AN: Ok, this isn't quite a backstory, so much as a sidestep. Part two. I'm not going to do full-out backstories on them, (i think-- i reserve the right to change my mind) so this is what you get for now.

enjoy.

--fili

Gabriel frowned. The meeting had gone as he had expected.

Kind of.

He had handed the missive to the High Priestess, a severe-looking woman who had looked like she had expected his appearance. She gave the note a cursory glance, and beckoned him closer. He had stepped towards her, expected her to give him a verbal response she didn’t want the chubby assistant, who was busy spying on the goings on in the garden, but instead she had reached one talon of a nail out towards him and scratched him viciously on the forehead.

“Hey!” He had recoiled instantly, backing rapidly towards the door.

She had smiled vacantly, eying her nail, now red with his blood. “I will give you a reply eventually. But until then, you are not to leave the grounds of the Temple.”

Still reeling from shock, and in disbelief of what she had said, he broke inelegantly for the stairs, and ran down them as fast as he could.

But now he stood in front the gates. There were no guards, which was yet another sign of the laxness of the Sun Temple. He fully intended to leave, but every time he mentally ordered his feet to move forward, they refused to go.

He sighed, and turned around. Great. Now the Sun Temple was not only corrupt with laziness, but with blood magic as well. Worse, the High Priest had forbidden studies of counter-magic and sorcery, saying such knowledge was not only archaic, but inherently evil: if no one practiced such things, knowing the counters would only put the idea of evil in the heads of the priests.

Gabe didn’t necessarily agree, but nevertheless, he was still stuck. At least he could look for that girl, Nic-something—maybe she could help him.

Nicolae was enjoying her brief period of silence. Thalia, the reclusive Herbalist, had assigned her weeding to do the garden. The children had tried to this morning, but it hadn’t worked out so well, so Nicolae was fixing it as the sun set. The usual setting ritual had been reduced to being only done by one priestess, as it had been skipped so much by Priestesses and Initates getting courted that it became insulting—so the High Priestess quickly changed the ritual, and assigned it to Eurepte, the Librarian who had made her disinterest in males clear long ago. She was the only one, as far as Nicolae was aware of, not being courted—or, more accurately, not entertaining male vistors at night.

Even Thalia was being courted. Although Nicolae had not seen the striking General Shan for quite some time, his visits to see Thalia brought the usually quiet Herbalist to the fore of Temple gossip. There was always the underlying suspicion of soldiers, deprived of woman, not preferring the gentler sex, so this interaction—especially between a quickly-rising then- Captain and a quiet foreigner—a Gishan, of all things! But then came the promotions, and the ever-further posts, and thus the less frequent visits.

Nicolae wondered, as she pulled at the stubborn roots, if Thalia missed the warmth and comfort at night.

She wondered if Gabriel was courting someone.

As she consciously squashed the thought, he stumbled into the bush and then tumbled into the neat rows of vegetables.

Gabriel had shed his cloak in the afternoon heat, and apparently he lost his grip on it in the fight with the bush, as the cloak was still tangled up in it. He sat up stiffly, and then cracked into laughter, a few locks of dark hair falling into his eyes as he rocked back and forth, heedless of the dirt accumulating on his tunic and breeches.

Nicolae eyed him for a moment before dissolving into giggles herself.

“How did you manage that?” She asked him.

“I’m not quite sure. I don’t trust my feet though—“ He pointed to his forehead. “Blood magic.”

Nicolae looked at him, astounded. “Blood magic? There are no witches on the grounds. Besides, no one’s used blood magic—or any dark magic—heck, magic at all! for ages!”

Gabriel shook his head. “So that belief’s here, too? Well, lady, your High Priestess scratched my forehead while I delievered her missive, and ordered me not to leave the grounds. I”ve spent the rest of the afternoon trying to do so, but I cannot climb the walls like I can at my Temple, nor can I force my feet to walk out the gate.”

Nicolae thought for a moment. Dark magic? Worked by the High Priestess? If she didn’t have such faith in the Goddess, it would make sense. It explained why all the passionate Priestesses, women who knew the doctrine and ritual, women who cared, suddenly Coupled with nobles visiting from far provinces and moved away, leaving only the vain, like Hermeus or Aphrodite, the indifferent, like the Cook, Clio, and the shy and retiring, like Thalia and Eurepte. It explained why the goldsmiths never ran out of gold, even when the number of daily tributes had steadily declined over the years, after the great Conquering wars. It might even explain why no Initates came anymore, except those interesting in a steady stream of suitors and a comfortable bed.

But Nicolae had always had a steady faith in the Goddess. No Goddess would abandon her own Temple to corruption, would she? Not to dark magic! Not by her own High Priestess!

But the proof—potentially—lay before her. “Come.” Nicolae said, getting up. “Let me see this for myself.”

