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They had started out over the pass while the morning was still young.

The party included newly-minted goddess Ophrenet, wearing a spring-green silky chiton clasped at the shoulder, her new lotar veiled in white, and three city soldiers. There was also a pack mule, carrying their supplies in bags, and gifts for Ashtoreth. One of these gifts apparently included a young man, with a sack over his head and wrists bound together and tied to the mule's bridle.

Kianna found it disturbing that no Goa'uld besides Netty and herself were required to supervise this entire operation.

They picked their way up the path, which became more rocky as they went, studded with white boulders. It was slow going. Marian climbed silently but dutifully.

Let me speak to her, said Kianna.

You? What about our cover?

She is our lotar. She's bound to hear me speak eventually. She might as well get used to us dropping the voice, so that she won't be surprised by it later in a context that might make her more suspicious.

Fair enough.

"Marian."

The girl startled to attention. "My… lady?" By her reaction, she was more confused than afraid.

"Calm yourself. I can choose to speak as you do when I please."

The girl nodded once behind her veil.

"What do you know of Ashtoreth?" asked Kianna.

"I'truth m'lady, we know very little of her." Now the reason for Marian's surprise at being chosen for this dubious honor was evident, for when she did speak Ophrenet heard hints of that same rustic twang from the village. Kianna had her suspicions that persons of low birth were more likely to be chosen for the same honor as the man on the mule.

"She's an unknowable goddess, m'lady. She lives in veils of mystery and shadow. She sends rain and storms, or withholds them as she pleases, and we know not why, my lady, nor question except that the priests or soothsayers relay to us her demands."

"I… I see. And why did you choose to become a priestess of this Ashtoreth?"

Marian became slightly more uncomfortable. "My lady is most gracious. Please do not b'come angry with meh, I merely wish to serve her majester—"

Kianna surmounted a particularly steep portion of the trail, stooping to place her hand on the rock. She turned around and looked back and down the slope. "Truthfulness will commend you to me, Marian."

"My village suffers drought, m'lady," she admitted. "I was s'lected by the village elders to learn of why 'tis that her majester the great Goddess is angry with us. P'raps there is aught we can do to appease her anger, and she will again send rain." She looked hopeful then. "P'raps, m'lady, if I may be so bold, thou could'st intercede with the Goddess—" she stopped herself. "Forgive me, I am too bold."

This is terrible, Kianna said to Netty. We both know Ashtoreth can't actually control the weather.

Ophrenet answered the girl. "Not so. I will consider your request."

Consider her request? Kianna demanded. What is that supposed to mean? You're getting her hopes up for nothing.

You wanted me to say no? You wanted me to tell her that her goddess can't actually control the weather?

You're not dumb enough to actually ask Ashtoreth to fulfill an impossible demand.

We don't have to actually do it. We were going to steal a symbiote and make our getaway anyway.

And what kind of situation will you be abandoning her in? What have you gotten us into, Netty?

What about him? Netty was thinking of the man on the mule. Do you not care for his fate?

Of course I do. I will ask about him.

"Why does he have a bag over his head?" Kianna asked Marian as the girl caught up to her. They were over the peak of the pass now and coming downhill.

"He isna permitted to look on the Veiled City, m'lady."

As they turned a corner past a sharp cliff, a deep valley dropped off ahead of them. It was surrounded by a ring of mountains on all sides. Dark, rolling green dripped off the mountainsides, but in the basin of the valley, a layer of thick mist shrouded everything from sight.

A device in Ophrenet's pocket gave a faint beep. She pulled it out and looked at it. She was detecting life signs here, a great many, where as a moment ago, just over the pass, there had been none. This was strange. It seemed to indicate some type of shield over the valley, a massive one. Perhaps large enough to prevent the life signs of this city from being detected by ships in orbit.

It was not by accident this place had been Ba'al's best kept secret.

.The guards had left them at the top of the pass, and Ophrenet took the reins of the mule and of Kianna's body. They were deep undercover now. Kianna wondered what sort of service this man was to render to Ashtoreth. It was an unpleasant business to be involved in, all for a couple of symbiotes.

Hey.

But they were people, too, and Ashtoreth had a way of raising them without Jaffa. If it could be done, they needed to find out how.

