The Sighs of the Priestess Ch. 02

It's always a little fun as a writer to take two characters who have little in common at first glance and toss them into a closed place. Without their lives to get in the way, a sort of human magic might appear and things can happen that would normally never be possible. You can doubt if you wish, but as an example, there was a huge power outage across the Eastern half of North America around 1966. Millions of people found themselves in the dark for maybe 12 hours or so, some of them in situations of close proximity such as stuck elevators.

Nine months later, there was a tiny baby boom. Go figure.

Anyway, we continue here with our unlikely pair. I can see maybe another three or four chapters coming from this and I hope that they're enjoyed.

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As they sat eating an odd dinner in the strange situation, the priestess listened as the fighter outlined what he had to do, when it had to be done, and the resources that could be used to accomplish it. He mentioned the possibility of acquiring the servants as assistants, and then he told her of the stipend that he'd been given to run both his household and the school. All of this had to be planned so that he could tell of what he would do and what he'd have ready for the first of the small groups of fighters that he'd have to teach. He had to be ready to explain this in two days.

The priestess listened as she ate carefully, not wishing to be sick from eating too much at one sitting after having gone without for a time as she had. After she was finished eating for the moment, he watched as her fingers began to move in what appeared to be patterns, slowly at first, but getting quicker as they talked. Finally, he asked about it.

"I am praying," she shrugged slightly. "This is the reason that they bound my hands apart from each other and my fingers together partly. I am praying as I listen and think of what I might do to help you." She held up her hands separately and he watched her fingers. "It has been months since I could do this and now it is hard to do, but I draw comfort, ability and strength from this." She stopped her motions and went back to the problem at hand.

She decided on the split in the money between the school and the other expenses and told him that she would hold an amount aside. When he looked at her with raised eyebrows, she told him that it was to purchase the servants. "Please," she said, "allow me to do the bargaining for them while you stand present. I am sure that I can get them and still leave you some of this."

He agreed, and then the priestess leaned forward to stand and she saw her chance. In the blink of an eye, she seized his dagger, turning it to point at herself and clasping her hands on the haft of it.

The warrior sprang up and clamped his hand over hers and a part of the cross guard. Before she could realize that he wouldn't allow her to pull it toward herself, he also placed his other hand on her breastbone to prevent her from pulling herself to the dagger. She then tried to get it higher so that she might cut into the artery on the side of her neck. He wouldn't allow that either.

She glared at him as his words hissed at her through his teeth, "Do you not wonder how I know of you? Will you not hear the words that I have for you? And the old woman," he growled, "what of her? You miss something important here."

She looked down and cried out because he'd cut his fingers on the blade trying to keep her from killing herself again. She instantly gave up the attempt. He stepped back with the dagger and laid it down on the table. "Hear me out, priestess, and then if this is still so disheartening to you that you feel that you must die, I will accept my failure and allow it."

He pointed at her with his uninjured hand, feeling more than a little frustrated now, "But YOU must hear me out first!"

She stood sobbing as she looked at the cuts. She took his hand in one of hers and passed the other one over it. The wound and the pain were gone, the blood vanished from where it had fallen on the table, the dagger lay on the table, clean. To his amazement, she kissed his hand.

"Forgive me," she whispered, "In my haste, I have done something terrible."

She looked up sadly, "I owe you much already, fighter. I have made it only worse for me with this here." Her head hung again and she wanted to weep, "I have removed my own escape myself, by hurting the one who is kind to me."

They stood like this for a moment. "Your hand feels very warm," she whispered, liking the feel of it against her chest.

He took the hint and apologized, but she stopped him and told him that she didn't mind. "I am so sorry that I hurt you."

He shook his head, "I am only sorry that you hang your head again, for that is worse to me. Cuts are nothing new. There is nothing that I feel slight over and you have even healed it," he said softly.

