Sara looked up at the gates to the temple. It was technically in the Middle City, but its opulant grounds rivalled the architecture of the Upper City. The whole complex was referred to as the Alessan Temple, but there were shrines and idols devoted to many gods other than Alessa. Sara had heard it was one of the few places with shrines for the Thurgian gods, and she was interested in one in particular, Aluna. Aluna was known for her healing of the sick and cleansing of infections. Sara hoped the goddess would be able to help with whatever had infected her at the park. It was getting worse, the mild headache that had begun after she left the Upper City was now a vision-distorting throb. The world shifted and morphed around her with every hearbeat, reality swallowing shadows, and then other realities emerging. Staying upright was getting more difficult, and she had to hold the walls of the buildings she passed for the last few blocks just to keep herself from ending in the gutter.

A lone girl in a temple acolyte dress stood in the entry court to the temple complex welcoming those entering. Sara could see most were ignoring her, but to Sara she stood out. Everyone else Sara had passed had tendrils of shadows leaking out of them, but this girl was different. There was still a shadow there, but it felt less intense, like a shadow of a shadow, almost normal. Count on the Temple to have some Pure in Spirit.

"The collection box is over there, my Lord. Thank you." The temple acolyte said to a man festooned with glittering jewelry. That is a rather rude greeting. He ignored her and walked into the temple without giving her a glance. A fancily dressed woman followed. "Cute! Isn't he a well behaved pet? I mean hat...I hope?" She said looking up at a lady's opulent headdress. "Your hair is in my prayers." She added under her breath as the lady walked past. The lady ignored the girl as well. I see now why no-one acknowledges her. The girl then caught sight of Sara shuffling past, gripping the gate to stay standing. "Well, that's a surprise. Another drunken barbarian. Hopefully Senip's shrine is not too far of a walk, my Lady."

"Actually," Sara did her best to stand on her own, fighting through the clouded vision and headache, "I am perfectly sober." Sara snapped, gripping the side of the gate, swaying like a drunken sailor.

The acolyte looked stunned for a moment at Sara's response, but hid her face quickly in a smooth, deep bow. "Apologies, Great Barbarian Lady, I meant no offence. You were just...swaying...a little." The acolyte said as she came up from her bow with a more serious face. "I am Loana. Please let me know if you need anything." She cleared her throat, glancing at Sara's white-knuckled grip on the gate. "Ah...Senip's shrine is the second down on the right in the Flower Court. Just in case." Senip was the patron of drunkards.

"I am looking for Aluna's shrine." Sara said flatly.

"All the smaller shrines are actually in the Flower Court, Great Lady." She waved to one side of the temple complex. "Aluna will be six more down from Senip." Loana said.

"Thanks." Sara said and received another graceful bow from Loana. Sara glanced back once after she had started in the direction indicated but Loana had already disappeared in the world of swirling shadows.

The flower court was easy to find, a large paved court with a square barren patch of earth in its center, surrounded by temple buildings on three sides. The shrines were lined up against the building walls, each nestled in their own distinct alcove. There were only a few shrines occupied. Sara counted them mentally as she walked past, but the splitting and merging shadows distracted her enough that the shrine she faced at count of eight was not Aluna's. Who knew counting to eight could be this hard. It took Sara three attempts of slowly walking down the wall of shrines, but she eventually ended at an idol that had a passing resemblence to Aluna. "Finally."

Sara was grateful it was one of the smaller shrines with a curtain across the entry, and she pulled the curtain closed as she sat down in front of the waist-high idol of Aluna. Small prayer baskets flanked the statue, containing scraps of paper and charcoal. A small candle sat directly in front of the idol, for burning the prayers after they had been written. This version of Aluna appeared quite serious, unlike the depictions Sara had seen in the North. Her body was more nebulous than the face, shrouded in shifting shadows, so Sara focused on the hard, stony gaze. Sara clutched for the comfort of her Aluna medallion that she had worn before the Boxing, but it was not there anymore. She left her hand balled in a fist and decided to start her prayer.

