[Amanaduial the archer]

Zamara, her hands held up crossed at the wrists in front of her as she prayed silently, heard the doors of the temple open and someone enter. The massive doors may have been well-oiled, but they were nonetheless heavy, and the High Priestess knew the temple well enough to detect every noise of movement inside it. And as for the newcomer, well, she knew instantly who that was as well - none could tread the stone floor quite so silently as one.

Finishing her prayer, Zamara bowed her head for a second, then unfolded herself from her kneeling position, rising smoothly to face the statue. She leant forward and flicked a small bell between the goddess's feet with her long nails and it chimed clearly throughout the temple. "Good morning, Arlome," she said, without turning around.

There was a pause. Zamara turned around and smiled at the elf, kneeling at the bottom of the steps to the statue, and Arlome returned it, still looking slightly mystified, but strangely satisfied as well, as if she was pleased that the High Priestess had known it was her. Zamara approached her and laid her hands on the elf's head, apparently confidently, and murmured a blessing on her. As she did so she seemed to get a strange shock off the elf, as if her touch was charged, and she almost jerked back in surprise, her fingers tingling, but forced herself not to, keeping her hands still and steady as she blessed Arlome. When she was finished, she offered her hand to the elf and helped her to rise. "Good morning, High Priestess."

"Arlome. You did not come this morning to the service?" It was a friendly inquiry rather than a reprimand. "Were your duties to the Queen more longsome because of the Emissary?"

A cloud passed across Arlome's face and she seemed about to speak before her flecked eyes flickered fleetingly around the dimly lit shadows behind the pools of light in the temple. Zamara shook her head, but for some reason lowered her voice anyway. "There is no one here, except Tayfar and myself. Come, I would speak with you..."

"Tayfar...." Arlome nodded slowly as they began to walk, taking one of the side corridors out towards a small courtyard: she recognised the name. The elf had a greater understanding of the temple than Zamara had thought, as her next question showed. "You intend to train her as a Priestess, don't you?"

Zamara looked across, surprised, at the elf, her eyes wide, startled.

In the temple of Rhais, there was the High Priestess, of course, and then five younger priestesses of approximately the same rank. One of these would be more closely related with the High Priestess, and was often previously an acolyte. And when the time came for the title to be passed on, it was by the High Priestess and her prime priestess that she was chosen. Indeed, if young enough, the position sometimes fell to the prime priestess, so favoured was the position. Zamara blinked a few time, still surprised at Arlome's perceptiveness. "I had thought of...well, she is young still, she had not yet seen thirteen summers, it is maybe too soon to be thinking about-"

She stopped suddenly as brisk, light footsteps approached along the stone corridor, and Tayfar herself appeared, her simple, light robes gleaming slightly in the bright sun of the courtyard. She bowed her head to Zamara and gave Arlome a respectful, slightly scared smile - she was in awe of the graceful elven woman who worked with the Queen. Zamara requested that she bring them some tea and fruit - she did not eat before the morning service and had been finishing off at the temple in the hour or so since it had ended, and suspected that Arlome had not eaten either. As Tayfar scurried off to comply, Zamara took a seat with the elf and gave her a small, curious smile as she said...

~*~

"How is it that you would guess that, Arlome? Why not Sedaar? I believe she is the one who some have guessed me to linger over for the fifth priestess."

The High Priestess's graceful voice was tinged with an edge of curiousity that, along with the mention of a familiar name, made Tayfar stop, melting into the shadow. She was naturally curious - it came normally to a girl living in a close community like the temple. The immortal who the Priestess sat with gave a short laugh that sent a shiver of delight down Tayfar's spine. "I have nothing against Sedaar. But she is not the one you rely on the most, who prepares you for feasts; the one you have spent the most time on and tutored yourself..."

"I understand, fair enough." There was the sound of a smile in Zamara's voice. Maybe...maybe I am caught here, but I will say nothing definite. I can trust you, I know. But ...well, she is still young, as I said, not yet thirteen summers - it is maybe too soon to be thinking about such things."

They are talking about me! Tayfar did a little skip-jump dance in the corridor, grinning madly. The sudden revelation, almost too good to be true, surely, for an orphan from a poor family, caused such fireworks to go off in Tayfar's stomach that she almost missed the elf's next words.

"Too soon? Priestess, everything is too soon if you are to look at it that way - your lifetimes pass 'so soon' for myself. I have seen many High Priestesses - and indeed a few High Priests - go past, but you have shown an unusual understanding of...well. I trust you will make the right choice."

"You would choose Tayfar yourself! And talking of which, have you eaten yet?" Tayfar started suddenly, remembering her bidding to fetch breakfast and she bolted silently away, a skip in her undignified half-run as the voices of two women faded to a hum behind her.

~*~

Unaware of her eavesdropping protege, Zamara continued. "And talking of choices..." she paused, her eyes flicking away from, then back to Arlome's. "I trust you are as worried as I about this Emissary?"

"You are worried also?" Arlome nodded, apparently slightly comforted by the thought. Zamara tilted her head onto one side, hesitating. It is the choices Faroz has given to his children that worries me the most...and the implications of a male-dominated alliance to Rhais. She sat back in her chair and looked out over the pleasant courtyard in front of them. "Tell me, Arlome: what do you think? And your husband? Has he said anything of immortals, of his lord's knowledge of elves?"