When the morning rays of dawn played over Crentha's face, she gave a little start. Wincing, judging by the stiffness in her neck and back, she'd lost herself in prayers again. Unabled to sleep, she'd stolen away in the night to walk around the temple – Perin's temple she considered it, even though he held no high position of power within it. Perin traveled openly, as she did, but this was the place of his origin and so they were staying here while waiting for Loki, and hopefully Firespice, to join up with them before taking to the road again.
Eventually during her wandering, she'd been drawn to this room, as she knew she would be. It was no ornate prayer room, shrine, altar, or anything remotely so holy. It was a quiet, empty room – save for the rugs, a bench, and a mostly empty bookcase – that had a window strategically placed to afford an unobstructed view of the sky if one knelt in direct line of it. At night, one could see most of the constellations. Crentha had been drawn to it immediately upon their arrival and initial tour, and when she had inquired to its use was told that it was a room that penance was given in and sins confessed. This was the third night of her stay in the temple that she'd come to this place, her feet inexplicably beating a path to the room no matter where she started out from. Three times she'd come to kneel before the window and pray to her mother, and by now she was convinced it was no coincidence that kept her returning.
Sighing, the kendermaid rubbed the sleep from her eyes and ruffled her wings. The light of the morning stung her eyes and so she moved into a darker corner to preen and wake up more fully.
"Why do you call to me, Mother?" Crentha murmured while smoothing down the edges of her wings. "Don't you approve of my marriage? Aren't you happy for me?"
"There you are!" The sudden exclamation caused Crentha to jump and jar one of her wings against the wall painfully. Nursing the bruise, she looked up to see Perin sighing in relief and leaning against the doorframe. He was smiling fondly at her, but Crentha had been quick enough to catch a glimpse of the worry and anxiety he'd shown before it melted away. "Tired of my bedside already?" Crentha grinned at him affectionately, rising as if to greet him and instead launching herself into his arms. Perin, having long gotten used to the game that amused Crentha so, caught her easily and held her tightly against him. She snuggled against his chest and nestled into his arms comfortably, filling Perin with the warm glow of her innocence.
"Of course not," Crentha scoffed with a sly smile. She placed a gentle kiss on her husband's forehead. More seriously, Crentha added, "I was called away again." Perin stroked her hair consolingly and fingered her blank medallion of her faith with his free hand.
"Your unnamed goddess again?" Though his voice never gave hint to sarcasm, Crentha felt bad for deceiving him. She had told Perin that she was granted her spells by some unknown goddess that she'd caught the fancy of. In reality, it was probably a mixture of her own innate celestial heritage and the benevolence of her mother that let her perform the divine spells of clerics, but she couldn't tell him that.
Loki had pointed out, and truthfully so, that people hardly believed them the children of a kender war hero; half of those they spoke to didn't believe kender could be any kind of hero! How they would sneer at the claim of half-god kender! And perhaps not just settle on sneering – some religious zealots would perhaps take deadlier action to silence their "blasphemous" claims. Crentha had shrugged that fact away, as did her brother. Neither was too daunted by any menacing prospects, and they were not ashamed of who they were or who their parents were. They quickly found themselves very unwelcome, however, whenever they cheerfully admitted their heritage freely. Getting nowhere quick in their attempts to spread joy, healing, and music, the siblings agreed to keep their true heritage a secret. Crentha managed to even keep the fact from her husband, claiming (as her mother did so long ago) that her wings were a gift at birth from the gods – a true enough claim. Someday soon she'd tell Perin the truth; but there was no point in throwing away a good thing now.
"I don't know what she wants," Crentha admitted, resting her cheek on Perin's shoulder. "Why won't my goddess tell me so that I can do her will?"
"The gods are rarely so blunt," Perin replied mildly. "When you are meant to know, you will know." He smiled at her so radiantly that Crentha couldn't help but feel cheered. "Come, we'll miss breakfast."
"Blasphemy!" Crentha declared light-heartedly, and the priestly couple laughed joyfully, Perin strolling through the marble and stone corridors and carrying his energetic, cheerful wife in his arms with him.
Loki leaned over Firespice's shoulder as the latter penned a letter, his eyes trying to catch the sentences and make sense of what was taking up precious traveling time. The effort was in vain – Firespice's handwriting was atrocious.
"Whatcha doin'?" Loki inquired. Firespice shoved the feather end of his quill into Loki's face, causing his younger brother to back off and sneeze loudly.
"Writing a letter," Firespice quipped, satisfied with the space between the brothers and getting back to his work. "Is the word 'fondest' spelled with an 'e' or an 'i'?"
"A 'u' I think," Loki murmured absently, sniffling and stifling a second sneeze. He fell back against Firespice's bed and heaved a bored sigh. "I can see that you're writing, and I use the term loosely. I want to know what you need to write a letter for. C'mon, already, I want to get out on the road!"
"This is important enough," Firespice assured Loki as he blew quickly on the letter to dry the ink before stuffing it unceremoniously into an envelope and sealing it. "Quit your bellyaching, we're going now. We just need to swing by the temple first."