"Aluna-" Sara began, but before she finished the name the whole idol started splitting in front of her. No! Don't leave me! Sara wanted to grab the idol to stop it from disappearing in the shadows, but decided instead to jump clear of the cloud of shadow, bumping into the back wall of the shrine. The cloud settled quickly leaving only the face of Aluna, now integrated into the trunk of a tree carved into the stone. The Great Tree. Jomb. It made a kind of sense, since Jomb and Aluna were related in Thurgian stories, but Sara did not remember them ever being joined into a single entity.

Sara waited to see if the idol would keep shifting, but it seemed settled on the fusion of Aluna and Jomb. She eventually took off her cloak and kneeled at an arm's length from the idol, steeling herself for another prayer attempt. "Aluna, Cleanser," Sara had to pause for an echo in her ears, making it difficult to remember her next words. A shadow of my words? She focused, determined to finish the prayer. She picked up some charcoal and paper, and started writing out the prayer, but that did not work either, the letters swirling and mixing as she wrote.

Sara crushed the paper in her fist in frustration, and decided to try talking out the prayer again. "Use your touch..." Sara spoke in a rush in between her echoed words. "...To rid me...of whatever contamination...affects me. Please." Typically a petitioner touched Aluna's hand, but since Sara could not even find an arm, she instead reached for the face. Sara closed her eyes right before contact, but did not feel anything but the smooth carved stone under her fingers. Sara waited a moment, but still nothing happened, and she opened her eyes to the still swirling shadowy mists.

Sara sighed, moving her caress of the statue from the face to the trunk of the tree. Well Jomb, I suppose I can give you a prayer as well. She traced the rough grooves of the bark up one the upper branches of the tree. "Jomb, whose roots touch all-" The echo was back, louder this time and Sara shut her eyes hard, focusing her whole mind on the words, touching the branch. "Show me the Way...to cleanse my Spirit."

Sara leapt back from the statue again. That is no echo! The echo this time did not repeat Sara's words and was definitely not her voice. It had said, "Show me the Way...to Maker Sara." Tess!

Sara searched the nook for anyone, anything that could have spoken, but it was still just her, and then she moved to the curtain across the entry and peeked out cautiously. Sara's eyes went directly to the cloister across the court, where she saw Tess sitting at a similar shrine, her profile was unmistakable. Impossible! Tess spoke again, but the words came from the Jomb Tree idol. "If you cannot show me the Way, at least...at least tell me if I should be looking." She leaned in towards her idol. "Tell me...if she is alright."

"Seriously, Tess, get over it. I am fine." Sara whispered, but Tess suddenly jumped as if pricked, looking straight towards Sara's cloister. Sara jumped back in response, letting the curtain fall, panicking. Did she see me? I will not be caught again! She swiftly and silently collected her cloak from near the idol, and while she was leaning down decided to try quickly, one more time. The idol was now all Jomb. "Great Tree." She whispered fast and fierce. "Tell the spirit of your sister tree that I mean no harm. Let it leave me in peace!' She hissed, grabbing onto the branch she had touched earlier. There was no response, not even an echo. Sara did not wait very long though and let go quickly, frustrated. Sara burst out of the shrine and managed one long stride before the shadows coalesced into a wall directly in front of her.

"Omph!" Sara bounced off the wall, back towards the shrine she had just exited. "Cursed shadow walls!" She gave a nervous glance back towards the cloister she had seen Tess in, but all the cloisters now appeared empty on the opposite side. Sara decided she would still rather not take a chance and fought through the pain in her head and picked herself up quickly.

"Whoa there, girl! You alright?" The shadow wall asked, and Sara realized the wall was actually a broad-shouldered soldier in half armor towering over her with a surprised half-smile.

The anxiety of Tess' appearance and her throbbing head made Sara snap back. "I'm fine, soldier." Just as she said 'soldier' his armor shifted into the dress of a businessman, and Sara immediately regretted her rudeness. His grin slipped for a moment and he gave her a funny look but Sara was too worried that Tess might reappear to apologize for her rudeness. She instead did her best to navigate around the man and exit the court.

She heard a hearty laugh behind her as she exited the court. "See that? Your disguise does not fool a shadowseer..." He said more but Sara turned the corner, and the last word made everything click into place in her mind. My Shadu was stripped by the tree, so probably some of the Shadu shield of the trees was reabsorbed. All I need to do is charge out the Shadu to a rod, like I did with my Ka a few days ago, and my vision should go back to normal.