"I can even understand you. Only please allow me to tell you what I must." He looked toward the terrace. "It grows cool now. I will light the fire and close the shutters up. Please wait for this, and I will tell you everything that I know."

He looked over at the sound which came to him and was startled as the hearth glowed with a healthy fire in an instant. When he looked past her, he saw that the shutters were closed. She shrugged. "I can do some things for us and save you the effort."

He reached out slowly to touch her face, "Wait but a moment here, if you would. I have words that are for you alone, and I have things which you may need soon. Can you do this, or must I take the dagger along too?"

She sat down again. "I have no escape anymore because of what I have done to you. I have lost my chance to pass the power on. I am a fool."

"No," he said, "you are only too earnest and far too quick."

"Perhaps," she said sadly, "but it is our way that kindness must never be answered with hurt. To do that only causes an obligation." She looked up at him, "You do not know of this, but it makes no difference to me for it is done. I am a slave to you by the will of your lord. You would have none of it between us, you said. But for what I have done here in my thoughtlessness and haste, I have chained myself to you more firmly than I was before."

"As you wish," he said, not wanting to argue over a subtlety that made no difference to him, "though I do not consider it in this way. To me, it was a mishap, nothing more. But if this means that I might trust you with your own life for a little while, then I welcome it. Please wait," he said turning away, but then turned back a little, "and please be alive when I return. I need only a moment."

She nodded, still feeling foolish.

He walked away and came back a moment later, handing her one of his singlets. The priestess smiled softly and pulled it over her head. Just as he'd told her, it almost slipped over her shoulders to fall off, but he caught the open part of the neck and began to lace it so that it might at least stay on her. He looked at her and they smiled at each other as she brought her arms out through the holes were his were meant to be.

"Even this cannot hide your beauty," he said with a little admiration.

Her reply was a shrug and a grin, "I feel like a stick-girl inside a scarecrow, but I thank you all the same."

It was only a singlet to him, but on her it reached almost to her knees.

"This smells of you," she smiled.

"I am sorry, then," the soldier remarked, feeling a bit ashamed, "I washed it in a stream with the rest of my things. I think it must smell from being against my other clothes in my pack. Take it off again and use the towel then."

She shook her head, "It does not stink, it is clean. I meant that it only carries a little of your smell. I meant no offense. I like it." She saw the beginning of a reply forming in his mind and wanted to change the subject quickly now. "What is it that you must tell me?"

"I cannot say that I know much of it," he said, "but I learned some of your faith at your temple. The prisoner who told me so that I might understand it was no ordinary old woman. She gave herself into the custody of the garrison commander freely and waited in chains herself until I could be summoned for the task that was entrusted to me. I cannot say how I know, but I believe that she knew that I would come and no other. I can only say this long after it was done. She taught me much."

"Forgive me warrior," she priestess said, "but I see nothing here but a woman talking to a soldier and telling things to him that should have remained unknown to him. Why is this important to me?"

"You did not listen to what I said earlier, priestess. I said that she read to me the inscriptions on the pillars," he said. "She also read to me from some tablets in the wreckage there. How they could remain unbroken is beyond me, but even I could see that the writing on the tablets was not the same speech as what was on the pillars. The woman was a priestess herself. She admitted it to me."

"You make no sense," she said, "The last of the elder priestesses which we had there died the year before last. Most of us were young," she said, "the oldest was- "

She saw him reach to place something on the table before her. When his hand moved away, she saw the small oil lamp and gasped.

He told her of his time with the woman and some of what had passed between them. "The last time that we were at the temple, it was night. I could not see enough to move what she asked me to move, and she lit this with her hand. When she left me alone, the lamp went out."

The young priestess stared at the lamp, nodding, "This lamp will only light and burn in the presence of the high priestess. It may burn oil like any lamp, but near to the high priestess, it burns by itself." She looked at him a little strangely and then looked ashamed.

"What is it?"

"I would wish to say that I have forgotten your name, but..."

