Our Journey (the Fourth Book in the Her Weakness series)

Chapter 41

Clarke's POV

After a good night's rest, we head toward the meeting place where we'll meet... whatever the scholar's name is. I'm walking in the front, hand in hand with Lexa, who's pretty much the only one who knows where we're going. We head uphill, towards a large white brick wall that I can see the tip of building peeking out of. I can't tell what it is, though. Is that the temple?

There's a woman in a robe-like garment wrapped around her, kind of like what Pythia wore, except hers is white. She's waiting in front of the beautiful white stairs, which lead up and into the wall. She has tan skin, kind of like Raven, and her black hair is braided. I don't have to see the braids to know they're probably perfectly done. She bows when we approach her.

"Heda. Everyone. It is good to see you." She speaks Gonalseng (English) easier than most people we've come across, with barely a hint of an accent.

"Your Gonasleng is very good." Raven remarks.

The woman smiles. "Mochof (thank you). Many of our texts are in Gonasleng and other languages, so most scholars are fluent in at least three languages. Oh, apologies. I did not introduce myself. I am Athena, and I am one of the highest ranking scholars here. I am going to be showing you around."

Athena gestures for us to follow her and Octavia murmurs something about people naming their kids after Greek gods.

"I know right? And it's even fitting." Raven murmurs to Octavia as we follow Athena up the steps. "She's a high ranking scholar, Athena's the goddess of wisdom... What? I listen when you talk, babe!"

I hear a smack of one set of lips and I assume that means Octavia kissed Raven's cheek. "I know, Rae. I'm just impressed."

"Impressed that I'm awesome? We've been dating for months, O. You shouldn't be surprised." Raven teases.

We get up the stairs and the first thing I see is a fairly tall cylindrical building, kind of like a gazebo, except it's held up with pillars and has a smaller, enclosed part inside. It looks really cool, actually. It appears to be tiered, with one layer of ceiling that goes up to the inner building, then the inner building has it's own, a little bit higher (two or three blocks higher), roof. It looks beautiful.

To the right of the gazebo thing, there's two smaller but long buildings, much shorter than the gazebo. They kind of remind me of those big above ground tombs on Old Earth. I think they're called mausoleums. Just with that looks like red roofs, which seems to be on every building I see here, except for the gazebo.

"We will start on the left and make our way down." Athena says.

We walk along the path until we are past the gazebo and the building after that, which is like a much larger version of the mausoleum things. It has more pillars out front, and is more than twice as long. Next to it is a smaller, unremarkable building.

"This building is the priests' quarters, there is not much interesting about it." Athena admits, gesturing to the unremarkable building. "The building next to it is much more interesting. This is our most recently built temple, made of limestone."

I look closer at the bricks and see the distinct yellowish coloring I've come to recognize a limestone. They have a lot of it in places near warmer and larger bodies of water, like near big rivers and it's tributaries, as well as by lakes.

"Sadly, we cannot go in at the moment. The priests are in there, praying to the Gods and do not like being interrupted." Athena says and we all nod in understanding.

She continues walking and we follow her. We pause in front of the gazebo. I admire the craftsmanship of the pillars and the stones. They certainly have amazing carvers here. I'm pretty sure this is made of white marble, and it's... Absolutely incredible up close. The grays and some black mixed in gives the impression that there's... I don't know, water with something in it that dried as it flowed across the marble. The patterns are fascinating and intricate.

"This is what was called Tholos in Ancient Greece." Athena says. "A tomb. We use it for when a high priestess dies. Because of that, only the living high priestess of this temple can give permission for someone to go inside. We do not have permission, and I have been inside only once in the 23 years I have worked here as a scholar."

"It's beautiful." I say.

"It is," Athena agrees. "It is made with the love our people have for the high priestesses."

We stand there for a couple more minutes and I try to commit it to memory, knowing I'll definitely want to paint some of this, or at least sketch it sometime. We continue on to the two mausoleum-like buildings with guards standing in front of them. They stand still, like statues, two in front of each mausoleum and one patrolling around them. They shift after every two rotations around the two mausoleums. The guard walking just goes around them both since they're so close together.

"These are the Treasuries. As you may know, some people pay to come to the high priestess and hear her tell them her visions. These Treasuries hold the gold and gifts we have gotten over the years. It is property first of this temple, and secondly of the city. If the city is low on its funds and wants to build something, the city leader will head to a temple and meet with the priests and priestesses, along with the temple treasurer and the high priestess. The leader will gift us something in return, usually it is an offering to the Gods or something to add to our collections."

It's smart that they have so many people in that meeting, even if it would be incredibly boring. The city leader wouldn't be disrespectful in front of the high priestess, or anyone else really. It's a good way to make sure the temples are not cheated out of their money, especially with them bringing their treasurer as well, who I assume keeps track of what they have and what they give.

Okay, next chapter more temple! And guys I found this awesome site (I'm going to put the link below so you can see) that shows the layout of what everything used to look like! I named the scholar Athena not jut for the irony, but also because I'm basing this off of Delphi's "Shrine of Athena Pronaia." And Pronaia is a cool name, but I can barely pronounce that in my head. Plus, I used to have a friend named Athena! She was in my Girl Scout troop (yes I was a Girl Scout, my best friend was shocked when she found out). Thank you all for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!

The site: http://www.goddess-athena.org/Museum/Temples/Delphi/Shrine_reconstruction_SW.html