Our Little Gods 1: RABATEA, the first World of the Daughters.

Chapter 28.

It was odd seeing Limero and Maasil dressed like the common folk, They were so used to seeing them in the robes of the monk and the novice. But they had merely been in the monastery for a fortnight that the Thiriik had had a vision of the Ceremony of Names and the coronation of the king with a crown of flames by a being they could not look upon.

They had fled again, down the coastal road towards the village of Zilia, the triarch gave them a chariot filled with sheared wool bales and they posed as spinners coming back from Lott's trade fair. Limero and Maasil may look odd to their companions dressed in character but the transformation of the Thiriik was breathtaking. To an outsider crossing their path on the road, the weaver Limero was traveling with his wife and her sister and their three sons accompanied by four strong spinners that had built a abundance of muscles from wool carding and linen crushing. Yïach and Yorn had vanished in the hinterland upon landing, they both had appeared exited at discovering the lower lands of Limore, if one could call a springy gait and a faint smile being exited.

Maasil walked as if in a trance clutching a cloth bundle tightly to his chest, his eyes lost in the distance half way between himself and the back of Baalbek. In the bundle was a baked clay disk one face of which was covered with lines and GodWord texts. The linen strips that had come with it had explained the secret society and the truly divine origin of the item. Maasil had known instantly that this was the map the texts from the mural in Nag had gone on about. The disk was the most amazing thing he had ever behold. The etchings were so fine as to be thinner than a hair's breadth but they were also perfectly clear. The entire inscription had burned itself in his mind so vividly that he could have reproduced it in its minute details at the drop of a hat. As he walked, the smallest part of his brain was paying attention to the path and his direct surroundings, the rest was entirely focused on understanding what it all meant.

"Limero," Baalbek called. "The maps show that there is a fishing community off the road on the shore that way..." Limero raised his eyebrows questioningly. "It's either that or continuing to Zilia but the monastery there is bound to attract the same unwanted attention than the one back in Luz, don't you think?"

"Do you believe the rumours are true? That they have exiled the monks from Medsit and Salit?" Limero asked.

"I am always weary of rumours, but this time they have been very consistent and I don't think they'll stop at the monasteries near the capital city. Radelyes has changed gods and my bet is that he wants the whole country to be purged of the old ways." He said directing his steps to the road branching off the main. "We are weavers and spinners and we will stop at the inn of the village because our wives, sorry Sar Melek, are travel weary."

"Call me Melek only 'Sar' is too much of a Thiriik title." The woman said from under the hood of her traveling cloak.

"Is there going to be an inn, I mean since it's just a fishing village?" Terrey asked suddenly concerned with his creature comfort.

"It is situated roughly a day's walk from Luz and a day away from Zilia, of course there is going to be an inn." Baalbek replied. "The real problem is going to be coming up with a story that will not make the innkeeper suspicious."

The Ferollian general thought about it and suddenly smiled and said "I have actually already done it during the Yvarem occupation: Limero will speak for all of us, the less we talk the better. You," He said pointing at limero. "Will ask for my men and I to be birthed in the hay above the stables, it's minimum fee and that makes sense that we remain near the chariot to keep watch over it. The ladies being travel worn as they are will retire to the main guest room and dine there. Which leaves you Limero and the boys to dine in the main room answering the questions of the innkeeper and the unavoidable curious patrons." He turned towards Maasil and added. "The next step of our journey depends on your rapidity to figure that 'map' thing out and give us a heading, I suggest that you go with the women to have some quite time." Maasil nodded his agreement to that part of the plan and resumed his unfocused staring into nothingness.