Is It Fate? [Tag Crentha]

[Darastrix]

Devotion to the Forces was all well and good, but Tristan couldn't help but think that his mother was getting a little excessive with their trips to the temple. In his opinion, once or twice weekly was plenty. But his mother seemed to go every other day, and she brought him with her more often than not.

He tried not to mind. He'd heard mention of the demons, spoken in quiet whispers that were only marginally more informative than the vague responses he received when he asked about them. (He tried not to mind that, either. He knew his mother only wanted to protect him, but he felt that not telling someone about the thing you wanted them kept safe from was a bit counterproductive). Still, he'd manage to gather that the temple was safer than most places, and he was glad that he wasn't just being kept at home day after day. He just wished it wasn't the temple every time.

At least I don't have to stay in Efil's wing. Tristan had nothing against the Force of Life, but if he'd been restricted to her section on these frequent trips, he was sure he'd get sick of her. Thankfully, his mother was all right with him visiting the other wings--though she seemed a bit concerned about Soahc's wing--so he got to explore the rest of the temple while she was there. He didn't feel a draw to any of the Forces in particular, and so was just as likely to be found in one as any other.

This day, he decided to head to Etaf's wing. It was usually quiet, but it didn't give off the need for silence like Thuoth or Taed's wings. It just happened to be quiet. He wandered in, looking about to see whether someone (or something) interesting could be found.

[Kender Bard]

The temple wing to Etaf was sparsely filled with two priests talking softly as they consulted a book together. Crentha was nearby dusting idly, bored and having nothing else to do on this day. Generally she would be receiving lessons from one of the two priests, but they seemed deeply absorbed in their research and had barely paid her any attention.

Spotting Tristan, she glanced over to the senior priests. They hadn't even glanced up and certainly didn't notice his approach. Eager for a diversion, she set her rag down and walked up to him with what she hoped was a welcoming smile. "Welcome to the temple of Etaf," she greeted quietly.

[Darastrix]

Tristan gave a bright smile in return; it was someone close to his age! "It's nice to meet you," he replied. "My name's Tristan. I don't need any temple services or anything," he added. "I'm just wandering a bit while Mother visit's Efil's temple."

[Kender Bard]

"Oh," she said, but wasn't too disappointed. "It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Crentha." She glanced back over her shoulder again. Still nothing. "I'm glad you came," she admitted with a growing grin. "It's been dreadfully dull here lately. At least, for me. The priests have been busy running around. Normally, the wing would be a little more full."

[Darastrix]

Tristan tilted his head. "Why?" He looked over at the priests. "What are they all so busy with?" He'd have thought the priests might have their hands full with people coming to pray and such because of the demons, but if the wing was less full than usual, what was going on?

[Kender Bard]

"I'm not really sure," Crentha admitted. "It has to do with the demons. They keep consulting the prophecies around here, but the ones that are kept up here aren't that useful. They're all very vague or they've already come to pass. Then keep going into a room that only certain priests can go into--not novices, like me."

She lowered her voice conspiratorially, "And they don't come back out sometimes. I think it's a secret door."

[Darastrix]

“Don’t come back out?” Tristan repeated. “For how long? Or...do you mean they never come out?” He looked a little wide-eyed at the thought. What did the Etafian priests do?

[Kender Bard]

"They do, eventually," Crentha amended. "But sometimes not for a couple days. Unless there's a hidden part of the temple, it's probably a hidden door to somewhere outside. But I've never caught anyone coming out of some other door in the temple." She tapped her cheek. It was a mystery! "I've tried asking them, of course, but they just tell me that I'll find out when I become a full priest."

[Darastrix]

Tristan frowned. “But how do you know they’re really gone that long? They might go in and come out when you don’t see them, and go back later and you see them the second time.”

[Kender Bard]

"Sometimes I sleep in the temple," Crentha explained. "And it's true they may be slipping by when I don't see them, but I'm pretty sure at least once there was a priest that left and didn't return until midday the following day. And they don't seem to deny the fact that they are going somewhere. Though... If I had to guess..."

She lowered her voice and leaned in a little closer to Tristan to whisper, "I'm pretty sure they're going to wherever they keep the important prophecies. There's a lot more than they let into the temples, I'm sure of it."

[Darastrix]

Tristan wrinkled his nose. "Why would they keep the important ones someplace secret? If they're important, shouldn't more people get to know besides just priests?"

[Kender Bard]

This, at least, Crentha had some understanding on. Though she saw little in actual prophecy, much of her training had been about prophecy and their place in history and culture. And of course one of the earlier lessons had been on the dangerous nature of prophecies.

"No, actually it makes sense," she assured Tristan. "Pretend for a moment that I told you that I had a prophecy that you would choke on a chicken bone in the evening. What would you do?"

[Darastrix]

Tristan shook his head. "What a person says they'd do and what they end up doing aren't always the same, but I'd probably think about not having chicken, and then I'd forget all about it until I started choking at dinner. But if you had a prophecy like that, I bet it wouldn't be hidden with the big ones, anyway."

[Kender Bard]

"No," she admitted. "It wouldn't. And most of the time, people don't get prophecies about people like that. The Forces... I guess they have other things to worry about. But the point is, you'd try to do something to change the outcome. But would it really help, or would it delay it, or would it just be a step to your own doom? Prophecy is very tricky like that. Now imagine it was a prophecy about a massive plague that would kill hundreds. If there's even a hint about what could be the cause, people would do everything they could to prevent it, but they may make it worse."

"Maybe in the prophecy it suggests that someone from... Humontis will carry the plague. Then people would probably try to make sure nobody went into or left Humontis until they could figure out who the person was and how to stop the plague from ever starting. But in doing so, the man who has the sickness, instead of going to Ronduin to be cured like he'd intended, winds up spreading it everyone in Humontis and then from there it spirals out of control. That's just one example though. The real problem with a prophecy is that they're often vague enough to have many interpretations. And for each interpretation, there's multiple ways of trying to go about altering thing. As a result, if the information isn't kept in the hands of only a few people, who have experience with reading it and understanding it, then you'd have sheer pandemonium."

[Darastrix]

"I think keeping it a secret is part of the problem," Tristan said. "Stuff that's secret and doesn't get talked about means people don't understand it and that makes things go wrong. Telling people 'you shouldn't have this' or 'it's better if you don't know' makes it seem bigger. They wonder what you're hiding. If it's just there and you let people look if they want and explain things without playing it up, they'd be calmer about it."