She had a plan by the time she reached the temple entrance where she had arrived. Loana appeared with her back to Sara, a pale rock of solidity in the swarming sea of shadows. Part of Sara wanted to get out of the temple immediately, to get away from the ghost of Tess, but for some reason Loana's relatively solid unchanging form helped calm her.

"I'm sorry, sir, due to odours like yours we have had to close our public bathing facilities. However I am sure the Baell Bathhouses near the Arena would be more than happy to accomodate you." Loana said to a disheveled man moving through the entry. "If you stomp any louder you will wake the dead. So please return later tonight for the Saeance!" She called after another woman.

"Loana." Sara said, coming quickly to a halt behind her.

"Great Barbarian Lady! Finished already?" Loana asked.

"Yes. There were...too many disturbances to really-"

"Oh, well! We do have rooms set up for private prayers, if you would prefer." Sara grimaced at her cheefulness.

"That would be nice, but I was thinking of something even more private." She hesitated, not wanting to divulge too much. "Noone-knows-I-am-here kind of private."

"Ah yes." Loana gave Sara a wink and a small giggle. "Then there is one place that would work very well." She turned and began gliding towards the other end of the complex. "Follow me, Great Lady."

"I am not a Great Lady, by the way. I am...." Sara debated telling her name, but the vision of Tess was still too recent. "...Esaralina Sulkutt." Sara still felt a little pang of guilt at the lie, but it was getting less every time.

"Of course, Lady Sulkutt." She responded without turning around. They moved quickly through a group of smaller temples and into a neglected court with a dry fountain in the middle. Past the court another complex of buildings grew up. Sara was impressed by the size of the complex.

Loana waved for Sara to wait as they approached a set of outbuilding to the complex. After a few moments a servant appeared from inside one of the structures. The rooms all faced towards an inner open air court, and appeared to be devoted to storage. Large jugs and old wine vases were stacked in some of the rooms Sara could see into. When the way was clear Loana waved them forward into one of the end rooms with a door.

Sara quickly moved herself into the mostly emtpy room. A small window higher than her head let light into the room, but the shadows bent the beam, occasionaly distorting the shape of Loana. "If anyone asks, just tell them that Loana said you could wait here while a regular prayer room is being prepared. Wait, no. Tell them it was Pali. I will take care of the rest. Try not to take too long though, or Mistress might find you. She may not be happy to find you here."

Sara nodded. "Thank you, Loana." Sara said and decided to give a bow of her own.

"Just doing my job, my Lady." With a quick but no less smooth bow Loana began to move away.

"Wait!" Said Sara. Loana turned and they locked eyes for a moment. Sara fumbled in her moneypouch and grabbed a coin. It was one of the silvers. Sara hesitated when she felt the weight of the coin, but thought the girl was worth it, even if she had insulted her. She held it out to Loana. "Here. For your help." She added.

Loana stayed paused, looking at the coin. "I could not, Lady. I serve my gods. That is enough." She said seriously. Before she could turn away, Sara stepped towards her and quickly pressed the coin into her smooth, cool hand.

"I insist." Sara said. Loana pulled away immediately, looking shocked, but the coin stayed in her hand. Her shock turned to wonder as she stared down at the coin resting in her palm, and with a quick look at Sara and another bow she fled back towards the main temple complex. You would think that was the first time she received a tip!

Sara headed back into the small storage room and shut the door behind. Shadows swirled about her, but instead of fighting through them she felt safe trapped in the room and enbraced the shadows. She pulled both rods from her leg holster and laid them down in front of her. Neither felt tuned for Shadu, which disappointed Sara a little. It will take a lot of effort.

She selected Lama's longer rod, hoping it would have a little more storage capacity, in case she needed it. It also had a slightly smaller break, and Sara was hoping not all the Shadu would leak out. She took off her cloak and set the rod on top of it, kneeling with the rod in front of her.

Sara thought about how to get the Shadu out of her. The healing they had done at the guild gave her a larger pull, so it would be more difficult to overdraw into her own Shadu, so she decided to start by pushing her limits.

The shadows in the room still flickered and danced in Sara's periphery, the setting sun casting a long ray of light into the small room. Sara did her best to ignore it all and focus on the rod in front of her.

