Rory glanced back at the two and found them quite attentive. Beyond them, though, everyone else had gone still and silent -- too much so. He thought his two companions, the two gods, and himself, were caught in a bubble in a sort of metaphysical amber. He wanted to go throw himself against the invisible wall --
"Be calm, Roridon," Eket said. The words made him calm, a touch of command there. He wanted to fight it, but only because he was too used to being the one with the power. This was Eket. Obey.
As long as Eket did nothing --
The God looked at him with a raised eyebrow, and Aien turned as well. Being under their direct scrutiny was not comfortable.
"I mean no disrespect," Rory offered to things he had not said aloud. "This has been a trying time, and to find Temple Master Pyrida working against us --"
"Working against you?" Aien said with a frown.
"He has joined the New Order of Man --"
Eket and Aien focused on him -- and just as fast, they turned away and stared at the far wall. Rory had time to glance at Zorian and the dragon which towered over him.
They both shrugged.
"This is not right," Aien said, drawing back his attention. "We chose Pyrida for his strong faith and steady morals. Someone we could trust while we explored being human --"
"Hold on. How long has he been Temple Master?"
"We have no sense of human time," Eket said.
"But I do," Zorian replied and drew all their attention. "I can tell you that he has been Temple Master for 681 years and had not left the temple before seven years ago."
"Over 670 years in the same place? It is a wonder he didn't go mad long before he did. I think I might have been a catalyst to start him on his new path. That was when I arrived."
"This is a long time?" Eket asked.
"A very long time for humans, which he had been at the start." Zorian apparently gave up on his reluctance to join in and moved up by Rory. Greenal stood at their backs, and Rory tried to take that as a good sign.
Eket and Aien were talking to each other and not in a language Rory understood. Though he was drawn to the musical lilt, he could not even guess its roots.
Maybe it had no antecedents. Perhaps this was the first language -- the words spoken by the Gods long before mankind arrived.
Eket finally nodded and looked at Rory and gave a decisive nod. "You are now my High Priest."
"But --" Rory started.
Something changed in him at Eket's wave. He was bound to the God but no less bound to his Queen. There was going to be a conflict before too long.
But Eket knew his protest had only been about the sudden change in status. He was, though, briefly aware of Pyrida's shock that something had been stripped from him.
Authority.
With it came knowledge, and more of it than he could handle in one overwhelming rush. There were other things, but so much that Rory accepted without judgment. It changed him, those few moments when he let everything flow into him.
And then it stopped.
"I will leave this to you and your fellow High Priest," Eket said. He took hold of Aiden's hand and pressed it to his lips. "We have matters to settle between us."
They faded away. The stillness and silence remained for three or four heartbeats, and then sound and movement filled the world like a flood. Rory thought he would drown in it. He went down, but then someone lifted him. It was not Zorian who tried to speak to him.
Greenal.
Why not?
He awoke again in a dark room with the dragon on the bed beside him, curled up like a cat, but taking most of the space. Zorian sat by an open window where a night breeze flowed.
Rory moved slightly. Greenal lifted his head, blinking luminous eyes.
"Go back to sleep," Rory said as he stood up.
Greenal yawned, showing sharp teeth that Rory would rather not have seen. Then the dragon's head dropped back to the mattress with a noticeable thump.
Zorian showed him the indoor privy at the end of the hall and escorted him back. He pulled another chair to the window and created a sound shield so they wouldn't wake Greenal.
Or maybe it was others that worried him. Rory had the feeling that there were mistrustful people everywhere around them, although that did not make them outright enemies.
He didn't complain about Zorian's precautions, though. His companion at least had a clue about what was going on.
"Questions?" Zorian asked as he poured wine for both of them. Then he added water to the cups, for which Rory was grateful. This was not the time to court drunkenness. "Rory? Questions?"
"So many questions they would only cloud the issue. Tell me things."
"As you figured out by now, I am Aien's High Priest -- the one she chose when Eket took on Pyrida. Yes, that old -- but I didn't lock myself away in a temple. She is a nature goddess, so wandering the world worked."
"And Eket is a god of knowledge, right? I don't have to readjust all my beliefs?"
"Not all of them."
Zorian looked out the window and frowned at a distant sound. Rory wasn't sure what it was, but he didn't like it.
"Let us deal with that material later," Zorian said as he looked back. "The problems of today are far too important to ignore. If we survive, we'll talk about other times."
Rory hoped that wasn't supposed to be reassuring...
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