She looked mortified, "It would be a lie for I did not even try to remember it. I see by what you show me and how you treat me that I ought to know your name and well." She looked away and he saw that she fought back her shame. "I am sorry. Please, tell it to me again so that I might remember it now."

He smiled, "My name is Lugalbanda and I forgive you this. I could see that there were moments where you had to think of saving the water that you held in your mouth."

She was looking down a little, but he did see her eyes there as she looked up under her thin eyebrows and the small smile that she wore. "I had to choose the moment when I would share it with you. If I can be forgiven this as well, please tell me everything that happened again, and if you can remember, even the smallest detail."

He told almost everything and watched as she sat with her head bowed, listening intently and moving the fingers of one hand while touching the lamp with the fingers of the other. When he'd finished, she didn't look up but he saw that every so often a tear would fall, though she didn't weep or sob. There was silence between them for a minute.

"Besides the acolytes, there were six of us who were priestesses," she said, looking at him now. "Have you any news of the others?"

"I did not follow it much," he said, "It did not concern me at the outset. But I have heard that two are known dead, killed in the fighting or shortly after, three are missing, -"

"Two of those are dead also," she said, "I feel this in the power. That leaves – "

"That leaves the new high priestess," he said.

She shook her head, "No. That leaves the second priestess who is now the new slave, and the high priestess still free. I cannot feel her, but she must be hiding. Perhaps she is far away."

He laid his hand on hers. Leaning down toward her he whispered, "No. She said nothing of her position, but I believe that the one who taught me who I must seek – though I knew nothing of where to look, and gave me words to speak when I found that one ... I now believe that she was the high priestess herself."

She shook her head and began to protest, but he squeezed her hand to stop her. "Tell me of the priestesses," he said, "From what I know, there were no temple prostitutes, only attendants and priestesses."

She nodded, "We have nothing like that in the faith, but we always maintained gardens where observances to the goddess of love by lovers were permitted. Some of the acolytes maintained the gardens, but they never took part."

"Girl children would be given by parents to become acolytes and priestesses themselves if they learned what was taught and followed the faith. Most stayed only until they grew up. Some remained as acolytes, and some became priestesses, but none did anything like what you mentioned. The faith forbids it, though if a lonely woman wished to make observance to the goddess, she could do it alone there, or she might find a man there in the same circumstance. Sometimes, these lonely meetings became trysts where a love might be forged, and the two would become man and wife if the goddess smiled on them."

"There are the lower four and the two high priestesses always. The lower four should be maidens if possible, though sometimes it might happen that one might find someone for herself and that was permitted too, but then that one could rise no higher."

"Of the two high priestesses, the second priestess must be a virgin. In that position, that one represents hope and promise to the faithful. The second priestess has powers related to these perceptions and is limited in what she might do in the defence of the faith or in any other matters. Only the high priestess can act in offense to a threat. She is the embodiment of the great mother and may take a man as her consort. She carries the largest portion of the power."

"I was not one who was brought to the temple to be a priestess," she said, "I was born into it. I was born in the temple itself, for my mother is the high priestess. My mother took Sin-kashid as her consort and became his at the same time. I served starting at the bottom and rose to attain my position as second priestess."

She looked down, "I think that my father must have died defending against your army. I do not know what happened to my mother, but – "

"Listen," he said gently as he looked at her, trying to catch and hold her eyes. "Look here, priestess," he said, "look into my eyes and do not look away. I am not fair to see, but your mind is like a bird who finds itself in a new cage and seeks the way out so frantically that it flits past the open door all afternoon. You may not like it, but the old woman – who was not really old in truth - must have been the high priestess, though I didn't know that she was your mother for she didn't say it. She told me that the faith always renews itself and that I am the proof of it, since I am now ready to be taught the rest. I was told that the one that I was to seek would need my help."

He sighed, "That one I know is you, but I cannot help if you will not hear my words."