They walked through the Garden, alongside the large buildings, to the front gate. Nicolae moved forward to push open the large wooden doors—

And Gabriel couldn’t even do that.

Nicolae considered momentarily that he was trying to fool her, but the frustration on his face was too agonized to be faked. She turned away from the door and sighed. “Ok, you can sleep in my room for now.”

Gabriel looked scandalized. “What?” He knew that other Sun Priestesses and Initiates took lovers, but the Moon Priests did not venture outside the grounds. Women did not come in, and they did not go out. Sometimes the Priests took each other as lovers, but that was occasional at best—as far as Gabriel was aware. Not that he had tendencies towards that himself, but still.

Nicolae must have read this on his face. “Where are you going to sleep? Outside? I’m not besmirching my honor here, and I doubt that your Priests will find out to bemoan your loss of purity.”

Gabriel eyed her. If anything, she was the purest one here.

Nicolae walked, turned and looked back at him. “Come on, I need to get extra blankets.”

Gabriel stepped next to her. “Why?”

Nicolae looked him up and down. “You don’t think you’re actually sleeping in my bed, do you? And it’s winter—you know how cold the nights get. You are sleeping on the floor, boyo.”

Miffed, and not truly understanding why, he followed her to the linen closets.

“Is the floor comfortable?”

She shrugged. “Not really. That’s why I’m getting the extra blankets. Plus, it’s still the beginning of winter—who knows how much the rains can make the temperature drop.”

He sighed and followed her back to her room.

Gabriel woke up in the night, freezing. He could hear the beginning of the rains outside—there would be no gardening for the next few months. While Nicolae had pilfered all the blankets available, she explained as she was making the makeshift bed on the floor that apparently the other Initiates hadn’t done laundry for a while, so he only had one to soften the marble beneath him and two thin ones on top. He sat up and tried to peer into the darkness. He remembered from earlier the Spartan furniture, in the small room. Because Initiates each had their own room, they were, by necessity, smaller and plainer than the Priestess’, or the communal bedrooms of the children.

He heard the girl shift on the bed beside him, and he turned as she did, to look into her eyes. She jumped up, blinked, and looked at him.

Then she shivered. “Cold?” She asked.

He nodded, then, realizing it was dark, said, “Yes.”

She sighed, then said, “Come on. And bring those blankets.”

Gabriel wasted no time in scrambling up and grabbing the blankets. He threw back the thick quilt on her bed, earning a muttered, “Goddess!” from the girl, threw his blankets on her, slipped under those, and drew up the quilt. He felt her curl into a ball, almost pushing him off the bed. Sighing, he curled around her and breathed in the warmth.

Waking up the next morning, Nicolae could completely sympathize with any woman who seduced a man. Being in another person’s arms—and she didn’t know if it was just Gabriel or men in general—was possibly the best feeling she had every experienced.

She felt his arms tighten around her, and his eyelashes brush her hair. “Corrupted yet?” She asked, teasing.

He paused. “No, I don’t think so.”

And somehow he gave that question much more weight than it was due.

He spent the rest of the month there. The High Priestess ignored him, and refused audiences with anyone, locking herself in the Tower until the Solstice celebrations. So Gabriel tagged along behind Nicolae during her new chores during the winter rains: watching the children, cleaning the dormitories, and sometimes, if the Herbalist asked, assisted in potion-making. When he sensed her growing tired of his assistance, he snuck off to the Library, hunting fruitlessly for texts on magic, while avoiding the bespectacled Librarian. He tried, every dawn, to walk out the gates. When his eyes ached, he sat in the Temple and meditated. He was surprisingly comfortable there, and Nicolae had found him there on more than one occasion late in the night, and she had come to fetch him to bed.

Gabriel never again slept on the floor, although a week later there were blankets to spare. They never did anything more than hold each other, and remained, at least in their own minds, very close, much needed, friends.

But their growing fondness for each other did not go unnoticed. Clio teased occasionally, and Thalia prayed for their budding relationship every night.

Then the Empress died, the High Priestess made her announcement, and a flood of the faithful poured back into the Temple. The goldsmith eunuchs’ holds overflowed, and incense reeked in the Temple.

But Nicolae noted aloud one night to Gabe that the High Priestess still ignored him, and she did not open her ranks of Initiates to anyone. Instead, the value of the nobles’ daughters—as she herself was—skyrocketed, and the nobility who had relatives in the Temple gained influence. She wondered why, and Gabriel’s only answer was a political game too deep for their understanding.

AN:

This is the end of the strange Interlude part. Hopefully you have a better idea about the Sun Temple, and I’ve hopefully complicated the plot a bit more. OooOOOOoooo. Mystery. Romance. Be amazed.

Back to real time and more plot!