The st time Audrey had been to the Temple, she had only seen two rooms. Now, escorted by Thellissandra and wearing a rge robe over her normal clothes, she got to see a lot more of the pce. Her younger brother was a history professor with a minor in architecture, so she knew enough to be thoroughly impressed by the pce - it had been a massive construction project and seemed to show at least two distinct eras of design. Occasional iconography showed hints of stories she would need to research ter back home in the game books. She was also again stricken by how attractive most of the people she ran into were; she felt she felt very ordinary, perhaps even ugly, in their company.
She had only half been paying attention to her guide’s words as they walked.
“Do you have all of that?” The woman she knew as Sandra asked, as they approached a massive bronze door.
“I will be introduced. I should be polite but say very little and only really speak if addressed directly. And I should drop to one knee at the end and remain bowed until this other Thellissandra exits on her first quest.”
“You have the key points. I was afraid you were not paying attention.”
“San, er, sorry, Thellissandra, I mean," Audrey replied, "I'm a detective. We are trained to pay attention to as much as we can at all times, no matter how distracting. And this pce is very distracting for a new visitor.”
“It really is,” Sandra admitted, remembering her first few trips around the structure as a child. She then pushed open the door. Beyond was a small audience chamber - about a dozen people, most of them women, were seated on benches along two of the walls. Five other people stood, including a pretty young woman with long, straight bck hair, around a series of fonts in the center of the room.
Thellissandra was greeted happily by the bck-haired woman: “you made it!”
“Of course! I had to honor my namesake,” she replied, smiling. The young woman nodded then immediately turned her expression cold and distant. Sandra bowed to one of the men. “High Magister Parkidden, this is a friend of mine, Audrey. She was hoping she could observe the ceremony. She knows Thengarian.”
Until she added the st bit, the man’s expression seemed bnk, almost as if he were unaware of either woman, but with that he softened slightly. “I am honored to meet you Awe-dreh. If you can find room on one bench you are welcome to stay.”
Audrey bowed as she had seen Sandra do and then moved to the nearest bench. A woman at the end, with long pale hair that seemed almost white, four sections of it tied off into four long braids, one down, one up and two jutting out to the side, quickly made room for her.
As she sat, the woman whispered: “I am Miellian, and I have to say I love your hair. Is that color natural?”
As quietly as she could, Audrey replied: “it is, and thank you for the seat and compliment. I am Audrey. Your hair is gorgeous too.”
The other woman just smiled.
An older woman, who made Audrey think a lot of actress Helen Mirren, both in general features and the fact that, even though clearly at least in her seventh decade she was still possessed of great beauty, stepped forward and began recording something in a nguage Audrey could not understand, which surprised her as she had understood everything said before this.
The first word Audrey understood was “Thellissandra,” at which the dark-haired woman crossed the room and knelt before the speaker.
The speaker took her right arm and dipped her hand in one of the four fonts, then waved to the man called Parkidden. The High Magister walked over, bowed to both women, the older one first, then pced a bck arm band set with four gemstones on Thellissandra’s wrist, then he bowed to each woman again, reversing the order, and resumed his position.
The older woman helped the younger one to her feet, examined the arm band, and then suddenly dipped the young woman’s head in the second font.
She then pulled young Thellissandra back out and spun her around.
“Who speaks for her Sister’s Purity?” The old woman called out.
The woman Audrey had met earlier in Sandra’s room stepped forward: “I do.”
“Anoint her.”
The one who stood bowed, walked over, helped young Thellissandra to her feet, walked her to the third font and dipped her head in it, then pulled her out and resumed her seat.
“Who speaks for her Sister’s Honor?”
A woman about Audrey’s height but built like a weightlifter and with four straight braids in her hair stepped forward, bowed, said “I do,” and dipped the young woman into the third basin of liquid.
“And who speaks for her Courage?”
Sandra stepped forward at this: “I do, Mother”
“Then tie the first knot in her braid.”
