at Malin, his old eyes reflecting the light of the lanterns. "It's been such a long time."

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to bring up painful memories. I..sometimes I forget."

"No, it's not that, I was just surprised that I don't think about it anymore. I haven't for years and years. I haven't thought of the colour of my mothers hair, her voice in years. Ohhh, I was six? Seven? No six probably, when your Uncle came to live at the keep. Your grandfather thought he needed someone close to his age so they pulled me into the manor. That wasn't the last time I saw my mother, I would see her working from time to time, mostly from afar. I don't know when she died. I can't remember the last time I saw her, she just faded away, and one day I never saw her again."

"We could find out for you?"

"Oh?"

"We can send word back to the capital. I can have people look into it. The records may not be exact but the empire records things like that with some regularity. the magic would be weak, but we can still reach home."

"No, no. I do appreciate that. But this has been our of my head and heart for a long time, I'm not sure I'm ready to dig it up. Perhaps I will think on it as I sleep."

"If you sleep."

"Yes." Itzi carried his empty wine cup to the wine tray. "If I sleep tonight. Thank you for drying my headdress Malina. It was not necessary."

"It was no trouble at all. I have much left to spare."

With that Itzi bowed low and slowly made his way out of the Empresses cabin. His hands using the wall to for balance as he shut the door behind him.

047

Malina waved her hands absently and the feathers on Itzi's headdress stood straight up in the air, the water having been removed from them.

"And that?" Malina asked, "Where does that come from? Have we not been favoured by the Gods? These natives you pits, what have the Gods given them?" Malina stood up from her chair and placed her hands on the desk as the floor beneath her rocked in the water. Her black hear fell forward and eclipsed part of her face as she looked down at Itzi. "They build on our ruins. They scramble out of the swamps on the roads we built, and they don't even know it. Without our forefathers where would they be?"

Izti looked up at the awakened fire in his empresses eyes. "I did not mean to offend you Masu, I only spoke what was in my heart. With so much at stake and so much of the empire... involved I am concerned. Sometimes I worry that we see what we want to see. That, when there is power...superiority...that things make become confused."

"Of course." Malin sat down. Itzi was a slave, his people had been conquered long ago. The plain just south of the Himath mountains had been overrun by the empire in the years of her grandfather. Itzi's people had been slaves since then. Of course he would be sensitive to conquest at this scale. The prophecies had given the plains to the empire just as they would return the forgotten continent.

046

Itzi paused and took a sip of his wine. He looked up at Malina from his cup and for a moment all of his years were visible on his face. The lines and wrinkles of court life. The clipped earlobes marking his as being born a slave were rounded with age. The bags under his eyes worn so deep that they had become part of his face. He blinked once slowly.

"Can we trust the prophecies?"

Malina resisted the urge to gasp. Honorifics were aside but what Itzi had said was close to sacrilege. She had known him the better part of her life, as a tutor, and aide, and now her most trusted advisor. They spoke freely when no one was around, something that was very rare for an empress, but there had never been anything like this. Never doubt like this.

"The prophecies are the foundation of our empire, of our existence. They cannot be more sacred to me. We are going to reclaim what has been lost. We are doing this because it is ours. We will fulfill our fate as the prophecies had decreed. Of this I have no doubt."

045

"Lives will be lost on both sides."

"This is true, but imagine you owned a house, and while you were away at work a family broke in and started living there. Now, they just didn't start living there, they defiled your house, and destroyed all of your precious heirlooms." Itzi began to nod knowing where Malina was going. "Would you not be justified in regaining control of the house you rightfully own? It seems obvious to me that you would be."

"Of course."

"Now, to top it off, imagine that the gods themselves decreed that it was your duty to remove the robbers from your home, and there were those that believed that in failing in your task you would damn the world. Would that not be more then enough justify any horror? Could you risk such a thing? Would it be wise to leave the Shorn Ones at home if they were the quickest route to victory?"

044

Malina paused a moment before replying to the old man that sat across from her. Her green eyes were lit for a moment by the swaying lanterns in her cabin. Sympathy for the natives.

"I can understand why you might feel this way." she started slowly.

"Honorifics are aside."

"Yes, yes. After all these years when I invoke that with you dear Itzi I mean it. The cabin is ours and you can speak as freely as you would like." She stood a little straighter in her chair. Before continuing she calmly smoothed the red fabric of her sleeves. "We come to take these lands back. It is as simple as that. We come prepared for war and we come prepared for peace. These lands belong to us. They are our destiny. They were our lands once, and they will be our lands again. The terror we wage now may spare lives in the future."

