Though the Novices were kept within the walls, the Temple complex was by no means set aside from the town around it. Indeed, there was a regular traffic to it, for they had farms outside of town, and sent the produce in. There was another gate, where people came for help. Some simply needed food; others, healing, and still others help with a new job or a word toward apprenticeship. That was the job of the Temples. People came to the Court of Justice to have their small arguments worked out and the law checked.

  This was the reason that Elenda could get in there. She had covered her head in black like a widow and worn a black shawl; but the Healers knew her. She'd been there too often the last few days.

  "Elenda, unless you have a need for care, you need to leave," the senior Healer said firmly. "Your daughter belongs to the Lady now, and she is not allowed outside the walls. Nor are you allowed in to speak with her."

  "But she's my daughter!" Tears welled in Elenda's eyes, and her lip quivered. "I...my only daughter...My husband's in the main Temple, praying that she be returned to us!"

  "No," said the Healer. She was not a small woman, and was solidly planted. "You tore your daughter's soul, and she is not yet repaired enough to even see you."

  "But I just want to tell her..."

  "No. If you come again and waste our time, we will press charges and give you to the watch."

  Elenda's temper overflowed.

  "You're just being mean and nasty, keeping a mother from her child!"

  "Elenda, you need to lower your voice." The Healer caught the eye of a petitioner wearing grey, and jerked her head towards the main chapel.

  "You stole my daughter from me, and you dare to tell me to be quiet about it?! Everyone hear should hear what you do, what you did to me! You stole my little girl and you won't even let me see her!"

  Meanwhile, Joram had gone to the main Temple, and found one of the professed, who served Justice.

  "I need my marriage unbound," he said.

  "All right," said the Priest. "Let me take you over here to where we have a Truthspeaker."

  The priest glanced at him, but saw no flicker of worry.

  "This gentleman wants his marriage unbound," said the Priest to the Lawspeaker,

  "I certainly have the power to do that. What is the reason?" said the Lawspeaker, a tall woman in middle life. They never traveled without a guard, and hers stood behind her, another tall woman who wore the insignia of a Paladin of Justice.

  "Go on, sir," the Priest said, "Speak the truth and fear no penalty."

  "It's...hard to say," he said. "We've been together twenty years. She's never wrong, I am, or the neighbor is, or the Gods are. And she never lets me forget a mistake. Our daughter came to her magic early, and she brought her to the Temple. I didn't come, had someone meeting with me to get a sword done, for I'm a swordsmith," he said, "and I have to attend on their convenience, not mine."

  They nodded, understanding the demands on a specialty craftsman.

  "Well, when she comes home it's on a cart with two Priestesses attending her, and she's sick abed a week until they leave, for they've got duties they must return to. They, not her, told me our daughter is called triply as Healer, and Mage, and Priestess, and she's the only one the Temple's ever had, and my wife didn't like it. Apparently she threw enough of a fit that she had to be potioned into sleep, and kept there."

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  The Priest glanced at the Lawkeeper, and nodded. He was hearing the other side of something that had been a day's talk over the supper tables not too long ago.

  “Well, the Healers went back after a week and told me if my wife stays in bed I'll have to feed her and change her like a baby, and sirs, I had a sword to finish or my reputation suffers and we've no gold to keep us." They both nodded.

  "She'd gotten all the neighbor women to where they wouldn't piss on her if she was on fire, if you'll pardon the saying, and so I couldn't stay and there wasn't a woman to stay with her. When I came home to check on her while the blade cooled, she was up and dressed and just fine. Then I realized she hadn't been sick-hearted all week or like one Godstruck, but she'd been enjoying the attention and being poor little Elenda. And I realized, she's killed my life. So...I want out. Got my tools in my old dimensional bag here," he said, patting the traveler's scrip on his hip, "And I'll go find a shop that wants a smith."

  "Do you have joint property that should be considered?"

  "I'll give her the house, she can stay there or sell it. Whatever funds are there are hers. She's a decent Earth Mage; she can find a way to earn silver."

  "Where's your wife now?"

  "Probably around to the Healers raising a stink like the tanners about seeing her daughter," Joram said, and the Truthseeker nodded. Joram sighed.

  "I...I just hope Alandra's happy. She was such a happy child, and so interested in everything, and such a quick learner. I'm not much good with words, but if you could, sir," he said to the Priest, "I know she's here. Let her know what I did today, and that I love her."

  At a nod from the Truthseeker, the Priest said,

  "You take with you your clothes and the personal implements of your trade, plus any monies you brought to the marriage. You leave to your wife Elenda the house and its contents. What of your shop?"

  "Let it be given to the town, and sold to another smith."

  "That's not a small gift, sir," the Lawreader said."Are you sure?"

  "I could buy it twice over with the gold in the bank," he said. "It's not worth it to me to argue over a gold here and there when what I want is to just walk away."

  The Lawreader and Priest looked at each other and nodded.

  "Have you the marriage contract?" asked the Lawkeeper.

  He handed it over, and the Lawkeeper tore it in half down the center, then stamped both halves and signed it.

  "Have you the marriage cord?"

  He gave it to the priest, who carefully untied it. It fell into two halves, and he handed the halves to the lawgiver.

  "Recorded this day, ten days after Sundark, in the eighteenth year of King Michel, that Joram ne Lavan and Elenda ne Alandra are no longer wedded. They share no bed, no board, no care, no joys. Go your own ways, and may you find happiness and peace."

  The Lawkeeper handed him his half sheet and cord, just as another of the petitioners, in Healer's greens, ran up.

  "Are you Joram? They need you for your wife…"

  "I'll come with you, " said the priest. He picked up the other sheet and cord and walked behind Joram as they crossed the Temple's main court towards the Healing wing.

  He heard Elenda before he saw her.

  "You can't keep a mother from her child! It's against the laws of God and man! Take your hands off me!"

  "Elenda!" he said, and caught her attention.

  She turned a tearstained face to him.

  "Joram, they won't let me see our daughter!"

  "I don't blame them," he said, face showing no emotion. He turned to the priest who had followed him, and took the sheet and cord from him.

  "Our marriage is unbound. You have the house and whatever's in the chest, and I packed my tools and clothes. Here's yours," he said, handing her the other half of the torn document and the half-cord.

  Her eyes got very big, and she sat down on the floor, apparently stunned into silence. He turned around and walked away.

  A large man had joined the woman Healer, and together they expertly lifted her off the floor and walked her between them to the door, having first rolled the document and tied it with the cord, and then stuffed it into her belt. Between them they got her out the door and onto the street, and left her there.

  She looked around. No one was paying any attention to her, except one or two, who were laughing together. Laughing at her. No. She would show them. She'd show them all. Then they'd be sorry.

  She drew her shawl around her and walked toward the river.