Sandra walked over to the younger Thellissandra, bowed and took a section of the young woman’s hair, drew it through the final basin, and then formed it into a single pit.
The old woman then stepped forward, cupped young Thellissandra’s face between her hands, said: “You may now complete your first questing braid.”
The young woman nodded and bowed. The old woman then reverted to the nguage Audrey could not understand and spoke in a kind of sing-song voice until the young woman finished forming her first, upthrust braid.
The old woman then held her hands high and announced: “A New Sister stands among us. Kneel before her glory as she sets out upon her first Task!”
Audrey followed the leads of everyone else in the room who dropped to one knee and bowed their heads. The young woman walked steadily, purposefully to the rge doors of the room, opened them, and went out of the room.
As soon as the doors swung shut again, everyone remaining rose to their feet, and most filed out of the chamber.
The old woman walked over to Audrey, Sandra at her side. “I take it you are the World Walker called to the side of the Lost Arch Mage?”
Audrey ughed: “Well, let's just say we are strongly starting to believe that.”
An odd half-smile quirked the old woman’s mouth. “I am Beydara, called Mother of Battle. You seem to have a simir sense of humor to,” she paused and looked around the room. Other than themselves, there were two small clusters of people conversing together, so she lowered her voice and resumed with: “to Young David. May I ask your name, Green Eyes?”
Audrey felt suddenly nervous and hesitated a second before saying: “Audrey. I’m called Audrey.”
“I believe we both have other pces we must be, or I would ask you to walk with me. It was an honor to meet you, and I hope you found our little ceremony enlightening.”
“The honor was mine, and I hope the young woman performs her quest admirably.”
The old woman smiled. “You speak well. I must take my leave now.” And with that, she swept out of the room like a force of nature.
“Fascinating woman,” Audrey said as she disappeared through one of the doors.
“She is nearly one hundred years old and still one of our greatest warriors,” Sandra said proudly. “She even taught me a few moves.”
“And she knows David’s real name. Like I said, fascinating. But I should probably head back to my world and see what kind of trouble Malcolm has gotten himself into.”
“It was nice having you here. I hope he has not caused too much trouble without you to guide him.”
“I just hope Pickles has not scarred him for life,” Audrey replied with a chuckle. “And I am gd you allowed me to see that. I did not realize you would be part of the service.”
“When a girl I have never met asks me to attend her ceremony simply because we share a name, I think that speaks well to her bravery - and she helped deal with the monsters the other day instead of fleeing like many novices did, so I felt I had no other choice.”
“I can see that,” Audrey replied. “Well, I hope we will have a chance to spend some time together again soon.”
“Yes, I hope so too,” Sandra said.
Audrey concentrated for a moment and this time could clearly see a path back to her world. She waved at Sandra and began walking.
Thellissandra saw Audrey wave and then take a step and vanish. She shook her head and then went off to the training area for some exercise.
**
Audrey stepped out of the Temple and into her living room. Pickles charged in to investigate, and she greeted her cat affectionately, and then noticed what seemed to be a nasty hairball.
After cleaning it up and discovering indications that her cat had taken down some kind of magical creature, she and Malcolm sat down to a nice meal, only to have it interrupted by a phone call. After two more calls, they were now pnning to go and try to meet the man who had pursued them the other night, because he had been involved in their lives for longer than they had realized, and he was about to be extradited out of the country.
David and Thellissandra’s sister, Amanda Prescher, currently with the FBI but also a woman capable of working magic through devices, something called an “Artificer” had come up with a convoluted pn to interrogate this man, who was possibly connected to the vilinous Elgarin.
Audrey’s talents as a World Walker managed to get her car to an area just beyond the security perimeter of the prison and now they were headed in.
David West had given himself and Malcolm simple disguises to appear as high-powered wyers and Amanda was to be their escort to and from the secure meeting room.
They drove up to the outer security post and the officer there walked up to the car, and as they rolled down the window, before any of them could speak, said “You are well outside of visiting hours. You will have to come back after nine AM tomorrow,” and turned to walk away.