The young bard snatched his belongings and scrambled after Firespice, who was already leaving now that his business was done. When Loki started to pry further and make jokes of love letters, Firespice waved the questions and teasings away with a hand and said no more. On arrival, the two kender were treated with polite respect from a surprising new addition to the temple staff.
"Blessings on you today," a young priest greeted. He was a wide eyed, beaming young kender – younger than Firespice and not much older than Loki.
The Burrfoots nodded politely in turn as Firespice inquired on two particular priestesses.
"Fianna and Cynda?" the priest echoed. "The kender high priestesses? What do you want them for?"
"We've a letter to leave with them," Firespice answered, showing it off with a flourish of his hand.
"They're probably busy," the acolyte pointed out. "I'll do my best to fetch them, but your best bet is to just give me the letter. I promise to deliver it to them safely."
"Tell them that Firespice Burrfoot wants to deliver his letter personally before he goes away for a while." The priest's eyes widened further, and Firespice was surprised to not see them fall out of the lad's head.
"Burrfoot?" he whispered in reverant tones. "Are you, by chance, related to Crentha Burrfoot, the traveling priestess?"
"She's our sister," Loki confirmed. "Have you seen her recently?"
The young kender started to hop in place, unable to contain his excitement and squirming as though he would burst. "She inspired me to be a priest! I saw her in Kalaman during my wandering. She sang for the people there, healed a few banged up folks, told stories, and spoke inspiring words to the people." He sighed happily and his eyes took on a dreamy expression. "The stories were marvelous! She told me how she traveled to Solamnia in search of her faith. I made a similar pilgrimage to Palanthas and now I'm a member of the church. Ah, and she was so beautiful. Long hair, gleaming dusky white wings…"
"Careful, that's my sister you're talking about," Firespice warned in laughing tones, greatly amused.
A feminine voice cut in from behind the novitiate, "Thatch, are you talking the guests to death again?" Cynda approached and lay a hand on Thatch's shoulder, who nearly jumped out of his skin, startled.
"They look plenty alive to me," Thatch protested. "Unless they're really lich in disguise! Or zombies!" He paused and looked at the Burrfoot brothers more closely, eyes peering as if to catch some heretofore unseen characteristic. "Are you zombies?"
"If I'm a zombie, I would someone would have told me sooner," Firespice answered rather somberly.
"I'd like to be a vampire," Loki quipped cheerfully. "They can fly, right?"
Firespice eyed his younger brother strangely and asked, "Do you really want to go sucking people's blood though?" The sour look on Loki's face confirmed his answer.
"Firespice, it's so good to see you child," Cynda crooned, gathering the blushing kender into his arms and placing a kiss on his forehead.
Loki chuckled, "Why brother, I didn't know you were into older women." Only his quick reflexes saved him from getting the forked end of a hoopak in his face.
"Brother?" Cynda repeated and looked from Loki to Firespice quizzically. "Why yes, now that you mention it, I do see a bit of resemblance."
"Meet Loki," Firespice introduced. "The famed kender bard, fresh from his tour of Qualinesti, and my little brother. I've told you about him before."
"Nothing good probably," Loki giggled, kissing the back of Cynda's hand, which only served to send her into a fit of giggles herself.
"A pleasure to meet you," Cynda greeted sincerely. "I'm Cynda Clasphands. My, though, you do look far more like your mother. Firespice is a splitting image of his father, but you do have his eyes." Amidst the exchange, Thatch continued to look back and forth between the Burrfoots, awe in his eyes. "What is this about needing to give me a letter?"
"I wasn't sure if I would have time to write you on the road," Firespice explained. "So I wrote a letter ahead of time. Don't read it right away." He smiled and placed the crumpled envelope in Cynda's hands.
"Where are you going?" Cynda inquired, taking up the pensive motherly look.
Loki cleared his throat and spoke up, "We're going to see my sister and her new husband in Pentar."
"Any blessings to give me before I go?" Firespice asked teasingly. Cynda merely frowned and stroked his topknot with a loving touch.
"Do be careful out there," she pleaded, surprising all the kender boys. "You are a treasure to Seler and to all kender everywhere."
"I'm not afraid of any dangers," Firespice scoffed, and Loki chimed in with a lame 'yeah!'.
"Take me with you!" Thatch blurted suddenly, drawing curious stares from the other three. Blushing, he repeated, "Take me with you, please. I can make sure that you both stay in good health on the trip."
"How noble of you," Loki thanked the boy. "But somehow I think this has less to do with us, and more to do with our sister, whom you seem rather enamored of even though we just admitted that she is wedded already." Thatch was beginning to turn crimson up to his eartips as he scuffed the ground with his toes.
"I really wanna meet her again," he murmured, abashed. The brothers glanced at each other, smiled and shrugged.
"The more the merrier," Firespice consented, and Loki nodded his agreement. Thatch's head snapped up in surprise as he gave a whoop of glee and ran off to gather his things for the road as fast as he could.
"Think this is a mistake?" Firespice murmured out of the corner of his mouth. Loki grinned mischievously and shrugged.
"If worse comes to worse," he drawled. "At least we'll have someone to tell stories to." Firespice grinned back and said his final farewells to Cynda. After Thatch reappeared with his gear in hand, the three kender started on the path that would take them to Pentar and Crentha.