Not only for these symbiotes, but for the future of all symbiotes.

The way down was steep, and it was coming on evening by the time they made it into the city.

There was no wall this time. The mountains themselves were the wall. The path turned into a fine, smooth road. They descended through a thin layer of cloud and into a thick forest of tall trees.

The farther they went, the taller the trees seemed to become. They were spaced distantly now, with wider branches and trunks thicker than a car. Yet there were few signs of civilization before her other than the path, and golden light-posts every hundred feet or so. It was just when she was beginning to wonder where the city was that she looked up.

There she saw the first tree-house.

How do we get up there? Kianna wondered in bewilderment at the same time that she could feel Netty's breathtaken awe and amazement.

The tree-house was connected to other houses, all nailed up and connected in the treetops, lit with torches, connected by branches thick as roads and small suspension bridges that ran tree to tree. It was a sight to be seen.

It was only moments after they had stopped walking that they were greeted. A small door that Netty had somehow not noticed before opened in the tree-trunk nearest them.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" said a nasty and very peculiar voice. It was the smallest Goa'uld she'd ever seen; his host couldn't have been more than fourteen years old. This alone Netty found very strange, as symbiotes could stop aging, but not maturation.

"Who are you?" asked Ophrenet. "We've come to see Ashtoreth."

"Who am I?" He looked offended. "I'm Puck. Surely you've heard of me."

"No, I'm sure I haven't."

"Robin Goodfellow? The Hobgoblin? Deciever of Fools? The Tau'ri used to fear to speak my name!" he came out of the door and marched toward them on his bare feet.

"Anybody would fear to speak a name that long," Netty groused.

"What? What…! I haven't been disrespected this way in centuries!" the child fumed.

"Yes, you have, you little asshole." Another Goa'uld with a much deeper voice stooped and pushed his way out of the little door. He grinned lopsidedly. He had a red nose and an unsteady gait. He held out his meaty hand to Ophrenet. "Hi. My name's Bacchus. I'm kind of the head honcho around this place." He paused as she shook his hand. "After Queen Ashtoreth, of course," he added.

Sure he is.

No doubt he'd like us to think so, thought Netty. Regardless, let's play along and see where he takes us.

"Follow me," said Bacchus. "I'll erm…" he hiccupped. "Send my lotar to get the gifts."

Kianna and Marian squeezed after Bacchus and Puck into the tree. It was carved on the inside into a tight spiral staircase that went up for a tiresomely long time. At last, however, it let out onto a smoothed, flattened branch. This was about six feet wide without guard rails of any type.

The city was even more beautiful from up above. The space was lit by hanging lanterns, which from afar, scattered around the tree banches, looked like stars. Some of the houses were higher, and some lower. Some were larger and some smaller. They were built in a mostly circular shape, centering around the tree trunks, but some were only partial circles, or rectangular, hanging off to the side or resting on tree branches.

I wonder if I get one of those.

If you do, said Kianna, it's not for very long.

Well, I want one. They're cool.

Make your own, then.

We will. Someday.

Nothing here seemed to resemble standard Goa'uld architecture in the least; all being built out of wood. Ashtoreth clearly had her own unique sense of aesthetics, and she lived it fully.

They headed across a suspension bridge made of wooden slats, toward one of the highest, largest houses in the city. A pale blue light shone from its windows. They came to a gondola, hung by ropes, which was then hoisted on a pulley by the arms of human slaves below. They ascended slowly and stepped out on the same height as this palatial house.

Here Bacchus took them across another bridgelike branch which spanned across a great empty abyss. Below, Kianna could see a shallow greenish-colored pond filled with various types of water plants. She did not spend much time looking down however, for they were moving far too fast along the narrow walkway.

At the porch of the building were three female attendants. Each of them had a crescent-moon shaped headdress spiked through her hair, and was wearing nothing but a gauzy-thin white fabric that might as well have been glass. Kianna averted her eyes awkwardly.

"We are the fates," said the women in unison. "Your lotar must stay outside with us. Only the gods may enter the court of Ashtoreth."

Ophrenet nodded to Marian. "Stay."

With that, Bacchus swept the doors open, and Kianna and Ophrenet stepped inside.