Inn

[Rhedri]

Rhodrian entered the smokey inn and ordered and ale from the barmen. He had just come from a speech given by the queen and wanted something to drink.

[Athora]

Athora made her way in going straight to the bar for a drink, after ordering she took her cloak off shacking out some of the dirt from her travles. Swaping the drink for money she took a few mouth fulls before looking about her.

[Rhedri]

Rhodrian had another beer and looked around as he heard someone else enter. Seeing Athora he stood and walked over to her table.
"How are you Athora"

[Athora]

Athora looked up from her seat and realising who it was smiled "Rhodrain, I am well and how about yourself, please take a seat."

[Rhedri]

Rhodrian sat down and took another mouthful of beer. "I am just fine, just stopping here to see who the queen fare haven't got a chance to see her yet as she was busy with a speech but i shall get round to it. How is Neurion and Adorn?"

[Athora]

"Neurion is well dealing with the battle at Edoras wich is not getting far due to the West, as normal. Adorn is even better the people who are not fighting mantain it well and they get along well with eachother there are not many demesic problems I have to solve and it grows every day. How is all with Rhun for just walking through evry thing looks well."

[Rhedri]

"I wouldnt know how Rhun us you'd have to ask the Queen, i ahve just got here from Harad."
He finished his beer and had the cup taken away.

[Morwen]

Morwen summond her maid and dressed in the cloths of a traveler. Spies were all very well but she prefreed to know exactly what happened in her city first hand. She crept through the busy streets and entered the Inn, slideing into a shadowed courner.

[Athora]

"I just thought you went to hear her speach or something and that I what she was talking about? Well then how if Harad doing?"

Athora notice a figure in the corner of her eye walk in and go to a dark corner, Athora wondered what they where hiding there for.

[Rhedri]

"I arrived when she was finishing her speech, it was to crowded so i came here to have a beer and rest before i met the queen. Harad is fine tribes are settled for the moment." Rhodrian looked up as the door opened and a cloaked figure walked in but thought nothing of it.

[Athora]

"Well that is good news, have you travled much?"

[Morwen]

Morwen pricked up her ears, he would be asked the same questions when he spoke with her but it was worth listening him speak with a freind

[Saige]

Saige entered the inn and approached the bar, ordering mead and sitting down at a table to enjoy her drink.

[ishtar]

The two travelers, who actually looked as if they had not traveled anywhere, since there was not even dust on the mans black boots entered the Inn, and were shown to a sheltered corner, and served with wine.
Both wore robes with deeply cowled hoods, but cast them back as they sat.
Ishtar , being what she was, looked for Priestesses mainly in mortal lands. But only in Rhun, was there truly a matriarchal society, with its female warriors, and it's warrior Queen. She knew what her father thought about that, but he dealt with war and ruling, and what she dealt with was completely different, but more subtle.
It was also hidden, from almost all but her father.

The Priestess of the Land, dwelled in a temple complex in the heart of Khand, performing the rites of the Goddess. But they were the only women in that land, who were not under the rule of Nodonn, or any man. Men came, - or rather were sent - to the Temple, rather as a sacrifice, by their tribes. They were not sacrificed, but there they learned the power of the woman.
Ishtar said it was so simple a mere Man could never understand it, and she described it thus:
A desert Chieftain might have a harem of women, and believe he was their absolute master with the right to have them or banish or sell them, or even kill them. Now, she said, with her double edged smile, look at it from the other side. This Man, who is so much the Lord and Master, nevertheless , is ruled by his lusts, or he would have no women, and choose none, - that power, to make a man need, desire, all lay within the women, it was they who had the control, in truth, if only they realized it. But too many did not, - and so the Temple partly existed to show Women this secret.
It was within Ishtars province to send any-one, from the God-King to the lowest foot soldier, to the Temple, and once there, they would worship whatever women she chose, perhaps it was one she found in her travels, beaten, forced to bear too many children, abused, raped, - after a magical night in the Temple, those women would never be downtrodden again.

But the Priestesses were different, they too could have any-one, but only if they chose, and so Ishtar sought strong women. The Balchoth women were strong, they had to be, since Rhun was a vast country, and not tame. She would never buy them, but sometimes, whispers went around that a woman who lost her man in battle, or a child, or who was, for whatever reason, not one who desired marriage, would leave, and vanish and never return. In the Temple they were absolutely their own women, in Khand no man might ever touch them, they would perform rites, under the full moon, run across the fertile land naked with the wind in their hair, shoot bows, ride horses, drink the Blue Wine in revels and be complete in themselves. Elven women did not need such, for the Elves, who revered Varda above all the Valar, had never treated their women as anything but equal.
But in most mortal lands, women were chattels, and if not that obedient to their husbands. The Temple and its secrets were there to show that this was a lie, and women could be more.

Ishtar sipped the wine, shadows lay across her face and concealed it, they would remain only a short while and then travel on, leaving dim-purple flowers, scented where her feet trod, and that strange, secret whisper running through a womans blood, that might bring a womans head up from her churning, or baking, or her hated marriage bed and send her out into the night to be greeted by the Goddess and taken away.

When the sickle moon had risen. Ishtar walked from the inn, into the night of Rhun, stars burned huge and cold, showering down from one horizon to the other. Deth she bade follow, shadowing himself from mortal sight, but the radiance of an earth bound moon shone from her face and robes as she walked, untiringly.
And then she stopped, the wind rippled her red robes like blood.
She did not wait long, she heard the person approaching long before she saw them crest a rise from a shallow valley beyond.
The woman was tall, her hands red from toil, her long black hair unbound for the night, her face looked as if she dreamed, as she approached, and to her it was a dream, a dream which came to her and called her.

Come daughter, come to a new life, Ishtar stepped forward and kissed her bow, like a mother, then turned. Deth, take her to the Temple, and then return to me

Once both had vanished, she walked back to the inn, and returned to her seat. In the firepit, the embers burned low and she raised a hand, and they leaped higher, etching her face as she waited. She grasped the fire, weaving it into shape after shape, spiderwebs, a harp with strings of fire, a chambered seashell, birds, falling raindrops, opening flowers, her face, absorbed, and intent, eyes shifting through every colour, all reflecting flame.

Finally she sat back, in a shadowy corner, the fire crouched low, like a beast curling to sleep, as morning came, and she waited for Deth to return.

[deth]

Deth entered the inn silently as a brush of soft air, and sat down before his mother.
'' It is done, and she is recieved, '' He did not , himself go into that Temple , unless he was specifically invited, it was womens mysteries, Nodonn could enter, he knew, but he saw to other matters.
But he knew some of the things which went on there, and found it intriguing. '' Now where? '' he took wine.