CRANSTEL, SAFANA
PRIESTESS IDELE
Adam wrote:ewancummins wrote:
''Agreed."
Prietess Idele orders a servant to grab a torch, and all three set out into the evening.
They do not find the priest, but they do encounter two armed messengers from Sir Gunnar, men of his personal warband.
The men relate that their master invites Safana to join a raid on the Three Penny, a boarding house and tavern of bad reputation. Intelligence reports indicate that the establishment is a meeting place for the hooded gang.
Idele says to Cranstel,
"That's odd. I was going over the accounts of spoiled food and tainted brew we've gotten from all over town, earlier. I meant to talk with you about it when I got the summons to help Safana. The Three Penny is the only eating and drinking house in the city that has not had such problems. Maybe that means nothing..."
"Or perhaps it means everything..." Cranstel muses, "Could we perhaps join up with the raid ourselves? Maybe some sample of the poison could be found there? Surely Mistress Safana is in no condition to participate."
Priestess Idele looks at Safana. "I've held off to lengthen her safe period as long as possible, but now it's time.''
The priestess lays hands on the Khinasi woman and intones a prayer. She crushes a bit of garlic as she speaks the final syllables in Old Andu.
"I've renewed the rite I used to slow the toxin. " The young priestess wipes perspiration from her face (sweaty despite the cold weather).
"I was prepared to deal with food poisoning-- the same rites work against most poisons. But I cannot do this again with such effect until morning, after I have had time to pray and make sacrifices."
Safana says that she wishes to go on the raid.
Gunnar's men do not object to bringing the priestess and the apothecary. Indeed, they seem happy to have more help.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.
-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)