Aquina stood in the temple lobby before the high priestess's room. The door was closed, and thus she was forced to wait, fidgeting with her knife. Every time she put it away, she would find herself pulling it back out after a few moments. Each time she found herself holding it, she couldn't help but want to run its sharp jagged edge down the length of her finger. But now was neither the time for such delightful pain nor was it a place to make a mess. She put it away once more, hanging at her side, and walked back and forth trying to distract herself from the delay.

The door finally creaked open, and Aquina quickly lowered herself to both knees before those that began filing out. Several priestesses and their attendants left one after another. Several of them shot Aquina smug grins. Others ignored her entirely. News of her failure was common knowledge around here it would seem. That wasn't surprising but it was annoying.

After waiting for everyone to leave Aquina quietly picked herself up and walked inside. The room itself was ornate, fine gold inlaid into marble slabs of varying heights each supported by a different tree branch, stairs made of the same, but thinner slabs climbed branches in curves. The whole space was entirely open, the green swaying leaves above the only obvious covering in the open chamber. The real ceiling lay beyond however providing adequate shelter out of sight.

Aquina walked towards the back, to the balcony where she expected the high priestess to be since it was usually where she held her audiences. Before she even arrived a woman spoke from a higher platform above her, “Aquina, up here.” Aquina glanced towards the source and made her way back and around.

The high priestess was sitting comfortably in a soft inclined chair, two men on either side with trays of fruit, or drinks on hand and offering them to her with her smallest motion.

“My mistress has summoned me.” Aquina said as she arrived and promptly lowered herself to both knees.

“I wanted to hear your depiction of what happened firsthand.” the woman said, her bright pink, and slender lips the only feature of her face visible under the low hanging white hood she wore. She reached out with a hand, each one barely visible within the long flowing robes she wore. She took a steaming cup from its saucer and raised it to her lips, sipping daintily at its contents before setting it back down. Her motions were almost completely silent and perfectly elegant.

Aquina took those moments to articulate her thoughts, “My attendants had been working on making the sacrifices suitable as they normally do. However, the women were resistant to their usual approach. Because of this, I intervened directly. Or… I would have had a series of strange events not happened.”

“Yes, those are what I wanted to hear about.” The high priestess casually stated.

“The first oddity was that of a gemstone falling to the ground. Before any of us knew what it was, or why it was there. One of the two sacrifices ate it.” She paused for a moment unsure if there would be questions. There wasn’t so Aquina kept going, “After a bout of screaming she lunged at me, shapeshifting into a form that mirrored my own. After that, there was a frantic scuffle. My attendants proved fairly useless as neither knew what to do in the moment.”

“If I recall, you preferred the stupid ones.” The priestess mused.

Aquina grit her teeth at that. It wasn’t that she preferred the stupid ones, it was that it was hard to find intelligent attendants, let alone ones that didn’t mind doing the things she asked of them. It wasn’t that they didn’t exist surely, but unlike priestesses who knew what they were signing up for, attendants were entirely servants and thus failed to understand the gravity of their required duties. After a few moments of thought, she attempted to explain, “I prefer attendants that can help with my duties, rather than simply care for me.” It was true, if she didn’t want attendants that could work, then their duties would be less demanding.

“Lazy.” The high priestess mused.

Aquina wanted to glare at the woman, who was the lazy one here? She was literally being attended to so thoroughly that she didn’t need to do anything. Just sitting there lounging like a queen in her castle.

“Aquina, must I punish you again?” She asked for seemingly no reason.

Aquina shook her head, “Of course not.” After all the high priestess's punishments were not those she preferred. She knew all about Aquina’s inclinations and desires so down that road lay menial labor, not torture.

“Then keep your annoyance off your face.” She stated firmly with obvious disdain even though the tone didn’t show on her face, or at least the little of it Aquina could see.

Aquina tried to school her features, “Yes mistress.”

“Continue.”

“During the scuffle, the wall collapsed, and a human man and several goblins arrived. It was at this point that I decided the confrontation was lost, and I retreated to gather reinforcements.”

“Your attendants were alive?”

“They were alive when I left them.” Aquina admitted.

“And after that?” the high priestess continued lazily picking up a grape and eating it.

Aquina continued, “It took several minutes to find a guard patrol and redirect them into the prison.”

“Why?” She asked with a hint of scorn.

“The prison warden said that their usual guards were brought with the prisoners to the temple.” Aquina relayed.

“The old bat is as lazy as you are… perhaps I should make him your attendant, you could be the perfect match.” The high priestess mused smiling at her own joke.

Aquina decided to not take the bait and waited.

The moments ticked by before the high priestess spoke again, “The outcome?”

Aquina took a breath glad that ended there, “We arrived to find the room sealed, my two attendants both slain. One with my knife, the other with a long sword. One of the prisoners was also dead, by the long sword.” After a brief pause, she continued, “The guards found no sign of a break-in, just the three dead bodies in a locked room.”

“So It would seem that reports of dungeons cropping up around us are true after all.” The high priestess mused lyrically.

“Dungeons?” Aquina inquired.

“Yes. Dungeons, Anomalies created by interactions of mana and gemstones. Or so my scholar has reported.”

“What does this have to do with what happened?” Aquina asked before she could think better of it.

“Everything.” The high priestess stated firmly with an obvious force that made Aquina shrink in on herself, “That gemstone was a dungeon core. The woman that took your form was its pet monster. Still, the report suggested that dungeon cores were selfish creatures by nature, odd that this one sought to save its pet. But it makes sense that they killed the other sacrifice. They must have had no need of them. At least we can rest assured that your two attendants won’t be joining their forces. They were both pledged to Lulinla correct?” She asked with obvious implications.

Aquina nodded, “Of course mistress.” Though Aquina had no real understanding of the things that the high priestess was talking about. She surely would be looking it up soon. She was thoroughly annoyed at her defeat at the hands of that woman. Had her attendants not been so useless she would have had the opportunity to correct that, but as it was it was her loss. Such was the outcome of having better subordinates Aquina supposed.

“You have my permission to select two new attendants. When you are done with that, I’ll need you to head back to Evenvale. I’ll have you go back out with the army.”

“The army?” Aquina asked confused.

“Quite. You’ll be blessing arrows for weeks. Do try to make up for your failure in the meantime will you not?” The high priestess said smiling as though she wasn’t verbally placing a boot on Aquina’s neck, then continued, “If you fail again, I might need to rescind your rank… and with it your privileges. We both know you don’t want that.” She said with mock sympathy that was practically lilting.

Aquina shivered at that. The last thing she wanted was to go back to being an acolyte. Mostly because without the blessing of Lulinla her body would be purely mortal once more. It was impossible to hide her shock and concern.

“I see if nothing else you understand the implications. Have your attendant relay to me your results so I can properly review your efforts. Oh yes… and find priestess Orana, have her provide information about her dungeon theories, and give them to the general… or whoever the king has running the war. It seems the king has been killing them, almost daily.” She said laughing to herself briefly, “Such a waste when we could be torturing them and sacrificing them. But the king, is the king.” She noted with a sigh, “At least for now.” The high priestess finished with scorn.

Aquina nodded, “Yes mistress.” and standing she left to do as requested. She couldn’t help but pull her knife out unconsciously and leave a small trail of blood through the halls while she was looking for the woman in question.