043

"How are things above?" Malina asked the still dripping Itzi as he sat down with a steel cup of wine.

"Well Malin, besides the current storm I think we are doing well."

Malin hid a smile with a shake of her head. Nothing on a ship could ever be more than well.

"We have received word that the advanced parties are making progress.

"Oh?" Malina stood a little straighter in her seat, this was news. Word from the advanced parties should have reached then a week ago. The generals had started to voice there concerns, while Malina remained relaxed. It hadn't been an act until the meeting yesterday when the concerns of the generals had begun to weigh on her as well. "So Itzi, what is this news?" She stood to refill her own cup of wine. She watched as Itzi flinched slightly at the sight of her walking, and refilling her own drink.

"Well, things appear to be going well. The Eagles have captured all fortifications that they were sent against. Nothing specific was in the message, but losses appear to be small. The Jaguars have made contact and promise that we will have no issues when we reach land."

"We are still held in favour then?"

"Some it seems remember."

"Interesting, please continue." Malin said as she took a sip of her wine. More good news, this was proving to a be a very good meeting. The Demon raiding party has been silent thus far."

"Not surprising."

"No, not surprising, but still we have word from the Eagles, that rumours of the dead come back to life have begun to circulate amongst the natives."

"So those silly masks do serve a purpose then."

"It would seem."

"And the Shorn Ones?"

Itzi sighed before continuing. "They will make landfall tomorrow."

"You look sad." Malin commented.

"I feel for the natives. They no not what they now face."

042

*4*

There was a knock at the door of her cabin.

"Enter."

The door opened slowly with a creak. An old hand wobbled into view and gripped the door frame tightly before guiding an elderly body in to the room. The green plumes of his headdress were bent with moisture, some of which dripped onto the old man's face.

"Itzi, please come in and dry yourself off."

"Masu Malina Ochitl"

The woman seated at the desk waved her left hand across her body from the right to the left. "Honorifics aside please Itzi."

"Yes empress."

"Aside Itzi please. We have been out of the court for two moons now, I need plain speech again when we are together. The ears are quiet, we have this cabin."

"Yes Malina, thank you."

"Please sit." She gestured to the seat on the other side of the desk from her. "Have a glass of wine please. And feel free to remove your headdress before you get water on my maps."

"Yes of course, thank you Malina."

Itzi rose from his seat and placed his still dripping headdress by the entrance to the cabin. He walked across the cabin slowly as the creaking floor of the ship dropped low from a wave. One moon in and the man had yet to find his sea legs. The best man at court, but so far on of the worst on a ship.

041

Orphic could feel himself becoming more agitates. He couldn't understand why no one would let him go. All he wanted to do was find the woman, they just needed to listen to what he was saying, he could see more guards coming.

"All right. All please please everyone. I just want to find the woman I was talking to."

"Gentlemen please let him go. I think he's coming to his senses."

The guards let go of Orphic, two at his back and two to his sides, with Salus directly in front of him. He could feel the tenseness in the guards and the crowd that had gathered. He took a deep breath in order to try to calm himself. He heart was still beating rapidly and he could feel his his extremities shaking.

"Salus, please. There was a woman, she came up behind me while I was looking at the statue. This one, you know it was my favourite." Salus nodded. "Right, she came up to me and told me that she new my mother, that she was repaying a promise."

Salus looked at Orphic, their eyes met. Orphic watched as something passed over Salus' face only for a moment. The he was back, grandfatherly and concerned. Wrinkled face watching Orphic with a look that Orphic new from years ago. But something was there, Orphic had seen it.

"Go one." Salus urged.

Orphic watched something begin to spread on Salus' face: recognition.

"Well, she came up behind me..."

"yes.."

Orphic sprung forward, launching his full weight towards Salus and sending the old Apostle backwards onto stone floor. The guards re-awoken to the situation reached for him, but Orphic was already off in a dead sprint.

They did not know who Orphic was, and they had no idea how long he had spent in this very temple. He made for the front entrance and they followed, but instead of exiting through the open passage way he turned to his left and made his way towards the back of the temple. He gained a step on the guards, who hadn't anticipated his change of direction. The crowd was still gathered where he had left it, but he had no time for anything more then a cursory glance.

He pushed through the small oak door that led into the inner temple and slammed the door behind it. He was faced with a long hallway extending to his left and his right. Doors were interspersed down the hallway at seemingly random positions. He ran to his right, one...two....three...four. He pulled the door open, passed through it's opening, and shut it quietly behind him. Then he was off again at a sprint, into the catacombs of the inner temple.