She looked something like a lost little girl to him for a moment. She shrugged, "I am listening now."

He closed his hand over hers, "If I know that two of the other priestesses are dead, and you say that two more are not alive from what you feel, that leaves only two; you and the one that I met. I have my reasons, coming to the idea slowly from then to now, but I believe that she was not there with me that night in her body, but only as a spirit or a shade. I lifted her onto my horse, and she was very light. I had to stop myself when I lifted her to get onto my horse, or she would have flown right over my horse's back. She was old, but I think that it was only what she showed to me, and at the end, she was much younger, though old enough to be your mother still and she was very beautiful. I now believe that she let her spirit pass when she left me that night, for I only looked away for a moment and she was gone."

He looked to make sure that she heard his next words, "There was a bright full moon then, and there was nothing to hide behind and nowhere that she could have gone in an instant. She gave me these words to say to you; I am to say that the lock is passed and that she waits at the gated bridge for the new high priestess."

She stared at him for a moment, shaking her head. "This cannot be," she said, "I have not felt my mother in the power for months, but it must be that she hides and needs my part of the power to act."

He shook his head, "And still you do not listen to me. If the high priestess wanted your power to act, as you say, I think that she would have told it to me and asked me to help you in that, and not what I was told to help with."

The soldier sat with his head on one hand, holding his other one over hers. He sighed, and lifted his hand to slide the small lamp to her.

"Light the lamp," he said.

"I cannot," she said, "I told you already that this is only for the high priestess."

"Nevertheless," he said, "only try. You say that you owe me and feel obligated to me. You said that I made a friend in you. Then try this to discharge the debt and if you cannot do it for that reason, then only try to do it because your large and dim-witted friend asks it of you."

She smiled at him for a moment. "Why do you wish me to try this?" she said. "I have no wish to take that place. If I took it, I – "

He rolled his eyes, "You would have the use of the power. Since you told me that it is shared and there are no other living priestesses to share it with, then you would get it all, no?"

"Yes," she said, "but – "

He held up his hand. "Stop. The little bird is flitting around in the cage again. Stop cheeping at me and perch your pretty tail on my hand so that I might take you out of the cage here. You would get all of the power, yes or no?"

"But – "

He looked at the ceiling for a moment, "You begin to sound less like a song bird and more like a hen," he said.

"But I –"

"Shut up for a moment," he said. "Why is it that I must keep asking you to use your mind? Think of what you told me about the chains that we wear."

Her expression went blank and he took it to mean that she was at least listening to him now. "You do not see what is plain because you do not want to think of why it might be so. I know your reasons, and I am sad for you, but it is before you whether you want it or not."

He raised his head from his hand and took her face in both of his. "I have no wish to shake you again to make you see what is plain. You told me that we might die in our chains or we might keep them and leave our prison behind."

He jabbed his finger at the lamp. "Now before you think to argue again or lay an egg here with your but-but-but noises, for your debt to me that I do not see – out of friendship to me, and to leave the damned cage here - try to light the blasted lamp!"

For a moment she looked at him as though he was an idiot who required help to feed himself. She rolled her eyes and then passed her hand over the lamp quickly. "There," she said, looking at him, "are you happy now, soldier?"

"Yes," he sighed. He grinned and in his face, she saw the glow and looked down.

The lamp burned brightly.

The young priestess sat with her jaw in her lap. She looked over at him, speechless.

"You know," he smirked, "you make the sweetest-sounding gasp that I think I have ever heard in my life. I like it better than your hen noises."

She shook her head slowly in wonder, "If you ever try to tell me that you are dim-witted again," she said smiling, "I will burn the hair from your backside."

The warrior threw back his head and laughed, "Now that begins to sound like the friend that I had hoped for in you."

"This helps," she said, "but there are things that I need if –"

"Oh, now you find your interest," he said. "As it happens, I have more for you to see," he said, "things which were given to me to give to you."