Sara began with a split flow, to help maximize the draw. The kept the flows spiraling around her, and refocused them from a general mix of magik to an emphasis of Shadu. She could feel a residual shield forming as she focused the magik. She continued refocusing the flows towards Shadu, and they finally began shrinking, pushing against her limit. She measured the amount in her mind. Three flows of pure Shadu at level three? That would fill the rod before she had pulled much of her own Shadu, so she decided to try the most inefficient magiking she could think of.

She found the rhytmic pulse of two of the flows, and lined them up. When matching flows it was better to offset their phases so they would not interfere, but with the two flows pushing against each other the Shadu would become much denser at the expense of much of the volume of the two flows. There was quite a bit of resistence and Sara had to wrestle them together a few times before they finally connected. She ended up using the third flow to create a funnel for the two flows to press through. The final result made the whole room hum with the intensity of the combining flows, and Sara quickly moved the flow to the rod. Sara thought the rod would fill quickly, but the first of the Shadu was drawn instead into the crack down the side of the rod. She could feel the rod healing itself slowly. Maybe I can repair the other rod as well! The shadows in the room quickened as Sara continued, until they were whipping frenetically at her peripheral vision, and Sara had to close her eyes to keep them out of her sight.

With eyes closed Sara was able to feel herself reaching her glow limit, starting to pull on her own Shadu. Eventually she switched from healing the rod to filling it. The rod filled slower than she had anticipated, but Sara was glad as it gave her more opportunity to strip her Shadu. She could feel her energy quickly draining with the imbalance of her magik, similar to when she drained her Ka. She did not give up, and pushed herself harder to maintain the flows.

The shadows began to invade her vision again, even with her eyes closed. Ghostly afterimages twitched and tugged at her sight, until it forced her to reopen her eyes, and immediately the shadows were lost in the pitch black surrounding her. Her grip on the flows slipped for a moment and the darkness lessened slightly, revealing the room again around her and Sara reigned in her panic, refocusing on the pull again. A residual Shadu shield?

She felt the Shadu had drained quicker this time than the Ka had last time, her headache had lessened slightly during the charge, but now it was starting to return in a different manner. Sara found herself gripping her head, but still pushed the Shadu into the rod. It was now about half full, and even with the repairs that was about the max charge of the rod before it would spill over. She decided it was a good stopping point to assess her progress and she let go of the flows, but again the flows did not want to stop. Her vision was all dark again, she was not sure if it was from the Shadu shield or lack of Shadu in her. She tried again to break the flow, but her unbalanced magik made it difficult to find leverage. Not again! I am losing control! She reached out for the rod, hoping to stop it with a Mover pull.

Her finger did not touch the rod, but sunk into a thick aura of magik around the rod, and she felt the alien presence of the tree spirit. Vengence! She felt a shock race up her arm and a violent shake of the flows. The disturbance was enough, combined with her own efforts, to sever the conenction, and she collapsed back onto the hard stone floor.

Her damp shirt pressed against her back and she realized she had been sweating with effort as the Shadu shield slowly faded around her. The room was dark, even without the Shadu. The small window revealed a patch of stars from the night sky. Maybe I was not faster this time. She looked around the room and realized that the shifting shadows were not visible to her anymore. She croaked a hoarse laugh. I did it! The spirit is gone! It took a few attempts to sit up and she looked warily at the rod in front of her. It did not look significantly different than before, the crack on the side was still visible, if slightly smaller than before.

She reached out to try and touch the rod again, but she felt the dangerous aura still surrounding it. She decided it was probably better not to reinfect herself and pulled back. Relief and exhaustion drove her to attempt laying down again on the stone floor but she could not fall asleep with the dangerous rod silently taunting her from its gentle cloak bed. She eventually used the cloak to carry the rod to one of the empty jars lining one wall, dumping it in as gently as she could. She shook out the cloak before resetting it as a pillow on the other side of the room.

She laid her head down on the cloak and felt the bit of paper and charcoal she must have stuffed in during her flight from the cloister. She took them out and debated using it to write a note to Tess. It is a sort of prayer, I suppose. The only problem was what to tell her.

Tess, I am alive. Do not pursue.

Sara wanted to add something about how she was not a solution to her problems with the guild, but she did not know how to frame it. Sleep took over before she figured out anything else to write.