040

Orphic wandered the temple slowly amongst acolytes carrying candles, before stopping before his favourite statue. It was a woman in long flowing robes. She was bending at the waist, and at one point in time, before she lost he arms. Her face was of course missing but the way the long hair on the back of the statue spilled over onto the front gave the statue an unmistakable female air.

Something about the way that the robe seems to move in the flickering light of the candles seemed to bring the statue alive. The soft orange glow that left the back of the statue in shadows created a warmth that always brought a slight smile to Orphic's face. As always his eyes moved to a spot on the floor that was always covered in candles, near where he imagined the woman's hands were reaching. You couldn't see it, with all the candles, but if you touched the floor you'd know that something had been there once. Something the woman was reaching for.

Slippered shuffled on the stone floor behind Orphic, he half turned before a hand came to rest on his injured ribs.

"You have to go. It's not safe here. Go. Leave now. Leave the city. I knew your mother. Tonight I fulfill a promise."

The voice was female and the words were whispered close to Orphic's ear. He could feel the cloth of her hood leave his shoulder as the woman began to leave. His heart was beating in his chest and he felt the world slow to a crawl. His legs wouldn't move, she was walking away. His breath was slow, he blinked.

Orphic turned to look at the woman, who was already walking away from him. He took a step towards the black robes. His left arm lifted into the air.

"Go now. It's no longer safe here. Leave, leave tonight. Events have been triggered."

"Who are you?" Orphic asked in a whisper. "How do you know my mother."

The woman in the brown robes hasted her pace as she turned towards the middle of the outer temple walking through the old stone pews that were perpetually empty. Acolytes walked past Orphic carrying more candles.

"Wait!" Orphic shouted. A few of the acolytes turned their heads towards him, their faces lost in the darkness of their hoods. The woman continues to walk away. Orphic tried to run towards the woman, but couldn't get around a few of the acolytes who had stopped when he yelled. "Who are you!" He pushed at the acolytes and tried to make his way down the aisle. A hand grabbed his arm stopping his progress, another acolyte stood directly in his path. "Out of my way!" Orphic pushed the acolyte to the floor. "Wait!"

More acolytes were gathering. Orphic could see the temple guards making their way towards him. "Let go of me!" Orphic wrenched his arm from the grip of the acolyte, pushing him with both of his arms.

"Orphic!" Salus was beside him with his arm on his shoulder. "What is this?"

"That woman?"

"Who?"

"The apostle! That woman over there. She said she new my mother." A guard put his hand on Orphic's shoulder. Orphic brushed the hand off angrily. "Move!" He shouted again.

"Orphic please. Be reasonable. We'll find whomever you were speaking with, just calm down a moment. Remember this is a temple."

039

"I guess that is true. Maybe we both need to let go, but that doesn't mean that we can't try to change what we see." Salus opened the door to the room that the were standing in and walked out into the larger outer temple.

The outer temple was the area where seen by most of the public. It had a high stone roof held in place my large pillars that filled the room, giving the viewer the sense that they were walking in a stone forest. The walls of the outer temple were made up are large stones worn smooth with age. Squares of light lit the room day and night as there were no windows to the outer world. The squares of light were made of up rows and rows of candles surrounding headless and armless statues. Some of the candles were for the dead or nearly dead, others were linked to the healing of people, and the vast majority were linked to families. For these candles the Sakpatian priests and priestesses would pray to their nameless Gods for you.

A female acolyte in white robs walked over to Salus and whispered something into his ear. Orphic looked at the candles and wondered absently why people paid money for other people to pray to Gods that didn't exists. Gods that no one believed in anymore. "We don't even know their names."

Orphic watched Salus called over a fellow apostle in a brown robe. The began to talk in hushed tones that echoed off of the stone walls. Orphic could not understand the words that they were saying but from the low murmuring echoes he could tell that it was somewhat heating. Not wanting anything to do with it he began to stroll through the temple. It gave him an excuse to look at some of the statues that he had been unwilling to look at for a long time.

038

The man smiled slightly at this and nodded. Instead of the white robe of the acolyte he wore a black robe with an orange scapula. When Orphic had first met the man he had been wearing a brown robe, one step above a novice. Life within the Sakpatian order could be a good one. Though the order was slightly out of favour many old families and merchants paid handsomely to maintain a candle within the temple walls, not to mention the fees for the oldest mausoleums, of which only the very rich could afford. Most of those families resided in the capital these days, but an intact Sakpatian family mausoleum was a very exclusive club. It was rumoured that some of the electorate had found their way into a few of the abandoned sites.

"Has it healed? Your injury," The old man continued after seeing the look of confusion on Orphic's face, "you ribs, have they healed?" He walked forward and held his right hand a few inches from Orphic's side. "Still tender I'd wager. Why didn't you come see me when it happened? It could have been healed by me or many other within this temple?"

"Salus..."

"No, no. Please do not answer, I do not need to hear what I already know. You still visit the other temples when there is need, so I cannot be upset about that. But in the future please do not get acolyte to perform the healing, we have others much more skilled in healing. And besides news will reach my ears no matter who performs the task."

"We'll see."

"I know you don't agree with our order and the way we do things, but there are reasons behind it. There is much more to the Sakpatian's then you've seen young man. There is a history, unbroken since before the time of the Tyrants. Rules that seek to maintain the order. No." Salus sighed. "No, I need not repeat myself." He shook his head and held his hands, palms facing the ceiling, out before his body. "It's amazing how quickly one can fall back into an old pattern. Thank you for bringing Abelia back, we worry about her when we don't see her for a time."

"She hasn't been here recently?" Orphic asked.

"No she's been gone for a moon or so. No of the other temples have seen her either. You're not the only one I watch for."

"She said that she was thinking of joining the order again? Her old cell. That's why I brought her back. She acted as though she'd only just left."

"Orphic."

"She wanted to come here. She wanted her cell."

"Orphic, child. Did you really believe that? Did you honestly look into her eyes and think that she was telling the truth? That she was connected to this world? Was she using?" Salus began to walk towards the door through which he had entered. "Should we speak with Mirona? What do you think she will say after examining her? You know we cannot accept her like that. She has a choice and she continues to make the same one. Just because we want something to be reality doesn't make it so."

"A lesson we both still need to learn then."

037

"Where did you find her?"

"I didn't." Orphic absently looked at the inside of the Sakpatian temple. "She found me."

The acolyte looked at Orphic with lazy eyes. He wore a plain white rob with a red scapula denoting his rank. Orphic looked at the man's face, and then slowly down at the red scapula and the slight golden pattern that followed it's edge.

"I was told you had returned."

The voice that Orphic had been waiting for caused the acolyte to bow slightly and then leave the room. Orphic turned slowly, the man's face was older then he remembered. All of the colour had been washed from the trimmed bear on his face. The lines that appeared beside his eyes were not there the last time Orphic had seen him.

"You've aged. I'd wager you're almost able to grow a full beard these days."

Orphic absently ran his fingers over the stubble on his chin. "Not sure. I've never really tried."

036

"I know. There's just something about the beach, the sound of the waves. I don't know, I'm not sure if I can explain it. It's just that, there has to be something more. Were we really supposed to live like this." Orphic gestured in the air at both he and Abelia. "Is this the summation of our lives? To beg, steal, and borrow until we've nothing left, and then run to the priests?"

"They served you well enough for a time honey."

"They did. They did, I know. But even there, is that all there is? Plucked from the streets for a time and forced into a tidy cell."

"They taught you. Maybe we could go back..."

"It's just as you said we can't go back. But it's not that, I don't think I'm making enough sense here. It's just that this, this is our life. That's it, and to spend it hiding, and fearful it just doesn't make sense. What's the point of it all?"

"It sounds like you've been following Zevian around again." Abelia seemed to fade back into her mind for a moment. "To follow...to find. I'm not really sure, we should get back to the Sakpatian's they'll be wondering where I've gone. I just left, just a moment ago. I left this morning to find you."

"All right, we'll go there right now."

035

"I have seen Darius." Orphic spoke slowly, dragging his mind back into the present as he stepped back in pace with Abelia. "I saw him this morning."

Abelia stopped and spun towards Orphic. "And you're all right?"

"I am. The Guard Master was there, and I got away with only a kick to the ribs."

"How did he sneak up on you?"

Orphic laughed. "I was sleeping on the beach and he got the better of me."

"The beach? You know it's not safe."

"I know. I know. It's...it's just that...."

"There's nothing there for you." Abelia said softly, her eyes seeming to clear. "That's all gone. It's the past. You let so much go, and I know that's always the hardest. I know. You know I know." Abelia reached out towards Orphic, her hand hung in mid air for a moment before she placed it on his shoulder. "They're gone...they're not coming back. It's all just sand and water."

034

"Orphic!" The void pleaded again.

With a sigh Orphic crossed the square and headed in to the shadows.

"Abelia." Orphic said flatly, keeping his face neutral as best he could.

"It's good to see you boy."

Abelia wrapped her hands around Orphic burying her head into his shoulder ad neck with a deep exhalation of breath. Orphic returned the embrace feeling the bones of the woman beneath her loose dress. Times were tough all over.

"Where have you been? I have not seen you at the Sakpatian temple recently? I'm thinking of joining the order. Full time.' She sniffed rubbing her nose and idling looking away from Orphic. When Orphic said nothing she continued. "Full time get off the streets for good. Leave it all behind. You could stay with me. Maybe join. Stay in my cell just like old times. Those were good..." Abelia trailed off as she looked over her shoulder at the sunlit square. She began to walk further down the street. "Those were good days."

The walls that Orphic had built up as he crosses the stairs slowly began to crumble and fall.

"I.."

"You haven't seen Darius?" Abelia asked. The woman quicken her pace down the street causing Orphic to jump forward to keep up with her. Her ratty blue shawl fluttered in the air behind her. The site of the shawl almost broke his heart. More then anything Darius had ever done the stains and holes the shawl now wore gnawed at the root of his being. What saw stained his soul. She still wore it, after all of these years. He could still remember when she first brought it back to her tiny apartment.

Orphic had been staying there for one week recovering from an illness. He was laying on the bet watching the night settled in outside, when she spun into the room. Fifteen years his senior, Abelia the twenty-five year old beauty danced in happiness, a new blue shawl lazily floating in the air behind her.

033

Apples in hand Orphic left the market square and went wandering. Three apples wasn't enough but it would do for a while. He made some stops at public fountains to fill his belly with some much needed water but mostly he wandered looking at the buildings with not worrying too much about where he was headed.

"Orphic!" A voice hissed in a loud whisper.

Orphic paused and slowly looked around, trying to discern where the voice was coming from and who was calling him.

"Orphic, here!." A familiar hand beckoned him from the deepest shadows of a street to the North. Orphic sighed and began to walk across the small public square. Here the buildings rose high above him on all four sides. The we dark grey of varying shapes colours. The rounded cobble stones beneath his feet spoke of the squares age. As did the faceless and nameless statue of a woman in the center.

She wore the robes of antiquity, and, if the fountain worked and she had not been vandalized beyond recognition she would have been playing some instrument or aiming a bow as water fell around her. Orphic paused at the dry fountain, not wanting to go any further. Here, at the center of the square she sunlight just toughed the top of his too-long brown hair. His hair fell to both sides of his face and hung down to his shoulders. He wore a grey cotton shirt that showed too many patches and stains. It hung loose on his thin frame, a product of recent lean times. Too many days like today, where three apples could serve to break his fast and stretch until dinner.

032

Orphic focused his attention on the scene that was beginning to develop in the merchant square. Buyers were beginning to arrive and noise was beginning to increase. Merchants had begun to hawk their wares at top volumes and happy, or unhappy, buyers answered back at full volume. The dress of the merchants varied from the light and colourful to the coarse and drab, depending on their origin and status.

Hats, vegetables, knives, bread, silk scarves, and much much more was for sale. Orphic had difficulty imagining what the square would have been like when filled to capacity. In the days of the tyrants what would this square have been like?

An ox bumped an apple merchants table on his way to the auction block. Orphic was on his feet and walking through the aisles. The owner of the herd had not noticed and was continuing on. The apple merchant was screaming at the herdsmen while his daughters began to pick up the apples and right the table.

Orphic handed the youngest daughter and apple with a smile. "Here you go." He said, eye brows raised.

She smiled back, shyly, but the smile touched her eyes. "Thank you."

Orphic knelt down beside her and began to help her gather apples. "There are a lot of apples here. And good ones too. Shiny. Red. Worm free. I hope..."

The girl laughed. Her blonde hair was tied back rightly on her head, and she covered it with a tight black handkerchief with simple white lace. She was fifteen or Sixteen. She should't be here. The mother was gone. The smile faded slightly from Orphic's face.

"Furoo!" A female voice shouted. Orphic began to rise as one of the older sisters began to walk towards him.

"You're welcome." He whispered to the young sister and began to walk away.

"Go on get out of here! Furoo! I'll call the guards."

Orphic didn't turn around as he kept walking and began to melt into the press of people. In his mind the older sister was admonishing the younger sister for talking to the likes of him. He didn't turn to verify what he already knew to be true.